Loan 96 RLF 4/26

Contains records of the Literary Fund Anniversary Dinners held in 1925 and 1926. The records are organised by year; for each year, there are two folders, the first containing documents relating to that year’s dinner, principally administrative papers and ephemera such as tickets, toast lists and table plans, and the second containing correspondence. The contents of the individual folders are summarised below.

1925 (Chairman: His Excellency the Spanish Ambassador, Alfonso, Marquess of Merry del Val):

1: Draft and final versions of the appeal for funds; notice of dinner; stewards’ invitation cards; honorary invitation card; reminder notices; dinner tickets; steward’s tickets; list of guests; list of complementary tickets; lists of those out of London and out of the country; plans of the tables (including draft); draft and final toast lists; menus; transcript of the speeches; agenda for anniversary committee; newspaper clipping.

2: Correspondence, including letters from Hugh John Cole Marshall, Sir Godfrey Thomas (for Edward, Prince of Wales), David Alexander Edward Lindsay (Earl of Crawford and Balcarres), Alfonso Merry del Val (the Spanish Ambassador), Edward Verrall Lucas, Sir Owen Seaman, William Soulsby (for the Lord Mayor of London), Sir James Bell (the Clerk of the Guildhall), Lionel Halsey, J B Capper, A E Dickinson (for Lord Crawford), Sir Theodore Andrea Cook, George Granville Leveson-Gower, W Knightsmith (‘the “professional” toastmaster’), Gordon Hewart, Lord Grey, Charles Whibley, Bede Janett, Don Recardo Rivera Schreiber (the Peruvian Charge d’Affaires), Robert Stevenson Horne, the Duke of Atholl (John George Stewart-Murray), Ian Hay Beith, P Lawrence, Lady Norah Bentinck, Hilaire Belloc and Sir Robert Kindersley; with newspaper cuttings on the King of Spain’s visit and the Literary Fund.

1926: (Chairman: Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David, Prince of Wales)

1: Draft and final versions of the appeal for funds (May 13th); agenda for the anniversary committee; orders for stationary; notice of dinner (May 13th); stewards’ invitation cards (May 13th); honorary invitation card (May 13th); reminder notices (May 13th); dinner tickets (May 13th); steward’s tickets (May 13th); complements slips; menu (May 13th); notice on the postponement of the dinner ‘owing to the Strike’; Observer clipping on postponement; notice of the dinner’s new date, November 16th; dinner tickets (November 16th); reminder notice (November 16th); list of complementary tickets; plans of the tables (including drafts); menu (including drafts); transcripts of the speeches; subscription paper; newspaper clipping.

2: Correspondence, including letters from Hugh John Cole Marshall, Sir Robert Patrick Malcolm Gower (for Stanley Baldwin), James Blackwood, David Alexander Edward Lindsay (Earl of Crawford and Balcarres), the manager of the Hotel Victoria and the Edward VII Rooms, Sir James Bell (the Clerk of the Guildhall), Alfred Temple, J B Capper, Richard Bentley, George Moore, Philip Sidney Stott, Chalmers Roberts, Gilbert Parker, Edward Verrall Lucas, George Haven Putnam, Evan Morgan, Louis Tracy, John Murray, T Harvey Hull (the Town Clark of the Guildhall), William Whiteley Limited, Mrs Charles Hunter, Thomas Malone (for the Daily Mail), Charles Whibley, Annette Mary Bridgett Meakin, F B Behr, Sir Godfrey Thomas, Rudyard Kipling, John Rushworth Jellicoe, Clement Shorter, Sir Robert Horne, Sir James Frazer, Sir Lionel Halsey, W B Maxwell, George Earle Buckle, William Soulsby, Ring & Brymer, John Jacob Astor and Lionel Halsey.