Loan 96 RLF 4/27

Contains records of the Literary Fund Anniversary Dinners held between 1927 and 1929. 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.

1927 (Chairman: Field Marshall Julian Hedworth George Byng, Viscount Byng of Vimy):

1: Appeals for funds from Viscount Byng of Vimy; notice of dinner; stewards’ invitation cards; honorary invitation card; reminder notices; dinner tickets; steward’s tickets; plans of the tables; menu (with draft); table settings for making donations (with pencils); newspaper clipping.

2: Correspondence, including letters from Hugh John Cole Marshall, Sir Robert Patrick Malcolm Gower (for Stanley Baldwin), the manager of the May-Fair Hotel, Horace Bleackley, J B Capper, David Alexander Edward Lindsay (Earl of Crawford and Balcarres), James Blackwood, Sir Henry Newbolt, Sir Ernest Dunlop Swinton, James Richard Stanhope (Earl Stanhope), Harry J C Graham, Sir Owen Seaman, Herbert Dunelm (Hensley Henson, the Bishop of Durham), William H Taylor & Sons, A E Dickinson (for Lord Crawford), Viscount Byng, Houghton Mifflin & Co, the Acting-Editor of the Times, Sir St Clair Thomson, William Soulsby, Ernest Hills and Edward Verrall Lucas.

1928 (Chairman: The Right Honorable Stanley Baldwin):

1: Appeals for funds from David Alexander Edward Lindsay (Earl of Crawford and Balcarres); agenda for anniversary committee; notice of dinner; stewards’ invitation cards; honorary invitation card (with proof); reservation notice; reminder notice; dinner tickets; steward’s tickets; plans of the tables; notes for Stanley Baldwin’s speech.

2: Correspondence, including letters from Hugh John Cole Marshall, David Alexander Edward Lindsay (Earl of Crawford and Balcarres), Sir Robert Patrick Malcolm Gower (for Stanley Baldwin), Sir Owen Seaman, Rudyard Kipling, William Soulsby, Messrs Ring & Brymer, Charles Whibley, George Macaulay Trevelyan, Ernest Hills, Edward Verrall Lucas, J B Capper and C Patrick Duff.

1929: (Chairman: John Galsworthy)

1: Appeals for funds from John Galsworthy; notices of dinner; stewards’ invitation cards; honorary invitation cards; reservation notice; reminder notice; compliment slips; dinner tickets; steward’s tickets; plans of the tables; transcripts of the speeches (by John Galsworthy, Hugh Pattison Macmillan (with corrections), Hugh Walpole and David Alexander Edward Lindsay (Earl of Crawford and Balcarres)); newspaper reports, focusing on the sale of the manuscript for Galsworthy’s play Loyalties at the dinner.

2: Correspondence, including letters from Hugh John Cole Marshall, David Alexander Edward Lindsay (Earl of Crawford and Balcarres), John Galsworthy, the manager of the Hotel Victoria, Edward Verrall Lucas, James Blackwood, J B Capper, Horace Bleackley, Charles Whibley, Robert Francis Cholmely, Hugh Walpole, Hugh Pattison Macmillan, William Babbington Maxwell, Richard Bentley, Frances Best, George Lionel Pepler, Jonatahn Cape & Co, Eleanor Yarrow, W Galloway Kyle (the managing editor of the Poetry Review), Sir Alexander Gibb (by James Smellie), Patrick Braybrooke, George Earle Buckle, the Central Union Trust Company of New York, Walter T Spencer and Helly Cozzonis de Cunat (Helly of Wales; an applicant for money, with clipping on her activities).