Loan 96 RLF 4/29

Contains records of the Literary Fund Anniversary Dinners held between 1933 and 1935. 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. For 1935, additional letters accepting and declining invitations were boxed separately and kept (see Loan 96 RLF 4/33).

1933 (Chairman: The Right Honourable James Ramsay Macdonald):

1: Appeals for funds from David Alexander Edward Lindsay (Earl of Crawford and Balcarres); notice of dinner; stewards’ invitation; honorary invitation cards; reminder notices; dinner tickets; steward’s tickets; list of complementary tickets; plans of the tables; menu (with drafts); report on the dinner from the Times (23 May 1933); details of subscriptions.

2: Correspondence, including letters from Edward Verrall Lucas, Hugh John Cole Marshall, Sir Owen Seaman, David Alexander Edward Lindsay (Earl of Crawford and Balcarres), G M Colombi (Banqueting Manager at Claridge’s), G Gelardi (General Manager at Claridge’s), George A Titman, George Stuart Gordon, Elizabeth M Delafield, Dorothy Collins (for Gilbert Keith Chesterton), Walter John de la Mare, Horace Annesley Vachell, J M Dent & Sons, Robert H Marsh, Rose Macaulay and Ernest Hills.

1934 (Chairman: Baron Emile-Ernest de Cartier de Marchienne, the Belgian Ambassador):

1: Appeals for funds from David Alexander Edward Lindsay (Earl of Crawford and Balcarres); notice of dinner; stewards’ invitation; honorary invitation cards; reminder notices; dinner tickets; steward’s tickets; list of complementary tickets; plans of the tables; menu (with drafts); toast list; newspaper clipping; draft report.

2: Correspondence, including letters from Hugh John Cole Marshall, David Alexander Edward Lindsay (Earl of Crawford and Balcarres), Edward Verrall Lucas, Lord Irwin (Edward Frederick Lindley Wood), the Earl of Derby (Edward George Villiers Stanley), F V Colchis (Manager of Claridge’s), Mary S Blyth, Helen Waddell, Sir Evan Charteris, Richard Eddington, M Macdonald (for the Belgian Ambassador), Sir James Hopwood Jeans, Lord Tomlin (Thomas Tomlin), Émile Cammaerts, Anthony Eden, George Stuart Gordon, Sir Austen Chamberlain, J Webb (for George Geoffrey Dawson), George Earle Buckle, Sir Owen Seaman and Ernest Hills.

1935: (Chairman: Queen Marie of Roumania)

1: Appeals for funds from David Alexander Edward Lindsay (Earl of Crawford and Balcarres), with drafts; agenda for meetings of the anniversary committee; notices of dinner; stewards’ invitation cards; honorary invitation cards; reminder notices; dinner tickets; steward’s tickets; plans of the tables; list of collectors of subscriptions; transcripts of the speeches; newspaper clipping,

2: Correspondence, including letters from George [?], Hugh John Cole Marshall, André Maurois, David Alexander Edward Lindsay (Earl of Crawford and Balcarres), Anthony Eden, William H Taylor & Sons, Rand Bigge (for Edward Verrall Lucas), C M Laptew (Minister Plenipotentiary and Roumanian Charge d’Affaires), Hugh Richard Lawrie Sheppard, John O [?], Sydney J Gough and James Stephens.