CLUB HISTORY

The Beginning

Founded in August 1837, the year Queen Victoria acceded to the Throne, the Club was formed to meet the needs of the many army officers wanting to join a Service Club, most of which were already full. The great Duke of Wellington said he would become neither a patron nor a Member unless membership was also offered to officers of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. Hence, the "Army Club" became the Army and Navy Club.

The Club's distinguished forebears include Lieutenant General Sir Edward Barnes, the first President who, as Adjutant General, fought, sword in hand, at the Battle of Waterloo, and Admiral Sir Philip Durham, one of Nelson's "Band of Brothers" who commanded HMS Defiance at the Battle of Trafalgar.

The Rag

Shortly after opening, the Club acquired its famous nickname, when Captain William (Billy) Higginson Duff, a colourful character with a brief and undistinguished military career was offended by the spartan nature of the fare offered to him on returning from a spree. He described the Club as a ‘Rag and Famish affair’ which was intended as a great insult, since the ‘Rag and Famish’ was a squalid gaming house ‘for broken down gamblers who played for coppers’. The Members were amused rather than insulted by this and formed a ‘Rag and Famish’ dining club. The name was gradually adopted as the Club’s nickname, eventually being reduced to ‘The Rag’. Captain Duff’s behaviour did not improve and he was later sentenced to six months in jail for assaulting a constable.

The Service Men and Women

The Army and Navy Club is deeply entwined in British history. Eleven Members were killed at the Charge of the Light Brigade, and Members have been present at every British military and naval engagement since then, often serving with distinction. Memories of past glory survive in the pictures decorating the corridors and rooms of the Club – battle scenes and portraits of famous military men, cases of medals and historical memorabilia, as well as a mounted penguin – a survivor from the first Scott Antarctic Expedition!

HISTORY OF THE ARMY & NAVY CLUB (1837 – 2008)

The new History of the Army & Navy Club 1837 – 2008 has been published and is now available for collection from the Administration Office if you have pre-ordered a copy. If you have not reserved your copy , the post publication price is £21.50 plus postage and packing. It is a high quality illustrated hardback publication finished with a gold foil block front and spine.

It is not a catalogue of facts and figures. It is a story of the people and events that have shaped the way in which the Club was founded and has developed over the past 171 years. It is written against the background of the rise and fall of an Empire, two world wars and a host of so called minor wars besides, and of significant political, economic and social change. It reveals something of the way in which the Club has been managed over the years, the successes and failures and the high drama of certain events.

Captain Billy Duff and the Rag & Famish affair is described more precisely than in previous accounts. The way in which the Club served its members in the late 19th century, and the highly structured ‘Upstairs Downstairs’ staff arrangements of the time are described. The events leading up to the building of the first Club house in 1851 and its replacement in 1963, which is still the subject of usually misinformed discussion in the Smoking Room, are fully explained. Those who regret the passing of the gentleman’s club ethos of the Rag might wish to reflect on the fact that from 1927 to 1962 two ladies were appointed in succession to the post of Club Secretary – Miss Vennard and Lady Helen Barlow. The years 1956 and 1957 were years of crisis which resulted in the resignation of the Chairman and most of the Committee, and their replacement with a new heavy weight Committee of no less than 26 ‘stars’. The planning for and rebuilding of the Club house which followed witnessed the appointment of Lieutenant General Sir Ian Jacob as Chairman for an unusually long period of seven years. Changes in the criteria for membership from Regular officers only, through officers of the Reserve Forces to lady associate membership and eventually to full membership for ladies are described, as is also the collapse of the last redoubt of gentlemen members with the admission of ladies to the Smoking Room and Smoking Room Bar: this notwithstanding a plaintive but light hearted letter to the Chairman ‘Good grief General, whatever has possessed you? Sole purpose of the Club is as a refuge from the Memsahibs… Yours, totally bewildered and utterly astonished…’

To order please download the order form here.