History Corner
The Immortal Dinner of 1872Only four years after its foundation, on 6th September 1872, the Whitefriars Club held one of its most memorable and eventful dinners.
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From the Archive
Thomas Hardy
The Victorian novelist and poet Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) is most famous today for Far from the Madding Crowd, Jude the Obscure, Tess of the d’Urbervilles and other works set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex.
On 29th June 1901, the club organized a pilgrimage to Hardy Country, crowned by tea as guests of Mr and Mrs Thomas Hardy at Max Gate, Dorchester. Hardy was made honorary member of the Whitefriars Club later that year. He was due to speak on 29th October 1909, but was unable to attend, and a house dinner was held instead.
