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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Timeline
2024
January 1
2019
April 24
Sir Antony Beevor gives a memorable talk at the Whitefriars Club
2018
February 22
The Whitefriars Club turns 150 years old. A grand celebration at the Palace of Westminster, with a speech by Rt Hon. Baron Chartres, former bishop of London
1983
January 18
1978
March 16
As a special guest for the occasion, HRH Prince Phillip is in attendance.
1968
March 28
The Whitefriars turns 100 years old. Special guest for the evening is Sir Alec Douglas Hume.
1959
October 21
The poet Christopher Logue gives at talk on ‘The Modern Poet in Print’ at the Whitefriars Club
1950
January 31
Dinners are resumed after the end of the Second World War
1938
December 6
Dinners are put on hold before the start of the Second World War due to difficulties in securing speakers.
1917
January 26
John Buchan gives a talk on ‘The Press and the War’ at the Whitefriars Club.
1907
October 18
Bram Stoker gives a talk on ‘The State Censorship of Novels’ at the Whitefriars Club. He will later attend further dinners as a guest.
1901
January 11
Arthur Conan Doyle gives a talk on ‘The Art of Fiction’ at the Whitefriars Club. He will later attend more dinners at the club and extend an invitation for a club pilgrimage to Undershaw, his home in Hindhead, Surrey, which was cancelled due to the death of his wife.
1900
October 5
Winston Churchill gives a talk on ‘War Correspondence’ at the Whitefriars Club. He will later become a member of the club.
1899
June 16
Mark Twain speaks for a second time at the Whitefriars Club
1892
June 25
Summer Pilgrimage to Canterbury
1872
September 6
Dinner at the Mitre Tavern with Mark Twain (who gave a speech) and Ambrose Bierce
1868
February 21
Inaugural Dinner, 21st February 1868 at Anderton’s Hotel