The Army and Navy Club, commonly known as The Rag, is a private members' club in London that was founded in 1837 for officers of the British Army, the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines.Main page of Army and Navy Club website at armynavyclub.co.uk (accessed 18 January 2008). The club offers military membership to those who hold or have held a commission in the British Armed Forces or in Commonwealth Forces. In addition, the club now accepts applications for non-military membership.
Foundation and membership The club was founded by Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Barnes (1776–1838) in 1837. His proposal was to establish an Army Club, with all officers of the British Army (on full or half pay) eligible for membership. However, when The Duke of Wellington was asked to be a patron, he refused unless membership was also offered to officers of the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines, and this was agreed.
On 28 August 1837, a meeting representing the various services took place, to elect a committee and to settle the new club's rules. Sir Edward Barnes died on 19 March 1838, just two weeks before the first general meeting of the club.
By 1851, the club was in a strong position, with sixteen hundred members and a waiting list of 834.Firebrace, The Army and Navy Club 1837–1933, London, 1934, p. 43 This pressure led to the founding of the separate Naval and Military Club in 1862.
Charles Dickens Jr. reported in Dickens's Dictionary of London (1879):Charles Dickens Jr., Dickens's Dictionary of London (1879) quoted at Victorian London – Directories – Dickens's Dictionary of London, by Charles Dickens, Jr., 1879 – "Army and Navy Club" (accessed 18 January 2008)
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica article "Club", in 1902,Webster, James Claude, in Encyclopædia Britannica, 10th Edition (1902), article on "Club", online at Club at 1902encyclopedia.com (accessed 18 January 2008)
Membership of the Army and Navy Club is now offered also to members of Commonwealth armed services, to members' immediate families and to individuals who have no service background who are nominated and seconded by existing members. There are some female members.
As of 2011, the membership subscription costs between £223 and £465 per year, with a £130 rate for younger members (under 29); there are reduced rates for spouses and a rate for family membership. There are joining fees.
Premises
Site The club's first home was at 18, St James's Square, at the north corner with King Street.'St James's Square: Army and Navy Club', in Survey of London, volumes 29 and 30 (St James Westminster, Part 1 (1960)) pp. 180–186, online at St James's Square: Army and Navy Club at british-history.ac.uk(accessed 18 January 2008) This house was vacated by the Oxford and Cambridge Club when it moved into its new club house in Pall Mall. A lease was taken and the club opened its doors early in 1838.
In 1843, the club began to search for a site to build a purpose-built club house. In 1846, it moved to larger premises called Lichfield House, now 15, St James's Square.
In 1846–1847, the club bought six adjacent freehold houses in Pall Mall, St James's Square, and George Street, at the west corner of Pall Mall and George Street, for a total of £48,770. Of this, £19,500 was paid for Lord de Mauley's house on the west side of St James's Square dating from the 1670s, immediately opposite Norfolk House. It would now have been Number 22, St James's Square, if it had survived. The St James's Square site was granted on 24 March 1672/3 by Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of St Albans and Baptist May to trustees for Edward Shaw. In October 1673, they sold the land and the house which had been built on it to the actress Moll Davis, a mistress of King Charles II, for £1800. This house (which was surveyed by John Soane in 1799) was almost square and had three storeys, each with four evenly-spaced windows, all dressed with a wide architrave and cornice. The staircase hall was south of a large room in front, and two smaller rooms and a secondary staircase at the rear. There was a massive cross-wall, containing the fireplaces of the back rooms. In 1749, John Hobart, 1st Earl of Buckinghamshire, sold the house to Thomas Brand of Hertfordshire for £4500, whose son sold it in 1799 to Samuel Thornton, a director of the Bank of England. In 1818, Thornton sold the house for £11,000 to the Whig politician W. S. Ponsonby, later Baron de Mauley, who sold it to the Army and Navy Club in October 1846 for £19,500. It was demolished in 1847, having survived longer than any other of the other original houses in the square.
Club houses
It was reported in January 1847 that the club would hold an open competition for the design of its planned new building, with prizes of £200 and £100 for the two best entrants.The Builder, 9 January 1847, p. 18 The club committee initially chose a design by the sporting artist George Tattersall, of St James's Street, who planned a two-storey classical building with Corinthian columns and a crowning balustrade ending with martial trophies and a Doric entrance portico of three bays. As well as various statues in niches, over the portico he drew a pedestal with bas-reliefs, surmounted by lions and a group symbolising Britannia and Neptune. This choice was confirmed by a ballot of the club members in April 1847. However, The Builder pilloried the choice, pointing out that "the space devoted to the purposes of the club is very meagre, indeed quite insufficient".The Builder, 1 May 1847, p. 205, and 8 May 1847, pp. 213–15 The club held an extraordinary general meeting on 11 May 1847 and decided to buy another house in Pall Mall to make its site larger, and also to hold another competition. As a result, a design by C. O. ParnellParnell's success was a factor in his securing the commission for the Whitehall Club, 1866, in premises at 47, Parliament Street, that were substantially altered for Pearson's in 1907-08 and are now occupied by Parliamentary offices.(The Parliament Street Buildings , pdf file, accessed 23 January 2008). and Alfred Smith was chosen, an essay in the Venetian Renaissance style of the early sixteenth century, imitating Venice's Palazzo Corner della Ca' Grande.
Building began in March 1848, William Trego having contracted to deliver the club house structure for £19,656.Firebrace, op. cit., p. 41 The foundation stone was laid on 6 May 1848 by the chairman of the committee, Lt-Col. Daniell. In August 1849 Messrs. Smith and Appleford were instructed to equip the building for £15,671, and the club-house was opened on 25 February 1851. The club was faced with Caen stone, but this decayed, and in 1886 the bad stone had to be cut out and replaced with Portland.
An early description of the new club house appears in John Timbs's Curiosities of London (1855)Timbs, John, Curiosities of London: exhibiting the most rare and remarkable objects of interest in the metropolis; with nearly Fifty Years' Personal Recollections (London, David Bogue, 1855), p. 190 -
In 1857, a stained-glass window was installed in the inner hall to commemorate members killed in the Crimean War, with tablets bearing the badge of the club and details of the battles of the war. The names of the fallen were inscribed in gold letters on marble architraves. The window was moved in 1925 and 1927, due to rebuilding.
In 1878–79, a new dining-room built, the smoking-room was enlarged, and the club-house was renovated, all by H. R. Gough.Firebrace, op. cit., pp. 76–81Demand for bedrooms increased, and in 1919 the club bought numbers 46, 46a and 47, Pall Mall, subject to existing short leases, later adding to them 7, Rose and Crown Yard (just north of 47, Pall Mall) in 1924.Firebrace, op. cit., pp. 142–143 A new building was designed by C. W. Ferrier and work on it began late in 1924. The old smoking-room was demolished and a new one built, a new kitchen constructed, and the exterior stone of the old club house was renovated. The new house, which connected with the back of the club house at the end of the new smoking-room, provided a squash court, a ladies' drawing-room and dining-room, and shop premises, as well as bedrooms. The club house was closed to members for a year, between August 1925 and July 1926, and the cost of the whole scheme was £167,471. Work was finished in March 1927.Firebrace, op. cit., pp. 137–146
The historic club house was replaced by the present mid-twentieth century building, opened 1963, described on the club's web site as "a modern purpose built building extending to almost , on ten floors which includes its own underground garage".
Presidents 1838-1841: Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington 1841-1845: Admiral Sir Philip Durham 1845-1850: Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge
Notable members Field Marshal the Duke of Cambridge (1819–1904)CAMBRIDGE, George William Frederick Charles, 2nd Duke of in Who Was Who 1897–1915 (London, A. & C. Black, 1988 reprint: ) Sir Arthur Otway, 3rd Baronet MP (1822–1912)OTWAY, Rt Hon. Sir Arthur John, 3rd Bt. in Who Was Who 1897–1915 (London, A. & C. Black, 1988 reprint: ) Admiral of the Fleet Sir Algernon McLennan Lyons (1833–1908)LYONS, Sir Algernon McLennan GCB in Who Was Who 1897–1915 (London, A. & C. Black, 1988 reprint: ) Field Marshal Sir George Stuart White (1835–1912)WHITE, Field-Marshal Sir George Stuart in Who Was Who 1897–1915 (London, A. & C. Black, 1988 reprint: ) Field Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood (1838–1919)WOOD, Field-Marshal Sir (Henry) Evelyn in Who Was Who 1916–1928 (London, A. & C. Black, 1992 reprint: ) Field Marshal Lord Grenfell (1841–1925)GRENFELL, Francis Wallace Grenfell, 1st Baron in Who Was Who 1916–1928 (London, A. & C. Black, 1992 reprint: ) Henry Brudenell-Bruce, 5th Marquess of Ailesbury (1842–1911)AILESBURY, Henry Augustus Brudenell-Bruce, 5th Marquess of in Who Was Who 1897–1915 (London, A. & C. Black, 1988 reprint: ) Field Marshal Lord Nicholson (1845–1918)NICHOLSON, William Gustavus Nicholson, 1st Baron in Who Was Who 1916–1928 (London, A. & C. Black, 1992 reprint: ) Admiral of the Fleet Sir John de Robeck, 1st Baronet (1862–1928)de ROBECK, Admiral of the Fleet Sir John Michael, 1st Bt in Who Was Who 1916–1928 (London, A. & C. Black, 1992 reprint: ) Field-Marshal Lord Birdwood (1865–1951)BIRDWOOD, William Riddell Birdwood, 1st Baron in Who Was Who 1951–1960 (London, A. & C. Black, 1984 reprint: ) Field-Marshal Sir Claud Jacob (1863–1948)JACOB, Field-Marshal Sir Claud (William) in Who Was Who 1941–1950 (London, A. & C. Black, 1980 reprint: ) General Sir William Peyton (1866–1931), died suddenly at the club on 14 November 1931PEYTON, General Sir William Eliot, in Who Was Who (London, A. & C. Black)William Eliot Peyton at the web site of the CENTRE FOR FIRST WORLD WAR STUDIES online at bham.ac.uk (accessed 19 January 2008) Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Trenchard (1873–1956)TRENCHARD, Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount in Who Was Who 1951–1960 (London, A. & C. Black, 1984 reprint: ) Admiral of the Fleet Lord Chatfield (1873–1967)CHATFIELD, Alfred Ernle Montacute Chatfield, 1st Baron in Who Was Who 1961–1970 (London, A. & C. Black, 1979 reprint: ) Field Marshal Sir Cyril Deverell (1874–1947)DEVERELL, Field Marshal Sir Cyril John in Who Was Who 1941–1950 (London, A. & C. Black, 1980 reprint: ) Air Chief Marshal Sir Robert Brooke-Popham (1878–1953)POPHAM, (Henry) Robert (Moore) Brooke- in Who Was Who 1951–1960 (London, A. & C. Black, 1984 reprint: ) Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke (1883–1963)ALANBROOKE, Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount in Who Was Who 1961–1970 (London, A. & C. Black, 1979 reprint: ) Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck (1884–1981)AUCHINLECK, Field-Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre in Who's Who 1981 (London, A. & C. Black, 1981) Field Marshal Lord Gort (1886–1946)GORT, John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker, 6th Viscount in Who Was Who 1941–1950 (London, A. & C. Black, 1980 reprint: )