History of the Dinner

The first London Dinner was organised in July 1936 by John Tallent (Clare 1929-32, Hawks, Rugby), a former President of the English Rugby Union. Prior to that, in the early 1930’s, the Club used to hold a Ball in London on the third day of the Varsity Cricket Match – “in the days when a first class dance band cost 40 guineas and tickets were 17 shillings and sixpence”! However, numbers began to dwindle, and it was decided to experiment with a “stag” Dinner instead. The first was held at the Grosvenor House, when 120 members attended, including the late Duke of Gloucester. The Guest of Honour was the great English actor, Aubrey Smith, who introduced cricket to Hollywood.

                                The 1936 Committee

P B Lucas	J S Maples	G G Kerr	A H Woolcock	A Wakeling (Steward)
R P Nelson	C D Laborde       Hon Sec	M J K Sullivan    President	R S Howland Hon Treasurer	H T Bartlett

In about 1954, the venue was changed to the Savoy, and the date to the eve of the Varsity Rugby match. Only twice since has the venue been other than at the Savoy, one of those occasions being in 1974, the Club’s centenary year, when the Dinner was held in the Guildhall to accommodate the 600 members who attended. The move to the Savoy produced a marked improvement in attendance figures, which in recent years have averaged around 300.

The London Dinner is organised by a committee of some 15 graduate Hawks, covering all age groups – as well as representatives from Cambridge in the form of the current President and a senior member, generally one of the Club Trustees. In practice, most of the work falls on the shoulders of the Secretary of this committee – John Tallent’s successors in this role have been Clive Russell Vick (Jesus 1941, Cricket & Hockey), Jeremy Caplan (Magdalene 1960-64, Cricket, Golf & Squash), Jonathan Dickins (Corpus Christi 1971-74, Rugby) and now John Pritchard (Robinson 1983-86, Rowing).

The Chairman of this committee serves for one year only, his main role being to sign up the Guest Speaker. Whilst international renown is no guarantee of a standing ovation, we have in recent years welcomed such names as  Alec Douglas-Home (1966), Douglas Bader (1968), Christopher Chataway (1969), Ted Heath (1972), Willie John McBride (1974), Cliff Morgan (1975), Basil Hume (1986), Tim Rice (1995) and John Major (1999).

Often our Guest Speaker is a Hawk himself and so particularly well equipped to fire up his audience on the eve of Twickenham. Recent “Hawk Speakers” have been Dennis Silk (1991), Chris Martin-Jenkins (1992), Ian Robertson (1994), Donald Steel (1997), Gerald Davies (2002), Ian Balding (2005) and Mike Biggar (2006).

Who will be our Guest of Honour and where will the Dinner be held in the Hawks’ Club’s 150^th year?