London (England) -- Antiquities; London (England) -- History
As we have seen, this club shortly became full, and a Junior United
Service Club was formed in April, 1827, on the same lines, under the
patronage of the Duke of Wellington, but admitted officers of junior
rank, and in 1828 entered into occupation of the premises in Charles
Street, vacated by the Senior, on payment of £15,000. It erected its
new house in 1856 at a cost of £81,000. The entrance fee is £40, and
annual subscription eight guineas. It was not many years after its
establishment that the list of candidates for membership of the Junior
Club became so long that the necessity for the establishment of a third
service club was felt. Sir E. Barnes and a few officers, just returned
from India, joined in the movement, and in 1838 the Army and Navy Club
was opened at the corner of King Street and St. James's Square--the
house memorable as the scene of the party given by Mrs. Boehm on the
night the news of the Battle of Waterloo arrived. Sir E. Barnes, who
was its first president, died the same year. In 1851 the club moved
to its present stately building, the site of which includes that of a
house granted by Charles II. on the 1st of April, in the seventeenth
year of his reign, to Nell Gwynne, where Evelyn saw him in familiar
discourse with her. The club possesses a mirror that belonged to her,
and a portrait by Sir Peter Lely, which was supposed to be of her,
until it was discovered to be one of Louise de Querouaille, Duchess
of Portsmouth, and is also rich in pictures, statuary, and other
works of art--among them, two fine mantelpieces carved by Canova,
and a miniature of Lady Hamilton found in Lord Nelson's cabin after
his death; it has also autograph letters of Nelson and Wellington.
It derives its popular name of the "Rag and Famish" from a tradition
that Captain Duff came late one night asking for supper, and being
discontented with the bill of fare, called it a rag and famish affair.
In memory of the event he designed a button which used to be worn by
many members, and bore the device of a ragged man devouring a bone.
Napoleon III. was an honorary member of the club, and frequently used
it. He presented it with a fine piece of Gobelin tapestry in 1849. The
regular number of members is 2,400. The club has a scheme for granting
annuities or pensions to its servants.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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