Ashridge Dining Club

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The Ashridge Dining Club was a political club set up in 1933 in West London with the object of extending the associations and activities of the Bonar Law College, Ashridge, by discussion over the dinner table. The Bonar Law College had been opened in 1929 by Stanley Baldwin having been presented to the Conservative Party by Mr Urban Broughton as a training college for Conservative workers. It was named as a memorial to Bonar Law, the British Conservative Party politician and Prime Minister, who had died in 1923. The aim of the College was to provide political education and was not explicitly Conservative.

Associated with the College were regional or county circles or clubs; their activities were reported by The Ashridge Journal.

Ordinary membership was open to those who had attended courses at Ashridge, with others being associate members. Membership was by subscription. [1] Meetings took place at York Mansions Restaurant, Petty France, London. The president of the club was Mr Arthur Bryant, editor of the Ashridge Journal and author of "The Spirit of Conservatism"; the founder and chairman was Miss Sheelagh Dumay Kerr.

Other members of the committee were:

Vice-Presidents Mr L H Sutton, Mr T N Graham, The Principal of Ashridge.

Hon. Secretary Miss E M Soutter

Hon Treasurer Lt. Col. A. H. Burne, D.S.O.

The speakers and subjects discussed by the dining club illustrate some of the political concerns at that time. [2] Meetings continued until the outbreak of the Second World War.

In London there was also the London Ashridge Circle, which arranged dinners at St Ermin's Hotel, Caxton Street, Westminster, [3] [4] and the London Ashridge Club. [5]

Following the fiftieth dinner in 1938 a review of the club was included in the Ashridge Journal on the occasion of Miss Kerr resigning as chairman and Mr W R C Snape taking over. [6]

Meetings

No.DateGuest of HonourSubject
14 December 1933Mr L SuttonInaugural Meeting
222 January 1934Mr John GreenPost War Conservatism
321 February 1934 Mr Henry Snell Local Government
420 March 1934 Professor F J C Hearnshaw M.A. Fundamentals of Conservatism
517 April 1934 Mr H R Selley J.P. M.P. (Late Chairman, L.C.C. Housing Committee)Housing & Slum Clearance
624 May 1934 Sir John Marriott M.A. The Empire
718 June 1934Mr Hugh Gilbert R Sellon M.A.The Future of Conservatism
89 July 1934Commander John Irving R.N. (of the Navy League)Disarmament
919 September 1934 Captain C Waterhouse M.C., M.P. Unemployment Insurance
1015 October 1934 Mr Hugh Molson M.P. The Work of the National Government
1120 November 1934Mr G D AmeryAgriculture
1213 December 1934 Sir Michael O'Dwyer G.C.I.E., K.C.S.I. (formerly Lieut. Governor of the Punjab)The Future Government of India
1316 January 1934 Sir A Hamilton Grant K.C.I.E., K.C.S.I. (Chief Commissioner of the North West Frontier Province 1919-22)The Future Constitution of India
1426 February 1935 Mr Harold Macmillan M.P. (Chairman Industrial Recovery Council)Reconstruction: A Plea for a National Policy
1519 March 1935 Air Commander J A Chamier C.B.,C.M.G.,D.S.O., O.B.E. (Secretary General of the Air League)Air Defence
1630 April 1935 Major-General Sir Reginald Hoskins K.C.B., C.M.G.,D.S.O. (Principal of the Bonar Law College)Italy and Abyssinia
1730 May 1935 Mr R Cross, M.P., Mrs R CrossWorld Affairs: 1910-1935
1819 June 1935 Mr Douglas Jerrold (Editor of "The English Review")Peace
1917 July 1935 Mr Allan Monkhouse, M.I.E.E. (author of 'Moscow 1911-1933'), Mrs Allan MonkhouseRussia
2018 September 1935 Mr H G Williams, M.P., Mrs WilliamsDangers of Economic Planning
2122 October 1935 Sir John Harris (Parliamentary Secretary, The Anti-Slavery & Aborigines Protection Society)The Present Italo-Abyssinian Dispute
2228 November 1935Mr H G R Sellon M.A.The International Situation
2319 February 1936 Miss Florence Horsbrugh O.B.E., M.P. Women's Work at Geneva
241 April 1936 Mr J A L Duncan, M.P. Progress & Prosperity
2530 April 1936Dr Vladimir de KorestevelzRussia & the Ukraine
2620 May 1936 Mr Patrick Donner, M.P. Some Imperial & Foreign Questions
2711 June 1936 Lord Mansfield (Imperial Policy Group)Foreign Affairs
289 July 1936 Mr Arthur Bryant Conservatism
2929 September 1936Mr L Sutton (Vice President)The Demand for Colonies
3019 October 1936Dr Fitz Randolph (attache - German Embassy)
3130 November 1936 Lord Burghley M.P. The Political Outlook
327 December 1936Major Cole (The Staff College, Camberley)Imperial Co-ordination in Defence
334 January 1937Mr Eric Patterson M.A.The International Situation
348 February 1937 Alderman W H Webbe (Leader of the Municipal Reform Party)The L.C.C. Election
3511 March 1937 John Boyd Carpenter (Barrister at Law)The Constitution & the Empire
3613 April 1937Mr Bertram B Benas M.A., LL.BThe Law & the Citizen
3726 May 1937 Mr K W M Pickthorn M.P. Education & the challenge to democracy
3822 June 1937 Capt H C Armstrong (Author of 'Grey Wolf', 'Grey Steel' etc.)The Middle East
396 July 1937 Sir Geoffrey Ellis, Bart D.L., J.P., M.P. Paying our way
4022 September 1937Mr C Allport B.A., Mrs AllportThe United States
4128 October 1937 The Rt Hon. the Viscount Davidson G.C.V.D., C.H., C.B. Conservatism
4216 November 1937 Field Marshal Lord Milne G.C.B.,G.C.M.G., D.S.O. Imperial Defence
4316 December 1937Mr & Mrs Wentworth-Shields Imperial Affairs
4426 January 1938Mr T N Graham M.C.C. (Vice-President)The Humour of Politics
4522 February 1938 Viscountess Davidson Women in Politics
4621 March 1938 Mr Douglas Jerrold (Editor of "The English Review")Spain
4727 April 1938 The Lord William Scott M.C., M.P. The Evolution of Dictators
4831 May 1938Mr Eric Patterson M.A. (Principal, The Bonar Law College), Mrs Eric PattersonAshridge & the future
4928 June 1938 Mr William Courtenay (Aeronautical correspondent to the "Evening Standard")Air Defence
5026 July 1938Mr H G R Sellon M.A.Britain & the International Situation
5126 September 1938Mr L Sutton
5217 November 1938 Mr Anthony Crossley M.P. Palestine

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References

  1. Rules of the Ashridge Dining Club
  2. The Ashridge Dining Club Register Book 1933 - 1938. (Now in the archives, Ashridge (Bonar Law Memorial) Trust)
  3. "Personal. London Ashridge Circle". The Times (London, England). No. 47398. 11 June 1936. p. 1.
  4. "British Trade with Argentina". The Times (London, England). No. 47411. 26 June 1936. p. 18.
  5. "The London Ashridge 1937 Club". The Ashridge Journal: 45–46. Autumn 1937.
  6. "London Dining Club". The Ashridge Journal. 35: 42–44. Autumn 1938.