The Carlton Club: 1832 – 2007

Sir Charles Petrie, Bt. and Alistair Cooke

The Carlton Club, 2007

This book was written for the 175th anniversary of the Carlton Club. By 2007, women had become honorary and associate members, but a vote to permit women to become full members had narrowly failed to achieve the two-thirds majority required to change the Club’s constitution. A new vote was finally passed after the book was published and we will presumably have to wait until 2032 to read the 200th anniversary edition.

Up until 1870 when the Conservative Central Office was established, the Carlton Club ‘was’ the Conservative Party. They were key in selecting candidates for parliamentary seats, funded the political campaigns, and nearly all the Conservative MPs would meet in the club to dine and discuss strategy.

Today it is less central to Conservative Party affairs:

“A Carlton without MPs was, and is, inconceivable. But the number of MPs who were members kept on falling after 1945 … Post-war wives and families were less willing to be neglected so that husbands could dally in Clubs; the Commons was now better equipped to satisfy the hunger and thirst of MPs; ever increasing constituency work reduced the time available to congregate for gossip and intrigue at the Carlton; and the new premises in St James’s Street were further away from Parliament than the old palace in Pall Mall.” Page 238.

The original building was destroyed by Nazi bombing in 1940. Miraculously, none of those in the Club at the time were killed. Sir Winston Churchill recorded in his diary that a Labour MP, on hearing of the narrow escape of the Conservative Members of Parliament, had quipped, “The devil looks after his own” (page 170).

With the destruction of the original building, the Carlton moved to its present location at 69 St James’s Street. The new Club house was bombed by the IRA in 1990. The most severely injured was:

“the porter on evening duty, 76 year-old Charles Henry, who was about ten yards from the bomb when it went off. … Henry underwent immediate surgery, after which he was visited by the Prime Minister … Henry was back on duty when the Club reopened” Page 212.

Much of the book relates to the political role of the Club, but I enjoyed the stories of how the Club has had to tactfully deal with drunken behaviour. Note the terms “state of health” and “indisposition” as euphemisms for drunkenness. The Committee minutes of 1851 record:

“The attention of the Committee having been drawn to the injury done to an arm-chair in the morning-room by Sir John Cave, resolved that the Secretary be directed to inform him that the expense of repairing it must be charged to him.

Various Members having suggested to the Committee the great inconvenience caused to the Club in general by Sir John Cave entering the Club in this present state of health, Resolved that the Secretary be requested to intimate to Sir John Cave that it is the opinion of the Committee that his withdrawal from the Club while his present indisposition continues would be most desirable.” Page 59.

The Committee writes tactfully and they expect tact in return. If they don’t get it, they won’t act. This reply from the Committee to a member in 1861:

“Sir,

Your complaints respecting your dinners … have been laid… before the Committee of Management. … The Committee regret …. that the terms in which your complaints are expressed render it difficult for them to give them that consideration they might otherwise desire.” Pages 62-63.

The Committee also expected a member to resign if there was a scandal in the member’s personal life. In 1914, Mr Cleland, got divorced and the divorce court had named him as the one to blame. The Committee wrote to the member:

“Sir,

The attention of the Committee of the Carlton Club has been called to certain remarks made by Mr. Justice Bargrave Dean in delivering judgment in the suit of Cleland v. Cleland in the Divorce Court on the 6th day of December, 1913.

… It is obvious to the Committee, as they think it must be to you, that reflections expressed by a learned Judge upon the Bench in reference to the conduct of one who is a Member of this Club cannot be passed by in silence … the Committee … are willing to afford you any opportunity of impeaching the accuracy and justice of the observations made by the learned Judge, or if you are unable to do so, of resigning your Membership of the Club.” Pages 113-114.

I doubt that the Committee would write to a member in the same terms today. Whether that is a good or a bad thing is not for me to say.

October 2024

Adrian Vincent