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Full military dinner and band
Hosted by
The naval and military (in and out) club
when: Thursday 31st march 2011
What a splendid evening at the Naval and Military Club (The In &
Out)! For their first InterClub event (other than a rather hazy pit
stop last September on the Club crawl) over 90 guests were treated
to a full military style dinner in the glorious Coffee Room at The
In and Out’s club house overlooking St James’s Square. A
Champagne
reception was followed by an introduction from Michael Smeeth, chair
of the In & Out’s InterClub committee. He explained the format of
the evening and the various rules that traditionally
accompany Officers’ Mess dinner nights.
The chairman or “President of the Mess Committee” (PMC) for the
evening was former Infantry Officer and In & Out younger member
Peter Lee who was charged with keeping an eagle eye on Mess
etiquette. He took great pleasure in imposing the traditional levy
of one bottle of port on couple of guests who met their Nemesis (for
those readers who are not members of the O&C and therefore not
presumably classically trained, I don’t mean the roller coaster at
Alton Towers but rather the Greek goddess and spirit of divine
retribution against those who succumb to hubris) and did not take
“soldier like precautions” before dinner and so had to duck out to
the loo before the appointed comfort break. A heinous crime indeed.
Throughout the dinner we were entertained by the London Banqueting
Ensemble, made up of former Army musicians and whose pièce de
résistance was the after dinner Post Horn Gallop. Post Horns were
used to announce the arrival of the mail coach in days of old and
the Gallop is now often heard in Officers’ Messes around the World;
with one Post Horn at either end of the room it culminated in a
jaw-dropping mano-a-mano battle between the two players!
After passing the port and asking Mr. Vice to toast Her Majesty we
were lucky enough to enjoy the entertaining Commander Ian Gregory
(RN) as our guest speaker. Commander Gregory gave
really excellent speech that struck the balance brilliantly between
inter service humour, light hearted history and a very serious
message about the state of Britain’s Armed Forces today.
After dinner and in true InterClub fashion we retired to the bars
until long into the night; Russell, the Club's Head Barman,
reportedly didn’t leave until after well after 3am!
Many thanks to The In & Out and their staff for a first class
evening.
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