The Eccentric Club - News in Brief:
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Farewell, 2010! Following good traditions of our predecessors, we have parted with 2010 with a bang and champagne bubbles! On 22nd of November 2010 we have celebrated the 120th Anniversary of the Eccentric Club with a Dinner held at the Savile Club, 69 Brook Street, Mayfair. Altogether more than 50 members, old and new, and their guests have attended the function, which may be not as impressive as 400+ in the early 1900s, but still a splendid attendance for a club with less than 200 members!
Photographs taken at the Dinner will soon be available for the members to view in the 'Members' section of this website. If you want to share with us your photographs of the event, please email them to the Secretary.
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Our Patron's 90th Birthday
Prince Philip was born on 10 June 1921 on Corfu and since his early childhood had a testing and challenging life, which formed his character - original and uncompromising. Those of us, who have enjoyed his company at the club dinner last year, discovered him as a witty and charming person, whom we are delighted to have as our Patron. He is our dear friend, which is why his birthday is so important to all of us. In 1979, when he visited the Eccentric Club for the first time, Prince Philip said: "I find it rather difficult to be sure who is being eccentric these days. For instance, is it me or is it the intellectuals who use such words as exegisis for explanation, epistemology for the theory of knowledge, sclerotic for hardening, doxology for praise, taxonomy for classification and my favourite horror, eschatology, which, according to the dictionary, is the 'science of the four last things: death, judgment, heaven and hell'. I am equally puzzled by other arguments. Who is the eccentric, the eco-nut who is said to inhibit development and growth or the development-nut who builds places like Centrepoint and is said to be destroying the environment?.. I think Mark Twain had the right answer: 'The rule is perfect', he said, 'in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane". |
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230th Anniversary of The Society of Eccentrics
One of the most important achievements of the present Committee is uncovering of the earlier history of the club, which for almost a century was believed to be founded in 1890. Today it is an acknowledged fact that its roots go much deeper... |
The Eccentric Cricket Match
Sunday August 14th in Dulwich. So, ladies and gentlemen of the eccentric disposition, members and their associates, - if you wish to play, stand in a field for a day, or even simply to attend, do contact the Secretary and you'll be put in touch with the chap in charge! Some fine professional players are recruited already to support us on the day, so we don’t need to worry about making 11. The rumour has it they were tempted by the prospects of our membership, if they play their bats right! |
The Eccentric Club Patron, HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, shall be celebrating later this year his 90th birthday.
The inaugural Eccentric Club Cricket Team fixture to play the Carlton Club is now set!Although there have been many historic records of the earlier similar conventions - The Society of Eccentrics, The Eccentric Society Club, etc., for a while there was no clear indication of any connection between them and the club of 1890, until the Committee came into possession of a number of newspaper articles and contemporary reports of the Third Anniversary Dinner held in 1893, where Jack Harrison, the originator of the Eccentric Club in 1890, explained that the club was not that new, that "the owl was the crest of the old club, and had been adopted by the present one".
Upon a closer examination, it appeared that Mr Harrison's father and a number of other older relatives of the existing 'original' club members, were possibly involved with the old club, famous for its outstanding members: Richard Brinsley Sheridan, William Makepeace Thackeray and many others.
In May 2011 and throughout the year we shall be celebrating our history, so deeply interweaved with the history of London and England.
The collages feature the photographs taken by
Roger Askew and Francesco Calvano;
the Committee thanks both photographers (and our members!) for their work.