Dinner at the Tower

Name: Dinner at the Tower
Start: 2015-03-31

Date

Tuesday, 31st March 2015

Time

18.45hrs

Our Guest and Speaker for the evening is Stephen D. King who is Group Chief Economist and Global Head of Economics and Asset Allocation at HSBC. He is a member of the Government’s Asia Task Force, and writes regularly for The Financial Times, and The Times. THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT

The Dinner is arranged at the Officer's Mess at the Tower of London. Our Guest Speaker will be Stephen King, Chief Economist with HSBC who has the same hairstylist as Boris Johnson! The event is being arranged by Jonathan Ward. Further details below

Programme

18.45hr. Reception until 19.15hr. Dinner announced.

19.30hr. Dinner served.

21.00hr. Break.

21.15hr. Coffee served, petits fours.

21.20hr. Introduction of Stephen King to the Members.

21.50hr. Questions to the speaker.

22.10hr. Vote of thanks and appreciation by Paul Tweedale.

22.15hr. Departure.

Coach Departure The Peace Memorial Hall Ashtead. 16.30 hr. In the recent past, we have had many journey delays to London. The coach will leave promptly.

1. Please note that the coach is not allowed into The Tower for security reasons. The walk to the Mess is about 400 yards.

2. Those who are not good walkers should bring foldable mobility with them, which can be transported on the coach.

3. Please bring your passport or means of identity with you.

4. Bring an umbrella in case of rain.

5. Coach departure from The Tower 22.20 hr.

Cost Members £39.5, Guests £47.5

What's Included? Coach and Coach Driver’s tip, Reception wine or soft alternative, Three course dinner - Silver service, two glasses red or white wine for each diner or soft alternative, Coffee or tea and petit fours.

Many of you will have known “The Tower” since childhood and know something of its history. William I was crowned on Christmas Day in Westminster Abbey 1066AD. William knew that he had to secure his presence in England’s largest city, London. Building of the Tower was well under way by the 1070’sAD under the charge of Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester. By 1100AD The White Tower was complete, and earned its name from the “white” stone, imported from Normandy. Nothing quite like this immense building had been seen in England before, but it was never intended as a Royal residence. It was a fortress stronghold, a role that was unchanged until the late 19th century. Further building campaigns ensured that by 1350AD, the Tower was transformed into the fortress that we know today. King John often stayed at the Tower, and was the first monarch to keep lions and other exotic animals there. In the time of Edward I, the Tower was put into use as a prison, as well as becoming a branch of the Royal Mint, which continued until the 19th century. Edward II sought refuge in the Tower from the discontented barons. His son Edward III was a successful warrior and held captured kings of France and Scotland there. Richard II presided over a period of intense strife which included the Peasants Revolt in 1381AD when 10,000 rebels under Wat Tyler burnt and plundered the capital. Richard was accused of tyranny by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke and was forced to renounce his crown while he was held at the Tower. Henry IV and Henry V reigns were quiet ones for the Tower, but instability returned with Henry VI and then Edward IV, and the Wars of the Roses, with victory for Henry VII. For the defeated, the Tower was a place of dread, murder and executions, with victims such as Henry VI in 1471AD and the young Edward V and his brother in 1483AD.

Henry VIII 1509 – 1547AD began work on the royal residential buildings which had been started by his father, but on a grander scale: he commissioned a large range of timber framed lodgings, primarily for the comfort and enjoyment of his second wife, Anne Boleyn ready for her coronation in 1533AD. They were rarely used. From this point the tower ceased to be an established royal residence, through the execution of Anne Boleyn by a French swordsman, specially invited to preside over the occasion. Henry VIII’s break with Rome swelled the Tower’s population, and prisoners included Sir Thomas More, Bishop Fisher of Rochester, and the fifth of Henry’s six wives. All three were executed. Apart from Henry’s appetite to provide male heirs for the prolongation of the Tudor lineage, he was a popular king and governed England without an army.

Mary I returned the country to Catholicism, and her short reign saw many rivals and key Protestant figures imprisoned in the Tower. Lady Jane Grey was executed at the Tower on the Queen’s orders (Mary), but her half sister Princess Elizabeth was also imprisoned there. Elizabeth 1558 – 1603AD continued with the policy of cramming the Tower with celebrity prisoners. She died in Richmond Palace.

Charles I reign 1625 -1649AD included a long period of civil war 1642 – 1649AD, in which he lost his crown to the Parliamentarians, and with it the Tower of London. With the loss of the civil war, his head was part of the price exacted by enemies. Oliver Cromwell who became Lord Protector in 1663AD installed the Tower’s first permanent military garrison, which succeeding monarchs used to quell trouble in the city. Cromwell authorized the sale of the Crown Jewels, and they were broken up.

With the restoration of the monarchy in 1660AD, Charles II planned ambitious defences for the Tower, but they were never built. The new Crown Jewels were put on display in the Tower, and in 1671AD narrowly missed being stolen. Maintenance rather than building work characterized much of the 18th century

The Duke of Wellington was Constable of the Tower from 1826 to 1852AD, and under his invigorating leadership, the increasingly smelly moat was drained, and converted into a dry ditch. On 14 June 1845 the Duke laid the foundation stone of the barracks named after his greatest victory, Waterloo! The Tower of London’s last execution was in 1941. Rudolph Hess the German Deputy Fuhrer was kept in the Tower for a while after he escaped to Scotland from Germany by aircraft.