Chairman's Message about tomorrow's 40th Anniversary

ELEBRATION OF 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SOCIETY

12 February 1977 – 12 February 2017

DRESS

It has been suggested that Highland Dress would be appropriate, and I would request that Fellows should wear their badges, as should those honoured with the Society’s Medal.

CHURCH SERVICE

Tomorrow we meet at St Vincent’s Church; the service starts at 10.30; if you are coming by car, parking is free on single yellow lines, and there are some around there, but please leave time for getting to the church.

The service is expected to last for about 60-70 minutes; afterwards there will be coffee in the crypt beneath the church, accessed from outside the church, and then those of us who are going to the lunch will set off for the New Club at about 12.20.

LUNCH

We shall set off to the New Club from the crypt, carrying banners, but not as a formal procession.

The lunch includes a pre-prandial drink in the Ramsay Room, but not wine at the table. So if you wish for liquid refreshment during the meal, please go to the cash (cards cannot be accepted) bar set up for that purpose. Lunch starts at 1.00 pm. We would expect lunch to finish say about 2.30 - 3.00; it is of three courses with coffee or tea afterwards.

We would then proceed with banners, but not formally, to the Portrait Gallery, to see the Library, where the meeting took place at which the Society was founded.

BANNERS

We hope that as many of you as have them will bring your banners. If you do so, please arrive before 10.15, when we shall gather on the steps of St Stephen’s Church, opposite St Vincent’s. The entrance has a porte cochère, so that we can shelter in it if the weather is not the expected brilliant sunshine! I hope there will be a photo of the group taken at this point.

If you do not have a pole, there are some in the church, but please arrive even earlier to allow time. The poles there have finials, so if your banner has a sock-sleeve, you will have to fix the banner to the pole with pins. There are drawing pins in the north aisle, but you will need a small hammer, as the wood is hard!

We shall then process into St Vincent’s, following the cross and two gonfanons of the church. After our banners will follow the President, President Emeritus, and Chairman, followed by the second cross which precedes the Minister. After the first verse of the first hymn the procession will move up the central aisle. The church banners will be positioned between the chancel and the nave, while we shall turn left into the north transept where there will be a stand for the banners. The flag party will then leave by the door at the back of the north aisle, and re-enter the nave from the west, so as not to disturb the service.

At the end of the service, during the last hymn, the banner bearers will move up the aisle, retrieve their banners, and then process out in the same order as we processed in, ie following the church’s banners. There will be a second stand for banners in the crypt, so please take your banners down there with you.