Clare Ferrar

Originally described by some wags as "The City of London's hottest annual event", this now enormous annual charity fundraiser began back in 2008 on a very small scale. Hosted by the Lord Mayor, over the years it has grown and grown, until today it takes over the whole of Guildhall and raises going on half a million pounds annually. At its core, the Lunch demonstrates the City’s support for members of His Majesty’s Armed Forces and veterans, through the three National Service Charities: The Army Benevolent Fund, The Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity and The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund. It does this via a huge curry lunch, held in a packed Great Hall, plus a silent auction for some pretty splendid lots, held in the Old Library. The Master is going to the 2pm sitting and invites up to nine members and their guests to join him. As well as being delicious, the whole occasion is very much "A sight to see" - certainly, you won't be able to watch over 300 people, all guzzling curry in shifts, anywhere else! Tickets cost £110 and will be allocated on a "first-come-first -served basis".

The Artists Rifles Regiment was formed in 1859 as one of Queen Victoria’s Voluntary Forces in the wake of a French invasion scare. The Regiment was based at the Royal Academy and so always attracted leading figures in London artistic life (painters, sculptors, engravers, musicians, architects and actors). Its first Commanding Officers were Henry Wyndham Phillips, the painter, and Fredrick Leighton who later, as Lord Leighton, was President of the Royal Academy. Other prominent early recruits included John Everett Millais, Holman Hunt, and William Morris. Later ones included Noel Coward, and Barnes Wallis, of bouncing bomb fame. In 1926 the Regiment built the Artists Rifles Clubhouse at the world-renowned and very lovely Bisley shooting ground as a training and social base. Many elements of the original building remain intact as well as a wealth of memorabilia, paintings, pictures, photographs and cartoons. After a dazzling record in WWI and WWII, the Regiment was reconfigured for a more discrete role in the late 1940s and remains engaged with that work to this day. The Regimental Clubhouse at Bisley also remains in use and the Master has managed to secure us access to it for a private lunch. Our speaker will talk us through the building and its history, as well as explaining much about this interesting organisation, on what should be a lovely, relaxed, Saturday lunch. Places cost £75 and there is parking at the venue. Dress is jacket and tie for gentlemen and the equivalent for ladies. (Think summer garden party. No jeans)