Round Table Club

Overview

There is little currently known about this club. The evidence is limited to the record of a joint meeting that appears in another literary society’s minute book (the New Holyrood Club) (see ‘Additional Notes’ below).

According to the minute entry for 15 November 1911, on that evening, a joint meeting of the Round Table Club and the New Holyrood Club was held at the residence of Dr John Barlow, 4 Somerset Place (located in the Sandyford area, just to the west of Charing Cross), wherein the Round Table Club acted as hosts for the evening. At the meeting, a paper entitled, ‘Journal of a walk from Glasgow to London’ was read. Following the paper and a vote of thanks, all members joined for tea. The last hour was devoted to conversation and recitations.

In addition, in the same minute book, there is affixed the Round Table Club’s syllabus for the 1911-1912 session (October through April), which includes a list of the office bearers. According to the syllabus, the group met once and sometimes twice a month. After the Opening Address at the start, the session was to include: an essay on Thackeray; a debate on the ‘Nationalisation of Railways’; the joint meeting described above; a debate on ‘Should Education be purely Secular?’; an essay on the ‘Work of Lister’; an essay on ‘Man and the Brute’; a debate on ‘Theosophy’; another (unassigned) joint meeting; an essay entitled, ‘Ideal of a National Church’; which also included a Social Evening, and ended with the annual Business Meeting.

Date of Existence

1911?-?

Source of Information

(Mentioned in Minute Book of New Holyrood Club: Minute entry, 15 November 1911, Minute Book of New Holyrood Club, Volume 4, 14 January 1905-29 March 1913;)

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections (MLSC)

Reference Number

(Records of Holyrood Club (891047))

Additional Notes

See New Holyrood Club (formerly the Holyrood Literary Society), and New Literary Club, with whom this club had joint meetings.