RAG Events

Tuesday 21st January | 18.30 for 19.00 | Lounge Suit | *£27.50 Per Person *Includes a drink on arrival and after the event On 30 April 1980, six heavily armed men burst into the Iranian embassy in London and took 26 hostages. For six days millions sat around their televisions and held their breath as the government used every possible lever to achieve a bloodless outcome. Meanwhile in the shadows the SAS planned a rescue code-named Operation Nimrod. Ben Macintyre is the multimillion-copy bestselling author of Colditz, SAS: Rogue Heroes, Operation Mincemeat and A Spy Among Friends. Ben used previously unpublished source material as well as exclusive interviews with the SAS and testimony from hostages, negotiators, intelligence officers and others to take his readers on a gripping cinematic helter-skelter journey through every aspect of the siege and rescue.

Friday 24th January at 19.00 | Pall Mall Room | £95.00 per person The Rag events programme will roar back to life in the New Year with Burns Night. The great man’s birthday falls on a Saturday next year. So this can be the centrepiece of a weekend in town with the comforts of the club to hand. Be assured, amid much haggis with (of course) neeps and tatties, and plenty of whisky, all the usual traditions of Burns Night will be present; the Selkirk Grace, toasts to lassies and laddies, a glass of the “water of life” raised to the immortal memory of who is the centre of attention, a finale of Auld Lang’s Syne. In addition, as the club has managed in recent years, prepare for a few surprises to give this mainstay of the calendar a unique quality as well as traditions and usual ceremony. Foremost, put your best foot forward for 2025 and join this early high point of a new year.

Monday 3rd February at 18.30 | The Drawing Room and Zoom | £15.00 per person* *Includes one glass Prosecco *£10.00 for those joining via Zoom As an English literature undergraduate at Cambridge, Her Honour Wendy Joseph KC was planning a career in writing. Instead she converted to law and, after a most distinguished stint over 30 years at the bar, became just the third women invited to become an Old Bailey judge. On arrival in 2012, she actually became the only women sitting at the time. In parallel with this ascent to the high legal offices here, Wendy did not forget her first calling. Today she is the author of two award winning Sunday Times best sellers; Unlawful Killing, a consideration of how our court system deals with this most heinous crime, and Rough Justice, an overview of whether the UK judicial system is robust enough to withstand issues that are both potentially diluting and delaying (so denying…) justice being done, and being seen to be done.

Tuesday 18th February 11.00 | The Drawing Room | £10* *The ticket includes an assortment of Cakes with Tea and Coffee Our Coffee + Connect series has proven to be a great opportunity for Rag members to meet one another, share experiences and make new connections. Sarah and Peter look forward to welcoming you to this very enjoyable event. A table will be booked in the Ribbon Bar & Terrace for those wishing to join us for lunch afterwards.

Wednesday 26th February | 12.00 for 12.30 | Clive Room | £65.00 Baroness Brown has been central to government efforts combating climate change for a generation now, as well as a key advisor to every Prime Minister since Tony Blair on science and technology. Her King Report in 2007 that considered vehicle and fuel technologies that would need to change from fossil to a renewable basis over the subsequent 25 years remains key to policy. A cross bencher in the House of Lords and a Dame since 2012, she chairs Parliament’s Select Committee on Science and Technology every week at Westminster and has also advised the Ministry of Defence as chair of the Defence Science Advisory Council, and the Cabinet Office as a member of the National Security Forum. Join Baroness Brown for lunch to consider science and defence as well as one of the great issues of the day and her views on what key issues the UK government – indeed all governments – face amid concern that the planet is facing global warming. Share in her path from a physics undergraduate at Cambridge where she completed a Ph.D. in fracture mechanics (back then she was Julia King) to Rolls Royce where she was head of materials, Imperial College, where she was principal of the engineering department, and the Carbon Trust, which today she chairs.

Tuesday 4th March at 19.00 | Library | £83.75 Success at the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival is always memorable for an owner (and punters). Rich Ricci has been in the winner’s enclosure twice to greet Champion Hurdle winners and also celebrated landing the Arkle among other championship races and handicaps over the last 15 years with Willie Mullins, so dominant at Prestbury Park, marshalling his string. For the Cheltenham preview supper, on March 4th, join Rich as this now traditional club occasion’s guest of owner to relive some of these memories and his notable success with bookmakers. In conversation at the table for all, also considered will be what this year’s festival might hold for Rich, Mullins, and other big players. Like Mullins, Emma Lavelle can boast names on the Cheltenham roll of honour. She saddled Paisley Park to win the Stayers’ Hurdle in 2019 and has two other successes to her credit. She will be alongside Rich at the table to give a trainer’s perspective of the best four days’ racing anywhere and perhaps offer a few insights into racing’s biggest personalities. After all, she did once share a house with a young Sir Anthony McCoy and Barry Fenton (now her husband). An evening that can only enhance the pleasure you will take from the Cheltenham Festival and the winter game in general. Perhaps even making the game more profitable…

Saturday 8th March at 18:30 | Drawing Room | £120.00 Join us for the Fuller Dinner on 8th March as we continue this cherished tradition. A great evening for wine enthusiasts. Culinary delights will be prepared by our Executive Head Chef, Stuart Hart and his team, accompanied by a flight of wines selected by the Club’s Wine Committee. These hand-selected wines from The Fuller List are a step-up in quality from the main list that have been selected either from wine merchants’ fine wine lists or directly imported by the Club. This is a rare opportunity to explore The Fuller List in one evening. The Fuller Dinner is held in memory of Commander Malcolm Fuller. Malcolm, who served as Chair of the Wine Committee for 9 years, was passionate about fine dining.

Wednesday 12th March at 18.30 | The Drawing Room and Zoom | £15.00 per person* *Includes one glass Prosecco *£10.00 for those joining via Zoom Jeremy Paxman, William Boyd, and Alexander McCall Smith are all admirers of author Barney Campbell’s words. Likewise, Colonel Richard Kemp, who campaigns tirelessly for soldiers not to face criminal prosecution for time in the likes of Iraq, Afghanistan, and, most recently, Northern Ireland. A former Blues & Royals, Campbell counts these illustrious names as fans of his first book, “Rain”, a work of fiction about service in Afghanistan, where he was personally deployed. His new second book, “The Fires of Gallipoli”, takes readers back to the First World War and a lawyer’s experience of this most bloody conflict, contrasting with his sedate, white-collar life at home. For this Fireside Chat, now a staple of the Rag events offering, join Barney to learn how a former serviceman has achieved such literary acclaim following his departure from the Army. Share in his evolution as a writer, and learn about the genesis of his latest book. Hear how he draws in his own experiences of service to create plausible and compelling narratives crafted with no little flair for a choice word or vivid – and authentic – scenario.

Tuesday 18th March | 12.00 for 12.30 | Clive Room | £65.00 As a former Royal Engineer, Ian Henderson knows all about public service. So, when he was asked though his work at the forensic accounts company, Second Sight, that he established with Ron Warrington after leaving the Army, to assess the Post Office’s IT system, what he unearthed was, to him, simply a dereliction of duty. On the back of this, Ian assumed a central role in what is now known universally as the Post Office Scandal. The Second Sight report was apparently suppressed by those who commissioned the work and Ian dismissed from further involvement in the Post Office rectifying the IT problems he had laid bare. Yet, as someone portrayed as a central character in the acclaimed ITV television docudrama, Mr. Bates Versus the Post Office, Ian remained involved as much as his terms of engagement with the Post Office allowed in helping pursue justice for the much-wronged sub-postmasters. The Second Sight report and his knowledge of the Post Office has proved crucial in taking the institution to task. Indeed, he continues to assist in the quest for sub postmasters, some of whom were wrongly sent to prison, to receive compensation. Over a salon-style lunch with Ian, for which the Club is acquiring a deserved reputation for providing personal, unique insight in convivial surrounds, hear his thoughts on the scandal’s path. Having worked with the likes of Paula Vennells, formerly Chief Executive of the Post Office, and other key characters in this matter, of whom the public became acutely aware with the broadcast of Mr Bates Versus the Post Office, share in Ian’s first-hand insight into them and consider how his military training equipped him for the challenges he faced amid an apparent cover up. Learn what the public inquiry has been like from both the point of view of a witness and observer of others to take the oath. A lunch not to be missed when the Post Office Scandal will be considered at an altogether more profound level by someone central to events and often present at defining moments.

Wednesday 19th March 11.00 | The Drawing Room | £10* *The ticket includes an assortment of Cakes with Tea and Coffee Our Coffee + Connect series has proven to be a great opportunity for Rag members to meet one another, share experiences and make new connections. Brian and Joan look forward to welcoming you to this very enjoyable event. A table will be booked in the Ribbon Bar & Terrace for those wishing to join us for lunch afterwards.

Thursday 20th March at 18.30 | Ribbon Bar & Terrace | £30.00 The old and the new often complement each other. With this in mind, the 2025 Army & Navy Club cigar season begins in March with a cigar of longstanding heritage and something fresh to accompany this. We thank Hunters & Frankau for their ongoing counsel – the Ramon Allones No. 3, from one of Cuba’s oldest houses, is actually a recent offering from such an established purveyor, 5 5/8” in length with a ring gauge of 52 so a size akin to the Montecristo Edmundo. The additional 3mm in length is known colloquially in the Cuban cigar factories as a Nobleza. In all, look forward to a blend of filler and binder tobaccos harvested exclusively from the Vuelta Abajo zone of Pinar del Rio, renowned for yielding intense and complex taste. We will pair this Cuban cigar with something that north of the border is almost an oxymoron; namely English whisky. The House of Fielden was established in 2017, with a distillery in Oxford and is now based in Yorkshire where regenerative farming is producing grain as nature intended – a spirit that is clean as well as rich in complexities. The sense of age that you will enjoy may well be a surprise, including to Scots.…

Friday 28th March at 18.00 | Marlborough Suite | Complimentary for Members* *Includes a drink on arrival *£10.00 Per Guest We invite all members to come and enjoy a glass of wine and join us for our next New Members Reception on Friday 28th March, where we will be extending a warm welcome to the newest members of the Club, giving them a chance to interact with long standing members. Taking place on the last Friday of the month, once a quarter, the evening provides the perfect setting to connect with both new and existing members and to meet members of the Board and Membership Committee in a more relaxed setting.