| Main Performers | HRH The Prince of Wales (Grand Master, President, Chair) - speaker |
| Performance Notes | "In order to provide the required accommodation all the chairs in the arena have been temporarily put on one side, and room made in the centre of the hall for several hundred diners, tables being arranged longitudinally in this part o fthe building, on either side of which the brethren will sit. With no little ingenuity the amphtheatre has been pressed into service, every other row of seats having been taken out and a table substituted , behind which, facing th orchestra, will be those to whom are allotted places in this commanding section. The private boxes immediately behind the amphitheatre are also to be utilised for dining tables, accommodation being furnished in each loge for four visitors, while room will be found in each of the grand tier boxes for eight. On the other hand, the boxes round the upper tier will one and al be placed at the disposal of ladies who will already have dined, in company with sundry brethren, in the West Theatre [Elgar Room]attached to the Albert Hall. For other lady guests space will be allotted in the blacony, where there will ikewise assemble, to the number of nearly a thousand, members of the craft who have previously partaken of dinner in the Freemasons' Hall. Then the spacious gallery will have tables placed at right angles to the arches, and, all told, 758 ticket-holders will dine in this elevated part of the building. Over 2,500 vouchers have been issued, exclusive of those distributed among the visitors who are to dine in the West Theatre, and as showing how greatly in excess are these figures of any previously recorded upon similar occassions, it mat be stated that when the centenary of the Girls' Institution was held, 1,400 sat down to dinner - a number for which there was then said to be no precedent."
(The Daily Telegraph, 10 June 1898)
According to the newspaper there were nearly 3,000 dinners at the banquet who included Earl Amherst, Mr W W B Beach MP, Lord Llangattock, Marquis of Zetland, Lord Harlech, Earl Egerton of Tatton, Earl of Dartmouth, Lord Leigh, Major-General Sir Stanley Clarke, Borther Richard Eve, Brother Chares E Keyser, Brother Letchworth, Brother Thomas Fenn, and Brother J Morrison McLeod.
The dinner was served by Messrs. Spiers and Pond (Limited). (The Daily Telegraph, 13 June 1898) |