PRINCE OF WALES BECOMES A "SAVAGE"

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 246, 11 July 1919, Page 7

PRINCE OF WALES BECOMES A "SAVAGE"

VISIT,TO THE FAMOUS' CLUB. Royalty once more honoured the Savage Club on a recent Saturday night, when the' Prince of Wales, following the example of his grandfather, King' Edward, and of the present King, took his scat at tho house dinner, Sir Havelock Chnriss in the chair.

The Eoyal Family has for some years past shown a welcome sympathy with the Bohemians of the Adelphi. As tar back as Mairoh i, 1860, Queen Victoria, tho Prince Consort, Princess Alice, and Prince Alfred (not then Duke of Edin.burf;h). graced with their presence the performance of "The School for Scandal" at tho Lyceu.ni Theatre, on which occasion many old Savages, now all gone to .their rest, appeared on. the stage. On February 11, 1882, the then Prince ot Wales, afterwards King Edward VII, dined at the club, and was felicitously proclaimed "the chief Savage." King George, who, as Prince of Wales, had been a Savage since 1901, dined with the club at the Hotel Cecil in 1909, and Savagos have not forgotten the words uttered by him after dinner: "Let us fo to our club." There, ho took the chair; and tho Savages soon realised that he was "one of them."

No less-did they realise the fact on Saturday, when Edward, Prince of Wales, after being elected a member of tho club, quickly grasped the opportunity of showing that the spirit of a true Savage was within him. Mr. David Urquhart, the hon. 1 secretary, of the bavage Club, in a few words announced that the committee had unanimously resolved to elect the Prince an .honorary life member, a nomination heartily confirmed by the diners with prolonged cheering. -His Eoyal Highness briefly addressed hie now "Brother Savages," remarking that his grandfather and his father had, on a similar occnsioii, used only four, words to ■acknowledge their election as Savages, namely, "Gentlemen, I thank you," but he hoped -ho might bo permitted to break away \froin tho family tradition. Ho thanked 'his new brethren for their welcome of him, adding that he was delighted to bo one of them. During a brief interval His Eoyal Highness took tho chairman's place amid mpro cheering. In the course of the evening the Prince visited the smoking room, chatted unceremoniously with his "brothers," joined in the Derby Sweepstake;, and then departed amid a volley of Savngo cheering.