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[Bookplate for United Service Club]
[Bookplate for United Service Club]
Title[Bookplate for United Service Club]
Date Created[not after 1827]
Sort Date1827
DescriptionThis bookplate's design features a royal crown above a thistle, clovers, a rose, and two surrounding branches.
Extent1 bookplate : steel engraving ; 5.9 x 6.9 cm
SubjectPlants ; Heraldry
Subject - GeographicEngland
Personal NamesUnited Service Club (Great Britain)
GenrePrints
TypeStill Image
Formatimage/jpeg
NotesThe first club house of the United Service Club, paradigm of the Junior United Service Club, was housed on the corner of Charles Street (later Charles II Street) and Regent Street, St. James Square, London. By 1825, however, the club had outgrown this location and members sought a new site. After George IV authorized the demolition of Carlton House, a new site became available for lease in 1825. On this land, the club houses of the new United Service Club and the Athenaeum were constructed. John Nash was appointed as architect for the United Service Club's building. The edifice opened in 1828 and included a map room, card room, smoking room, dining room, library, reading room and billiard room. The United Service Club counted senior military officers of the army and navy among its members (i.e. those of the rank of Major/Commander and above).
The Junior United Service Club purchased 'the Senior's' former clubhouse in 1827, the year of its founding. The Junior United Service Club included members from the army, navy, marines and Indian Army. The club was intended to be slightly more inclusive than the highly selective, and purportedly expensive, senior club. Despite this fact, letters to the Editor of the Oriental Herald appeared in 1828 complaining of membership rejection and blackballing.
Regardless, both clubs were apparently extremely popular, as an 1829 letter to the editor of the 'United Service Journal: and Naval and Military Magazine, ' called for the formation of a third club, due to long membership waitlists, writing:
'The utility of Club-houses to the United Services it is not necessary to expatiate on. There are now on the lists for admission, five hundred candidates for the Senior, and two hundred for the Junior Club House, and it will be many years before there will be sufficient vacancies to admit these numbers.
'It is the opinion of many officers that a third Club might be established which would tend much to the respectability and comfort of the services, as, if formed on the plan of the parent Club, the hundreds now waiting for admission would be desirous of becoming members of it. I imagine such an undertaking would be warmly entered into, if due publicity was given to it.'
The journal's editor notes that, in fact, 1279 candidates were on the waiting list for the Senior and 260 for the Junior. In spite of this early popularity, like many other gentlemen's clubs of the nineteenth century, the Junior United Service Club is no longer extant.

References:
1) F. H. W. Sheppard. (1960). 'Pall Mall, South Side, Existing Buildings: The United Service Club: The Athenaeum', Survey of London: volumes 29 and 30: St James Westminster, Part 1, p. 386-399. Retrieved June 18, 2009, from: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=40609#s3
2) 'Plate 64: (Junior) United Service Club, Charles II Street | British History Online.' Accessed 29 March 2010 at http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=40696
3) 'Wapedia' Wiki: List of London's gentlemen's clubs.' Accessed on 29 March 2010 at http://wapedia.mobi/en/List_of_London%27s_gentlemen%27s_clubs
4) 'The Oriental Herald: And Journal of General Literature.' vol. XVII. London: April-June 1828, 363, 563-564. Accessed on 29 March 2010 at http://books.google.ca/books?id=6PIaAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA563&ots=8gNp-nG6ps&dq=junior%20united%20service%20club&pg=PP9#v=onepage&q=junior%20united%20service%20club&f=false
5) 'The United service journal and naval and military magazine.' Part II. London: Henry Colburn, 1829, 500. Accessed on 31 March 2010 at http://books.google.ca/books? id=jJ08AAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA500&ots=a-d_luJP37&dq=junior%20united%20service%20club&pg=PA500#v=onepage&q=junior%20united%20service%20club&f=false
6) Jared Sparks, et. al. 'The North American review.' vol. 44. Boston: Otis, Broaders, & Co., 1837, 468. Accessed on 31 March 2010 at http://books.google.ca/books?id=MVsCAAAAIAAJ&lpg=PA468&ots=KDokkCJTyS&dq=junior%20united%20service%20club&pg=PR4#v=onepage&q=junior% 20united%20service%20club&f=false
Access IdentifierBP MUR ENG I J865
Digital IdentifierBP_MUR_ENG_I_J865
Is Part OfRBSC Bookplates
SourceOriginal Format: University of British Columbia. Library. Rare Books and Special Collections. Thomas Murray Bookplates Collection. Leslie Binder. BP MUR ENG I J865
Date Available2010
Publisher - DigitalVancouver : University of British Columbia Library
RightsImages provided for research and reference use only. Permission to publish, copy, or otherwise use these images must be obtained from Rare Books and Special Collections: http://rbsc.library.ubc.ca
TranscriptJUNIOR UNITED SERVICE CLUB 1827
DOI1.0215607
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