The Flyfishers' Club is a

gentlemen's club A gentlemen's club is a private social club of a type originally established by males from Britain's upper classes starting in the 17th century. Many countries outside Britain have prominent gentlemen's clubs, mostly those associated with the ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England, which was founded in 1884 for enthusiasts of flyfishing. In 1894, the club had more than three hundred members, while in 1984, this number had risen to between eight and nine hundred members.

History

The club's library has been described as one of the finest of its kind in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

; it has a collection of around three thousand works on the subject of fishing, including works such as the successful '' Floating Flies and How to Dress Them'' and ''Dry Fly Fishing in Theory and Practice'' by F.M. Halford, one of the club's co-founders. Many well-known writers on angling are members, and have contributed signed copies of their publications to the library. According to Basil Field, the founding president, the original prospectus described the club's purposes as follows: :"To bring together gentlemen devoted to fly-fishing generally. :"To afford a ready means of communication between those interested in this delightful art. :"To provide in the reading-room, in addition to all the usual newspapers, periodicals, &c., catalogues, and books, foreign as well as English, having reference to fishing, particularly to fly-fishing so as to render the club a means of obtaining knowledge about new fishing places and vacancies for rods, and making it a general medium of information on all points relating to the art." The club publishes a long-standing magazine, the ''Flyfishers' Journal''; writers included G. E. M. Skues, who has been described as "one of the greatest

trout Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...

fishermen that ever lived." Skues dedicated his 1921 book, '' The Way of a Trout with the Fly'' to The Flyfishers' Club "in gratitude for many happy hours and some priceless friends". In 1938, a debate was held at the club on Skues's controversial theories about the use of

nymphs A nymph (; ; sometimes spelled nymphe) is a minor female nature deity in ancient Greek folklore. Distinct from other Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature; they are typically tied to a specific place, land ...

in fly-fishing, which led him to publish ''Nymph Fishing for Chalk Stream Trout''. The club also has a museum of fishing

memorabilia A souvenir (French language, French for 'a remembrance or memory'), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memory, memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collecte ...

which holds a rod used by

David Garrick David Garrick (19 February 1716 – 20 January 1779) was an English actor, playwright, Actor-manager, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of European theatrical practice throughout the 18th century, and was a pupil a ...

and a case of

flies Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwin ...

reputed to have belonged to

Izaak Walton Izaak Walton (baptised 21 September 1593 – 15 December 1683) was an English writer. Best known as the author of ''The Compleat Angler'' (1653), he also wrote a number of short biographies including one of his friend John Donne. They have been ...

. Other items include a rod box originally exhibited in

The Great Exhibition The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held), was an international exhibition that took ...

The Crystal Palace The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibitors from around ...

in 1851 and a

pirn A pirn is a rod onto which weft thread is wound for use in weaving. Unlike a bobbin, it is fixed in place, and the thread is delivered off the end of the pirn rather than from the centre. A typical pirn is made of wood or plastic and is slightly ...

(used as an alternative to a

fishing reel A fishing reel is a hand-crank (mechanism), cranked reel used in angling to wind and stow fishing line, typically mounted onto a fishing rod, but may also be used on compound bows or crossbows to retrieve tethered arrows when bowfishing. Modern ...

) which belonged to the "Ettrick Sheppherd"

James Hogg James Hogg (1770 – 21 November 1835) was a Scottish poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in both Scots language, Scots and English. As a young man he worked as a shepherd and farmhand, and was largely self-educated through reading. He was a ...

Premises

The Flyfishers’ has had a number of homes. It had no permanent home of its own for the first four years of its existence, but opened its first rooms of its own in the Arundel Hotel in 1888, then moved to No. 8 Haymarket in 1889 and remained there until 1907, when it moved to

Swallow Street Swallow Street is a small street in the West End of London, running north from Piccadilly. It is about long. History The street was previously much longer and stretched as far north as Oxford Street. The first section of the street was built ...

, Piccadilly. It stayed there until destroyed in

The Blitz The Blitz (English: "flash") was a Nazi Germany, German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, for eight months, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941, during the Second World War. Towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940, a co ...

in 1941. Since then it has leased premises in several other London clubs. Today, the Club leases rooms in the Savile Club, 69 Brook Street in central London.

Notable members

* Basil Field * R. B. Marston * Frederic M. Halford * Henry Batten Huddleston *

Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon (25 April 1862 – 7 September 1933), better known as Sir Edward Grey, was a British statesman and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party politician who was the main force behind British foreign policy i ...

* G. E. M. Skues * Francis Francis *

Arthur Ransome Arthur Michell Ransome (18 January 1884 – 3 June 1967) was an English author and journalist. He is best known for writing and illustrating the ''Swallows and Amazons'' series of children's books about the school-holiday adventures of childre ...

* Eric Taverner *

Hugh Falkus Hugh Falkus (15 May 1917 – 30 March 1996) was a British writer, filmmaker and presenter, World War II pilot and angler. In an extremely varied career, he is perhaps best known for his seminal books on angling, particularly salmon and sea trout ...

* Donald Overfield * Charles Sinclair, chairman of

Associated British Foods Associated British Foods plc (ABF) is a British multinational food processing and retailing company headquartered in London, England. Its ingredients division is the world's second-largest producer of both sugar and baker's yeast and a major pr ...

. * Richard Walker * William Daniel Its current patron is

King Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...

Notes

References

*Anonymous, ''The Book of the Flyfishers' Club, 1884-1934'' (Croydon: Croydon Advertiser Printing Works, 1934) *Jack Chance and Julian Paget (ed.), ''The Flyfishers’: An Anthology to mark the Centenary of The Flyfishers’ Club 1884–1984'' (1984) *Ken Robson (ed.), ''Flyfishers’ Progress''

External links