Hackney Carriage Drivers Dinner
17th March 2025Trinity House
After leaving the Irsh Guards Sergeants Mess at the Wellington Barracks and stopping off at the City Livery Club to change into Black Tie, I travelled on to Tower Hill to go to the Spring Dinner of the Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers at Trinity House.
The St Patrick's Day theme continued with the fine meal accompanied by music from the Bumpstead Bojangles, who played Irish tunes, amongst others. At the end of the meal we were treated to Irish Whiskey rather than Port, which went down very well.
Besides the Master making awards to the miltary connections of the HCD (Army, Navy and Airforce), we were treated to some very good speeches, particularly that from the guest speaker Mark Smith, who is the medals expert from the Antiques Roadshow.
His talk was on the Victoria Cross medal, its winners (particularly the Hackney Carriage Driver Frederick Hitch, who won the VC at Rorke's Drift) and its impact on their subsequent lives.
It turns out that the idea that the medals were made from Russian guns captured at Sebastopol is a myth. In reality medals over the last century have been made from bronze cannons captured at the Taku Forts in China during the Opium wars, so even the VC is "made in China"!
A very interesting and enjoyable evening.