On this day in 1932, George Bernard Shaw attended the first anniversary dinner of the Company of Newspaper Makers, held at Barber-Surgeons’ Hall. Master of the Company was American-born journalist Robert David Blumenfeld, editor of the Daily Express 1904-1932. Shaw and Blumenfeld can be seen in the image, here reproduced with permission of the Stationers’ Company, seated in front of one of the 18th century mirrors still to be seen at the Hall today.
The News Chronicle listed a number of other attendees: The Deputy Master of the Company of Newspaper Makers Sir Edward Illiffe, Lord Wakefield, Lord Ebbisham, Sir Robert Bruce, Sir Robert Donald, Sir Emsley Carr, Mr E Hugh Herbert, Mr George W Kettle, Mr Sydney Walton, Mr George S Royds, Mr Tom Clarke, Sir Percy Everett, Mr Andrew Milne, Mr F D Bone (Clerk), Lord Riddell, Mr George F Allison, Mr Alan Bott, Mr David Blumenfeld and Mr J B Elliot.
The vegetarian and teetotal Shaw’s dinner choices were of great interest, and The Daily Express reported in the next day’s edition:
Mr George Bernard Shaw distinguished himself last night by eating poached egg while the other guest had quail and cherries…The loving cup was passed around in traditional city style, but Mr Shaw, while politely standing, flatly refused to drink, in accordance with his teetotal principles. He sat down exclaiming “A dreadful pagan orgy!” but he said it with a twinkle in his eyes.
A dinner speech was given by Francis Weston (Master Barber 1915, 1916 and 1930), during which he revealed to the assembled guests the whereabouts of the Barbers’ Holbein painting during the 1914-18 war, concealed behind a false wall in the Underground system. The News Chronicle reported Shaw’s comments on the painting in his after-dinner speech:
“We journalists must have a City Hall”, he said, “and there are several pictures pf me which might adorn it.”
One thing he never dreamed of – that he would one day be a member of a City company. Yet there they were, met together as a City company and drinking mineral waters (Laughter). Holbein had painted Henry VIII, without brains. Augustus John could unmask his subjects too. (Laughter).
A Hall for the Company of Newspaper Makers was proposed in 1931 and a design developed by architect John James Joass (1868–1952), but it was never built, and a merger with the Stationers’ Company took place in 1937.
Further reading:
London Historians: The Livery Hall that Never Was – available to read online here
Report on the Stationers’ Company archive evening, 2026 – available to read online here
