KCLA Annual Dinner and Duel Day Celebration 19th March 2022

Event Date: 19 March 2022 6:30 pm – 10:30 pm

Event Venue: Vintners Hall, 68 Upper Thames Street, London, EC4V 3BG

Tagged:

2022
Annual Event

The event will be held in the historic Vintner’s Hall. The Worshipful Company of Vintners is one of the Twelve Great Livery Companies of the City of London. The original hall burnt down in the Great Fire of London; the present Hall was built and in use by 1671. Much of the original interior remains, including carving in the Hall and Court Room and a fine staircase.

This year we are delighted to incorporate for the first time a re-enactment of the duel commemorating the Duke of Wellington’s role in securing the right of King’s to offer education to all. The duel was fought on 21 March 1829 on Battersea Fields between the Duke of Wellington and the Earl of Winchelsea. The College was to be established on Anglican principles, but there was to be no religious test for entry. Winchelsea denounced Wellington’s support for Catholic emancipation and accused the Duke of insincerity in using his role in founding King’s as a way of hiding the ‘introduction of popery’ into the country.

Wellington felt that the accusations were so serious for himself, catholic emancipation, and the College that he was left with no alternative but to seek satisfaction in a duel. The Duke shot wide, and the Earl shot in the air. A written apology from Winchelsea resolved the matter and a royal charter granted by George IV in August that year established King’s as a legal entity without a religious test for entry. King’s alumni all over the world now gather for social occasions to celebrate Duel Day.

Tickets for the black tie Dinner cost £95 to include wine and soft drinks, which is subsidised to celebrate our first social event for 20 years. Full details and the booking form are available

here

. Numbers are strictly limited and available on a first-come first-served basis.

I do hope you will join us.