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In June 2023 I attended my first Royal Marine Officers’ Dinner Club dinner. I joined the club seven years into my career after learning of its existence whilst serving at 45 Commando. The CO at the time, Col Ed Hall OBE, told the Officer’s that they could take the day off to attend a dinner in London. The prospect of a long weekend clearly seemed worth investigating, however, I knew nothing about this mysterious club or whether it was for a lowly Captain such as myself.
At this point I will declare an interest. I am now a representative for the club being the Junior Officers’ Member and therefore likely bias towards it. That being said, I believe it’s a good thing to be a part of, and this article aims to share my experience whilst answering the questions I certainly had when I first thought of joining.
Step one was finding out, in simple terms, What is the Royal Marine Officers’ Dinner Club? In short, the club is a group of exclusively serving and retried Royal Marine Officers, who get together for an annual dinner in London. It effectively functions as a social network, allowing you to stay in touch with your oppos and provides a means for meeting up in person. It currently has circa 600 members of which perhaps a quarter will attend a dinner each year. The next key question is of course, How much is this going to cost me? Currently I pay £20 a year to be a member and if I attend a dinner I pay an additional cost, which in 2023 was £65. The membership subscription is taken as a direct debit in January and mostly goes towards a subsidy for the dinner costs.
As a good professional my next thought was clearly logistics, How am I going to get to London and where am I going to stay? I don’t live near London and to be honest I don’t go there very often. As I see it, there’s a few options: you stay with friends, you book a private hotel or Airbnb, you book a military affiliated club such as the Union Jack Club, Victory Services Club or The In and Out Naval and Military Club, or if your trip coincides with an on-duty activity, you book through the LONDIST Central Booking Accommodation Form. I opted to get a train in, which was low faff and relatively low cost, then stay at the Union Jack Club which I could use as a guest, even though its normally for enlisted personnel. I checked in and had a bit of time to shower (obviously) and get changed. I had learnt that the answer to What am I going to wear? is standard Black Tie, no medals. Easy enough, however I did have to buy this as the set I’d bought as an 18-year-old for prom no longer fitted me - I must be too muscular now. As I left the hotel, I bumped into two retired officers, and we shared a taxi over. This was one of my highlights of the evening. Just having a relaxed conversation with these two people who I’d never met before and yet we had a commonality and affinity. To describe it, it’s the ease which comes from the mutual understanding of your shared history; there’s nothing to prove there, you can enjoy each other’s company.
We arrived at the venue, which leads to the question Where is the dinner held? It’s at Stationer’s Hall in central London, next to St Paul’s Cathedral. Stationers’ is one of London’s ‘Livery Halls’ which were built to administer guilds and trades and now often serve as venues for formal events. Crucially they are well located and have proper professional catering. Specifically at Stationer’s, we had welcome drinks in the courtyard on arrival and this gave a nice bit of time to settle in a chat with people. You then go inside and to summarise the answer to What actually happens at the dinner? there were Mess Beatings, you sit down where you want, no table plan, you get a three-course meal, there was a Loyal Toast but no long speeches and then you finish and go to the bar until 2359. To me it felt like a very informal RM Officers’ Mess Dinner but with no guests and better food. What surprised me about the dinner was that I knew far more people than what I expected. It was one of my key questions as a more junior member - Will I know anyone … will I have a good time? There were approximately 120 members at the 2023 dinner of which around a third were currently serving. Of these, there were about 25 people I knew to varying degrees having met or worked with them at Commando Units. Additionally, I met half a dozen new people who I would now recognize by face and name and happily go and chat to. In particular, it was useful to speak to some Marines who have since left the service and to hear about the jobs they’ve moved into. Knowing that most people aren’t going to spend their entire working life in the Corps, it was helpful to hear stories from people that have gone on to achieve other things.
In summary, the evening was minimal hassle, and I got a lot out of it. In my opinion the best thing really is the opportunity to speak to other bootnecks you wouldn’t normally meet, particularly retired members who’s dits put my short career into perspective.
Humbling, enjoyable, would recommend.
Captain Dave Harrison RM
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