Club Links and Donations

Links to the University of Edinburgh

The ethos of the Club stays rooted in the vision established in 1864, described then as ‘to promote good fellowship and the interests of the University’. Our principal points of contact are with the University’s Development and Alumni and Alumni Relations departments, and their London representative.

Through them, we have contact with leading Academics and University Administrators, who are often guests of honour at our Annual Dinners and at our events in Edinburgh. They also give us invaluable help regarding promotion of the Club and its events, matters of protocol, and points where the Club’s donations to the University can be directed for best effect.

Other Links

The Club maintains contact with The Graduates’ Association, the General Council, the Burns Club of London, alumni clubs overseas, and alumni clubs for the other Scottish universities.

There are occasional joint events, and our mutual support gives access to a wide variety of events, including for example Wine tasting, receptions and dinners at the House of Lords, Ceilidhs, Burns Nights and Quiz Nights, Scottish inter-Varsity Rugby, some grand balls, and Drinks and Discussion evenings, held usually at the Caledonian Club.

Donations

In recent years the Club has contributed £1,000 towards the cost of purchasing for the Library a unique Victorian psalm book, with manuscript-style illustrations and a special cover by Phoebe Anna Traquair, an Edinburgh artist considered to be of great cultural significance to the City.

We have also donated £1,000 towards the cost of acquiring the Charles Lyall notebooks for the Library, considered by many donors, the Government and other Scottish Universities as being the most appropriate home for this collection. Charles Lyell was a professor of Geology at Edinburgh in the early 19^th Century, and a tutor to Charles Darwin. As such, this collection is considered to be of great scientific interest; it has been valued at over £1 million.

The Club also provides £500 a year to the University’s Scholarship Fund.