The Canada Club founded on a permanent footing at a meeting held at Freemason’s Tavern, Holborn on 20th October 1810 after occasional previous meetings of its original members who numbered 26 and were largely of Scottish descent. The club owes it origin to the fur traders of the NorthWest Company and derived some of its members from the Beaver Club, which exists in Montreal from 1785 to 1827 as the social organisation of that company.
In 1810 the only qualification was that a member must have resided some time in Canada, but in 1811 membership was extended to "gentlemen connected with Canada by official situations or extensive mercantile transactions, but who have never resided in that country." From 1821 when the NorthWest Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company entered into a coalition, members of the latter became eligible to join the Canada Club.
In the first half of the nineteenth century, the increase in membership was slow (58 by 1850). Even Confederation in 1867 and the acquisition of the Hudson Bay territories in 1870 did not result in any appreciable advance in the Club’s participants. However, the development of railroads across Canada, followed by the great expansion of population and trade, led to steady growth in the membership which has increased from 64 in 1890 to 400 today.
The Canada Club is one of the oldest Dining Clubs’s in London and is the most ancient institution connected with Canada, with the exception of the Hudson’s Bay Company. The club had no premises of its own. Its meeting places, apart from the Freemason’s Tavern, has included coffee houses in the City and the Strand and establishments on Blackwall, Greenwich and Richmond, the Albion Tavern, Aldersgate Street and the London Tavern, Bishopsgate. Since 1900 the Club has held three dinners a year in hotels or restaurants in the West End and has for some years now met regularly at the Savoy Hotel.
As a forum for Anglo-Canadian social and commercial interests, the Club has been privileged for more than a hundred years to entertain distinguished individuals in public life from Canada, Britain and the Commonwealth. The records show that in 1856 the Lord Mayor of London was a guest of the Club at a dinner held, at his invitation, at the Mansion House.
In 1863 the Hon. John A. Macdonald, later the Prime Minister of Canada, dined with the Club. In the present century Prime Ministers and Cabinet Ministers of Canada and the United Kingdom have been among the Club’s guests of honour. In 1960, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Club, a banquet was held in the Guildhall at which H.R.H. the Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh, Patron of the Club, took the Chair. His Royal Highness again honoured us with his presence on the 10th November, 1971. H.R.H. the Prince Phillip hosted our Millennium Dinner at St. James’s Place with H.R.H the Duke of York attending.