page_title: East India Club
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: East India Club / History
caption_attribution_description: English: East India United Service Club, London, Servant's button
context_page_description: The East India Club is a gentlemen's club founded in 1849 and situated at 16, St James's Square in London. The full title of the club is the East India, Devonshire, Sports and Public Schools' Club due to mergers with other clubs.
context_section_description: Founded in the middle of the 19th century, the club's original members, as set out in the Rule Book of 1851, were: 
  The East India Company's servants – Clerical, Civil, Military, Naval and Medical of all the Presidencies, including those retired [and] all commissioned officers of Her Majesty's Army and Navy who have served in India, members of the Bar and Legal Profession who may have been or are Company's Advocates and Solicitors ...
  But within the first two decades of the club's foundation, the East India Company started to lose its Indian possessions and was wound up entirely in 1874. As a result, the club could no longer look to the East India Company as its main source of members.
  Since then, the club has amalgamated with the Sports Club (1938), the Public Schools Club (1972) and the Devonshire (1976), all of which ran into the twin problems of keeping up membership numbers and making ends meet, especially with the escalating costs of maintenance for historic buildings. With the disappearance of the East India Company, the public school influence has become an important one. The club is still primarily referred to as the East India Club or EIC for convenience. 
  The club's facilities include a dining room and a luncheon room in addition to the American Bar (named in gratitude to the American officers who stayed at the club during the Second World War and provided funds to refurbish the bar after the war), the Canadian Room (named in gratitude to the Canadian officers who stayed at the club during the Second World War and afterwards provided the timber for the room when it was still in short supply), the Drawing Room, the Smoking Room (although smoking within the club is no longer permitted), the library (which includes antiquarian and contemporary books), the Card Room, the Rugby Room (where the International Rugby Board met until its move to Dublin), the New York Room, the Clive Room and a gymnasium, a billiard room and 67 bedrooms (including the St James's Suite). The East India Club is a popular venue for private events and offers conference facilities. 
  The club has reciprocal arrangements with more than 100 clubs throughout the world. Members can use the facilities of overseas reciprocal clubs with a card or letter of introduction issued by the East India Club.
caption: East India Service Club servant's uniform button, c.1850
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