Signed menu and photograph of dinner given by Smiths English Clocks to honour 1953 Everest Expedition

Signed menu and accompanying photograph for a dinner given on 20th October 1953, by Ralph Gordon-Smith, acting on behalf of Smiths English Clocks, at the Savoy Hotel London, in honour of the British Mount Everest Expedition. The menu has been signed by 28 people in attendance, including 10 from the Everest Expedition [John Hunt, Mike Westmacott, Michael Ward, Edmund Hillary, Thomas Bourdillon, Wilfred Noyce, Charles Wylie, Tom Stobart, George Band and George Lowe]; Ralph Gordon-Smith and other staff of Smiths English Clocks; test pilots Neville Duke and Michael Lithgow; the Astronomer Royal, Sir Harold Spencer-Jones; cricketers Trevor Bailey and Len Hutton; and the Master of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers for that year, Sir William Valentine Ball. The accompanying press photograph by Paul Wilson, shows a number of the dinner’s attendees. Standing is Dennis Barrett, Smiths' General Manager, who had also been Master of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers in 1952.

The dinner, which was organised on behalf of Smiths English Watches, marked the occasion of the handover of the Smiths watch worn by Hillary on his ascent up Mount Everest, to the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers for inclusion within their museum collection. Guests of the dinner also included sports personalities who had made an oustanding contribution in that year. Trevor Bailey and Len Hutton had both batted for the victorious English Test Cricket team, whilst Neville Duke and Mike Lithgow had both broken the World Air Speed Record that year. According to a report of the event in the Horological Journal, each of the attendees was also wearing a Smiths watch on their wrist for the evening. Clockmakers' Museum No. 1525