The Journal · The Brantford Club
The Name in the Register: Winston Churchill, January 3, 1901
Winston Churchill signed the Visitors’ Register of The Brantford Club on January 3, 1901. The Club’s centennial history reproduces the photographed page of the ledger itself; the line reads “1901 Jan 3 | Winston S. Churchill | London, England.” He came as a guest, after speaking in town, and stayed for supper.
The Brantford Club keeps its records the old way: a ruled ledger headed BRANTFORD CLUB-VISITORS’ REGISTER, one line to a guest, with the date, the name, and the place they came from. One line, three days into the twentieth century’s first year, belongs to Winston S. Churchill of London, England. This entry sets out what the Club’s own records hold of that evening at 98 George Street, and how the page came to be photographed.
When did Winston Churchill visit Brantford?
Winston Churchill visited Brantford on January 3, 1901, and The Brantford Club’s Visitors’ Register holds the record in his own hand. The Club’s centennial history, privately printed for the hundredth year, reproduces a photograph of the page: the ruled columns, the date, the signature, the residence given simply as London, England. The book’s plate caption states it without ornament: “Winston Churchill signed the Register on January 3, 1901.” He had addressed a gathering in town that evening; what followed is best told by the man who was in the room.
“After addressing a gathering here, the young man and his manager were guests of honour at a supper party at the Club with Dr. Digby as host.”
Ralph Reville, charter member, recalled in the Brantford Expositor, 1948
The supper party of about twenty
Ralph Reville, Publisher, was one of the five men who founded The Brantford Club in 1898, and by 1948 he was the last of them living. His recollection of the Churchill evening, set down through Alice Waterous in the Brantford Expositor that year, is the Club’s second document: a supper party in the Club’s rooms, Dr. Digby as host, about twenty members at the table. The record keeps no menu, and the Club invents none. What it keeps is the shape of the evening: a young visitor fresh from the platform, a host with a table ready, and a ledger open by the door.
The Register itself
The Visitors’ Register is a ruled ledger, and the page the book reproduces shows the ordinary traffic of a working club alongside the famous line: guests that season gave their residences as Winnipeg, Rossland in British Columbia, Detroit, Montreal, and Toronto. A private club in the Telephone City drew the whole country through its door, and wrote each arrival down. The page was photographed for the centennial book, which is how a reader today can see the hand. The rest of the Register’s pages stay where the Club’s records stay.
The supper lasted an evening; the line in the ledger has outlasted the century.
Questions the record answers
Was Winston Churchill a member of The Brantford Club?
No. Churchill signed the Visitors’ Register, the book guests sign, on January 3, 1901. He was a guest of honour at a supper party that evening, with Dr. Digby as host and about twenty members present, as charter member Ralph Reville recalled in 1948.
What is the Visitors’ Register at The Brantford Club?
A ruled ledger kept one line to a guest: the date, the name, the residence. The page reproduced in the Club’s centennial history shows visitors from Winnipeg, Rossland, Detroit, Montreal, and Toronto alongside Churchill’s line.
How is Churchill’s Brantford visit documented?
Twice over. The Club’s centennial history reproduces a photograph of the signed Register page, and Ralph Reville’s recollection of the supper party was set down in the Brantford Expositor in 1948.
Sources: the Club’s centennial history, privately printed for the hundredth year, which reproduces the photographed Register page; and Ralph Reville’s recollection, set down through Alice Waterous in the Brantford Expositor, 1948.
The house that took that signature still stands at 98 George Street, and the Club it belongs to is described plainly on About the Club.
