The Civil Service Club will be paid a royal visit this week to mark the 70th anniversary of its creation.
Birgitte, the Duchess of Gloucester, who is married to Prince Richard, the Duke of Gloucester, will visit the club on Friday.
She will be greeted by permanent secretary of the Government in Parliament Group Dame Elizabeth Gardiner, Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London Sir Kenneth Olisa and the club’s chair Sir Peter Housden, before viewing the club’s facilities and meeting members and staff.
The duchess will also meet representatives of the civil service, and partner charities and organisations that support both serving and retired members of the civil service. She will unveil a plaque to record the visit and mark the club’s 70th anniversary.
The Civil Service Club, in Great Scotland Yard, is open to all serving, former and retired civil servants of the United Kingdom, and to current, former, and retired employees of government agencies and non-departmental public bodies.
Upon her accession, Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth made the premises available, using surplus funds that the then Home Civil Service and Foreign Service collected to buy a gift on the occasion of her wedding to the Duke of Edinburgh.
The late Queen was patron of the club from 1953 until her death.