76 
BANQUET IN GUILDHALL 
Thursday, 15th September, 1960 
The principal event in the social part of the Congress programme was the 
banquet in Guildhall in the heart of the City of London on Thursday, 15th September, 
1960. 
The environs of the ancient Guildhall have been consecrated to civic govern 
ment for more than a thousand years. The foundation of the present hall was com 
menced about the year 1411, and the Great Hall itself was completed by 1440. Two 
major conflagrations destroyed large areas of the city, in 1666 and in 1940, but the 
crypt, porch and medieval walls of Guildhall emerged from the flames on both oc 
casions without irreparable damage. Guildhall, throughout the ages, has been the 
setting for banquets celebrating most of the great State and civic occasions in Great 
Britain. 
The banquet in Guildhall on 15th September provided a brilliant finale to the 
proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of Photogrammetry. Major-General 
R. LI. Brown, the President of the International Society for Photogrammetry, presided 
over a gathering of nearly 450 photogrammetrists and their wives, including 38 
distinguished guests, representative of the British Government, civic and educational 
authorities, and leaders in the world of science in Great Britain. For those who are 
interested, the list of official guests is appended. 
The dinner was preceded by Grace said by the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral; 
and after the President had proposed the health of the Queen and other members of 
the British Royal family and of the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs and the Corporation of the 
City of London, the company were entertained by speeches by the Right Honourable 
Lord Mills, a senior member of the British Cabinet, who proposed the toast of the 
International Society for Photogrammetry. This toast was responded to by the 
President, who in turn proposed the toast of the guests. To this, Sir Lindor Brown, 
Vice-President of the Royal Society, replied in a delightful speech, the text of which 
appears below. 
An account of this historic banquet in London would not be complete without 
reporting that the Orchestra of the Corps of Royal Engineers provided a programme 
of music throughout the proceedings which gave great pleasure to all who heard it, 
and without reporting that the ancient ceremony of passing the Loving Cup was 
observed at the end of the dinner and before the toasts were drunk. 
The ceremony of the Loving Cup is said to date back before the Norman 
conquest of Britain in 1066, and to derive from the assassination, by command of 
Elfreda, of King Edward while drinking. It was customary with Anglo-Saxons in those 
far off days, when at drinking parties, to pass round a large cup from which each 
drank in turn to the remainder of the company present. He who thus drank stood up 
and, as he lifted the cup with both hands, his body was exposed without any defence 
to a blow, and the occasion was often seized by an enemy to murder him. To prevent 
this, the following plan was adopted. When one of the company stood up to drink, he 
required the companion who sat next to him to be his pledge. His companion, if he 
consented, stood up also and raised his drawn sword in his hand to defend him while 
drinking. Nowadays the cup is passed round the table, each guest drinking to his 
neighbour, with the guest on his exposed flank standing as if to protect him from 
assault. 
A feature of the evening was the intermingling of the representatives of upwards 
of 50 nations represented at the banquet, so that they were seated between persons of