Saint David's Day

• Music Programme
• The Most Honourable and Loyal Society of Ancient Britons
• 160th Anniversary Festival
• The Band of the Royal Artillery will play, during dinner, the following selection of music
• 89 x 134mm (3½ x 5¼in)
• Monday, 1st March, 1875
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Saint David's Day or the Feast of Saint David, is the feast day of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales, and falls on 1 March, the date of Saint David's death in 589 AD.

The Most Honourable and Loyal Society of Ancient Britons, founded in London in 1715, aimed to promote Welsh culture and its celebration of St David's Day in London was its annual highlight.

The term 'Ancient Britons' in this 18th century context is used to designate the Welsh as some of the earliest people who inhabited the Kingdom of Great Britain and wanted to be recognised as an important part of the recently formed United Kingdom.

These anniversary festivals were used for fund-raising charitable activity, the most notable of which was the founding of the Welsh Charity School "for the benefit of children of Welsh parentage within the City of London and the Liberties of Westminster".

The coat of arms of the society is a detail from the 139th Anniversary Festival ticket of 1854. The emblem of the Prince of Wales, represented by three white feathers encircled within a coronet and inscribed with the German words Ich Dien (‘I serve’), displayed on a shield; a bishop with mitre and crozier, symbols of episcopal authority, and an Ancient Briton resplendent in body art stand either side.

Over the course of time the important work originated by the Most Honourable and Loyal Society of Ancient Britons has been continued and extended to embrace promoting and preserving the Welsh language and culture by The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion which is still in existence today.