Water Rats and Magpies....

L2 Day 19 - when I went to Sunbury today I stopped at this riverside pub, the Magpie, which I have passed many times. This links to my blip of Brinsworth House on 6 November.
The Grand Order of Water Rats is a charitable organisation for the entertainment industry. It was founded by two music hall performers, Joe Elvin and Jack Lotto, who owned a trotting pony called “Magpie”. The story is.....As the pony was a regular race winner the owners decided they could use the profits to help performers less fortunate than themselves. One day as Elvin was driving his pony back to its stables in pouring rain someone called out “ trotting pony? looks more like a bleedin’ water rat. “ As Rats spelled backwards is Star, and vole, another name for a water rat, is an anagram of Love, the name Water Rats was deemed appropriate for the Orders agenda of brotherly love. This is the pub where the Water Rats originally held meetings but now their headquarters is at the Water Rats pub in Grays Inn Road in Kings Cross. Membership is limited to 180 male members of the entertainment industry plus 20 Companion Rats. Many Rats are household names. Some past King Rats...Tommy Trinder, Frankie Vaughan, Henry Cooper, Les Dawson, Alan Freeman, Danny Kaye Rue, Roy Hudd, Bert Weedon, John Inman, Joe Pasquale, Rick Wakeman, Nicholas Parsons.

Not sure who Fred Russell on the plaque is? See my blip of May 9th!