Item 1910 - Photograph of Spider Club, 1910

1 item, photographic print

Black and white photograph of members of Spider Club having dinner.

The men in the photograph are [from left to right]:
Arthur Kingsland, Colin Methven, Prince Mario Colonna [standing], John 'Jackie' Davis, Alfred Fabian de Ledesma, George Walker.

Ledesma is the only one not in a dinner jacket but is instead dressed ready to take his horse box containing his mare 'Chiquita' on the night train to London Kings Cross. He then went across London to the Great West Road and rode mostly cross country to Poyntington, Sherbourne, Dorset, a distance of 150 miles which took him one week [this is according to notes made by Ledesma]

This photograph belonged to Alfred Fabian de Ledesma and he has supplied the names of the guests.

Arthur Kingsland
Not admitted to Magdalene

Colin Methven (1890 - unknown)
Admitted to Magdalene on 14 April 1907. Born on 13 December 1890 in Dundee. Educated at Wellington College. Wounded in Ypres Salient in 1917 at the same time as Ledesma and he "saved me from trouble by having me seconded to the Black Watch as a sharp shooter" [Ledesma]

Filippo Andrea Doria Pamphili (1886-1958)
Admitted to Magdalene on 29 September 1909. Born on 1 March 1886 in Rome. Only surviving son of Prince Alfonso Doria Pamphili and Lady Emily Pelham-Clinton. In 1921 he married Gesine Mary Dykes, a Scottish nurse who had brought him back to health after he had been injured in a sculling accident while at Cambridge. An alternative account says that he had tuberculosis of the spine just before rowing in the Diamond Sculls at Henley an he married his nurse. He was an opponent of the Fascist regime. He became Mayor of Rome in June 1944

John Davis (1891 - unknown)
Admitted to Magdalene on 6 August 1908. Born on 24 June 1891 in Clevedon. Educated at Wellington College.

Alfred Fabian de Ledesma (1892-1979)
Admitted to Magdalene on 10 August 1910. Born on 25 June 1892 in France. Son of Jose Antonio de Ledesma and Amy Coppin. Educated at Sherbourne School

George Walker (1892 - unknown)
Admitted to Magdalene on 15 June 1910. Born 1 November 1892 in Watford. Educated at Wellington College. Parents both deceased.

According to his grand daughter Alfred de Ledesma wanted to take his horse to France when WWI broke out.

"He landed in France all set for his ride when he was arrested by the police. Having been born in Paris he was a French citizen and he had not done his military service! But my father’s mother had naturalized herself and children many years ago! It took a while and help from a friend in the Foreign Office to sort that out and he was able to ride on, join his regiment and pull the canon through the muddy battle fields".