The Beaux of London City Morris had its beginning in a mixed club of young dancers living in and around London, and most of the members at some time or other took advantage of the instruction classes given at Cecil Sharp House. In time the feeling grew that it is only in a Club that the full meaning of the Morris can be understood, and in July 1947 the Beaux of London City Morris was founded. The Club made its first appearance at the autumn meeting of the Ring at Stratford-on-Avon the following month. The Club meets twice a month in St Pancras between October and May and concentrates on a few dances each year. The number of members is now sixteen. It has attended all Ring meetings since 1947, and has specially enjoyed the Thaxted gatherings. Displays of Morris dancing have been given at youth clubs, factory socials, and dances at the University of London, and have aroused much interest in the Morris. One Christmas, when the Club gave a show before some hospital patients, the nurses asked the Men to come and dance at their own party, which was to be held in the operating theatre, and thus it came about that Laudnum Bunches was performed in an operating theatre for the first time in history.(P.Swann)
The Club dates from February 1932, when some old boys of Clapham Road School, Bedford, who had danced for several years at school under Thomas Northern, the present headmaster, began to meet there weekly under the instruction of A. W. Guppy, the son of a former headmaster. Among them was the present Squire, L. Arnold, who was soon followed by another present member, J. Housden, and by F. B. Hamer, then recently appointed to the staff of the school. By 1934 a side had been established, which under the name of `The Old Moles' began to give displays at local functions and appeared annually in the Morris and Sword competitions at the Bedford Musical Festival. In February 1936 the Club was reconstituted as the Bedford Morris Men, F. B. Hamer being elected the Club's first Squire, and was admitted the same month to association in the Ring. From then until 1939 it steadily increased its activities, attending as a complete side at all Ring meetings in London and at Thaxted, entering annually in the Bedford Musical Festival and appearing more often in public. The Morris Tour in the Trough of Bowland in 1939 was organized by F. B. Hamer and the Bedford Club. From 1940 to 1946 the Club's activities ceased completely, as most of the members were in the Forces, but it is noteworthy that all of them (with the exception of one of the musicians, H. Dixey, who was killed in Libya) rejoined the Club at its reconstitution in 1947, and the 1939 side appeared eight years later unchanged: a remarkable record, which is striking evidence of the loyalty of the members. In 1947 the Bedford Corporation granted the Club the right to wear the ancient arms of the Borough on its baldricks. The same year the Club undertook its first Morris tour in the villages of east Bedfordshire, and was invited to take part in the Albert Hall Festival of the E.F.D. & S. Society in January 1948. The Club has continued its early connexion with Clapham Road School by meeting there, and by its recent election of the headmaster as its first honorary member. The Club has never been large, and has had its difficulties in the years after the war owing to prolonged absence from Bedford of some of the members, but these difficulties are being surmounted, and the Club looks forward to increased activity in the future.(A.W.Guppy)