YACHT CLUBS ROYAL

Through the Victorian era a large number of yacht clubs were granted the prefix 'Royal'. The best known and most prestigious of these was the Royal Yacht Squadron, the crests of which are dealt with elsewhere. Crests of some of the other, less well known, 'royal' yacht clubs from the collection are shown on this page, together with the location of the club and the date of foundation.

Yacht club crests are relatively scarce, with a few exceptions: some of those illustrated are far from pristine but represent the best or only example in the collection.

	Royal Albert, Southsea. founded 1864 and granted the prefix Royal the following year.	Royal Albert, attractive crest printed with blind stamped vignette of head of the late prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria.
Royal Cinque Ports, Dover, founded 1872			Royal Mersey, had bases in both Birkenhead and Liverpool, founded 1844.
	Royal Cornwall, Falmouth, founded 1871.	Royal London, Cowes, Isle of Wight, founded 1838.
Royal Northern, Rothesay, Scotland, founded 1824.			Royal Portsmouth Corinthian, Portsmouth, founded 1880. Merged with the Royal Albert 1946.
	Royal Barrow, Barrow-in-Furness, founded 1871, prefix Royal in 1878.	Royal Thames, Ryde, Isle of Wight, founded 1775.
Royal Southern, Southampton, founded 1837.			Royal Southampton, Southampton, founded 1875.
	Royal Torbay, Torquay, founded 1863.	Royal Torquay, Torquay, founded 1875 and changed name to Royal Torbay in 1885.
Royal Eastern, Edinburgh, Scotland, founded 1836.			Royal Western, Plymouth, founded 1827.

If the Royal Yacht Squadron is foremost among the English yacht clubs, it is not the first in antiquity. That position goes to the Royal Thames Yacht Club which is a direct descendant of the Cumberland Society which was formed in 1775 by men whose boats had that year sailed for a silver cup given by the Duke of Cumberland.


Royal Corinthian, founded 1872, based at Burnham-on-Crouch.	Royal Engineers, founded 1846, based at Rochester.	Royal Victoria, founded 1844, based at Ryde	Royal Dorset, founded 1875, based at Weymouth.	Royal Norfolk and Suffolk, founded 1859, based at Lowestoft.

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Founded 1802.	Bangor, founded 1866.