the library (which includes antiquarian and contemporary books), the Clive Room (named in honour of famed East India Company General Robert Clive), the Card Room, the Rugby Room (where the International Rugby Board met until its move to Dublin), the New York Room, and a gymnasium, a billiard room and 67 bedrooms (including the St James's Suite). The East India Club is a popular venue for private events and offers conference facilities. The club has reciprocal arrangements with more than 100 clubs throughout the world. Members can use the facilities of overseas reciprocal clubs with a card or letter of introduction issued by the East India Club. In 2014, the club made headlines after one of its staff successfully stole over £500,000 during a five-year period before the loss was noticed, later pleading guilty to the fraud. Having failed to recover the money, which was spent on a gambling habit, the Club later threatened to sue its own bank for not adequately warning them of the fraud that took place over five years. In 2017, Conservative MP Anne Marie Morris (not a member of the Club) had the whip suspended after being recorded speaking to a meeting of Tory MPs at the East India Club using the idiom "nigger in the woodpile", without any response from the other MPs present. Despite the number of members involved in Politics, the club holds no political affiliations Club house The club premises are situated at 16 St James's Square, London SW1, on the west side of the square. The first occupant of the original house to stand on the site was Thomas Jermyn, 2nd Baron Jermyn (?1670-1676). He passed the house on to Robert Villiers, 3rd Viscount Purbeck, who occupied the house for two years (1676–78). After Viscount Purbeck, a Swedish Ambassador occupied the house, followed by two successive Earls of Suffolk and the Earl of Romney. The house was then taken over by Sir John Germain, 1st Baronet, the lover and, later, husband of Mary Howard, Duchess of Norfolk. When Sir John died in 1719, he left the house to his second wife, Lady Elizabeth Berkeley, second daughter of the 2nd Earl of Berkeley. She was to occupy the house for 50 years. When Lady Elizabeth died, the house went to George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville. It then became the home of Admiral Vere Beauclerk, 1st Baron Vere and then of his