The East India Club is a gentlemen's club founded in 1849 and situated at 16, St James's Square in London. The full title of the club is East India, Devonshire, Sports and Public Schools' Club due to mergers with other clubs. The club was originally founded for officers of the East India Company, and its first Patron was Prince Albert. On 21 June 1815, the Prince Regent (later George IV) was the principal guest at a dinner party held at 16 St James's Square, when he heard the news of the victory at Waterloo when Major Henry Percy, aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington, presented the Prince Regent with four captured French eagles and Wellington's victory despatch. History Founded in the middle of the 19th century, the club's original members, as set out in the Rule Book of 1851, were: But within the first eight years of the club's foundation, following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Government of India Act 1858 led to the British Crown assuming direct control of India in the form of the new British Raj. The company was dissolved altogether in 1874, having been rendered by then vestigial, powerless, and obsolete. As a result, the club could no longer look to the East India Company as its main source of members. Since then, the club has amalgamated with the Sports Club (1938), the Public Schools Club (1972) and the Devonshire (1976), all of which ran into the twin problems of keeping up membership numbers and making ends meet, especially with the escalating costs of maintenance for historic buildings. With the disappearance of the East India Company, the public school influence has become an important one. The club is still primarily referred to as the East India Club or EIC for convenience. The club's facilities include a dining room and a luncheon room in addition to the American Bar (named in gratitude to the American officers who stayed at the club during the Second World War and provided funds to refurbish the bar after the war), the Canadian Room (named in gratitude to the Canadian officers who stayed at the club during the Second World War and afterwards provided the timber for the room when it was still in short supply), the Drawing Room, the Smoking Room (although smoking within the club is currently not permitted as long as the legislation which prohibits it is enforced.),