It all began with a group of music hall stars in 1889. They owned a trotting pony called 'Magpie' which was winning many races around London. The winnings were used to help other performers who were in trouble or distressed. They were also among the first to instigate soup kitchens in the East End of London for the poor and for refugees then arriving from Eastern Europe.
  .

One day, in a torrential downpour of rain, while taking Magpie back to it's stabling, the driver of a horse-drawn London bus spotted the two well known music hall stars with their sodden pony and yelled, "Blimey, wot yer got there?" "It's our trotting pony" they replied. "Trotting pony?"
laughed the driver, "looks more like a bloomin' water rat!"
            So The Water Rats were born.

"Magpie"

The Original Water Rat
Founded 1889

The ultimate accolade for a member is to be voted King Rat
who presides for one year over the Lodges as
well as the charitable work of the Order.

From Baby Rat to King each wears his little gold Water Rat
emblem with pride, being one of a special brotherhood,
in which race, colour or creed have no relevance.

                     PKR Wyn Calvin. MBE

We want you to be our friend
For over one hundred and fourteen years the name Water Rats has been associated with fun and charity.The fun is generated by its membership, men from showbusiness, big names and small who give their talents to raise money for The Grand Order of Water Rats Charities Fund.

This fund was formed to help mainly Cinderella charities, causes where hundreds of pounds rather than millions can make all the difference. The Rats track record in this field is second
to none, literally thousands of small organisations have been helped.

Now we need help too, with our headquarters in the Gray's Inn Road London.
We are building on creating two new rooms that will eventually enable us to raise even more charitable funds. One will be a museum to show much of our fantastic memorabilia
and the second a function room to hire out to other organisations.
All this is going to cost a great deal of money.
We must, of course, continue our charity fund raising through our Annual Ball and the many shows and functions organised throughout the year, which enable us to do so much good work.
We intend to raise money for our Building Fund in several different ways.

We have already received some generous donations but more is needed, hence the launch of

The Friends of The Water Rats
For just £30 per annum (£50 per couple - if at the same address!)
you can become "Our Friend" and receive a membership card, regular newsletter,
special offers and discounted ticket prices for some of our functions.

Please allow 14 days delivery to receive your Friends of the Water Rats starter pack.

Grand Order Of Water Rats
OFFICERS FOR 2008

Official GOWR Website:  www.gowr.net