the well known scoundrel horatio bottomley,
held a rally and called it
On 14 January 1915, 6 months into World War I, the Royal Albert Hall played host to the ‘Great Patriotic Rally’ – one of the most memorable public meetings in the venue’s history.

The rally was not only notable due to the huge number of people who attended, but in the way that it captured the feelings and passions of the British public at this particular time in history.

The Great Patriotic Rally was organised by the proprietor of the hugely popular John Bull magazine, Mr Horatio Bottomley: a convicted swindler and disgraced ex-Liberal MP who was forced to resign from his seat after filing for bankruptcy in 1912.