Tarling, William James “Billy” (1904–1998), is one of the lesser-documented legends of British bartending. In 1930, after working at the Leicester cocktail bar Glasshouse St. (near Leicester Square), he joined London’s Café Royal as head barman. It was a pivotal point in London bartending: Harry Craddock had just published The Savoy Cocktail Book, his compilation of the drinks served at the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel. Three years later, the pair joined to establish the United Kingdom Bartenders Guild. Craddock was elected the guild’s first president, but Tarling was concerned that Craddock, rather than the talents of the growing brotherhood of London bartenders, garnered too much personal attention. That year, Tarling instigated the compilation of the UKBG’s first drinks book, published as Approved Drinks. While employed by the Café Royal Tarling compiled an additional book of mixed drinks, of which one thousand copies were printed in 1937. It has become one of the world’s rarer drinks volumes. In 1951, Tarling and his family moved to Harrogate, where he presided over the Prince of Wales Hotel bar until his retirement. That same year, he represented the UKBG at the foundational meeting for the International Bartenders Association and was elected its first president.
See also Craddock, Harry Lawson; Savoy Hotel’s American Bar; and see IBA and United Kingdom Bartenders Guild (UKBG).
“Happy Evenings Ahead.” Yorkshire Evening Post, October 12, 1951, 11.
West Yorkshire Electoral Records, 1952.
By: Anistatia R. Miller and Jared M. Brown