Funeral of Sir Thomas Jones

Members of the British Thong Society gathered in London, today, to mark the funeral of long standing Society Chairman, Sir Thomas Jones. In a moving tribute, members threw thongs on the hearse as it passed slowly into the church yard. In the service, earlier, a choir sang Sir Thomas' favourite hymns and current and past members of the BTS executive gave moving tributes to the man who served the cause of thongs for over half a century.

The executive committee will meet next week to discuss Sir Thomas's successor, but today wasn't a time for thinking about the future. It was about the past and all that Sir Thomas had done to take thongs from a minor form of underwear, to a position where it is now worn by kings, queens, and stars of the stage and screen.

Sir Thomas was 98 years old when he died, last week, after a long illness.

Obituary: Sir Thomas Jones

It’s with very great sadness that we announce the death of Sir Thomas Jones, the Thong Society’s honorary president. Sir Thomas died at his home in Kent after a long illness. I am sure we speak for all society members when we say that Sir Thomas will be greatly missed. He provided us with many years of loyal service.

May his buttocks be forever clenched.

The Annual Thong Dinner

The BTS will be opening its doors tonight to welcome guests to our annual dinner. This year, the meal will be followed by a speech by Dr. Hewson Clark, expert in underwear from the University of Dallas. We're honoured that Dr. Clark could spare time during his visit to the UK, and his paper 'The Strapless Thong: Myth or Manufacture' should be of interest to all who care about the thong.

There are still tickets available to members, who should email us their details, including membership number, to be sure of a reservation. Tickets are priced £24.50.

The BTS on Radio 4

Listeners to Radio 4 are in for a treat this afternoon. Our own vice chairman, Eliot Barnacle, can be heard discussing the work of the BTS on 'Down Your Way'. Mr. Barnacle, who kindly stepped in last week when Sir Jones was unable to be interviewed due to his recent poor health, talks about a wide range of subjects as the history of the BTS, the health benefits of thongs, and the work we're doing in third world countries.

The programme begins at 2.30pm.

Henrietta His Birmingham

Henrietta Tarbuck reached Birmingham today but has admitted her walk is much harder than she expected. 'The thong is holding up well,' she told us by telephone, 'but my father is already on his third pair of underpants. It really does go to show that when it comes to hard wearing underwear, you really can't go wrong with something that fits tightly between your cheeks.'

The trek began at Land's End in January and though she had been delayed, Herietta believes she will finish her walk before the end of next month.

Peel Memorial Service

Today in Knots End, Surrey, members of the British Thong Society will be laying a commemorative thong on the grave of Sir Henry Peel, founder of the BTS. This year's thong has been kindly provided by Mrs. Joan Karlin, who hand stitched Sir Henry's profile onto the silk pouch.

The service will be followed by a ball, in Sir Henry's honour, in the family home, led by a 'thong orchestra'.

Good Luck Herietta!

Henrietta Tarbuck has started her sponsored trek from Land's End, today. Herietta has taken up the challenge as part of the Society's campaign to stamp out thong ignorance in Africa. Wearing only a thong and a digital watch, Herietta hopes to complete the marathon walk in three weeks. Accompanying her on the journey is her father, Terry, who will be following every inch of the way on a bicycle. Unlike his daughter, Terry has admitted that he will be wearing a normal pair of Y fronts.

'I'd be more than happy to support the cause of the thong,' he said, ' but the doctor has warned me against chafing due to a recent operation.'

UPDATE: An Evening With English Thongs

Can we just inform members that there was a typing mistake in the last newsletter. Mrs. Rose's 'Evening with English Thongs' is not taking place on the 24th of January, but the evening of the 25th. We apologize for our mistake.

For those of you who don't get this message, Mrs. Rose has kindly agreed to be at the church hall on the 24th, with her collection of thongs.

Press Release

Recent promotion of novelty thongs in the UK has been drawn to the attention of the British Thong Society. It is clear that the display of this kind of underwear can be detrimental to the long term goals of our society. Although the Society works hard to educate the country as to the healthy benefits to be had by wearing thongs, it is clear that much work has yet to be done to bring thong wearing into the mainstream of British society.

Accordingly, the executive committee of the British Thong Society is today issuing a press release. in relation to the manufacture of comedy thongs.

It reads:

Members of the British Thong Society would like to make it clear that we condone the wearing of comedy thongs. It is the long held view of the Society that publicity relating to thongs in the shape of chickens, snakes, and hairy lemmings, does not accurately represent the views of sensible thong wears in the UK.

Furthermore. In our fight to get the thong recognised as a sensible underwear, we do not think it right to promote, sell, or manufacture items of clothing that do not further that aim. We would like out membership to boycott these novelty thongs and to encourage their friends and family to do likewise. Thongs have been long known to have many medical benefits and reducing them to the things of cheap and vulgar jokes does nothing but mock wearers everywhere.

New Year

A new year and plenty of exciting things in prospect for the BTS. We're got some excellent social events for your new BTS diaries -- they should arrive with you with in the week -- and some fascinating talks in our ongoing lecture series.

Check out the BTS newsletter and for updates here on the blog. If all goes well, we also hope to have the new British Thong Society website up and running at some point in the year.

Merry Christmas

Can I, on behalf of all the staff and executive here at the British Thong Society, wish you a very merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Exhibition Request

We've had an email from Society member Ken Moore wanting to know if we have any plans to organize another museum exhibition.

The last one, 'A Brief History of Thongs', received such glowing reviews when the V&A agreed to our using one of their annexes that we've had dozens of such requests in the last year. Unfortunately, Dr. Koike, who organized the exhibition, has now returned to the University of Tokyo after his year spent at Kings College. If we could find an equally knowledgeable academic to act as curator, a new exhibition might be possible. As it is, the amount of work we'd need to do to contact the owners of the thongs used in the show means that it's impossible for any of full time Society staff to manage it.