Древний Орден Взбивателей Пены: От благотворительности к современности

The Ancient Order of Froth Blowers was a humorous British charitable organisation "to foster the noble Art and gentle and healthy Pastime of froth blowing amongst Gentlemen of leisure and ex Soldiers". Running from 1924 to 1931, it was founded by Herbert Longdale Temple, an ex soldier and curtain merchant, initially to raise £100 (equal to £ today) for the children's charities of the surgeon Sir Alfred Fripp. One of the Order's first meeting places was the Swan, Fittleworth, W. Sussex – the 'No. 0 Vat'.

"A sociable and law abiding fraternity of absorptive Britons who sedately consume and quietly enjoy with commendable regularity and frequention the truly British malted beverage as did their forbears and as Britons ever will, and be damned to all pussyfoot hornswogglers from overseas and including low brows, teetotalers and MPs and not excluding nosey parkers, mock religious busy bodies and suburban fool hens all of which are structurally solid bone from the chin up".

John Betjeman's poem The Varsity Students' Rag contains the line "I started a rag in Putney at our Froth Blowers' branch down there". In Dorothy Sayers's story The Adventurous Exploit of the Cave of Ali Baba, Lord Peter Wimsey describes his safe as "the ordinary strong room, where I keep my cash and Froth Blower's cuff links and all that." In her novel Unnatural Death, Lord Peter assures a nurse that "I haven't come to sell you soap or gramophones, or to borrow money or enrol you in the Ancient Froth blowers or anything charitable". In her novel The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Lord Peter makes a facetious reference to “the Froth Blowers’ Anthem.”

The mercenary group led by Mike Hoare in an attempted 1981 coup of the Seychelles disguised itself as a drinking party calling itself The Ancient Order of Froth Blowers. In The Female of the Species by Sapper, the anthem is used as a means of identification by Bulldog Drummond and his chums.

In mid 2018, a reformation group began to put in place a modernised version of the AOFB. The group with foundation member groups in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and the United States have begun building the structure for the organisation based on its original charter with provisions for a more inclusive membership. Not wanting to take anything away from the original organisation, the new group has gone under the name of the Grand Ancient Order of Froth Blowers. The group maintain that its primary aim is "to raise money for charity and have fun doing so whilst blowing the head off one or five". The organisation is now registered as a Charity Service in regard to its membership in Australia and is in process of completing registration as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) in the United Kingdom and 501(c)(3) Organisation in the United States of America. It currently has over 100 Vats (members groups) in the UK, Europe, Sweden, USA, Philippines, Australia, Uruguay, Brazil, Canada and Mexico. As of January 2022, the AOFB as a restored entity has been sold as a business, membership having received nothing for paid dues. Several cyber fraud actions are proposed.

A documentary feature is in production charting the history and re emergence of the Froth Blowers. The feature is to be made and released in mid 2022 by Dark Corporation and the Masonic historian archaeologist Dr. David Harrison. The documentary also includes conversations with long time supporters of West Ham United, an English Premier League team who have deep links with the former society.