Inn People: Philip Craig, Hall Butler

Master Gwynfor Evans

If you have ever dined at Gray’s then you will recognise the warm and welcoming face of Philip Craig, Hall Butler. We caught up in the Bridge Bar on a warm morning in mid-July 2025.

Philip told me he has been working at Gray’s Inn for 13 years. He began as a Junior Butler, his formal job title for four years, although in fact in the fourth year he covered the role of his boss, the Hall Butler, who had been unwell. For that period, Philip did not have the benefit of any assistance from a junior, but he rose to the challenge and was then himself promoted to the role of Hall Butler in 2016.

Philip was born and raised in Ramsgate where he has long been involved in the work of the Salvation Army. That work involved helping to run summer camps for the children and young people from the church and the children and young people for whom the Salvation Army provided activities and care, whilst assisting the local authority. Philip trained in catering and hospitality at what is now East Kent College, specialising in front-of-house in his final year. The college also provided Philip with the opportunity to gain useful and interesting work experience within the royal households and at the British Embassy in Paris. His first job was working for a season at a shooting lodge a long way away from home near Tiverton in Devon.

The children at the summer camps were a similar age to the City of London School Junior children for whose lunches Philip is now responsible. Philip’s previous experience of ensuring that the Summer Camp children were properly fed has equipped him well to run the lunches for the school.

A typical day starts around 9am in the office he shares with the other event managers (underneath Hall), with Philip checking what’s happening with emails and then, if there are no events, focusing on the school and members’ lunches. Anyone who dines in hall will know that that runs like clockwork: c. 300 children and over 50 school staff are fed in two shifts at 11:40 and 12:15 before Hall opens at 1pm for the members. Philio makes sure that the staff are in by 10 and that everything is being set up correctly in the morning. After the children’s and members’ lunches it is 2:30 to 3pm before he is able to pop out for his own lunch. If there are no events the day might end at around 4pm.

However, although the ending of the dining terms has enabled a more even spread of the events workload, on event days, the working day is much longer and more intense. Philip will likely start at 8 and finish very late in the evening. The job additionally involves ensuring that the removal team (who re-organise the tables and chairs in Hall for events) are supervised in the afternoon and then looking after the staff from the inn’s catering company, Searcys, who in turn supervise the agency workers (the young adults who serve on event nights). Philip makes sure that the agency workers are fed before they go on shift, thus enhancing their energy levels and focus, and Searcy’s liaise with the agency so as to recruit and retain the best agency workers.

The busiest weeks are the last week in July, starting with Call Day on the Monday and culminating in the Treasurer’s Reception and the Summer Extravaganza at the weekend. The other busy periods are November (Grand Day, Guest Nights and so on) and June. However, despite the unstoppable pace of the Inn’s calendar and the needs of the Junior School, Philip told me, when I asked what the best part of the job was, that it was talking to the members, together with the Gray’s Inn community atmosphere.

How difficult is it to reset the Hall in the 15 minutes after the school lunch, I ask? It varies, Philip tells me, but usually there is not too much mess. I didn’t ask how long it took to clean up after the members at event nights …

Although Philip is T-total he is about to start the Level 3 Award in Wines at the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (“WSET’). There is a lot of pre-reading, involving geographical knowledge of wine regions, grapes and so on. The Inn’s wines are chosen by Philip in conjunction with the Master of the Cellar, Christopher Russell, and so the learning from this course will directly benefit the Inn, whose members certainly ensure that there is a constant demand for replenishment of the cellars.

Philip loves music and has played the cornet since the age of 6, a skill he was taught by his late grandfather. He is a baritone, and on the leadership team at church, where he both leads the band and conducts the choir. Although he has always been a part of the Salvation Army, it was when he moved to Tiverton that his Christian faith and spiritual side began to develop more fully, and he transitioned from being taken by family to taking himself to church.

In September 2018 Philip married Claire, and they had a wedding blessing in Gray’s inn before a reception in Hall. Both Philip and his wife work, and Philip knows that their daughter is being well-looked after whilst at nursery because she attends the nursery where her mother works! With some help with childcare from both sets of grandparents and from his sister-in-law, Philip is able to continue to devote time to the community at Gray’s Inn where his thoughtful, loyal and dedicated service is hugely appreciated by us all.

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