Joe Gilmore

Gilmore's most famous creations include Moonwalk, Link-Up, The Corpse Reviver, Lorraine, and Missouri Mule.

[2] He began working as a wallpaper packer at the Arthur Sanderson & Son's factory in Perivale, London, later moving to a Lyons Corner House as a kitchen hand.

[3] Gilmore began his early bartender training at La Coquille, a French restaurant on St Martin's Lane, Covent Garden and The Olde Bell at Hurley.

[3] While working at The Olde Bell he met and served Welsh millionaire steel-baron Kenneth Davies and the aviator Amy Johnston.

Despite his attempt being enjoyed by the couple, Davies and Johnston politely demonstrated the correct way to make a dry martini.

Over the following two decades Gilmore created new cocktails, especially to honour special occasions and important guests, including Princess Diana, Prince William, Anne, The Princess Royal, The Queen Mother, Sir Winston Churchill, and American Presidents Harry S. Truman and Richard Nixon.

For much of the 20th century, The Savoy's American Bar was an exclusive meeting place for the rich and powerful of Britain and the world.

In addition to serving five generations of royals at private receptions and parties, Gilmore frequently served Winston Churchill, Errol Flynn, Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Grace Kelly, George Bernard Shaw, Ernest Hemingway, Noël Coward, Agatha Christie, Alice Faye, Ingrid Bergman, Julie Andrews, Laurence Olivier, Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.

[7] Gilmore was a goodwill ambassador for The Savoy at the time, which lead him on numerous trips throughout Europe, the United States and Canada, and regularly appeared on radio and TV chat shows.

[9] In 1975 he created the "Link-Up" to celebrate the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, the first crewed international space mission carried out jointly by the United States and the Soviet Union.

Frank Sinatra was a frequent guest to the American Bar whenever he was in London and insisted only Gilmore was to serve him.

Created to mark President Charles de Gaulle’s State visit to Britain after the Second World War.

Gilmore never returned to Ireland, but "... never forgot his Irish roots or family background and never lost his soft Belfast accent.