Bullingdon Club

The Bullingdon Club is a socially exclusive student dining club at Oxford University, without any permanent rooms, infamous for its members' wealth and destructive binges.cite web |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article721259.ece |title=How young Cameron wined and dined with the right sort |accessdate=2007-12-04 |author=Patrick Foster |year=2006 |quote= [Cameron] has previously admitted to being a member of the Bullingdon Club, notorious for the drunken vandalism of its predominantly aristocratic members.] Membership is by invitation only, and prohibitively expensive for most, given the need to pay for the uniform, dinners and damages.cite web |url=http://www.oxfordstudent.com/ht2006wk0/Features/smashing_job_chaps:_exclusive_inside_look_at_bullingdon_club |title=Smashing job chaps: Exclusive inside look at Bullingdon club |author=The Oxford Student |date=12 January 2005]

The Club's history

The Bullingdon Club was founded over 200 years ago. S. P. B. Mais claims it was founded in 1780 and was limited to 30 men, [Stuart Petre Brodie Mais, The Story of Oxford, 1951; p. 70] and by 1875 it was considered "an old Oxford institution, with many good traditions". Originally it was a hunting and cricket club, and Thomas Assheton Smith II is recorded as having batted for the Bullingdon against the Marylebone Cricket Club in 1796. [Aubery Noakes, Sportsmen in a Landscape, 1971; p.61] In 1805 cricket at Oxford University "was confined to the old Bullingdon Club, which was expensive and exclusive". [cite web |url=http://www.archive.org/details/recollectionsofo00coxguoft |title=Recollections of Oxford |accessdate=2008-05-13 |author=G.V. Cox |year=1870] This foundational sporting purpose is attested to in the Club's crest. [http://homepage.eircom.net/~lawe/IMAGES/CRICKET13.jpg]

By the late 19th century we can see the beginnings of the present emphasis placed on dining within the Club. Walter Long attests that in 1875 "Bullingdon Club [cricket] matches were also of frequent occurrence, and many a good game was played there with visiting clubs. The Bullingdon Club dinners were the occasion of a great display of exuberant spirits, accompanied by a considerable consumption of the good things of life, which often made the drive back to Oxford an experience of exceptional nature". A report of 1876 relates that "cricket there was secondary to the dinners, and the men were chiefly of an expensive class". [James Hogg, Florence Marrayat ed., London Society, v.30, 1876; p. 197] The New York Times told its readers in 1913 that "The Bullingdon represents the acme of exclusiveness at Oxford; it is the club of the sons of nobility, the sons of great wealth; its membership represents the 'young bloods' of the university".cite web |url=http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A03E5D9143FE633A25752C0A9609C946296D6CF |title=Bullingdon Club Too Lively For Prince of Wales |author=New York Times |date=1 June 1913]

The Club today

Today, the Bullingdon is primarily a dining club, though a vestige of the Club's sporting links exists in the support of an annual point to point race. The Club President presents the winner's cup and the Club members meet there for a champagne breakfast. The Club also meets for an annual Club dinner. Guests may be invited to either of these events. There may also be smaller dinners during the year to mark the initiation of new members. Membership elections are held twice a year, when successful new members are visited in their rooms, which are then 'trashed' as a symbol of their election; the damage on these occasions is often more than tokenistic.

The Club's "modus operandi" has often been to book a private dining room under an assumed name, as most restaurateurs are wary of the Club's reputation for causing considerable drunken damage during the course of the dinners. However, it depends on the character of the membership at the time — which necessarily varies from year to year — whether the famous 'destruction' is an intentional act of wanton vandalism or a side-effect of drinking prodigious quantities over a lengthy period of time.

The Club's reputation

A number of episodes over many decades have become anecdotal evidence of the Club's behaviour. Famously, on 12 May 1894 [cite web |url=http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9B02E0DB1630E033A25750C1A9639C94659ED7CF |title=Condensed Cablegrams |author=New York Times |date=13 May 1894] cite web |url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=OfjghCa3CnMC&pg=RA3-PA227&lpg=RA3-PA227&dq=bullingdon+peckwater&source=web&ots=EEg5FQLRbf&sig=eWSJrze7A7Yp_YSWTN37yVq8mnI&hl=en |title=The History of the University of Oxford |author=Trevor Henry Aston |year=1984] and again on 20th February 1927,cite web |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=kxwXUk-JNAAC&pg=PA111&dq=%22bullingdon+club%22&lr=&sig=9Enl2ju8BpZuY9Upk8yznjHuIPM |title=Portrait of Oxford |author=J. G. Sinclair |year=2007] after dinner, Bullingdon members smashed almost all the glass of the lights and 468 windows in Peckwater Quad of Christ Church, along with the blinds and doors of the building. As a result, the Club was banned from meeting within 15 miles of Oxford.

Whilst still Prince of Wales, Edward VIII had a certain amount of difficulty in getting his parents' permission to join the Bullingdon on account of the Club's reputation. He eventually obtained it only on the understanding that he never join in what was then known as a "Bullingdon blind", a euphemistic phrase for an evening of drink and song. On hearing of his eventual attendance at one such evening, Queen Mary sent him a telegram requesting that he remove his name from the Club.cite web |url=http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E0DE5D6103BE633A2575BC2A9639C946296D6CF |title=Wales in Trouble Over Club Supper |author=New York Times |date=28 May 1913]

In recent years dinners have often been low-key, though in 2005, following damage to a 15th century pub in Oxfordshire during a dinner, four members of the party were arrested; the incident was widely reported. [cite web |url=http://www.oxfordstudent.com/ht2005wk0/News/bullingdon_brawl_ringleader_is_princess_diana's_nephew |title=Bullingdon brawl ringleader is Princess Diana's nephew |author=The Oxford Student |date=13 January 2005] When the Club causes damage in restaurants or elsewhere the proprietor is invariably reimbursed.

In the last few years the Bullingdon has been mentioned in the debates of the House of Commons in order to draw attention to excessive behaviour across the British class spectrum, [cite web |url=http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmhansrd/vo011015/debtext/11015-31.htm |title=Football (Disorder) (Amendment) Bill |author=House of Commons Hansard Debates for 15 Oct 2001, (pt 31)] and to embarrass those increasingly prominent MPs who are former members of the Bullingdon. [cite web |url=http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm080218/debtext/80218-0001.htm |title=Pensions |author=House of Commons Hansard Debates for 18 Feb 2008 (pt 1)] [cite web |url=http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm080225/debtext/80225-0003.htm |title=Topical Questions |author=House of Commons Hansard Debates for 25 Feb 2008 (pt 3)] Hansard records eight references to the Bullingdon since 2001. [cite web |url=http://www.publications.parliament.uk/cgi-bin/semaphoreserver?DB=semukparl&FILE=search |title=Advanced Search |author=Houses of Paliament |accessdate=2008-05-09 |]

Club dress

Members dress for their annual Club dinner in specially made traditional tailcoats in Oxford blue offset with ivory silk lapel revers, brass monogrammed buttons, a mustard waistcoat, and a sky blue bow tie. There is also a Club tie, which is sky blue striped with ivory. These are all provided by the Oxford branch of court tailors Ede and Ravenscroft. In 2007 the full uniform cost around £3,000. [cite web |url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUMmGmrEag0 |title=David Cameron: Toff at the Top| accessdate=2008-05-01 |author=Peter Hitchens |year=2007 |]

The Club and Oxford University

The Bullingdon has been an official Club of the University of Oxford and members are drawn from amongst the students of the University. On account of the rowdiness of members' activities however, the University proctors have in the past suspended the Club on several occasions, including in 1927 and 1956. John Betjeman wrote in 1938 that "quite often the Club is suspended for some years after each meeting". [John Betjeman, An Oxford University Chest, 1938; p.30] Whilst under suspension the Club has been known to meet in relative secrecy. The club is active in Oxford today.

The Club in fiction

The Bullingdon is satirised as the Bollinger Club (Bollinger being a notable brand of champagne) in Evelyn Waugh's novel "Decline and Fall" (1928), where it has a pivotal role in the plot: The mild-mannered hero gets the blame for the Bollinger Club's destructive rampage through his college and is sent down. Tom Driberg claimed that the description of the Bollinger Club was a "mild account of the night of any Bullingdon Club dinner in Christ Church. Such a profusion of glass I never saw until the height of the Blitz. On such nights, any undergraduate who was believed to have 'artistic' talents was an automatic target." [Carpenter, Humphrey. "The Brideshead Generation: Evelyn Waugh and his Friends", London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1989.]

Waugh mentions the Bullingdon by name [Evelyn Waugh. "Brideshead Revisited", "Et in Arcadia ego": Chapter Two; Chapman and Hall, 1945.] in "Brideshead Revisited". In talking to Charles Ryder, Anthony Blanche relates that the Bullingdon attempted to "put him in [the fountain] Mercury" in Tom Quad one evening. Blanche describes the members in their tails as looking "like a lot of most disorderly footmen". Blanche then goes on to say: "Do you know, I went round to call on Sebastian next day? I thought the tale of my evening's adventures might amuse him." This indicates that Sebastian was not a member of the Bullingdon, though in the 1981 TV adaptation, Lord Sebastian Flyte vomits through the window of Charles Ryder's college room whilst wearing the famous Bullingdon tails. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX9lAtt3lws YouTube - Brideshead Revisited - Lord Sebastian is sick ] ]

Notable members

Members of the Club have included:

*Edward VII
*Edward VIII
*Frederick IX of Denmark
*Timothy Beaumont, Baron Beaumont of Whitley
*Gottfried von Bismarck
*The Hon. Sir David Bowes-Lyon
*David Cameron, MP
*Sir Raymond Carr
*Henry Chaplin, 1st Viscount Chaplin
*Alan Clark, MPcite web |url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=435875&in_page_id=1766&ito=1490 |title=Cameron's cronies in the Bullingdon class of '87 |accessdate=2007-12-04 |author=Associated Newspapers Limited |year=2007 ]
*George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston
*David Dimbleby
*David Faber, MP [ [http://dafjones.thirdlight.com/viewpicture.tlx?pubgsearchid=1210900997&pictureid=1129578 Dafydd Jones ] ]
*George Gibbs, 1st Baron Wraxall
*Jason Gissing
*William Grenfell, 1st Baron Desborough
*Darius Guppy
*Peter Holmes à Court
*Nick Hurd, MP [ [http://dafjones.thirdlight.com/viewpicture.tlx?advpubsearchid=1210890999&pictureid=1143554 Dafydd Jones ] ]
*Boris Johnson, Mayor of London
*Sir Frederick Johnstone, 8th Baronetcite web |url=http://www.archive.org/stream/gaymonarchthelif000289mbp/gaymonarchthelif000289mbp_djvu.txt Gay Monarch: The Life and Pleasures of Edward VII |title=Gay Monarch: The Life and Pleasures of Edward VII |year=1956 |author=Virginia Cowles ]
*Walter Long, 1st Viscount Longcite web |url=http://www.archive.org/details/memories00longuoft |title=Memories |accessdate=2008-05-08 |author=Walter Long |year=1923 ]
*Harry Mount
*George Osborne, MP
*Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford [The Independent. " [http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article35480.ece "The Earl of Longford"] ", 6 August 2001.]
*John Profumo
*Cecil Rhodes
*John Scott, 9th Duke of Buccleuch
*Radosław Sikorski, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland
*Thomas Assheton Smith II
*Charles Spencer (journalist)
*Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bathcite web |url=http://www.lordbath.co.uk/42_1.htm |title=Career and activities: settling into my undergraduate identity |accessdate=2007-12-04 |author=7th Marquess of Bath |year=1999 |quote=…at the start of the Trinity term I was elected into the Bullingdon… ]
*Prince Felix Yussupov [cite web |url=http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9400E4D6163AE433A25757C1A9679C946696D6CF |author=New York Times |date=14 January 1917 |title=Prince Yusupoff Defended in Rasputin Case]

References

External links

* " [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1478131/Oxford-hellraisers-politely-trash-a-pub.html Oxford hellraisers politely trash a pub] ", "The Daily Telegraph", Richard Alleyne, 3 December 2004
* " [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6409757.stm Cameron Student Photo is Banned] ", "BBC News", 2 March 2007. More details of David Cameron's Bullingdon Club.
* " [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=447223&in_page_id=1770. Portrait of a 'classless' Tory] ", "The Daily Mail", 17 April 2007. George Osbourne and friends' Bullingdon Club
* " [http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,2279012,00.html Young, rich and drunk] ", "The Guardian", Barney Ronay, 9 May 2008