The Initiation of the Toff

The Bullingdon Club, Oxford is one of the most infamous university societies in the UK. You may think wearing your Crew Clothing shirt, Tweed Jacket and Hunter boots makes you […]


The Bullingdon Club, Oxford is one of the most infamous university societies in the UK. You may think wearing your Crew Clothing shirt, Tweed Jacket and Hunter boots makes you the ultimate posh boy, but these are the real deal with their custom uniforms, extortionate membership fees and rigorous membership initiations. 

It is essentially an all-male, dining and drinking club for rich guys (the uniform costs £3,500 and membership fees are said to be extortionate). Consisting only of 12 members at any one time, they pride themselves on secrecy and controversy and are notorious for dinners, which have been known to result in ‘trashing’ of restaurants, often resulting in a banning and the need to book restaurants in false names. However, members are rich enough to buy (in cash) the silence of many of the dining establishments that they destroy. Despite their wealth, in 2005, four members were arrested following the ‘trashing’ of a 15th-century pub in Oxfordshire and another was arrested in 2010 following damage to a country house. More recently, in 2013, the club was thought to be associated with the setting off of fireworks in a club in London. Former members include David Cameron, George Osbourne and Boris Johnson whom has since described the club as “a truly shameful vignette of almost superhuman undergraduate arrogance, toffishness and twittishness.”

Cameron and Johnson are shown here, not that its hard to recognise them. George Osborne is also pictured, third in from the right.

It is unknown as to when it was exactly founded, but after 200 years, the club are said to have recently changed their initiation processes, something dear to the heart of many members of the club. This issue is ever current at SUSU, whom are currently stuck between a rock and a hard place as discussions on this sensitive topic compromise both safety and fun, however as Oxford University has very little control over the ever powerful club as there is no affiliation.

When membership elections are held at small diners, afterwards, those whom are successful are visited in their rooms, where they are expected to consume the contents of an entire tin of powdered English Mustard, followed by the room and possessions being ‘trashed’ as a symbol of their election. Another initiation ceremony includes the ‘Divine Trial’ which requires the fishing a koi carp out of a pond within an hour. If unsuccessful the poor lad is ‘black balled’ and can not be elected again. Rumours have recently emerged that at the beginning of the year the initiation ritual also involved burning a fifty-pound banknote in front of a tramp. The club often books private dining rooms under an assumed name, as most restaurateurs are wary of the Club’s reputation for causing considerable drunken damage.

Oxford is not the only University having to deal with the controversies of the far fetched initiations of drinking clubs. The ever-similar Cambridge University has had its fair share of issues. The Wyverns, a men’s drinking society, renowned for its hard partying and excessive drinking antics as well as their ‘Suicide Sunday’ Garden Party, encourage potential members to eat a fifteen course meal including a pig’s snout with wasabi sauce, uncooked squid, entire chillies and a pint of water with a goldfish swimming inside. It has been said that if the fish is regurgitated still alive, it exempts the diner from two courses.

Then there’s the Beefsteak Club, perhaps a more ‘tame’ Bullingdon club as they protect the venue from their ‘messy’ antics by covering the surfaces. Potential members are treated to a lavish seven-course dinner, with a bottle of wine accompanying each dish that must be consumed. Ferretz, an inter-collegiate drinking society, have to consume 80 units beginning with a bottle of gin and finishing with a bottle of port, all consumed through a condom, as well as other traditions such as drinking Tequila from 10am and covering their ‘sensitive’ parts in a concoction of spicy sauces. The Gentleman Patricans simply love to drink, but unlike the rest, they aren’t necessarily great sportsmen. Downing pints is power with ‘any less than 11 [pints] is pretty weak.’ Unlike any other club however, one member woke to find himself in France having somehow clambered aboard the Eurostar as another tried to walk across the roof-tops from the college to the town centre.

YARH! This is Oxbridge’s idea of Jesters. I know what I’d prefer..

These every growing ‘Gentleman’s’ drinking societies in some of the most affluent and prestigious universities in the world brings the call of ‘Lad’ and ‘drinking’ culture. But, Feminsts don’t worry start protesting just yet, it’s not just though pesky men. The ‘ladies’ of Cambridge may join The Misfits, whom kindly, only initiate the president making them eat a whole raw cabbage and down three pints of ale. Other girls at the University are known to be seen partaking in semi-naked female ‘jelly-wrestling’ in a paddling pool full of jelly with the Wyverns and covering companions in clingfilm and making them down a drink, complete with no hands. 

It is not just Oxford and Cambridge that have traditions of initiations, Southampton University has had issues, and no doubt will continue to have, however, is it the affluence, thrill-seeking attitudes and possible ignorance to the dangers of a few that go to Oxbridge that feeds the tradition of sometimes dangerous initiations and traditions or is it passion and the pursuit of enjoyment? People have been injured and in some cases died, due to the over-consumption of alcohol during University society and club initiations, but where does over-safety conscious University protocol ruin traditions that some societies pride themselves on and can it ever be a happy medium?