The Bodley Club

The Bodley Club
The Bodley Club
Founded 1894

Committee

President Naomi Gardom, History
Treasurer Frederick Money, History
Secretary Joseph Hutchinson, Medicine
Cellarer Natalie Nguyen, Ancient and Modern History
Senior Member Fra' John Eidinow

The Bodley Club is a speaker society at Merton College, Oxford.[1] Founded in 1894 as a forum in which undergraduates delivered academic papers on literature, the Club has changed form over the years, and was reformed in the 1980s as a speaker society.[2] All members of the College (undergraduate and graduate students, as well as lecturers and fellows) are now considered members, and the Club is managed by a committee of four members.

The Club began on 19 May 1894 (though it was not christened 'The Bodley Club' until June), at a meeting described in the Club minute-book as follows: 'After partaking of oranges and coffee, cigarettes and learned discourse, the meeting adjourned at about 12 p.m.'. The initial constitution contained a rule (Rule 7) which stated that 'a written paper is preferred, but any member may speak on any literary subject instead or may propose that any literary work be read at the meeting.' It was not long before this provision was required, as the minute-book reveals in its entry for 19 October 1894: 'Owing to unpardonable slackness on the part of members, the four months of vacation proved insufficient to collect coherent ideas on any particular subject...However an agreeable and instructive evening was passed in reading Tennyson's 'Maud'.' From early years the Club has maintained a troubled existence, and the Secretary noted on 1 November 1900 a motion of censure 'against a person or persons unknown who were responsible for the undoubted blackness which is creeping over the Bodley Club.' Nevertheless, the Club has continued in one form or another to the present day, and after a few years' lapse hosted several high-profile speakers in 2014 (the Club's 120th Anniversary coinciding with the 750th Anniversary of Merton). These speakers included Rowan Williams, P.D. James, Chris Patten, and Sir John Beddington.

Among the notable papers delivered to the Bodley Club in past years are those by Frederic Harrison,[3] Harold Henry Joachim,[4] Henry Hamilton Fyfe[5] (brother of the Secretary, William), Northrop Frye,[6] (Sir) Alister Clavering Hardy,[7] and Ronald Knox.[8]

More recent speeches have been delivered by Lord Kingsdown (former Governor of the Bank of England), Lord Wilson of Tillyorn (former Governor of Hong Kong), William Dalrymple (historian and author of The White Moghuls), and Lord Tugendhat (former Vice-President of the EEC Commission).

Several of the Club's first members (from the 1890s) went on to become significant figures, including Edmund Trelawney Backhouse, Herbert George Flaxman Spurrell, and William Hamilton Fyfe.

References

  1. ↑ Clubs & Societies | Merton MCR | Merton College Oxford University
  2. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/groups/2203192268/
  3. ↑ Delivered on 13 May 1898. Recorded in the minute-book.
  4. ↑ Delivered on 28 January 1898. Recorded in the minute-book.
  5. ↑ Delivered on 1 December 1899. Recorded in the minute-book.
  6. ↑ 'Northrop Frye's Student Essays: 1932-1938', pp. xv and 417
  7. ↑ The National Archives | Access to Archives
  8. ↑ The Sherlock Holmes Society - Events - Oxford Weekend
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