Student Rags
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Student Rags were manifestations of the rivalry between King's College London and University College London, the two oldest and largest Colleges of the University of London's Colleges.
Rags were "colourful, subversive, and occasionally dangerous" [1] for both participants and bystanders and reached their height between the two World Wars. A long-running campaign of the Rags were the attempts to capture each other's mascots. Running battles were supposedly brought to an end by the College's authorities in the first half of the twentieth century, but rivalry amongst the University of London's Colleges continues to this day.
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[edit] Beginnings
The origins of the competition between the two institutions can be traced to their foundation in the 1820s when King's was established as an Anglican alternative to the secular UCL. [2] Over the following two centuries, this competitiveness has manifested itself in the academic sphere, on the sports field and in the rivalry of the student populations.
One of the earliest potentially violent consequences of the contrasting styles and purposes of the two colleges arose when the Earl of Winchilsea, one of the principal financial donors to the fledgling King's, accused its leading patron, the Duke of Wellington, of seeking to water down the orthodox, Protestant, character of the new College. Wellington had recently played a central role in securing Catholic Emancipation and Winchilsea, who opposed this, feared that Wellington would turn King's into a "Catholic Seminary". Wellington denied the charge and challenged the hapless Winchilsea to a duel, which took place on Battersea Fields on 21st March 1829. Winchilsea declined to fire and offered his apology; Duel Day is still celebrated annually at King's on the same day in March. [3]
[edit] The Rags
Rags first became popular in the late nineteenth century, an echo of earlier expressions of popular culture such as the religious carnival and the medieval "Lords of Misrule". These events shared a characteristic pattern in which authority was periodically turned on its head, and norms of status and sexuality were challenged in a comparatively safe and unthreatening way. Hence student rags often featured cross-dressing and processions that mirrored official celebrations. The rag permitted students to reaffirm their group loyalties in a lively and colourful way while raising money for charity.
The first real rag at King's College London occurred in 1912. Angry student anti-vivisectionists complained that a small dog had been vivisected repeatedly and unnecessarily and erected a statue of the animal in Battersea Park. Indignant students from London medical schools quickly moved to destroy the statue, in the course of which a struggle took place with police and some students arrested and fined. They later reconvened in the King's quad with an effigy of the offending magistrate that was set on fire and thrown into the river.
A medical student at King's in the 1920s, Edith Summerskill, Minister of Food in Clement Atlee's government, [4] reflecting on the contrast between the informal behaviour of her contemporaries with the more serious post-1945 student, observed that 'We were all too busy relaxing after the war, gayer, more high spirited and after a good time', she suggested that 'the 1914-18 war was far more terrible than this last war…consequently the reaction after the war was more marked'.
Later, in the inter-War period witnessed the flourishing of the student rag and of the friendly rivalry between King's College London and University College. College Union societies greatly expanded their sporting, social and charitable activities at this time and in 1921 the University of London Union Society was formed as an umbrella organisation. Rags comprised well-organised kidnappings, the collection for charity by students dressed as the opposite sex or in elaborate costumes, processions and mock battles.
[edit] Mascots
Rivalry in the twentieth century between students of the two Colleges was centred on their respective mascots. University College's was Phineas Maclino, a wooden tobacconist's sign of a kilted Jacobite Highlander purloined from outside a shop in Tottenham Court Road during the celebrations of the relief of Ladysmith in 1900.
King's later addition was a giant beer bottle representing "bottled youth". In December 1923 it was replaced by a new mascot to rival Phineas - Reggie the Lion, a copper lion from a junkyard (also off Tottenham Court Road) for whom King's students paid £7, that was christened Reggie at a special meeting. Reggie made his debut at a King's-UCL sporting rag in December 1923, protected by a lifeguard of engineering students armed with T-squares. Thereafter, Reggie formed the centrepiece of annual freshers' processions by King's students around Aldwych in which new students were typically flour bombed.
[edit] Kidnappings
Reggie was the victim of repeated kidnapping attempts by University College and other London colleges following the Second World War. On one occasion he was transported to Inverness and on another was ignominiously dumped at the Surrey beauty spot of the Devil's Punchbowl. The most notable episode involved his painful emasculation by University College students armed with a tin opener. Thankfully, he was restored to full working order by a team of engineers and medics and vainly filled with concrete to prevent further kidnap attempts by the Bloomsbury students.
[edit] Women
The involvement of women in rags drew considerable comment during the 1920s. Under a headline "Women and those 'Rags'", a The Star reporter claimed in 1929 that most women students were disdainful of their more enthusiastic cousins. Miss Paul, a tutor to women students at King's, insisted portentously that "displays of boisterousness were really exclusively men's affairs". However, women clearly played a central role in 1920s rags, including the raid on University College in 1927. [5]
[edit] Today
Two of the last old style rags took place in the 1950s. In 1952, police broke up a series of races in the Strand where King's and University College students dressed as camels and a cow. More daringly, in 1956, King's Engineers grabbed Phineas from a cabinet in the University College Union after melting off its locks, the very day before the visit of the Queen Mother to inspect the Scottish Highlander. A tarred and feathered Phineas was restored with moments to spare.
Across the United Kingdom, student priorities began to change with the enlargement of the university sector in the 1960s. The growth of provincial higher education both enhanced the possibilities for the rag and the dangers of 'town and gown' tensions between permanent local, and transient student, populations. Universities across Britain tried to build bridges with local people, especially through fund raising initiatives for local charities. However, the 1960s, 70s and 80s all bore witness to a more politically aware student population with demonstrations and sit-ins against Vietnam, university cuts and the Poll Tax. In this more highly charged climate, the traditional rag might have looked anachronistic and somewhat juvenile.
Nevertheless, there remained a place for conventional high spirits, in particular occasioned by King's renewed participation in the Lord Mayor's Show. Inebriated King's students achieved perhaps their most spectacular coup in 1989, moreover, when the mummified head of University College's brilliant but arguably eccentric founder, Jeremy Bentham, was appropriated and used as the central prop in an impromptu football match outside King's.
Today, annual RAG events take place in universities throughout the UK to raise money for charities. The days of the sometimes dangerous outcomes of Student Rags, such as the fate of visiting American temperance evangelist, "Pussyfoot" Johnson who lost an eye in a battle with King's students in 1919, are over.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ Mayhem in the Metropolis. Retrieved on 2007-11-23.
- ^ The University of London: The Founding Colleges. Retrieved on 2007-11-23.
- ^ Duel Day Celebrations 2007. Retrieved on 2007-11-23.
- ^ Centre for Advancement of Women in Politics. Retrieved on 2007-11-23.
- ^ Women and the Rags. Retrieved on 2007-11-23.
