The Lady Margaret Boat Club (often abbreviated to "LMBC", and familiarly known as "Maggie"), is the rowing club for members of St John's College, Cambridge, England. The club is named after Lady Margaret Beaufort, foundress of the College.
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LMBC was founded in 1825 by twelve members of the College. In its original rules, the Club was to "consist of eighteen contributing members, besides honorary ones", and all members had to be able to row. An early member was Patrick Colquhoun who in 1837 instigated the Colquhoun Sculls, in the year in which he won the Wingfield Sculls.
The greatest influence in the 1860s and 1870s was J H D Goldie, who raised LMBC to the "Headship of the River", won the "Colquhoun Sculls", and stroked Cambridge four times. The Goldie Boathouse, used by the university crews, commemorates his services to Cambridge rowing as does the name of the university second VIII, officially known as the Goldie Crew (or Boat) and competes annually against Isis just before the University Boat Race. Another important name in LMBC history is LHK Bushe-Fox who had a long career with LMBC, becoming President of the Club in 1897. One of the greatest influences of this century was Roy Meldrum who established the "Lady Margaret" style, which he detailed in his rowing books.
The Boathouse was opened in the May term of 1901. It was extended in the 1970s, and was the first boathouse to have a workshop for the boatman. In the early 1980s, when the college began to admit women, further modifications were made upstairs to create the women's changing rooms. The boathouse was extended further in 2000 to create more indoor training space. A shed is now being built to house the club's fours, which are currently racked outside.
The Club's heyday was in the late 1940s and 1950s. LMBC won the "Ladies Plate" in 1949 with a new course record. In 1950, they made 4 bumps to go "Head of the Mays", and stayed "Head" for five years. In 1951, Lady Margaret won the Grand at Henley Royal Regatta and had five members of the successful Cambridge crew, which also defeated Harvard and Yale in the United States.
Between 1975 and 1981, Lady Margaret were Head of the Lent Bumps for 26 consecutive days, the longest continuous defence of the Lent Headship. LMBC last held the May Headship in 1989.
Members of the Club are well known for their scarlet jackets, which gave rise to the term, blazer. Members with "First May Colours" are entitled to wear trim and gold buttons on their blazer, while "First Lent" or "Second May Colours" are entitled to wear silver buttons on their blazer.[1]
The club is traditionally strong in the Lent and May CUCBC Bumps race. The club motto has been "Si je puis" ("If I can") since 1825. The boat club song, Viva laeta, has a chorus that goes as follows:
Although the music is printed in the boat club's history and the song is sung at every Boat Club Dinner, few members know the tune.
As with many institutions in Cambridge University, there are various historically inaccurate stories concerning LMBC.
The most famous relates to the reason there is no "St John's College Boat Club" (SJCBC) and involves the death of the First Trinity Boat Club cox on the Cam in the May Bumps carefully unspecified in "in the late 19th century". The poor chap was allegedly skewered in the back by the pointed bow of the rampantly aggresive bumping up SJCBC VIII. This horrific accident led to SJCBC being bannished from the Cam for eternity by the other university college boat clubs. The aforementioned boat club members were then forced to re-group as the Lady Margaret Boat Club (LMBC) and, in a sign of contrition, the club's oars were painted bright red, representing the blood of the cox: a permanent stain on the boat club's history and the colour of the river as a result of the dreaful event.
Noteably, tellers of this story do not necessarily extend the blood red colour reference to the club's blazers, also bright red, since that allows them to suggest separately that the term "blazer" was originated by reference to the LMBC jacket (which may be true).
Some stories try suggest that the Trinity boat club was to some extent culpable (and that club had to change its name too), but it is difficult to see how a boat being bumped can be held responsible for the bumping boat's actions without behaving recklessly, which of course, would have made its mythical way into the story had it been "true".
As far as can be told, no one who tells the story (primarily to tourists passing under the Bridge of Sighs and/or non-oarsmen/women) believes a word of it.
It just turns out that SJC members were perhaps less prosaic than their couterparts at other colleges. Trinity generated the numerically unimaginative First, Second & Third Trinity Boat Clubs. St John's college members set up St John's, the Lady Margaret, the Lady Somerset & possibly the Lady Beaufort boat clubs. Each of these boat clubs were separate and autonomous and you were, no doubt, invited to join a small group of like minded souls who would run their own boat and a small club around it. Over the years, these mini-clubs faded out leading to mergers (First & Third Trinity Boat Club) or one boat club just became dominant within the college (LMBC) and the others faded into oblivion. The title of the Lady Somerset Boat Club is now used from time to time by former alumini of LMBC.
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