Ladybird that for us @Malarkey
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His grandad got the prize for the least thick old Etonian.
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If you get a degree at Oxford they automatically give you a masters one year later. Fair play to the wankers
If Rory McIlroy ever finds that out…
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Oooft!
14 King’s Scholars are picked by Eton each year. You need to be a really bright 11yo or 12yo to get chosen. George Orwell was a King’s Scholar. Kwasi Kwarteng, a Boris backer, was also a King’s Scholar. KK won both the Newcastle Scholarship – came top of difficult exams – and the Newcastle Classical Prize. The first gong is often interpreted as a prize for the cleverest boy in the school. The second gong is interpreted as a prize for the best Classicist in the school (and Boris Johnson won it in 1981).
The only berth as prestigious as a King’s Scholar at Eton – and maybe a touch more prestigious – is being picked as a Scholar by Winchester. I think there are 12 of them a year. Seumas Milne was a Wykehamist Scholar.
Of course, these boys are generally picked from a narrow band of prep schools – such as Dragon School and Summer Fields, which are both in Oxford. You can be as bright as you like at 11 or 12 but not attending a prep school pretty much rules you out.
Balliol is generally accepted as the most intellectually distinguished Oxford college (and the best place to read Classics). Balliol’s nearest competitor in this regard would be New College – a Wykehamist foundation. To gain a Brackenbury Scholarship to Balliiol was as prestigious as it got for someone of BJ’s generation. The award marked out a student expected to achieve not just a First but perhaps a Congratulatory First and top of his year. Much to his ongoing irritation, BJ got a II.i – because he slacked until the last minute and could not quite cram enough in time.
All Souls College, Oxford is a highly singular institution and essentially a research institute. Every November, two Fellows by Examination (‘Prize Fellows’) are elected. The old drill was sitting six exams (including a translation paper) over three days and attending a viva. There are fewer exams now – four, I think. The traditional view was the two cleverest undergraduates each year, fresh off getting a glittering First in Classics or History or Law or PPE, got elected.
Isaiah Berlin was a Prize Fellow. So was Matthew d’Ancona, the excellent journalist. So was John Redwood MP.
Famously, notoriously, many people who later found great distinction – AJ Ayer, Hilaire Belloc, John Buchan, Alan Bullock, Aldous Huxley, Hugh Trevor-Roper, Harold Wilson – sat the exams but were not elected. Until the 1980s or so, former King’s Scholars at Eton and former Winchester Scholars were usually prominent among the Prize Fellows. Balliol and New College provided the most Prize Fellows over the years.
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JF went to Rugby, I see…
Quite good this
If it takes a wise man to play the fool Boris must be very wise indeed. Thanks!
No problem…
BJ has an acute brain in certain regards. The problem is his temperament and his beliefs.
The classics and History are much more relevant to running a country than PPE
Good piece that. I’d say half the cunts in it back then were claiming to be cousins with the queen.
Max Hastings goes in hard but fair
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Jezza will gobble bojo up for breakfeast, have Brexit sorted by lunch and Ireland will be a nation once again by dinner
Prime Ministerial
