The Gridiron Club, popularly called The Grid, is a
club open to male and female students at the
University of Oxford. The name of any prospective member is entered into 'The Book'. Current members may subsequently sign in approval of the proposed. If any current member disapproves of the proposed, they are given the opportunity to 'black ball' with proper justification. Members of other clubs, such as
The Bullingdon Club,
The Piers Gaveston and The Stoics, are usually chosen from among existing Grid members.
The club was founded in 1884 and, as with other
beefsteak clubs of the 18th and 19th centuries, the traditional grilling gridiron is the club's symbol. The gridiron symbol appears on the club tie (white gridirons on an Oxford blue field) and on the sign outside its current premises in
The Golden Cross. References have been made to the Gridiron Club in many works, including Evelyn Waugh's ''
Brideshead Revisited'', Compton MacKenzie's ''
Sinister Street
''Sinister Street'' is a 1913–1914 novel by Compton Mackenzie. It is a kind of ''Bildungsroman'' or novel about growing up, and concerns two children, Michael Fane and his sister Stella. Both of them are born out of wedlock, something which ...
'' and
Ferdinand Mount's ''Cold Cream: My Early Life and Other Mistakes''.
The Gridiron's reciprocal club at the
University of Cambridge is the
Pitt Club. Comparable societies in the United States include
Skull and Bones at Yale,
Sphinx Society at
Dartmouth Dartmouth may refer to:
Places
* Dartmouth, Devon, England
** Dartmouth Harbour
* Dartmouth, Massachusetts, United States
* Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
* Dartmouth, Victoria, Australia
Institutions
* Dartmouth College, Ivy League university i ...
,
Cap and Skull
Cap and Skull is a senior-year coeducational honor society at Rutgers University, founded on January 18, 1900. Admission to Cap and Skull is dependent on excellence in academics, athletics, the arts, and public service. The organization considers ...
at
Rutgers,
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
's
Episkopon in
Canada, and the
Porcellian Club at
Harvard University in
Boston.
Notable former members of the club include
John le Carré,
Alexander, 7th Marquess of Bath,
Lord Michael Pratt (a former Secretary of the Grid), and Prime Minister
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...
(President of the Grid 1987–1988).
The Gridiron has a board of trustees, the members of which are usually former members of the club. In addition, there is at least one Senior Member who supervises the running of the club and is invariably a don at the University of Oxford. Day-to-day management is handled by an undergraduate committee consisting of a President, Treasurer, Secretary and a small number of other members 'without portfolio'. During the undergraduate years of
Boris Johnson,
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...
and
George Osborne, the Senior Members of the Grid were the distinguished historians
Jeremy Catto of
Oriel College and
Maurice Keen
Maurice Hugh Keen (30 October 1933 – 11 September 2012) was a British historian specializing in the Middle Ages. His father had been the Oxford University head of finance ('Keeper of the University Chest') and a fellow of Balliol College, Ox ...
of
Balliol.
Sports journalist
Sally Jones (journalist)
Sally Jones is a British journalist, television news and sports presenter. She is three-times a world champion at real tennis; once in the singles and twice in the doubles.
Education
Sally Jones was born in Coventry, Warwickshire, and educa ...
and
Lord Salisbury's daughter Lady Georgiana Campbell both gained notoriety by separately standing for election to the then all-male club (Lady Georgiana famously doing so in male clothing).
See also
*
List of University of Oxford dining clubs
References
{{Reflist
Clubs and societies of the University of Oxford
1884 establishments in England