Becoming a Member
Opportunities to join the 10-to-20-strong, male-only, club are rare. To become a member of the Buller, you first have to be forwarded by a current member, who will vouch for your ‘soundness’. This more or less equates to your (preferably aristocratic) lineage, parents’ wealth, schooling, and appetite for debauchery. Current members will meet each year when an opening or two has become available, and debate the merits of each new candidate. However, should a student be lucky enough to be deemed a suitably ‘sound’ chap, they have to undergo an initiation, alike those for fraternities in the United States.
Traditionally, the unsuspecting oblate will return to their room after a day’s classes to find it in a state of utter disarray. Every piece of furniture will be meticulously broken, books torn to shreds, and clothes burned to ashes. Resplendent in the club’s finery (more on which later) will be two Bullingdon members, clutching a large pot of strong English mustard. They will then instruct the bemused chap to consume the entire pot in front of them, preferably without vomiting. If the task is successfully completed, the new member will be invited to a celebratory dinner.
In October 2017, The Cherwell student newspaper obtained a letter of invitation to a potential new Bullingdon member, which speaks of a different ritual. Dating from 2015, the handwritten letter instructs the proposed member to arrive at the Lamb & Flag pub (beloved by J.R.R. Tolkien) at 1.30 pm, dressed in an entirely-yellow outfit with a ‘plush squirrel toy’, diamond, and ‘smutty or left-wing publication’. They must then order five specified drinks, including a pint of champagne, in a predetermined order to be quaffed in front of current members, who will monitor the performance. It is ominously signed ‘The General’.
Details about the initiation ritual are sketchy due to the club’s policy of omertà. Although the last decade’s publicity has forced a loosening of Buller-lips, details are known only through hearsay, to the point that The Cherwell‘s document cannot be checked for authenticity; no members were forthcoming to comment. Other reported initiation rituals include the consumption of five bottles of champagne (making the pint-measure mentioned in the letter seem positively feeble) and the burning of a £50 note in front of a beggar. Vomiting is inevitable, and black trash bags with a hole in the bottom are kindly provided.
The Bullingdon is not alone at Oxford for its unusual initiation rituals. Most notoriously, David Cameron, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (and an ex-Bullingdon member; see below), was accused by a university friend of partaking in bestiality for another society, the Piers Gaveston. Lord Aschroft’s 2015 biography claimed that Cameron ‘put a private part of his anatomy’ into the mouth of a dead pig, an anecdote which Downing Street ‘would not dignify’ with a response. Not to be outdone, the Bullingdon are said to have made the next round of oblates carry out the same alleged deed.