In the years immediately following the end of World War I, the average Oxford undergraduate had little or no experience with foreign travel. In fact, as noted in Christopher Hollis’ book Oxford in the Twenties: Recollections of Five Friends (1976), most of Harold Acton’s closest friends at Oxford had never traveled outside of England. In contrast, Acton’s family were avid European travelers before the First World War, and Harold himself had frequently traveled outside of Europe to visit his mother’s family, the Mitchells, in the United States. To make up for lost travel opportunities, the Bright Young Things—a term coined by British journalists for some of these Oxonians—flocked to the Oxford Railway Club.
It was John Sutro, Harold’s close friend and Oxford classmate, whose cultivated fondness for British Railways led him to found this uniquely popular club. Harold describes Sutro as possessing ‘rare gifts’ as a ‘guide, philosopher, and friend,’ in addition to being known as a ‘consummate actor, mimic, improviser, journalist, vocalist, pianist, and gastronomist’—talents which Harold greatly admired (Memoirs, p. 124). The Oxford Railway Club provided the perfect opportunity for Sutro to create a unique and convivial travel experience for his classmates while also allowing him to demonstrate his ‘deeply personal affection for the British Railway Companies’ (Memoirs, p. 124). Sutro “loved the British trains and they loved him” (Memoirs, p. 125). He “had a feeling for British trains and their affinities that was alternatively lyrical, ethical, aesthetic, practical, and patriotic” (Memoirs, p. 124) —where the experience and technology behind the journey mattered far more than the destination. At the time, commercial air travel was not yet an established industry, and fast travel remained a novelty. However, trains offered passengers comparable luxury, while turning the train ride itself into an event. The photo on display in the exhibit shows the club members posing together with some of the train porters.
In accord with the Great Western Railway authorities, the club organized once a term, one-day excursions aboard prominent routes, from short trips to Brighton or Leicester or longer routes from the grand Aberdeen-to-Penzance Express. These journeys were accompanied by a special banquet that would include wine and rare liqueurs like Grand Marnier or green Chartreuse (Memoirs, p. 125). Due to Oxford’s strict midnight curfew, upon arrival, members seldom left the station –– often departing on the return train back to Oxford within the hour. The return trip was devoted to toasting “his reigning Majesty and his late, more congenial Majesty Edward the Seventh” (Memoirs, p. 126). The Railway Club continued long after its founding members graduated in 1926, pausing its activities in 1939 as war approached, but later being revived in 1963.
– Emilee Baack
