Clementine

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Clementine used to belong to the Courage brewery estate — a fitting mascot for the students of the Royal School of Mines who are very fond of the more than occasional tipple.

Details and dimensions:

Clementine is a 1926 Morris ‘T’ Type one-ton truck.

Made-for-telly history:

Gil Street, Steve Pick, and Ian Plummer riding Clementine I on Prince Consort Road with Exhibition Road in the background.

The first Clementine was a five-ton Aveling and Porter steam traction engine. For fairly obvious reasons — need for a boiler certificate, extreme size, potential skin-scalding insurance nightmare, and so on — the Aveling and Porter became impractical, so she was replaced in 1960.

But Clem’s story starts many years before that…

At manufacture Clementine II was fitted with a ‘general utility’ body consisting of a flatbed with dropsides, a canvas tilt and removable bench seats on flatbed for use when carrying passengers.

Clem II was first registered on 13 October 1926 by Mr E.R. Courage of Edgcote, Banbury, Oxfordshire of the brewery estate bearing his name. At the time Mr Courage was moving estate from Essex to Edgcote. Clem was used to transport his belongings between the estates (a 220-mile trip). Later she was the used for general duties on the Edgcote estate until 1946, when she was returned to the Essex estate. There she remained until 1957.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother inspecting Clementine I as Ian Plummer, unknown person, Steve Pick; Mike Rutter (President of RSMU, with his back to camera); and Rector R.P. Linstead greet her at the opening of the Roderick Hill Building 7 June 1957.

In 1957 Clem was moved and stored at Sheringham Hall, Sheringham, Norfolk, under the ownership of a Mr Fitzpatrick. Not much is known about Mr Fitzpatrick or how he came to own Clem, but it is known that he kept her as part of a vehicle collection and offered her to a friend for regular use.

Meanwhile, back on campus, the RSM began looking for a new mascot. Students heard of a Morris in Norfolk and two students were despatched to see her. It was decided that the lorry would be ideal for the RSM. She was bought and towed back to London by a 1934 Ford lorry, becoming Clementine II, the RSM mascot in January 1960.

Clem enjoyed healthy notoriety as mascot until students disassembled her for a complete overhaul in 1976.

Unfortunately, the project lapsed and Clem was promptly forgotten. She might have been regulated to the dustbin of history but for a group of students more than 10 years later. They literally began the project sorting through boxes of parts.

It took more than a year to straighten her rolling chassis and rebuild the engine, “an amazing feat as we later discovered that the ignition timing was 15 degrees advanced and there was no main jet in the carburetter,” wrote Stephen Laing, a student at the time.

In the 1990s Laing wrote about the next steps:

The next step was the cosmetic work. The paint was kindly donated by Joseph Mason plc and applied by us. Most of Clem is original although a fair amount of the flatbed has had to be replaced due to rotten wood. The replacement pieces have been built to her original ‘general utility’ specification and it is hoped to build seats and a canvas tilt to complete the ‘general utility’ body.

The students of RSM have made Clem’s predicted restoration possible and her popularity continues. Every year Clem participates in the Historic Commercial Vehicle Society’s London to Brighton Run, as well as the Veteran Car Club run.

Clem spends most of the summer touring southern England at vintage vehicle and steam rallies, so don’t forget your tents!

First violated:

Clem is the only mascot violated by her own constituent college!

Last violated:

Never, after Clementine was heroically rebuilt by RSM students in 1987.

Rumours:

None known

Tradition:

Every year Clem participates in the Historic Commercial Vehicle Society’s London to Brighton Run as well as the Veteran Car Club run.

Trivia:

She collected her MOT certificate in 1987 after being completely rebuilt. Her 140-mile test drive between Axminster in Devon took 10 hours! It was a hot day and several stops with water were necessary.

Sources:

• Stephen Laing, Captain of the RSM Motor Club, 30 September 1991, interview
• RSM Motor Club website
• Union Website

Does one’s involvement with Clementine work as a pick-up (line) in addition to a pick-up truck? Share your comments below.
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Davy

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Rumour has it Davy was once buried under the Queen’s Lawn

Details and dimensions:

Davy is a hefty 60kg mining lamp

Made-for-telly history:

The first mascot was a Michelin man acquired in February 1958 under sub-committee chairman Alan Lewis. The exact acquisition is largely unknown except that it was “purloined by a free spirit from its former place of honour atop the cab of a lorry dedicated to serving Michelin customers.”

Purloined, people, purloined.

The individual hoops of Michelin man’s jovial body were subsequently painted alternately in the white, yellow and black colours of the RSM and presented to committee.

Reported by Felix on 18 January 1958:

This meeting was unique in the history of the Mines Union in that the President of Bedford College, Miss Marilyn Farr, the Vice-President, and sundry other members of this illustrious college were present. After making a short speech, addressing the meeting by “Mr President, Gentlemen and Lover Boy in the corner…’ Miss Farr christened Mitch, as the mascot is to be called, by pouring a pint of bitter over his head.

Yep. ‘Lover Boy’ Mitch. The next day happened to be St Valentine’s Day and Mitch was presented with his first valentine, and with his first birthday present. Some Miners are still mystified by the significance, or otherwise, of the cabbage, brush, and lemon presented.

Mitch’s name was appropriate to his origin but also relevant to the good name of the Dean of the RSM and Professor of Mining, Professor J.C. Micheson. The Professor, also known informally as Mitch, was a consummate gentleman with a highly ascetic disposition, and was (not unjustifiably as a result) spoken of as ‘the orange juice Dean’.

Mitch rode with RSM on the original Clementine, a traction engine, for several years.

In 1965 Royal School of Mines voted to discard Mitch because he had little popular appeal, and worse, a Michelin Man was also the mascot of the National College of Rubber Technology [now London Metropolitan Polymer Centre].

Students on committee suggested a sea mine as a replacement – despite great impracticality and safety concerns. The matter went as far as to receive response from First Lord of the Admiralty, stating he had passed the matter to the Chief of Armaments.

An alternative was presented 18 May: an incredibly heavy, three-foot high model of one of the earliest Davy lamps, designed by Fergus Kerr and built by Bert West of the Metallurgy Department. He too was painted black and yellow. Name suggestions were posted to “R. Gash via the letter racks; a small reward is offered”.

The student who named Davy is lost to the sands of time. Will an alumnus from this time period  come forward with evidence of who named Davy?

No sooner had Davy been birthed and named than he was stolen in 1965. “We also stole RSM’s Davey lamp and filled it with cement and epoxied all the connections before we returned it,” admitted Ralph Cornforth (Physics 1965).

Fights to capture and retrieve Davy are legendary. One disruptive battle lasted uninterrupted for hours prior to the anticipated campus visit of Viscount Falmouth. There was so much mess that Mines had to hire an emergency crew to work the night to be presentable the next day.

In one episode of Davy-chasing,

“Two RCS men spent 18 months tracking down where he was stored in RSM by hiding in cupboards after RSM UGMs and listening out for the Davey Bearers going by.

Eventually they narrowed down the location of the mascot to one particular storeroom in the basement and hid behind a filing cabinet just outside as Davey was put away. Later that night they returned with hacksaws, hammers, drills and boltcutters, picked the lock to the room and demolished the only cupboard therein which was Davey’s hideyhole.”

A second Davy was built of anodised aluminium and brass to be lighter weight and more decorative. He is referred to as MkII, New Davy and, frequently, Shiny Davy. Initially, RSM used Old Davy as a decoy to deceive potential thieves by carrying both into and out in bin liners.

But, the plan backfired.

In the mid-eighties Old Davy went missing from the Mines office where it had been used as a doorstop. Old Davy was briefly recovered in the Physics level 1 common room behind a wood panel, but disappeared and has never been seen since.

First violated:

1965

Last violated:

2012

Rumours:

It is believed that Old Davy may have been in the room of another Imperial student at the end of an academic year. RSM has voiced fears that the 60kg mascot may have been thrown away by cleaners during the end-of-year rush to get Imperial’s halls of residence ready for summer visitors.

Tradition

None known.

Trivia:

No other mascot has been referred to as ‘Lover Boy’ on record.

Sources:

• Felix, 1994, 1,000th issue
• Felix, 2 June 1965
• Imperial Interview with Jim Platt (Mining Geology 1957–60)
• Felix: 13 January 1989
• Felix: 9 May 1975
• Wikipedia, Naval Mine

Is it true that if you rub Davy a genie appears? Comment here.
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