The right hand man of Senior Bursar – who collects the money – Junior Bursar is the slightly sinister other half of the Bursary who has the happy job of spending the money. As the Fellow with the responsibility of overseeing the teams of College Servants, Junior Bursar always has a beady eye trained on the Porters’ Lodge, and on Head Porter in particular. Very little escapes his attention and he takes especial delight in uncovering even the slightest wisp of misbehaviour.
Junior Bursar first came to Old College as a narrow-kneed undergraduate, with nothing but a keen mathematical mind and a ferocious appetite for academic excellence. His devotions to both Old College and his studies bought him entry to The Fellowship soon after completing his PhD, and proprietorship of the purse strings swiftly followed. Such an alacritous ascent may seem surprising in an institution such as Old College, but it is rumoured that Junior Bursar has ancestral underpinnings stretching right back to the very foundations of College itself – and Old College loves nothing more than its own illustrious heritage.
Junior Bursar is a slight man of advancing years, who exudes machiavellian malice from every pore. He seems to warm a little towards Deputy Head Porter, however he takes a stance of bemused spite towards her unlikely association with The Dean. Junior Bursar has long held an active dislike of Head Porter, which can be almost callous at times – although there are complex machinations behind this malevolence that make his attitude at least partly justified.
It’s not all bad news where our bothersome bean-counter is concerned, though. Junior Bursar is rather keen on a party and he steadfastly refuses to engage with The Committee For The Prevention Of Drunken Behaviour. One very much gets the impression that there is something of a mischievous side to Junior Bursar that he has become very adept at concealing.
Lucy Brazier 
It was a long time before I got my head around the position Bursar…
We had one at my secondary school (just one, no junior or senior…) he wasn’t seen often and his office door had no windows and was in an unlikely place in the cloakrooms. This lead me to conclude for a long time that bursars were something to do with coats, and lived in cupboards.
I figured it out later, with help from Terry Pratchett and the Bursar of the UU
They are confusing beasts, certainly. I rather think that they do live in cupboards, or at least they should – in my experience a Bursar on the loose is more dangerous than a monkey with a fist full of poo.
Thank goodness for the late, great Terry Pratchett – without him we would still be lost!
I am not sure what would have happened if our bursar for loose…mayhem amongst the coats possibly!!
We would indeed!!
They had the right idea with your Bursar, let me tell you. When ours got out and about all hell broke loose! There needs to be a specific role for Bursar Taming, I think. I would make a good Bursar Tamer.
I rather think you would!
you would need a special hat and some sort of whip…
YES. I am particularly fond of jobs with hats. As for the whip… there might be Bursars that find that very agreeable indeed! 😀
yes…in my opinion all jobs should have associated hats!
Mine has lots…but mainly because I am stubborn about wearing them.
ok…whip under advisement…to be used with discretion…
I agree wholeheartedly about the hats. A person feels better about wearing a hat. The real Head Porter HATED hats, which immediately made me suspicious. But more about him later.
I think perhaps a pointy stick should be the primary tool of the trade, with the whip only being brought out for special occasions…
hated hats???
This is indeed suspicious!!
I know people who dislike hats, which is strange as they are otherwise white sensible people….
Ahh yes…how could I overlook the pointed stick!!
The sure sign of a wrong-un and no mistake! People who don’t like hats just don’t understand hats properly. I am going to make it my life’s work to help them see the light – or at least the brim!
The pointed stick is the unsung hero of many a conflict 😉
Tis true, they just haven’t found the right hat!!
I will join you in this mission! people need to know!
it really is… unless people have a lever which releases a tiger, a la Monty Python…
There is a hat out there for everyone! Thank you for assisting, we can spread the joys of gin and cake at the same time 😀
I don’t have a lever or a tiger, although I envy the Pythons of theirs 😉 Why isn’t life more like Monty Python? *sigh*
It should be…then I could work for the ministry of silly walks! And I can already identify many trees from quite a long way away!!
It is no hardship! These messages need to be spread!! 😀
I always fancied entering the Upper Class Twit Of The Year competition – but was turned away for being too working class. I think perhaps it was at that moment I aspired to bowler hats, to elevate myself from my lowly origins…
A lofty goal indeed, but the Bowler should certainly allow you to be granted access!!
I graduated to the bowler from the floppy hats of the 90s and the trilby I wore in the 6th form that my friend shrank by wearing it in the rain on her tiny head!
My Bowler model was somewhat more working class though, it being a hat of choice of a good many of the patrons of the great Dorset steam fair due to its hardened nature!
For those days where I truly aspire to upper-class ness I sport one of my top hats!
I hat a couple of those 90s floppy hats, I used to put crazy brooches on the front, for some reason! The bowler is a noble hat for all classes – it was the hat of choice for cowboys in the Wild West, but Hollywood gave them stetsons instead – pah! Not that the stetson isn’t a fine hat in itself, of course.
Top hats are, of course, the very last word in class and style. There is a shop in Cambridge that does them in every colour imaginable. I trilby is very dashing and quite practical – good for spies and such like!
They were indeed, I have a friend who does re-enactment from that period and he wears a brown bowler for this very thing!!
I believe the amount of trilbys around is designed specifically to throw people off the trail of spies, who without a doubt still wear them in a sort of double bluff!
I feel a new hat purchase coming on…after all…I happen to be going to Cambridge in the near future…
Those brown bowlers are very fetching – they have a gruff charm about them, like a bearded man. I like your trilby theory, I think you could be correct! Spies are hiding in plain sight… the buggers…
Yay! Hat shopping!! Cambridge is perfect for it 😉
I do know a lot of bearded men too! Morris Dancing seems to attract them…or I do…
They always do! My mum always told me spies drive red cars (for some reason) which is another example of the same thing!
Woohoo!! I am so looking forward to Cambridge 😀
Bearded men are great! The properly manly ones, though, not the hipsters so much. A beard should be more than just chin decoration!
Oh no, I think my neighbour might be a spy. He has a trilby AND a red car!!
Cambridge is looking forward to your arrival, I assure you!! So excited 😀
The people I know with beards are definitely not hipsters!! Some of them enter manly beard competitions!
oh dear!! I suggest you keep a very close eye on your neighbour for nefarious goings on!!
I have excited feet… 😀 😀 even in my office!!
Hurrah for the manly beards!
It is all far too exciting 🙂 I am going to do a little dance now, in fact. And on the day I might do a great big dance! Whatever that is… 😀
I might join you in a great big dance 😀
WooHoo! Sounds good to me! 😀
😀 😀 Yay!!
Well, as long as he treated you nicely and with the respect that a nice young lady deserves, then he is OK by me. 😀
He was actually very kind to me and although many other people found him to be difficult and objectionable, I was incredibly fond of the old chap 🙂