Up Close & Personal: Junior Bursar

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.

 

112 thoughts on “Up Close & Personal: Junior Bursar

  1. Debbie's avatar

    Cool! Now Junior Bursar sounds like a fine fellow indeed. At least he seems to have had favorable feelings toward you, Lucy, so he can’t be all bad, right?!

    1. Lucy Brazier's avatar

      The real one was pretty great! The Dean also, that’s why they are Old College favourites, I suppose. They might not be so fond of me these days, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do!

    2. Debbie's avatar

      Aw, surely they’ll be tolerant. I mean, at least their persons are being preserved for posterity, right?!

    3. Lucy Brazier's avatar

      One would hope so. It was always meant to be a compliment, after all 🙂

  2. dermotthayes's avatar

    Reads like a carbon copy of a chap I knew in college. He would be called ‘a sleeveen’ in Ireland. You can look that up and see if I’m right. It should be pronounced with an invisible ‘h’ as in ‘shleeveen.’

    1. Lucy Brazier's avatar

      I looked it up – exactly that! It must be something to do with an academic leaning, perhaps, that breeds them that way.

    2. dermotthayes's avatar

      No, Uriah Heep would’ve been a sleeveen, too, but hardly an academic

    3. Lucy Brazier's avatar

      True! I imagine that some people are born that way. Although perhaps some evolve that nature as a sort of defensive reflex.

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