Oxford colleges have a fine tradition of tortoise-keeping, and maybe this was at the back of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson’s mind when he drew together all the elements that made up his tales of Alice in Wonderland. However, even Dodgson (alias Lewis Carroll) could not have imagined what was to become an annual Oxford event — the Corpus Tortoise Fair, of which a tortoise race is the main feature.

Unfortunately the college has no record of the date of the first fair, a fact much bemoaned by their archivist, Julian Reid. The earliest evidence of the college owning a pair of tortoises is a photograph from 1898.

Tradition has it that the tortoises belonged to the then president of the college, Thomas Fowler, but their names were never recorded. However, whatever may be lacking in written evidence is more than made up for by the massive enthusiasm of the students who are very proud of their tortoises.

The Corpus Tortoise Fair is described by students on the college’s website as “unique to Oxford and undoubtedly the best tradition ever, in the whole world”.

Each year, a member of the Junior Common Room is appointed Tortoise Keeper. This year’s Corpus keeper is Katie Doig, a physicist from East Kilbride.

Other colleges have different names for their tortoise chaperones. Balliol, for example, have a Comrade Tortoise.

The Tortoise Keeper with his or her committee organise the fair which has various side shows which vary from year to year, but can be relied upon to have the traditional cake stalls and raffles as well as more student-orientated events, such as Mars bar eating competitions, the ever- popular stocks and whatever the current year’s students come up with. The money raised always goes to charity. In past years various animal charities and the Gatehouse have benefited and this year the Helen and Douglas Hospice for Children is the selected beneficiary.

Each college can be represented by one tortoise only so, if a college owns more than one, tortoise trials will have to be held to decide which one represents the honour of its college.

A large circle of iceberg lettuce is made. Tortoise Keepers (i.e. selected students stand in the middle forming a back-to-back inner circle. They are gently holding on to their competing tortoises. On the command “release tortoises” they do just that and leap out of the circle — and the first reptile to reach a piece of lettuce is declared the winner. One might be tempted to think that keeping tortoises domestically was a Victorian fashion that has carried on, but, in fact, tortoises ended up on British shores long before having been used as ballast on slave and whaling ships. Records first mention a tortoise at Trinity College during the reign of George III.

A clear written reference is found in My Long Life, an autobiography by the college’s old member, Douglas Sladen. The story was then featured in The Daily Post on October 19, 1932.

‘Mr Douglas Sladen, who was a scholar at Trinity College, Oxford during the late ’seventies, [1870s] has supplied me with some interesting biological details concerning the Trinity tortoise, which was referred to in a leading article yesterday. According to the College tradition, it is the only indigenous British tortoise known to be alive today”, he writes. Lord North during whose ministry we lost the United States war, an alumnus of Trinity and the presenter of the college fine gates.

Whilst the stone which was to form one of the piers was being cut the workmen found a living tortoise in a hole in the stone which had no visible means of communication with the outer world. It was put in the garden where it has remained ever since.’ It seems impossible to believe the “tortoise coming out of a stone” story down the last detail, but that great recorder of tortoise activity, Gilbert White in his Natural History of Selborne says, in a letter dated April 12, 1772: ‘The tortoise, like other reptiles, has an arbitrary stomach as well as lungs; and can refrain from eating as well as breathing for a great part of the year. When first awakened it eats nothing; nor again in the autumn before it retires: through the height of the summer it feeds voraciously, devouring all the food that comes in its way. I was much taken with its sagacity in discerning those that do it kind offices: for, as soon as the good old lady comes in sight who has waited on it for more than 30 years, it hobbles towards its benefactress with awkward alacrity; but remains inattentive to strangers. ‘ Oriel College was famous for its tortoises for many years, though sadly its last one died some twenty years ago. It lived in the Front Quad and came to national attention on two occasions.

The first time was when the Queen, then Duchess of Edinburgh, visited in 1948. She appeared to be greeted by the tortoise on arrival and a photo was published in the Times. Ten years prior to this visit the same newspaper had been taken in by Oriel undergraduates who published a spoof announcement to the effect that a son had been born to the college tortoise disguised as O C Testudo. At that time the only persons eligible to give birth at Oriel were the Provost’s wife and his daughter. A somewhat absent-minded academic remarked quite some time later that he believed the Provost’s daughter had married an Italian.

Balliol College are proud and ancient tortoise keepers. Until 2004 they had a tortoise named Rosa Luxemburg; unfortunately Rosa failed to re-appear in the spring and despite various conspiracy theories (kidnapping by a rival college?) no definite reason could be ascertained. However, in 2007 Chris Skidmore, a graduate of Christ Church now working for the House of Commons, presented a pair of tortoises to Oxford — one to his old college and one to Balliol. Matilda has replaced Rosa and has settled in well. She is looked after by ‘Comrade Tortoise’ who is ably assisted by gardener, Steve Taylor, who used to work at Cotswold Wildlife Park.

Trinity College, having owned various tortoises since the reign of George III, apparently had a gap from some time after the Second World War to the present. However, in 2008, they were offered a pair of Hermann tortoises from the estate of the late Mr Leonard Cripps of Wheatley Mill.

Readers with long memories may recall the article about the restoration of the mill’s sails in the September 2007 edition of this magazine, and the report of Mr Cripps’s death, five days short of his 100th birthday. The end result was the arrival of Toby and Plum (both girls, by the way) at Trinity College where they have now been in residence for a year.

On July1, 2008 the President of Trinity College, Sir Ivor Roberts, and Lady Roberts held a tea party in their garden to thank Toby and Plum’s donors and to welcome the aforementioned members of the chelonian family to their new home.

Fellows and visitors enjoyed tea and cake and the tortoises enjoyed a gift of lambs’ lettuce — apparently they are also very partial to the clover in the president’s lawn. Surely Lewis Carroll must have been there in spirit!

Corpus Christi College, the holders of the annual Tortoise Fair usually held in late May, are the proud owners of Foxe and Oldham named after the founders of the college.

Regent Park College’s tortoise, Emmanuelle (now aged 90), had been the fastest in Oxford for many years. Only in the last couple of years has she been out-distanced by the college’s newer tortoise, Fred. It seems Emmanuelle was originally named Emmanuel, meaning ‘God with Us’, an appropriate name for a college with strong religious affiliations. However, a vet who came there to train for the ministry discovered she was female, hence the re-naming.

Sadly Fred has had to be re-homed after some unacceptable goings-on with Emmanuelle!

If you are looking for examples of British eccentricity, Oxford is a pretty good place to start and they don’t come much more eccentric than Oxford University students, while learning to be future prime ministers or world leaders, holding an inter-collegiate tortoise race, Hopefully they will look back on their salad days with nostalgia. It just shows, one should never underestimate the value of a good, well-rounded education.

The result of the May 2009 race? A home win for Oldham, one of the two Corpus tortoises.