Sam Blaxland (Generation UCL Research Fellow)
Phineas Maclino is a large wooden and polychrome statue depicting a Scottish highlander. ‘He’ does not represent a real person. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such figures were a common sight outside tobacconist and snuff shops. They were used as advertising and this explains why Phineas is holding a pot of snuff (snuff is finely ground tobacco that is either inhaled or placed in the mouth). Phineas became UCL’s unofficial, and later official, mascot over the course of thirty years. He was first stolen from Catesby’s on Tottenham Court Road as part of a march that celebrated the relief of Ladysmith in South Africa, during the Boer War. Between then and 1932, however, Phineas was regularly stolen and then returned to Catesby’s, until the store donated the statue to UCL students.
For decades, Phineas was the primary focus of pranks, stunts and ‘ragging’ culture. He was stolen from UCL by ‘raiding parties’ from its rival King’s College, whose students had their own mascot, Reggie the Lion. Reggie was the subject of pranks in return. Phineas would appear at sports matches and would be taken to various locations across the country. On some occasions, the statue was defaced with paint, carvings were made in it, bits of ‘him’ were broken off, and ‘he’ disappeared for long periods of time, only to turn up again in – roughly – one piece. As late as 1991, students at Imperial College kidnapped Phineas. Whilst these stunts reflected the strong rivalries that existed between students in London, they were mostly conducted in a well-meaning, creative and amusing manner.
The statue was restored to some sense of its former glory as part of a project conducted by the Sale School of Fine Art in the 1980s. The colour scheme that was used in the restoration broadly reflects that of the Royal Highland Regiment, but Phineas is not a military figure – this dress scheme was typical for such Scottish Highlander figures during the period ‘he’ hails from. After the restoration, Phineas was placed in the Students’ Union bar in 1993 – the Union’s centenary year. He was deemed important enough that when a book was written by Bates and Ibbetson to mark the centenary, Phineas was chosen as the sole image for the front cover.
Phineas represents threads of continuity between generations of UCL students in a way that few places or objects do. His colourful history is primarily about pranks and stunts. Like many objects, places, buildings or people from that period, Phineas is of course indirectly linked with the darker part of Britain’s past. He was stolen (although returned) during a parade that was imperialistic in tone. The ragging culture that was associated with stealing Phineas was overwhelming male and also, as recent scholarship has suggested, perpetrated outmoded xenophobic tropes. Ultimately, Phineas is also linked most closely with thieves and the habit of smoking tobacco at a university now striving to be ‘smoke free’! Despite this, Phineas is a historically significant object that encapsulates important – and often benign – elements of UCL’s history and student culture better than almost anything else. It would be a wasted opportunity were ‘he’ not being looked at and learnt about by the next generation of students.
References:
Carol Dyhouse, Students: A Gendered History (London, 2005), chapter 10 – ‘The Student Rag’.
Negley Harte, John North and Georgina Brewis, The World of UCL (London, 2018).
James Bates and Carol Ibbetson, The World of UCL Union (London, 1993).
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