The second line in any vernacular biography of Bob Hawke – that he was once the possessor of the world record for skolling a yard of ale – could be formally honoured with a plaque in Oxford.
A formal proposal will be put to Oxford city council to mark the former Australian prime minister’s youthful achievement. Hawke was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford between 1953 and 1956. In 1954 he skolled a yard of ale – two-and-a-half pints, or 1.4 litres – in 11 seconds, then a world record.
It is proposed that an official blue plaque, dozens of which are dotted around Oxford commemorating the achievements of such luminaries as Edmund Halley, TE Lawrence, JRR Tolkien and Roger Bannister – should be placed in St Helen’s Passage, a narrow, winding thoroughfare which leads to the Turf Tavern where Hawke’s record is widely believed to have been set, though Hawke himself maintained the feat was achieved in a nearby college dining room.
Labor party luminaries Gareth Evans and Kevin Rudd have lent their support to the blue plaque proposal.
“Oxford didn’t tame Bob Hawke – as the proposed plaque near the Turf would no doubt make clear – but it was certainly formative intellectually, rounding out the skill-sets and instincts that made him one of Australia’s longest-serving, greatest, and internationally influential prime ministers. It would be great if the city could appropriately recognise him,” Evans, foreign minister in Hawke’s governments, said.
Oxford Labour councillor and former lord mayor Susanna Pressel said Hawke’s achievements in government – especially in fighting inequality and injustice, such as his efforts to end apartheid – should be recognised.
“We are proud to be an international city that welcomes people from all over the world. Bob Hawke deserves our admiration for all he did to fight against racism and inequality, both in Australia and more widely. Such principles should be celebrated, perhaps especially when they seem to be under threat.”
Hawke’s 11-second mark is the stuff of legend around Oxford, but there is some conjecture as to where the record actually took place. His Guinness Book of World Records entry cites Oxford, and the Turf Tavern pub – a 14th century pub that historically was the home of Oxford’s sly bookmakers, just outside the city walls – has a blackboard marking the achievement.
The Turf was also the watering hole of Oscar Wilde during his time at Oxford, as well as where Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher drank. It was the place, reputedly, where Bill Clinton “did not inhale” from a marijuana joint.
However, the version of events laid down by Hawke in his memoirs insists the world record was set not at the Turf but at the nearby dining hall of University College, one of the constituent colleges of Oxford University where Hawke was a student, as an arcane punishment for failing to wear his academic gown to dinner.
“Some bastard had ‘borrowed’ mine,” Hawke wrote, and as a punishment he was “sconced”, forced to beat the “sconcemaster” in drinking from a pewter pot – equivalent to a yard glass – or face a fine.
“I was too broke for the fine and necessity became the mother of ingestion. I downed the contents of the pot in eleven seconds, left the sconcemaster floundering, and entered the Guinness Book of Records with the fastest time ever recorded.
“This feat was to endear me to some of my fellow Australians more than anything else I ever achieved.”
It is also entirely possible – indeed, not implausible – that Hawke may have skolled more than one yard glass during his time at Oxford.
He famously “gave up the drink” in order to become prime minister, but in his retirement showed he had not lost the skill. Into his 80s, he was regularly spotted on TV, usually at the cricket, skolling beers given to him by members of the public.