The Queen's College Record 2020

Not all servants could work away from Oxford, even when these positions were
available. Married servants with families likely found the prospect of months away from
home after the long working hours of the terms to be burdensome.
Articles
One particularly sad case concerns Daniel Styles, a young college servant at All Souls,
who worked as a butler’s assistant in the late nineteenth century. He was a keen
cricketer with the college servants’ team, an active member of the College Servants’
Society and appeared assured of a successful career in college service. In the summer
of 1892, Daniel fell ill and died of kidney failure while working as a waiter at the Granby
Hotel in Harrogate during the Long Vacation. Styles left behind his pregnant widow
Kate and several young children. The CSS held a fundraiser to raise money for Kate
Styles to set up in business as a licensed lodging-house keeper, work she continued
until her retirement.
Most female college servants similarly suffered a loss of income in the vacations, but
resort employment was only available for men. Outside of terms, there was little work
for college laundresses and only a few senior women were employed year-round in
other positions, typically as cleaners on the staircases and in the kitchens. Many of
these women looked for work in private households as charwomen.
During the terms Eliza Haynes, a scout’s assistant at Oriel College in the late
nineteenth century, worked on the staircases in the mornings. She took on other
domestic work in the afternoons, including working as a cleaner for Rev. Walter
Lock, the Warden of Keble College. It was through Lock that Haynes found summer
employment, traveling with Lock’s family each summer to their home on the Isle of
Wight where she worked as their cook. Her daughter Alma went along as well, to
provide help in the nursery with the family’s younger children. 4
Resort work paid relatively well and many servants recalled enjoying the experience.
In his 1953 autobiography, Fred Bickerton, the long-serving head porter at University
College wrote:
‘The under-scout had no salary from the College; he depended on what his
undergraduates gave him, and the Term’s emoluments rarely came to more than
ten pounds. Moreover, there were only three Terms, and they left six months in the
year during which we had to find alternative employment. It was the custom for us
to take jobs as waiters in seaside hotels where there was a seasonal demand. I
must say the experience was useful, as well as the money, and it certainly helped
us to serve more efficiently in College. I went one year to Llandrindod Wells and
two years to Lowestoft and busy as it was, I always enjoyed the change of place
and the crowds of new faces. …After those three years the College always found
some work for me to do during the Vacations, and so I remained in Oxford.’ 5
Bob Dickens and his father, then both servants at New College, worked as waiters in
the Lake District during the Long Vacations. Dickens recalled that in 1919, the lack of
112 The Queen’s College | College Record 2020