Missing hand from Cambridge College clock returned decades after student prank

The hour hand of a chapel clock that was taken in a student prank and replaced with a cardboard copy has been returned to a Cambridge University College around 100 years later.

Trixie Baker inherited the hour hand upon the death of her father, Gonville and Caius College graduate Geoffrey Hunter Baker, in 1999 aged 83.

Mr Baker and an unnamed fellow undergraduate had taken the clock hands under cover of darkness and replaced them with cardboard copies, taking and keeping a hand each.

“These worked very well until it rained,” Ms Baker said.

The College replaced the hands and it appears the perpetrators of the prank were not known until now.

The minute hand remains missing.

Mr Baker started as a modern languages student at Gonville and Caius in 1934 and graduated in 1937, with the prank happening during this time.

His daughter returned the hour hand to Gonville and Caius, the fourth oldest College in Cambridge University, on a visit late last year.

It now resides in the College Archive alongside other tales of student pranks – known as “rags”.

While we don’t encourage students to take part in such pranks, I am happy to learn about them years later, when no-one has been hurt and no permanent damage has been done – and they’ve graduated

College archivist James Cox said: “I was delighted to welcome Trixie to the College and to receive the clock hand.

“Learning of student escapades is part of the College’s long and varied history.

“While we don’t encourage students to take part in such pranks, I am happy to learn about them years later, when no-one has been hurt and no permanent damage has been done – and they’ve graduated!”

Gonville and Caius was first founded as Gonville Hall by Edmund Gonville, Rector of Terrington St Clement in Norfolk, in 1348.

It was re-founded in 1557 by John Caius as Gonville and Caius College.

In 1958, engineering students from the College were responsible for placing an Austin Seven van on the roof of Senate House, Cambridge University’s ceremonial building where graduation ceremonies take place.

In 1921, Gonville and Caius students secretly spirited away a six-ton German artillery gun from Jesus Close and displayed it in Caius Court.

Anyone with information about the missing minute hand is asked to contact the College archivist via the College website.