Naughty prefects
The Warden gave permission to Spyers [Senior Prefect] and Thynne [Prefect] to dine in Oxford with Risley [former Senior Prefect]. We were all very much annoyed and surprised, especially after what had been said the other day against allowing boys to go to Undergraduates’ rooms. West and I sat up in Common Room till 11 o’clock for them and then found they had arrived at 10¼ in the phaeton and climbed into the Dormitory through the window without reporting themselves.

William Wood’s Diary 1855-1861, ed. by Mark Spurrell, is available from Oxfordshire Record Society. These excerpts are presented to give a flavour of life at Radley in the 1850s