About Us | Constitution | Who’s Who
CUCA was founded in its present form in 1921, although Conservative groups in Cambridge have existed since at least 1882. Since then, the Association has nurtured the talents of a great many men and women who have gone on to become leading figures in Conservative politics and thought.
Twenty-two former chairmen have been elected to Parliament since Lent 1950, including eight in a row from Michaelmas 1959 to Lent 1962, many of whom served in the cabinets of Thatcher and Major. These include Kenneth Clarke (Home Secretary 1992-93, Chancellor of the Exchequer 1993-97, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice 2010- ), Douglas Hurd (Home Secretary 1985-89, Foreign Secretary 1989-95), and Norman Lamont (Chancellor of the Exchequer 1990-93). The current President, The Lord Howard, served as Home Secretary under Major and went on to lead the Party. He was never chairman, having resigned in protest at Kenneth Clarke’s decision to invite Sir Oswald Mosley to speak. Nevertheless, he remains intimately connected to the Association and continues to address CUCA every year.
Four chairmen from the 1970s have since become MPs, among them Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for International Development, who is our current vice-president.
Recent CUCA additions to the Conservatives’ Parliamentary ranks include Greg Hands (Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer) and Graham Stuart, both of whom were chairmen in the 1980s. A full list of former chairmen can be found elsewhere on the website, but look out for Tam Dalyell, Labour MP from 1962 to 2005!
Throughout its history, CUCA has been no stranger to controversy. Indeed, as early as 1928, the St John’s College magazine “The Eagle” described “a Cambridge Conservative [association member as] the proud possessor of a certain tie, obtained by signifying with a subscription his refusal or his inability to think out any social question.” The Association has been outspoken on a number of great issues – most notably in stance in favour of Appeasement and its support for the Suez invasion – and has continued to invite speakers of the highest, if not the least contentious, calibre.
The Chairman’s dinner (first held on the 21st of January, 1921) continues to provide a termly focus for merriment, but the Association’s relaxed and welcoming ethos is, perhaps, best encapsulated by the legend surrounding its tie. The story runs that R. A. Butler, having been commissioned to design a tie, left the decision until the last minute and simply accepted the first patterns offered to him by the clerk at Ede and Ravenscroft. True or not, it seems about right.