G. D. H. Cole as An Undergraduate

Abstract

When I entered Balliol in 1909, with two abominable little rooms over the Front Porch, there was more handsomely and spaciously housed in the Garden Quad an undergraduate with a reputation for socialism, conversation, and hospitality. This was the old Pauline, George Douglas Howard Cole. Nobody called him George; nor, at that time, was he known as Douglas. Many people called him O. This strange abbreviation was due to the methods of address used in his forms of speech by one of the College staff, Mr. Pusey. We were expected then to collect our weekly bills in Hall, answering Mr. Pusey’s roll-call. Three names, all later on to be illustrious, came together on his list, H. J. Paton, P. Guedalla, and G. D. H. Cole. Mr. Pusey was not wasting his breath on consonants. What he seemed to read out was ‘A. Arlar. O.’ O has since been Douglas, never George, to many, but in a world that has given up initials for Christian names, he has remained G. D. H.