Attendance at a New College Commemoration Ball can be a highlight of a student’s time at the college. The latest one, held on Saturday, 28 June 2025, was a suitably grand affair, perhaps befitting its antecedents, or was it? As arguably the major event in the college’s social calendar, occurring only every three years, it has received short shrift in published college histories.  It is worth considering how it has developed over time, including when it might have started, seeing as it does focus considerable resources of the college and it does entail the transformation of the college into a major party venue, requiring no small budgetary outlay, and student and staff input.

1902 New College Ball survivors photo
New College Archives, Oxford, NCA JCR/R/Loraine/2

New College Library and Archives, Oxford