Founded in 1921, the Coningsby Club has existed for over a century allowing Oxford and Cambridge alumni to continue to engage with the Conservative cause.
About the Coningsby Club
The Coningsby Club is a dining club founded in 1921 to help keep Conservatively-minded students from Oxford and Cambridge, including alumni of OUCA and CUCA, in touch with each other and intellectually with the Conservative cause after leaving university.
The Coningsby Club hosts regular meetings which usually involve dinner in London with a leading luminary of political or public life, including prominent (often Cabinet level) figures from politics, academia, the Church, journalism, and the arts, as well as hosting other social events throughout the year.
As well as enabling members and their guests to dine with distinguished public figures, the Coningsby Club helps members to keep in touch with friends made in politics at University and also meet other like-minded people. Many members go on to become MPs including, most recently, Kwasi Kwarteng, Victoria Prentis, and Alan Mak to name a few.
The Coningsby is one of the oldest Conservative dining societies. It is named for Disraeli’s eponymous novel where he sets out his Young England credo emphasising Queen, Church, and noblesse oblige. Members today comprise the full range of schools of conservative thought and are entitled to bring guests with them. You do not have to have attended Oxbridge to come as a guest to the dinners – everyone is welcome.
In that spirit of paternalism, dinners are subsidised so as to keep the cost down for younger members – or ‘The New Generation’ as Disraeli put it in the alternative title to his book. This is enabled by a very modest membership fee which also covers the cost of administration. The dinners and drinks before and after offer a unique chance to meet and converse with leading public and private figures amongst the membership and their guests.
Many nationally known Oxford and Cambridge Conservative politicians went on to the Coningsby Club after OUCA or CUCA so you will be in good company. There is also a large and thriving cohort of younger members. Membership is by invitation only and requires an application supported by existing members to be approved by the Club. To enquire about membership, click here.
Our famous Coningsby Club Bell is engraved with all our former Chairmen, including many notable names such as our President, Lord Howard of Lympne, Lord Lawson, Lord Lamont, Jeremy Hunt, Reginald Maudling, Andrew Mitchell, and Lord Rees-Mogg. Further details of our history may be found here and a full list of former Chairmen may be found here.
Recent Events
2019-20 (Chairman – Devon Howard)
Dinners with Jeremy Hunt MP and Professor Robert Tombs.
2018-19 (Chairman – William Hess)
Dinners with: Rt Hon David Gauke MP; Rt Hon Damian Green MP; The Rt Rev. and the Rt Hon. Lord Chartres GCVO; Esther McVey MP; Victoria Prentis MP; Professor Andrew Roberts; Rt Hon Gavin Williamson MP; Lord Black of Brentwood.
2017-18 (Chairman – George Mawhinney)
Dinners with: Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke CH QC MP; Rt Hon the Lord Tebbit CH; Rt Hon the Earl Howe; Rt Hon Jeremy Wright QC MP; Sir Graham Brady MP; Rt Hon Amber Rudd MP; Rt Hon the Lord Lamont of Lerwick; Rt Hon Sir John Major KG CH.
Coningsby Club 