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Dark Days: 1961 - 1981

From the early 1950s to 1967, the raids and kidnaps by King’s, UCL, Imperial, LSE and Queen Mary began to wane. But dark days were ahead. Early one May morning in 1967, a group of students were returning with Reggie from a trip to see the King’s team compete in the final of University Challenge. The group were attacked by some 30 UCL students, who made off with Reggie in the back of the car. Early reports that Reggie had been spirited away to Bangkok seemed spurious and so King’s students waited for a sign or ransom demand, none came.

 

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Days dragged into weeks, weeks into months. Eventually, Reggie was discovered, far from home, by a Dentist. Someone had pushed Reggie off a cliff into the Devil’s Punch-bowl, a huge quarry-like pit near Guildford. Reggie was in a very poor state. His back legs were completely destroyed, as was his tail, and he was cracked and almost flattened. Whoever had stolen him had violated the unwritten code of Mascotry: that no Mascot should ever be severely damaged or destroyed, and every Mascotry Raid must be reported to the owners of the Mascot.

In true six-million dollar man fashion, the Engineers said: ‘We can rebuild him’, and worked hard to give Reggie a new set of legs and repair most of the damage. He was well enough again by 1978 to attend the Lord Mayor’s Show.

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