BALLIOL Boys’ Club provided activities for Oxford youngsters for more than 60 years.

It survived the 1930s’ Depression and two world wars to maintain its position as the city’s first and foremost boys’ club.

It was formed in 1907 after a meeting of “young gentlemen from Balliol College” decided to start a boys’ club, to be run by undergraduates, in the deprived parish of St Ebbe’s.

An old sweet factory in Littlegate Street was acquired as a meeting place.

The club’s history book records that “a surging crowd of boys besieged the premises on the opening night”.

The formation of the club in the former Star Confectionery factory had been announced by the curate, the Rev Marks, at the Sunday afternoon service at Holy Trinity Church hall in St Ebbe’s.

One early member, Cyril Pearce, later recalled: “Afterwards, we received an invitation to go there at 8 o’clock. Long before this hour, Littlegate Street had not seen so many boys congregated there before, and the residents say the din was terrific.

“We eventually trooped in, were ushered into the gym, or ‘bashing room’ as it was affectionately known, made members and instructed in our do’s and don’ts.”

A notable event in its history was the opening of new premises in St Ebbe’s in February 1921.

The former sweet factory had become rundown and after the First World War, a decision to taken to replace it.

The new building was called Keith Rae House, after one of the early leaders, who was killed in the war.

Doubters who had predicted that the student ‘toffs’ would lose interest in helping working-class boys and that the club would have a short existence, were proved wrong.

Under a succession of inspired leaders, it provided a range of indoor and outdoor activities for generations of boys, including football, cricket, boxing and drama.

The club held a dinner at Balliol College to mark its golden jubilee in 1957, attended by 150 past and present members.

The Master of Balliol, Sir David Lindsay Keir, told guests: “The club is still strong, healthy and friendly, and a place such as its founders might well have been proud of.

“What is recalled this evening is not the building or the club activities, but an enduring set of personal friendships for which the club has stood.

“Friendship has been its great quality and a thing that boys and men have sought there and have found and kept.”

Although the club closed in 1971, a centenary dinner was held at the college in 2007 and former members maintain their interest in the club through the Balliol Boys’ Club Association, which holds an annual reunion. Profits from the reunion are used to support youth clubs in the city.

For details of the association’s activities, contact the president, John Kempson, on 01865 721784.