Thursday 31 May 2007

Finsbury Square Zombie Club: a short history

The Finsbury Square Zombie Club was founded in 1872 by Sir Ralph Coates. Sir Ralph was a bank manager who noticed one day that his staff were looking extremely zombified. He put this down to the boring nature of the work and decided that very moment to form the zombie club. He is reported to have said, 'They may be zombies, but they still need relaxation time.' He received his knighthood in 1900 for services to banking and for his commitment to zombie welfare.

The club was remarkably popular with financial workers in the City of London, but did not accept its first female member until after the Second World War. Her name was Emily Scott and she was soon followed by many other ladies. Things remained more or less the same until the late 1960s when a gang of Hell's Angels tried to join. There was a great deal of upheaval for a while, but the Hell's Angels soon got worn down by the zombies and moved on to open a tea room in Devon where they remain to this day.

Dougie Smith, who became club secretary in 1990, says, 'The Finsbury Square Zombie Club has a proud history of promoting zombie culture in the UK. It's something we take very seriously. In some countries - Haiti, for example - zombies face terrible discrimination. We are leading the world, showing how zombies play a vital role not only in the economy but in society as a whole.'