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This week’s unlikely hero is Colin Brough, a former theatre producer expelled from London’s Garrick Club for “conduct unbecoming of a gentleman”. In military law this can mean lying, criminal activity, bullying, sexual harassment or assault, and can entail a court martial. At the Garrick, it means “excessive use of e-mail”. Brough’s crime was to challenge a stubborn gynophobia that has made the club the last of its kind to bar women members. A member for 40 years, Brough sent emails suggesting that since the membership had actually voted in favour of admitting women in December, it might be time to go ahead and admit them. As a result, Brough was summoned to a meeting with the Garrick’s chairman on 1 February and charged with conduct unbecoming. Anyone wondering what Brough has given up with his lone appeal to enter the 21st century might want to read Giles Coren’s 2022 Times review of the Garrick’s restaurant. He ate with a friend who said “this club must have felt pretty amazing when there were no restaurants and everyone else was home boiling a weasel or something”.
