Jeremy Bentham makes surprise visit to UCL Council

Jeremy Bentham was recorded as 'present but not voting' in of one of the most popular Bentham legends yesterday as he made a surprise appearance at Professor Sir Malcolm Grant's last ever UCL Council meeting. While the auto-icon normally resides at the end of the South Cloisters, one of the most commonly recounted stories is that the Auto-Icon regularly attends meetings of the College Council, and that it is solemnly wheeled into the Council Room to take its place among the present-day members. Its presence, it is claimed, is always recorded in the minutes with the words 'Jeremy Bentham - present but not voting'. Another version of the story asserts that the Auto-Icon does vote, but only on occasions when the votes of the other Council members are equally split. In these cases the Auto-Icon invariably votes for the motion. The cabinet in the South Cloisters normally contains Bentham's preserved skeleton, dressed in his own clothes, and surmounted by a wax head. Bentham requested that his body be preserved in this way in his will made shortly before his death on 6 June 1832.