Cambridge launches probe into deleted promotional video that ‘censored plaque to Tobias Rustat’

A promotional video released by Cambridge University has mysteriously seen a controversial memorial to a 17th century benefactor who invested in slave-trading companies erased from its footage.

The clip advertising the prestigious university to prospective students seemingly blurred an inscribed memorial to Tobias Rustat, a former Cambridge University donor who invested in the Royal African Company.

The video, posted to social media yesterday afternoon before it was hastily deleted, appeared to show a dark blur inside the Grade-I listed chapel at Jesus College where the marble bust to Rustat stands.

Today, the university shared a separate promotional video on social media that showed Jesus College without panning up to show the Rustat memorial. 

Several commenters noticed and questioned the decision to omit the controversial plaque – which still exists today after the university was denied permission to move the monument which sits inside Jesus College’s 776-year-old chapel.

It comes just weeks after the college’s bid to have the memorial permanently relocated to a museum was struck down by an independent ecclesiastical court.

 Sonita Alleyne, the college’s master, said that the facts of Rustat’s involvement in the slave trade had been ‘very clearly proven’ and that those supporting its removal would be on the ‘right side of history’.

Screenshots from the video show a dark blur inside the Grade I-listed chapel, where the memorial is normally positioned on a wall.

A Cambridge University spokesperson said: ‘A video was posted in error on our social media channels and we have taken it down while we investigate further.’ 

Earlier this year 160 clergy, including a former Archbishop of Canterbury and two bishops, signed a letter to the Church Times expressing their opposition to the decision preventing the college from moving the memorial to an alternative space.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby also backed their campaign, asking: ‘Why is it so much agony to remove a memorial to slavery?’. 

Ms Alleyne said: ‘Last spring, the Church committed to taking action. This judgment demonstrates the inadequacies of the Church process for addressing issues of racial injustice and contested memorialisation. It is not fit for purpose.

‘There is a much overdue debate happening within the Church about how best to face up to the legacy of racial injustice. We will continue to keep up the pressure, because this matters to our students.’

A rare ecclesiastical court with a church-appointed judge decided in March that the 300-year-old memorial would not be removed because attempts had been based on a ‘false narrative’. 

The plans to removal the plaque sparked accusations that the college was trying to cancel Rustat, who was one of Jesus College’s largest benefactors before the 20th century.

Opponents of its removal also argued that Rustat’s links to the Transatlantic slave trade had been exaggerated, because he had a relatively small investment in a company that traded slaves and the majority of his wealth came from his work for the king.

The Church court case had concluded the attempt was based on a ‘false narrative’, and said the memorial should remain in place as a reminder of ‘the imperfection of human beings’.

The Reverend James Crockford, Dean of Chapel at Jesus College, said: ‘This was a test case for the Church.’

‘While the college considers its next steps, it is clear that, if the Church of England wishes to take diversity and inclusion seriously, it cannot ignore the implications of this decision for the wider mission of the Church to be a place where all are welcome.’

Rustat was a courtier under Charles II and a major benefactor to Cambridge University, but became a target for campaigners due to his involvement with the Royal African Company which operated on the west coast of Africa in the later 17th century under royal charter.

The college accused Rustat of ‘financial and administrative involvement in the trading of enslaved human beings over a substantial period of time’.

But objectors highlighted the move as an example of cancel culture, which could open dangerous floodgates leading to the removal of monuments to many more historical figures.

The case was heard by a judge specially appointed by the Bishop of Huntingdon because the ornate memorial is housed in a world-renowned Grade-I historic building and an ecclesiastical environment.

Jesus College had urged that ‘any harm caused to the significance of the chapel as a building of special architectural and historic interest by the removal of the Rustat memorial is substantially outweighed by the resulting public benefits, in terms of pastoral wellbeing and opportunities for mission’.

But the Diocese of Ely, which has jurisdiction over the chapel, ruled that the bid to remove the plaque was based on a ‘false narrative’ about the source of Rustat’s wealth.

The court case emphasised that Rustat did not benefit financially from his investments. Deputy Chancellor David Hodge QC of the Diocese of Ely, who decided the case, said that Rustat’s investments in the Company of Royal Adventurers Trading into Africa brought him ‘no financial returns at all’.

He said that the case for taking down the plaque was the product of a ‘false narrative’ that ‘Rustat had amassed much of his wealth from the slave trade, and that it was moneys from this source that he used to benefit the college’.

But Jesus College said that this is ‘irrelevant’ and that what mattered was Rustat’s active involvement in the trade.