the queen’s college€¦ · the queen’s college newsletter issue nineteen hilary term 2012...

the Queen’s Collegenewsletter

03/12issue nineteen Hilary Term 2012

Page 2 A letter from the Provost Page 3 Carrodus Quad Pages 4-7 News from the College Page 8 Yule Feast

Pages 9 Letters to the Editors Pages 10-11 The Shulman Auditorium 2 A letter from the Old Members’ Officer

Our responses to the recent changes in student funding arrangements and regulatory structures have so far tended to focus on the formal aspects of education. Other aspects of College life, which add greatly to the value of the university experience, have

not featured in our replies to these challenges. The opportunity to participate in “extracurricular activities” of various kinds is, nevertheless, a very significant part of what the College offers. I have good news and warnings of future difficulties to offer, as well as a number of examples of how Old Members are helping to make these opportunities available.

Under the “extracurricular” heading, thoughts first turn to such activities as music, drama, and sport. The College’s role here, it seems to me, is to make appropriate facilities available and then to let students get on with it. Apart from comradeship, happy memories and (in some cases) improved skills, developing the relationships required to make a collective activity successful is enormously formative. This is especially true now that so much pre-university education and experience is gained in a very prescriptive and controlled environment. I take enormous pleasure in, for example, watching eight young women (and one other) collaborate to make a boat go well, especially when many of them have never felt moved to do anything in a team context before. The cooperative air within the College is greatly improved by these activities. The completion of the Shulman Auditorium has greatly extended our in-house facilities and already we have seen new, student-led activity in the formation of a foreign film society, the arrangement of talks by outside speakers, and the planning of new types of musical and theatrical performance.

The sporting picture is a bit more mixed. Participation in football and rowing is very high; in rowing the Old Members’ 1837 Society has been enormously helpful in providing boats and keeping the facilities up to scratch. But, more generally, intercollegiate sport needs an injection of new thinking across the university. Colleges provide some excellent sports grounds, and the facilities for traditional sports like football, rugby and cricket are well maintained, but the provision has not kept up with the changing patterns in the student body. Half the students are female and a substantial proportion comes from overseas countries with no experience of these sports, so there is an increased interest in indoor sports like basketball, badminton, dance and martial arts. The traditional female field sport of hockey is now almost exclusively played on all-weather pitches, and the standard of college tennis/netball courts is now largely parlous. The University Sports Federation lists 88 sports (!), but even its

own facilities for supporting most of them are inadequate. The extent to which these activities should be conducted on an intercollegiate basis, rather than as University clubs, needs to be assessed and then cooperative arrangements between colleges and other bodies made to provide facilities of a standard which might be found elsewhere to support those activities which are college-based. Such cooperation might mean several colleges jointly constructing a floodlit all-weather pitch or a sports hall, for example. As many Old Members will be aware, Queen’s has a particular interest in how to plan for the future, as our lease on the present sports ground falls in in 2026.

There are a number of ways in which Queen’s students are supported to travel in vacations to broaden their horizons (as well as for purposes directly connected with their course of study). Recent examples include a month-long stay for a PPE student in North-Eastern Nigeria to study sustainable agriculture (hosted by an Old Member who has lived there for many years) and an extended stay in a remote part of Thailand for a medic to work with a particular tribe. The College itself supports those trips which have some connection to the course of study, and valuable support has also been provided by the Old Members’ 650th Anniversary Fund, especially for some of the more ambitious excursions. Some of these trips are life-changing, opening up new horizons. A quote from a recently graduated historian illustrates the point: “Next year I move to Tokyo to learn Japanese. I have been fortunate to have gained a DAIWA scholarship; had the College not provided funds for my research in Japan last year I would not have obtained this. Hopefully I will then be able to resume my research making using of my new language skills.”

Although we always emphasise the value of the educational experience itself, rather than as vocational training, opportunities to help students into a good career path are definitely welcomed, particularly in these difficult times. This is especially the case for students who have not taken one of the more obviously career-related degrees and for those who are not drawn to the mainstream activities which are well represented in the Career Service. Recently some Old Members have been able to offer shadowing opportunities to current students, which allows them to sample a particular career path and will hopefully help to open up suitable career opportunities. For example, several humanities students, who had expressed an interest in pursuing a legal career after graduation, have benefitted from the chance to spend some time marshalling for a Crown Court Judge, and all have subsequently obtained funded places on law conversion courses.

I hope you will excuse this departure from the normal offering of targets, finance, access matters, and so on to allow a celebration of some of the less obvious things which the extended College community is able to offer.

A letter from the Provost Professor Paul Madden FRS FRSE


Contributors:Sarah DaleyRoberta GregoliPaul MaddenMichael Riordan

Editors:Emily Downing & Andrew Timms

Cover photograph:David Thrower

Published by:The Old Members’ OfficeThe Queen’s CollegeOxfordOX1 4AW

[email protected]

T: +44 (0)1865 279214

F: +44 (0)1865 279150

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Queen’s Lane Quad has been renamed as the Carrodus Quad. The College’s Governing Body decided to do this to honour an Old Member, Dr Bailey Carrodus, who left a very large sum of money to the College when he died in 2008. His bequest funded the extensive refurbishment and modernisation of the Quadrangle.


Carrodus Quad

What has happened to Queen’s Lane Quad?

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He was a pioneering Australian winemaker whose vineyard, Yarra Yering, produced some of the most distinctive and highly regarded wines to emerge from the continent in recent decades. He matriculated at Queen’s in 1962 and began a DPhil on plant physiology. At College he was President of the MCR whilst working on a thesis that eventually bore the title ‘Absorption and assimilation of nitrogen compounds by Mycorrhizas’.

Further information about his life and wines can be found in the December 2010 College Record, which contained a full obituary.

Who was Bailey Carrodus?

Newsfrom the College


MCR 50th AnniversaryThe birth of the Queen’s College Middle Common Room dates to Trinity Term 1962. At the request of Queen’s graduate students, the Governing Body voted for its official creation under the name of the Graduate Club. Under its first President, Australia-born Brian Salter-Duke, the Graduate Club was the first official graduate students’ organisation of its kind in College, and the official antecedent of the MCR. Queen’s was the second college to create such a club, after Lincoln – and it is believed that the very idea of having a graduate club/MCR came to Queen’s from Lincoln via Provost Florey.

This year’s celebrations follow a format that started in 2002, when the then President Chris Ballinger (currently a Fellow at Exeter) organised the celebrations for the MCR’s 40th anniversary. The preparations for the 50th anniversary started in 2010, as an initiative of then President Luigi Prada, and are now being carried out by the current President, Roberta Gregoli.

The MCR now is a thriving international community of over 140 members, and the executive committee (listed below) comprises graduate students from all corners of the world: Western and Eastern Europe, Asia, the Middle East, North America, South America, and Africa.

As part of the anniversary celebrations, the MCR is collecting anecdotes about the MCR and college life as a graduate. If you would like to share anything that you consider interesting or relevant to the history of the MCR (or simply funny), please email it to [email protected].

The MCR’s official website can be accessed at http://mcr.queens.ox.ac.uk/ and you can find us also on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/groups/2219898304/

Top left to right: Zeynab Raeesy, Conor O’Brien, Yasmina Borhani, Shaoyan Liang, Simon Scrace, Arto BelekdanianBottom left to right: Roberta Gregoli, Marc Dragon, Irina Iovita, Qian Liu

A match to remember 9 March 2012 is the 20th anniversary of Queen’s winning football Cuppers. This is an event which is fondly remembered by those who took part and has sustained some lifelong friendships. The score in the final was 0-0 after extra time. Queen’s won the penalty shoot-out 4-3 with the scorers being Pritchard, Kenny, Stuttard and Gannon.

Garry Stuttard (Chemistry, 1986)

Official squad photo(Back) Garry Stuttard, Richard Keady, Simon Glendinning, Mark Whitehead, Simon Sutcliffe, Charles Allday, Tom Williams

(Front) Paul Gannon, Robert Isbell, Jonathan Pritchard, Matt Kenny, Heath Monk

Student voicesDue to a recent surge in demand, Old Members are now able to subscribe to the student publications Cherwell, Isis and Bang! online. Old Members can use the following link: http://www.ospl.org/subscriptions/ to choose from a variety of packages, delivered directly to one’s home or office.

Cherwell is an award-winning newspaper which, over the last 90 years, has secured its place as Oxford’s only independent and entirely student-run publication. Isis is Britain’s oldest student magazine, famous for its high-profile interviews and iconic features. Bang! is a recently formed science magazine, which presents scientific news and longer features in an accessible style. Cherwell is printed weekly (eight copies a term) and Isis and Bang! are printed once a term.

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Anna Greenway (PPE, 1999)

I joined London 2012 at the start of 2011 as Deputy Manger, Venue Press Operations – in short this means I lead on the planning across five Olympic and Paralympic venues (encompassing 14 Olympic and 10 Paralympic sports) ensuring the media will have everything they need at those venues to cover the Games effectively.

During the Olympics you’ll find me looking after the media at Horse Guards Parade and then at Greenwich Park for the Paralympics. I can honestly say this is the job of a lifetime – I get to work with some really great people and face new and interesting challenges every day, watching something truly amazing grow (at speed!) around me (and quite literally from our office window!).



A Winning TeamThe following Queensmen and women are involved in the forthcoming Olympic Games. There may well be others out there – do let us know!

Kat Stephens (Jurisprudence, 1999)

I’ve been on secondment to the LOCOG legal team from Freshfields law firm (the official legal services provider to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games) since May 2009. I have worked on a number of different projects, providing legal advice to the commercial/licensing and broadcast teams but my principal role is on the London 2012 Torch Relays. My job has been to draft and negotiate a wide range of contracts, including the agreements for sponsorship and broadcasting, the design of the torch and the route itself, and to provide general legal advice to the team about anything from music rights to data protection issues.

Simon Taaffe (Physics, 2000)

Since starting at LOCOG in 2005 my role within the Finance department has developed as the organisation has grown. My current position as Asset Controller involves working with the teams responsible for buying all London 2012 equipment, ensuring everything is tracked in and out of venues.

I provide management reporting to our Technology and Logistics departments, as well as reporting to external stakeholders such as our insurers and Government.

My role continues into 2013, arranging the sale and disposal of all Games time kit, meaning I will have been on the organising committee throughout its unique lifetime.

Julie Nelson (History, 2000)

I have been on secondment to LOCOG from the Department of Communities and Local Government since September 2011, working in the Communications team.

I am responsible for ensuring that the communities around four of the London venues get all the information they need to plan for the Games in their area. This involves working with councils, Transport for London and a number of other LOCOG teams to coordinate messages and communicate with those residents and businesses who will be affected by having the Olympics on their doorstep.

Though busy and often challenging, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being part of such a unique and exciting event.

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An invitation from Bodley’s Librarian To all Oxford DPhil authors,

Response to the Bodleian Libraries’ call for DPhil theses to be digitized has been extremely good (and if you have already proposed your thesis for digitization, there is no need to contact us again). We are pleased to let you know that there is still an opportunity to take up this offer and add your thesis digitized to the Bodleian’s digital collections at no charge Theses in digital format are rapidly becoming ubiquitous, as scholars want to make their research widely available and easily find the work of others. Thanks to the generosity and vision of Dr Leonard Polonsky, the Bodleian Libraries are able to offer to digitize a number of Oxford DPhil theses. This opportunity enables us to add to the growing Oxford digital thesis collection, and should result in new citations of your work.

Digital copies will be made available online in ORA (Oxford University Research Archive, http://ora.ox.ac.uk/). ORA is the university’s principal online collection of research outputs produced by Oxford scholars. It offers high visibility for Oxford research. Wherever possible, the full text of research is made freely available for easy online access. You can find out more about Oxford digital theses at www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ora/oxford_etheses.

If you would like us to digitize your thesis and make it available in ORA, please reply to [email protected] as soon as possible, providing the information below:

* YOUR NAME (AS IT APPEARS ON YOUR THESIS)

* THE TITLE OF YOUR THESIS

* THE YEAR OF YOUR THESIS * IF POSSIBLE, THE BODLEIAN SHELFMARK OF

YOUR THESIS ON SOLO [EG MS.D.PHIL. D.2804] (YOU MAY BE ABLE TO FIND

THIS AT HTTP://SOLO.BODLEIAN.OX.AC.UK/)

* AN EMAIL (OR POSTAL) ADDRESS WHERE WE CAN CONTACT YOU

ALSO, PLEASE INDICATE YOUR RESPONSES TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

* DO YOU GRANT THE BODLEIAN LIBRARIES PERMISSION TO DIGITIZE THE PRINT

COPY OF YOUR THESIS AND MAKE THE DIGITAL COPY AVAILABLE ONLINE IN ORA?

* I AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THE ORA GRANT OF NON-

EXCLUSIVE LICENCE [WWW.BODLEIAN.OX.AC.UK/ORA/DEPOSIT-IN-ORA/

DEPOSIT-LICENCE] AND I WARRANT THAT TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE,

MAKING MY THESIS AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET WILL NOT INFRINGE

COPYRIGHT OR ANY OTHER RIGHTS OF ANY OTHER PERSON OR PARTY, NOR

CONTAIN DEFAMATORY MATERIAL.

If you already have a digital copy of your thesis which you would like to deposit in ORA, please contact [email protected] . I very much hope you will take advantage of this exciting opportunity.

Sally RumseDigital Collections Development Manager Please send details for the digitization of your thesis to: [email protected]

Medal for Old MemberThe 2012 Royal Society’s Leeuwenhoek Lecture will be given by Prof Brad Amos FRS (Zoology, 1963). The Leeuwenhoek Lecture is given triennially. It was originally established to recognise excellence in the field of microbiology but now also includes excellence in bacteriology, virology, mycology and parasitology, and microscopy. Professor Amos was awarded the 2012 Leeuwenhoek Lecture for his exceptional impact on the field of cell biology through his invention of confocal microscopy. His lecture is entitled ‘How new science is transforming the optical microscope’. The lecture can be viewed on the Royal Society website after 13 February: http://royalsociety.org/awards/leeuwenhoek-lecture/.

College appoints Schools Liaison and Outreach Officer

I am Ellen Marsh, The Queen’s College’s Schools Liaison and Outreach Officer. This is a new post at the College, and one that will create and maintain links with schools in Cumbria, Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool, Lancashire,

Lewisham and Sutton. In June I completed a BA in English Language and Literature at Exeter College. As a student there I became interested in the outreach work performed by the College and the University. My education at a North London state comprehensive made me aware of the importance of ensuring that the correct information about university is available to students with potential, regardless of background. I hope that within this role at Queen’s I can provide this information, making school students aware of what they can achieve and encouraging them to apply.

Ellen MarshSchools Liaison and Outreach Officer [email protected] 01865 279493

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Why did your life turn out this way?Your life is a story. It is better than any book you have ever read. Your story defines who you are and what happens to you. Ever since you were a child, you have been writing your own life script. You use stories you have heard to weave your personal narrative. The parts in your script are played by the people around you.

LifeWorks is a practical handbook which combines insights from psychology and anthropology. Questions and tasks help the reader to identify relationship patterns and life themes. It is also useful to authors and scriptwriters, for character development.

Jane Bailey Bain’s (Experimental Psychology, 1979) work has been compared to both Julia Cameron and Joseph Campbell. She combines personal insight with natural storytelling ability. LifeWorks is predicted to become a new classic.

Published in January 2012 by John Hunt (O-Books).

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Winter in FirelandAfter a spell teaching English and Spanish in Argentina under the military dictatorship (1978-81), Nick Coghlan (Modern Languages, 1973) and his wife Jenny emigrated to British Columbia. He taught for four more years, and then they set off on a circumnavigation of the world on a small yacht (27 ft) called Tarka the Otter. Nick has had three books published in Canada; the most recent - Winter in Fireland - is about sailing in Patagonia and draws to a small extent on John Rutherford’s discussions with him about Latin American literature, notably Borges and Guiraldes.

John Rutherford’s inspiration was complemented, in Nick’s days at Queen’s, by a very generous Heath Harrison Travelling Scholarship of £250 that allowed him to fly to Mexico City and still have a fair amount of pesos on hand for a six-week trek in the footsteps of Hernan Cortes. This not only fed into his Finals Special Paper on the Literature of Discovery and Conquest, but gave him much deep understanding of Mexico upon which he was able to draw in his first diplomatic assignment, as a political officer at the Canadian Embassy in Mexico City.

Stories from the ArchivesLetter Patent of Charles I

The College Archive has recently joined the Oxford Colleges Conservation Consortium and one of the first documents to benefit from its work is this exquisite deed of 1626. The technical term is a Letter Patent (from the Latin, meaning open letter). These were deliberately impressive documents. They were always large (because intended for display), always included a portrait of the reigning monarch (in this case Charles I) in the initial letter, and had a wax impression of the Great Seal – with the monarch enthroned on one side and equestrian on the other – hanging from the bottom. It is rare, though, to see one so beautifully coloured, particularly as it seems to have been personalized for the College; just above the seal is the College coat of arms and the first known use of its motto – nutrices tuae reginae erunt (queens shall be thy nursing maids).

The deed is dated 12 November 1626 and in it Charles I – at the request of his Queen, Henrietta Maria – grants to the College the advowsons of Headley, Milford and Weyhill in Hampshire, along with Carisbrooke, Godshill and Niton on the Isle of Wight. Advowson is the technical term for the right of presentation of a clergyman to a parish church. They were important to the College because when each became vacant they were offered to the Fellows in order of seniority. They were normally seen as a promotion from the College as not only did they offer a higher stipend, but they also allowed men who were not getting any younger to marry!

The conservators have cleaned the deed and flattened it, as keeping it rolled has started to wear away some of the text; it is now being stored in a custom-made box. This is important not only because it is a beautiful document, but because it is also evidence of title for the right of presentation in some of the six parishes that the College still exercises today.

Michael Riordan


Book Corner

known snowman (an illustration from a fourteenth-century Book of Hours) and a sing-along version of the Boar’s Head Carol. There was also an ‘Old English’ translation of the famous Christmas song ‘Hrodulf Readnosa Hrandeor’ (apparently ‘that beast did not have unshiny nostrils’; answers please on a postcard), performed with vim and vigour by Dr Rebecca Beasley and Dr Christopher Salamone as after-dinner entertainment. Undergraduates and SCR guests alike chipped in with other festive readings, including an Old Icelandic trollish Christmas feast that ends in a punch up (plus ça change) and a few rounds of ‘guess the Old English riddle’ (some of which were written by very naughty monks). However, the performance of the night belonged to Alison Madden (the Provost’s wife) and Jonathan Purkiss (an extremely game first-year) for their spirited rendition of the seduction scene from ‘Venus and Adonis’; the photographs are staying with me for future blackmailing purposes.

Nothing went to waste afterwards; a bottle of mead found its way to Steve Beeley and his noble band of College gatekeepers in the porters’ lodge, left-over comfits were turned into stocking-fillers, and the fruits of the University Parks were turned into glowing pots of red Yuletide jelly. A spare medlar may have found its way into the pigeon hole of Michael Lloyd our College Chaplain, who suffers from what may be the world’s first case of Medlarphobia. In short, a festive—and of course highly scholarly—time was had by all. Hopefully the English Schools Yule Feast will be the start of a new College tradition that continues for the next 671 years at Queen’s!

Dr Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough (Extraordinary Junior Research Fellow in English)

As the winter sun rose on the morning of the Queen’s Medieval Yule Feast (aka our first English Schools Dinner), I was already hard at work, mounting a dawn raid on the medlar, crab-apple and holly trees at the edge of the University Parks. Shopping bags bulging suspiciously with suitably medieval table decorations, I made my way to an Old English tutorial, hoping that the students wouldn’t notice my mud-encrusted boots or the unusual whiff of the over-bletted medlars I had trodden in.

For the Queen’s English undergraduates and our other guests, the first indication that something was afoot had been the invitations crafted by Elaine Evers in the College Office, adorned with an illustration of a banquet spit-roast being turned by perspiring kitchen boys. Hopefully Dawn Grimshaw (the College’s Catering Manager) and her mighty army of chefs were less daunted by their task, but they had certainly pulled out all the stops for our medieval-themed menu. Following a mulled wine reception in the Old Lodgings (courtesy of Robert Saberton-Haynes, peerless SCR butler and wine expert), we made our way up to the New Dining Room for the feast. The starter was pease potage (split-pea soup) with king bean bread (traditionally, the lucky person who found the bean would be ‘king of the feast’, but the chefs kindly put a bean in everyone’s bread so there was no sulking). The main course took its inspiration from Queen’s very own Boar’s Head Carol, billed as ‘Venison Stew, bedeck’d with bays and rosemary’. For pudding, we were presented with an entire buffet of delicacies: pears in spiced wine, gingerbread, honeyed fig pastries and quince jelly sweetmeats. Lastly, and just in case we hadn’t already exploded, in place of the traditional post-prandial port and almonds were ‘hippocras and comfits’, which took the form of mead and spiced sugared nuts.

In honour of Queen’s finest medieval tradition of the Boar’s Head Carol and Gaudy, the crowning glory on the Yule table was the boar’s head itself. This was not the glorious beast that Old Members may have met if they have ever attended the official dinner, but - thanks to a flash of inspiration from Linda Irving-Bell, the Home Bursar - the papier maché replica used during the Second World War, at a time when banquets were scarce and spare boars’ heads even scarcer.

The menu itself provided plenty of educational material to be perused during the festivities, including a picture of the oldest


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Yule Feast


We receive a good number of letters from Old Members on a variety of topics. The following Old Members have kindly agreed to share their thoughts with the wider Old Membership and other Old Members are encouraged to follow suit.

Dear Emily,

Reference: Old Members’ Officer’s letter, issue 18 of the Newsletter

I wonder how many elderly Cumbrians come to Queen’s these days. But I don’t thinks they spoke: oraverunt certainly doesn’t mean that. What they did was ‘prayed’.

Very best wishes to you,John Hazel (Literae Humaniores, 1951)

Hi, Emily!

Sorry to bother you, but I hope there’s some fun in it. The question, posed to me by Emeritus Professor Max Hammerton (U. Newcastle) (an ex-physicist with whom I was discussing Queen’s substantial support for [the rather mad Cambridgeman] Isaac Newton), is the *pronunciation* of the surname of the College’s great scholar/scientist Edmond Halley. I’ll paste a note from Wikipedia. (Myself, I think I learned from the BBC some ten years ago that the proper pronunciation was ‘Hawley’ [as in ‘haul’]. But the College’s own decision must surely be final.)

Enjoy at your leisure!

Chris Brand (PPP, 1962)

Dear Editor,

After “Blackadder”, may I add a general tribute to the College staff?

Few Queen’s students become Fellows of the College: for most of us, it’s here today, gone next year. The staff represent continuity, and the “moral tone” of Queen’s, to successive generations of us. They bring “real life” into College. They are the College’s ambassadors to Oxford city and, importantly when Queen’s depends so much on donations, to conference and summer-school visitors and tourists.

You pictured some in the Newsletter (including Jack Guilfoyle of tea in Tabs’ Room : “toast 2d., patum perperium on it, 1d. extra!”); there were others. There was cheery “Mrs Tatt”(ersall); incomparable Miss Bossom, later College Seamstress; genial Irishman Tony Jones, with his Connemara stories; dear Mrs Penson in the Library who, with Elizabeth Garnsey, looked after us as the cloud of Schools crept nearer ; Mr Austen, the Head Porter, with his reassuring Oxfordshire accent; all the Administrative Staff; and Mr Beazley, Head Groundsman at Abingdon Road.

We all remember some of those who kept a friendly eye on us - and, now that we’re Old Members, their successors do that when we return. The “dons” may govern the College, but the staff run it. We owe them all, and the memory of those who went before them, a debt of gratitude.

Yours sincerely,

Russell Lawson (Jurisprudence, 1962)

Dear Queen’s,

Re: Batells sixty years ago

We are all well aware of the hazards of inflation these days, and the dire effect it has on living standards, not least for pensioners. Just how much things have changed financially in my lifetime was brought home to me when, browsing through some old papers, I came across a letter from the College. Inside the original envelope was my batells bill, for Trinity Term, 1951, and the first thing to catch my attention was the cost of the stamp – a mere one and a half pence. The itemised bill showed that the inclusive charge for living in college for that term was £43.10 for my food and some nice rooms in Front Quad. My Tabs room subscription was ten shillings and my laundry bill seems embarrassingly modest at £1.16, particularly when compared to the £2.10 spent entertaining guests in Hall. On the other hand, a wine bill of £1.12 seems abstemious, and I must have been a fairly well-behaved student as my gate fines were only nine schillings for the term. I spent 11d on the College messenger, which presumably was cheaper than using the Royal Mail. I am told such a service still exists, and surprisingly it is now free.

Sixty years later, it is difficult to relate these figures to contemporary living costs, but to put it into context, the current termly charge at Queen’s is £1, 107.20, which does not even include the cost of food! Of course, what my old batells bill really shows is how much inflation has changed our world.

I also found a menu card for the annual Addison Society dinner held on 12 June 1951 which cost me the princely sum of £1.11. Considering the guest speaker was a renowned old Queensman, Leopold Stokowski, with his wife Gloria Vanderbilt, this must have seemed like money well spent. He delighted the audience reminiscing about his College days, but I seem to remember we were more intrigued by his glamorous wife. On a Sunday morning that summer I took a photograph of the High with Queen’s in the foreground, and this was used by the JCR as a Christmas card the following December. The striking feature of the picture was a High completely empty of traffic with only an occasional pedestrian intruding. Would that I could take such a photograph today!

Duncan Thomas (Biological Sciences, 1949)

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Letters to the Editor

HRH The Duchess of Cornwall visited the College on 17 November 2011 to open the Shulman Auditorium.

The Duchess met Fellows, students, and staff; she also unveiled a plaque to mark the opening of the building. After the ceremony she was a guest of the College at lunch, before dropping into the JCR to meet junior members and representatives of the College staff.

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The Shulman Auditorium


HRH The Duchess of Cornwall meets the current President of the MCR and current student Leila Hill who recently represented the College on University Challenge.


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FestivalIn third week of Michaelmas Term 2011 a programme of music, lectures, and theatre was presented to mark the opening of the Shulman Auditorium at Queen’s. The week-long festival provided an opportunity for students, Fellows, Old Members, and members of the public to see the new space. It also afforded the College a chance to test the various features of the building before the official opening ceremony.

The festival commenced on Sunday with the inaugural piano recital on the new Steinway. The recital was given by Llýr Williams (Music, 1995).

On Monday Le scaphandre et le papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) was the film which launched a new foreign-language film society run for and by the students.

On Tuesday the Queen’s College Symposium welcomed Paul Kolb (MCR) to speak on ‘Polytextuality and Meaning in Motets around 1500’ and Professor Paul Madden (SCR) to speak on ‘Clean, proliferation-free nuclear energy - a missed opportunity?’

Afterwards representatives from the firms involved in designing and creating the space gathered in the foyer for a celebratory drinks reception. They enjoyed a preview of Welcome All Wonders: A Christmas Cantata, which the four firms have commissioned from David Bednall (Music, 1997). They also heard the full version of The Two Trees, which they commissioned from Phillip Cooke (former Junior Research Fellow at Queen’s).

Mid-week saw the return of former Provost Sir Alan Budd to deliver the keynote lecture: ‘Why listen to economists?’ The original plans for this Auditorium were drawn up during his time as Provost.

Hire the auditorium

Old Members are warmly invited to consider the Shulman Auditorium, and associated College facilities, when booking their own functions for work or pleasure.

The Shulman Auditorium seats up to 120 delegates in tiered seats. A state-of-the-art AV system has been installed which is operational from the front lectern, the back projection room and a roving touch-screen monitor. The acoustics in the Auditorium are ideal for musical recitals as well as lectures. There is a Steinway grand piano available for hire.

The foyer of the Auditorium (see cover photograph) is an excellent space for refreshments; encased in glass, it provides views of the newly landscaped Drawda Garden and creates the illusion of an open-air reception.

The lecture was followed by the première of a new piece of music theatre by music collective Re:Sound starring Rebecca Lea (Modern Languages, 2004). The Mask Behind the Face…A Search for Identity in Song (also performed on Thursday) asks the question: why did so many of the twentieth century’s greatest classical composers – figures as diverse as Schoenberg, Poulenc and Britten – write songs inspired by the world of the cabaret? This issue was explored through thirteen songs in which the audience encountered satire, innuendo and black humour but also, less expectedly, a powerful depth of emotion and a disarming honesty of subject matter and character.

The festival week concluded with a poetry reading by Dr David Constantine (Supernumerary Fellow), who recently won the BBC Short Story Prize, Sasha Dugdale (Modern Languages 1993), and Olivia McCannon (Modern Languages, 1993).

The available dates for 2012 and 2013 are as follows:

201211 Mar – 14 Apr17 Jun – 29 Sep2 –19 Dec (no accommodation)

20132 – 5 Jan (no accommodation)

10 Mar – 13 Apr16 Jun – 28 Sep8 – 19 Dec (no accommodation)

To make an enquiry, contact:

Sarah DaleyConference and Functions Officer

[email protected] 01865 289056

Dear Old Member,

I am happy to report that clear skies meant that neither the Boar’s Head Gaudy nor the Needle and Thread Gaudy were afflicted by snowfall over the Christmas period. Roaring fires in the Hall on both occasions also ensured that guests were warm as they wined and dined with ‘old’ friends.

On Saturday 30 June this year there will be a Garden Party for Old Members and their families. On the same day we shall also be hosting a drinks reception to recognise and thank those of you who make regular contributions to the College’s Annual Fund. One in four Old Members has now made a gift to the College and, last year, over 800 of you responded positively to the Provost’s request for support. I hope that many of you will come back to receive a personal thank you from the Provost on this occasion.

At many of our recent events my colleague Andrew Timms has given a presentation on the College’s finances, building projects, and future plans. What has emerged from these sessions is that Old Members are keen to hear more about how the College operates. It is also clear that there is a real interest in the nature and outcomes of our admissions process. If you would like more information, or to discuss these matters further, then I encourage you to come along to one of our events. Alternatively do not hesitate to contact us.

I’d like to draw your attention to the OUS Cumberland Branch’s Annual Lunch which is being held on Saturday 25 April 2012 - the day after the beginning of Trinity Term and the birthday of the Queen. The event takes place in the in the Garden Hall of Mirehouse ‘behind’ Bassenthwaite lake, Keswick. Tennyson wrote Morte d’Arthur at Mirehouse. The Secretary of Cumberland OUS is a Queensman, Bob Fowler (1952). For more details or to reserve a place (£32) please contact Bob by post or e mail: Prof R S Fowler, Gutherscale, Newlands, Keswick, Cumbria CA12 5UE ([email protected]). Guests, as well as Oxonians, are welcome.

I’m delighted to report that we have a new part-time assistant in the office, Ms Cat Hughes, who is herself an Old Member of Regent’s Park College. Amongst other things, on a day-to-day basis Cat will be ensuring that our database of Old Members is fully up-to-date and assisting with the task of recording donations to the College.

I’d like to conclude my letter on a lighthearted note which is also really a request for information from our most senior Old Members. A gentleman recently visited the College and asked me about the demise of the giant tortoises in Front Quad. I shall readily accept that he was pulling my leg but you never know, and he left before I could really press him on this point. Can anyone else testify to the College having once (c.1930s-40s) been home to some tortoises?

Yours faithfully,

CalendarSaturday 24 March 2012 Subject dinner (Medics)

Saturday 7 April 2012Lunch in Los Angeles

Monday 9 April 2012Dinner in Toronto

Wednesday 11 April 2012Dinner in Boston

Saturday 14 April 2012New York City Cocktail Reception

Saturday 25 April 2012OUS Cumberland Event

Saturday 12 May 2012MA Degree Day Lunch

Tuesday 29 May 2012 City of London Reception

Saturday 23 June 2012 Benefactors’ Dinner

Saturday 30 June 2012Old Members’ Garden Party

Wednesday 15 August 2012 Founder’s Day Gaudy & Reunion for Former Junior Research Fellows

Saturday 15 September 2012 Old Members’ Association Dinner

Saturday 20 October 2012 50th Anniversary Matriculation Gaudy

Saturday 10 November 2012 ‘Ten Years Later’ Lunch

Saturday 15 December 2012 Boar’s Head Gaudy (<1941; 1978-9)

Saturday 5 January 2013 Needle and Thread Gaudy (1964-7)

A letter from the Old Members’ Officer

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the queen’s college€¦ · the queen’s college newsletter issue nineteen hilary term 2012...

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