The magazine for the alumni of Royal Holloway and Bedford

HigherIssue 16 Spring 2012

Dr Simon Thurley CBE: Keeper of England’s heritage

Olympics come to College

Breaking the Code: Alumni at Bletchley Park

Fire and fossils: Professor Andrew Scott Founder’s Weddings Exclusive benefits for our alumni the perfect setting for your perfect day

The College Chapel is now available exclusively to alumni for Christian wedding ceremonies, offering a truly personal location and special memories for you and your guests. The Picture Gallery and Dining Hall provide a spectacular setting for alumni wedding receptions. Our award winning catering and experienced hospitality staff will ensure you experience the wedding you’ve always dreamed about. We are also delighted to offer a generous alumni discount on our individually tailored wedding receptions.

Chapel enquiries (term-time only) Wedding reception enquiries [email protected] or 01784 443950 [email protected] or 01784 276224 www.conferences.rhul.ac.uk/weddings Contents

In Focus 4 4–5 Mark Carwardine tracks the spirit bear

A red slender loris caught on film in Sri Lanka News 6 (see page 31) 6 From the Principal 7 Letters to the Editor 8–9 College news 10–11 Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences 12–13 Faculty of Management and Economics 14–15 Faculty of Science

Features 16 16–18 Keeper of England’s heritage: Dr Simon Thurley CBE 19 Open for science: our record-breaking science open days 20–21 Olympics come to College 22–24 Breaking the code: our alumni at Bletchley Park, by Margaret Lenton 25 Making art work: Professor Helen Nicholson 26–27 Fire and fossils: Professor Andrew Scott 28 Adventures in the screen trade: Amanda Faber 29 Pictures from the Collection: Peter the Great at Deptford Dockyard, by Daniel Maclise

Alumni 30 30 Alumni generations: Geographers making their mark 31 International zone: Conservation in Sri Lanka 32–33 Our international community: A world map of alumni 34 International zone: Entrepreneur Rachel Treece in Europe 35 The Library Book Fund 36–41 Class notes and events 42–43 In memoriam 44–45 New books by alumni Development 46 46–49 How your gifts are making a difference Dates for Your Diary 50 50 –51 Alumni and College events

Editor: Steve Pickles [email protected]

Higher is published twice a year, in November and May. PRINTER TO SUPPLY The paper contains material sourced from responsibly managed forests. The manufacturing mill has both ISO 14001and EMAS accreditation and is also accredited to produce paper to FSC standards. Higher magazine is published by Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX. Spirit Bear Picture Feature

4 Higher magazine “I had been waiting quietly on the riverbank for several hours, listening to the gentle patter of rain. Every so often a black bear would pass by, fishing for salmon on its way upstream. But suddenly an apparition emerged, ghostlike, from the dark recesses of the forest: a rare and elusive spirit bear. I was in Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest, the largest remaining tract of intact temperate rainforest left in the world, which stretches seamlessly from the northern end of Vancouver Island all the way to south-east Alaska. One of the animal world’s great enigmas, the spirit bear is a walking contradiction – a white black bear. It is neither a polar bear nor albino and it is rarely seen – except for a few weeks every year in one tiny corner of the forest. Found nowhere else in the world, it spends the winter fast asleep and prefers to hide in the dark, tangled recesses of the forest. But if you go to the right place, at the right time of year, your chances of a close encounter are surprisingly good.”

Picture FeatureMark Carwardine (BSc Zoology, 1980 Bedford College), zoologist, wildlife photographer and award-winning writer. His new book is Mark Carwardine’s Ultimate Wildlife Experiences.

Royal Holloway 5 News From the Principal

Excitement is building across the campus as we prepare to become one of We recently hosted the seventh annual Runnymede Literary Festival only three Olympic and Paralympic Villages for the 2012 games. This summer and I am delighted to report this was awarded the London 2012 Inspire we will be hosting more than 1400 elite rowers and canoeists who will be Mark. The award was given in recognition of the festival’s role in inspiring competing in the Rowing and Flat-water Canoeing events at Dorney Lake children to celebrate creative elements of the Olympic Games. Professor of in Eton. We are extremely proud to be so actively involved in the games Creative Writing and former Poet Laureate Sir Andrew Motion is patron of and have held a series of special lectures to celebrate our involvement. the festival, along with the Man Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantel. These included consultant psychiatrist Dr Steve Peters revealing how he With the Olympic preparations underway, it is going to be an exceptionally helps the GB Cycling Team stay at the top of their game, Sir Philip Craven, busy summer as we also ensure that our core business is able to continue the President of the International Paralympic Committee and the Vice- uninterrupted. Our graduation ceremonies in July are always a particular President of the European Parliament and Director-General of the Olympic highlight of the year and for the first time this year we will be introducing a Truce Centre, Stavros Lambrinidis, reflecting on the values, principles and new winter ceremony in December for our postgraduate students. institutions that give rise to the Olympic spirit. We are, of course, also This year’s honorary fellowship awards take place on 16th May and I am exceptionally proud of our Olympian students, past and present, who will delighted to announce that receiving awards this year will be: the alumna be participating in the Games. and EU Foreign Minister, Baroness Ashton; the alumna and Paralympic Gold medallist, Sophie Christiansen MBE; the alumna and international soprano, Sarah Fox; the alumna and former Dean of Arts, Máire Davies; and the former Vice-Chairman of College Council, David Beever. With the Olympic preparations I am pleased to be able to report that despite the introduction of new fees at undergraduate level, which have had a deleterious effect on underway, it is going to be an applicant numbers nationally, the number of undergraduate applications to the College from domestic students remains buoyant this year. Royal exceptionally busy summer. Holloway also remains attractive to undergraduate and postgraduate overseas students, despite increasing global and UK competition, and we have seen a rise in applications from overseas students too. The new Bedford Scholarship we introduced to recognise achievement and provide financial support, is proving very appealing to prospective students. These scholarships are funded by your gifts and donations and are providing a vital addition to the overall package we are able to offer our future students. Meanwhile, we are starting work to build our long term strategy for the future of Royal Holloway and to plan the legacy that we will leave for the next generation of academics and students. Starting with a vision for each of our three key disciplines – the arts, sciences and social sciences – we shall consider what we need to do in order to continue to be recognised as one the best Higher Education institutions in the UK. This will be followed be a period of considering how the rest of our university – its people, buildings and resources – also need to develop to support our academic goals. Our founder, Thomas Holloway’s vision for education is still as relevant today as it was when he wrote it: “Education should be founded on those studies and sciences which the experience of modern times has shown to be the most valuable, and the best adapted to meet the intellectual and social requirements of the students.” As we reflect on the experience of modern times, and consider our future, we will also be building on our past, and the long tradition of innovation, involvement and achievement that you all enjoyed. I look forward to sharing our plans with you as they develop.

Professor Paul Layzell

6 Higher magazine Sharing comments and information with your peers

Dear Sir Reading about Lenny Henry’s post-graduate studies at Royal Holloway, I wondered if any of the longer-standing RHC staff recall his first appearance at the college, when he came on a Student Union booking as a stand-up comedian? It must have been 1982/3, and Lenny performed in Athlone Hall dining room. He was just beginning to carve out a name for himself as a comedian, and the hall was packed. He was brilliant – laugh-until-the-tears-run-down-your-face funny – New Chairman of Council and it was one of the most memorable entertainments staged during my student years. Stephen Cox CVO is “delighted and privileged” I am going to assume that even all those years ago Mr Henry thought ‘what a great place to be to be taking on the role of Chair of Council. He a student’, and wish him success in his on-going studies at Royal Holloway & Bedford! follows the outstanding tenure from 2004–2011 With kind regards, and thanks for an informative and well-presented alumni magazine. of retiring Chairman, Sir Andrew Burns. Stephen was Executive Director of the Royal Gillian Neale (née Walker) Society until 2011. Previously, he was Chief English & German, 1981–84 Executive for the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, where he worked closely with both Dear Sir Houses of Parliament to support institutions in the emerging democracies of central Europe, Having read Roger Bolton’s excellent obituary of George Watts-Liquorish in the last issue of the former Soviet Union and Central, East and Higher, I find it hard not to relate the following fond reminiscence as an example of George’s South Africa. From 1991–97 he was Director resourcefulness and devotion to the Chemistry Department. This incident commenced with a General of the Commonwealth Institute, an telephone call at 10.30pm on a Monday evening and concerned a serious flood resulting from organization he remodelled in the light of a burst pipe in the Chemistry Department on the top floor of the Tuke building at Bedford reducing Government grants. College. I got in the car and drove to the College, picking up George on the way. When we got Stephen joined the Overseas Career Service there we found several people including Sally Chilver, the Principal of Bedford College, mopping of the British Council in 1969 and after language up. Immediately below the flood was the Geography Department and Professor Monica Cole’s training was posted to Warsaw. He spent time room, which was always double-locked. No one had been able to get in, but George of course, in West Africa, notably Ghana and Togo, with resourceful as ever, managed to do so through the fanlight above the door. How he managed the British Council and was Education Attaché it I will never know. He found that the water was coming down and missing by a few inches at the British Embassy in Washington DC in the Professor Cole’s map table with several of her precious maps laid out. We managed to move the early 1980s. In 1985 he joined the Royal Society table out of harm’s way and were thankful that maps had not been damaged in any way. By 2am where he ran the international office. He is a the water had been turned off and no lasting damage had been done, thanks most particularly to trustee of the International Polar Foundation, George’s stalwart work. A bottle of whisky I had brought with me came in very handy just then. the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics Emeritus Professor Gareth Williams and the Frederick Soddy Trust. He also chairs the Board of Atlantic College in South Wales. Stephen was made a CVO in 1997. He is a Dear Sir Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and We thought readers might like to see the black plaque in memory of Thomas Holloway on the was awarded an honorary DSc by Lancaster front wall of the Turks Head Inn in Chapel Street, Penzance. The Inn was his childhood home University. from 1811–1826. We were very pleased to unveil the plaque on Of his five year appointment from November the 25 June 2011, by kind permission and in the presence 2011, Stephen said, “I look forward to working of the Mayor of Penzance. The landlords of the Inn, closely with all members. Royal Holloway is Mr and Mrs Gibbard, have dedicated the cellar room to renowned for the excellence of its teaching and the memory of Thomas Holloway, so that all who are research. I am most impressed by the high quality interested may view and read the history of this famous of the experience the students benefit from on former resident of Penzance. our wonderful campus.” Derek Le Helyer-Holloway and Bob Foster Iain Ross takes on the role of Vice Chairman. Iain is an alumnus of the College (BSc Biochemistry, 1975 Royal Holloway College) and after graduating he was Vice President of the Students’ Union. A biotechnology entrepreneur, Please send your letters for consideration to The Editor, Alumni Department, he is married to Barbara, a fellow graduate, and Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX or [email protected] chairs the Alumni Advisory Group.

Royal Holloway 7 News College News

New Masters courses on offer Insanity Radio We are introducing two new interdisciplinary of the Polar Regions and international law and Masters courses from September this year. targeting. goes FM The first is an MSc Geopolitics and Security The second, the MA Creative Writing: Place, programme, jointly taught by the Departments Environment, Writing, is a ground-breaking Insanity Radio, Royal Holloway’s student- of Geography and Politics & International collaboration between internationally renowned run radio station has officially switched Relations. It is grounded in real-life skills and creative writers and cultural geographers including over to broadcasting on 103.2 FM. The experiences and is designed for both ambitious Professor Jo Shapcott, winner of the Costa Book change has moved Insanity Radio into the young graduates and experienced professionals of the Year Award 2011, Professor Sir Andrew world of Community FM radio, increasing working in commercial or political organisations Motion, former Poet Laureate, novelist and its responsibility and commitment to such as banking, energy, media, think tanks and biographer and Professor Tim Cresswell, author of serving the needs of the wider community government, where risk management is critical to Place: A Short Introduction and Managing Editor beyond the College campus. This includes strategic policy development. The course offers of cultural geographies. Part of the established fulfilling a promise to provide more advanced training in concepts and methodology/ and successful MA in Creative Writing directed by opportunities for the wider community research design as well as access to specialist Professor Motion, this latest development focuses courses in communication studies, resilience and on writing and the environment, from wild to to get involved with the running of emergency planning, contemporary geopolitics urban, in the modern world. the station through training workshops, presenting opportunities, music reviewing and assisting with music scheduling. As a Community FM station, Insanity aims to extend its listenership as far across the surrounding area as possible. Station Manager Dave Lamb said: “Insanity’s move to FM is a landmark change, not only for everyone involved this year, but for the hundreds of students who have given their time to Insanity over many years. We

Crown Copyright can’t wait to offer the same opportunities and quality programming that Insanity has given Royal Holloway to the community around us.”

Our multi-million pound theatre project underway

We have begun construction work on a new state-of-the-art theatre which is expected to be up and running in January 2013. The old Studio Theatre was built in 1981 for just £50,000, and has served the Drama and Theatre Department well. The likes of Hollywood actor Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and BRIT Award winning musician KT Tunstall learnt their trade in the Studio Theatre as students. Although still in use up to its demolition, it had fallen into a state of rapid structural decline. The new multi-million pound theatre, designed by Foster Wilson Architects, offers an intimate and flexible space for 21st century theatre makers. The curved gallery overlooks a central space which can be configured in many different ways. The new theatre is linked to the Regency elegance of Sutherland House by a glass foyer which welcomes audiences to experience the wide range of performances created by students and visiting companies. How the new Studio Theatre will look next to Sutherland House

8 Higher magazine Our anniversary celebrations

The College hosted a celebratory dinner to mark warmly of her time at the College and reflected the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Royal on the strength and diversity of Royal Holloway’s Holloway College, and 25 years since its merger research and student experience. Throughout the with Bedford College. Around 200 guests from evening, guests were shown videos showcasing the worlds of business, politics, health, media, ground-breaking research at the College. Each the arts, academia, and the public and voluntary guest also received a set of postcards from the sectors were invited to the event at the Royal collection of 125 commemorative postcards Society in November last year. created to celebrate the College’s history and In his welcoming speech the Principal, achievements. The evening was brought to a Professor Paul Layzell, said: “Both Colleges were close with a performance by the Choir of Royal built upon a history of philanthropy and, long Holloway. The event proved a huge success before anybody coined the term “widening and many new partnerships were forged, from participation”, they broke new ground as the collaborations on research and performance, to first institutions to admit and offer degrees to opportunities for student internships and work women. As a result of this heritage, we’re proud placements and lectures for students. to be able to include amongst our alumni the first The dinner concluded the College’s year of woman barrister, the first woman doctor and the anniversary celebrations, which opened with a novelist, George Eliot.” concert given by three alumni sopranos, Dame Guest speaker, The Baroness Diana Warwick Felicity Lott, Susan Bullock and Sarah Fox, and of Undercliffe, who graduated from Bedford included the Royal visit in June by HRH The Princess Baroness Diana Warwick of Undercliffe College in 1967 with a degree in Sociology, spoke Royal, Chancellor of the University of London.

Old School Sports Day draws in the crowds

In March we organised an Old School Sports reversible steering bikes and unicycles, proved and showed off their Olympic medals. Psychology Day for staff, students, alumni and the local a hit, with young and old putting their skills to alumna Michaela Greene, presented her Living community to celebrate the College’s role as the test. For the less energetic, there was plenty Life photography exhibition in the Picture Gallery an official satellite Village during the London to do with art sessions for children to decorate which featured stunning and emotive shots of 2012 Games. A host of activities were on offer bunting with Olympic themed designs and cake nine paralympic athletes hoping to compete – all with a sporting theme – from traditional decorating, where they could ice fairy cakes. in this year’s games. Our student volunteers old-school games, such as tug of war to a bike Special guests, Paralympian and Maths alumna also ran a charity car wash to raise money for smoothie maker where visitors could use pedal Sophie Christiansen MBE and Rowing and Canoe Sports Relief. power to operate the special blender and create Sprint Village Manager and Olympian Miriam their own smoothie. A selection of ‘crazy’ cycles, Luke, chatted to visitors about their experiences of which included penny farthing style bikes, competing in the Paralympic and Olympic Games

Read about our Olympic preparations on page 20

Royal Holloway 9 Faculty News Arts and Social Sciences

Recent student successes The Centre for Students in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences beat thousands of other writers to feature in the have had a very productive term. Jenni Fagan, a prestigious Waterstones 11 – a shortlist of this Social Sciences part-time student on the MA in Creative Writing, year’s most promising debut novelists tipped to We recently established the Centre for scoop literary prizes. Her novel, Panopticon, is Social Sciences under the leadership of published by Random House in May. Dr Oliver Heath, a Senior Lecturer in the Alongside studying Classics, Stephanie Fitchett Department of Politics and International found time to work on the soundtrack to a Relations. The Centre will provide an Gothic film. She wrote, recorded and produced institutional focus within the College for the conceptual album The Conductor, which was the development of research and teaching released on iTunes in February. throughout the social sciences, and its A blog created by Adam Penny, a student specific goals include: strengthening the in the Department of Drama and Theatre, was provision of training for academic staff and granted exclusive access to Danny DeVito’s West doctoral students in the design of social End debut, The Sunshine Boys. The blog ‘What’s science research; facilitating the learning of Peen Seen?’ was born from a theatre criticism new qualitative and quantitative methods; class in Autumn 2011. What started as Adam’s promoting interdisciplinary research and project now has over 15 bloggers covering a vast collaboration; and providing a forum for range of theatre found in and around London. developing research grant applications. Charlotte Hammond, an AHRC-funded PhD The Centre brings together staff and student in the departments of Drama and French, students from a number of departments was one of the artists invited to take part in the and will run a series of workshops, Second Ghetto Biennale in the Grand Rue area seminars and one-off events. Speaking of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. Charlotte worked with about the Centre’s programme, Dr Heath several young artists and a local tailor to create a said: “Royal Holloway is home to much series of paper costume pieces based on archival innovative research, and many of our social research undertaken in France. scientists are at the cutting edge of their And finally, Jeong-One Park from the field. I look forward to working with all Department of Media Arts has been shortlisted my colleagues to promote and support for a renowned One World Media Award in the their activities”. Charlotte Hammond Student Award category for her film Kung Fu Grandma, set in the slums of Korogocho, Kenya.

Leading Holocaust archive comes to Royal Holloway

Our world-leading scholars in the Holocaust Research Centre have entered into a partnership with the Shoah Foundation Institute at the University of Southern California. The new relationship grants them access to around 52,000 video interviews with Holocaust survivors and other witnesses collected by the Shoah Foundation Institute. Film director Steven Spielberg, inspired by his experience making Schindler’s List, established the Institute in 1994. Video testimonies have been gathered from Jewish survivors, liberators and liberation witnesses, political prisoners, aid providers and war crimes trials participants, among others. The Institute’s Director, Stephen D. Smith, said: “Survivors’ testimonies contain a wealth of information about the Holocaust and life in the 20th century. Royal Holloway has positioned itself to become a global leader in testimony-based research now that this resource is available to British scholars.” Leading Holocaust scholar Professor David Cesarani of the Department of History said: “These real-life accounts of Holocaust victims’ stories will help to ensure that the horrors, but also the many acts of kindness and bravery in the face of such adversity, are never forgotten. Royal Holloway is the only access point in the UK to these remarkable testimonies, and one of only a handful of access points in the whole of Europe. This creates a major research facility for work in Holocaust Studies that is unrivalled anywhere in this country.” For more information on the Shoah Foundation Institute Visual History Archive and for a sample of the videos, visit: http://dornsife.usc.edu/vhi/

10 Higher magazine Dean of Arts & Social Sciences Professor Jacques Rancière in London Katie Normington

In March we hosted Professor Jacques Rancière, has been translated into English and his latest one of the two most significant contemporary book, Aisthesis: Scènes du régime esthétique French post-Hegelian political philosophers, de l’art, was recently published in France. whose aesthetic theory has also become a point Listen to the lecture online at: of reference in the visual arts. He was invited http://backdoorbroadcasting.net/ by our Humanities and Arts Research Centre and the two-day event was co-organised by Professor John O’Brien from the School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures and Professor Andrew Gibson from the Department of English. Rancière’s lecture, given in Senate House to around 550 people, was entitled ‘Modernity Revisited’ and explored the cultural interweavings that have made up artistic modernity. He also gave two seminars about his work to capacity audiences, one on aesthetics and the other on contemporary culture. Jacques Rancière is Emeritus Professor at the University of Paris VIII, where he taught in the Philosophy Department from 1969–2000, and Visiting Professor at Leading French philosopher Jacques Rancière several American universities. Much of his work Since I last wrote, there have been further developments in the new Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Play! @ the Firestation Redefining the faculty boundaries has brought together History and English and they are developing a joint honours degree to start in 2013. Other initiatives include fledgling conversations with the School of Management to offer joint degrees in arts management. The School of Modern Languages is developing minor degrees in languages and visual arts, which draws on a number of staff research interests and the resource of the Picture Gallery. We continue to have an important arts presence in London and have just committed to support for a further two years the Centre for Creative Collaboration, a shared University of London space near King’s Cross which offers an innovative space for workshops and creative symposiums. It is also the home to Polyply, a Opera Holloway in rehearsal contemporary poetry research group led by members of the English Play! is a celebration of the arts featuring and conversation. Many events have been department. performances from students and academics designed to be interactive and informal, so the I have recently met many prospective from the Departments of Drama, English, audience can come and go as they please, and see applicants and their families as they Classics, Music, Media Arts and History, as artists at work as well as final performances. The visited Royal Holloway during our Open well as The Student Workshop, a departmental student-led Opera Holloway will be performing Days; on more than one occasion I Drama Society. The day-long event at Windsor’s a dress rehearsal and encouraging audience met the children or grandchildren of Firestation Centre for Arts and Culture will feedback. This is a free event and open to all, but alumni – there was a lovely sense of take place on Monday 4 June. We will be you need to book a ticket in advance. using all three performance spaces for a varied See the Firestation website: the College as a big family! programme of performance, debate, film, plays www.firestationartscentre.com

Royal Holloway 11 Faculty News Management and Economics

Chernobyl: effects on health challenged

New research published by Professor Jonathan demonstrable health outcomes. The exception to Wadsworth from the Department of Economics this is the group of volunteers and conscripts who analyses the extent to which the Chernobyl nuclear were brought in to clean up immediately after the disaster in the Ukraine has caused long-term accident. This group has experienced significant effects on health and the performance of the adult negative health effects. workforce. The research, published with colleagues The research has important ramifications from the University of Bologna, focuses on data in the context of nuclear development today, gathered since April 1986 and examines how particularly given the recent meltdown of the exposure to the resultant radiation affected health Fukushima power plant in Japan, which led and economic performance over the next 20 years. to several countries re-examining their energy The conclusions drawn by Professor programmes and halting investment in nuclear Wadsworth and his colleagues are striking. Whilst power. A greater understanding of the impact initial data indicated that one in six Ukrainian of such rare disasters on economic growth may adults of working age reported being in poor help governments formulate ‘an appropriate health, 20 years on Chernobyl’s legacy mostly policy response’, potentially supporting domestic appears to be a negative effect on the health policy related to the development of a nuclear perceptions of individuals, rather than any other energy programme.

Thorpe Park: business theory in action

This year’s MBA students were able to go behind-the-scenes at Thorpe Park, one of the UK’s largest theme parks. The half-day site tour included a detailed organisational brief which helped bring to life many of the concepts the students are studying as part of their demanding general management programme. Thorpe Park is one of the brands owned by Merlin Entertainment Group, which also operates Legoland, Madame Tussaud’s, London Dungeons and the London Eye. A visit to The Swarm, a new ride nearing completion, generated discussion of the infrastructure versus branding trade-offs and a consideration of the important environmental issues presented by Thorpe Park’s unique site. MBA candidate Syed Qulib Abbas said “It was a golden chance to put into practice what we have been learning. Our theoretical training really gelled well with this practical experience.” The case study is now an established practice for incorporating employers with genuine business cases into the classroom. The chance for students to make recommendations to real business challenges is highly stimulating and mutually beneficial. Chris Chedzey, Thorpe Park’s Education Facilitator, co-ordinated the interaction and said “We greatly valued the experience; the chance to interact with bright, young minds was genuinely useful. Shining a spotlight on aspects of our business has identified a number of opportunities.” Such practical consultancy projects are run throughout the year and are complemented by the wide range of professional development activities offered, including CV writing, interview techniques and workplace skills.

12 Higher magazine Dean of Management and Economics Professor Alcohol marketing: the wrong message? Bob O’Keefe

Professor Chris Hackley, an expert in consumer Professor Hackley’s research evidence suggests research, has been reviewing alcohol policy and that marketing concerned with reduction of researching patterns of drinking behaviour in the alcohol intake amongst young people fails to UK. According to his findings, alcohol is seen recognise that within a social context alcohol is today by many very young people as an essential a normal part of life. Young people particularly part of a fun social life and drinking in order receive mixed messages about the sociability of to get very drunk is seen as normal. “Britain’s alcohol on the one hand and government anti contradictory relationship with alcohol goes back drinking campaigns on the other. Government some 400 years,” he says. “What is different campaigns such as ‘Know your limits’ try to today is that alcohol is treated almost as a normal impress social responsibility on its audience, grocery product in its price and availability. The but this is not an image many alcohol drinkers alcohol industry lobby argues that drinking too identify with. This group also fails to subscribe to much is the responsibility of the drinker, but government ‘safe’ levels of alcohol consumption this ignores the fact that people are getting into as they appear too low to be taken seriously. bad drinking habits well below the age of legal Professor Hackley says the problem requires a responsibility.” His research is particularly relevant policy shift from government: “It has taken a in light of a recent report by the Commons and generation for extreme drinking among young Science Technology Committee which urges people to become so common. There is no quick everybody to take at least two alcohol-free days fix, but stricter controls on alcohol marketing, a week and calls for a review of all government price and availability have to be part of a guidelines on alcohol in the UK. wider solution.” These are very exciting times for the new Faculty of Management and Economics. We are undertaking a major expansion of academic staff, starting with senior appointments. This means that currently we are recruiting for Chairs in Economics, Information Systems, Operations Management, International Business, Organisational Studies and Marketing. Recruitment of senior academics is now an international operation. We have interviewed, and in some cases made offers, to academics currently working in Boston, New York, California, Australia, Denmark, Italy, Switzerland and Germany. But these locations should not be used to infer an individual’s nationality – the group mentioned includes a Frenchman, a South American and a Brit or two. As in business and the creative arts, the search for talent occupies much of our time. If Royal Holloway is going to continue to have an impact on society, then we need to recruit the best. And we must provide an international outlook in our teaching; this is especially important to our UK students, who will be operating in an increasingly international workplace.

Royal Holloway 13 Faculty News Science

Darwin’s ‘lost fossils’ found

A ‘treasure trove’ of fossils including some ‘unregistered fossil plants’. I can’t resist a This turned out to be a piece of fossil wood collected by Charles Darwin, has been mystery, so I pulled one open. What I found collected by Darwin during his famous Voyage rediscovered by Dr. Howard Falcon-Lang, inside made my jaw drop! Inside the drawer of the Beagle in 1834!” Dr John Ludden, from the Department of Earth Sciences. The were hundreds of beautiful glass slides made Executive Director of the Geological Survey fossils, which have been ‘lost’ for 165 years, by polishing fossil plants into thin translucent said: “This is quite a remarkable discovery. It were found by chance in the British Geological sheets. This process allows them to be studied really makes one wonder what else might be Survey. Dr Lang said “While searching through under the microscope. Almost the first slide hiding in our collections.” an old cabinet, I spotted some drawers marked I picked up was labelled ‘C. Darwin Esq.’

A polished section of fossil wood from the cabinet of Revd John A polished section of 40 million year old fossil wood collected A fossil collected by Joseph Hooker (Darwin’s best friend) in Henslow (Darwin’s mentor at Cambridge) comprising a 150 by Charles Darwin in 1834 on Chiloe Island, South America in 1846 showing several cones of 300 million years old club million years old tree. It comes from Dorset, and you can even the course of his famous “Voyage of the Beagle.” moss trees. make out the annual tree-rings.

New funding boosts doctoral research

We have received approximately £4.5 million from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) to establish a joint Doctoral Training Partnership with Imperial College, London and the Research Complex at Harwell. The funding will pay for a total of 45 four-year studentships to be allocated over the academic years between 2012 and 2015. This initiative will draw on each institution’s shared experience of interdisciplinary approaches to research, encouraging interaction between students on the programme. It will also encourage the partnership to engage with the areas linked to the BBSRC’s research training priorities such as food security, bioenergy and industrial biotechnology. Professor Alan Gange, Head of the School of Biological Sciences, said: “We are delighted that Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway is part of this successful bid with Imperial and Harwell. It confirms our position among the leading bioscience departments in the UK and provides a magnificent opportunity to progress collaborative work with our partners. Furthermore, it will establish us as a leader in the critical areas of food security and biotechnology research.”

14 Higher magazine Dean of Science

Professor Assessing the impact of poor Mary Fowler Surrey Communication and language skills in schools Language in Education Study

Dr Courtenay Norbury, from the Department of links between poor language skills and a Psychology, is leading a study to assess children variety of problems later in life, including struggling to keep up with the curriculum behavioural issues. If children can’t express because of poor language skills when they themselves properly it can cause them to start school. The Surrey Communication become frustrated and disillusioned with and Language in Education Study (SCALES), school, so we need to address these issues as launched in January 2012 as the first of its early as possible.” kind in the UK, aims to find out why language Dr Norbury and her team in the Literacy, difficulties develop as the impact language Language and Communication Laboratory delay can have on children’s developmental will be working with Surrey County Council’s progress, academic performance and social schools to screen the language skills of all successes. children who started school in the county Research shows around 7% of children this academic year. A smaller cohort of 500 start school with language delay and cannot children will then be assessed in detail over the construct proper sentences. Dr Norbury says: next three years. The project was launched at “Language problems can hinder children’s a reception hosted by John Bercow MP at the ability to read and write and there are strong House of Commons. The Science Faculty carries out You can read about Dr Courtenay Norbury’s progress on the SCALES project by excellent, top-quality research, which following her blog at: www.rhul.ac.uk/discoverscience is highly cited in academic journals and well-recognised around the world. It is very pleasing to me that we are also able to promote the work of our academics in the public arena, and that Career achievement award for people out there are listening. This Professor Paul Bolwell is particularly important for a small, research-intensive institution like us. Paul Bolwell, an Emeritus Professor of Plant In the last few months we’ve had Biochemistry for the School of Biological Sciences our researchers speaking at external received the prestigious award of Doctor of events, such as Professor Klaus Dodds Science (DSc) from the University of Oxford for from Geography talking at the Natural his outstanding and original contribution to plant History Museum; on TV, with Professor science over the past 30 years. Simon Blackburn from our Mathematics Despite the debilitating effects of motor department on BBC’s One Show; and neurone disease Paul was able to attend the in the news and media, with Earth ceremony, with his family and close friends on Science Professor Howard Falcon-Lang, the 3 March 2012. During the ceremony, the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University explained who found Darwin’s ‘lost’ fossils. That the circumstances surrounding the situation and particular story was published in 600 the award, and Paul received a rousing round of publications world-wide. And with applause. around 4,000 visitors, we had record Paul sadly passed away on 13 April. He numbers to our annual Science Open will be remembered by many for his immense Day event for the general public, contribution to the School of Biological Sciences young and old, held here on Campus as a passionate and brilliant teacher, and as a in February. world class researcher. I am pleased to say that despite His research significantly advanced our turbulent times in the HE sector, the knowledge in four main areas of plant sciences: the biosynthesis and structure of the plant cell future is looking very promising as wall; engineering the structure of the plant cell The Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford University. we continue to break records, raise The Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, Professor our profile and strive to offer fantastic wall; plant pathogenesis: and natural antioxidants. Andrew Hamilton, dispensing with tradition, greets His work was cited more than 6,000 times and Professor Paul Bolwell. research-informed teaching to our Paul was also editor of the journal Phytochemistry. students.

Royal Holloway 15 Keeper of England’s Heritage

Dr Simon Thurley CBE, architectural historian, alumnus, Honorary Fellow and Chief Execu- tive of English Heritage, talks about his student days at Bedford College and about the biggest challenges facing heritage today.

I’m not a boy wonder any more. I’m an old fogey.

16 Higher magazine he man labelled ‘boy wonder’ for the fact that he had a series of very senior jobs at a young age has a confession to make about his time studying History at Bedford College. He says, “I went to very few of my lectures – maybe about five in three years.” He studied architectural history under Professor Joseph Mordaunt Crook, an expert in Keeper of England’s Heritage TVictorian architecture. Thankfully he adds, “I was much keener on spending my time in the library in a rather spoddish way.” He describes the wonderful environment of being taught in Regents Park. “It was an incredibly nice place to be. A minute’s walk from busy Baker Street and you were in an oasis, in lovely, spacious buildings,” he says. “My fondest memory is wandering out after tutorials and lying under a tree reading a book.” After graduating from Bedford College in 1985, Simon did an MA in Art History at the Courtauld Institute of Art. He says, “In those days you could get grants to do such a thing.” He achieved a distinction, so won a further two years of British Academy funding to do a PhD on the subject of Henry VIII’s Royal Residences, which he “cracked on with at the fastest speed possible.” Just as he was finishing his PhD in 1988, he was offered a job working for English Heritage as Inspector of Ancient Monuments. He worked for them for a couple of years before Historic Royal Palaces was set up by the government to run Hampton Court, Tower of London and Kensington Palace. He became Chief Curator on their main board – one of four people under the Chief Executive – and remained in post for eight years. He became Director of the Museum of London in 1997, which he describes as “an immensely enjoyable job.” Simon was then encouraged to apply for the job as Chief Executive of English Heritage and has been in post since 2002 – hence the title of ‘boy wonder’, as he was just 40 years old at the time of appointment. On being in a senior position so young, he says: “It was a little bit difficult at times because people would come in and say they’d come to meet Dr Thurley and obviously thought I was the teaboy. I didn’t like that much.” In fact, that was one of the reasons he ruthlessly used his Doctor title, because it made him sound older than he was. But the title of ‘boy wonder’ didn’t bother him too much then, and certainly doesn’t now. “I’m not a boy wonder anymore,” he says. “I’m an old fogey.” English Heritage has recently been given £2.7 million by the Department of Education to enable school children to discover their local area and to learn how it relates to English history. “What this new project will do is to help us give children access to the national story through things that are on their doorstep,” he says. “By taking children to the ruins of an abbey, we can teach them about the Reformation. By taking them to a chapel that was used as a gunpowder store, we can teach them about the Civil War.” Simon knows only too well about the power of history at a young age. He grew up in a small Roman town called Godmanchester, and every summer he would watch as archaeologists dug up parts of the town. Then, when he was seven years old, he was given the opportunity to do some digging himself. He says, “I ended up digging up a Roman basilica in my parents’ garden. That was quite a formative experience. From that point onwards, I became very interested in archaeology, old buildings and the Romans.” He urges us not to underestimate the power of heritage on young people going through their education. “I think that it’s very, very important that young people are educated in an environment that’s of architectural quality and ideally has some history. At Bedford College we had that sense of history. We had St John’s Lodge, we had amazing old villas. Founder’s is important in the same way. It gives you a sense of identity, of being somewhere that is somewhere.” In terms of the challenges faced by English Heritage at the moment, Simon talks about people settling for second best during a period of recession. “There’s always a danger because people feel they have to get that supermarket, get that multiplex cinema, get that factory, incinerator, or whatever it may be, in their town,” he says. “People accept things that in better times they wouldn’t have.” In addition, certain types of old building such as industrial ones in the north are harder to rescue now. He explains, “Before 2008 they were converted into flats or hotels. It’s very difficult to find new uses for some of these important industrial buildings now.” However, in periods of economic turmoil, people tend to look to the past. So whilst on one hand there are concerns about what’s happening to our villages, towns and countryside, English Heritage is more popular than ever.

Royal Holloway 17 “The 420 sites that make up the National Heritage Collection are being say nothing, let’s knock it all down. But of course that’s exactly what people visited like never before – 11 million visitors a year and rising. We’ve now said in the 1920s and 1930s of Victorian architecture. If they’d have gone passed our millionth member.” ahead and knocked down Victorian buildings, we wouldn’t have St Pancras There are about 370,000 listed buildings in the country – the vast majority Station or Founder’s.” of which are residential buildings that date from before 1840. One of English Simon is passionate in his belief that heritage isn’t just about the past, Heritage’s most difficult jobs is to try and help people through the maze that but is about balancing our responsibility to the present, past and future. is identifying which buildings are worth keeping. This involves addressing “It’s about how you fashion the world for our children and grandchildren, aesthetic, historical, engineering and communal criteria. Simon comments, enabling us to keep the very best of what happened in the past with what “There are some very interesting questions we have to ask ourselves about is happening now. It’s about managing change so that we don’t spoil things what we want to protect after the Second World War. Some people might our predecessors have left us.”

Hadrian’s Wall Stonehenge

Osborne House Whitby Abbey

18 Higher magazine Our science open days this year Open for science attracted record numbers of visitors Science Open Day: Pills and Potions Almost 4,000 visitors of all ages were left captivated by this year’s Pills and Potions themed Science Open Day on 25 February. Hosted by staff and students from all departments within the Faculty of Science, visitors enjoyed free talks, workshops and hands-on sessions, a specially commissioned art installation inspired by Thomas Holloway’s pills and ointments by artist Flora Parrott, and demonstrations of the magic of chemistry. The hands-on sessions included the chance to make your own medicines. Visitors were able to explore the latest developments in science across the campus and meet the academics behind the research. Professor Mary Fowler, Dean of Science, said: “This has been the most successful open day ever with almost twice as many people attending as the year before. It was so good to see visitors of all ages having such a good time participating in the hands-on experiments and enjoying the lectures and displays. We hope we have inspired visitors and demonstrated that as well as being vital, science is fun.”

Rare Disease Day Our open day for national Rare Disease Day on 29 February attracted almost 200 visitors, the largest in the UK. Those attending included pupils from local schools and many people affected by a rare disease. In Europe, a rare disease is defined as one with an incidence of less than 1 in 2,000 people. There are more than 7,000 rare diseases which together affect 24 million (6%) people in Europe and take 20% of all health care costs. Rare diseases are a serious public health concern and an international priority, but often very little is known about them by health professionals and the public alike. The Royal Holloway event included an exhibition from 17 charities, presentations and a keynote speech from alumna and Paralympics rowing Gold medallist Helene Raynsford (Biochemistry, 2003), who lives with Ehlers- Danlos Syndrome. Rare Disease Day highlights the need for more research and funding to help sufferers and their families and draws attention to rare diseases and the millions of people who are affected by them. You can view videos of the highlights of the Science Open Day and Our patron Helene Raynsford, Paralympic Champion, has the rare disease Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Rare Disease Day at www.rhul.ac.uk/discoverscience

Royal Holloway 19 Olympics come to College With the Olympics imminently upon us, we take a look at the alumni who are competing for medals. We also look at the preparations underway for our hosting of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and we remember the last time London hosted the Olympics as alumni provide memories of the Games of 1948.

Our alumni who are competing in the 2012 Games:

Photograph by Pete Spurrier Sophie Christiansen MBE Jessica Eddie Rodrigo Ideus Forero Subject: MSci Mathematics, 2011 Subject: BSc Psychology, 2006 Subject: BSc Economics, 2009 Sport: Paralympic Dressage Sport: Rowing Sport: Rowing Notable achievement: Notable achievement: Notable achievement: Two Gold medals and one Silver Competing in the women’s eight and First Colombian rower to qualify for medal, 2008 Paralympic Games finishing 5th, 2008 Olympic Games the Olympics, 2008 Olympic Games

Sophie started riding at the age of six with the Jessica has represented GB in rowing at junior, U23 Rodrigo starting rowing at the American School Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA). She and senior level, having first gained a GB vest in the in London in 2000 after moving to the UK from says it helped with her coordination, but her love women’s quad at the World Junior Championships, Colombia. He has pursued his international career for it came from the freedom it gave her. She finishing 6th in 2001 and 8th in 2002. She won since 2004, competing at junior and senior World began training with the South Bucks RDA Group a Bronze medal in the women’s pair at the World Championships as well as World Cup events. at 13 and was soon chosen for the World Class U23 Championships in 2003 before moving into Colombia held rowing for the first time in 2010 at Potential Squad. At 16 she won a Bronze medal the senior set up. Jessica secured her position in the South American Games and Rodrigo obtained at the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games. She said: the women’s eight competing in the World Cup its first international rowing medal, a Silver medal. “The whole Games experience is phenomenal, a series during her time studying at the College, He is currently in preparations for the Pre-Olympic world which you cannot begin to describe. The incidentally sitting one of her Psychology finals Qualification Regatta. He said: “I hope to be able build up to Beijing occurred during my second year at the Munich World Cup event. At the 2011 to return to Royal Holloway as an athlete in the at Royal Holloway. The College was so supportive, World Rowing Championships, Jessica raced in London Games. It is great that the University is they even arranged for me to take one of my the women’s eight winning a Bronze medal, just hosting the rowers and canoeists for the Games. exams early in the morning so I could get away two seconds behind Canada. This sets them up in Having received positive feedback from the World to shoot an advert for the Paralympics with Sir great stead for the London 2012 Olympic Games Junior Championships I believe Royal Holloway is Paul McCartney.” where the team will look to medal. ready for the Olympics!”

20 Higher magazine Olympics come to College Our Olympic village

As the UK enters the final countdown towards the competed at three Olympic games and the involved; for the volunteer third year student 2012 Games, we are busy making preparations village experience is often the most memorable who will show a team to their rooms in Butler to host the world’s elite rowers and canoeists on part of the Games for athletes. Visiting athletes Hall to the rower who will win an Olympic Gold campus. As one of only two satellite Olympic and and teams have been very impressed with the medal who might sleep the night before in a bed Paralympic Villages, Royal Holloway will be home standard of the rooms at Royal Holloway and we in Gowar Hall.” to more than 1,400 athletes and officials during aim to create an environment where every rower Our alumni who are competing in the 2012 Games: the Games who will then be transported by coach and canoe sprinter can relax and prepare to race to nearby Dorney Lake, in Eton, where the Rowing at their personal best. and Canoe Sprint events will be held. A number “I am delighted that so many students and of special security measures will be in operation staff are involved in working and helping in the and the Village, to be situated at the bottom of Village. Their working experience of the site campus, will be enclosed by a secure fence. will be invaluable and I know they will warmly Excitement has been building on campus welcome more than 50 different nations from as staff and students prepare for their part in every continent who will stay with us. Being the Games. Olympic Rowing Village Manager part of an Olympic and Paralympic Games is an and Olympic medalist Miriam Luke said: “I have inspiring and exciting experience for all those

Memories of 1948: alumni recall the 1948 London Olympic Games When the Olympics explode to life with a flamboyant spectacle designed by But for sports enthusiasts, it was still a time of great anticipation. “There award-winning director Danny Boyle, the ceremony will be a far cry from the was an excitement that so many people were coming from overseas, not last Olympic Games event in London. The 1948 London Olympics became because they were unwilling refugees or members of the Free French, known as the Austerity Games, taking place just a few years after the end Polish, Dutch and other armies, but because they were participating in this of the Second World War while Britain was still gripped by food and clothes worldwide festival,” Corinne Renshaw (neé Davies, BA Classics, 1950 Royal rationing and a shortage of housing. Although these Games of the 14th Holloway College) said. “At home we watched newsreels and read accounts Olympiad were seen as a chance for Britain to reassert a sense of buoyancy in the papers and listened to the radio. I remember Fanny Blankers Coens’s and frivolity, they offered a modest spectacle by today’s standards. amazing performance, and, being Welsh, my family were most interested in Barbara Lees (Dip Social Studies, 1948 Bedford College) recalls the ‘spirit’ the local participants, Ken Jones, later a Rugby player, who won a silver medal of the Games. “To a generation which had only recently emerged from the in the relay race and Tom Richards who won a silver medal for the marathon.” dark years of the war, and whose youth had very much been swallowed up With an £11bn budget and live broadcasts of the events as they unfold, in it, the Games, and indeed the Festival of Britain just a couple of years later, the 2012 London Games look set to be a very different affair from the 1948 felt like a vindication of our youth, a reclaiming of what we had lost, and the Austerity Games, with the whole world watching the spectacle. dawning of a glorious new horizon, in which our generation featured large.” The highlight of the opening ceremony in 1948 was the torch relay, with John Mark, a former Cambridge University athlete and a symbol of British youth, lighting the cauldron in Wembley stadium. Jean Atkins (neé Posnett, BSc Mathematics, 1950 Bedford College) was among the few spectators who lined the streets as the torch made its way through the villages around Dorking and Guildford. “I remember it was a very low key event,” she said. “There were just two or three parked cars at the roadside and about 20 spectators. I suppose it will be very different in 2012.” Without the benefit of widespread television coverage, the 1948 Olympic Games lacked the reach that the 2012 Games will no doubt enjoy. For some, like Audrey Fisk (neé Sanders, BA History, 1950 Royal Holloway College) it passed by with little impact. “Sadly, with no television, the 1948 Olympics impinged little on my awareness. For the majority, sport did not extend much beyond football, cricket and cycling.”

Read about our alumni and students who are hoping to go for gold in 2012, go to our 2012 website: www.rhul.ac.uk/aboutus/2012games

Royal Holloway 21 Breaking the Code How our graduates fought World War II at Bletchley Park by Margaret Lenton

Bletchley Park was the secret centre for Allied codebreaking and intelligence during the Second World War, the place where Allied cryptologists broke the German Enigma code and other German ciphers.

he codebreakers of Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire have All three came up to Royal Holloway College in war-time and studied achieved iconic status and are credited with shortening the Second languages, including German, and all had some experience of Germany World War by two years. Cracking the German navy’s Enigma under the Nazis. Toni James had stayed with a family, where her hostess cipher was crucial in the battle at sea: up until that time U-boats had been in prison for a month because anti-Nazi propaganda had been were sinking Allied ships faster than new ships could be built. Cracking intercepted by the Gestapo. Pam Bagnall narrowly escaped back to the UK Tthe Army and Luftwaffe Enigma allowed the Allies to know German plans after studying at Hamburg University during the summer of 1939. Her host for defending against the Normandy invasion and conducting the war in had thought it unnecessary for her to register with the British Embassy and North Africa. The first digital computer, Colossus, was built at Bletchley it was only when a Norwegian lecturer asked her why she had not gone Park as part of the war effort. Because of the extreme secrecy, Bletchley home that she left on 31 August. Gwen Morley-Mower had known Jewish personnel never received the credit they were due. These included some of refugee students at her school. What they all shared was the wish to make Britain’s most talented graduates and Royal Holloway and Bedford Colleges a more active contribution to the war effort. Because of their academic made their contribution via several alumnae, amongst them Pam Bagnall, prowess and knowledge of German, and because of probable connections Toni James and Gwen Morley-Mower, all of whom were ready interview via the Head of the German Department and Professor Norman of London subjects for this article. Image Draco

22 Higher magazine Breaking the Code

University they were recruited to work at Bletchley. Alumnae of the College who saw service Similarly, bright Bedford College students with German at Bletchley Park during WWII degrees were put forward by Professor Edna Purdie at Bedford for codebreaking work. Alumnae of Royal Holloway College: Bletchley Park was the wartime base of the Government’s Code and Cipher School (GC&CS). The Pam Bagnall (née Draughn) Park had been purchased in 1938 by Admiral Sinclair, the BA French, 1943 Head of MI6, with £7,500 of his own money to enable Joan Hunter (née Jackson) GC&CS to operate safe from bombing raids which might BA General Arts, 1941) inevitably affect London. Bletchley was equidistant from Toni (Lily) James (née Titley) Oxford and Cambridge, was on the main A5 out of BA German with French, 1942) London and had a main railway station. Its role was to provide intelligence gained from decrypted messages Gwen Morley-Mower (née Fellows) sent from such sources as the German Army, Navy, Air BA English, 1946 Force, Railway and Hitler and his High Command using the Enigma and Lorenz machines. Originally, a hundred Alumnae of Bedford College: Toni James people moved into Bletchley Park in 1939, but by the end Monica Heubeck (née Wellwood) or the War around ten thousand people were employed. BA French with German, 1943) Pam Bagnall, Toni James and Gwen Morley-Mower went through the same experiences on arrival at Chloé Holland Bletchley station. They were taken to the main gate and (Intermediate in Arts, 1936; German, 1939) in a small room were asked to sign the Official Secrets Beryl Lawry (née Beswick) Act. Once the importance of absolute secrecy had been BA French with German, 1946) stressed, they were then issued with passes. Pam and Toni were billeted in Bletchley, which meant they could Joyce McMorine (née Hibbott) walk or cycle to work, but Gwen was housed in nearby BA French with Spanish & Italian, 1941) Wolverton, which involved travelling to work by coach. Hazel Richards (née Williams) They were charged one pound a month for billets, which Intermediate in Arts, 1937; German, 1939) included an evening meal, and one pound a month for canteen meals. Views varied on the quality of canteen meals, but these have been described as substantial between five thousand and ten thousand daily. The code helpings but little choice. Bletchley Park operated breakers had a huge volume of work, but every care was twenty-four hours a day and all worked 8 hours shifts taken to ensure that nothing was missed. (8am to 4pm, 4pm to midnight and midnight to 8am). Pam Bagnall had a key role because her task was There were two days off a fortnight. Besides the shift to check the ‘duds’ which were discarded messages Pam Bagnall system, working conditions were basic. The huts were that had not been initially broken. This was a very prefabricated, dusty and the furniture was plain wood. demanding task because in the midst of the volume of All buildings had to blacked out at night and were lit traffic something vital might have been missed. She was by bare bulbs. charged with trawling through messages looking for the Bletchley Park had a unique atmosphere. There was a prefix ANX and then testing if the message contained complete mix of people, including Americans after Pearl vital information for commanders in the field in North Harbour. People used first names. Questions were not Africa, in Italy or crucially in the lead up and aftermath asked of people who worked in different huts. Bletchley of D-Day. Park was non-hierarchical for the graduates that worked Toni James dealt with radio messages sent by there. Women were in the majority, given the number of the Abwehr (the German Secret Service) from across WRNS and ATS working the machinery of the Bombes Europe and her job was to extract information. Toni and later Colossus computers. Women graduates were was on duty when messages came in through about treated as equals by their male peers, although not von Stauffenburg’s attempt to assassinate Hitler, but necessarily in terms of salary. the euphoria died when a later message said that Hitler Our three ladies worked in Hut Six which was at the was injured not dead. centre of the code breaking activity in the war against Gwen Morley Mower, who was called up in the the Luftwaffe and German army Enigma codes. The midst of her University career when she reached twenty, volume of messages passing through Hut Six grew to as were all single women, worked on the teleprinters Gwen Morley-Mower

Royal Holloway 23 looking for understandable German, at which point the message was passed on. All three commented that the High German learnt in academia was not of great use and was replaced by a vocabulary of war-time military and technical terms. These ladies had an important role in the history of the War. They knew D-Day was coming and were confined to Bletchley Park. Secrecy was paramount and there were only fourteen approved recipients of Ultra (Enigma decrypts) including Churchill, who visited Bletchley Park, Eisenhower the Supreme Allied Commander, Mountbatten, Generals Slim and Montgomery during their campaigns. Relatives or friends were not allowed to know where these ladies were, writing to a PO Box. Ultra could only be acted upon if there was another source of information such as a plane discovering a convoy supplying Rommel in North Africa. No one was allowed to leave Bletchley Park because of the risk that the Germans might discover that their codes had been broken. Bletchley Park ensured that: commanders in the field had advance warning about enemy plans and dispositions; Rommel’s assessment of defences along the target D-Day beaches was in Allied hands; double agents’ disinformation before the invasion of Sicily and D-Day was believed and acted upon by the Germans; and the Battle of the Atlantic was won because the ‘Wolf Packs’ of German U-Boats were being detected and the convoys were being re-routed around them. Amongst the other graduates who worked at Bletchley were: Monica Heubeck, who worked in army intelligence at Bletchley and in Germany, subsequently at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunals; Joan Hunter, who worked in the same section at Bletchley as Toni James; Beryl Lawry, who worked at Station X, Bletchley Park in the last year of the War; and Joyce McMorine, who did Italian and Japanese code and cipher work at Bletchley Park from 1941–45. We should honour all those who contributed to the winning of the War and it is overdue that we acknowledge the debt we owe to these talented ladies. They experienced Nazi Germany at first hand and they played a significant part in its destruction.

Margaret Lenton graduated from Royal Holloway College in 1966. She was Headmistress of Slough Grammar School and is now a doctoral candidate in the History Department.

Bletchley today When the War ended the people who worked at Bletchley Park were warned that secrecy had to be maintained for another thirty years. In 1974 the first book was published and gradually the extraordinary story of Bletchley Park began to emerge. As interest increased the story of the cracking of the Enigma code was told in the film Enigma, which starred Kate Winslet and Bedford College alumnus Jeremy Northam. In the early 1990s a campaign to save Bletchley Park from demolition Image Susan Astray Image by housing developers paved the way for its reinvention as a centre for research and education, as well as a museum. Today, Bletchley Park benefits from close links with Royal Holloway, particularly through the validation of its publications and through collaborations with the Information Security Group (ISG) and the History Department. The Founding Director of the ISG, the cryptographer Professor Fred Piper, has been a trustee of Bletchley for the last 11 years, regularly lecturing there and providing cryptographic expertise. Machines from Bletchley’s collection have travelled to Royal Holloway for analysis and note-taking, whilst students on the MSc in Information Security visit Bletchley each year to study the technical aspects of the codebreaking machines. Bletchley is now a thriving centre and ever- increasing attendance figures enable it to plan for the future. New Ellis Image Tim generations are now discovering its significance, whilst the stories of the people who worked there continue to emerge and fascinate.

24 Higher magazine Making art work

With Dementia Awareness Week taking place from 20–26 May, Professor Helen Nicholson from Royal Holloway’s Department of Drama and Theatre talks about her interim research findings into an arts and reminiscence project run by Age Exchange.

While medical researchers continue the search for advanced diagnosis, we had finished. His pleasure and satisfaction in the job was clear.” It later prevention and treatment of dementia, Professor Helen Nicholson is focusing emerged that the man was a watchmaker by trade. on improving the relational care aspect of the disease. One of the issues Helen’s research team is considering is how and Helen specialises in contemporary theatre and applied drama, which means why creative activity can help transform a residential care home from an that she has worked in schools, care homes for the elderly, day centres institution to a domestic space – and asking what ‘home’ means to residents for people with head injuries, prisons, homeless hostels and orphanages living with dementia. She says, “Participants move between material and in Africa. She is now a year into her three-year research project closely imagined worlds, between attention and inattention, between memories analysing ‘Hearts and Minds’, an arts and reminiscence project run by of the past and their creative responses to living in the here-and-now. Arts Age Exchange. The project sees artists working with care staff in activities can create a sense of them going somewhere different.” As a South London and Maudsley NHS Trust to hold group and one-to-one Drama practitioner, Helen finds it interesting to be in and out of role play performing arts sessions for people with dementia. Along with three with the participants. “It’s about trying to follow their world, rather than research assistants, she is looking at how arts can enhance the emotional asking them to conform to ours,” she says. “If you stay open to the flow, quality of people’s lives. to the unknown, you can make points of connection.” Age Exchange has a history of running intergenerational projects, and She is passionate that we change the way we think and talk about is shifting its model of practice to develop arts projects with older people dementia. “It’s often viewed in negative terms. We use language like loss, to improve their quality of life. This includes valuing their reminiscences decline, deterioration and suffering.” Helen argues that because most people and giving them opportunities for wider appreciation in the form of visual are scared of dementia, we project our fears onto the patients. She hopes and performance arts projects, exhibitions, publications and documentary we will start seeing it as just another stage in life. film. Helen says, “In terms of what Age Exchange is doing already, I can Helen wants to achieve many things with her research; for the project only commend the project. I do however think there’s scope to do more to be rolled out to care providers across the UK; for her research to inform imaginatively as artists, focusing on the here-and-now as well as the past.” change in order that care workers are trained more effectively; to show that She stresses the importance of finding creative practice that engages people. there are different processes of working, and to shift away from the model For example, she tells a story of planting seeds in pots with one elderly where everything has to be measured. The main issue is demonstrating how man. “He was so careful and delicate in his touch, holding the seeds in the arts can vastly improve the quality of life of people with dementia, and his palm. He took great pride in cleaning up every last speck of soil after just a year in, the examples speak for themselves.

Royal Holloway 25 Fire and fossils: Professor Andrew Scott In a long career at Royal Holloway, Professor Andrew Scott has helped to shape many generations of geologists. He started out himself as a student at Bedford College. In this his year, when he retires from undergraduate teaching, we talk to him about his career.

Professor Andrew Scott (BSc Geology, 1973 Bedford College) undertook his doctoral research in the Botany Department at Birkbeck College, University of London with Professor Bill Chaloner FRS and was awarded his PhD in 1976. Following post- doctoral research at Trinity College Dublin he was appointed as Lecturer in Geology at Chelsea College, University of London in 1978. In 1985 the department merged with that from Bedford College and Kings College in the University of London to form the new Geology Department at Royal Holloway (now the Department of Earth Sciences). Andrew was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1989, Reader in 1993 and to Professor of Applied Palaeobotany in 1996. In 2002 he was awarded a London University DSc for “Contributions towards our understanding of ancient terrestrial ecosystems.”

Professor Andrew Scott has been conducting research in Coal Geology a photography book with Alan Macintyre from Princeton University on for nearly forty years. “I think it must be in my blood,” he says, “as many volcanic landscapes and have a long-term collaboration with artist Nick past generations of my family worked in the coal mines of Scotland.” He Shewring working on geological stamp designs and have worked on issues has made many important contributions to the understanding of ancient for a number of countries. ecosystems, including the formation of fossil fuels and the role of fire in the ”In March he gave a lecture at the College in which he spoke of the fossil record. His research on fossil plants has improved our understanding disastrous effects climate change could have on forests and woodlands in of the evolution of coal-forming vegetation through time and by using fossil Southern England and of the inevitability of a major fire. “We have never charcoal he has been able to track ancient fires all over the world. “Much had a forest fire in southern England and have to be careful of fire reaching of my research over the past few years has concerned the past, present and future of wildfires and their environmental effects.” In addition to numerous books and papers, Andrew communicates his passion for Geology with regular public lectures, as well as broadcasts for With climate change it is inevitable that the BBC and the Open University. Between 1998–2006 he was Director of the Science and the Media (later Science Communication) programme at there will be a major fire in Surrey and College, where students are taught and given practical instruction about communicating science to the public and colleagues. “I am passionately we have to think about what we could interested in ways to communicate Geology. In addition to traditional do to deal with such an eventuality. media work, I am using art to communicate my science. I am working on

26 Higher magazine the crowns of trees. The fire we have seen has always been low level, surface Geology was new here.” Margaret Collinson soon joined her old colleagues fire in heath lands. Crown fire burns through the treetops. Firemen can only when King’s College closed down its Biology department and this further try and control where such fires go, they generally can’t put them out. You strengthened the study of Palaeobotany and helped turn the College into have to rely on the weather to do that. If the climate is dry enough and for a leading research centre. “So many projects since have been joint projects long enough, then there is risk of fire reaching the crowns of the trees. In within the Department.” Surrey we have also planted flammable grasses by roads. Such an almighty Andrew’s combined interest in coal and Palaeobotany was to have fire would contaminate waterways and the smoke would be a health hazard another unexpected benefit. He was invited to Windsor Castle to examine and may close airports. There would not just be the loss of buildings to some early 17th century drawings of ‘lignites’ from the Queen’s Royal contend with, but also the erosion of the ground after the fire.” Collection. “I was asked to write a catalogue of nearly 200 drawings made by He says that geologists tend to be passionate about Geology from an Prince Federico Cesi, the Duke of Acquasparta and founder of the Accademia early age and this is why they want to convey this passion to their students. dei Lincei, collected together by Cassiano dal Pozzo and brought to Britain by “I was very interested in Geology from the age of nine, when I began to King George III in 1752. When I initially saw the drawings, mainly of fossil

Andrew and Bill Chaloner (back row centre) with Margaret Collinson (front row centre) and colleagues in the field

woods, it was not possible to identify much. However, in the collection there were also the oldest known field sketches of the fossil localities.” Over the next seven years he managed to relocate the sites in Italy and re-collect fossils. “This enabled me to make sense of the drawings made for this ancient study to understand the nature of fossils. Some of the sketches showed plumes of smoke rising from the ground and in contemporary correspondence it became clear that these were from underground coal fires!” The book was launched by Prince Charles in the Royal Appartments at Windsor Castle. Readers can hear Andrew talking about the early history of Geology on the Radio 4 ‘In Our Time’ podcast for April 12 2012 (www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/iot) collect fossils and was encouraged by my uncle Robert Fraser, a coal miner himself.” He was enthused to study the subject at Bedford College by Dr Geologists are amongst the best Ted Rose, whom he met when a schoolboy at a camp in Switzerland. “Ted not only became my teacher but later a colleague at Royal Holloway.” On connected of scientists because they graduating from Bedford College in 1973 Andrew was invited by Professor Bill Chaloner to do a doctorate with him at Birkbeck College. “My interest in spend so much time in the field together. Palaeobotany stems from Bill Chaloner. I am pleased that he is now emeritus Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway.” One of Bill’s other doctoral students is fellow Royal Holloway academic, Professor Margaret Collinson. “Margaret has been a friend and co-researcher since Today, Andrew still runs more than 30 research projects at any time and we were research students together.” currently has projects in the USA, Canada, Russia, Australia and New Zealand In the early 1980s the Geology Departments at Bedford, Chelsea and amongst others. Last September he helped organize the 5th International King’s Colleges decided they wanted to merge because they were all quite meeting on Charcoal in Valencia in Spain. He is Honorary Professor at Jilin small. When the merger between Bedford and Royal Holloway was mooted University in China and was a visiting fellow of Berkeley College at Yale the three departments might have gone to King’s, but Royal Holloway offered University. In 2006–07 he spent a sabbatical year at Yale University, where a new building. The geologists all had a hand in designing the Queen’s one of his former Bedford College Geology demonstrators, Andrew Hill, is Building, their new home at Royal Holloway, and this contributed to the very Professor of Anthropology and a Curator of the Peabody Museum. He talks collegiate atmosphere. Bill Chaloner came to Royal Holloway from Bedford of other students in far flung parts of the globe. He keeps in touch with College (where he went after Birkbeck) to head Biological Sciences and so many of them and is pleased to find them regularly on his trips around the Andrew found himself teaching and working not only with his old Bedford world. “Geologists are amongst the best connected of scientists because tutors but his PhD supervisor as well. “We were a department formed out they spend so much time in the field together. The College has tendrils of desire to work together, so we have always been a friendly department. everywhere and they go all over penetrate even the most remote regions!”. We still spend a lot of time with our students and we really build a close Andrew’s retirement celebration on the 14th September will be a relationship with them”. day of lectures at College followed by a dinner in the Picture Gallery Andrew and Bill soon set to developing Palaeobotany at Royal Holloway, welcoming former students and colleagues from around the world. taking perspectives from both Geology and Botany. Andrew wanted to put the College on the map for Geology and organized the first international See the Earth Sciences website or email [email protected] for more coal conference in 1986. “I felt we had to establish a new identity as information.

Royal Holloway 27 Adventures in the screen trade Amanda Faber: Media Arts student and film producer

and legals. She says, “By good fortune I came across a producer who was willing to give me a chance. It has been really wonderful working with Richard and a remarkable opportunity.” Their film Resistance, Amit Gupta’s directorial debut, came out last year. Critics were in agreement about its quiet confidence and atmospheric quality, and it won four-star reviews from many publications. The Times wrote, “The small British movie Resistance really deserves to be seen” and declared it to be “beautifully shot, eloquently acted and directed with great emotional reserve.” Amanda, Richard Holmes and co-producer Isabelle Georgeaux enjoyed working together so much that they set up their own production company – AIR Production Limited. She says, “I absolutely loved every minute working with them both.” Before the dust even settled they set to work on their next collaboration. “Our next film is an Indian comedy called Jadoo, which was written by Amit Gupta as a BBC 4 play. Filming has started and it will be out next year.” You can visit the website at http://jadoomovie.com/ Also on her list is finishing her studies. She says: “We are paired with course partners and I’ve been lucky enough to be working with Sina Bowyer who is a very experienced writer and we keep in regular contact when we are not on retreat. Our year group is a true inspiration. I have loved meeting and working with such a talented group of writers and have found the Amanda on location for Resistance with her Assistant Art Editor course tutors superb.”

As a distance learning course, the MA in Screenwriting for Television and Film (retreat) at Royal Holloway enables students to juggle busy lives. For one student, Amanda Faber, it wasn’t enough to combine looking after her two children, charity work and course commitments: she also became a film producer. Amanda was just weeks into her course when she approached her favourite novelist Owen Sheers to ask if she could buy the rights to Resistance – the tale of a group of women who awake to find that D-Day has failed, their small Welsh village is occupied by German soldiers and the men of the village missing. She was disappointed to discover that veteran film producer Richard Holmes had already secured the rights. “I was passionate about the novel and wanted this to be my first film,” she says. “So I phoned Richard, expecting a polite brush off. Instead he said that if I could raise £400,000 then I was in.” Of course, Richard thought that was the last he would hear from Amanda. Little did he know that she had worked as a lawyer and ran a charity, so the task of raising £400,000 was no match for her determination. Amanda investigated various networks and in an unconventional move, tapped into the interest in the novel among book groups to find investors. And with a large number of investments from people who live in Wales where the film is set, among other investors, she managed to not only hit the £400,000 target but far exceed it. She was going to be a Producer. As the film moved from pre-production into filming, Amanda found her course invaluable. “I don’t think the lecturers realised that many of the questions I was asking were not theoretical,” she says. “Their huge knowledge and expertise was just terrific. I was literally operating hand to mouth, discussing areas in class and then going onto set the next week. There are guest speakers on a regular basis and the course proved to be a really useful window to the industry.” She worked on every aspect of the Michael Sheen shooting Resistance production process, from script editing, locations and casting, to contracts

28 Higher magazine Pictures from the Collection The Picture Collection of Thomas Holloway at Royal Holloway Peter the Great at Deptford Dockyard by Daniel Maclise

A challenge: can you spot Peter the Great (1672–1725) in this dockyard pains to include. The man in black is William III, the King of England who scene? Visitors to the Picture Gallery are nearly always surprised by the was anxious to encourage trade relations with Russia. He is accompanied answer. Czar Peter was keen to develop a navy for his Russian empire and by Lord Carmarthen, President of the Council, and Lord Shrewsbury, his we know that he visited London in the winter of 1698 to gain first-hand Foreign Secretary, the two gentlemen on the extreme right of the picture. experience of naval building. At first glance, you might take him to be the The bare trees in the background at top right and the sprigs of holly in the aristocratic visitor in black on the right of the picture looking somewhat ill foreground at bottom left convey that this is a winter scene. The members at ease. But you would be wrong; our man Peter is the rough and ready of Peter’s “rough retinue” are named as Menzikoff, Golownin, Galatzin looking chap resting his foot on the wooden bench on the left. and Prince Siberski, who was famous for his “skill to rig a ship from top to This superb picture of 1857 is by Daniel Maclise, once described by The bottom”. The retinue also includes a jester, two boys, a monkey, a spaniel Times as “unequalled by any living artist” as a draughtsman. Maclise drew and some young Drury Lane actresses. his inspiration from a contemporary account of Peter’s visit by Bishop Gilbert This complex composition is alive with activity: in the top right corner two Burnet, the Bishop of London. “He is mechanically turned”, wrote Burnet of men are engaged in vertically sawing a beam, while in the space behind the Peter, “and seems designed by nature rather to be a ship carpenter than a black-clad figure of William III, two of the Russian retinue are horizontally great prince; this was his chief study and exercise while he stayed here; he sawing a tree trunk. Men are also seen in action using chisels, files, wood wrought much with his own hands, and made all about him work at the planes and axes. Everything is rendered in such meticulous detail that each models of the ships” (a model ship can be seen resting in a wheelbarrow object takes on an independence of its own and seems uniquely important in the bottom left corner). to the scene. Maclise was first and foremost a history painter and his art is When the picture was first exhibited at the Royal Academy a lengthy very much at the service of historical accuracy. catalogue description noted all the documented details that Maclise was at Steve Pickles

Royal Holloway 29 Alumni Generations We speak to two Geography alumni who graduated 20 years apart, to find out how their degrees have shaped their lives.

Nigel: Opting to go to Bedford College was an my subject selection, but it often had a beneficial enormous step for me, being someone from a consequence. fairly rural environment where communities were Nigel: My degree has been the foundation close-knit. I was lucky enough to have had an of everything I have gone on to achieve since exceptional education and thus, university was leaving Bedford. After graduation I had no an expectation made by my school. At the time, idea what I wanted to do other than continue I was the only one from my family to have gone studying. I found a masters course in Landscape to university. Management at Wye College and took a year Mark: Instead of making the leap directly from out to save funds to study there. Afterwards, I school to higher education, I took the slightly returned to London and, following a period of 8 more roundabout route of first completing Royal years overseas, eventually set up as a chartered Navy officer training. This alternative form of landscape architect and have lived here ever since. “gap year” meant that I started my studies at Mark: Following graduation I returned full time to Royal Holloway with a strong work ethic and the Royal Navy and had a varied career including, Nigel Thorne appreciation of the importance of self discipline. anti-drug patrols in the Caribbean, an exchange (BSc Geography, 1979 Bedford College) Nigel: I was extremely lucky to attend university appointment with the Royal Netherlands Navy, works internationally as a Chartered at a time when funding was made available to a an operational tour off the coast of Iraq and Landscape Architect and is President of wide variety of students via county council grants. command of my own ship. I left the Royal Navy in the European Federation for Landscape I was never in debt and lived perfectly well. A real 2006 to pursue a new career in the law. Following Architecture. privilege considering I was living in the heart of completion of the legal training and qualification the West End. process, I now work in the City of London as an associate at Reed Smith LLP specialising in ship Mark: Having completed my basic officer training finance and shipping related law. I was in the incredibly fortunate position of being Nigel: For me the years at university were paid by the Royal Navy throughout the three years also about learning about life. I met my wife of my degree. at university (we both studied Geography) and Nigel: The most rewarding thing was the we have been together for 35 years. We keep ‘personal’ nature of the course and the contact in touch with a variety of college friends, most time with tutors was considerable – it seemed of them very close. It was a fantastic time when whoever you might need to speak to would the pressures of having to find work, or even always be available. Each student was assigned having to have a career path mapped out before a personal tutor and this was incredibly helpful. going to university, were very much irrelevant. I The intimacy of the Bedford campus meant feel exceptionally privileged to have been able to that encounters with other academic staff was study at that time. inevitable. Mark: Throughout my career I have used the Mark: The Geography Department had an key skills I learnt as a Geography student, for Mark Johnson excellent tutorial system which meant that you example assimilating ideas from many sources, (BSc Geography, 1998 RHBNC) first had frequent contact with tutors outside lectures. structuring arguments logically and remembering pursued a career in the Royal Navy and is Of course, the time that we really got to know always to look at the bigger picture. My former now a lawyer. the academic staff was on the field trips. I have tutor provided me with the academic reference fond memories of field trips to Spain, Glasgow, I needed to start out on my new career in the Cardiff and the vineyards of Burgundy. Friends law and I still consider the friends I have from teased me that I always selected subjects that my days at Royal Holloway to be my truest and avoided early morning lectures - not the basis of closest friends.

30 Higher magazine International Zone: Conservation in Sri Lanka

Dr Craig Turner (PhD Geography, 2004) works for the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) on a conservation programme that focuses on the weird and wonderful: forgotten species that don’t get mainstream conservation attention. He talks here about his work on the loris in Sri Lanka.

“I am a conservation biologist for the EDGE of Existence programme developing and implementing a series of field research and conservation initiatives, focusing on poorly known Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) species. We also provide technical advice and support for overseas projects, consolidating and further developing ZSL’s capacity-building via the EDGE Fellows programme. Recently, we have been working to conserve the little known red slender loris, not a monkey or ape, but a more ancient form of primate – nocturnal, tailless and spanning 20 million years of Sri Lankan natural history – yet under threat from tea drinkers! Tea plantations dominate large areas of Sri Lanka with only small islands of fragmented forest remaining for slender loris. This is just one of the many species we work on.”

Find more information at: www.edgeofexistence.org

The results of a hard night’s work looking for loris. The red slender loris is found in lowland forest areas across southwestern Sri Lanka.

Royal Holloway 31 Our international community: A world map of Alumni

Our college community is a global family, a world-wide alumni support network reflecting the many cultures and countries of our alumni. 41131 632 508 Our aim is to put you in touch with like-minded 1843 2322 alumni and we regularly 94

arrange networking, 1955 alumni events and reunions 3753 throughout the world. Keep 549 in touch with us wherever 88 654 you are: [email protected] 42 38

113

637

4 90

116 3 1

389 61

Map regions follow the UN classification of continental sub-regions and include the number of alumni in each region

Caribbean 38 Northern America 1843 Czech Republic (29) Southern Europe 1955 Germany (747) Bahamas (3) Bermuda (2) Hungary (21) Albania (12) Luxembourg (77) Barbados (7) Canada (371) Moldova (4) Andorra (1) Monaco (6) British Virgin Islands (2) USA (1470) Poland (98) Bosnia and Herzegovina (1) Netherlands (118) Cayman Islands (3) Romania (34) Croatia (15) Switzerland (165) Cuba (1) South America 116 Russia (154) Gibraltar (5) Slovakia (22) Grenada (1) Argentina (14) Greece (823) Eastern Africa 90 Ukraine (32) Guadeloupe (1) Brazil (57) Italy (613) Djibouti (1) Jamaica (6) Chile (9) Malta (16) Ethiopia (10) Northern Europe 632 Kenya (15) Martinique (1) Colombia (18) Denmark (69) Montenegro (1) St Lucia (3) Ecuador (3) Portugal (82) Malawi (4) Estonia (20) Mauritius (16) Trinidad and Tobago (9) Guyana (1) Serbia (16) Faeroe Islands (1) Mozambique (1) Turks & Caicos Islands (1) Paraguay (1) Finland (82) Slovenia (9) Reunion (4) Peru (6) Iceland (10) Spain (361) Rwanda (1) Central America 42 Venezuela (7) Ireland (171) Seychelles (1) Costa Rica (1) Latvia (19) Western Europe 2322 Tanzania (13) El Salvador (2) Eastern Europe 508 Lithuania (48) Austria (114) Uganda (11) Mexico (33) Belarus (2) Norway (61) Belgium (155) Zambia (5) Panama (6) Bulgaria (112) Sweden (151) France (940) Zimbabwe (8)

32 Higher magazine Our international community: A world map of Alumni

41131 632 508

1843 2322 94

1955 3753

549 88 654

42 38

113

637

4 90

116 3 1

389 61

Middle Africa 4 Gambia (1) Southeastern Asia 637 Western Asia 654 Australia & New Zealand 389 Cameroon (4) Ghana (29) Brunei Darussalam (11) Azerbaijan (26) Australia (295) Mali (1) Cambodia (2) Bahrain (16) New Zealand (94) Northern Africa 88 Mauritania (1) Indonesia (54) Cyprus (252) Algeria (18) Nigeria (75) Malaysia (157) Georgia (8) Melanesia 3 Egypt (29) Senegal (2) Myanmar (7) Iraq (8) Papua New Guinea (3) Philippines (13) Libya (21) Sierra Leone (3) Israel (24) Singapore (167) Morocco (4) Thailand (195) Jordan (23) Polynesia 1 Sudan (10) Central Asia 94 Vietnam (31) Kuwait (18) French Polynesia (1) Tunisia (6) Kazakhstan (88) Lebanon (13) Uzbekistan (6) Southern Asia 549 Oman (40) United Kingdom 41131 Southern Africa 61 Afghanistan (2) Qatar (19) Botswana (3) Eastern Asia 3753 Bangladesh (15) Saudi Arabia (55) Lesotho (2) China (1401) India (323) Syria (9) South Africa (54) China Hong Kong (867) Iran (42) Turkey (74) Swaziland (2) China Macao (25) Maldive Islands (1) United Arab Emirates (64) Japan (607) Nepal (1) Yemen (5) Western Africa 113 Republic of Korea (463) Pakistan (149) Cote d’Ivoire (1) Taiwan (390) Sri Lanka (16)

Royal Holloway 33 International Zone Entrepreneur Rachel Treece in Europe

Running a European-wide business and juggling family commitments are second nature to the Luxembourg- based entrepreneur and alumna Rachel Treece

Subjects of study: BSc Mathematics & Psychology, 1992; Originally from Chesterfield, she was attracted to Royal Holloway Post Graduate Diploma in Management, Communication and by the joint degree offered. After graduating she completed a Decision Making, 1994. management diploma run by the School of Management with Save and Prosper (part of JPMorgan Asset Management). The ethos was Job: Director of fast recruitment and fast training, a global very much to have on-the-job training as well as an academic diploma. After six months, Save and Prosper sent her to Luxembourg - she’s business she helped set up in Luxembourg in 1999. been there ever since. Luxembourg City is a vibrant place, where the pace of change Working with the College: Rachel has worked with the is sometimes breathtaking. Its population trebles in size each day, School of Management on the accreditation of fast’s training as people commute from France, Belgium and Germany. It’s also courses since 2008. a compact place and Rachel often sees many clients from major companies in a single day. She’s also now fluent in a number of Home life: She lives with her husband and young daughter languages and says, “I love the cross-cultural mix of the work force in in Luxembourg. Luxembourg. We talk English, French, German and Luxembourgish. I like the way you have to change your communication with different nationalities, it’s fascinating. You can often be very direct with Rachel Treece was recently named Entrepreneur of the Year in Germans, but more often less so with French people.” Luxembourg’s Inspiring Women Awards for 2012. She has lived there This adaptability and flexibility has been an essential skill in the since 1994 and runs fast, a recruitment and training company which development of fast’s business. Originally serving the Anglophone offers management courses across Europe, the USA, South-East market, the benefits of an inclusive, multi-lingual and multi-cultural Asia, Australia and South Africa. Rachel is passionate about helping approach soon became apparent. “It is not unusual”, she says, “for people develop their careers. She regularly shares her knowledge eight different nationalities to attend our coaching sessions”. fast and passion with our student entrepreneurs and has lectured in the now offers intercultural communication courses across Europe and School of Management, as well as other colleges. “I get a lot out of further afield, in several languages. They teach how important it is to teaching students and our goal at fast is to plough back some of the be aware of cultural differences and not just linguistic differences - an profits into education.” issue facing all businesses in a globalised market place. All of fast’s courses are now accredited by Royal Holloway and In addition to staff in Luxembourg and the USA, Rachel also boasts comprise a range of management skills for all levels, including a large pool of trainers worldwide. She finds there’s no shortage of leadership, communication and presentation skills. “What I get from takers for fast’s courses globally. “In these changing economic times, the College is the continuous raising of standards, which is essential employers need to do more with less and the efficiency benefits of business,” she says. “What’s more, the Royal Holloway association investing in training are evident.” Rachel feels that fast’s association demonstrates fast’s commitment to academic quality and the with the College means helping each other to spread the message relevance of the training we offer globally.” that good learning is also good business.

34 Higher magazine Give the gift of education – donate a book

Our Library Book Fund offers you a unique opportunity The Library is an invaluable asset which to honour the time that you, or a family member, spent students like me rely on as it offers a wealth at either Royal Holloway or Bedford College. It also allows you to support our current and future student of knowledge through its numerous resources. population by providing funds to invest even more into Donations to the Library Book Fund can really Library resources. have an immediate impact on our learning For £50 per book, we offer you the chance to buy a opportunities. It enables people to give a book for our Library and have a bookplate as shown lasting, tangible benefit to the College whilst above inserted into the front to honour a loved one of your choice, or to remember your own studies. helping to increase the value of the learning You are able to choose the Department who will benefit experience for today’s students. from your donation and perhaps you might consider giving a book a year for every year of your study, as a Guy Dunkley, MA History student regular donation.

With your magazine, you will find a donation form to join the thousands of people who have contributed to this • We currently have 618,273 catalogued books scheme over the last 15 years. Please consider the lasting gift which is a book, potentially read by thousands, • Students have access to an additional 334,743 enhancing learning for years to come. E-books and 24,482 E-journals • Books were loaned out a whopping 647,652 times last year If you have any questions about the Library Book Fund or you would prefer to make a donation over the • Library Services were used 761,210 times last telephone, please contact Laura Merron year to read, learn and borrow books on 01784 276538 or email [email protected]

Royal Holloway 35 Class Notes

Thanks to everyone who has shared their news. Class Notes can be emailed to [email protected] or sent to Class Notes, Development Department, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX. The Editor reserves the right to edit or omit submissions and cannot be held responsible for the factual accuracy of Class Notes content.

1943 Baden-Powell Society in support of Girl Guiding and 1963 Girl Scouting worldwide. June is also a Foundation Betty Armstrong (née Broadbent) Governor at a local school. Gerda Mayer History, Royal Holloway College – Has spent the years English & German, Bedford College – Was widowed in since her retirement in 1982 going on bird watching 2009. Gerda still has two books in print, Bernini’s Cat trips, her final one being to Tanzania this year. She 1955 (Iron Press), a selection of poems and Prague Winter is now planning to confine her travels to painting (Hearing Eye), prose vignettes seen mainly from an holidays. Molly Poulter (née Mountfort) eleven-year-old’s point of view. Now aged 84, she is History, Bedford College – Has just completed her first still an aspiring poet. novel at the age of 78 and is looking for a publisher. 1948 Molly is Lay Chair of the Deaner Synod, North Downs and is also very involved in community activities. 1965 Sonja Zentner French with German, Bedford College – In October Professor Betty Bednarski (née Bagnald) 2011, Sonja visited her native city of Prague for the 1956 French with German, Bedford College – Betty is first time in four years. She had a wonderful time sight- Professor Emeritus in the Department of French at seeing as well as being wined and dined by friends and Dr Helena Boynton (née Sadler) Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she relatives. Sonja thinks that Prague is the loveliest of Geology, Bedford College – During her research for taught for many years, specializing in the literatures European capital cities and recommends a visit to any Precambrian fossils in Charnwood Forest Helena was of French Canada. She has recently published two fellow alumni who have not been there. lucky enough to find two new possible ones and is books: a translation, Tales from the Uncertain Country researching these at present. The Charnia Research and Other Stories, by Jacques Ferron (McClelland & Group goes from strength to strength and now includes Stewart, 2010); and Jacques Ferron hors Quebec / 1950 new PhD students from Oxford, Cambridge, and Bristol. Jacques Ferron Outside Quebec, co-edited with Ray Ruth David (née Oppenheimer) Ellenwood (Editions du GREF, 2010). A book of her own literary essays is due to be published in the autumn of French & German, Bedford College – Has had a book Lady Anne Heseltine (née Williams) 2012 in Montreal. published by Christians Aware. Life Lines is a collection French & German, Bedford College – Although offically of letters written by her parents to their four children ‘retired’ Lady Heseltine is a Trustee of the National between September 1939 and August 1942 when they Gallery; Trustee of the Burlington Magazine; Chair of Margaret Lydamore were murdered in Auschwitz. It is a follow up to her the Advisory Board to the Natural History Museum, English, Royal Holloway College – Now fully retired earlier book Child of our Time. University of Oxford and a Fellow of the Ashmolean after 45 years in religious publishing. Margaret has Museum, University of Oxford. Last year she was more time for rambling, making music and volunteering delighted and honoured to become an Honorary Fellow with community groups. 1951 of Royal Holloway and Bedford New College. Dr Ruth Griffiths (née Thresh) Carole Millward (née Thorne) Botany; PhD 1954, Bedford College – Is still involved Sylvia Keith (née Findley) Geography, Bedford College – Carole is now in Glenside with her local wildlife trust and went on a botanical trip Mathematics, Royal Holloway College – Sylvia and Manor Hospital near Salisbury on a long term basis. with them this summer to the Picos de Europa. her husband now focus their voluntary work on She went for an outpatients appointment two years animal welfare. She has set up a recognised charity, ago and suffered a cardiac arrest. Carole was revived Animal Rescue Cyprus, and a trust to help this and but ended up seriously brain damaged. Her husband, 1953 other activies. Sylvia’s interests range from classical Andrew Millward, asks anyone who would like to get music, nineteenth century literature, and gardening to Oonagh Lahr in touch to call him on 01747 870472 or write to him at watching sport, especially football, and has recently July Cottage, Barbers Lane, Swallowcliffe, Salisbury English, Royal Holloway College – Taught English joined the U3A. SP3 5PQ. language and literature at secondary and A-Level until she got fed up with the syllabuses and took Gillian Nunn (née Landragin) up Classical Civilisation and Greek Literature in 1966 translation. Oonagh got hooked on Homer and taught Mathematics, Royal Holloway College – Has just Classical Civilisation once it was introduced as an completed four years as a Pastoral Assistant in the Jennifer Hoare (née Ingham) A-Level in the 1970s. She worked at both Dacorum villages of Knockholt and Halstead in Kent. Gillian’s French, Bedford College – Was invited to a College and the Working Men’s College and is still husband Paul died in 2004 and she felt God calling for Buckingham Palace Garden Party for her work with two teaching Greek art and literature at the University of her to use her experience of caring. She trained with organisations in her North Yorkshire village. Hillam the Third Age. the diocese of Rochester and was authorised in 2007. Historians have undertaken a wide range of projects in local renovation, research and publication, and the Margaret Neill (née Walpole) Hillam News has a reputation for high standards in 1961 dealing with important local issues. Jenny and Stuart Zoology, Bedford College – Is still acting as an spend much of their leisure time visiting offspring assistant and occasional guide at Canterbury Cathedral. Pauline Moore (née Sabin) English, Royal Holloway College – Has published two Jacob and Imogen and their families – in the UK, Hong historical novels: Storm Frost (2009) and Brightfire Kong and Australia. Besides her sister and fellow June Simpson (2010) based on Anglo-Saxon poetry and Bede’s alumna Shirley Jackson, Jenny keeps in touch with History, Royal Holloway College – Is holder of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Her Rosalind Gelgon (née Hamer) and Janet Matthews Princess Benedikte (of Denmark) Award of the Olave website is www.suttonhoonovels.co.uk. (née Chell).

36 Higher magazine 1968 Abbotsford Books, as well as keeping her own Apt Words copy editing business going strong. Gillian Davey Alumni Events English Language & Literature, Royal Holloway College – Spent a fascinating time in Greenland last summer. 1981 As an element of her English degree Gillian studied Old Norse and visited Iceland at that time but this was her Bryan Radford first trip to Greenland, visiting the ruins of Eric the Red’s Mathematics, Royal Holloway College – Is an actuary settlement. It was all absolutely fascinating! by trade and is married with two daughters. Bryan can most commonly be found at the members bar and pitches of Worcester Rugby club. Dr Thelma Obah (née Blackwood) English, Royal Holloway College – Thelma previously lived and worked in Nigeria where she became a Elizabeth Wilson Professor of Applied Linguistics. She now lives in the MMus Historical Musicology, Royal Holloway College – USA and works as Director of a Learning Center with Has returned to the world of English church music, and interests in reading comprehension and writing. has started some independent research into the early musical and spiritual influences on composer Herbert Howells, in advance of a PhD. She would love to hear 1971 from anyone interested in Howells. Professor Joan Booth Classics; PhD 1973, Bedford College – Joan retired 1983 in September 2011 from the 450-year-old chair of Latin at Leiden University in the Netherlands and has Dr Penelope Carson (née Hollingbury) relocated to her old home on the Gower Peninsula Modern History, Economic History and Politics, Royal in Wales. Having retired just short of 40 years as a Holloway College – see Hugh Carson, 1979. university teacher, she retains an unpaid appointment as a professor in the Faculty of Humanities at Leiden. Anne Hinge (née Williams) This brings access to all research facilities, but no German & Italian, Bedford College – Remarried on 19th administration, and ‘quality time’ for both scholarship November 2011 to Daniel Hinge. Her daughter Eliza and gardening – a perfect situation! Her valedictory is studying French and Linguistics at the University of lecture can be found in digital form at https:// Edinburgh. openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/18455. Sally Shipsey (née Whiteside) 1976 Social Policy & Nursing, Bedford College – After a few turbulent years caring for her mother and uncle who Helen Janes (née Everson) have dementia, Sally has been working part time as a Physics, Royal Holloway College – Has published Lecturer in Early Years at the University of Worcester Me and My House – won over without words, an and is about to return to practice as a health visitor. encouraging story of faith as a Christian married to a non-Christian. Her husband Steve was a Lab Technician in the Botany Department (1968–98). Available £5 from 1984 www.stjohnsegham.com/myhouse or email helen@ Dr Gary Ades stjohnsegham.com. Drama students ‘Hob Nob’ Zoology, Royal Holloway College – Has lived in Hong Kong since 1989 and manages a wildlife rescus with alumni Perry Lewis centre at Kadoori Farm where he oversees several The Drama Department’s Hob-Nob Night in Chemistry, Royal Holloway College – After twelve conservation projects for critical species. Gary married January saw twenty five Drama alumni share years working in the Treasury and Finance functions Vivien Lo in 2010. their experiences with second and final year at Vodafone Group, Perry has now left to set up his students who are preparing to enter the own business based in the Thames Valley. He has theatrical profession. Students were able Dr Stephen Clackson recently obtained Member in Practice status of the to network with actors, directors, theatre Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and Physics; PhD 1989, Royal Holloway College – Continues makers and academics. The evening began will be providing management accounting, interim to live in an old Free Kirk manse on the remote Orkney with a welcome from the Department and management, and training services to businesses. island of Sanday with his wife, four children (although a video message from alumni comedy duo his elder daughter is away as a boarder at Gordonstoun), Max Olesker (Drama and Creative Writing, poultry, bees and ferrets. His Goddaughter is applying to 2009) and Ivan Gonzalez (Drama and Theatre 1979 Royal Holloway to read history. Studies, 2009) – winners of the Fosters Hugh Carson Edinburgh Comedy Award 2011. This was Modern History Economic History and Politics, Royal 1987 followed by a Q&A with three alumni who Holloway College – Hugh retired as Headmaster of have experienced academic and theatrical Malvern College in 2006. He has just finished his year Dr John Doran success. Finally, the students were let loose as Master of the Skinners’ Company. Penny (Modern History: Medieval & Modern; PhD 2009, RHBNC – In in the Boilerhouse to ‘hob-nob’ with alumni in History, Economic History and Politics, 1983) has 2009 John published a volume on Pope Celestine III, co- discussion groups. Dan Rebellato, the Head finally completed her book The East India Company edited with fellow alumnus Dr Damian Smith (Classics of the Drama Department said: “That so many and Religion, 1700–1858, to be published by Boydell & and Ancient History, 1989), now of the Department of alumni returned to talk about their work is a Brewer some time next year. History, St Louis University. very rewarding sign of the affection in which the Department is held by our graduates and we look forward to welcoming them back for Susan Littleford Roderic Morgan similar events in the future.” . Geography, Bedford College – Susan has just moved MA Later Medieval Studies, RHBNC – Has continued back south and is now building up her online bookshop, his volunteering and has collected a number of awards

Royal Holloway 37 on behalf of the local Residents’ Association. Roderic worked at Woodside for seven years as a Senior Data acre horse ranch. Romina commutes 150 miles to her has been working on a temporary basis for the shop Management Analyst. Martyn has now taken a full independent contractor job as a licensed marriage and chain Poundstretcher and has been very busy moving time position at BP in Sunbury, whilst Isla works two family therapist. to a new flat. days a week in the same company. They have a three year old son, Oliver. Isla Quantrill (née Dyke) 1989 Geology, RHBNC – see Martyn Quantrill, 1993. 1994 Dr Damian Smith Classics and Ancient History, RHBNC – see John Doran, Doreen Corbett 1998 1987. Classical Studies, RHBNC – Still remembers with Pippa Crown (née Sherwood) fondness the outside-in-March performance of Music, RHBNC – Got married on 6 August 2011. Dr Wendy Young (née Richardson) Lysistrata in 1992. Doreen wishes ‘good luck’ to all her fellow classicists and thespians! Botany & Microbiology, RHBNC – Is currently living Jeanette Harlow (née Gibson) in Vancouver, Canada with her husband and two English, RHBNC – Married Charles Harlow (Geology, daughters and is enjoying all that the city has to offer. 1995 2001) in December 2011. Jeanette was recently Sarah Gilbrook (née Beddow) appointed Head of English at Lockers Park Prep School in Hertfordshire and is also continuing as IAPS Subject 1990 Ancient History, RHBNC – Is working as a Customer Leader for English. Life is never dull and never quiet! Dr Jackie Kirkham (née Gittins) Marketing Manager at RS Components and is living in Northamptonshire with her husband Michael and Music, RHBNC – In 2011 Jackie graduated from the their two sons. Sarah has unfortunately had to give up Danae Kotsi University of Glasgow with a PhD in Russian and East hockey owing to two dodgy knees! She would love to Media Arts, RHBNC – see George Vellidis, 1996. European Studies. She has returned to working in hear from anyone from her time at Royal Holloway. clinical practice as a health visitor and additionally works as an Associate Lecturer for The Open University. 1999 Beth Menzies Drama & Theatre Studies, RHBNC – Is delighted to Dr Robin Kirby 1992 announce the birth of Angus in March 2011. Beth English Literature; MA 2000; PhD 2007, RHBNC – Robin Brendan T N Caldwell is living in north London and works part-time in her and Alice Messham (MA Modernism and Modern photography business. Writers, 2002) married in 2006 and their first child was MA English Literary Studies: Milton & His Age, RHBNC born in April 2011. Robin works at University College – Brendan has been made Honourary Lieutentant- Falmouth as the Strategic Analyst and Alice is a Colonel of the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada, the oldest 1996 lecturer in English at Truro College. rifle regiment in the country. Steven Allen Dr Julia Elmore (née Tree) Geology, RHBNC – Is working as a Consultant Wellsite 2000 Geologist for the state oil company in Qatar. He lives in Biology, RHBNC – Is living in Salisbury and still doing Bangkok during his time off. Katie Clutterbuck (née Stevens) research at the Health Protection Agency. Julia is English, RHBNC – Has just celebrated her daughter pleased to announce the unexpected arrival of James Grace’s first birthday. Katie is living in Hampshire with Sebastian Elmore born 21 April 2011. She says hello to Diego Mones Burton her husband, daughter, and their new dog. She gave all the Biology graduates from 1992. Economics & Management Studies, RHBNC – Has up teaching to raise Grace and is now working as an moved to Quebec City, Canada. English tutor and enjoying being her own boss! David Overton George Vellidis Computer Science, RHBNC – His next book, due to be Peter Gostelow published soon, is on Cloud-Based PC Management Classical Studies, RHBNC – Is married to Danae Kotsi Geography, RHBNC – Has put his degree to good with Microsoft Intune. (Media Arts, 1998). George is Head of Communications practical use. Following a TEFL course in Spain for WWF Greece whilst Danae is a freelance 3D design he moved to Japan and taught English on the JET artist, specialising in human figures, who works for Kirsty Paiboontanasin (née Manuel) programme for two years, before embarking on a solo international projects. They are both based in Athens Geography, RHBNC – Kirsty lives in a four bedroom journey by bicycle, from Japan to England. He has and have a 3 year old son, Serge. apartment at a boarding school in Thailand. She spoken publicly in a number of schools/organisations has four children with her Thai husband, Marut and also at the College about this. Recently Peter Phaiboontanasin. 1997 has been cycling from England to South Africa and fundraising for the Against Malaria Foundation. He Alexia Daniels plans to write a book about his experiences, find out 1993 Drama & Theatre Studies, RHBNC – Is changing her more at www.thebigafricacycle.com. Michael Paterson career and has just started a Postgraduate course in Mental Health Nursing. History: Ancient & Medieval, RHBNC – Founded London Michele Ingerslev (née Blunden) Historians in August 2010, an association for all those Geography, RHBNC – Married Steen Ingerslev in interested in the history of the capital. As of December Edward Harry December 2011. Michele is working as a Learning 2011 they had 250 members and a big following English, RHBNC – Has made the move north with BBC and Development Consultant for Linklaters law firm in on Twitter, Facebook, their blog and website www. Sport and is now based at MediaCityUK in Salford. London. londonhistorians.org. Ed is looking forward to covering his third Olympics for BBC Radio where he will be commentating on the David Mellor Athletics for World Service. Martyn Quantrill Media Arts, RHBNC – Choose to pursue a career in Geology, RHBNC – Martyn and Isla (Geology, retail rather than the media and is now responsible 1997) have just returned from seven years in Perth, Romina King (née Arnese) for the visual presentation of the brands within Ralph Australia. Martyn worked at Woodside for three Psychology, RHBNC – Married Michael D. King on 25 Lauren across the European region. years and Chevron for four years contributing to August 2007. They moved to Bend, Oregon in January their Data Management strategic direction. Isla 2011 where they bought their first home on a 10.5

38 Higher magazine Corinna Parsons (née Rogers) Dan Elkington English, RHBNC – Married Jim in 2008 and they are Management Studies, RHBNC – see Hannah Elkington, living happily in Worcestershire with their baby daughter 2003. Alumni Events Daisy and dog Sol. Corinna currently works in PR. Dr Rebecca Edwards Catherine Toh Geography; PhD 2008, RHBNC – Is currently a Research MSc Information Security, RHBNC – Has just completed Fellow at the Third Sector Research Centre, University four months of maternity leave and has now returned of Southampton. Rebecca married Alex Othold in to work as an auditor. Catherine is thoroughly enjoying September 2011 in Bromham, Wiltshire and they live in motherhood. Bournemouth.

2001 Dr David Lindsay Mathematics; PhD 2007, RHBNC – see Siân Lindsay, 2003 Laura de Castiglioni Classical Studies, RHBNC – Is a Director at Peritti Alice Kirby (née Messham) Communications. Her husband, Reuben Phillips MA Modernism and Modern Writers, RHBNC – see (Geography, 2001), works freelance in the wine trade Robin Kirby, 1999. in addition to running his own cookery business. Their daughter, Ludovica, was born in March 2010. Dr Niamh O’Dwyer Russian Alumni Reunion Rachel Du Croz (née Hawley) Psychology; DClinPsy 2011, RHBNC – Niamh married Ten alumni joined us for the School of Sean on 11 November 2011 and was joined by old Classical Studies, RHBNC – Rachel is excited Management’s first Russian Alumni Reunion university friend James Smith-Plenderleith for the to announce that she is creating her own online Dinner, which was held at the Moscow celebrations in Ireland. haberdashery business. The Yarn Barn will launch in Marriott Grand Hotel in February. A range March and anyone who loves knitting should get in of years of graduation and subjects of study touch www.theyarn-barn.co.uk. 2003 made for an interesting evening filled with lively conversations and discussion. Dr Ija Hannah Elkington (née Levene) Trapeznikova from the Department of Economics Charles Harlow Geography, RHBNC – Married Dan Elkington made a short presentation on her recent Geology, RHBNC – see Jeanette Harlow, 1998. (Management Studies, 2002) in October 2011 in a barn research in labour economics. International in Suffolk. They have recently moved from Edinburgh to Officer Jennifer Rich gave an update on College Camilla Kathel Essex where Hannah is working for Essex Wildlife Trust life, including news about the Olympics and new scholarships. The evening was a great success Music, RHBNC – Has published the book Angel Just- and Dan is working as a Business Process Manager. and we hope to continue this with future events. Rights under the pseudonym Rebecca Parker. It is the Alumni were pleased to have been given the story of the double life of a mysteriously mute child and Dr Siân Lindsay (née Cox) opportunity to connect with their peers; these her journey into adulthood. Molecular Biology & Genetics; PhD 2008, RHBNC – relationships will only be strengthened as the Married David Lindsay (Mathematics, 2002; PhD 2007) community grows. Lindsay Morgan (née Stone) at the College Chapel on 12th December 2009. They Economics, RHBNC – Is now living in Sevenoaks, are pleased to have started a trend, with weddings and Kent. Lindsay married James Morgan in May 2008 and ceremonies now being offered more widely at the Chapel. they had a baby son, Dylan Edward, in January 2011. She now works as a Financial Controller at the Royal Nicole Miller National Theatre. Drama & Theatre Studies, RHBNC – Has just completed her second year in business as joint owner of The Reuben Phillips Beached Lamb Cafe in Newquay. The Cafe has became Geography, RHBNC – see Laura de Castiglioni, 2001. a favourite with the locals for its chill out lounge and big selection of vegetarian and vegan food (Nicole has been a vegan for 2 years). With and her boyfriend Jon 2002 Grant, she is off to Canada and the Philippines for 9 weeks. Nicole remains best friends with fellow alumna Reverend Dr Sheena Cleaton Gemma Sykes (Drama and Theatre Studies, 2003). MA Music; PhD 2007, RHBNC – Spent two years at Singapore Alumni Reunion Ripon College Cuddesdon and is currently Assistant On 16 March, thirteen alumni joined Curate at the Abbey Church in Bourne, Lincolnshire. 2004 International Officer Helen Lytras for dinner Sheena’s ordination as a Priest is planned for the end of Claire Branch (née Sharpe) and drinks at the Seafood International June this year. She is currently studying part-time for a Geology, RHBNC – Married Richard on 11 November 2011. Market & Restaurant in Singapore. We BTh at the University of Oxford. were pleased that so many guests who had not previously attended our events came Elizabeth Man Rey Nicholas Ealey to this one. The evening proved to be a European Studies, RHBNC – Is serving with Essex good occasion for the group to talk about Social Policy & Political Studies, RHBNC – Having Police as a Sergeant and has just completed a ways in which they can take the Singapore served six years in the Submarine Service, Nicholas Postgraduate Diploma in Police Leadership and Chapter forward. Helen delivered a short left the Royal Navy’s Regular service in 2008 and is Management with Warwick Business School. This was presentation about College life, including now a Submarine Controller and Training Officer in the undertaken as part of the High Potential Development information about the latest scholarships Reserves. He worked in financial services from 2008 Scheme, a programme that aims to challenge and equip and the prospect of our hosting the Olympic to 2011 before changing career to work in the defence future police leaders (53 officers were selected in 2009, rowers in July. The Chapter’s ambassador is sector as an advisor and project manager. Nicholas is with Elizabeth the only Essex officer to be successful). Edward Goh, but in his absence much of the a keen skier and a member of the Royal British Legion. She has thoroughly enjoyed returning to Royal organisation was handled by Raymond Kwok This year his team of 40 Reserves raised £25,000 in Holloway to speak with Criminology students about the Kin Teng. London on Poppy Day, double last year’s figure! realities of modern policing.

Royal Holloway 39 Claire Snowball Charlotte Strachan (née Fairclough) Zoology, RHBNC – Married Colin Bell at Beamish Hall History, RHBNC – Married David Strachan (History, Country House on 3 September 2011. 2006) on 19 August 2011. A number of Royal Holloway Alumni Events friends attended. 2005 2009 Natalie Wainwright (née House) Francesca Miller European Studies (French), RHBNC – Married in December 2010 and is still dancing and playing hockey. Drama & Theatre Studies, RHBNC – Theatre company non zero one, created in 2009 as part of the Drama and Theatre Studies course at Royal Holloway, performed at 2006 The Bush Theatre in September 2011 under Josie Rouke. The company will be returning to the Barbican in 2012. Ariana Akhavan History, RHBNC – Completed a PGCE in 2009 and Katie Speakman has been working as a teacher at a secondary school since 2009 with responsibility for KS3 History. In 2011, MA Theatre (Physical Theatre & Performance), RHBNC Ariana began a part-time MA in Education. – Has been with her current employer for three years and is now Head of Quality Assurance. Katie feels that this would not have been possible without the skills Dr Hannah McCormack (née Rogers) she developed whilst studying for her Masters at MSci Geoscience; PhD 2011, RHBNC – Married Royal Holloway. Kenneth McCormack (MSc Petroleum Geoscience [Tectonics], 2010) on 5 August 2011 in Dorset. Many alumni and staff of RHBNC attended the wedding. They 2010 are both working as Structural Geologists in Perth, Hashim Bhatti Western Australia. Politics & International Relations, RHBNC – Hasim completed a Masters in Economics, Politics and Samantha McPherson Philosophy at the University of York. He is now Management Studies with Marketing, RHBNC – Has qualifying as a solicitor at BPP Law School. launched a freelance career as a Stylist and Creative Director (www.samantharia.com). Kenneth McCormack MSc Petroleum Geoscience (Tectonics), RHBNC – see Rebecca Mills (née Beveridge) Hannah McCormack, 2006. History, RHBNC – Married Luke Mills in June 2011 and Alex Viano (History, 2006) was a witness. Rebecca and Kristina Shveydel her husband are now running a business. Management Studies, RHBNC – Kristina did an MSc in Analysis, Design and Management of Information Panagiotis Soulos Systems at the LSE. She then joined PwC as an MSc Information Security, RHBNC – Joined the Greek Associate in the IT and Risk Security Assurance practice Army to comply with the obligatory requirement to within the investment management client sector. undertake military service and was administrator of the Army’s website (www.army.gr). He completed his Sanaa Vohra service in November 2007 and went on to work at Psychology, RHBNC – Is Assistant Academic Officer Megasoft SA before becoming a Windows System at Arcadia University in London and misses Royal Administrator at Alpha Bank SA in February 2010. The Holloway very much. knowledge he gained from his studies are of great use in the banking environment. Fleur Wesling Media Arts, RHBNC – After a three month internship David Strachan at the TV department of the United Nations, Fleur History, RHBNC – see Charlotte Strachan, 2008. was offered a job as multimedia producer at the new anglophone radio station which serves the Lake Geneva Music alumna’s masterclass hits 2008 region in Switzerland. She has been part of the building the right note process of the station along with the two founders and Charlotte de Brabandt now runs her own daily radio show. Fleur didn’t imagine Students were treated to a special masterclass by award-winning pianist and alumna Helen Management Studies with Marketing, RHBNC – Is in she would end up in radio after a degree specialising in Reid (Music and German, 2000). Helen returned charge of purchasing innovative technologies for the TV production, but she is very happy. to the College in November to hold the special brands with VW Group. Charlotte also hosts a number session, offering one-to-one piano tuition to of charity events – www.charlottedebrabandt.com 2011 students and providing advice on how they (gain access with the user name “guest” and the can progress as musicians. Helen explained password “charly”). Purvi Kanzaria that she wanted to return to help the students Economics, RHBNC – Currently completing a one year just as others helped her during her time at Naomi Jane (née Donald) MSc in International Development at the LSE. the College. She said: “It is always nice to Management Studies, RHBNC – Since July 2011 Naomi return somewhere you have connections and has been working as a Programme Manager for the Benjamin Swanson particularly as I had such a great time at charity SEO London (www.seo-london.org) where she Computer Science, RHBNC – Joined a graduate scheme Royal Holloway”. manages their first ever formal schools programme. and is working for the leading digital agency Lost Boys She also continues to run the 4WD Foundation. International (LBi), developing a new web presence for one of the Big Four banks.

40 Higher magazine Richard Paxton Prize Richard Paxton (1918–62)

Lecturer, Botany Department (1950–62), Royal Holloway College

The Richard Paxton Prize is being established in 2012 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Richard Paxton, a Lecturer in the Botany Department, who died unexpectedly on 19th September 1962 aged 44. At the time, Richard had just returned to the College from a sabbatical year in Austria and was planning to submit his PhD thesis. He graduated from King’s College, Newcastle in 1948 and joined Royal Holloway in 1950, where he took charge of teaching plant physiology. An excellent linguist, he was deeply interested in the humanities and always ready to discuss philosophy and literature. The Royal Holloway College Association College Letter in December 1962 contained an obituary of Richard which concluded, “We mourn him not only for his academic attainments, but for his sincerity, integrity, humour and humanity”.

Richard’s wife, Marion, and their two sons, Robin and Tony, have decided to honour the anniversary of his death by establishing this prize as a lasting legacy in his memory. They have generously given a gift of £10,000 to establish a prize to be awarded annually to the top graduating finalist in the School of Biological Sciences. The prize will run for the next 15 years. Professor Alan Gange, Head of the School of Biological Sciences said “We are delighted and greatly indebted to Richard’s family for the award of this most generous prize. It will be a real incentive to our current and future students to maximise their potential. Richard was a brilliant academic whose career was tragically cut short and it is fitting that the prize will be awarded to the most outstanding graduand each year.”

Royal Holloway 41 In Memoriam The month and/or year of death are given where known. Bedford College Royal Holloway College Rosemary Harris Sybil Petters (née Wells) Lady Fraser-Tytler MBE (née Johnston) English (1963–66). 2011 Physics (1929–32). January 2010 History (1926–29). October 2011 Catherine Fairs (née Percival) French (1971–75). January 2012 Caroline Relph (née Lyth) Joan Hope (née Beharell) History (1938–41). September 2010 General Arts (1929–32). December 2011 Malcolm Whitehead Enid Briggs Zoology (1973–77). August 2011 Gwerfyl Moss (née Jones) Mathematics (1931–34). October 2011 Christine Halek Geography (1939–42). September 2011 Patricia Edwards (née Couch) French & German (1974–78). February 2010 Sheila Manning (née Saville) German with English (1938–41). October 2011 History (1945–46). August 2009 Pamela Clayton (née Hankins) RHBNC Freda Anderton (née Lee) French & English (1940–43). January 2012 Dr Angelika Krebber Geography (1944–47). March 2011 Gladys Eccles (née Marriott) Chemistry (1986–88; MSc 1989; PhD 1991). Vera Smith (née Pisinger) Mathematics (1942–44). January 2012 October 2011 Physics (1947–50). September 2010 Alison Jean Osborne (née Sinclair) Elizabeth Shields (née Cornwell) Barbara Tayler (née Samson) Botany (1942–45). November 2011 Music (1994–97). December 2011 Mathematics & Philosophy (1949–52). Dilys Price Dr Jon Crofton January 2012 French (1942–45). February 2012 Health & Social Care (2001–02). January 2012 Eileen Stirling (née Powell) Edith Tunstall (née Cozens) Paljinder Virk Dutch & French (1950–53; M.Ed 1978). History (1943–46). January 2011 Computer Science with Management Studies January 2012 Diana Helen Faden (née Prideaux) (2004–05). August 2007 French (1944–47). December 2011 Jenifer Plant June Jumaily Physiology, Chemistry & Botany (1951–54). Patricia Larkins (née Stoneman) MA Feature Film Screenwriting (2006–09). February 2012 English (1944–47). September 2011 December 2009 Margaret Pacey Professor Elizabeth Sykes Kayleigh Sugar Mathematics (1944–47). January 2012 Psychology (1955–59; MSc 1962). April 2011 Geoscience (2008–12). March 2012 Nona Murray (née Gilbert) Sheila Wickham (née Craig) Botany (1947–50). November 2011 English (1956–59). August 2011 Staff Professor Patrick Collinson CBE FBA Dr Duncan Harris Joan Welch (née Dean) PhD History (1952–54). September 2011 Mathematics (1962–65). August 2011 Psychology Department and School of Judith Dutton (née Angles) Management (1985–2011), RHBNC. Dr Stephen Instone Classics (1951–54; MA 1956). November 2011 February 2012 PhD Classical Studies (1977–85). July 2009 Christine Jones (née Brindley) Professor Peter Rice-Evans Physics (1950–54). October 2011 Madeleine Simms (née Zimmerrman) Physics Department (1962–99), Bedford Medical Sociology (1971–74). October 2011 Elspeth Owens (née Liddell) College & RHBNC. February 2012 French (1958–62). October 2011 Dr Duncan Harris Professor Ian Spink Postgraduate Psychology (1982–85). Ann Hilton (née Littleford) Music Department (1969–97), Royal Holloway February 2012 French (1960–63). May 2011 College & RHBNC. October 2011

Obituaries Emeritus Professor Ian Spink (1932–2011) Professor of Music, Music Department (1969–97), Royal Holloway College & RHBNC

Professor Ian Spink, Head of the Department of Music from 1969–92 By now an accomplished organist and pianist, who died on 29 October and built it up almost from scratch, establishing during the 1950s he served as an organist at 2011, was one of the the foundations which have helped to secure its Southwark Roman Catholic Cathedral and, finest musicologists of current pre-eminent position within UK Music throughout his life, would play the organ at his his generation and a departments. local church for masses, weddings and funerals. specialist in English Ian studied at Trinity College of Music From 1958 onwards, acting as an overseas music from the 16th to before doing National Service. Later he took a examiner, he travelled extensively throughout the 18th century. He was postgraduate degree at Birmingham University. Canada, Australia and New Zealand and was

42 Higher magazine appointed Lecturer in Music at the University of performance. This outlook lay at the heart of Cecilia’s Concert and often conducted the Sydney in 1962. all his editorial work, whether for the Purcell College Orchestra and Choral Society for this in On his rteturn to England he was appointed Society, his many editions of English Lute Songs, performances of Purcell’s Ode to St Cecilia. Today the head of the new Honour School of Music or his authoritative collection English Songs, the St Cecilia’s Concert & Feast is one of the at Royal Holloway College. Until that point the 1625–1660 (1971). He distilled his extensive highlights of the College year. He also served as College had offered music as a component in knowledge into what has become a seminal Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Dean of the Faculty of a general degree, but there had always been text, English Song: Dowland to Purcell (1974, 2nd Music and as a member of the University Senate. a strong tradition of practical music-making. ed. 1986). Equally impressive was Restoration Here, as always, unceasing in his demand for Building on this legacy, Ian gave the new Cathedral Music, 1660–1714 (1995), where he academic excellence, he was valued not just for department a sound academic basis, attracting described how, following the Restoration of the depth of his knowledge but for the soundness many fine scholars and ensuring, by judicious Charles II, a group of gifted musicians, led by of his judgement. appointments to the teaching staff, that students Purcell, transformed the traditions of the Golden Ian was a keen gardener, a lover of fine food, had access to a broad range of musical expertise Age of Tudor and earlier Stuart periods into a a genial and generous host, with a quirky sense at the highest level. contemporary style that embraced the idioms of humour, and above all, a devoted family man. As a scholar, he always relished seeing the of the French and Italian Baroque. He is survived by his wife Margaret, their seven fruits of his research enjoyed through practical Ian was responsible for initiating the St children and twelve grandchildren.

Professor Peter Rice-Evans (1933–2012) Professor of Experimental Physics, Physics Department (1962–99), Bedford College & RHBNC

Professor Peter Caradoc 1974 enabled Peter to collect material for his Memories of 150 Years, published in 2001. Rice-Evans, who died book Spark, Streamer and Proportional Drift His final work, a play The Atomic Bomb, was on 21 February 2012, Chambers, which, in true entrepreneurial spirit, published in February 2011. was a distinguished he published himself. Peter subsequently decided Peter enjoyed life and had wide interests. His scholar and family man to engage in research in positron physics. He frequent letters to The Times on topics related whose association with built up a team which designed and constructed not only to physics but also the EU, nuclear the College began as a two low-energy positron beams for probing sub- deterrent, the Royal family, politics and the physics research student surface crystalline properties in thin films. This sartorial, testify to this. Never one to forsake a at Bedford College in 1956. After he gained his research flourished and he became a Reader in challenge, he also found time to stand in 1997 as PhD there followed a productive interlude at the Experimental Physics in 1977 and Professor of a European Unity Party candidate for Parliament. Argonne National Laboratory, Chicago (where Experimental Physics in 1988. Peter enriched everyone’s life, a wonderful he was enthused to use Fermi’s slide rule) and While he made many contributions to the colleague, teacher and friend. He is survived by Columbia University, New York. Peter returned to study of positronium until his retirement in 1999, his wife Catherine, children Teifion and Antonia, Bedford College in 1962 as a Lecturer, continuing he was noted for his contributions on the College and five grandchildren. his research on Nuclear Energy Levels. In 1969 Council and Academic Board. He remained active he married Catherine Parrish. as Emeritus Professor and Leverhulme Fellow Dr Noel M Stewart, Physics Department Summers spent at CERN, Geneva until and contributed to the book Bedford College: (1971–2009)

Dr Duncan Harris (1950–2012) Teaching Fellow in Organisational Studies and Human Resource Management, School of Management and Teaching Associate in Animal Behaviour, Psychology Department (1985–2011), RHBNC

Dr Duncan Harris, who Professor Andy Smith from the Department anecdotes, ideas, plans and enthusiasm, will be died on 1 February of Psychology said, “Duncan cut a colourful greatly missed by those who knew him well.” 2012 following a long figure in the lecture theatre, loved by students For the School of Management, Dr Alexander illness, was a passionate for his approachability, irreverence and sheer Reppel added, “Duncan and I met a few years lecturer who made a passion for his subject. He subscribed 110% to ago while working on related programmes. His lasting impact on many the view that the purpose of lectures was more enthusiasm and love for the College were deeply generations of students. to enthuse students with ideas than to inform inspiring and his ability to stay true to himself His immense contribution spans almost 30 years, them of facts. Student feedback showed year- whatever life brought to him is something I have starting at Bedford College as a Psychology on-year that his style was hugely appreciated. He always admired. His energy and intellect, his postgraduate in 1982 and working thereafter also interacted with students in practical classes innovative ideas, and his strength of character with a number of different departments. He and student research projects, and here his made a positive difference to the College and taught biological psychology and occupational commitment to the student experience showed the School of Management until very shortly psychology for many years and for the last six even more strongly. In later years Duncan before he died.” years he enjoyed a close association with the continued to visit the Psychology Department School of Management. regularly and his visits, always laden with

Royal Holloway 43

New books by alumni This regular section reviews recently published books by alumni. Please send details of your books to [email protected]

Dr Tom Asbridge Professor Robert Dr Carrie Hamilton Kamin Mohammadi (PhD History, 1995 RHBNC) Fraser FRSL (PhD History, 1999 RHBNC) (BA English, 1993 RHBNC) (PhD English, 1983 The Crusades: The War Royal Holloway College) Sexual Revolutions in The Cypress Tree for the Holy Land Cuba: Passion, Politics, Night Thoughts: The This is an acutely observed, sad, and Memory funny memoir of an Iranian With an epic sweep, Tom Surreal Life of the Poet Asbridge argues that there family shaped by exile. In 1979, David Gascoyne In this comprehensive history was no religious inevitability of sexuality in revolutionary as the Shah fell and Iran was about the Crusades. Whilst real David Gascoyne (1916–2001) Cuba, Carrie Hamilton gripped by revolution, nine-year- fervour impelled thousands of led a life as surreal as his early examines sexual experiences old Kamin and her sister, mother Christians in a quest to earn poems. At eighteen he drafted across generations and social and father fled their country, salvation by reclaiming their the manifesto of the English groups and demonstrates leaving behind a large, close- sacred sites, it did not prevent Surrealist Group and at nineteen how sexual politics have been knit family. Bewildered by the them from attacking the eastern published an authoritative integral to the construction changes in her homeland, she Christians of Byzantium on the account of Surrealism. He of a new revolutionary turned her back on the past and way, or forging lucrative trading translated for Salvador Dalì Cuban society. Drawing on spent her teenage years trying relationships with their Muslim and crossed swords with André first-hand interviews, press to fit in with British attitudes enemies. Likewise, devout Breton; the 1936 International accounts, literary works and to family and freedom. Nearly enthusiasm within Islam for holy Surrealist Exhibition in London other published sources, she twenty years later Kamin was war did not prevent Muslim was largely his brainchild. During foregrounds the memories and finally drawn back to Iran and leaders from prioritising vicious the war he toured as an actor, emotions of ordinary Cubans discovered a sprawling clan that internecine struggles in Egypt or embraced religious existentialism and compares these experiences sprang from humble roots to Mesopotamia over the attempt and was described as “the most with changing policies and wider bloom during the affluent, Biba- to drive out Christians. Tom tells important philosophic poet of social, political, and economic clad 1960s, only to be shaken the story from the perspective our time”. After the war he developments. She examines by the horrors of the Revolution of both Christians and Muslims, went mad and kept journals that competing views of masculinity and the Iran-Iraq War, and reconstructing the experiences are masterpieces of the bizarre. and femininity, homophobia, toughened by the struggle for and attitudes of those on either Later he found happiness as an sexual violence, interracial democracy that continues today side of the conflict. He recently elder statesman of British poetry. relationships and sexual Bloomsbury, 2011 presented The Crusades on BBC2. This pioneering biography tourism, and finds revolutionary (hardback) contends that, through all the and prerevolutionary values Simon & Schuster, 2010 ISBN: 978-0747591528 twists and turns of his life, coexisting in a sometimes (hardback) Gascoyne strove for truth of contradictory mix. ISBN: 978-1416526087 self-expression. University of North Carolina Oxford University Press, 2012 Press, 2012 (hardback) (hardback) ISBN: 978-0199558148 ISBN: 978-0807835197

44 Higher magazine

Adam O’Riordan Ian Ridley Professor Chris Turney Dr Kate Williams (MA Creative Writing, 2005 (BA French, 1976 Bedford College) (PhD Geography, 1998 RHBNC) (MA Creative Writing, 2011 RHBNC) RHBNC) There’s a Golden Sky Ice, Mud and Blood: In the Flesh The Pleasures of Men In its first 20 years the Premier Lessons from Climates A remarkable debut poetry League has moved football Past A haunting thriller set in 1840s collection, these poems are from social outcast to favourite This sober but passionate London, Kate’s debut novel linked by a strong sense of child; from a state of crisis account of past climate change focuses on a young woman longing and loss. Whether in against a backdrop of recession by a leading climate scientist who becomes obsessed with graceful elegies for the dead and hooliganism to a global builds to an uncompromising a serial killer. Christine holds or the charged lyrics of love sport of unimaginable riches. climax: unnatural climate change herself responsible for her and desire, poems cross space Ian Ridley, one of the sport’s is here and it’s only going to young brother’s abduction as well as time, from the finest writers, takes stock of this get worse. With a great eye and disappearance and the ‘blackened lung’ of Victorian phenomenon in a wonderfully for a story and a quirky turn of consequent shattering of her Manchester and the fateful detailed narrative, examining the phrase, Chris tells how human safe bourgeois family. Living events of the 1913 Derby game at all levels. He is superb history has twisted and turned at in the East End, she shares the (alumna and suffragette Emily on the wheeling and dealing at the helm of a capricious Nature. capital’s obsession with a series Davison killed by the King’s the top of the Premier League, Many of his stories begin of appalling murders, committed horse), to enter a modern era of but his sympathy clearly lies with anecdotes about people by the Man of Crows. She satellites and late night internet with the small clubs who have who stumbled on confusing fancies her own brush with evil searches for lost lovers. At the gained little from the revolution. observations which in time gives her an understanding of heart of the collection lies the He shows how some clubs have came to be understood as the the killer and begins to write sonnet sequence ‘Home’, a slant become so carried away by the result of climate change. This is herself into his mind, trying look at the lives of William and dizzying sums that they have an easy-to-read history of the to trap him through her own Dorothy Wordsworth. There is a lost all grip on financial reality. science as well as an accurate imagination. For The Times real sense of history captured in Has football made a Faustian explanation of the physics and this is “a wonderfully ripe, an irrevocable moment as Adam pact, gaining the world but biology that is used to interpret imaginative and gripping piece coaxes relatives, friends and selling its soul in the process? the observations. The book was of Victorian pastiche, with a other absences into life. longlisted for the Royal Society spider’s web of a plot and a A & C Black, 2011 spine-tingling atmosphere of Chatto & Windus, 2010 Prize for Science Books. (hardback) menace and suspense”. (paperback) ISBN: 978-1408130407 Palgrave Macmillan, 2008 Michael Joseph, 2012 ISBN: 978-0701185053 (hardback) (paperback) ISBN: 978-0230553828 ISBN: 978-0241951392

Royal Holloway 45 How your giving is making a difference The Importance of Scholarships: A lifelong impact

The Department of Mathematics is pleased to be able this bursary after reviewing the way I give money to charity. I believe to offer The Freda Iris Wadsworth Bursary for the first that one individual could benefit more from a single larger donation, time in September 2012, thanks to a kind donation. than several charities would from a number of small donations. My Freda obtained a place to study Mathematics at Royal family have always been very supportive of my academic development, Holloway in the 1930s, but was unable to obtain a and I think my love for science and mathematics was strengthened at an scholarship. Instead, she attended a local college, early age by my grandparents and their extensive collection of textbooks. obtained a distinction and enjoyed a successful During my masters degree, my grandmother was able to help me financially teaching career, but was always disappointed not to and without her help I would not have been able to fully fund the course. have attended Royal Holloway. Sadly, she never lived to see me achieve my dream of studying for a When Freda passed away recently her granddaughter decided to set PhD, which I am now doing. I am fully aware of how difficult it is to up a bursary in her honour to benefit able Mathematics students who fund education. I have gone through the lengthy process of applying are unable to finance their studies. The award of £400 a year for the for funding from many sources myself. Therefore I would like to try and full duration of study will go to a talented undergraduate Mathematics help someone, in the small way I can, to achieve their dream of studying student from a low income household. Both the College and her family at university.” are proud to celebrate Freda’s achievements by fostering a new generation If you would like to find out more about this bursary, please of mathematicians. Freda’s granddaughter said: “I decided to establish contact Kathryn Griggs on 01784 414991

Celebrating our supporters On 15 March the Principal, Professor Why giving is important to me... Paul Layzell, welcomed over 112 alumni, friends and parents of students to Margaret Chadderton (BA English, 1963 Royal Holloway College) has been the Windsor Building for an evening a supporter of the College since 2003 and as well as pledging a legacy gift, celebrating the achievements made she has also supported the Greatest Needs Fund, Library Development Fund possible by their kind support. During the and the Boilerhouse project. reception music was provided by the Royal “In the early sixties when I studied English, very few women went to Holloway Philharmonic and attendees university so I was hugely privileged to receive such a good education. We were able to talk to students and staff all had grants and if I had to pay the tuition fees and rents that students face from areas across the College that have today I would most certainly have benefited from Annual Fund support. Our had to stay at home in Lancashire Annual Fund Callers were also on hand to and look for a local university. meet guests. Though I’ve supported many In the main presentation of the areas of the Annual Fund, I’ve evening, Dr Jocelyn Monroe gave a recently given to the Library unique insight into the Dark Matter Development Fund. I read English research being carried out in the at Royal Holloway and spent a lot of Physics Department. Alumna Margaret time in the Library. I can remember Chadderton spoke passionately about that we often fought for the why giving to the College is important to same books and so supporting the her (read more about Margaret opposite). purchase of new books, learning The Principal provided an update of the aids and improving study space is many exciting projects that we have been important to me. able to support through the kindness of It was the philanthropy of our our donors. He also spoke of the other Victorian forbears that established ways in which alumni are continuing to Royal Holloway and Bedford. Now help current students, such as providing it is up to us – who owe so much work placements and careers talks. The to this College – to help to sustain evening concluded with an impressive it. Never has there been more need performance by the Choir. of our giving.”

46 Higher magazine Sweet surprise: A new bursary from the George Cadbury Trust

Alumnus Mark Cadbury (BSc Geology, 1986) has kindly facilitated a gift of £9,000 per year from The George Cadbury Trust to support a student throughout their studies. Beginning in 2013, the support is for a student from a low income background who has overcome adversity in order to succeed academically. The George Cadbury Trust was set up by Mark’s great- grandfather, George Cadbury, a founder of Cadbury. George was a Quaker and philanthropist who believed strongly in looking after his workers. He built houses with gardens for them, a hospital, reading rooms, sports and recreational facilities, a workers’ canteen, medical and dental treatment facilities and a pension fund - none of which had been in place before. Today the George Cadbury Trust aims to ensure that needy individuals, charities and communities are given an opportunity to grasp an alternative future and develop a sense of philanthropy. It is the hope of the College and Trust that recipients of the new George Cadbury Bursary will not only make the most of this opportunity, but will also go on to give something back to society after graduation, thereby continuing George’s philanthropic aims.

If you are interested in applying for this bursary or know someone who would be suitable, please email George Cadbury (1839–1922) [email protected]

Thank you to our longstanding donor…

Valerie Winn entered Royal Holloway College in 1953, graduating with a degree in Mathematics in 1957, and later becoming Deputy Head at Newstead Wood School for Girls. Valerie was a long standing donor of the College, giving annually to the Annual Fund. When Valerie passed away recently, she left a percentage of her estate to the Annual Fund’s Greatest Needs to reflect the years of loyal support she gave our students in her lifetime. Her gift will go on to make a lasting difference to students today and undoubtedly throughout their lives. Valerie’s gift was given in gratitude for the wonderful time she had as a RHC graduate but also to reflect the passion she felt for higher education. If you, like Valerie, would like to making a gift in your will to a future generation of scholars, please contact Kathryn Griggs, Deputy Head of Development on 01784 414991 Valerie Winn graduating from Royal Holloway College (photo courtesy of her family) Generosity of a grateful parent

The parent of a current student has given an extremely generous gift to offer a fully funded scholarship for an undergraduate student to study in the Classics Department. The donor, who wishes to remain anonymous, has established the award in recognition of the “wonderful experience and support” their child had received at Royal Holloway and hopes to enable another student to benefit from this experience. It will cover full Home/EU fees for one student for three years of undergraduate study. The competitive scholarship will be awarded to an exceptional student who will bring something exciting and unique to the Department. Professor Ahuvia Kahane, Head of Classics, said: “We are delighted that the parent of one of our students felt compelled to offer a fully-funded scholarship to help another student to benefit from the teaching experience that we offer. We are extremely grateful for this generosity.”

Royal Holloway 47 Just a few of the many ways your Annual Fund gifts have made a difference to our students...

Four pieces of specialist TV equipment for SATV, our own online TV channel

30 new laptops for students to borrow

Venue and piano hire for a concert in London given by our PhD Contemporary Music students

Two outdoor spaces for table tennis

Enabling a PhD student to present his paper, New Directions in Theatre for Young People, in New York

Two mobile training goals for the Lacrosse Club

The Maths Cafe: a chance for 3rd and 2nd years to support and mentor 1st year students

Two new electric pistes for the Fencing Society

New hands free music stands for the Choir to enable better posture whilst singing

60 members of the Early Music Society benefited from three masterclasses

The Boat Club have a new outboard for their boat

Portable dance floors for our many dance societies, helping hundreds of dancers practise

Insanity Radio can be heard in the local area on 130.2 FM. The Annual Fund helped buy the licence and new audio equipment

48 Higher magazine What Matched Funding meant to us

61 projects have been supported since 2008 from the refurbishment of Bedford Library to purchasing pitch covers for the Cricket Club. Between 2008 and 2011 the Government’s Matched Funding Scheme promised to match donations made to universities to encourage philanthropic support for the Higher Education sector. For every £10 that was donated to Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, Matched Funding added £5 and Gift Aid added a further 25% -this made a £10 gift worth £18.75! The response was incredible! Alumni, parents and friends of the College responded in their thousands to the appeal and thanks to their kind support the College has received over £522,842 from the Matched Funding scheme. Intel supports new The Scheme has allowed gifts to the Annual Fund play an even greater part in giving our students amazing opportunities and access to first class facilities. Information Security course Intel’s charitable foundation is supporting an innovative new approach to fighting information security issues in economics by making a $50,000 gift towards the development of our new Information Security course. The course in Economics and Security has been recognised by security practitioners and economists alike as a much needed teaching and knowledge enhancement for these two overlapping sectors. The potential beneficiaries of this new Information Security Group course include users and providers of computing services and infrastructure, including leaders like Intel. The course will make course notes and teaching available online through multimedia, web interactions and diverse practicals. This will create an exceptional level of teaching support available worldwide. Course leader Professor Dusko Pavlovic said, “The Intel Foundation’s gift has enabled us to develop the course and purchase crucial software for us to deliver it dynamically and internationally. This gift goes a significant way towards tackling the knowledge and resources needed to address this exceptional First year Second year Third year task in today’s economic and security conscious environment.” £45,466 £138,816 £338,560

Caller Corner Name: Katie Osmon Which area of support do you feel most strongly about? Subject: History The Library Development Fund is one of the most valuable areas of support since it is a resource that is used by all who study here. As Year: 2nd a History student, the books and study facilities in our libraries are essential to my degree. What do you enjoy most about being an Annual Fund Caller? Why do you think the Annual Fund is important? I really enjoy talking to alumni about their The Annual Fund makes an incredible difference to all elements of the experiences post-university; it’s fascinating to College. From day one of a student’s time here, the Fund supports hear the rich variety of things people went scholarships and bursaries to allow the financial flexibility to attend on to do. I’ve also been lucky enough to university. Then it provides for rich extra-curricular activities like the receive advice from people that have already sports clubs and the Choir, alongside the study resources in the libraries graduated, which is incredibly helpful. right down to maintaining the aesthetics of the beautiful campus itself.

Royal Holloway 49 Dates for your diary

A selection from our programme of events for 2012–13.

Sunday 3 June 2012 Thursday 28 June 2012 Alumni Tea at the Alumni Campus Tour College Garden Party Royal Holloway campus, 2–3pm Founder’s Dining Hall, 3–5pm All alumni are welcome to join us in our tour Alumni from all years and colleges are of our ever expanding and evolving campus invited for afternoon tea, along with friends and to reminisce with us about their time at and family. College. Tours will commence from Founder’s Main Reception at 2pm. Tea: £10 (free for children under three Admission free, but please register for years). Please book at: tours at: www.rhul.ac.uk/alumni/ www.rhul.ac.uk/alumni/ eventsandreunions/home.aspx eventsandreunions/eventregistration.aspx

Saturday 24 November 2012 St Cecilia’s Evening Concert, College Chapel, 6–7pm Reception, Picture Gallery, 7–7.30pm Feast, Founder’s Dining Hall, 7.45pm A feast of music, with a concert by the Choir of Royal Holloway. After the concert there Sunday 9 September 2012 will be a reception followed by a three- course dinner with musical interludes by the Heritage Open Day Choir. Guests attending both concert and North Quad, 11am–5pm feast are required to pre-book their tickets. The Picture Gallery will be open and there Please note that this event has moved to a will be tours of campus. There will also be Saturday and an earlier start time. an opportunity to visit the former Holloway Concert & Reception: £15 (also available Sanatorium in Virginia Water. on the door). Feast: £50. Dress: Black Admission free, all welcome, Tie/Lounge Suit. Friday 15 June 2012 no pre-booking required Magna Carta Lecture Windsor Building Auditorium, 6.15pm The Most Reverend and Rt Hon the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has been Archbishop of Canterbury since 2002 and is acknowledged internationally as an outstanding teacher, poet and scholar. He has written extensively on moral, ethical and social topics, and has turned his attention increasingly to contemporary cultural and interfaith issues. This is the eighth lecture in the series, run in association with the Magna Carta Trust. Admission free, but booking essential. To be added to the waiting list please contact Sue Heath: 01784 443004 or [email protected]

50 Higher magazine Saturday 8 December and Sunday 9 December 2012 Lessons and Carols Service College Chapel Saturday 8 December at 3pm (seated by 2.45pm) and Sunday 9 December at 6pm (seated by 5.45pm) Our ever popular carol service, followed by a reception in the Picture Gallery. Admission free, by ticket only. To book please contact [email protected] or 01784 443950 after 1 November.

Saturday 12 January 2013 Saturday 23 March 2013 Sunday 9 June 2013 Alumni Sports Day Royal Holloway Science Festival Alumni Tea at the Information Desk: Windsor Building, Information Desk: Windsor Building, College Garden Party 10am–4pm 10am–4pm Founder’s Dining Hall, 3–5pm This year’s Hancock Cup will be in tight Talks, workshops and hands-on-activities Alumni from all years and colleges are competition between students and alumni for all ages. Come and crack codes, dig for invited for afternoon tea, along with for Men’s and Women’s Rugby, Football, fossils, program computer games consoles, friends and family. Basketball, Hockey and Mixed Lacrosse, and learn the fastest way to make ice- Ticket price to be confirmed American Football, Golf and Netball. If cream. Younger visitors can complete our (free for children under 3 years) you aren’t playing, why not meet us in Science Passport and win a prize! Nobles and cheer on alumni as they try to Admission free, all welcome, retain the Cup, having won it for the first no pre-booking required time in 2012! Tickets: £5. For further information, please contact [email protected]

Royal Holloway 51 Your will… leaving a lasting legacy

Perhaps you have considered leaving a gift to As the university sector faces its toughest times yet, the College in your will. Perhaps you have not. legacies are going to play an even more important Whatever your position, we’d like you to consider role in securing our progression. remembering the College when drawing up your will. Our charitable status means that gifts can be Together with you, we are able to create tax efficient for you and your family beneficiaries. departmental-focussed giving or channel your kind gift to exactly where you’d like it to go, We have received legacy gifts ranging from £500 enabling you to create a better future. to £3,000,000 and these gifts are part of a long heritage of legacy giving that has sustained the College since its first days. If you are interested in making a personal and Regardless of their size, each and every one lasting gift to a department or area of the College of these legacies has had a tremendous impact you love, please contact: on the various areas of student life that have benefited from it – from students to research, to Kathryn Griggs, Deputy Head of Development on the maintenance of our iconic buildings. 01784 414991 or [email protected].