2010 TRINITY COLLEGE cambridge trinity college cambridge annual record annual record 2010 Trinity College Cambridge Annual Record 2009–2010 Trinity College Cambridge CB2 1TQ Telephone: 01223 338400 e-mail: [email protected] website: www.trin.cam.ac.uk Cover photo: ‘Reflections’ by frscspd Contents 5 Editorial 7 The Master 17 Alumni Relations and the Trinity Campaign 18 Commemoration 25 Alumni Relations and Associations 33 Dining Rights and Annual Gatherings 35 Alumni Achievements 41 Benefactions 55 College Activities 57 First & Third Trinity Boat Club 60 Field Club 72 Societies and Students’ Union 81 College Choir C 83 Features ontent 85 Henry VIII and the Foundation of Trinity 98 The Backs 105 The Clock Tower Story S 109 The Fellowship 110 The Master and Fellows 125 In Memoriam 132 Appointments and Distinctions 135 An Eightieth Birthday 143 College Notes 155 The Register 156 In Memoriam 159 Addresses Wanted 175 An Invitation to Donate TRINITY ANNUAL RECORD 2010 3 Editorial The Master’s favourite mistranslation of what many suppose to be the College’s motto, Semper Eadem, but which in fact we owe to the Good Queen, Anne, is ‘Some change is good; no change is better.’ The Annual Record has changed, and for the better, under the editorship of John Easterling (1952). He added illustrations, feature articles, and occasional correspondence columns, to enliven the central purpose of the Annual Record, which continues to be the recording of the more significant achievements and changes of the College year. As John’s successor, I am pleased to carry on his Burkean tradition. Appearances may have altered this year but I hope that the conservation of the substance will console those members of College who may translate Semper editorial Eadem more strictly than the Master. It is good to be able to record much in which we can rejoice: our junior members’ academic and sporting prowess; the enjoyable and useful activity of our alumni associations; the forthcoming, splendid, more-than coffee-table book, Trinity, a Portrait, edited by Edward Stourton, for which there is still (just) time to subscribe; the generosity of our donors; talented new Junior Research Fellows and a distinguished new Honorary Fellow; an eightieth birthday. But we also mourn, among our other departed members, the loss of Gordon Squires, for nearly half a century our director of studies in Physics. This Annual Record also issues three invitations to action. First, we are keen to hear any news you may wish to impart, by means of the reply slip on the reverse of the ‘carrier page’ that directed this issue to your postal address. Put modesty aside; we take legitimate pride in reporting our members’ many distinguished achievements that might otherwise escape our notice. TRINITY ANNUAL RECORD 2010 | 5 Secondly, you will also find, enclosed as a ‘flyer’, an opportunity to subscribe, at a reduced pre-publication price, to Trinity, a Portrait. Finally, at the back of the Record there is a detachable page that makes it easier to contribute to the Trinity Campaign. Any such philanthropic act is particularly welcome at a time like this when a shrinking state imposes ever higher costs on students seeking entry to the big society. Trinity has always helped to defray these costs wherever there is need. The College will have to do even more in future, to help in a growing number of cases of need or hardship among the most junior generation of our collegiate family. John Lonsdale (1958) editorial TRINITY ANNUAL RECORD 2010 | 6 the master from the master science park anniversary The Master From the Master rinity’s motto is sometimes translated as ‘Some Tchange is good; no change is better’. Some readers of the Annual Record may be nostalgic for its traditional format and cover. But most will surely welcome the changes introduced by the new Editor. I am particularly glad of the chance to replace the text of my Commem speech, traditionally published in the Annual Record, with this article. The audience at the Commemoration Feast consists largely of students, ter S A since all Scholars are invited, and their interests don’t coincide with those of our M non-resident members who constitute the Record’s main readership. E H T This article doesn’t have the space to acclaim all that our current Fellows and students and non-resident members have achieved during the year (listed on pp 35–40 and 132–5). A Nobel Prize, however, retains its aura and deserves special note. It was wonderful news that Venki Ramakrishnan won the chemistry prize last year. There are now five Nobel prizewinners among our present Fellows, seven among living members of the College, and Trinity can claim more than thirty altogether—contrary to myth, not as many as France. Our Fellowship now, incidentally, contains thirty-five FRSs. But we celebrate equally our strength in the humanities, and we have twenty-one FBAs too. As I know better than most, there are substantial anomalies in elections to academies, but these figures surely count for something. And the younger Fellows, who still aspire to these honours, hold equal promise. And it’s good that Trinity now features strongly in the University ‘apparat’. Lynn Gladden has become Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, alongside John Rallison TRINITY ANNUAL RECORD 2010 8 whose portfolio is Education. Our new Vice-Chancellor is fortunate to have their support in ensuring that Cambridge builds on its current strengths. At the undergraduate level, there have been successes in the Tripos. In intercollegiate comparisons, Trinity always scores first in the sciences; sometimes overall too. We are fortunate in our students, and each year those involved in admissions face difficult choices in choosing from very strong fields. Our selection policies and procedures are rightly a matter of public interest and scrutiny, but I think we can take pride in the thoroughness and commitment of all those Fellows who assess and interview candidates each year. It is indeed a matter for regret that the proportion of strong applicants from state schools is not higher, since the university is committed to widening access. The College is grateful for all that is done by our own students, via TCSU, to help with open days and so on. It’s pure altruism on their part. In the future the undergraduate ‘mix’ is likely to become even more international than it already is. I especially welcome the fast-rising proportion of scholars from mainland Europe, the enlarged EU. Our students display a wide range of extracurricular talents. This is exemplified T by the Choir, only a minority of whose members read music. It ranks among the H E best mixed choirs in the UK, and goes from strength to strength, performing an M exceedingly wide repertoire. The Choir’s CDs win awards; their arduous Australian A S tour this summer, covering eight cities, gained huge acclaim. And the TCMS ter concerts show a high level of accomplishment among our instrumentalists. The College’s sporting achievements are fully covered on other pages. Once again both men’s and women’s first boats ended the Lents as Heads of the River: It is becoming almost boring to celebrate this year after year! And the men were head in the Mays as well. To combine these activities, intensively concentrated within eight-week terms, students need to acquire time-management skills. And they suffer higher anxiety levels than their predecessors because appropriate jobs are scarcer. There are financial pressures too. In the past students got into debt by habit. To-day’s have no alternative. They get loans, not grants; they have to pay top-up fees—and these may well rise further. Cambridge needs these fees. Even the highest level now envisaged would be peanuts compared to those charged by the Ivy League colleges in the US, none of which can match the intensive experience—cultural, tutorial, pastoral and TRINITY ANNUAL RECORD 2010 9 social—that Oxbridge colleges can offer. We are determined that no qualified candidates should be deterred from applying to Trinity by financial pressures. That’s why scholarships and bursaries, offering real money and not just prestige, are a top priority. This is a substantial new demand on our resources. Our America-based alumni have for years expressed surprise that the College has not been actively seeking funds. Why, they ask, do we not inundate alumni with requests for donations? Why haven’t we set the year-groups, or ‘classes’, in competition, to shame each other into ever more lavish giving? Well, we are learning. There has been a ‘culture change’. But we don’t want to ape the most strident aspects of American-style fundraising—and we certainly won’t hitch our fortunes, as private US colleges do, to the prowess of our football team. The University and all the Colleges have been collectively engaged in a fundraising campaign that reached a billion pounds in the University’s 800th anniversary year, last year—but that should simply be an initial, not final, target. As the College with the most numerous and most distinguished alumni—flattery helps here!—we should surely be playing our part. Indeed, the campaign is crucial to Trinity. Pre-eminence among Cambridge colleges would count for less ter if the entire University’s standing were in jeopardy. Our proportion of donors is S A still low and we hope to double it. But we have made a good start. M E We commemorate benefactors in the chapel every year, those who are deceased. H T But we should honour and appreciate those still living. Two recent generous donations deserve special mention and acclaim: Graham Keniston-Cooper had a successful city career, becoming managing director of Morgan Stanley.