Univ Record 2012
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Univ. Staff past and present: Simon Cottrell, Bob Morris, Paul Keifer, and Ken Tucker, taken at a reception to mark the 40th anniversary of Simon’s arrival in College (see Varia - page 148) THE RECORD EDITOR’S NOTES Volume XVI Number 2 2012 One thing that particularly struck the Editor when compiling this issue of the Record is how successful Univ. can be at nurturing all-rounders. Careful readers CONTENTS should spot the same names cropping up among both the lists of our Prizes, Firsts, and Distinctions, and among the reports of our societies and sports clubs. Univ. The Editor’s Notes 1 people, it seems, can simultaneously achieve brilliant academic results (including The Master’s Notes 2 several top Firsts in the university), and excel in music, drama, or sport. The Governing Body 6 This year we mark the retirements of Stephen Golding and John Wilson. Newly Elected Fellows 12 Stephen has been our Oxford Instruments Fellow in Radiology for 25 years, but has The Master and Fellows 18 also helped organise trips to the College chalet. John has been a Distinguished Leaving Fellows and Staff 22 Research Lecturer in Pure Mathematics, but has contributed to many other aspects Obituaries: Honorary Fellows and Members of Staff 27 of College life, not least on the musical side. We will miss them both. Sadly we also have to report the deaths of one of our senior Honorary Fellows, Sir John Academic Results and Distinctions 35 Rawlins, and of two much-loved members of staff of the 1980s and 1990s, Scholarships & Exhibitions 47 Christine Griffiths and Ian Williamson. Among this year’s articles, Dr. John Cruddas MP has kindly allowed the Editor From the Chaplain 53 to publish the lecture he gave at Univ. last year on Clement Attlee, and gives From the Librarian 55 readers an opportunity to see how one of the senior thinkers in today’s Labour From the Development Director 57 Party views our great Prime Minister, while our own Keith Dorrington with the aid The Chalet 63 of William Poole of New College sheds light on one of the important scientific experiments carried out by Robert Boyle on the site of the Shelley Memorial. Junior & Weir Common Rooms 65 Meanwhile, the Editor draws on some letters of the 1720s to reveal the travails of College Clubs and Societies 70 an undergraduate who actually wanted to work at a time when the College atmosphere was less conducive to such enthusiasms. Articles: In preparing this year’s Record, the Editor offers his grateful thanks for all the Attlee, the ILP and the Romantic Tradition 99 help given him by Verity Pavitt and Kristiana Dahl in the Academic Office, Jane Nicholas Toke: The Georgian Gentleman who wanted to work 111 Vicat the Welfare Registrar, the team in the Development Office, including Robert Boyle, the First Intravenous Anaesthetic, Andrew Murton, Rob Moss, Ellie Brace, Chris Major, Julie Monahan, and Frances and the Site of the Shelley Memorial 128 Lawrence, but above all, as ever, to Marion Hawtree. An Artist, A Bishop, An Archdeacon and a Fellow 144 Finally, the College has just created a splendid new website, which we Architectural News 147 recommend you to browse. The address is the same (www.univ.ox.ac.uk), but just about everything else is different. We hope you will enjoy it. Varia 148 Obituaries 153 Robin Darwall-Smith ________________________________________________________________ Calendar for Degree Ceremonies 193 Univ. Telephone Numbers 195 The cover of the Record is a detail from J. M. W. Turner, “High Street, Oxford” (ref. LI197.4), reproduced by permission of the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. This detail shows the only known image of Deep Hall, home of Robert Boyle, just to the right of the old entrance gate to the College. This image is discussed on pp. 133–4 below. 1 THE RECORD EDITOR’S NOTES Volume XVI Number 2 2012 One thing that particularly struck the Editor when compiling this issue of the Record is how successful Univ. can be at nurturing all-rounders. Careful readers CONTENTS should spot the same names cropping up among both the lists of our Prizes, Firsts, and Distinctions, and among the reports of our societies and sports clubs. Univ. The Editor’s Notes 1 people, it seems, can simultaneously achieve brilliant academic results (including The Master’s Notes 2 several top Firsts in the university), and excel in music, drama, or sport. The Governing Body 6 This year we mark the retirements of Stephen Golding and John Wilson. Newly Elected Fellows 12 Stephen has been our Oxford Instruments Fellow in Radiology for 25 years, but has The Master and Fellows 18 also helped organise trips to the College chalet. John has been a Distinguished Leaving Fellows and Staff 22 Research Lecturer in Pure Mathematics, but has contributed to many other aspects Obituaries: Honorary Fellows and Members of Staff 27 of College life, not least on the musical side. We will miss them both. Sadly we also have to report the deaths of one of our senior Honorary Fellows, Sir John Academic Results and Distinctions 35 Rawlins, and of two much-loved members of staff of the 1980s and 1990s, Scholarships & Exhibitions 47 Christine Griffiths and Ian Williamson. Among this year’s articles, Dr. John Cruddas MP has kindly allowed the Editor From the Chaplain 53 to publish the lecture he gave at Univ. last year on Clement Attlee, and gives From the Librarian 55 readers an opportunity to see how one of the senior thinkers in today’s Labour From the Development Director 57 Party views our great Prime Minister, while our own Keith Dorrington with the aid The Chalet 63 of William Poole of New College sheds light on one of the important scientific experiments carried out by Robert Boyle on the site of the Shelley Memorial. Junior & Weir Common Rooms 65 Meanwhile, the Editor draws on some letters of the 1720s to reveal the travails of College Clubs and Societies 70 an undergraduate who actually wanted to work at a time when the College atmosphere was less conducive to such enthusiasms. Articles: In preparing this year’s Record, the Editor offers his grateful thanks for all the Attlee, the ILP and the Romantic Tradition 99 help given him by Verity Pavitt and Kristiana Dahl in the Academic Office, Jane Nicholas Toke: The Georgian Gentleman who wanted to work 111 Vicat the Welfare Registrar, the team in the Development Office, including Robert Boyle, the First Intravenous Anaesthetic, Andrew Murton, Rob Moss, Ellie Brace, Chris Major, Julie Monahan, and Frances and the Site of the Shelley Memorial 128 Lawrence, but above all, as ever, to Marion Hawtree. An Artist, A Bishop, An Archdeacon and a Fellow 144 Finally, the College has just created a splendid new website, which we Architectural News 147 recommend you to browse. The address is the same (www.univ.ox.ac.uk), but just about everything else is different. We hope you will enjoy it. Varia 148 Obituaries 153 Robin Darwall-Smith ________________________________________________________________ Calendar for Degree Ceremonies 193 Univ. Telephone Numbers 195 The cover of the Record is a detail from J. M. W. Turner, “High Street, Oxford” (ref. LI197.4), reproduced by permission of the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. This detail shows the only known image of Deep Hall, home of Robert Boyle, just to the right of the old entrance gate to the College. This image is discussed on pp. 133–4 below. 1 MASTER’S NOTES universities have done so successfully for over a century. The College’s academic report card makes for mixed reading. Univ. was The year 2011–12 has been a reminder that significant change is not always placed 15th out of 30 in the Norrington Table (compared with 14th last year), not a marked by big events or high drama. Yet tomorrow’s historians may well look disaster but hardly a triumph either. We repeated last year’s pattern of restricting back upon the year as important end or start points for Univ. and the University. the number of Lower Second and Third Class classifications to a handful, but of The University sailed in calmer political seas than for some years, with only scoring a large number of strong Upper Seconds which in more favourable the occasional squall from Westminster. The onset of £9,000 annual tuition fees in circumstances might have been Firsts. Rankings in the middle of the table are 2012–13 dented demand for undergraduate places in some parts of the university sensitive to just two or three borderline results, so one should not get neurotic sector, but not for Oxford, where applications fell by under half a per cent. The about slipping or gaining a few places. Nonetheless we continue to believe that feared dropping away of applicants from low-income families did not materialise; Univ.’s natural place is among the top ten and we shall redouble our efforts to nor did the anticipated switch to “useful” degree subjects. The largest increase in return and stay there. applications was for English, the sharpest falls for mathematics and computer Disappointment with our position in the Norrington Table has been mitigated science. The pattern was similar for other leading universities, suggesting that the by pride in the large number of congratulatory and prize-winning Firsts awarded much higher fees produced a flight to quality, not a flight from debt. Firm to our finalists. Those who did well did very well indeed. The full list, which is conclusions would be premature, but it does appear that within a year of the visibly longer than usual, appears on pp.