St Anne’s College Record 2017 – 2018 • Number 107 • Annual Publication of the St Anne’s Society 1 www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk 2017 – 2018 The Ship St Anne’s College Contents Contents From the Editor – Judith Vidal-Hall 2 Walthamstow Hall – Jackie Lang, Jill Milner and Stephanie Ferro 60 From the SAS President – Hugh Sutherland 3 SAS branch reports 63 From the Principal – Helen King 4 China in Oxford – Yao Li 70 Our Purpose – Helen King 7 Music – Joshua Asokan 72 From the Librarian – Clare White 10 From the JCR – Tom Mitty 73 From the Development Office – Jules Foster 13 Target Oxbridge – Ramani Chandramohan 74 Donor column – Wendy Mantle and Jill Paton-Walsh 16 Oxford admissions 75 Multilingualism – Victoria A Murphy 18 Finals results 2017 77 NHS at Seventy – Judith Vidal-Hall 21 From the MCR – James Edwards 78 NHS at Seventy – Helen Salisbury 23 Graduate degrees 2017 79 NHS at Seventy – Charlotte Williams 27 Governing Body 80 NHS at Seventy – Christine Kiire 30 College news 81 NHS at Seventy – Jenny Ehrhardt 31 Fellows’ news 82 NHS at Seventy – Devora Vinick 33 Alumnae news 83 NHS at Seventy – Amanda Pritchard 34 Alumnae publications 84 Russell Taylor column – Russell Taylor 36 Sacrificial Virgins – Joan Shenton 89 College staff – Jim Meridew 39 Gaudy and Alumni Weekend 91 St Anne’s College Record 2017-2018 Bristol & West Branch: Ann Revill Front cover: The beaver was adopted Journey of a Southern Feminist - Devaki Jain 43 Privacy notice 93 Number 107 Cambridge Branch: Sue Collins as a crest in 1913. RF Butler explained The Real Rock Follies – Annabel Leventon 45 In memoriam 99 Annual Publication of the St Anne’s Society London Branch: Clare Dryhurst why: ‘Beavers live in communities and Refugees – Ellen Wiles 48 Obituaries 100 (formerly known as the Association Midlands Branch: Jane Darnton undertake work of a communal character Refugees – Lucy Popescu 51 Thank you – Plumer Society 114 of Senior Members) North East Branch: David Royal but he returns to sleep in his own little lodge North West Branch: Jane Holmes (remaining at heart a “home student”).’ Refugees – Kit de Waal 53 Thank you – The impact of your gifts 116 Committee 2017-2018 Oxford Branch: Hugh Sutherland This summer, our students have taken the Cara – Anne Lonsdale 54 Benefits for alumnae 120 President: Hugh Sutherland South of England Branch: Stella Charman mascot with them as they travel, volunteer, Oxford letter – Elisabeth Salisbury 56 Vice-President: Jackie Ingram undertake research and mapping projects, Homeless in Oxford – Tom Zagoria 58 Honorary Secretary: Maureen Hazell and learn new skills through internships, Honorary Editor: Judith Vidal-Hall to name just some of the things they are Ex Officio: Helen King, Ali Albrecht doing. Our aim is to show the varieties of experience they gain, often through the support of our alumnae and friends. 2 www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk 3 From the Editor From the SAS President Celebrations in hard times Let’s go digital? HUGH SUTHERLAND It’s been a turbulent year since our seemed willing to discuss in this issue – many St Anne’s alumnae. We have an awe Our SAS President weighs the pros encourage everyone to get Social, or take GDPR gives us some reassurance that last issue, but both the College and with the exception of the inimitable Alex, inspiring collection of pieces from younger and cons of resorting to purely this opportunity to remind ourselves of the even if we cannot erase our digital identity, the University have exciting plans for who, thanks to Russell Taylor, has the last members of College who are working in digital means for connections and pleasures of unmediated faces and voices, we can find out how the file on us is being the future word on the matter. a variety of capacities in the NHS, plus a communications of real things like paper and ink? Is a ‘Status used. thoughtful reflection on the importance Update’ the first thing you will do in the None of the issues we highlighted last year An important contribution from the JCR ‘Its time. #deleteFacebook.’ Thus the I hope that the members of the SAS will of ‘kindness’ in the medical profession. morning, or the last thing you will ever do? as potential flashpoints – Brexit, Trump looks at efforts by the University and founder of WhatsApp, Brian Acton, signed agree that staying close to the College Like most ageing bodies, the NHS is not and migration – have gone away; some the College to improve the range and off from his directorship on the board of Many of our members prefer the certainty community is one of the most rewarding without its problems in need of fixing, have got decidedly worse in recent weeks. diversity of students, and the findings of the predominant profiler, originally gained and security of the analogue world. Quite ways to connect with friends. It’s time to but the dedication and commitment with In the UK we have a fractious government the Principal’s ‘2025 Conversation’ offer when he sold his business to them. The apart from the risk of fraud, the issue of engage with St Anne’s past, present and which our contributors write is grounds for divided to the point of meltdown, an a challenging vision for the future. Helen gods of Silicon Valley prevent their children privacy as something to be protected has future, by any media necessary. optimism. increasingly catatonic opposition and a King’s own column gives a more personal, from using social media due to its toxicity. crept onto the list of worries for the modern Following on from the ‘2025 Conversation’ media obsessed with the Brexit issue to behind the scenes glimpse into the And there is more: Rock Bottom tells the In the good old days, software developers correspondent. We are warned of the exercise, the Principal and Fellows have the near exclusion of all else. The World Principal’s world. story of the UK’s first all girl rock group; would write elegant thoughtful applications Faustian pact embedded in ubiquitous and now completed their strategic review and Cup and Trump’s excursion through an exciting young Chinese entrepreneur only to sigh as they were ignored by insistent ‘User Agreements’, 50 sides of In Oxford generally, homelessness have articulated the results as a set of Europe provided temporary diversion now back home offers advice and support everyone as they got on with their lives: grey, regulator-dictated, flannel panel text, remains a major issue, the subject, as statements setting out the purpose of the though little comfort. to today’s students; a pioneering feminist working, reading, chatting, watching telly. pithily rendered as ‘if the product is free: last year, of our ‘Oxford Letter’. Despite College. As the outcome of the review from India takes us on her journey and Now we attend to apps so intensely they you are the product.’ If we are free now, we Refugee hysteria in the UK is less vocal, the many voluntary bodies working to is communicated and discussed, I am we celebrate the centenary of women’s are a detriment to our physical and mental shall soon be sold in chains, at the mercy of though as several of our writers in this alleviate a worsening situation in one of confident that members will recognise their suffrage with particular reference to the health. Many of our alumnae grew up online marketeers, A/B testers and sinister foreign issue remind us, the issue has by no the UK’s richest cities, rough sleeping has understanding of the College and what it is activity of women suffragists in Oxford, and have engaged obsessively with social mind-manipulators. Big Data knows more means gone away and remains a divisive increased. The good news is that students for. We must then decide how the SAS can thanks to our Librarian, Clare White. media, seeing it as an essential part of their about us than we care to admit, even to issue in the EU. are getting involved. Tom Zagoria talks best contribute to achieving the ambitions lives. ourselves. Resistance starts with a blob about the work being done by the aptly We have more contributors from the the College has What of Oxford itself and our College of Blu Tack on the webcam, but things named ‘On Your Doorstep’, and we have younger generation than ever, and I thank Facebook is now proposed as the main way set for itself. I in particular? The impact of Brexit on escalate quickly: do we need to adopt an illustration from a Gatehouse artist. The them for taking the time and trouble to to accomplish the mission of the SAS. Fair look forward to the UK’s universities gets little publicity. techniques associated with the dark web, Gatehouse has been working as a drop-in give the issue a wider appeal. For this, enough since it was after all originally made discussing that However, speaking to the Guardian wear survivalist camo and live off-grid in a centre for the homeless and vulnerable in in particular I want to thank Charlotte for the function of staying in touch with with members earlier this year, Vice-Chancellor Louise bender? Oxford for 30 years. Williams. My thanks to all our contributors, your companions and acquaintances from in the coming Richardson revealed that the UK was one without whom there would be no school, work and college. Digital natives are Surely we prefer to enjoy the benefits of our months. of the biggest beneficiaries of EU research At the heart of this issue we celebrate the magazine, and as ever to Kate Davy in the apparently thoroughly networked and live technological society, even if that leads to funding with Oxford the single biggest seventieth birthday of the NHS, Britain’s Hugh Development Office.