Issue 19 • Autumn 2014

Wren Digitisation Spying on Your Friends Magpie & Stump & I Tennyson at Trinity Trinity 2

Welcome Contents

Issue 19 | Autumn 2014 3 Wren Digitisation 4 Spying on Your Friends Our current issue presents a diverse collection of articles. 6 A Little History of Magpie Dan Larsen (e2013), continues the theme of the previous issue and Stump in discussing British code-breaking during and after the First World War. Harriet Cartledge (2011) presents the results of 8 her research in the archives of the Magpie & Stump debating Telethon society. Andrew Sinclair (1955) gives an impressionistic 10 account of the highs and lows of filmingUnder Milk Wood with, Dylan Thomas and I among others, and . 12 Professor David McKitterick (e1986) reports on the digitisation Tennyson at Trinity of manuscripts in the Wren Library. Michael Plygawko (2012) 14 describes the literary circle of which Tennyson was University Challenge a notable member. In response to Trinity’s recent success in University Challenge, Claire Hall (2011) interviews the captains 16 of the winning teams of 1995 and 2014. Events

My best thanks go to all these contributors for their The Fountain is published twice yearly by the willingness to share their knowledge and experiences with Alumni Relations & Development Office. fellow alumni. The views expressed in this Newsletter do not necessarily represent the views of Dr Neil Hopkinson (e1983) Trinity College, Cambridge. Fellow, Editor Editor Dr Neil Hopkinson (e1983), Fellow

Acknowledgments Trinity College would like to thank all those who have supported the production of this edition of The Fountain.

© Copyright Trinity College 2014 3

By Professor David Below bottom left: Image of a scribe, the monk Wren Digitisation Eadwine, taken from the Canterbury or Eadwine McKitterick FBA (e1986) Psalter. Dates from the 12th century. Below: 12th century medical manuscript.

For the last few months, supported by gifts from alumni, a small team in the Wren Library has been working on a project to digitise the College’s collection of medieval manuscripts.

Some of these manuscripts are well For centuries, the College has welcomed known. The thirteenth-century Trinity readers to use manuscripts in the Wren. Apocalypse has page after page of This, of course, continues: no scanned bright blue and fiery red illustrations. version can tell you everything about The twelfth-century Eadwine Psalter, a manuscript. By making these scans made in Canterbury in the twelfth free to the world we are continuing century, has long been of interest for in the same tradition of sharing with historians of the French language. Most everyone the treasures for which we people know it thanks to the great are responsible. Volumes are scanned portrait of the scribe after whom the to a high resolution from cover to cover. manuscript is now named, while at the Thanks to the quality of the scans, it is end is a contemporary plan of Canterbury possible not just to read the texts, but Cathedral and its environs. In literature also to enlarge to a scale that allows there are manuscripts of Chaucer one to see all the details of the scribes and the only illustrated manuscript of and artists at work. The final digitised Piers Plowman. A thirteenth-century versions are being made available to manuscript given in the eighteenth anyone who wishes to see them, via the century is familiar to historians of Library website. medicine thanks to its graphic pictures of surgical procedures. Other people The biggest challenge is not in the would put at the head of their list the scanning – a relatively straightforward That is a reminder that this is very much eleventh-century copy of Bede’s Historia process in itself. Rather more time a collaborative project. While money ecclesiastica, or the eleventh-century is needed to check that each image from alumni makes this possible, the Gospels, one of the finest of all Anglo- is of a high quality; that the images contribution of the College’s computing Saxon manuscripts, given by Thomas are in the right order; and that each department, as well as others in the Wren Nevile. These are some of the famous manuscript can be searched for who have specialist skills, mean that this books. Many others cry out for further what individual readers might want. is a partnership between College and and deeper study. The digitisation project Some years ago, and long before we alumni. By the end of this year we expect aims to include everything. thought of the present programme, to have finished between 20 and 25 per the whole of M.R.James’s great cent of the collection. For the work to Besides these manuscripts, we have catalogue of the western manuscripts be completed, we will need the help of been taking the opportunity to include was put online. Though now over a further generous alumni. Meanwhile we some other books, among them Milton’s century old, it is still an excellent route have an experienced and enthusiastic autograph manuscript of his poems into the collections, and it is being team whom we do not want to lose. (including Comus and Lycidas), and gradually updated as time allows. Now Newton’s own copy of the first edition links are being made from James’s If you would like to support the Wren of his Principia (1687) annotated in descriptions to the scans. Digitisation, please contact the Alumni preparation for the second edition. Relations & Development Office So far, well over two hundred on: 01223 761527. A list of digitised manuscripts have been added to the manuscripts can be found here: website. The reaction from people all http://sites.trin.cam.ac.uk/james/ over the world has been overwhelmingly browse.php?show=virtual_listing encouraging, many readers comparing the Trinity website favourably with those Professor David McKitterick (e1986) of other libraries. This is a fast-moving is Librarian and technology in many ways, and so each currently Vice-Master library that ventures into such projects of the College. has an advantage over its predecessors, as libraries learn from each other. 4 The Fountain | Autumn 2014 | Issue 19

Spying on Your Friends: By Daniel Larsen (e2013) Breaking American Codes in the First World War

Recent revelations that the American MI1(b) began the war working to break National Security Agency (NSA), German army radio codes. In 1915, as assisted by the British Government the Western front bogged down to a Communications Headquarters stalemate, the German military rapidly (GCHQ), have targeted Germany and replaced its radio communications other friendly countries – including, with telegraph lines, which the British most memorably, the NSA’s intercepting could not intercept. The codebreaking Angela Merkel’s telephone calls – have group suddenly found itself with little caused widespread public interest to do. They turned to trying to break and, in some quarters, consternation. neutral diplomatic codes, beginning Yet throughout modern history, with those of the United States. The countries have sought to intercept Americans did little to make it difficult the communications not only of their for them: the U.S. Department of State adversaries but also of their friends. used the same codebook, unchanged, from 1910 to 1918. They made it even The most famous codebreaking easier by arranging the codebook organization in British history is that of alphabetically. It took the inexperienced GCHQ’s predecessor at Bletchley Park, group some time, but by the end of 1915, whose breaking of German codes in MI1(b) succeeded in reconstructing it. the Second World War helped shorten The British then had unlimited access the conflict and saved countless lives. to virtually all American diplomatic But GCHQ’s history stretches back telegrams that crossed the Atlantic. to the founding in 1914 of two code- breaking organizations: a naval group One might imagine that breaking these the Americans’ peace efforts as a named Room 40, and a lesser known codes gave the British a significant potential way of extricating them from army organization called MI1(b). The advantage over their neutral American an unwinnable war, and they recognized British were a bit late to the game. Other cousins – even, perhaps, the ability to and feared the United States’ countries – France, Russia, Austria- help manipulate them into joining the considerable economic and financial Hungary, among others – already war. In reality, at least between 1915 and power. As the British dug themselves possessed longstanding diplomatic 1917, the British probably would have deep into debt, American loans became codebreaking units. been better off if MI1(b) had left the State paramount for the continuation of the Department’s codes entirely alone. war. The Allies, they believed, had to do Room 40 focused initially on breaking what they could to keep the Americans German naval codes, but eventually The British government under Prime content; otherwise, the war would go it expanded its efforts mainly to Minister H. H. Asquith was bitterly from quagmire to disaster. enemy diplomatic codes. Most divided about the role of the United famously, it successfully deciphered States in the Allied war effort. One And so these diplomatic decrypts the Zimmermann Telegram a couple faction saw the Americans largely as provided the British with ammunition for of months before the United States impotent and unwelcome interlopers. their own infighting, rather than helping entered the war on the Allied side in Their efforts at mediating a compromise improve their policy towards the United early 1917. Germany had offered three peace were regarded as dangerous, States. MI1(b) gave the War Office and, U.S. states to Mexico in exchange for an their objections to aspects of the often, the Admiralty the ability to keep alliance, and the exposure of the plot to British blockade as damaging a vital a close watch not only on the American a grateful American government caused tool in winning the war. The meddling Embassy but also on the Foreign Office. a sensation in the American press. Americans, they believed, mostly If telegraphed to Washington, every deserved only a brusque rebuff. conversation between the Foreign Whereas Room 40 concentrated Office and the American Embassy was largely on enemy codes, MI1(b) took on But another faction had come to doubt immediately subject to military scrutiny. those of allied and neutral countries, whether the British could win the war Also, because the still-neutral Americans including the United States. Initially, without American support. They viewed maintained relations with Germany, 5

Below centre: GCHQ Headquarters, Cheltenham.

he had been reading his instructions meagre resources, but diplomatic from Washington. The ambassador codebreaking of friends and adversaries wrongly assumed that the telegram had alike went on without interruption been leaked in Washington, not that throughout the interwar period and into the British were breaking his codes. the Second World War. Moreover, he was so pro-British that he magnanimously decided not to A transformational Anglo-American report the information to his superiors. moment arrived in 1942, after the Still, it was a close call. Though the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that Zimmermann Telegram episode helped drew the United States into the war. to heal some of the damage, mutual Prime Minister Winston Churchill took suspicion tended to dominate: ‘England an exceedingly bold step: he halted and France’, American President British breaking of American codes Woodrow Wilson wrote in July 1917, ‘have and delicately informed U.S. President not the same views with regard to peace Franklin Roosevelt about previous that we have by any means.’ British codebreaking activities against the Americans. He urged Roosevelt to The entry of the United States into the improve the security of his country’s war on the Allied side did nothing to codes. This extraordinary step of halt the breaking of American codes. cooperation was institutionalised with MI1(b) made steady progress with the the 1946 UKUSA intelligence agreement: diplomatic codes of other countries as the British, Americans, Canadians, well, beginning with the codes of other Australians and New Zealanders formed neutrals but proceeding eventually to the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance. The decrypts of telegrams provided ample opportunity for misunderstanding. allies. By 1918, MI1(b) had reconstructed five partners agreed to work together By the end of 1916, decrypt-fuelled diplomatic codebooks from all Britain’s and not to target the communications of paranoia led a number of leaders, most important allies (though none one another’s governments. including the new Prime Minister, David from within the British Empire) and Lloyd George, erroneously to become those of a whole host of neutral nations. To this day, the Five Eyes arrangement convinced that the Americans were co- probably remains the only formal operating secretly with Germany behind Did the United States ever return limitation on which countries’ official Britain’s back. the favour and target British codes? communications may be targeted Probably not. The Americans only by either the British or American joined the codebreaking game after governments. Of course, the propriety Room 40 focused they entered the war in 1917, and they of Britain – and of many other initially on breaking had a lot of catching up to do. Very countries – continuing to target the possibly efforts were made in the 1920s, communications of friendly nations is German naval codes, but but the American Black Chamber, as open to debate. But one thing is for sure: eventually it expanded its it was called, had a number of more doing so is not new. pressing targets and exceptionally efforts mainly to enemy limited resources. It was shut down diplomatic codes. in 1929 by the new Secretary of State Henry Stimson, with the admonition Daniel Larsen (e2013) Relations with the United States that “gentlemen do not read each is a Junior Research Fellow at Trinity. sometimes became a casualty of these other’s mail”. He read History intelligence-fuelled internal battles. and Spanish at the Perhaps the most dangerous and After the war, Room 40 and MI1(b) University of Nebraska irresponsible moment came in early merged, forming the Government Code before completing his Ph.D. in History and Cipher School (GC&CS). Postwar 1917: Lloyd George actually confessed at the University to the American Ambassador that cuts left the organization with relatively of Cambridge. 6 The Fountain | Autumn 2014 | Issue 19

A Little History of Magpie By Harriet Cartledge (2011) and Stump

The Magpie and Stump is one of the oldest societies in Cambridge, and over the years it has acquired a small body of myth and legend.

It all began in 1866, when the Magpie Many of Magpie’s alumni have gone of Magpie and Stump caused a small and Stump was founded in F2 Great on to high achievements within their explosion in Great Court, shattering Court, the room of its first president, fields. Past members include Prime one of the windows in Hall. Those J. C. Colvill, with 13 members Minister Stanley Baldwin, Austen responsible have remained unnamed, (including the son of Charles Darwin). Chamberlain, Bertrand Russell, F. W. largely because (it is suspected) they In its first embodiment, it appears Maitland, Ralph Vaughan-Williams were also members of the Fellowship. to have been a debating society in and King George VI, amongst over the loosest sense of ‘debating’; its 2000 others. In 1936, ‘His Satanic Traditionally, Magpie has occupied the members could meet up and share Majesty Himself’ was elected to Old Combination Room. The resident their broadly similar views, drink coffee honorary membership, with only portrait of seems to have and port, take snuff and eat biscuits. In one vote against. As far as I am pleased the society greatly, and his the 1890s, the society seems to have aware, this decision has never been law of gravity was frequently formally taken on its characteristic humorous repealed. Even those who whilst at repealed and replaced with a ‘law of bent. In 2009, Magpiety (= President) the society do not necessarily seem levity’. Between 2003 and 2007, the Jack Lewars moved the society destined for greatness, tend to do various Magpieties appear to have away from ‘light-hearted debate’ and well for themselves in the end. For existed in varying states of perpetual explicitly towards stand-up comedy. example, the Magpiety of 1937, P.D. inebriation, culminating in alcohol being Coates, a ‘bloody, bawdy villain’, who banned from the audience and the The reason for the name has been left ‘memories of a reign of terror, society being kicked out of its ancestral lost, but it may be linked with the accompanied by the shrieks of crushed home and moved to the Winstanley Magpie and Stump pub in (a and bleeding victims’, later became a Lecture Theatre. more unlikely contender is a Magpie distinguished consul in the Chinese and Stump Mexican restaurant in Service. Curiously, their involvement Magpie has always been a home for Alberta, Canada). The pub has been with the society has tended to drop off those with a somewhat over-inflated active since 1550 and, being opposite the CVs of most of these alumni. sense of self-importance; after all, a Newgate Prison, used to give men society that is mostly made up of those their last drink as they went on their Higher members of the College have who are ‘willing to cast their dignity way to the gallows. The name may been involved in the society as well aside for the warm (often lukewarm) alternatively be taken directly from the as students. The Deans of College applause of their peers’ must society’s patron, a taxidermied magpie and Chapel have made frequent encourage people somehow. Despite on a stump referred to as His Majesty appearances in debates over the being a comparatively small college the Bird. Our current magpie dates years. Indeed, the Head Porter has society, it has boisterously proclaimed to 1900 (with his crown attached in been known to perform, usually to itself as an alternative to the ‘crooks 2013), after his predecessor, presented bring ‘Private Business to a decisive who operate behind the Round in 1899, unfortunately rotted owing to close, speaking concisely and keeping Church’; similarly, it has maintained improper preservation. severely to the point’. In 1921, members a healthy amount of disdain for the 7

Below: Magpie Committee 1910. Back: R.W.M. Arbuthnot, R.D. Ross, F.R. Salter, O.B. Wordsworth. Middle: C.G. Darwin, D. H. Robertson, E.J.M. Penrose, G.G. Morris, A.C. Turner. Front: M.G. Browne, W.J.P. Ellis. Below bottom: The current magpie dating back to 1900.

‘myrmidons of darkness’ themselves, the Pitt Club.

As was noted by the society in 1958, ‘as goes the Magpie and Stump, so goes the nation’. Unfortunately for the nation, Magpie has had a rather patchy track record. It has often been struck by bouts of inattendance; in 1928, membership seems to have dropped so low that the Magpiety was reduced to writing a ten-stanza poem beseeching people to come along. The most recent gap in the records is from the 1990s, during which time there was a substantial decline in membership. At the 1989 Christmas party, 40 guests were present. There is a lacuna in the records between 1991 and 1996, and when the society fires up again, it is with only ten members.

Many of Magpie’s operated as a home for ‘spontaneous alumni have gone on to horseplay’ and hobnobbing, open to high achievements those for whom university was merely an extension of public school. In within their fields. Past 1936, the Master (a Magpie alumnus) members include Prime confidently proclaimed, ‘in the truest and best sense of the word, God was Minister Stanley Baldwin, a Trinity man’. This kind of confidence Austen Chamberlain, in their own importance – the kind of confidence that allowed the Magpie Bertrand Russell, to send representatives to the House F. W. Maitland, Ralph of Commons – was a vital part of the society, but after the war its potency Vaughan-Williams and began to fade. King George VI, amongst The society, however, is far from dead; over 2000 others. only its original, exclusive and somewhat elitist form is extinct. In the past year, Magpie and Stump reached its the Magpie has had performances from Harriet Cartledge 2011 is studying for the pinnacle between 1892 and the Second thirty different stand-ups and expanded Advanced Diploma in World War, and since then it has beyond the College to the ADC. Just as it Economics at Trinity, maintained an impressively consistent was before, the society remains ‘a never- after completing her BA ‘downward’ trajectory (depending failing remedy for Tripos fever’, a place to in Classics. She was the Magpiety of the Magpie on your definition of downward). test your wit or to be entertained. More and Stump between During its golden years, the society importantly, it is open to all. 2013 and 2014. 8 The Fountain | Autumn 2014 | Issue 19

Telethon Report

This year’s Annual Fund Telephone Campaign once again resulted in a wonderful return. You may have been one of the 700 or so members who spoke to our team of student callers.

The dedication of the call team over average gift from this year’s Telethon the Annual Fund at some level and join the two-week period resulted in a was £526. The Annual Fund is a vital other members in contributing to, and fantastic return of just over £255,000 way of raising much-needed funds, celebrating, the College’s future. in gifts and pledges. Indeed, 66% of and your support is incredibly you who gave for the first time did so important: it makes a palpable over the phone, so we trust you enjoyed difference to the College and to the The dedication of the speaking with the current students. lives of current students. call team over the two- From the stories they were relaying to us and one another, they certainly found We look forward to bringing you week period resulted in it rewarding to hear about your time our new-look Annual Report at the a fantastic return of just at Trinity. end of October, which will provide a comprehensive update of how your over £255,000 in gifts The warmth and generosity of our gifts supported Trinity students and and pledges. Indeed, members is demonstrated not only Fellows. 9% of Trinity alumni supported by your willingness to converse, often the College this year, compared with 66% of you who gave for at length, with our student callers, but the overall collegiate average of 12% the first time did so over also by your readiness to support the and the top college with 23%. We hope College. As a testament to this, the more alumni will be inspired to support the phone … 9

Caller Perspectives

“The telephone campaign has been a fantastic opportunity for me to connect with alumni and hear their tales from their time at Trinity. I had so many fascinating conversations with people who have  gone on to do all sorts of things with their lives. I was very grateful for the good wishes that many alumni gave me.” The Great Court Circle Rose Lander (2013, Modern Languages) The College is extremely grateful to those who have remembered Trinity in their Will. Those who leave a legacy to the College join the great philanthropic tradition “I called up one alumnus who I had a really interesting  that exists here at Trinity, and make a talk with and it turned out he used to live in my current real difference to the lives of current and room. He was in Cambridge on the weekend after I future generations of students. called him and popped round to my room! It was nice to Membership of the Great Court Circle meet him in real life”. honours those who have decided to remember the College in their Will Cameron Ford and provides an opportunity for us to (2012, Mathematics) maintain contact with, and say thank you to, our members for their intended gift to the College. An annual luncheon “It’s really great being able to talk to former members of is held in College in the summer, with a choice of afternoon activities. Trinity and hear about their life-experiences. I’ve really appreciated the advice that they’ve given about careers Members of the Great Court Circle are and I’m sure it will come in handy in the future.” included in our annual list of donors, which is published in the Annual Report Seema Syeda every October. (2012, History) If you have already made arrangements to leave a legacy to Trinity and would like to join the Great Court Circle and receive an invitation to next year’s luncheon, please contact the Alumni Relations Next year … & Development Office. If you are considering remembering Trinity in your If you would like to be part of our Telephone Campaign in 2015 or Will and would like further information have any questions at all about the Annual Fund, please do not about leaving a legacy, please contact hesitate to contact the Office. The Alumni Relations & Development Office Tel: +44 (0)1223 761527 or Alumni Relations & Email: [email protected] Development Office Trinity College For your convenience, we have created a section of the new website Cambridge CB2 1TQ devoted to the Annual Fund – and why Trinity needs one – which you [email protected] can visit at: http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/giving-trinity-0 +44 (0)1223 761527 10 The Fountain | Autumn 2014 | Issue 19

Dylan Thomas & I By Dr Andrew Sinclair (1955)

There was one voice, who sang like the waking dawn to us in the early years of the ’fifties. As the owls which were bearing the farm away, the words of Dylan Thomas carried our hopes and our dreams somewhere beyond sense and halfway to heaven.

There was really not much imagination in those post-war doldrums, and his wild words, so carefully wrought in the nightingales of verse, were our bards and minstrels. He was a funny curly fellow, too, with his tales of Welsh innocents in the bad pubs of the city and a regret for the lost wonder of the hills, the spinneys and the fields.

When I made the film of with Richard Burton, he said that the greatest play for voices ever written was all about “religion, sex and death … a comic masterpiece”. Burton also told me that Dylan had insisted on reciting to him the finest poem in the English language. It ran:

I AM/ THOU ART/ HE, SHE, IT IS/ WE ARE/ YOU ARE/ THEY ARE

Dylan was the bard of our being. We were allies in what he wrote. When I later tried to catch his complexity in a biography, his wife Caitlin would be kind about my writing: “You have picked the plums and touched the living quick of the Dylan situation with penetrating insight … What baffles me is from whence first did your passion and your understanding come?” I do think there could be profit as well as art husky voice of hers. “Any part.” “Any not know; I only know this. By Dylan’s in the wild warm words of that people’s part you want,” I said; “I’ve been in love own words shall we know him, and poet, Dylan Thomas. with you since I was seventeen”. So she perhaps ourselves, a little more, for played Myfanwy Price, the sweetshop better and worse Later, I was asked how I had collected keeper, in love with the draper Mog together “the Debrett’s of Welsh acting” Edwards, represented by Victor Spinetti. As he wrote in Under Milk Wood, I tried to perform for £200 a week or less in All the actors were under the spell of to begin at the beginning. To go at all, Under Milk Wood – David Jason and that enchanter of woods, whose voice Under Milk Wood had to find a time Ruth Madoc, Vivian Merchant and Sian seemed to sing through all their voices when Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Phillips, and a host of others. I replied in the incessant soundings in every and Peter O’Toole were all available to that they had collected me. I was sitting village there ever was. work and in England. Then the finance in my Soho office, when Glynis Johns had to be conjured in double-quick time knocked at my door. She had heard on The thing is, to know a star before they from the state and a merchant bank, the grapevine that Dylan’s masterpiece become a star. Dylan’s extraordinary both of whom were foolish enough to was to be made. “Would you give me radio play would never have been shot buck the wisdom of Wardour Street and a part?” she asked in that trembling, without O’Toole’s commitment. He had 11

Opposite, below left: Elizabeth Taylor, Peter O’Toole and Richard Burton. Below: Andrew Sinclair on set with Elizabeth Taylor.

work. Dylan originally did not distinguish the living from the dead in his voices. The question was, do you give all the dead green rotting faces and some semblance of being ‘really’ dead and bring them back as spooks? Or do you make them just like the living? You see them and it doesn’t matter whether they are dead or alive. I’m Scotch-Irish and very Celtic in my thinking. I see dead people and there is no problem about it: they just appear and then they go away again. And there are too many instances of the dead turning up to visit – particularly in the Welsh regions – for anyone to worry about it.

Most of my stars in Under Milk Wood are now dead. But they live for ever on the screen, part of an inspired, almost enchanted village life. The film is extremely irrational. It is magical, it is played Captain Cat at RADA, the London reproduce the scene when I made Under like an incantation – you can just see it actors’ academy, and he was committed Milk Wood. I had PC Attila Rees pissing going over and over again, like the cycles for little pay to the part. He claimed then into the chamber-pot of his headgear, of night to day, full moon to full moon, to have met Elizabeth Taylor; this led to while Dylan’s words sounded: “You’ll be dream to sense, the quick to the dead another meeting, while he was playing sorry for that in the morning”. and back again. It is inevitable to wonder with Richard Burton in Becket; they why it all came together this way. Those swapped roles as King and Archbishop. Burton could take himself off. “All who are religious believe it is a great O’Toole said that, after Cleopatra, the Welsh are natural actors,” he advantage to be serving something Elizabeth was stalking Richard, wanting told me; “only the bad ones become greater than yourself – in this case, the a wedding ring. professionals.” He was always conscious dead Dylan and his poetry in the place of the opportunity in his life, of the help he was writing about. All I know with As for Peter O’Toole, among the of others, of the love of women, but certainty is that I was making the film stars I found him the meteor. Witty not of the waste of himself. He was a for one person – who was dead – and and irrepressible, unpredictable and generous man, dying like Dylan of giving his widow came up to me after the first daring, he taught me that life is mostly too much to strangers. To work with, he performance and said, “that is just what coincidence, and that action is all. I was a supreme professional. His drinking Dylan would have liked.” first met him when he was cast by was legendary, but controlled. “I am Tony Richardson to play the lead at the not drinking on your film,” he told me. Royal Court in the musical version of “That means only one bottle of vodka a my first novel, The Breaking of Bumbo. day. I am sober on two. But when I am He came up with Sian Phillips to visit drinking, it is three or more.” He was not me and that satiric owl, , my driven to drink, but used it to escape sharer in a grotty flat over the Coffee from melancholy to sociability. Giving so Pot in Green Street, Cambridge. John much of himself so often, he needed the appeared later in my film of Bumbo with stimulus. His genius lay in a voice that the divine . O’Toole sang seemed to contain all the passion and songs all night in Gaelic, or thereabouts, powers, weariness and weaknesses of Sian in Welsh. When a policeman came our kind. To hear him speak was to listen Dr Andrew Sinclair, FRSL, was an undergraduate up the stairs towards dawn to stop us to the human condition. at Trinity from 1955 to 1959, and became a disturbing the peace, O’Toole persuaded founding Fellow of Churchill College. His Dylan film memoirs have recently been published as him to drink whisky from his helmet Of course, I had to decide at the outset Down Under Milk Wood, and a DVD of the film is and join in the choruses. I would try to that I was dealing with a magical piece of now available. 12 The Fountain | Autumn 2014 | Issue 19

Tennyson at Trinity By Michael Plygawko (2012)

‘I consider Tennyson as promising fair to be the greatest poet of our generation, perhaps of our century’. So wrote Arthur Hallam, penning a letter to his childhood friend, William Gladstone, in 1829.

The son of Henry Hallam, the Tennyson lived initially with his brothers, distinguished historian, Arthur was Frederick and Charles. The three had Tennyson’s closest companion and most already published the misleadingly abiding poetic influence from his time titled Poems by Two Brothers, and at Trinity. Hallam’s rapid, unforeseen both older siblings received prizes for death, less than two years after he left classical translation. Latin and Greek, Cambridge, provoked in Tennyson a however, were not the only important grief which he would spend the rest of languages; university prizes had also his life recalling in verse. Immortalised been established for composition in in the poet’s great elegy In Memoriam, English. One such competition was the the memories of his human touch and Chancellor’s Medal for English Verse, intellect would take over fifteen years open to all Cambridge undergraduates. to write and would propel their author Macaulay, the historian, won the award to the heights of Poet Laureate. Yet twice, and Whewell had taken the important as Hallam was to Tennyson’s medal in 1814. In 1829, when Tennyson maturing voice, their friendship was part joined the ranks of the medal’s of a wide literary circle, one that would winners, the theme announced was contribute much to the cultural debates ‘Timbuctoo’. The inspiration had come of the century. from the French explorer René Caillié, who reported how the African city’s When Tennyson came up to Trinity legendary proportions were largely to prepare submissions with varying on 9th November 1827, the status of a myth. Despite a failed attempt the levels of seriousness. Milnes for one, literature was changing significantly. previous year, Tennyson’s father though, thought his own entry ‘the most The College’s Master, Christopher insisted he compete. It was a request powerful thing I ever wrote’, Tennyson’s Wordsworth, brother of the poet he reluctantly obliged, but only after to be ‘certainly equal to most parts of William Wordsworth, had fought for sending home for a much earlier poem, Milton’, and Hallam’s to be ‘the finest the introduction of a Classical Tripos in ‘Armageddon’, which he converted into thing that has been produced since 1824, while the controversial alumnus his winning entry. the days of Shelley’. By comparing F.D. Maurice, a founding member of themselves so readily to such names, the Cambridge Apostles, was sparking The result was described vividly by their aspirations went far beyond the enthusiasm for the works of Keats, Charles Wordsworth: ‘If such an level of a university competition. Byron and Shelley. The circle of young exercise had been sent up at Oxford, the intellectuals into which Tennyson author would have had a better chance Ten years after Tennyson’s appointment eventually found his way would spend of being rusticated, with the view of as Poet Laureate in 1850, the sizeable hours debating contemporary issues his passing a few months at a Lunatic volume of poems submitted to and reciting poetry. Their interests in Asylum, than of obtaining the prize. It is these competitions had begun to be the Romantics even extended to the certainly a wonderful production; and collected in a series of books entitled newly founded Oxford Union, where in if it had come out with ’s College Rhymes. The poems – which 1829 three of their number debated the name, it would have been thought were contributed by members of the relative merits of Shelley and Byron. as fine as anything he ever wrote.’ An universities of Oxford and Cambridge Tennyson’s tutor, Whewell, also wrote anonymous review in The Athenæum, – continued in full force from 1860 poetry, mostly sonnets and elegiacs. most likely written by Richard Monckton until 1874. Joining Macmillan’s 1859 The mathematician and later Master Milnes, simply ended, ‘How many men collection of English Poems which of Trinity would translate Goethe, have lived for a century who could have obtained the Chancellor’s Gold Schiller and classical verse into English equal this?’ Hallam, Milnes and William Medal, numerous volumes of College hexameter, and is known to have allowed Makepeace Thackeray, author of Rhymes were dedicated to prominent Tennyson to read Virgil under the desk. Vanity Fair, were other contemporaries contemporaries: including ‘Alfred 13

Below opposite: Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Below right: Manuscript page of In Memoriam Tennyson, attributed to James Spedding With thanks to the Master and Fellows of National Portrait Gallery, London (NPG 3940). Trinity College, Cambridge. Below left: Copy of a pen and ink drawing of Arthur Hallam, attributed to James Spedding Tennyson Research Centre, Lincoln (TRC380).

I past beside the reverend walls In which of old I wore the gown; I roved at random thro’ the town, And saw the tumult of the halls;

And heard once more in college fanes The storm their high-built organs make, And thunder-music, rolling, shake The prophet blazon’d on the panes;

...Up that long walk of limes I past To see the rooms in which he dwelt.

Another name was on the door: I linger’d; all within was noise Of songs, and clapping hands, and boys That crash’d the glass and smote the floor;

Where once we held debate, a band Of youthful friends, on mind and art, And labour, and the changing mart, And all the framework of the land... Tennyson, Esquire, Poet Laureate’. With Hallam, Milnes and their wider circle Tennyson as the name of honour, the encouraged Tennyson to compare his From Tennyson’s In Memoriam (1850) young laureate was already approaching writing to the great figures of literary the status of his poetic predecessors – history, just as their names in turn would of Keats, Shelley and Byron. make a lasting mark on the landscape of Victorian verse. Despite the prestigious nature of these competitions, little of the university’s literary life entered its formal education. Michael Plygawko Cambridge during Tennyson’s days as (2012) is a doctoral a student had no English Tripos, and student at Trinity, the battles for the establishment of a where he read for chair in English were only fought eighty an MPhil in English Studies. His AHRC- years later. Yet the prizes, conversations, funded thesis focuses orations and translations all contributed on the poetry of to a strong spirit of poetic endeavour. Alfred Tennyson. 14 The Fountain | Autumn 2014 | Issue 19

Trinity University Challenge By Claire Hall (2011)

University Challenge has had a number of memorable moments – from the energetic buzzer technique of Warwick’s Daisy Christodoulou, to the softly-spoken confidence of Emmanuel College’s Alex Guttenplan, to the impressively comprehensive answers of Gail Trimble of Corpus Christi Oxford (later a Research Fellow of Trinity, e2009).

The students who do best on the show the final rounds were filmed during because, well, because we’d already seem to inspire fervid and sometimes term time. Robin says that there was a done it once, so we could take it less irrational support or dislike in viewers. small party at the studios on the night seriously this time around.’ He stays in of the final, but after that he and his regular contact with Sean, who was in Ralph Morley, captain of the winning team settled straight back into normal the same year doing the same subject. I Trinity team of the 2013/14 series, Cambridge life. Ralph had an exam the ask him if they knew each other before. knows how this feels. At the time of day after the final was filmed. ‘Oh yes,’ he says, ‘we were supervision writing, my own 2014/15-series team’s partners for a while.’ first episode is just about to air, and The filming schedule has changed over it was with some trepidation that I the years. At the start of Paxman’s caught up with Ralph and with Robin tenure, the first-round matches People can be sitting Bhattacharyya, captain of the winning were filmed over the summer and there watching in real team of 1995. broadcasting started in September. By the time the teams went back to the time, and if they admire or ‘Twitter makes all the difference,’ studios in Manchester for the second disapprove of something says Ralph, who received a lot of and further rounds, they had seen a few attention on social media during of the first-round matches on television. you do, they can comment broadcasts of his episodes. ‘People can These days, the filming is done in short instantly. I wonder be sitting there watching in real time, blocks over March and April, meaning and if they admire or disapprove of that for Ralph the final was filmed a full sometimes if they forget something you do, they can comment year before it was shown. Wasn’t that that the contestants are instantly. I wonder sometimes if weird, knowing you’d won for a year they forget that the contestants are without being able to tell anyone? ‘Yes,’ real people. real people.’ he says, ‘but I suppose you sort of forget about it after a while. Not forget as such, Ralph’s team, too, had a mixture of Robin’s experience was somewhat but you know, life moves on.’ people who knew each other and people different. The 1995 series was the who didn’t – Ralph, Richard Freeland, first after a seven-year hiatus, and the Yet Ralph was recognised widely as and Matthew Ridley were all in the switchover of presenters from Bamber soon as the series began – everywhere same year, but none of them had ever Gascoigne to resulted from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence to the met Filip Drnovsek-Zorko, in the year in a new and unfamiliar feel, he says. McDonalds in Cambridge. ‘That was above. ‘It was quite strange at the first While he was recognised around the weirdest one,’ he laughs. ‘A few of practice,’ says Ralph, ‘and I suppose Cambridge for some time after the the team were there, and a bloke in the I felt it was important that we got to final was shown, in an age before social queue came up sheepishly and asked know each other as people as well as media and before University Challenge if he could have a photo with me.’ Robin getting to know what our strengths and had re-established itself as a national says his one and only experience of weaknesses were when it came to institution, the significance of winning signing an autograph came a few days quiz questions.’ seemed, ‘well…it was just a bit of fun, after the final was broadcast. really. We didn’t know what to expect How did they select the teams? Ralph before we went on, or what to make of it What about the other members of says that his was quite a simple process when we did win.’ the team – do they stay in touch? – the producers had sent a question- Robin’s team, Sean Blanchflower, pack to the JCR president, which got Did they celebrate winning? The teams Kwasi Kwarteng, and Erik Gray, met up passed on to him, as he had been seem to have had similar experiences in 2002 for a reunion special. ‘It was selected for the previous year’s team – the producers ask contestants not really nice playing together as a team (who didn’t make it to the televised to divulge their victory in case the again – the same, in that we were all our stages). He ran a couple of rounds of newspapers pick it up. For both of them, usual competitive selves, but different trials – I remember them well, Ralph 15

Below left: The 2014 winning team from Below bottom: The winning team of 1974 was L to R: Matthew Ridley, Filip Drnovsek Zorko, defeated by the Fellows in a special challenge Ralph Morley and Richard Freeland. match. L to R: Professor Jack Gallagher (1937), Below right: The 1995 winning team, from Sir James Lighthill (1941), Sir John Bradfield L to R: Dr Sean Blanchflower, Dr Kwasi Kwarteng, (1942), Tony Weir (1956). Students L to R: Robin Bhattacharyya and Erik Gray. Christopher Vane (1971), host Bamber Gascoigne, Frederick ‘Wynn’ Jolley (1971), Simon Schaffer (1972), and Paul Hopkins (1972); d.2006.

at the front of the JCR reading out question after question as forty or fifty people scribbled frantically on notepads. ‘I did a second-round trial for the top twelve scorers, and from there picked the three others and a reserve. I did all the questions myself just to make sure I was actually scoring highly enough to be on the team. And from there, I suppose I emailed everyone and we got together now and then to do some practice questions.’

Robin explains that it was slightly different for the first Paxman series. The producers again had written to various student unions asking for applications. ‘There seemed to be a lot of discussion on the part of the JCR over how to do the trials right. In the end, they got us to enter in four-person teams, whittled it down to the last few, and then picked the four highest-scoring individuals from a written test. It was all rather last-minute; I’m not sure we even had time as a team to meet and practise before we went for our first round.’

I mention the recent media attention on the lack of women in University divided into rounds provides plenty Both Ralph and Robin still watch the Challenge teams. ‘I wonder if the BBC of material for entertaining evenings show regularly. Do they still have will introduce a quota like they are doing sitting around with a few beers, make- their nameplates? They both seem with panel shows,’ says Robin. Ralph believe buzzers, and some amazingly slightly offended that I need ask. ‘It’s worries that a quota could backfire: in a wrong answers. Knowing each other’s with my college scarf,’ says Robin. show where contestants must have the specialisms helps, says Ralph. ‘Mine’s rolled up in a drawer’ says Ralph, confidence to volunteer answers under ‘alongside the big Trinity College one.’ pressure (and face the ire of Twitter), Robin recounts his team’s most What about the trophy? ‘Oh, we had to it could be problematic if a woman felt memorable match, their semi-final give that back...’ she was on the team just to make up against Aberdeen – ‘It went to a tie-break, numbers. Certainly it is the case that all and we were really nervous about it contestants must become inured to the because we’d seen another team having Claire Hall (2011) is reading for an MPhil to go to a tie-break in the quarter finals. repeated realisation of just how many in Classics and is questions they can’t answer. Paxman started reading the question, part of Trinity’s 2015 and it was something about chess, and University Challenge Teams these days are rather spoiled all I could think was “I hope Sean knows team. Trinity has won University Challenge this”. In the end he did, and we won, but it in comparison with contestants on the three times, the first older series – a past-question book was certainly nerve-racking.’ in 1974. Below: Dr Michael Banner introducing the first Annual Members’ Luncheon: speaker, Professor Andrew Blake (1974). TrinTalk 2014: Great Expectations

This year’s Annual Members’ Luncheon played host to a new format: TrinTalk.

As a celebration of the diversity of our alumni and their achievements, the day featured talks and recorded videos on subjects as varied as a husband-and- wife journey to the North Pole, Surgical Thinking, Building a Global Technology Company, and Sustainable Living.

For once, the weather played its part as the sun shone on Nevile’s Court throughout the day. We were delighted to meet many of you over a fine lunch that was enjoyed by all. The day was fittingly punctuated with a Q&A session where many of the 329 members in attendance pitched questions to the speakers on stage.

Perhaps of greatest satisfaction was to www.youtube.com/channel/UCtAU4_ Stephen Allott (1977), Professor see the diversity of those members in xmIMWiypu2nwn9OVQ/feed), so please Andrew Blake (1974), Sir John attendance, with familiar faces joined by do let us know your thoughts. Likewise, Bradfield (1942), Dan Darley (1994), just as many first-timers. if you did attend, please do let us know Jeremy Geelan (1976), Sir Antony your feedback so we can make next Gormley (1968), Lawrence Lek (2001), If you weren’t able to make it on year’s event an even greater spectacle. Scarlett McNally née Hutchinson the day, videos of each talk are now (1987), Sarah Inge Parker (1984), available to watch on the College’s Special thanks to all who made it, in Julian Peat (2010), and Fiona Jessica very own Youtube channel (https:// particular our wonderful speakers: Wilson (1990).

Forthcoming Events Trinity Online http://alumni.trin.cam.ac.uk November 2014 February 2015 www.facebook.com/ Sunday 9th Saturday 7th TrinityCollegeCambridge Remembrance Sunday Service & TEA Lent Term Meeting Luncheon (College 10:45 – 16:30) (College 11:00 – 16:00) @Trinity1546 www.linkedin.com/groups/ Thursday 13th Saturday 28th  Trinity-College-Cambridge-2633390 TLA Autumn Drinks (McGuireWoods, TLA Dinner (College 17:30 – 23:30) London 18:30 – 21:00) https://www.youtube.com/channel/ UCtAU4_xmIMWiypu2nwn9OVQ/feed Thursday 27th March 2015 TAMA – The Art and Practice of Musical Friday 27th Composition (London 18:30 – 21:30) Global Cambridge: Trinity Dinner If you would prefer to read The Fountain (Berlin, Germany) and/or the Annual Record online, please let December 2014 us know by email: [email protected] Monday 8th Don’t miss out on our regular email Alumni Carol Service (St Sepulchre’s, communications – make sure we have London 19:00 – 21:00) your email address.

Thursday 11th Alumni Relations & Development Office Varsity match Trinity College, Cambridge CB2 1TQ (Twickenham, London 14:00) E: [email protected] T: +44(0)1223 761527