JOHNIAN NEWS Inside our gardeners’ world n Women on the Tideway for 2015 Boat Race n UK election: the big issues from Johnians
Issue 36 Lent term 2015 Johnian News johnian.joh.cam.ac.uk
2 Lent term 2015
Welcometo the Lent 2015 issue of Johnian News This year will undoubtedly be remembered by all female rowers for the historic moment on Saturday 11 April when the Women’s Boat Race is run on the same course as the men’s for the first time ever. LMBC Chief Cox, Abbi Brown (2011), provides a potted history of College news women’s rowing at Cambridge and an insight into the 4 Catch up on what’s been happening at St John’s inequality that female teams are still facing. How our gardens grow All year round, but especially in spring, the College 6 Head Gardener, Adam Magee, reveals what his gardens bring pleasure to everyone who lives and works team get up to here, as well as the many visitors to St John’s. Head Gardener, Adam Magee, has been tending the grounds for Equal footing more than 25 years and was extremely hard-pressed to 10 Abbi Brown (2011) celebrates women rowing the pick his favourite part of the gardens when interviewed! Tideway at last I hope you enjoy hearing about Adam’s plans for 2015, and that you can perhaps visit the College to see the The big issues Johnians speak out ahead of the forthcoming results sometime soon. 13 UK election Johnian News is your alumni magazine, so please do let Groundbreakers me know what you’d like to read about in future issues. 16 Chris Cockcroft (1961) on his inspirational father, Sir John Cockcroft (1922) Jennifer Baskerville, Editor Students add initiative [email protected] 18 Chris Clark (2013) joins a student organisation improving Tanzanian slums Focus on: Medicine 21 Three Johnian medics explain where their career paths have taken them With your support 24 The incredible life sub-aquatic of Dr Helen Scales (1996) Beaufort Society 6 16 26 Dr Manon Antoniazzi LVO (1983) on Wales and women Forthcoming events 28 As well as details of how to contact us
Produced by: Development Office, St John’s College, Cambridge CB2 1TP Email: [email protected] Tel: 01223 330722 Cover image: College gardener, Rosie, potting up, by jayneodellphotography.co.uk Opposite: stained glass window in Hall Design and artwork: Out of the Bleu www.outofthebleu.co.uk 18 24 Print: Lonsdale Direct Solutions www.lonsdaledirect.co.uk 3 Johnian News johnian.joh.cam.ac.uk College news Top marks for sustainability Photo by Nic Marchant The St John’s Catering team have continued their sterling work in making their policies more sustainable by winning three more awards.
Along with Robinson College, St John’s was given top marks at the University of Cambridge Catering Managers’ Committee Environmental Awards in In January, the Catering team were already working towards this for late 2014, for its sustainable presented with a Two Stars rating next year. purchasing policy and its by the Sustainable Restaurants approach towards sustainable Association (www.thesra.org), Bill Brogan, Catering and Conference food and staff training. The whose President is chef Raymond Manager at St John’s, said, ‘We are College also received a Blanc. Restaurants are graded One, very proud of our Sustainability Policy, bronze Environmental Award Two or Three Stars depending on which is updated every year. We are certificate acknowledging its how they fare across 14 key areas also the first Cambridge college environmental policies on of sustainability. St John’s came to join the Sustainable Restaurant energy consumption and waste close to scoring the highest rating Association, and other colleges have management. of Three Stars and the team are now been encouraged to join.’
Bed and breakfast If you’re planning to Bed and breakfast rooms are available to the general public between July and visit Cambridge this September at a flat rate of £78 per night summer, for business or for a single room and £110 for a twin. All bedrooms have en suite facilities pleasure, why not stay and are located in Third Court and the night in College? North Court.
Visit www.joh.cam.ac.uk/bed-breakfast for more information.
4 Lent term 2015 Library exhibitions 2015 Johnians are always welcome to view the regular exhibitions in the Library Exhibition Area, which is open to visitors from Monday to Research Friday, 9am–5pm. Easter Term 2015 n St John’s College Art and highlights Photography Competition, showcasing current students’ artistic talents.
October–December 2015 (TBC) n ‘Some Earlier CHEMISTRY: Age’: Children’s books in the College Library Research team, including the Master and several College Fellows, find molecular inhibitor that breaks January–March 2016 (TBC) n ‘Remembrance cycle leading to Alzheimer’s disease. with Posteritie’: An exhibition marking the quarter- centenary of the first folio of Ben Jonson’s works.
There are also special events taking place BIOLOGY: throughout the year. For more information, visit World’s first artificial enzymes created using synthetic www.joh.cam.ac.uk/library, or for regular updates, biology, by team including Johnian post-doctoral follow the Library on Twitter @StJohns_Library. researcher. MUSIC: Earliest known piece of polyphonic music discovered Honoured alumni by St John’s PhD student. Congratulations to the following five PHYSICS: College Fellow leads breakthrough study on the Johnians who were included in the coherence of electron spin. New Year Honours List 2015: Professor Graeme Barker Michael Sweeney (1963), (1965), Fellow of the formerly Chairman of the College and Senior Fellow Henley Royal Regatta, was of the McDonald Institute appointed as a CBE for for Archaeological services to rowing. Research, University of Cambridge, was appointed Professor Hugh as a CBE for services to Williamson (1970), archaeology. formerly Regius Professor of Hebrew, University of Professor Sharon Peacock Oxford, was appointed (2013), Fellow and as an OBE for services to Professor of Clinical scholarship and theology. Microbiology in the Department of Medicine, John Woolf (1966), Music University of Cambridge, Director at the Royal was appointed as a CBE Shakespeare Company, for services to medical was appointed as an MBE For more information on these stories microbiology. for services to music in and other College news, visit the theatre. www.joh.cam.ac.uk/news
Photo by iStockphoto.com 5 Johnian News johnian.joh.cam.ac.uk How our grow…
6 Lent term 2015
Spring is most gardeners’ favourite season of the year, albeit the busiest too. St John’s Head Gardener, Adam Magee, spares some of his precious time to tell us about the work of his gardening team over 22 beautiful and varied acres of College grounds.
How many gardeners work river and are based in the Fellows’ at St John’s? Garden. We’ve got seven currently. One of My daughter, us works three days a week, but Rosie, Paul and Peter are the newest Rosie, works everyone else is here full-time, gardeners we’ve got. Myself, Mick, throughout the year. Steve and Shaun go back over the greenhouse 25 years! I mainly work on the areas of the area, where we College east of the river and my Does your work change from office is in one of the outbuildings year to year? grow all our of the Master’s Lodge. I have two Compared to my youth, seasons have bedding plants. other gardeners working from there, become more interchangeable now. one of whom is the Propagator, who It isn’t quite as easy to predict and is actually my daughter, Rosie. She you have to be more flexible, but works the greenhouse area, where you still generally follow the same we grow all our bedding plants for patterns. Some of the things we get spring/summer and autumn/winter up to in late winter and spring are from seed. My deputy, Mick Ranford, tree pruning and lifting; supplying oversees the rest of the team who wood for the Master’s Lodge; s work on the areas to the west of the repairing lawn edges; and applying Photos by jayneodellphotography.co.uk by Photos
7 Photograph by Xxxxxx Xxxxxxxx
as easy to predict. easy as now. It isn’t quite interchangeable more become have Seasons the Scholars’ andFellows’ Gardens the courts, theMaster’s Lodge Garden, truckloads. And thatdoesn’tinclude week, whichequates to 10or12 grass thatiscutandcollected every we have two andahalfacresof £12,000 per year. OnthePaddock and taken away, andthatcost almost Our green waste usedto beskipped must save money? Producing your own compost and plantnew ones. divide herbaceous borderplants, into springwe’re to lift and starting pruning rosesandshrubs. As we get replacement shrubsandtrees, and we move onto plantingnew and than gettingridof everything. Then some of ourown compost, rather herbaceous borders. We produce top dressingsandmulchto the Johnian News johnian.joh.cam.ac.uk 8 s
gardens? What istheethosof the basic, into lawnedcourt somewhere example of wherewe have turneda the gardens. Court isagood North we wantto encourage people to use because that’s of itshistory, part but change theway thatislaidout Brown. Sowe wouldn’t wantto designed, we believe, by Capability area/Fellows’ Gardenthatwas instance we’ve gotthe Wilderness but alsobeingawareof history. For sure we complement thebuildings, It’s arangeof things. It’s making or storing to create acompost. money onskipsby eithermulching Christmas. Sowe’ve triedto save and we’re collecting leaves upuntil cutting seasonslows, autumnbegins Court.or Merton Then asthegrass
keen to see how itlooks. hopefully everybody willbereally a year ortwo to maturebut itself to that. The plantswilltake side. We feel thebuildinglends design thatismirroredoneach afresh. We’re tryingto create a plants, sowe’re plantingthatup ordered alotof new herbaceous up withaplantingdesignandhave the jobof managingit. We’ve come front of New Court, given him soI’ve the mainherbaceous borderatthe has taken areally biginterest in One of ournew gardeners, Paul, you have for 2015? What new plantingplansdo everyone to enjoy. maintaining anenvironmentfor study. It’s allaboutcreatingand where people cansit, meet and
One of our new gardeners, Paul, has taken a big interest in the main herbaceous border in front of New Court ... so we’re planting that up afresh.
What other projects are on We grow bedding for the beds in foxcubs playing on the lawn in the the horizon? Chapel Court and near the Kitchen Fellows’ Garden. The Scholars’ and Fellows’ Gardens Bridge; pots and planters in North contain many old shrubs that need Court; and anywhere where gaps The Backs Committee is formed of replacing. What we’ll do is give them need filling up. We’ve just started all the colleges that join onto the all a pretty thorough prune and trying to grow some other plants as Backs, and there’s been a discussion see which ones respond well and well and we’re hoping to install a about having a wildlife corridor that which don’t! little area where we can put in some runs along the Backs. There have hardwood cuttings, so that we can been suggestions about planting How do you manage the many go to other colleges and maybe and certain areas that need to be College lawns? swap plants. slightly redeveloped, so you might At the moment we’re moss-killing, notice some small changes along scarifying, spiking, then feeding the How does wildlife fit into Queen’s Road. lawns. The big mistake a lot of people your plans? make is that they mow too short, too Going back 25 years we actually Finally, what’s your favourite quickly, too early. You have to let the used to cylinder-cut areas like the area of the gardens? grass get into its stride, especially if Spinney [between Cripps and the Crikey, that’s so difficult! In a you do have a bit of a kick in the tail Scholars’ Garden], which we now way it’s seasonal. I do love the with the weather. leave wild and have done for the Master’s Garden, but I also love last 12 to 15 years. All the areas the Wilderness in spring. That first How many plants are grown west of the river attract a lot spring bloom of aconites; then you on site? of wildlife and the gardeners have this great flush of snowdrops, Not as many as we’d like. Stage-by- regularly see sparrowhawks, green primroses, anemones, the daffs, stage, as the Propagator becomes woodpeckers, owls and kingfishers. and even the cow parsley, which is more experienced and as we improve The Wilderness area is a great beautiful, white and fluffy. So you our greenhouse, that situation will haven, with martagon lilies and get that show right through into change. wildflowers. We’ve even had the early part of June. n
Photos by jayneodellphotography.co.uk 9 Johnian News johnian.joh.cam.ac.uk
FOOTING
This year, for the first time ever, the Newton Women’s Boat ‘I personally do not approve Race will take place on the same day and on the same of women rowing at all,’ wrote the captain of Selwyn Boat course as the Men’s BNY Mellon Boat Race. Current MPhil Club in 1962, in response student in English Studies and Lady Margaret Boat Club’s to Cambridge University Women’s Boat Club’s (CUWBC) Chief Cox, Abbi Brown (2011), provides the background request for permission to to this landmark moment. row in the Bumps. ‘It is a ghastly sight, an anatomical impossibility (if you are rowing properly that is) and physiologically dangerous.’ Fortunately, times have changed, captains have been succeeded and physiological s dangers disproven.
Photo by Christopher Down Christopher by Photo The CUWBC team training in Banyoles, Spain in January.
10 s The LMBC women’s club before the Mays Dinner 2014, with Fiona Macklin fourth from left, Sophia Crüwell fifth from right and Abbi Brown far right.
s Newnham taking part in the first-ever Women’s Boat Race in 1927.
The first recorded outing of female Today, CUWBC is a world away from experience of winning the Women’s students rowing on the River Cam its humble beginnings (a wonderful Boat Race, former Blues rower Anna was in 1879, when only Girton and video of the 1965 Women’s Boat Railton writes, ‘The sparsity of funding Newnham accepted women, and Race, demonstrating exactly how for CUWBC never bothers me too when students of these colleges humble those beginnings were, much. We have shown we can be still required chaperones. Girton can be found on YouTube). The competitive nationally with what we being such a distance from the river, club trains three boats each year: have. You see what you’ve got to work chaperonage to rowing outings was the Blues boat; the Blondie boat, with and you just get on with it. What difficult to arrange; it is unsurprising, Cambridge women’s reserve crew; did rankle though was how much therefore, that it should be and the Lightweight boat, which easier (and cheaper) life would be if Newnham students who undertook comprises rowers weighing not I was born a bloke...’ Not only is the these first outings. more than 59kg each. Regardless of CUBC boathouse at Ely far superior their boat, rowers train for around to the CUWBC equivalent, Railton also For many years Newnham 25 hours a week; on race weekends points out that whereas CUBC had continued to be the driving force or during training camps training the majority of their transport, kit and behind women’s rowing and can take even longer. This schedule training camps funded by business they established the ‘Newnham seems particularly gruelling given services company Xchanging, their College Rowing Society’ in the late that the year begins with a squad female counterparts were left to nineteenth century. In 1927 a crew of many more rowers than will be pay their own way. from Newnham took on Oxford in needed for the ultimate goal: the the very first Women’s Boat Race; Boat Race. As the year progresses, So, what’s changing? Thanks to a although it was not a race as such – rowers are gradually divided huge team effort by a number of the crews rowed separately and were into crews, or dropped from the individuals, including Annamarie marked on time and style. The event programme entirely. Phelps (1984), and companies, and took place on the River Isis over a as part of a sponsorship deal between distance of 1,000 yards, and was Competition is fierce and training Newton and their parent company spectated, according to The Times, rigorous yet, until recently, the BNY Mellon, CUBC and CUWBC will by ‘large and hostile crowds CUWBC programme was run entirely now have equal funding, and both gathered on the towpath.’ In 1941, by volunteer coaches, and was reliant Blues boat races will take place on Girton students finally joined upon resources and equipment the same course and on the same Newnham on the river. Thus, CUWBC borrowed from generous college day, broadcast live on national was born. Despite Lady Margaret boat clubs. Whilst this support has television. As CEO of British Rowing Boat Club (LMBC) being the oldest always been hugely appreciated, the Neil Chugani wrote in the January club on the river, founded in October lack of funding often left gaps that issue of Rowing and Regatta magazine, 1825 as the ‘Johnian Boat Club’, it rowers themselves were required ‘One of the most visible and high- was not until 1983 that an LMBC to fill. As Hermione Mackay (2008) profile events in the British sporting women’s first boat appeared on the recalls, ‘Rowing in the Blue Boat in calendar will be one in which women Cam. Since then, the women’s side of my second year was a memorable will compete on an equal footing the club has grown from strength to experience but very demanding, not with men. That’s going to send a very strength, and many of its members, least because our facilities were positive signal – not just to rowing, both current students and alumni, a world away from the men’s.’ but to the wider world of sport in the s have rowed with CUWBC. In a 2012 blog post about her UK and indeed beyond.’
Photos by Newnham College Archives and Paloma Navarro 11 Johnian News johnian.joh.cam.ac.uk …the move to the Tideway has really brought the men’s and women’s squads together. s The Championship Course, as it ‘CUBC and CUWBC have worked much Last May, the Development Squad is known, occupies 4 miles and 374 more closely this year. The support entered an eight into the Beginners yards of the Tideway on the Thames, from so many sources, including Cross event at the BUCS Regatta for the first between Putney and Mortlake. The Country Trains, Newton and KPMG, has time, and Sophia won a well-deserved course is much longer than the also been an incredible help because gold medal with the boat. 2,000-metre stretch over which the it means that athletes can concentrate women have previously raced at on their sporting achievements rather In Michaelmas term, the women’s Henley – a challenge that will require than their finances.’ side of LMBC were privileged to have a wholly different approach in terms more than forty female students of training and attitude from rowers, In 2014, LMBC were proud to see sign up to our Novice programme, coxes and coaches alike. Modern Sophia Crüwell (2013), a Philosophy forming an unprecedented five novice and Medieval Languages student student who began rowing as a boats between them. As funding for, Fiona Macklin (2012) rowed for the novice in her first year, participate in awareness of and participation in Cambridge Lightweights last year, on CUWBC’s Development Squad – an women’s rowing increases, we hope top of her work as women’s captain intense training programme from to see those figures continue to grow. of LMBC. ‘The Championship Course which rowers have the option to go As it stands, the future looks incredibly is a much greater challenge but one on to train with the CUWBC squad. exciting both for the Women’s Boat that is really exciting to approach,’ Race and for the involvement of she said. ‘Working towards the LMBC rowers within CUWBC. n move to the Tideway has really brought the men’s and women’s The CUWBC Blues after winning the Boat Race in squads together. 2012, with Anna Railton second from left.
Photo by Jonathan Fuhrmann
The BNY Mellon Boat Races 2015 will take place on 11 April with the Women’s Blues racing at 4.50pm, Goldie v Isis at 5.20pm and the Men’s Blues at 5.50pm. The Men’s and Women’s Blues races will be shown live on BBC1. The Men’s and Women’s Lightweight races, and the Blondie v Osiris race, will be at Henley on 5 April, and are not televised.
12 The Lent term 2015
issues On Thursday 7 May people across the UK will be heading to their local polling station to vote in the general election. The first coalition government since 1945, the parliamentary expenses scandal and the rise of the UK Independence Party has undoubtedly brought more public attention to political issues. We invited Johnians from all walks of politics to give their views on the changing face of government and what they hope the election will bring.
GENERAL ELECTION 2015
Photo by iStockphoto.com by Photo 13 Johnian News johnian.joh.cam.ac.uk EUROPEAN UNION
Andrew Duff OBE SCIENCE NATIONAL POLICY (1969), Liberal Democrat ECONOMY politician and MEP 1999–2014 Kathryn Wingrove (2013), What one issue do you current Human, Social hope the next government and Political Sciences will address? student and President of Dr Claire Craig CBE The next government has got to the Palmerston Society (1982), Director of the end uncertainty about Britain’s 2014/15 Government Office for place in Europe. The best way Science, and Policy to do this is to articulate and As a student, what do promote in Britain a positive you want from the next Fellow and Associate attitude to building a stronger, government? Fellow at the University more prosperous and democratic I would like them to get on with of Cambridge’s Centre European Union. The worst way governing the country instead of for Science and Policy to settle the matter would be to being preoccupied with elections. leave the EU. I believe they should focus on What scientific issue discrepancies in intergenerational would you like the next wealth and address the imbalance government to address? in shouldering the debt. The young Data and analytics continue are going to be in debt due to to transform our lives. This tuition fees and high property government has a huge amount Professor Lord prices. In comparison, current underway already but the next Hennessy (1966), former retirees receive age specific one will face big issues too, journalist with The Times benefits and retired far earlier as the volume and velocity of than today’s young. The next data grow and software gets and The Economist, and current Attlee Professor government should implement even smarter. There’ll be some policies that do not continue fascinating implications of the of Contemporary British to leave the older generation’s convergence of robotics and History at Queen Mary problems on our shoulders, analytics, such as the Internet University of London especially as we are not the of Things. ones who benefited from past What will the current economic growth. What is the range of topics government be that you advise on? remembered for? How involved do you feel in The Office supports the I suspect it could well be the governing of the UK? Government Chief Scientific avoiding the separation of the I do not feel I have much of a say Adviser, Sir Mark Walport, and his United Kingdom, because it was in UK politics due to the scramble job is to ensure that the Prime very close. Of course, historians to represent the middle ground. Minister and members of Cabinet will argue the degree to which There is no serious party on the have quality science advice and the Prime Minister’s speeches right. Additionally, Ed Miliband to build science advisory systems did keep the kingdom together, shifting to the left means that across government. ‘Science’ because Gordon Brown also Labour cannot win a majority. here means all academic fields made a very effective speech. But Furthermore the party system including engineering, social if just a few tens of thousands of in the UK leaves MPs to toe the science, arts and humanities. people had voted the other way party line rather than work to In practice, we deal with an in Scotland, I wouldn’t have any represent their constituents’ views. amazing range of topics, from hesitation in telling you My MP was elected by less than emergencies such as the Ebola that what it would 52 votes and arguably only won epidemic or UK flooding, through be remembered for due to the redrawing of boundaries. to long-term Foresight projects UNITED is presiding over Individuals feeling that their vote on the future of ageing and of KINGDOM the break-up of the does not count explains the low cities, which look out to 2065. kingdom. turnout at elections.
14 Lent term 2015 NORTHERN YOUNG IRELAND PEOPLE
The Rt Hon Nigel The Rt Hon Lord Whitty Sam Wolfe (2008), Dodds OBE (1977), (1962), General Secretary third-year PhD student, Deputy Leader of the of Labour 1985–94, Labour Party member Democratic Unionist Minister for Transport then and local campaigner Party, MP for Belfast for Agriculture and Energy [Sam stood for election for North, and former Lord 1998-2005 and Chair of Cambridge City Council in Mayor of Belfast Consumer Focus 2006–10 May 2014 in the ward of Newnham, and came second What one issue do you What one issue do you by a narrow margin.] hope the next government hope the next government will address? will address? Do you think more The next Government must Since the financial crisis there young people should get sort out the UK’s relationship has been a historic reduction in involved in politics? with the EU once and for all. the living standards of average Absolutely. Many of the key We simply cannot go on as and low income households. The issues facing governments right we are. For me this means biggest issue is housing. There now will have a very real impact ensuring that our country’s is a crisis across all tenures of on the younger generations. prosperity is enhanced housing and we need a whole Without direct involvement in through improvements in the new and comprehensive housing local and national politics, it is single market and an end to strategy. That includes substantially much harder for young people unnecessary interference by the more new build, increased social to make a clear contribution to EU in areas which are rightly housing, easier mortgages for those very significant debates. the preserve of our national first-time buyers, regulation of However, the issue of young Parliament. People should have the private rented sector and people’s involvement in politics the opportunity to have their protection for leaseholders. It also is too often taken in isolation. say in a referendum. means a switch from the state In terms of race, gender, socio- providing revenue support through economic background and age, How do you split your housing benefits, to capital local and national governments time between Belfast and support for new and improved are in no way representative Westminster? affordable housing. of the communities they serve. The increasing constituency That surely has to change. workload of MPs means a How has UK politics changed constant struggle to balance my within your working lifetime? What one issue do you time. In representing one of the Politics in the 1970s and 80s hope the next government most challenging constituencies was much more raw and passionate, will address? in Northern Ireland I am always with fundamental differences about Post-16 providers, such as sixth very conscious that the people the nature of society, our economy form colleges, get very little of North Belfast come first. and Britain’s place in the world. media attention, yet provide a As the Leader of our It was nevertheless conducted crucial stepping stone between parliamentary party I try to be more politely and politicians were, school and university, further in the Commons as much as generally, held in a degree of training or employment. They, possible. It is important that respect. And there were far more unlike schools, haven’t had Northern Ireland’s voice is heard people involved inside and outside their funding ring-fenced for on the national issues as well of political parties. Nowadays the last five years and urgently as local ones. politics has become more need greater investment from managerial. Despite, or perhaps government. n because of, 24-hour media coverage, politicians and the public do not engage, and political activism is on the decline. The world needs politicians who are more grounded and visionary. And a public who are STANDARD more interested OF LIVING and engaged. 15 Johnian News johnian.joh.cam.ac.uk
My father and I in 1948
GROUNDBREAKERS Christopher Cockcroft (1961) reveals how he was inspired by the life and legacy of his father, groundbreaking British physicist and Nobel Prize winner, Sir John Cockcroft OM KCB FRS (1922).
y earliest recollections of my father are of him encouraging But, additionally, my father had me to learn how to make things, and to take an interest in how found an interest in physics, asking things worked through model railways. It was then that I gained pioneering nuclear physicist Ma healthy respect for electricity – blowing a fuse by wrongly connecting a Ernest Rutherford if he could sit switch. I do not remember being chastised by my father, rather that I was in at the back of his lectures. On expected to have learned from the experience. From then on I vowed to look graduating, he applied to Rutherford harder and understand things before leaping in. I built amplifiers and radios, for a postgraduate position at the and became the house electrician and school projectionist. University’s Cavendish Laboratory and here he found his niche: using his My father never seemed to interfere but he was there, quietly guiding me unique combination of mathematical, down paths that would suit my aptitudes and interests. Hence, after gaining engineering and physics knowledge my A levels, I found myself at Marconi’s in Chelmsford as a pre-university to the benefit of the laboratory. engineering student and subsequently, aged 19, I arrived at St John’s to read This combination, when allied by Mechanical Sciences. At the same age, my father was serving as a signalman Rutherford with the experimental on the Somme and at Ypres during 1916. Because of his experiences, after skills of Ernest Walton, led to World War I he decided to study Electrical Engineering at the Manchester the famous 1932 ‘Atom Splitting’ College of Technology, and was then encouraged to take up a scholarship experiment. to read Mathematics at St John’s. He gained First Class honours, earning the ‘Wrangler’ title. Sadly, I never matched his skills in mathematics, but we did With that behind him, my father share an engineering background. became a Fellow of St John’s and took
16 Lent term 2015
on the post of Junior Bursar. During of anti-aircraft defences around his tenure, he had the forethought, London. He never did return to his despite opposition to the expense, Professorship at Cambridge. He was to have the new cellars of Chapel sent to Canada to take control of the I believe Court and North Court made suitable Anglo-Canadian Atomic Project, and to be used as air-raid shelters, since from thence he was appointed the that he used he could see the omens of war. He first Director of the Atomic Energy continued with low temperature Research Establishment at Harwell his influence physics research at the Cavendish, in Oxfordshire, where he oversaw for the benefit becoming Jacksonian Professor of the development of nuclear fission Physics just before World War II and power, early nuclear fusion research of mankind – gaining an international reputation and nuclear medicine. During his for his work with a growing circle of time there, and as a member of the working behind friends across the world. He was also UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), gaining a reputation for being a man I believe that he used his influence the scenes who got things done. for the benefit of mankind – working for nuclear behind the scenes for nuclear Thus it was that when the Tizard disarmament and understanding. disarmament and Committee was formed at the I was privileged to travel with him beginning of World War II, to bring to Geneva for two Atoms for Peace understanding. scientists into radar work, my father Conferences held under the auspices was one of the first to be called of the United Nations. upon, bringing many ex-Cavendish colleagues with him. One of his first On his retirement in 1959 from tasks was at Bawdsey Manor, then full-time UKAEA duties, he was the centre of radar research and appointed as the first Master of development, to see what could be Churchill College, Cambridge. In that done to adapt equipment to detect role, which he held until his death in shipping for the Navy. He and a team 1967, he continued to use his skills in collected equipment and took it to bringing people together to establish Sullom Voe in the Shetlands. There, a strong College spirit. Not least of in severe winter conditions, they set his achievements was the integration up and tested a working radar that of women into the College. Whilst he was later used as the basis of the was a respecter of tradition, he was ‘Chain Home Low’ radar stations to never ruled by it, encouraging change detect low flying aircraft. whenever it was warranted.
After a time working in Hampshire I learnt a great deal about my father on radar for the Army (during which whilst organising a seminar about period I was born), my father was his life and work last September, sent to join the Tizard Mission to the which St John’s kindly hosted. But the United States. The team were tasked fact that he and my mother welcomed with gaining the help of American people from all walks of life, origins scientists in the development of radar and creeds to their home, coupled and other devices vitally needed with his willingness to listen to and for our war effort. In this they were discuss things with anyone, and to successful – my father’s contacts and help anyone that he could, have had his reputation of being trustworthy a big influence on my life ever since. proving invaluable. Like him, I am not afraid of change and I believe that the human race Wearing my father’s On his return to the UK, my father will only survive if we learn to listen continued with his work on radar to, understand and trust one another coat and hat and managed the creation of rings on a worldwide basis. n
17 Johnian News johnian.joh.cam.ac.uk
STUDENTS Chris Clark (2013) graduated with an MPhil in Development Studies last June and then spent his summer evaluating the impact of a student development project in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Originally from the United States, Chris was at St John’s as a Rotary Global Scholar and received support from the Wilberforce and Clarkson Travel Fund for his trip.
About 70 per cent of Dar es Salaam’s 4.5 million residents live in informal housing settlements where living conditions are often overcrowded, include dirt floors, and lack both plumbing and electricity. This already staggering number is sure to rise in the near future, as the city is one of the world’s fastest growing. The African Development Bank estimates that nearly 15,000 people per month relocate to Dar es Salaam from other parts of Tanzania and surrounding countries.
The Cambridge Development Initiative (CDI) was created as a student-led development consultancy and a registered charity in 2013 by Trinity College graduates Patrick Hoffmann and Kelvin Wong. They chose to focus on Dar es Salaam initially, because it is politically stable, English speaking and CDI has the support of a host organisation already operating there. CDI aims to address some of the most pressing problems faced by those living in the settlements through two main objectives.
First, the organisation aims to improve residents’ ‘multidimensional well-being’ through a holistic approach rather than a project that focuses on only a single dimension of someone’s life. Currently, CDI’s projects span four focus areas: engineering, entrepreneurship, healthcare and education.
The second main objective is to improve the traditional student volunteering model to make it more effective and sustainable. Whereas volunteering projects normally require students to improve infrastructure by painting a school or building a health clinic, CDI volunteers are recruited because they already have some expertise in one of the project areas. They use this expertise to expand the skillsets and capabilities of the target populations through training,
18 Photos by Cambridge Development Initiative Lent term 2015
STUDENTS ADD INITIATIVE
Members of the engineering team on a project An education team planning meeting
mentorship, and the creation of After extensive planning and some ideas that were unveiled at a conference networks and partnerships. readjusting while on the ground, in August attended by several hundred the engineering team worked with people. The team will continue to offer Much of the groundwork for the university students from several guidance remotely to the UDSM students projects was laid in late 2013, engineering schools in Dar es Salaam who were involved, and expect to when members of CDI’s Executive to implement a simplified sewage recruit a new group of students for this Committee toured the settlements, system – a method of connecting summer’s project. gathering information about the new and existing latrines to a nearby challenges faced by locals, and waste treatment plant via plastic The healthcare project partnered with used these experiences to design piping buried in shallow ditches. Muhimbili University School of Nursing the projects, with input from CDI’s Rather than relying on traditional to organise a health entrepreneurship Advisory Board, Trustees and plumbing, the system requires users course, which was attended by medical the volunteers. to empty their excess wastewater students interested in operating their into their latrines to transport the own clinics and experienced healthcare Following CDI’s official launch in waste. The engineering team’s professionals looking to introduce greater January 2014, Executive Committee leadership is currently working creativity to their organisations. The members recruited the cohort of with the sewage authority to health team also met with government Cambridge volunteers who would determine what benchmarks must officials to advocate legislative changes work on each project during the be met to scale up the project to that would enable mid-level healthcare summer trip to Dar es Salaam. other areas of the city. The outcome professionals to prescribe medicine Volunteers began extensive of these meetings will significantly and operate clinics in settlements that training sessions tailored to influence the nature of the project lack healthcare facilities, and where their particular project, including in summer 2015. transportation costs discourage people workshops, seminars and lectures. from seeking medical services. The organisation also completed The entrepreneurship project involved an ambitious but successful crowd- creating an early-stage business More specifically, the team partnered funding campaign during this incubator for University of Dar es with Pyramid Pharma, a Tanzanian time, which, alongside generous Salaam (UDSM) students interested pharmaceutical company, to develop contributions from two Cambridge in launching their own business. a viable and profitable model for a type trusts, allowed the projects to be The team worked with about thirty of health clinic that is staffed by one or s financially viable. students to develop five business two healthcare workers and aims 19 Johnian News johnian.joh.cam.ac.uk s to treat only the most common illnesses, such as colds, diarrhoea and malaria. Depending Focus on: on the outcome of the advocacy efforts, CDI hopes to be ready to help open and operate the clinics during the summer 2015 trip.
Finally, the education team operated an English-language summer school in Manzese Medicine Secondary School, where the average class size hovers around one hundred students and English is poor at best. CDI volunteers also coordinated extracurricular activities, created a new peer-to-peer education model that In the wake of encourages students to teach one another, and coordinated a careers day event, which increased media introduced several hundred students to attention around the professionals working in a variety of fields. A similar project is planned for summer 2015. NHS and the pressure its staff are under, this I first became involved with CDI because I found their model to be unique and I thought issue we’re focusing it served an important purpose: transcending on careers in medicine. the gap between the technical expertise within Three Johnians talk a university like Cambridge and the demand for such expertise in deeply impoverished about their difficult places. I have previous experience of working but rewarding with impact evaluation efforts, so I proposed to CDI’s Executive Committee the idea of journeys in different creating an impact evaluation team to help parts of the health monitor some of the changes brought about by the projects. The evaluation has followed service. a mixed-methods approach to data collection that relied principally on pre- and post-test surveys. This required me and Sophie Hermanns, a recent Girton graduate who assisted me, to work closely with each of CDI’s project teams and their target populations.
Whilst understanding the change brought about by a particular project should inform an organisation’s approach, there are limitations to the types of changes that can be quantified and analysed. In other words, evidence is important, but it’s not everything. It’s also important to consider an organisation’s comparative advantage and resources.
My involvement with CDI has been challenging but worthwhile. It has taught me a lot about how non-profit organisations with a social mission unfold from the outset. My experiences have reaffirmed my desire to work in this field, and I will remember my time in Tanzania fondly. n
Find out more about CDI at www.cambridgedevelopment.org 20 Lent term 2015
Dr Roberta Jordan (2006) – Core Medical Trainee at Hammersmith Hospital, London
As a student, I expected Medicine So why did I continue? I remembered to be more of a lifestyle choice than the advice from Dr Wood, the Clinical a career. Stories of long hours, night Dean at Cambridge. She said that shifts and never-ending bleeps came when everything seems difficult intermingled with tales of extreme and overwhelming you must always life-saving interventions, cutting- return to the individual patient. edge science and a glamorous sense A single person’s experience is at of selflessness and heroism. I arrived the heart of clinical medicine and in Cambridge in 2006, rebranded as we are privileged to share in our ‘Bobby’ by my anatomy supervisor, patients’ lives. ready for human dissection and a weekly round of essay deadlines. I left Canterbury with a Despite finding lifelong friends and determination to explore my incredible traditions, the preclinical interests and develop my clinical years were difficult; we focused on skills. The new goal: to be a Medical basic sciences without application Registrar – the ‘all-knowing’, to real patients. When I finally competent clinician, good in any reached the clinical school – medical crisis in the hospital. I went meeting patients, hearing their on to work in acute medicine, general stories and understanding how to practice and emergency medicine help – I felt re-energised and at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in I still struggle with my work-life excited about my future career. Woolwich. I grew in confidence and balance but I’m determined to get enjoyed the challenge of working in it right. I’m currently undertaking My first year as a doctor in Kent and one of the busiest A&E departments a four-month rotation in intensive Canterbury Hospital was one of the in London. I applied for core medical care medicine and I sing for a choir toughest years of my life. Starting training and was offered a two-year in central London. In the future, on a busy renal ward, I felt a strong training programme with rotations I hope to pursue either renal sense of being on a tightrope. I at Hammersmith and Hillingdon or palliative care medicine. I’m feared making mistakes and worried Hospitals in London. fascinated by complex, systemic about freezing during emergencies. diseases that often present with I exceeded my hours frequently and kidney dysfunction, and I enjoy felt guilty leaving patients at the having long-term continuity with end of the day. Night shifts and long My first my patients. My experiences caring hours were lonely and exhausting. for patients at the end of their lives Sleep became a luxury. I despaired year as a doctor have been the most rewarding. of the unsociable and inflexible was one of the I plan to work in Malawi for a rotas that restricted my social life. year before applying for specialty Burnout became a potential reality toughest years training. The future is exciting and and I found myself thinking of I’m looking forward to the wealth alternative career options. of my life. of experiences to come.
Photos by iStockphoto.com
21 Johnian News johnian.joh.cam.ac.uk
Siobhan Netherwood (1986) – Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Croydon Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service
I had wanted to be a doctor from Still of uncertain direction, I took a limited resources at a wider level the age of around 10. I’m not quite post in general adult psychiatry in than my own practice. sure why, as the profession wasn’t in Chelmsford. The consultant and team my family and at school I was most were incredibly supportive and I found Clinical work is rarely dull. There enthusiastic about the Humanities. myself really enjoying the specialty. are always new stories to hear, new The idea did not go away, however, I applied for a training rotation and skills to develop and new research to and I was delighted to take up my started in Oxford, followed by the keep up with. It can be emotionally place at St John’s to study Medicine. Maudsley psychiatric hospital in South distressing but with experience In my final year, I studied Social and London, where I was privileged to one can learn how to manage this. Political Sciences and took papers be interviewed by the first Professor Helping depressed children get that were unwittingly predictive of Child Psychiatry, Sir Michael back to school, young people with of my future career – Child Rutter. I found all areas of psychiatry psychosis get back to reality, and Development, Deviance and The interesting but became inspired by families to communicate with each Individual in Society. the thoughtful, compassionate and other more effectively are just a few rigorously intellectual approach of of the things I do in collaboration I left Cambridge to go to medical Dr Sebastian Kraemer, who at the time with a multi-disciplinary team. school at The London Hospital in was in charge of specialist training Whitechapel. There, I enjoyed all for child and adolescent psychiatrists I believe child and adolescent of the specialties, making it hard at the Tavistock Clinic – so there psychiatry is suited to people who are for me to make a decision about I went. fascinated by human nature. You need which career I would like to pursue. to be able to tolerate uncertainty After house jobs I did six months in Since completing my training, I have and look at complex situations from A&E, which I believe was the classic practised in an NHS outpatient service many different perspectives, including
Photo by iStockphoto.com by Photo procrastinator’s choice at the time. in Croydon and specialised further in social, biological, psychological and working with adolescents, particularly cultural viewpoints. those on orders with the Criminal Justice System. I have taken further training in systemic family therapy, got married (to another Johnian!) Helping and had my own children. depressed I enjoy several educational children get roles and have recently become Lead Doctor back to school for Safeguarding in my borough. In the future and families to I am planning to dip communicate my toes into medical management, which I have with each other hitherto avoided but have more effectively realised needs to be engaged with if I am to contribute to are just a few developing an excellent service on of the things I do… 22 Lent term 2015
Dr Philip Wood (1978) – GP and Partner at Aldborough Surgery, Norwich
As far back as I can remember I practice and built new premises. knew I wanted to work in medicine. During that time I was on-call around I decided to be a GP after my surgical the clock, until local practices came My elective convinced me not to pursue together to form a co-operative, with predecessor was a surgical career! After clinical each doctor doing weekly shifts as training at Addenbrooke’s I moved well as Saturday morning surgeries. an old-fashioned to Norwich, where I did most of my With the new GP contract, now some family GP in the hospital jobs. My GP training was ten years ago, GP responsibility for spent with a city practice in Norwich, out-of-hours work, together with best and fullest and having decided to stay in the Saturday morning surgeries, became area I found myself assisting and then things of the past (still a matter of understanding succeeding a single-handed GP in a some controversy). Meanwhile our of the term. very rural, very beautiful part of north number of patients has grown from Norfolk, a little inland from Cromer. 1,650 when I joined, to more than 3,000 now. The practice is a two- Some things do not change, and those The contrast between my training doctor partnership, with an assistant are what makes this a worthwhile and this rural practice could not GP also. We teach medical students and rewarding job: the pleasure and have been greater. My predecessor from the University of East Anglia privilege of working in a community was an old-fashioned family GP in and are hoping soon to be a training that still, overwhelmingly, appreciates the best and fullest understanding practice for new GPs. what we do; seeing children born, of the term. He knew all his patients grow up and bring their own children and was available to them, day and Another potential development, in to be seen; working with a super night, seven days a week, except for which we are taking something of team of surgery and community staff; his half-day on Thursday and holidays a lead, is increasing collaboration and above all, never knowing what when he paid a locum to look after between practices. The aim is pathology is going to present itself the practice. There were no attached for practices to maintain their each day. n staff; the doctor saw the patients, community-based identities but wrote the letters and dispensed the share resources (doctors, staff skills, drugs. Surgeries consisted of patients expertise), allowing for new initiatives being seen in turn so long as they and more efficient working, plus arrived before 10 in the mornings and better ability to cope with whatever 4.30 in the afternoons. Consultations successive governments throw at us! were interrupted to answer the phone. The district nurse and midwife Much of what has changed is came in for weekly clinics. Drugs clearly for the good; there are a were left for collection in a table in great many things that GPs, and the the hall, where the money was left NHS in general, do better and more in turn. Patient confidentiality was consistently and efficiently than not perhaps the priority it nowadays before. Other changes, particularly in would be! the wider NHS, are harder to accept: these might include protocol-driven In my first four years I established medicine and an obsession with
Photo by iStockphoto.com by Photo a team of staff, computerised the targets, regulations and inspections.
23 WITH YOUR SUPPORT
The benefits of supporting scholarships at St John’s extend far beyond the walls of the College. Dr Helen Scales (1996) explains how her fully funded PhD uncovered the desperate plight of the humphead wrasse on the other side of the world, and inspired her to become a voice for all marine life. A life sub-aquatic year after graduating from Cambridge, down to make way for cattle ranches, when most of my fellow Johnians were so I gave up eating meat and started settling into well-paid careers, I was on making plans for how I could do my Aan island in Malaysia. I lived in a small, breeze- bit to help. Then I learnt to scuba dive block house overlooking a paddy field, earned and my vision changed from green just enough money to keep me in noodles to blue. and sunscreen, and ran a conservation project that essentially involved counting fishes. I had Once a week, while studying for my landed my dream job working as a marine A levels, I went with a friend to the biologist for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), local swimming pool where we an organisation I had admired since I was an clambered into dive gear and sploshed Helen’s new book, eco-conscious teenager. around the deep end learning to be Spirals in time; the fish. When the time came for my first secret life and curious Growing up at a time when being green was open water dive it was an inauspicious afterlife of seashells, all the rage, I decided to devote myself to the affair – a murky, freezing cold, flooded will be published small matter of saving the rainforests. The Rio gravel pit outside Leicester – but I was in May 2015 by Earth Summit had come and gone, and I was utterly mesmerised by this fish-eye Bloomsbury Sigma. full of angst about the Amazon being chopped view of the world.
24 Lent term 2015
Photos left to right: Helen reading by Ria Mishaal, Helen in Fiji, humphead wrasse by Derek Keats and Helen with seahorse in Studland Bay by Steve Trewhella
females congregated at the same spot on a reef where a lone male flirted and mated with each of them in turn. After hours of watching them underwater, I discovered that the intricate patterns on their faces are unique to each fish, like a fingerprint. I saw that the same females returned to spawn many times and fishers could quite easily wipe out a population by targeting these spawning sites. And sadly, that’s exactly what happened. All the fish I’d identified were later caught and sold to restaurants.
Rather than letting my experiences in Borneo frustrate and dishearten All the things I do are driven by the me, I realised the urgency of ocean problems and the importance of desire to show people the remarkable, telling people about them. And it strange wonders of sea life and how was during this time that I found a new interest: a passion for ultimately the oceans matter to us all. words. It dawned on me that communicating ideas about marine wildlife and the troubled seas is a Since then, I’ve spent as much time I’d been considering this for a while vital part of making change for the as possible underwater and I’ve been and when a friend told me he’d got better. For people to simply know privileged to see many breathtaking a scholarship to St John’s College there are extraordinary animals and wonders of the oceans. I’ve been I realised I could try to do the same. ecosystems out there is the first swimming with whale sharks I applied and was lucky enough to be step; next comes an understanding (I expected them to be big, but awarded a full scholarship; it covered that every one of us can make a not quite that big) and I’ve felt the everything from fees to fieldwork difference through the things we aquatic squeeze of a seahorse’s tail wrapped costs. It meant I could divide my time buy and the things we throw away. sub- around my finger while I measured between Cambridge and Borneo. its vital statistics. Now I tread the path of a freelance The focus of my studies was a coral writer, broadcaster and marine I’ve also witnessed many of the reef fish called the humphead wrasse. biologist, speaking up for marine life problems the oceans face. I’ve felt The enormous males have humps in many ways. I teach Marine Science the terrifying underwater blast of a on their heads and big rubbery lips, at the University’s Institute of fish bomb, thrown in by fishermen which for some inexplicable reason Continuing Education at Madingley desperate to make a living from are a delicacy in China. I studied how Hall. I make documentaries for BBC the tiniest fish left in the sea; and these fish are being plundered to Radio, including The Life Sub-Aquatic working for WWF, I saw coral reefs supply restaurants across Asia and in which I explored humankind’s smothered by sediments pouring off tried to understand if the particular dream of living underwater. And land where forests had been felled: way they have sex might make them I write books about some of the there was my connection between vulnerable to overfishing. most captivating sea creatures, green and blue. first seahorses and most recently On a remote island in the South seashells. All the things I do are It was while I was in Malaysia, China Sea, I studied what was at driven by the desire to show people struggling with local politics and the time one of the few remaining the remarkable, strange wonders shortsighted agendas, that I decided untouched populations of humphead of sea life and how ultimately the to return home to do a PhD. wrasse. Every month, dozens of oceans matter to us all. n
25 For Wales and women The Beaufort Society hen I first visited I wonder what our venerable Foundress Cambridge on an open day Lady Margaret Beaufort would have were delighted to from my sixth form, I was made of a Welshwoman like me. She welcome Dr Manon billetedW here because the Fellowship may have been forgiven for not having included the Celtic Studies specialist, the fondest of feelings for Wales after Antoniazzi LVO (1983) Professor Patrick Sims-Williams. finding herself a pregnant widow in as guest speaker at I remember walking along the Backs Pembroke at the age of 13, but her that day, marvelling at the sheer posthumous endowment of the College their annual lunch in beauty of the buildings in front of me linked it to the Tudors, and the Welsh October 2014. Here is and resolving to do my best to come connections didn’t end there. This is an abridged version here, whatever hard work it took. also the college of John Williams of I subsequently discovered I had been Aberconwy, Bishop of Lincoln and of her speech: looking at Trinity, but fate was at work Keeper of the Great Seal to Charles I, and I eventually realised I couldn’t as well as latter-day Welsh alumni such have done better than St John’s! as George Guest, legendary organist Photo by Ben Minnaar
After all, women were originally admitted to Oxbridge colleges in the hope that they would raise academic standards.
26 Photo by Ben Minnaar
and choirmaster, who taught generations of public schoolboys to pronounce Welsh perfectly for the annual St David’s Day Welsh evensong. Five minutes with...
All of this helped me find a niche Beaufort Society in College and feel at home, even member Anna though I was the first from my school, a Welsh-language comprehensive in a largely single-sex environment. Lindsay (1984) South Wales, to come to Cambridge. It was not to be the last. The glass I tend to think of myself as As most of us found, for all its rich ceiling is still very real and even in a pedigree mongrel: born in heritage, eminent academic traditions recent years, working in the private Belgium, grew up in Italy, half and imposing buildings, St John’s sector trying to encourage diversity English, half Swiss... and that’s has a way of embracing nervous on FTSE boards, I have often been the simplified version. When my newcomers and allowing them to taken aback by the amount of time teachers suggested that I apply grow in confidence. progress takes. to Oxbridge, I hadn’t really been particularly fussed about the I went on to work with many It’s a complicated matter of course idea. But then I walked through institutions that had Welsh links: – there are many factors that St John’s, and that was it. The Welsh Water, Channel Four Wales influence the choices women make, truth is simply that I came, I saw, (S4C), BBC Wales and the Office of but it was useful to find out at an I fell indelibly and irrevocably the Prince of Wales... It will come early age what I’d be up against. in love. It is a love which has as no surprise that I am now Chief As I looked at the sea of smart black never waned. Executive of Visit Wales, making ties around me in my matriculation it my actual job to talk about the photograph, I did wonder whether Since graduating, life has taken principality and extol its virtues I hadn’t read the memo, but some me from Hong Kong, where across the world. You can test me on of those men turned out to be I worked with Jackie Pullinger the facts and figures – two official great and lifelong friends and to help drug addicts, to teaching languages, 641 castles and 871 miles I was certainly taught never to be in Switzerland, to serving as a of coastal path. I toured those castles intimidated and, also, to value as Trustee and then Chair of a tiny one happy long vacation with the they did diversity of all kinds. After registered charity in Cambridge. support of a College travel award – all, women were originally admitted Most recently, my first novel, dramatically less exotic than many of to Oxbridge colleges in the hope Eden Undone, has just been the trips I see contemporary students that they would raise academic published, which I confess I find undertaking, but just as influential standards. Airy notions of social tremendously exciting. from my perspective, given that I’m justice weren’t really the point. I believe in planning ahead for now in charge of running them. all eventualities, so I’ve had a I was very lucky. The funding will since undergraduate days. Would Lady Margaret have raised an climate is different now and It always felt natural to include eyebrow at the thought of St John’s I know that the College has to St John’s. The expenses of a admitting women? I think that as one work a lot harder to support all college this size are vast and of the most influential women of her the students who would benefit ever-evolving, and, assuming that age and the great-grandmother of from coming here, irrespective of I still have a number of decades Elizabeth I, she would not. their background. I think that it to live, I have no way of knowing is a wonderful idea to remember where the greatest need will be Being one of those early female the College in your will and I am at the time of the bequest. So I undergraduates at St John’s was very honoured to play a part in this day hope that St John’s will simply good preparation for life. Women celebrating the contribution that use the money as it sees fit. n were heavily outnumbered and it was the Beaufort Society will make to the first time I’d experienced life in future generations of Johnians. n
27 Forthcoming events All at St John’s College, unless stated otherwise.
MARCH 24 Choir concert, Esplanade Concert Hall, Singapore 25 Singapore dinner, Tanglin Club 26 Johnian Society London Dinner, Oxford and Cambridge Club 28 Hong Kong dinner, Hong Kong Club 30 Choir concert, City Hall, Hong Kong APRIL 21 Senior Bursar’s presentation, London 27 Beaufort Society spring meeting (by invitation only) 29 York drinks reception, The Royal York Hotel 30 Manchester drinks reception, Manchester Art Gallery MAY 6 Oxford drinks reception, The Oxford Retreat 10 Donor Day (by invitation only) 15 MA Table (2008) JUNE 5 Johnian Society Clay Pigeon Shooting, Ian Coley Shooting School, Gloucestershire 11 Evensong for Johnians (featuring St John’s Voices) 16 May Ball 18 Garden Party for Graduands 27 Johnian Dinner (all years up to 1954, and also 1956, 1957 and 1960) 28 Johnian Lunch (all years up to 1954, and also 2002 and 2003) JULY 12 Family Party 17 Larmor Award Dinner (by invitation only) 18 Benefactors’ Dinner (by invitation only) 23-24 Johnian Society Golf Competition, Gog Magog Golf Club SEPTEMBER 5 Johnian Dinner (1995 and 1996) 19 50 Year Dinner (1965) 26-27 Alumni Weekend 26 Johnian Society Day (booking form enclosed) OCTOBER 10 Beaufort Society Day (by invitation only) NOVEMBER 12 Evensong for Johnians TBC Entrepreneurs networking event, London DECEMBER 10 Varsity Match, Twickenham TBC London Christmas drinks Photo by Lottie Ettling Photography
To book online and for more information on our events, visit johnian.joh.cam.ac.uk/events
Development Office, St John’s College Cambridge CB2 1TP 01223 338700 [email protected] johnian.joh.cam.ac.uk
Registered charity number 1137428