Pembroke College cambridge society annual gazette issue 88 w september 2014 Pembroke College, Cambridge, cb2 1rf Telephone (01223) 338100 Fax (01223) 338163 www.pem.cam.ac.uk © The Master & Fellows of Pembroke College, Cambridge Ted Hughes (1930–1998), poet by Peter Edwards CONTENTS Editor’s Note 4 From the Master 5 A. WRITINGS AND TALKS Sermon – James Gardom 11 Marjorie’s War – Reginald and Charles Fair 14 The Third David Andrews German Lecture – Walter Myer 21 The Rosenthal Art Library – Rosalind P Blakesley 28 Tributes to Howard Erskine-Hill – 24 Richard McCabe and Robert Macfarlane Dame Ivy Compton Burnett Prize for Creative Writing 34 B. COLLEGE NEWS New Fellows 47 Fellows’ News 57 Gifts to the College 59 The Dean’s Report 62 Development Office Report 64 The Valence Mary (1997) Endowment Fund 70 College Clubs and Societies 71 C. THE COLLEGE RECORD The Master and Fellows 2013–2014 97 College Officers 2014–2015 103 Matriculation 2013–2014 104 Annual Examinations, First Class Results 2014 109 College Awards 112 Graduate Scholarships and Awards 118 Higher Degrees Conferred 119 D. THE PEMBROKE COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE SOCIETY Members’ News 125 Annual General Meetings of the Society 128 Dinners and Receptions 129 Local Contacts 135 Rules of the Society 137 Presidents of the Society 139 E. DEATHS AND OBITUARIES List of Deaths 143 Obituaries 146 F. BOOK REVIEWS AV Grimstone, Pembroke Portraits (2013) 179 G. MEMBERS’ CORNER The Frozen North – Baffin Island Expedition 2014 – Rhian Jones 185 4 | pembroke college EDITOR’S NOTE This year’s Gazette celebrates the publication of Bill Grimstone’s fascinating Pembroke Portraits, both with a book review on p 179, and by using some of the portraits featured in Pembroke Portraits to mark the divisions of the different sections of the Gazette. The Frontispiece features a portrait that was acquired too late for inclusion in Pembroke Portraits – Peter Edwards’ splendid study of Ted Hughes, that now graces the Dining Hall. As usual, thanks are owed to my secretary, Frances Kentish, for doing so much work to help produce the Gazette and in particular her work on selecting the excerpts from Marjorie’s War that are reproduced in the first section of the Gazette. I am very grateful to the Fellows and students of the College, and Becky Coombs, Sally Clowes, Pat Aske, Sally March, David Franks and Angela Anderson for all their contributions to this year’s Gazette. Particular thanks are owed to Brian Watchorn and Ian Fleming for their obituaries of Howard Erskine-Hill and Tom Rosenthal, respectively; to Reginald and Charles Fair for giving permission to reproduce extracts from their magnificently researched Marjorie’s War; to Richard McCabe and Robert Macfarlane for allowing us to reproduce their tributes to Howard Erskine-Hill at his memorial service; and to Rhian Jones for rounding out this year’s copy of the Gazette with her account of her expedition crossing Baffin Island to raise money for the Youth Adventure Trust – proof, if proof were needed, that there is no corner in any foreign field that has not been touched in some way by people who have spent time at this remarkable College. Nick McBride Pembroke Portraits can be ordered from the Finance Office, Pembroke College, Cambridge CB2 1RF, or via email ([email protected]). Please send your name and address and method of payment. The cost is £15.00 plus £2.00 p&p in the UK; £5.00 p&p for the rest of Europe; elsewhere p&p £5.00 (surface mail) or £10 (airmail). Payment may be made by cheque in £ sterling payable to ‘Pembroke College’; or by bank transfer to ‘Pembroke College’, Barclays Bank, Sort Code: 20-17-19, Account Number 30712620 (please include a reference to ‘Portraits’). For payment by credit card contact the College by ‘phone on 01223 338126. annual gazette | 5 FROM THE MASTER This year’s introduction to the Gazette leads on from last year’s – and the three things that I highlighted then pleasingly continue to apply, but each one in fact strengthened. We have had another outstanding set of Tripos results with more than a third of our undergraduates taking Firsts. The endowment has grown by another ten million pounds to £70 million, with the Development Office having raised a record £6.79 million in the year to 31 July 2014 (the rest being accounted for by the revaluation of property assets). Finally, there has been continued progress towards development of the Mill Lane site, with the College expecting to secure agreement with the University during 2015 over the area allocated to Pembroke and the timing of its development. This steady upward trend in our ‘key performance indicators’ is of course the result of formidable team and individual efforts by the whole College community – and it is gratifying when those are so clearly rewarded by such positive results. I said last year we should resist the temptation to over-interpret the conclusions to be drawn from a single year’s Tripos results. However, I believe they do point towards good teaching, robust admissions policy and decisions, consistently good performance in the Sciences and the Arts across a range of subjects in all years and striving to meet our access targets without compromising on the College’s top-level academic performance. The Senior Tutor, the Admissions Tutor, the Teaching Committee and Directors of Studies have worked hard to achieve success in each of these areas, but doing it in all of them together is what has made this a vintage year. This year’s development activity has been distinguished by two important donations, both of which play to one of Pembroke’s long-established academic strengths – what used to be called ‘oriental studies’. Bita Daryabari, a California- based philanthropist, has given the College US$2million to sustain Persian Studies, and which will also greatly assist Professor Melville in completing his definitive catalogue of Shahnameh illustrations. The Mohamed Noah Foundation in Malaysia (the family foundation of the Razaks, who have provided the majority of Malaysia’s post-war Prime Ministers) has given Pembroke £2.5 million to endow a Lectureship in Asian Politics in the University, with a Fellowship in Pembroke. The linked appointment, as it is called, breaks new ground in the University as it is the College which receives and holds the money and then guarantees the funds to meet the salary and other costs. The first incumbent will be an expert in Islamic Law and complements appropriately other areas of related scholarship amongst the Fellowship. I would also like to thank the many other generous donors who have given to the College this year, and made it our best fundraising year. I remain reluctant to say too much at this stage about the Mill Lane site development because the University has quite literally kept shifting its ground. However, we are confident that we will get a large slice of it, but now more probably on the south side than the north side. The College is pleased with this prospect, though it may mean diminishing our interest in the Pitt building. This would be disappointing, given the iconic significance of that building for the 6 | pembroke college College, but it would still be a price worth paying if we are able to realise all of our other ambitions for the site. In my remaining year as Master (some members seem to have been under the impression that I was leaving this August) I hope we can go firm on our plans for the site development and how we will finance it. With a hundred plus rooms to be built and other facilities to be acquired or constructed, it will most likely be the largest expansion of the College in Pembroke’s long history – altogether a significant but very exciting challenge, and satisfying to be doing this directly adjacent to the College site not in another part of town. We are already thinking in terms of a linking tunnel under Trumpington Street! I do not usually draw attention to my own lectures in the Gazette (rather those that invited lecturers deliver at the College). However, I am making an exception because a recent lunchtime lecture that I gave at the Royal United Services Institute on 7 July has attracted interest and attention like no other lecture I have given since I retired from The Secret Intelligence Service in 2004. The lecture can be viewed live on the RUSI and College websites. The core of my argument is that it is time for the government to adopt a more proportionate approach to countering the terrorist threat and a more balanced approach to the distribution of its intelligence and security resources across a broader range of threats to national security.Islam is at war with itself and though our own Muslim communities are, and will be, caught up in the war between Sunni and Shia, we are bystanders, no longer the primary targets that we were for Al Qaeda. The strength of the response to this thesis (every major news channel requesting interviews and many other requests besides) suggests to me that my views may well be widely shared, though no-one in authority, or with authority, has so far expressed them. Of course it is always risky to suggest a diminution in our preoccupation with countering terrorism; one determined radicalised individual can make your argument look premature, at best, or simply wrong. However, even if it is too soon for the government to be listening to this advice, and it probably is, it is not too soon to start asking questions about our national stance so that looking beyond the next election the post-9/11 policies and attitudes which have dominated national security thinking (including my own) might be reconsidered.