Once a Caian... 9-12 Issue 12
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ISSUE 13 MICHAELMAS 2013 GONVILLE & CAIUS COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE Caius remembers Crick Liars, Damned Liars and Economists! Face to Face with Richard III Chemistry’s Loss ...Always a Caian 1 N e i l G From the Master r a n t One of the final duties of my first year as Master of Caius is to welcome you to this, the thirteenth issue of our popular alumni magazine – and it’s a pleasure, as well, because Once a Caian…is one of the things that brings our College community closer together. We, the Fellows, students and staff based in Cambridge, represent less than 10% of that community, because Caians are doing their bit to make the world a wiser, better, Contents D U more humane place right across the globe as well as continuing to support the next A l a n a n i n v W e F r e s h r generation of Caius students. i t i s t y h e t o f L e i c Thanks to the dedication of our Development Office with support from the fellowship e s t e 2 6 r 8 and students, more of our alumni are regular donors than any other Oxbridge college. Last year, donations from Caians and friends of the College amounted to almost 30% of our operating budget, enabling us to admit the best-qualified candidates regardless of parental income and to subsidise every one of our undergraduates to the tune of over £4,500 pa. That, to me, is the Caius family at its finest – generously supporting our successors and maintaining our exceptionally high standards of education and research – and I trust many more Caians will decide to support our College in the years to come. © J a m I m e p s e Fittingly, this issue of the magazine celebrates the life and achievements of one of our H r i o a w l W e l l a most distinguished alumni, Francis Crick (1950) and pays tribute to the extraordinary r M u s e contribution our Director of Development, Dr Anne Lyon (2001) has made and u 12 18 m 34 ( Q continues to make to the College’s finances. 5 9 3 5 ) We also feature some of the varied achievements of Caians, past and present – osteo- archaeologist Dr Jo Appleby (2008) and her amazing encounter with the skeleton of Richard III, the late Sir Simon Milton (1980), Boris Johnson’s Deputy Mayor of London, Caians from as far away as Burma and Kenya, the group of Caians who pioneered the science of Genetics and, perhaps most importantly, the 350 Caians who gave their lives in the two World Wars. We remember their sacrifice with gratitude and the utmost respect. 2 Caius remembers Crick – by Professor John Mollon (1996) The charming bonbonnière often I hope you will find much to interest and entertain you in these pages – and that it 6 Face to Face with Richard III – Dr Jo Appleby (2008) seen on High Table on Feast days 8 Chemistry’s Loss – Dr Anne Lyon (2001) is a nineteenth century imitation will act as a small reminder that we are all indebted and bound together by our of a fifteenth century French nef, common heritage as Caians and can share in and appreciate our successes, from the 12 Good News from Burma – by Dr John Casey (1964) believed to have been designed by E W Pugin (The Younger). laboratory to the river. 14 Liars, Damned Liars and Economists – Dr Victoria Bateman (1998) Given to the College by Sir Clifford Allbutt (1855), Regius 16 The Man Who Ran London – Sir Simon Milton (1980) Professor of Physic. 18 They did not grow old – Diana Summers (1992) 20 The Genesis of Genetics – a forgotten Caian Professor Sir Alan Fersht (1962) 22 Curiouser and Curiouser – Dr Michael Wood (1959) Master 24 Keeping a Culture Alive – Henry Owuor Anyumba (1963) Y by Neil Kirkham a o L i a n 26 From Caius with Love: The Not-so-Secret Agent g 28 Thanks to our Benefactors “Caius made me what I am” – Alan Fersht 34 CaiNotes 36 Building on our Success – The Caius Boathouse Appeal Cover Photos by Antony Barrington Brown, James Howell and Roeland Verhallen 2 Once a Caian... ...Always a Caian 3 Y a o L i a n g Y R a o o e l L a i n a d n g V e r h a l l e n The Master, Professor Sir Alan Fersht (1962), addresses the assembly of Caians and friends of the College who gathered to remember Francis Crick on 25 April 2013. Caius remembers Crick (Left to right) Professor Anthony Edwards (1968), Professor Roger Carpenter (1973), Professor John Mollon (1996), President of Caius, and Professor Eugene Paykel (1985). mong historians of the sixteenth Several weeks before Crick’s formal entry century, the matriculation books of to the College, the Governing Body held its by Professor John Mollon (1996) A Gonville and Caius are justly termly ‘General Meeting’. Business then was celebrated. For they are unique in not so different from now. The Annual Accounts recording rich details of parentage, were examined and accepted. A distinguished schooling and father’s reported Bishop was elected to an Honorary Fellowship. occupation or status. Much of And then it was agreed to offer dining rights to R o e l a our knowledge of the a select group outside the Fellowship, among n d V e secondary education system them Francis Crick. r h a l l of the sixteenth century This system of granting dining rights is an e n comes from those entries in important part of college life in Oxford and heavily abbreviated Latin. Cambridge: it prevents a Fellowship becoming Caius College continued too inbred, and it widens and deepens the to maintain its detailed intellectual life of the College at dinner. matriculation books over the However, the gift of dining rights to Francis centuries, and so in 1950 we Crick, weeks before he was even in statu find a remarkable page that pupillari, was unusual. Michael Prichard (1950), A la n juxtaposes the signatures of two who joined the Fellowship the same year, tells Fe rs ht of our eleven Caian Nobel laureates. me that these privileges were extended during Stonemasons from the firm of Brown & Ralph lay the roundel at the The matriculand was Francis Harry this period to only one other research student heart of the new memorial to Francis Crick (1950). The guilloche pattern Compton Crick, born on the 8th of June 1916. – a man of older years, who was in a position combines a pair of serpents, beloved of Dr Caius, with the double helix And the Master who admitted him was James to make a present of pheasants to the Fellows of DNA, identified in 1953 by Watson and Crick. Chadwick (1919), who had received the Nobel every Christmas, at a time when Britain still A l Prize in Physics in 1935 for his discovery of the enjoyed food rationing. a n F e neutron. If a day comes when the Oxbridge In the case of Francis Crick, the offer of r s h t colleges are even harder pressed than now, this dining rights was based on his existing single page may fetch a good price at auction. experience in research and his known skills as But it isn’t going to happen under the a conversationalist. So the Minutes of that Watched by the Master, Crick’s collaborator, Dr James Watson, cuts the ceremonial ribbon in Caius blue The serpents’ gills Mastership of Alan Fersht. General Meeting in April 1950 are historically and black. Two student trumpeters, Malachy Frame (2011) and Matt Letts of Fitzwilliam College, gave the are a clue to some Francis Crick was being matriculated as a important. They show that Crick was not an first performance of Fanfare and Double Helix, specially composed for the occasion by Professor Robin of the scientific Holloway (1967). arcana hidden graduate student; he was a married man of 33; unrecognised figure at this stage in his career. within the and in 1950 the MCR was not the active Clearly Chadwick and the Fellowship must memorial. community it is today. So it would be easy to have been aware already of his promise and suppose that Crick had little connection with intelligence. This was three years before the College during that period of his life. Not so. Watson and Crick submitted to Nature their 4 Once a Caian... ...Always a Caian 5 Y a o L i a paper entitled ‘A Structure for Deoxyribose Neil McKendrick (1958) put it; and at one point roundel represent the process of transcription Right: The College’s n g Nucleic Acid’ – the paper that set in train so there seemed unanimity in the Fellowship that from (ungilded) DNA to (gilded) RNA. All matriculation books contain a treasure many of the scientific, medical and social the memorial should take the form of a Caians, of course, will recognise the sequence trove for historians developments of the last sixty years. fountain. So the Working Party commissioned GCC which is embedded in the DNA sequence of personal and Crick took up the Fellowship’s invitation two alternative designs from Britain’s leading and which happens to represent a valid codon family information and he continued to dine regularly throughout designers of water features. Each design made in the genetic code. To interpret the RNA about Caians of the sixteenth century.