The Brazen Nose 2012-2013 Cover Image: Photography by Sabel Gonzalez, Studio Blanco Printed By: the Holywell Press Limited CONTENTS
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The Brazen Nose 2012-2013 Cover Image: Photography by Sabel Gonzalez, Studio Blanco Printed by: The Holywell Press Limited www.holywellpress.com CONTENTS Records Articles A Message from the Editor ............ 5 A Year in the Life: Brasenose College Senior Members ............................. 9 in 1785 by Elizabeth Boardman, Class Lists ..................................... 18 Archivist .................................... 84 Higher Degrees ............................ 22 Rant and Rave in the Old Cloisters Matriculations............................... 26 by Carole Bourne-Taylor, Fellow ........ 97 College Prizes ............................... 29 A Tribute to David Leonard Stockton by Professor Alan Bowman, Principal . 99 Elections to Scholarships and Exhibitions 2012 ........................... 32 Undergraduate Admissions College Blues ............................... 36 by Dr Simon Smith, Senior Tutor ..... 102 BNC in War and Austerity Reports by Brian D. Wilson (Law, 1943) ..... 107 JCR Report ................................. 39 Ian Jack: An Appreciation HCR Report ............................... 42 by Jack Morrell (1954) ................... 113 Library and Archives Report ......... 45 Travel Presentations to the Library........... 47 Introduction ............................... 118 Chapel Report ............................. 52 Michael Woods Travel Grant ........ 119 Music Report ............................... 53 Michael Woods Travel Grant ........ 123 Arts Week ..................................... 56 A Year Abroad in Iran ................. 127 The King’s Hall Trust for the Arts .. 57 The Ashmole Society .................... 58 News & Notes ......................132 The Addington Society ................. 60 Brasenose Society .................138 Ale Verses ...................................... 61 Year Reps & Gaudies ............147 Development & Alumni Report 152 Clubs Donors to Brasenose BNCBC – Men’s Team Report ..... 67 2012-2013 ............................156 BNBC – Women’s Team Report ... 70 Obituaries ............................171 Football – HCR Team Report ...... 74 Football – Women’s Team Report .. 76 Football – Men’s Team Report ...... 77 Rugby Football ............................. 78 Lacrosse ........................................ 80 Hockey ......................................... 81 4 THE BRAZEN NOSE EDITOR’S NOTES 5 EDITOR’S NOTES Life in Oxford is lived at speed: intense eight-week terms, and for the academics all the admin, competing for attention with our research, which is starting to make my “vacations”, at least, every bit as busy as full term. The frantic student cyclists encapsulate this intensity for me, skipping red lights and forgoing helmets in their headlong dash to the lab or the lecture. So it’s good to be forced to pause and reflect. That might be on a heartbreakingly gorgeous spring morning in Radcliffe Square when you’re reminded you work in one of the most beautiful places on the planet. But another day that made me stop and contemplate was last August, when I spoke a few words at the unveiling of a portrait of Maurice Platnauer, Principal of Brasenose from 1956 to 1960, and before that for more than thirty years Fellow in Classics. Tireless efforts on the part of Robin Sharp, the artistic skills of Juliet Wood, not forgetting Colin Leach’s skill in Greek verse composition, all brought to fruition the campaign to do appropriate honour to Platnauer. But if the event was really about Platnauer as a former Principal, it provoked me to think about my predecessors as Classics Fellows. And it turned out that Principals of Brasenose are frankly two-a-penny: there have been six just since Platnauer’s retirement. Mods dons, on the other hand, are a rare and precious breed. I discovered that if I can only hold on until 2022, I and my two predecessors, Platnauer and Leighton Reynolds, will have clocked up a century. Herbert Fox, before Platnauer, takes us back to 1889; Heberden to 1872 (150 years...). The generation of men is just like that of leaves, says Glaukos in the Iliad. Well, the leaves fall, but the tree is 500 years old, and thriving still. This year saw its own round of arrivals and departures, solemn and raucous events, from one perspective the same old same old, from another utterly new and unprecedented. The College Ball, held on May 4th, was judged to be a particular success this year, led by a calm, efficient chairman in the shape of Jeremy Chiew, while a quieter but no less significant moment in the College’s calendar was a cream tea on April 26th to mark the 100th birthday of Giana Kurti, widow of one of Brasenose’s most eminent Fellows, Nicholas Kurti FRS, Brasenose’s connection to the Manhattan Project. Compared to Mrs Kurti, the Hulme Common Room is hardly trying, but its 50th anniversary in June was rightly felt 6 THE BRAZEN NOSE to justify a garden party, and the graduates and their guests celebrated with gusto. It could not be described as a celebration in November 2012 when we held a retirement dinner for Wendy Williams, but I doubt you’ll ever see so warm a reception for an honorand in Brasenose Hall as Wendy received that evening. History will perhaps view 2012-13 at Brasenose as a period of consolidation. As any visitor in recent years will have noticed, the College has been a bit of a building site. That ambitious, and inevitably disruptive, work is now completed, and in September 2013 the opening of our fine new kitchens was marked by a visit from one of our most successful PPEists, David Cameron. But what might have been a very formal occasion was, in perennial Brasenose fashion, nothing of the kind, and the Prime Minister chatted animatedly to students whose radical politics were momentarily forgotten. The latest building works concentrated on some of the oldest parts of the College, including a fragment of Brasenose Hall now known as the Medieval Kitchen. By comparison, the chapel across the Deer Park is a youngster, but it sits at the architectural heart of Brasenose. Brasenose is no longer an exclusively, or even predominantly, Christian institution but it remains true that the most significant events in any given year, the moments when Brasenose is most assertively itself, tend to take place in that building. In March it witnessed the funeral of Sylvia Stockton, widow of David Stockton, former Fellow in Ancient History, a memorial service for whom followed in April. Another memorial service was held for Susanna Altmann, wife of Simon Altmann, Emeritus Fellow in Physics. On 5th August 2013 there was the funeral of a particularly exuberant character in the recent history of Brasenose, Bill Young, who is still remembered as an iron-willed manager of the scouts who as a sideline grew the flowers for dinners and special occasions down at the Sports Ground. Alan Bennett tells me that he used regularly to bump into Bill in Marston, taking his dog for a walk with his mobility scooter, asking how the College was faring without him. Over some of his political views it is best to cast a veil, but I’m told there’s a great story about Bill and a cake made of concrete. Alas, Alan can’t remember it, and to an editor of a College magazine this could not be more frustrating: I’m hoping someone out there will enlighten us. When all is said and done, of course, all the parties, Burns Night and the Ale Verses are distractions from the real business, albeit enjoyable EDITOR’S NOTES 7 ones. Brasenose is a place of learning, and it’s good to balance a successful year on the river, which it was, with impressive performance in the Schools. Brasenose’s persistent dizzying position in the higher reaches of the Norrington Table is one very gratifying departure from our recent history – an entirely meaningless measure of anything until you are near the top of it, of course. I could illustrate our academic achievements in many ways, but here is a finalist in Engineering, David Hansford, commenting on Brasenose’s outstanding success in scooping four of the available eleven prizes offered for fourth-year projects: “The project was by far my favourite part of my degree. It offers students the chance to research into exciting new areas with specialist academics and independently solve a real problem with only the guiding hand of your supervisor for support. It’s a true test of your engineering capabilities, and the satisfaction you get from your year of hard work and innovation is enormous.” If that doesn’t encapsulate an Oxford education, I don’t know what does. The trials of a new editor of this august annual include correcting the faulty arithmetic of predecessors. Dr Ferdinand Rauch arrived as our new Economics Fellow this year, not last, but since Graeme gave him a fulsome welcome in the last Brazen Nose and Dr Rauch’s a modest chap, I can limit myself to saying what a positive impact he’s had already on the College, and, well, how terrifyingly young he still seems. Of all faults in an editor, after all, awarding someone a Fellowship a year early is among the most forgivable. In 2012-13 we also said farewell to Professor Laura Herz, who left us to devote more time to her prize- winning research in Physics. We owe a mountain of debts as we take this issue of The Brazen Nose to press, but above all to Graeme Richardson, who, mathematical shortcomings apart, had done the lion’s share of the editing before he handed it over to me. What follows should be considered the product of Graeme’s expert hand, but unfortunately lacking the beautiful prose of a Richardson editorial. Hannah Brown was a model of efficiency, and much missed when she left to take up a job in London. But although the change of personnel caused a slight delay to our publication, for which my apologies, Julia Diamantis stepped into this unavoidably stressful role with great calm and competence. I’m delighted we’ve made it, and equally delighted to acknowledge that I had very little to do with it. All the contributors, needless to say, have my very warm gratitude. 8 THE BRAZEN NOSE I started with Oxford time, that odd encounter between a high- pressure modern world of deadlines and the long view of our history, predecessors, ancient rituals and even more ancient buildings.