VOLUME 95 FOR MEMBERS OF ST JOHN’S COLLEGE The Eagle 2013 THE EAGLE Published in the United Kingdom in 2013 by St John’s College, Cambridge St John’s College Cambridge CB2 1TP johnian.joh.cam.ac.uk Telephone: 01223 338700 Fax: 01223 338727 Email: [email protected] Registered charity number 1137428 First published in the United Kingdom in 1858 by St John’s College, Cambridge Designed by Cameron Design (01284 725292, www.designcam.co.uk) Printed by Fisherprint (01733 341444, www.fisherprint.co.uk) Front cover: Divinity School by Ben Lister (www.benlister.com) The Eagle is published annually by St John’s College, Cambridge, and is sent free of charge to members of St John’s College and other interested parties. Page 2 www.joh.cam.ac.uk CONTENTS & MESSAGES CONTENTS & MESSAGES THE EAGLE Contents CONTENTS & MESSAGES Photography: John Kingsnorth Page 4 johnian.joh.cam.ac.uk Contents & messages THE EAGLE CONTENTS CONTENTS & MESSAGES Editorial..................................................................................................... 9 Message from the Master .......................................................................... 10 Articles Maggie Hartley: The best nursing job in the world ................................ 17 Esther-Miriam Wagner: Research at St John’s: A shared passion for learning......................................................................................... 20 Peter Leng: Living history .................................................................... 26 Frank Salmon: The conversion of Divinity ............................................ 34 Helena Barman: Taking on the World Solar Challenge........................... 45 David Waddilove: A spotter’s guide to College ties................................ 50 Harpal Kumar: Divide and conquer – the story of the METABRIC study of breast cancer ......................................................................... 59 Mark Nicholls: Scratchings on the glass................................................ 64 Simon Bridge: Social capital – an essential business ingredient............... 69 Rebecca Watts: The Samuel Butler Project............................................ 74 Clifford German: The kursanty collective.............................................. 81 Mian Ijaz ul Hassan: Some confessions, some ramblings ....................... 85 David Gill: Tell of their wisdom: altruism in a time of doubt................... 91 johnian.joh.cam.ac.uk Page 5 THE EAGLE Contents & messages CONTENTS & MESSAGES The academic year 2012/13 Message from the Senior Tutor: Exploring the needs and challenges of home students .............................................................................. 100 Student awards ................................................................................ 104 Fellows’ and members’ news Focus on a Fellow: John Slight .......................................................... 110 Focus on a Fellow: Ruth Abbott ......................................................... 113 Focus on a Fellow: Robert Watson ..................................................... 118 Fellows’ news ................................................................................... 122 Members’ news................................................................................. 124 Death notices ................................................................................... 137 Obituaries Reginald Arthur Green, 1917–2012.................................................... 143 Jonathan Dean Harvey, 1939–2012.................................................... 145 College societies and sports .................................................................... 150 Music at St John’s Edward Picton-Turbervill: A job and a half .......................................... 216 Laurie Kent: Embracing New Music.................................................... 221 The Choir of St John’s ........................................................................ 223 The Gentlemen of St John’s................................................................ 229 Poetry ................................................................................................... 232 Page 6 johnian.joh.cam.ac.uk Contents & messages THE EAGLE Book reviews CONTENTS & MESSAGES Dead Men by Richard Pierce ............................................................. 236 Decline to Fall: the Making of British Macro-Economic Policy and the 1976 IMF Crisis by Douglas Wass ...................................................... 238 AKA Shakespeare: A Scientific Approach to the Authorship Question by Peter A Sturrock ........................................................................... 240 Donors Donor list ......................................................................................... 244 Donors to the Library ....................................................................... 260 College notes ........................................................................................ 264 johnian.joh.cam.ac.uk Page 7 Art and Photography Competition 2013: Punting on the Backs by Chris Watkins (2012). Contents & messages THE EAGLE Editorial CONTENTS & MESSAGES Welcome to The Eagle 2013 This year St John’s says goodbye to one of its most familiar faces: College Nurse, Maggie Hartley. There must be hundreds of stories that Maggie could tell about her work here, but she has picked out a few to illustrate how times have changed since she started at the College in 1990. Highlights of this issue also include the reflections of BBC news correspondent Peter Leng (1983) on being both a journalist and a historian, a report on the restoration of the Divinity School by Fellow and architectural historian Frank Salmon, and the experiences of recent graduate Helena Barman as a driver in the Cambridge University Eco Racing team, who are hoping to win the 2013 World Solar Challenge in Australia. If you would like to discuss contributing to next year’s issue of The Eagle, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please contact the editorial team, using the contact details below, by December 2013. The content of each issue is, of course, agreed in advance and we need time to consider and approve the range of content being offered, hence the need for this deadline. If you would like to submit something for the Members’ news section of The Eagle 2014, please use the enclosed form, or submit an online form at johnian.joh.cam.ac.uk/contact-us before the deadline of 25 April 2014. The Members’ news pages are read eagerly by many Johnians, so please do send in your contributions to keep old friends and colleagues informed. Thank you to all those who have been involved with producing this issue, including College staff, Johnians and especially the contributors. Don’t forget, you can print or email friends your favourite pictures or articles from The Eagle online at johnian.joh.cam.ac.uk/publications Jennifer Baskerville Mark Nicholls Alumni Relations Officer (Publications) Librarian and Head of Information Services and Systems Development Office D Second Court The Library St John’s College St John’s College Cambridge Cambridge CB2 1TP CB2 1TP Tel: 01223 330722 Tel: 01223 338661 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] johnian.joh.cam.ac.uk Page 9 THE EAGLE Contents & messages CONTENTS & MESSAGES Message from the Master It is a great pleasure to be able to write once more an introductory message to the latest volume of The Eagle, even though this annual activity is one of those events that reminds me how rapidly time passes, particularly in an institution as busy and as stimulating as St John’s. Mary and I have, however, enjoyed every minute of another wonderful year in which we have yet again been privileged to meet a remarkable number of Johnians of all generations from all parts of the world. I am sure that this issue of The Eagle will, as ever, provide glimpses of the multitude of activities that take place within and in association with the College, and give insights into the lives of the Fellows, students, staff and alumni who make up our College community. St John’s is a perpetual institution, in that we intend it to exist and to thrive forever, and those of us who are entrusted with the safekeeping of the College at any given time always strive to pass it on to our successors in even better health and spirits than it was when we arrived. In order for us to succeed in this goal, change is essential, although change occurs in St John’s (at least in these relatively peaceful times) by evolutionary rather than revolutionary means. Our intention must always be to embrace, after appropriate consultation and careful discussion, those changes that enhance the purposes and activities of the College and the abilities of its members to succeed. One recent example has been the adoption of a new accommodation model, which enables all our students (undergraduate as well as graduate) to keep possession of their rooms during the Christmas and Easter vacations. This relatively modest change has generated much greater freedom and flexibility for our students in planning their increasingly busy lives, not to mention a greatly reduced burden on parents and others, who no longer face the need each term to clear the vast range of possessions that seem to be accumulated by our students in their rooms nowadays! Most importantly, it has also generated a much stronger feeling amongst our undergraduates of ‘belonging’ to the College during the entire academic year, and has