Chri ChurchMatters - Christ Church, Oxford

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‘Maybe what they say is true...’

Appropriately with a new reforming Coalition Government standingbefore us our attention is fixed, in this Michaelmas edition of ChristChurch Matters, on politics. Not only are the Old Members who havecontributed most definitely ‘politicians who have read and thought’ butin other articles we also examine aspects of what the Dean refers to asthe Christ Church ‘community which works’.

The charitable objectives of Christ Church have been officially agreed forthe first time and are described in Edwin Simpson’s piece on bringing theFoundation Charter up to date. There is a conference to mark the 300thanniversary of the death of Dean Aldrich, to which you are invited. It washe who oversaw an era when the House was ‘the supremely elegantfinishing school for the nobility’, and Old Member Marcus Scrivencontributes a lively article on the Lords today. And what more fascinatingand political a subject could there be than Hugh Trevor-Roper, whosebiography by Adam Sisman is reviewed by Sir Michael Howard.

Christ Church Matters exists to give the reader news of the House, butalso views. Nigel Lawson’s article in the last edition elicited a number ofoutraged responses. We are pleased to include Dr Mark New’s reply in thisedition. Whether or not you believe Lord Lawson to be ‘a travelled manthat knows what he talks about’ this magazine is a place whereHousemen and women should be able to air views with which their peersdisagree. The views expressed are not official views of the college, andsurely a Christ Church education gives its members the ability to evaluateevidence and form their own opinions? We welcome your contributionsand comments, to which we will always respond, and whilst there is notroom to publish letters you can post remarks online on HouseProud.

Importantly you will find as an insert in this issue a letter from the Dean.The future of Higher Education is uncertain at present but his letter willbring you up to date with what we do know. Admissions interviews arehappening amidst the frost and snow this week and one can not fail butto wonder at the idealism of the young, both present and past, such asArthur Abrahams (P.7) The fundamental question we have to answer ishow are we going to preserve all that is special about Christ Church inthe future? What courses will be available and how will they be taught?Who will be able to afford to study here? Will independence of thoughtdepend upon financial independence?

Some already say there is too much politics and not enough philosophyin the world. The public seems to believe we need more law in the formof judges to oversee the politicians. Can we balance the realities of ‘warand war’s alarms’ with dreams of being ‘young again’? Who or what willwe be holding in our arms in the future?

Simon OffenChrist Church Association Vice President and Deputy Development [email protected]+44 (0)1865 286 075

Editorial Contents

Carolyn BullAlumni Relations [email protected]+44 (0)1865 286 598

FRONT COVER: A new arrival flapped on to the scene this summer.A young grey heron has been partaking of the fish in Mercury(even some of the large Koi have had close escapes and have beenscarred) and has swallowed all the fish from the small pond in the‘Iris’ garden. This young bird appears to be cleverer than its parentwhich used to visit as it has taken to perching on the statue in theknowledge that it can not be reached!

DEAN’S DIARY 1

CARDINAL SINS – Notes from the Archives 2

CHOIR NEWS 4

CATHEDRAL NEWS 6

WAR MEMORIAL NOTES – Christ Church Roll of Honour 1914-1918 7

REGISTRATION – Christ Church’s experiences with the Charity Commission 8

CLIMATE CHANGE – Dr Mark New discusses some hard facts 10

BOAT CLUB REPORT 12

ASSOCIATION NEWS 13-23

THE HOUSE OF LORDS – Marcus Scriven (1981) reviews ‘progress’ in the Upper House 24

MICHAEL VAUGHAN-LEE – Recalls 48 years at Christ Church 25

RETURNING TO THE HOUSE 26

HENRY ALDRICH – Picture Gallery exhibition and study day 27

HUGH TREVOR-ROPER – Prof. Sir Michael Howard reviews Adam Sisman’s Biography 28

SPECIAL INTEREST DAYS 30

BOOKS WITH NO ENDING… 32

EVENTS LISTING inside back cover

IRELAND EVENT back cover

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Dean’s diaryYou will be surprised to learn that when theCensors and I get together for our regularsessions, we do not talk solely about matters ofeducational strategy or high finance. As is thecase in every Oxford College, ‘bike sheds’ drop inon the agenda. You might think that the subjectlacks pzazz, but that is not wholly the case, forother than feet, there is no other way to getaround in Oxford and the two sheds are part oflife lived here. Members of the House need to getthrough the door (a challenge with a bike), find aspace for their steeds and have reasonableconfidence that they will be waiting for them,champing at the bit, on return. If bike shedshad been part of my job description in 2003,that should have been no cause for alarm.

It is tempting (and, sadly, sometimes done) torate what goes on here in order of priority. True,our statutes give us a religious and academicpurpose; that is what we have been here forfrom the start. Yet those purposes cannot bepursued in isolation. Those who learn and thosewho teach need to be housed and fed, givenlibraries and IT facilities, enjoy that degree of thepeace necessary for stretching study, and besurrounded by a community which works. Itfollows that the quadman and the person whoserves in Hall is crucial to the House. What ismore, good cooks and quadmen are hard to comeby and need to be especially treasured once here.

Which brings me, by seamless logic, toscaffolding. Since I came there have beennumerous opportunities for climbing and it isimportant to take them all, forthe buildings are definitely a

glorious part of the whole mosaic which is thisplace. We have been doing the workaday mattersof maintenance and ensuiting (I claim to havediscovered the first use of this despicable verb inthe whole history of humankind: 2001) but wehave also branched out and caught up on somemassive projects.

Blue Boar was much the hardest and the mostexpensive, but the result is wonderful and theoccupants enjoy it: in spite of (no, because of) itsopenwork 1960’s character. It now has a fine

lecture hall, an exhibition space and 79 rooms,all with showers! Other original features havebeen added, like heating which works and roofsthat slope.

Then there is the Library which wasmagnificent before and is now more so, deckedout in its original colours, free of hessian,protected from fire, leak-proof and secure.

Last and least glamorous, although with themost exciting scaffolding, is Meadow Tower(Meadow 3) which has been renovated insideand out. Some of the rooms at the top weredangerous, so there are now two superb‘vertical sets’ at the top. What is more, the

tower stonework, under which numerousmembers and visitors pass, is now beautiful and safe.

To those who have helped, we are most grateful. Iliked the scaffolding, but that would not havebeen much good without fine jobs done. �

Scaffolding, scaffoldingeverywhere...L Meadow Towerk The ridge of MeadowTowerK The Brew House andBlue Boari The Library, south side

Christopher LewisDean

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Judith Curthoys Archivist

Cardinal SinsNotes from the archives

MERCURY – DAYS GONE BY.....In 1669, Dr Richard Gardiner’s house burntdown. He had been a Student since 1607,and a canon from 1629. Having settledback into his accommodation after theupheavals of the Commonwealth, the lossmust have been a shock for the seventy-eight year old. The lodging was in thesouth-east corner of Chaplain’s Quad, anold and dilapidated corner. The canonslooked on anxiously as the fire creptdangerously close to the library – stillthen just off the cloister – and took adrastic decision to protect the ancientcore of the college. The Meadow menwere given orders to create a fire-break.Responding quickly, £5-worth of dynamitewas brought in, and Dr Smith’s residencewas blown up.

Once the fire had been extinguished andthe rubble cleared away, three newconstruction projects were begun in directconsequence. Firstly Fell’s Building wasconstructed on the site of the destroyedhouses, to stand until Meadows went upin the 1860s, and then the Killcanonlodgings were built for Gardiner.

The third project was paid for by Gardiner.Determined that Christ Church wouldnever suffer such a disaster again, areservoir was to be dug so that therewould always be a ready water supply.Very early in Christ Church’s history, thequad had been excavated so that thewalkways were higher than the centre; thedisbursement book for 1599 shows JohnTaylor working “at the steppes in the greatquadrant next to Mr Deane’s lodging.” Fell,or rather John Browne the labourer, dug itdeeper still in 1668, and the spoil was usedto raise and improve the Broad Walk.

Gardiner died at the end of 1670, but notbefore he had seen the very centre of thequad excavated, and the new 40-footpond connected up to the water supplyfrom Carfax. Master carpenter, RichardFrogley (who was later to select all thetimber for Tom Tower, including the bell-frame), created a fountain which wassurmounted by a globe “beautified withthe celestial planets” carved by WilliamBird. Bird was no mean sculptor; he hadworked on the Sheldonian Theatre andhad carved the elaborate memorials to theFettiplaces in Swinbrook church, but hisglobe did not last long, in spite of theChapter’s promise to keep Gardiner’sbequest in good repair in perpetuity.

In 1695, Anthony Radcliffe gave the firstMercury to replace the neglected globe.But he was to meet a sorry fate, too, fallingvictim to an undergraduate prank whenEdward Stanley, soon to be Prime Minister,tore the statue from its plinth in 1817, andit was not until 1928 that a new leadMercury, given by Herbert Bompas, waserected in the centre of the pond. For sixyears, he stood on a rather unbecomingplinth that had been found in the cornerof a local builder’s yard until, in 1934, hewas remounted on one designed by EdwinLutyens.

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L Dr Richard Gardiner’s Memorial, ChristChurch Cathedral.

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Now an icon of Christ Church, Mercuryhas seen mishaps and adventures, manyof which are not mentioned in thearchive, and about which the archivistwould be delighted to hear! Legend hasit that the canons’ children were givenrides on the backs of turtles purchasedfor banquets and turned loose in thepond to keep them fresh. In 1809, thereservoir proved its worth when thesouth-west corner of Tom Quad caughtfire but other stories abound. A painter,walking backwards to admire hishandiwork on the face of Tom’s clock,

tripped over the curb and fell in. Andthere was the swan which, bedeckedwith bow tie after a gaudy, was foundserenely enjoying the water one morningin 1949, something that the ThamesConservancy people found less thanamusing. And in the bitter winter of1962/3 all but four of the fish perished,which prompted a thorough clean-out.The key to Tom Gate, apparently throwninto the pond in 1947, was retrieved alongwith £5 10s in cash. Perhaps it’s time foranother hunt; who knows what richesmay be laying at the bottom? �

J Ron Holding (1969) circumnavigatingMercury in a rowing boat.

Three undergraduates, being a bit the worseone Saturday night had thrown one of theirparty into Mercury. Finding a shoe at thebottom he tried to hang it on Mercury’soutstretched hand bringing the statuecollapsing down on him and pinning himunderwater (the statue is lead). The other twofortunately realised he wasn’t coming up anddived in, rescuing him before he drowned.

By pure coincidence Ron happened to comealong just as this happened, about one o’clockin the morning, to witness the end of theincident. The pond had to be drained to removeand reinstate Mercury.

L Loggan’s print of 1673 showing Bird’s globe.

SWAN’S FORMAL DRESSThe staff at Christ Church, Oxford,yesterday found a swan wearing a dress tieswimming in the pond in the quadrangle.Representatives of the Thames Conservancycaptured the swan and restored it to itsproper home, the Isis, after removing the tie.– The Times, Thursday 16 June, 1949

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CHOIRNEWSMore Divine thanHumanThe Cathedral Choir continues to hit theheadlines with its recordings andconcerts. The recent recording of musicfrom the Eton Choirbook, More DivineThan Human (Avie AV2167) caught theeye of voters for the prestigious annualGramophone Awards. It was on theshortlist of three recordings in the EarlyMusic category and continues to attractthe attention of choral enthusiaststhroughout the world.

Choral Music byEgon WelleszThe other major recording which hasappeared this year is of choral music byEgon Wellesz (Nimbus NI 5852). Welleszwas a Catholic convert from Judaism whoemigrated from Austria to England in 1939and spent the rest of his career in Oxford.He exercised an enormous influence onmany composers and musicologistsduring the post-war period in Britain. Aspecial post of Reader in Byzantine Musicwas created for him at Oxford, a title heheld until he retired in 1956. He composeda significant amount of sacred music,including five Masses, two of which – thefirst and the last – feature on this disc.Wellesz’s operas of the 1920s contain asignificant amount of virtuoso choralwriting, and this quality carries over intohis church music, although on the wholethey are written in a simpler, moretraditionally tonal idiom. 2010 marks the125th anniversary of Wellsz’s birth.

Mozart’s RequiemA performance of Mozart’s Requiem isalways a special event, but it wasparticularly so on 11 November in theCathedral when the work was presentedby the Cathedral Choir with theUniversity’s Orchestra in Residence, theOxford Philomusica and a star line-up ofsoloists conducted by Stephen Darlington.Amongst the soloists, the baritoneTimothy Murfin was a boy chorister in theChoir in the 1980s and is now developinga stellar career as an opera singer, indemand throughout the world. Mozart’swork is best known in the version by hiscontemporary Franz Süssmayr but on thisoccasion the performers used a completededition by Dr Timothy Jones, formerly aJunior Research Fellow at Christ Churchwho is now Deputy Principal at the RoyalAcademy of Music. His version applies thelatest in Mozart’s scholarship to thereconstruction of the material left behindby the composer to extraordinarilypowerful effect.

BBC ChoralEvensongThe Cathedral Choir’s live broadcast ofChoral Evensong on BBC Radio 3 on 24November was devoted to the celebrationof the Feast of St Cecilia and had a verystrong Christ Church flavour! The musicalsetting of the Magnificat and NuncDimittis canticles was composed byHoward Goodall, his Marlborough Serviceand the anthem, a setting of JohnMasefield’s wonderful poem Where doesthe uttered music go was composed by themost famous of our musical alumni,William Walton.

‘This is a stellar recording.’ BBC Music Magazine

‘...spacious, rich, expressiveperformances.’ – Sunday Times

‘…a disc to send the spirits soaring.Glorious beyond words.’ – Gramophone

To order your copy for just £12 (plus p&p), email [email protected] call +44 (0)1865 286598

‘This disc is a real stunner...’– Audiophile

‘…the performances aren’t justexcellent, they make me want to buycopies of the disc to send to myfavourite chorus masters, urging themto perform the music.’ – Fanfare

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Future ConcertsOnce again the Cathedral Choir is giving aconcert in St John’s Smith Square as part ofthe prestigious annual Christmas MusicFestival there. This is on Monday 13December at 7.30 p.m. If Christ ChurchMatters has landed on your doorstep intime, you may still be able to get ticketsfrom the Box Office at www.sjss.org.uk or bycalling +44 (0)20 7222 1061. If you are unableto make it to the London concert, then thereare two Christmas concert performances inthe Cathedral as part of Music at Oxford’sInternational Concert series. Tickets can beobtained from www.musicatoxford.com.

USA East CoastChoir Tour 2011This coming Spring, between March 7thand April 9th Stephen Darlington andthe choir, wearing their woolly winterbest, will be off to Charlotte, WashingtonDC, New York, Boston and Toronto. Wehave wonderful venues in which toperform, Covenant Presbyterian Churchin Meyers Park, Charlotte on 29/3, St.Albans Episcopal Church in Davidson on30/3, Washington National Cathedral on1/4, The British Embassy on 2/4, SaintBartholomew’s on Park Avenue in NewYork on 4/4, Trinity Church, CopleySquare, Boston on 6/4 and Grace Church

on the Hill in Toronto on 8/4. There will bea reception after each concert to whichall attendees will be invited.

We have generated considerable interestfrom the Public Radio network on theEast Coast and hope to arrange both anationwide broadcast in the US andthrough support from local radiostations a local broadcast of our concerts.We are also actively seeking a corporatesponsor for the trip and/or thereceptions.

Inevitably there are costs associated withthese events and we estimate that thetotal cost will be in the region of$100,000. We have already raised$55,000 but would welcome furtherdonations from any Old Members, who,like me, feel that this is an importantpart of the choir’s work and that thechoir is a vitally important part of ChristChurch’s heritage.

We hope that the trip, principallythrough the post concert receptions, willgenerate a much broader level of interestin the choir and its work than has beenpossible historically. We also aim to beginto put together an endowment that willallow the choir to make at least one tripand one recording every alternate year. Inthe interim any financial support thatOld Members may be inclined to give tothis tour would be extremely welcome.Please contact Chris Rocker:[email protected] �

L Top from left: St John’s Smith Square;St Louis Cathedral Basilica, taken during the2005 choir tour; Grace Church on the Hill.

J The National Cathedral, Washington DC atnight.

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seated like a congregation in the midst ofprocessions through the chancel andnave, actors and singers performing fromthe galleries, assassins hammering on thewest door, and Becket murdered at thehigh altar. As the Oxford Times’ review putit, ‘Those privileged to have seen it (theperformances had sold out within hours)will surely look back on an evening oftheatre at once thrilling, thought-provoking and profoundly moving.’

Cathedrals have traditionally providedatmospheric venues for the performingarts. It is good therefore to have forged alink with the Oxford Playhouse, andhopefully the success of Murder in theCathedral will lead to furthercollaborations. The Cathedral has alsostruck up a partnership with theRambert School of Ballet andContemporary Dance. This prestigiousdance school, which has given threeperformances in the Cathedral over thepast year, has recently introduced an MAin Performance Dance. The MA includesa research project focussed on dance andritual in a religious context, using

Shocked visitors to the Cathedral weregreeted by screams, flailing swords, and ageneral scene of panic and commotion.Fortunately stewards were at hand toexplain that they hadn’t walked onto acrime scene, but to a rehearsal of T.S.Eliot’s play Murder in the Cathedral,which had a highly successful four nightrun at the start of Michaelmas term.

The production was the result of aninteresting partnership between ChristChurch and the Oxford Playhouse, as partof their Oxford Playhouse Plays Out series.Following the success of productions atthe Bodleian Library, this series aims totake theatre into other significant venuesin Oxford. What made this particularlyappropriate to Christ Church was not onlythe ecclesiastical theme, but that itbrought together professional actors andPlayhouse staff with some of the mosttalented members of the OxfordUniversity Dramatic Society. The resultwas a youthful, energetic and grippingproduction that left audiences startledand spell-bound. The producer used thevenue to full effect, with the audience

cathedrals and other religious buildings.Intriguingly, the Director of the RambertSchool, Ross McKim, as well as being aleading international figure in the worldof dance, also has a doctorate in theology.

As well as developing its work with the arts,the Cathedral is also expanding itseducational activities. Thanks to thesupport of the Friends of Christ ChurchCathedral, a part-time Education Assistant,Hannah Clegg, has been appointed to workalongside Jim Godfrey to strengthen linkswith local schools and to devise curriculum-focussed resources for school visits,including seminars for sixth form students.

If you would like to find out more aboutservices and events, we have introduceda regular e-newsletter which is availablefrom [email protected]. We alsohope to begin web-casting services andevents in the near future, as state-of-the-art audio web-casting equipment iscurrently being installed. Both willensure that all associated with ChristChurch – wherever they may be – cankeep in touch with the Cathedral. �

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Revd Edward NewellSub-Dean

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War Memorial Notes

Christ Church Roll of Honour 1914–1918the Guards wrote: “The regiment can illafford to lose men like him”, and from theranks there has reached his family theequally prized message: “The boys wouldfollow him wherever he wanted them to.”

After he had been reported missing hisparents learned that he fell on April 13th,when England lost a gallant son, Anglo-Jewry one of the most promising of itsyoungest generation, and his immediatefamily the joy of their hearts.’Jewish Chronicle , June 1915

Lt Abrahams’ name is listed on panel 1 ofthe Ploegsteert Memorial in Belgium,commemorating more than 11,000servicemen of the United Kingdom andSouth African forces who died in thissector during the First World War andhave no known grave.

His father, Sir Lionel, Financial Secretaryto the Council of India, died the followingyear. One of Sir Lionel’s colleagues at TheIndia Office, CMK, wrote in an obituary inthe Jewish Chronicle 1919, ‘The loss of hisonly son in action was a blow from whichhe never recovered and cast an everpresent shadow over his last months inwhich he struggled manfully againstfailing health.’ �

The names of some 223 Christ Churchmen who fell in the First World War arerecorded on the walls of the mainentrance porch to the Cathedral. TheFriends of Christ Church Cathedral areresearching the names with a view tothe production of a website in time forthe centenary of the outbreak of warin 2014.

Please get in touch if you would beinterested to join the researchers,have information about any of thefallen, have website building expertiseor would like to talk to us.

The first man on the list is ArthurAbrahams and it may be of interest tosee what we now know about him. �Penny Keens – [email protected]

Abrahams, Arthur Charles Lionel (aboveinset), born 1898 in Kensington; only child ofSir Lionel Abrahams KCB and Lucy (néeJoseph) Lady Abrahams (later Dame) of 18Porchester Terrace, London W.

‘He had been an attractive child and hadgrown into a most lovable man, robust in

intellect, affectionate in disposition,modest in his successes, imbued with adeep Jewish feeling and looking forwardto being of use to his people. He gaveearly evidence of inheritance of intellectabove the average from his giftedparents. In 1911 he was elected to a King’sScholarship at Westminster Schoolwhere he instantly became, and alwaysmaintained, immense popularity with hismaster and his fellow pupils.

In 1915 he obtained a Scholarship at ChristChurch, Oxford but immediately joinedthe Army in accordance with his ardentlonging to be of service to his country. Hehad already reached the rank of sergeantin the school O.T.C. and was gazetted tothe Coldstream Guards. In the Army, as inschool, his unassuming ability won himthe confidence of his superiors, and theaffection of his comrades. Thecommanding Officer with whom heserved during the greater part of hisservice abroad has written to Sir LionelAbrahams, “I knew your boy well and wascommanding the battalion when hejoined. He was most popular with allranks, and he was particularly fearless...Arthur was a Coldstream Guarder throughand through. He fought like one and hedied like one.” The colonel commanding

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Registration...that’s what you needReaders of Christ Church Matters may be interestedto hear something of Christ Church’s experiences ofregistration with the Charity Commission. Althoughthe House’s activities are undoubtedly charitable,Oxford colleges have been exempt from registrationuntil certain provisions of the Charities Act 2006were recently brought into force. The process hasnot been without interest, however, and hasinvolved a fairly detailed analysis of the origins ofthe present Foundation in 1546 and of its gradualreform since then.

The Foundation we know today was brought intobeing by Henry VIII by a Royal Charter enrolled on 4November 1546. A few weeks later, on 11 December1546, letters patent of dotation granted theFoundation its property. The existence of twodocuments led the Commission at first to suggestthat there might be two foundations: the first, aCathedral, founded on 4 November; and the second,a College, added on 11 December. Fortunately – at

any rate for those brought up to believe in a uniquejoint Foundation – it proved possible to persuade theCommission that this analysis was incorrect. Thereis only one Foundation, and its single foundingCharter (i.e. that of 4 November) in fact refers notonly to a Cathedral Church and to a Dean andChapter but also to ‘Students within the sameChurch’. Given the size and scale of the intendedbuildings it seems pretty clear that Henry’s designswere educational as well as religious. He wished toestablish Christ Church to replace, in part, theexisting Cathedral founded in 1542 at Osney, and inpart Cardinal College, originally founded by CardinalWolsey in 1525 and later re-founded by Henry in1532.1 Certainly, from a legal point of view, it is clearthat only one Corporation was created in 1546 –Ecclesia Christi Cathedralis Oxon: ex. Fundatione RegisHenrici Octavi.

Although Henry drew up governing Statutes for theHouse, they were never actually brought into effect.

Edwin SimpsonTutor in Law

Remarkably, itproved possibleto govern the

Foundation onthe basis of meredrafts for morethan 300 years,until the ChristChurch Oxford

Act, 1867.

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Remarkably, it proved possible to govern theFoundation on the basis of mere drafts for morethan 300 years, until the Christ Church Oxford Act,1867. The disputes between the Canons and theStudents leading to that Act are well-known.2

Although Henry had provided for Students withinthe Foundation, their lot seemed a sorry one by themiddle of the nineteenth century. Unlike the Fellowsof other colleges they were excluded from theGoverning Body, which in Christ Church consisted ofthe Dean and Canons alone, and were not evenallowed to dine at High Table, which in ChristChurch was reserved for noblemen. Meanwhile, theCanons received a stipend of, on average, £1,500 peryear, while the Regius Professor of Greek stillreceived only the £40 provided by its originalendowment. It took time to be achieved, but the1867 Act established the collaborative foundationwe now know, where Dean, Canons and Studentsunite in a Governing Body on all matters save thoseexclusively diocesan in character.

It seems that at or about this time a second seal foruse by the Foundation was made, the one to beused on behalf of the Governing Body as a whole,the other by the Dean and Canons in connectionwith Chapter business. The existence of two sealswas also advanced by the Commission as a possibleindication that two corporate entities exist; butagain it proved possible to convince themotherwise. The 1867 Act cannot be construed ashaving created a second corporation. The legalposition remains that there is only one corporateentity – that given existence by Henry by RoyalCharter, and still styled (albeit now in English) ‘TheDean and Chapter of the Cathedral Church of Christ

in Oxford of the Foundation of KingHenry the Eighth’. It is only itsmechanisms of governance thatwere modified by the 1867 Act(and indeed subsequently byvarious amendments to the 1867Statutes).3 The existence of twoseals serves only to identify thetwo mechanisms by which theone entity can act – whetherthrough the Governing Body as awhole; or, in respect of certainreserved matters, by Chapteralone.

The existing Statutes, whichwere last comprehen sivelyrevised in the 1960s, are veryclear about these mechanisms– but rather less clear aboutwhat it is that the Foundation is

1 For a full (and entertaining) account of these events, see the Commemorative Lecture ‘1546 Before and After, The Making of Christ Church’, by Christopher Haigh, Tutor in Modern History, given on 2 November 1996 to celebrate the 450th anniversary of the Foundation, copies of which are available from the Development Office.

2 See generally E.G.W. Bill and J.F.A. Mason, Christ Church and Reform 1850-1867, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1970.

3 The Statutes of Christ Church in force today have effect under the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge Act 1923, replacing the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge Act 1877 which first provided for ‘modern’ statutes for all colleges.

actually to do! They contain no clear description ofthe objects (or purposes) of the Foundation at all – aremarkable omission to the modern mind, althoughapparently not to one of the middle of the 16th (oreven the 20th) centuries. An appropriateformulation has, however, now been agreed withthe Charity Commission, made by the GoverningBody, approved by the relevant UniversityCommittee, and will soon be laid before Parliamentbefore being brought into effect (mechanismremains all). The charitable objects of the House willbe described as follows, reflecting – it is hoped –both the practical requirements of modern charitieslegislation and the discernible intentions of Henryin 1546:

(a) the advancement of religion, education and learning, in particular but not exclusively by:

(i) the provision, support, conduct and maintenanceof Christ Church Cathedral as the Cathedral of theDiocese of Oxford, together with its Choir;

(ii) the provision, support, conduct and maintenanceof Christ Church as a college within the University ofOxford; and

(iii) the promotion of research in any branch oflearning;

and, in so far as it is not incompatible with the objectsset out in (a) above,

(b) the advancement of the arts, culture, heritage andscience, in particular but not exclusively by:

(i) the preservation and conservation of collections ofarticles of historical, aesthetic or scientific interest;

(ii) the preservation and conservation of the Cathedraland its appurtenances including the Chapter House;and

(iii) the preservation and conservation of the otherbuildings of the House and its curtilage including theMeadow. �

l The Foundation Charter

j The Foundation Seal

K A copy of theCommemorative Lectureby Christopher Haigh,available from theDevelopment Office

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In the Trinity Term 2010 issue of Christ ChurchMatters, Nigel Lawson suggested that the rationalcourse of action on climate change was toabandon the UK government’s aggressivelegislative approach to reducing greenhouse gasemissions, and to adapt to whatever impactsensue from a continuation of our fossil fuel basedworld energy system. Some of his arguments arereasonable, if viewed from a particular moral orpolitical-economic stance, and some are just plainwrong.

It is true that UK emissions-reduction targets arefar more ambitious than most other countries,and that emissions from large emergingeconomies will continue to grow, probably untilthe late 2020s or 2030s. There are at least tworeasons why the UK’s emissions targets shouldnot be abandoned. First, developed countries havea moral obligation to reduce emissions soonerand faster than developing countries. If we acceptthat climate change is something to be avoided,we also have to accept that we have pretty muchused up our share of the total emissions that willenable the world, with reasonable probability, toavoid dangerous levels of climate change. Wecannot expect developing countries to shift out ofcheaper fossil fuel energy sources if we do notlead the way. The UK emissions-reduction targetsare based on this premise, and on an equitableapportionment of future emissions betweendeveloped and developing countries.

Second, it makes sound economic sense to leadthe way in developing low-carbon energy systems.The UK’s economic future lies in designingtechnologies that the rest of world wants, ratherthan trying to compete in manufacturing that can

Mark New is OfficialStudent in Geographyand Reader in Climate

Science.

He is the editor of thethemed issue of the

PhilosophicalTransactions of the RoyalSociety, Four Degrees and

Beyond: the Potential for aGlobal Temperature

Change of Four Degreesand its Implications

(http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org)

...higher levels ofglobal warming

raise thelikelihood of

major ‘tippingpoints’ being

crossed.

Mark New

ClimatechangeSome hard facts...

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be achieved at a fraction of the cost in developingcountries. It is true that China continues to buildcoal-fired power stations, but it is also true thatChina has installed more wind turbines in the lastfew years than any other nation, and that China’sresearch and development budget for alternativeenergy technologies dwarfs that of the UK andEU. China clearly expects to be transitioning to alow-carbon energy system, and aims to providelow-carbon technology to the rest of the world.The UK needs to be ahead of the game, or risklosing out in the green technology race.

Lawson makes much of the uncertainty inprojecting future climate change, yet there is a lotthat climate scientists are pretty certain about. Atleast half the uncertainty in future climatechanges is not due to poor understanding of theclimate system, but because we simply do notknow what society will do to reduce emissions.An aggressive emissions reduction policy wouldlimit global temperature changes to somewherebetween 1 and 3 degrees over preindustrial levels.Lawson’s fossil-fuelled world would lead to awarming of between 2 and 6 degrees, perhapseven more.

The uncertainty about how the climate respondsto any give amount of greenhouse gas emissionsis still large. But it also has a skewed distribution:the lower bounds of possible warming are wellconstrained, while the upper bounds are poorlyconstrained. This has important implications forhow we think about the risk of serious climatechange impacts. The chances of climate changemuch larger than expected are significantlygreater than the chance of much lower than

expected changes, suggesting a precautionaryapproach is appropriate. Also, higher levels ofglobal warming raise the likelihood of major‘tipping points’ being crossed, such as theirreversible melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet,which would commit the world to six meters ofsea level rise. While this rise would occur overseveral hundreds of years, the adaptation costs forcities like London would be enormous; for lowlying areas in the developing world such as inBangladesh, the adaptation that Lawson suggestswe opt for would be nearly impossible, from botha technical and financial point of view.

Finally, Lawson argues that climate impacts willaffect wellbeing in the developed world onlymarginally, with living standards reduced by 10%,from an overall increase of nine times those oftoday. Yet he suggests that countries like the UKshould avoid any risk of reduced economic growthdue to the costs of moving away from carbonenergy. In effect, he is offering a ‘buy now, paylater’ deal, where the UK buys and the developingworld pays, and we do not know for sure how bigthe payments will be.

An alternative, precautionary view, would suggestthat it is worth investing now in a low-carboneconomy. The UK would lead the way morally,politically and economically, and by showing whatis possible, could ensure that the rest of the worldfollows suit and we avoid some of the worst andmost uncertain impacts of climate change. �

k China has installed more wind turbines in the last fewyears than any other nationK Greenland’s icecap is melting at an alarming rate

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After a triumphantTorpids campaign withmany good performancesat all levels it came as noreal surprise that theChChBC was in good

form entering Summer Eights. With six men returningfrom OUBC (three Blues – including twin Olympians -and three from Isis) the House 1st VIII was alwaysgoing to be swift – especially as the remaining twoseats were taken by strong contenders from the 1stTorpid. It soon became clear that no-one in Oxfordcould match the power and skill of this crew - amongthe fastest ever seen on the Isis. Racing serenely wellahead of first Pembroke and then Oriel, they madethe retention of the 2009 Headship look very easy.

The men’s 2nd VIII, made up largely of the 1st Torpid,were baulked of a blade only by the incompetenceof BNC’s supposed 1st VIII who went down manyplaces and allowed the House’s first night prey toescape - temporarily. All the same, the 2nds addedfurther to their lead as highest 2nd VIII, bumpedthree 1st Eights and embedded themselves firmlyin Division Two. After an absence of over thirty yearsfrom such a level, this was a remarkableachievement – even without the blade.

No such worries met the all-conquering 3rd VIII; theygained blades over four days in some eighty strokestotal, bumping two first and two second boats andextending the gap between themselves and the nexthighest 3rd VIII. Thus House crews hold the Headshipsof the men’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd Eights – as last year – butby even greater margins.

On the ladies’ side, the 1st VIII was always likely tostruggle rowing off fourth place with a courageous –but underpowered and under-experienced – crew.

Their holding off of a much larger Wadham boat onthe first day was a triumph in itself and, while theylost two places overall, they performed with real spiritto emerge with much credit. There is much potentialwithin the ladies’ crews and it is likely that this is atemporary dip, soon to be reversed.

The ladies’ 2nd VIII retained their Headship of thesecond boats, matching the position attained byany 2nd VIII in the days before universal co-education – in itself no mean feat given thechanges in the structure of the Oxford collegiaterowing world over the last several decades. The3rd VIII had the misfortune to be pitted against anexperienced crew of graduates from Osler Houseand were bumped from the top-slot won last year.

With much to celebrate the Hall was again vibrantthat evening with the vast Eights Trophy on displayand the Dean giving his speech – as is now traditional– standing atop High Table. After champagne drunkfrom the trophy the crews and hundreds ofsupporters gathered in Meadows for the burning ofthe boat – the House’s fourth in succession. Theevening was a suitable climax to a great Eights Weekthat not even a damp day could repress.

Overall then another glorious year in the annalsof House rowing – with many accomplishedperformances and a strengthening of the BoatClub’s position – especially on the men’s side – asthe leading Oxford college. One would have to goback over three decades to find a time ofcomparative dominance. Many thanks to the largecast of characters that rowed, coxed, coached,umpired – and supported these endeavours,especially our sponsor, Oliver Wyman; all of yourefforts are much appreciated; they keep the Housein the place where it wishes to be – on top. �

Jon Carley(1980)

BoatClubreport

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CHRIST CHURCH ASSOCIATION NEWS

Old Members ingovernment and politicsChrist Church after the war

I came up to Christ Church in October 1945 straightfrom school, to read Classical Mods and Greats. It wasan interesting time to be up. We eighteen-year-oldswere very much in a minority. Most of those whocame up at the same time were war veterans, somealready in their thirties, already mature, often withextraordinary experiences behind them, and keen tocomplete their education and get on with their lives.None the less they were extraordinarily tolerant ofand kind to us callow youths.

I had a set of rooms – sitting room and bedroom– in Meadow Buildings 1. There was a washstand andbasin in the bedroom, but no running water:the scout brought hot water in a can in themorning. There were two lavatories on thestaircase, but the nearest bathroom was threestaircases away. There was no central heating.We had open fires in the sitting rooms inwinter, for which we were allowed onehundredweight of coal a week. In the long andbitter winter of early 1947 that allowanceseemed inadequate.

I rowed in the Christ Church-First Eight inTorpids in January 1945, coached by GilbertRyle, who told us that, if we were to make abump, we should have to ‘row like hell’ for thefirst minute: if we did not make a bump inthat time, we should fall apart and bebumped. We did as we were told, and were luckyenough to bump the boat in front of us in the firstminute of every one of the six races. I still have my oarto prove it.

One of the high spots of my four years was thecelebration of the quatercentenary of therefoundation of The House by King Henry VIII in 1546.There were four performances of Henry VIII in Hall,Cardinal Wolsey was played by Michael Howard, and itwas unforgettable to see the figure of Wolsey stridinground Tom Quad in the gloaming. I played the SecondGentleman; and spoke the prologue.

There was also a great dinner in Hall, attended byThe King and Queen. When the Dean proposed theLoyal Toast: ‘The King, the Visitor of Christ Church’, weall drank it, and cheered His Majesty, and then the

The Right Hon. Lord Armstrong

of Ilminster GCB CVO

(1945)

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13

...it was unforgettable to see the figure of Wolseystriding round Tom Quad in the gloaming.

Then...

EditorialSince our last edition of Christ Church Matters the politicallandscape in the UK has changed somewhat. The Mayelection resulted in 117 MPs from Oxford University, of whichseven were from Christ Church, including our first everfemale MP, Louise Bagshawe (1989).

Since politics has been uppermost in mind for the lastfew months, I am delighted that for this edition we havemanaged to persuade four distinguished Old Members towrite about their experience of Westminster and Whitehall.They are two MPs – new boy Chris Skidmore (1999) and theold hand Sir George Young (1960), who is now Leader of theHouse – a Government minister, Earl Howe (1969) and thedistinguished former Cabinet Secretary, Lord Armstrong ofIlminster (1945). Marcus Scriven (1981) meanwhile hascontributed a witty review of progress in the House of Lordsover the past 30 years. David Neuberger (1966), a formerLaw Lord who underwent what he says a colleague called‘elective demotion’ to become Master of the Rolls, explainshow a Christ Church chemist ended up as the second mostsenior judge in England and Wales. In a more unusualreview, Tony Schur (1958) describes ideas for a fairer systemof govern ment put forward by a family of mice livingunderneath the corridors of power.

We have tried to capture the flavour of the eventsorganised for us all by the college and members of theAssociation. You may have enjoyed the GCR 50th anniversaryweekend. The Association’s AGM was held on the boat as itcruised down the Isis. The thinking behind this break withtradition was to boost the numbers, but since we held themeeting in an icy, sun-starved room below stairs, away fromthe refreshments and entertainment, this became more amatter of principle than practice. We did manage to keepthe AGM relatively short, however, helped by the knowledgethat otherwise the boat would leave before we had a chanceto take shore-leave and beetle into the pub.

You may have been to the Board of Benefactors’Gaudy or the 1997-1999 Gaudy or the 1960s reunion. Oryou may have been part of the 1958 Rugger Eight Dinneror present to bid farewell to Professor Michael Vaughan-Lee at his retirement dinner. You may have been part ofthe drinks for media, tech and start-ups group. Whateverevent you attended, I hope it led to a rekindling of oldfriendships or the creation of new ones.

As with the last edition, I am grateful to Freya Howard(1998) who has helped pull together the material for theevents pages. If you are planning to go to any of our manyevents next year and would like to do a short write up forAssociation News, Freya or I would be thrilled to hear fromyou. I am not sure if writing up the event makes people shunyou or seek your company, but I will tellyou after the 1977-1981 Gaudy next year.

In the meantime may I take thisopportunity to wish you a merryChristmas and a happy 2011.

Fiona Holdsworth (1981), [email protected]

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whole company with one accord dashed their glassesto the floor, in accordance with the tradition thatglasses from which The King’s health has been drunkin His presence should be destroyed so that they cannever be used to drink any other toast thereafter. It wasa very splendid moment; and the Steward was horrified.

On one occasion I was summoned by the SeniorCensor, Hugh Trevor-Roper, to be censured for theminor disciplinary offence of having girls in my roomfive minutes beyond 10.30 p.m., the time when theywere required to be out of the college. Waitingoutside his room I noticed a bookcase with threeshelves, each holding about twenty books. Lookingmore closely, I discovered that every single book wasThe Last Days of Hitler and that no one book was likeany other: a great variety of editions, many in Englishand some in foreign languages. No wonder Hugh wasable to drive a great grey Bentley, which he parked inTom Quad.

My first tutor for classical languages was J. G.Barrington-Ward. Unfortunately he was taken ill anddied in my first vacation. So I was sent to J. D.Denniston of Hertford College for my second term,but he too was obliged to retire sick. Then in my thirdterm Denys Page returned from Bletchley Park, andhe was young and strong enough to survive for therest of my career in Classical Mods. For my specialsubject – Greek vases and sculpture – I was fortunateto be taught by Paul Jacobstahl, a world authority onthe subject and a lovely man, whom Christ Churchhad welcomed as a refugee from Nazi Germany.

For Greats, I went to Michael Foster and then toJim Urmson for philosophy, to Eric Gray for RomanHistory and to Robin Dundas for Greek History.

Classical Mods and Litt. Hum could hardly be said tobe vocational training if I was not going to be anacademic. As Robin Dundas said when I was accepted forthe Treasury: “I don’t know what you know about finance;I never taught you about it”. But the combination ofClassical Mods and Greats provided a rich intellectual andcultural discipline. It taught one how to evaluate evidence;and it taught one to think seriously and straight, and toexpress one’s ideas and thoughts with precision andclarity. And it gave me an insight into the realities ofpolitics then as now, which stood me in good stead when Ifound myself at the apex of government where thebusiness of politics and the business of administrationfinally come together and have to be reconciled.

It all seems a very long time ago now but I had amarvellous time, and made many life-long friends. �Robert Armstrong (1945)

I read PPE from 1960 to 1963; thePolitics came from Robert Blake,the Philosophy from Oscar Woodand the Economics from RoyHarrod. Three great tutors,complemented by Peter Pulzerwho continues to impart wisdom.I only wish I had paid moreattention to what they had tosay during the tutorials. At thattime, I thought I would follow alucrative career in the City and so did not focus onmacro-economic theory, the case for an electedsecond chamber or the importance of logic in politicaldiscourse.

When I arrived in the Commons andserved in the first Thatcheradministration, Roy Harrod’sKeynesianism was falling out offashion. We Keynesians were routed tomake way for the Friedmannites,before regaining lost ground in thewake of the recent banking collapseand the world recession. When I gotto the Treasury under John Major in1995, my knowledge of demandcurves came in handy; but I wasbaffled to be told by one official thata policy I advocated might work inpractice, but it didn’t work in theory.

I learned much about Disraelifrom Robert Blake, but that great Prime Minister’stactics of dishing the Liberals have proved redundant,now I find myself locked in coalition with them. OscarWood’s tutorials took place on a different sphere,which many of us required an oxygen mask to inhabit.But his ability to spot a loophole in an argument hasproved invaluable in the rough and tumble of debatein the House.

While I was at the House, I met a number of fellowundergraduates who would be with me later in theHouse of Commons – Winston Churchill, MarkLennox-Boyd, Douglas Hogg and Jonathan Aitken –and a far larger number who ended up in thehereditary House of Lords without the inconvenienceof an encounter with the electorate.

PPE gave me the big picture; but it didn’t prepareme for all the skulduggery and intrigue of politics – Igot that from the Oxford Union and the OxfordUniversity Conservative Association. �George Young (1960)

Sir George Young(1960)

Oscar Wood’s tutorials took place on a different sphere,which many of us required an oxygen mask to inhabit.

The combination of Classical Mods and Greatsprovided a rich intellectual and cultural discipline.

Then...

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If, when this youthful photographwas taken, someone had told methat I might end up as a GovernmentMinister, I am not sure I would havetaken them very seriously. Istudiously avoided politics when upat the House and in fact had littleappreciation of political theory,other than being in receipt of theoccasional Marxist homily in one ortwo philosophy tutorials. Howeverin 1984, on the death of my cousin, Isuddenly found myself as a hereditary peer with a seatin the House of Lords. The place, and its role in ourlegislature, completely fascinated me, and I realisedquite rapidly not only the importance of the work itdoes but also what a formidable array of intellectualpower lies within it.

When I took a career break from banking a few yearslater, John Major asked me to join his Government as aminister in the Upper House.This was certainly rash ofhim. The only evidence he had of any ability on my partwas a couple of somewhat homespun speeches. HoweverI shall remain forever grateful that he did so. Between1991 and 1997 I served successively as a Government Whipand as a junior minister in the Ministries of Agricultureand Defence.These latter two posts put me at the heartof Government and, in the House of Lords, on the line asthe person responsible for steering each department’sprogramme through the chamber. Then, when theConservatives entered Opposition in 1997, I was asked totake on the health portfolio. This I soon found to be easilythe most absorbing of all the subject-areas I had covered.

Handling the minutiae of legislation in the UpperHouse requires very careful preparation. From the FrontBench you cannot afford to make a serious slip, but for methere was another rather daunting factor. Sitting near mewere two of the people whom I held in awe when up atOxford; Mary Warnock and Anthony Quinton. Listening tothem in a debate on stem-cell research, human cloning orthe ethical underpinning of the Mental Health Act felt likea regression to a long-remembered tutorial in which onewas both stimulated and outclassed in equal measure.

Nearly twenty years on from John Major’s decision, Iam a Government minister again – this time in theDepartment of Health. In approaching the intricacies of mywork there I am aware, as I have been throughout mycareer, of the debt that I owe to my tutors at Christ Church.It is to their influence, as well as to an accident of birth, thatI attribute the most fulfilling period of my working life. �Earl Howe (1969)

I always had a strong interest inpolitics – I joined the ConservativeParty at 16 and cut my teethcampaigning in the 1997 GeneralElection in my home area ofKingswood. However, when itcame to choosing a degree, myteachers convinced me that I’dlearn more about politicsstudying the Tudor Court thanPPE. When I arrived at ChristChurch, thrown into tutorials withWES Thomas discussing Macaulay, I soon became engrossed in thesubject: I preferred to get elected asPresident of the UniversityHistorical Society than get involvedin Oxford Union hackery.

I was fortunate enough to be taught by theinspirational late Patrick Wormald, one of the mostbrilliant minds I’ve met, who convinced me that Iwanted to follow an academic career. After graduating,I stayed on at Christ Church to do a Masters and aDoctorate, though I began to realise that I wanted todo more than just sit in silence in a library all day. Bythat time I’d been asked to write a biography of theTudor King Edward VI, and decided to postpone mystudies half-way through the DPhil. I never went back.By then, my interest in getting back into politics hadbegun to pick up, and I ended up as David Willetts’special adviser on education. I went on to become theDirector of the Conservative Party’s Public ServicesPolicy Group, before going on to work as Michael Gove’sAdviser. At the same time, I kept up my historyinterests, writing a book on Elizabeth I, Death and theVirgin, which was published earlier this year.

When I was selected for Kingswood in early 2008,few people expected that I would be able to win theseat; Labour since 1992, they held it by over 7,800votes. But it was my home seat and I was determinedto fight it as the local candidate. I came back full-timeto Kingswood to campaign, though also found workas a part-time history lecturer at Bristol University. Iwas surprised when the results came in – I was thefirst Conservative gain of the night with a 9.5%swing. The hard work, hours on the streets knockingon doors had paid off. The one thing I learnt at ChristChurch was that dedication is what matters. Applyyourself, I remember Patrick Wormald telling me, andyou can achieve anything. �

Chris Skidmore (1999)

Chris Skidmore(1999)

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I am aware, as I have been throughout my career, of the debt that I owe to my tutors at Christ Church.

The one thing I learnt at Christ Church was thatdedication is what matters.

Then...

The Right Hon. The Earl Howe

(1969)

Then...

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In celebration of the GCR 50th Anniversary theprogramme of events for the Association weekendwas extended this year and tied in with theUniversity’s Alumni weekend.

Old Members, spouses and guests gathered inthe new Exhibition space in Blue Boar forregistration, a Champagne Tea Reception andwelcome by the Dean who seemed somewhattaken aback on realising that House men andwomen normally take a glass of bubbly about then.The room also boasted a splendid GCR ArtExhibition by Sarah Simblet (1991) and AnthonySlessor (1996).

A rousing Celebratory Evensong followed withProf. Jonathan Freeman-Attwood (1985) (Principal of

the Royal Academy ofMusic), StephenDarlington (CathedralOrganist and Tutor inMusic), and SimonDesbruslais (PhDstudent) (2007)performing virtuoso 17thand 18th century sonatasfor two trumpets and theorgan by Franceschini,

Vejvanovsky and Handel. The two trumpets filled thecathedral magnificently.

A group photograph was taken on the Hallstairs of all those attend ing the GCR dinner andalong with many other photos of the weekend isavailable at: www.photoboxgallery.com/GCR50thanniversary ChristChurch

Speeches by Dr Katya Andreyev (1987) Tutor forGraduates, Sir Nicholas Bayne (1955) the first GCRSecretary, and Ollie Murphy (2008) the present GCRPresident, amused and informed in equal measure.An appeal was made to those in a position to helpsupport Graduate scholarships and the importanceof the GCR to its members, to the House, to Oxfordand to the worldoutside wasstressed. Everyoneagreed on the debtowed to Dr PaulKent in setting upthe GCR andguiding it throughits early days.TheLay Clerks sang onthe Hall stairs after dinner to round off a mostenjoyable evening.

Saturday morning offered a series of talks andlectures to remind Old Members of the House’shistory and to provoke some thought and debateabout the future. Prof. Sir Richard Gardner FRS(1974) gave a brilliantly clear and concisepresentation on ‘Regenerative medicine: scientificprospects and ethical concerns’ in the magnificentnew Blue Boar Lecture Theatre. He was followed byGary O’Donoghue (1987), BBC PoliticalCorrespondent, who introduced an ‘AnyQuestions?’ style forum with MP’s David Willetts(1975), James Gray (1975), Richard Graham (1977),and Mark Reckless (1990). An apology by the

The Association and GCR50th Anniversary Weekend

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EVENTS

organiser about the lack of diversity amongstthe panellists proved not to be needed as thepoliticians found much to disagree on whilstdebating such subjects as higher education, theeconomy, Europe, and the Labour leadershipelection, all expertly managed by Gary.

On the historical side the Archivist,Judith Curthoys, gave an excellentintroduction on the History of theHouse, with a number of fascinatingartefacts on display. Antony Farnath(Knight’s of the Garter Descendant’sRepresentative) presented his researchinto the 71 Garter Knights of ChristChurch, and Dr. Brian Young, Student andTutor in Modern History spoke on Dean Aldrichand Christ Church to mark the 300th anniversaryof that great man’s death.

Drinks in the Buttery and Saturdaylunch in Hall were accompanied by alocal Jazz band, and the samemusicians then reappeared on theBoat for the afternoon’s river trip onthe Isis. The passengers were alsotreated to a performance byyoungsters from Oval House and acream tea at Sandford lock.

There was time for a quickchange on returning before theAssociation Lecture by Adam Sismanwho has just published theauthorised biography of Hugh Trevor-Roper. He spoke on ‘A Formidable

Feud: Trevor-Roper v’s Waugh’. A pleasing number ofolder Members were able to return for the talk andthen attend the Association drinks reception anddinner afterwards. Professor Michael Dobson (1979),Professor of Shakespeare Studies, Birkbeck Universityof London, gave a fascinating after dinner talk on‘Elizabeth 1, Shakespeare and others: Christ Churchand the English Stage from the Renaissance to thepresent’. Few could have guessed quite what hadgone on in Wolsey’s Great Hall in previous centuries.

The final talk of the weekend, on the HallPortraits, was on Sundaymorning. Christopher Lloyd(1964), previously Surveyor ofthe Queen’s Pictures, gave anengrossing critique of a numberof the paintings and frames inHall. It was all suddenly soapparent once it had beenpointed out!

So many thank yous areneeded following the weekend. To those whospoke and performed, to all the staff at theHouse (the standard of food and service acrossthe weekend was exceptional), to the Steward’soffice for the organisation, and finally to those

who attended and supported the event. We trustthat you enjoyed it and will continue to return forsuch occasions in the future. �Simon Offen (1986)

1546 receptionSunday 26th September 2010In November 2009, as part of a renewed initiativeto encourage bequests to the House, The 1546Society was created. The first 1546 Societyreception was held in the Deanery after theEucharist Service on the Sunday of Alumni week-end, 26th September.

Members are also invited to attend, free ofcharge, any of the concerts put on by the ChristChurch Music Society.

Please contact the Development Office if youare interested in joining the society or have anyquestions.Simon Offen (1986)

1546Society

SUPPORTING THE HOUSE IN PERPETUITY

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The Board ofBenefactors’ GaudyThe Board of Benefactors’ Gaudy is to thank and celebrate OldMembers and Friends who have, over time, made gifts to theHouse of £20,000 or more. On Monday September 13th,accompanied by their spouses, partners and guests, nearly 100Benefactors attended the first such celebration making a grandtotal of 300 for a very grand event.

In an attempt to feed the mind as well as the body it beganwith a selection of lectures. Dr David Hine, Official Student inPolitics, spoke on ‘The euro crisis and the future of Europe’, Prof. NigelBiggar, Regius Professor of Moral & Pastoral Theology, lectured on‘Can we forgive political enemies? The case of Northern Ireland’, andDr Mark New, Official Student & Reader in Climate Science,presented ‘Avoiding dangerous climate change – the hard facts’. Thesecond session pitted Mr Peter Oppenheimer, Emeritus Student,with his ‘Lessons of the recession’ against Prof. Christopher Butler,Emeritus Student, on ‘The high culture and contemporary events’. Inall cases the Old Members were the winners.

For those wanting to nourish other senses The Picture Galleryopened for a private viewing and a glass of wine. Following aChampagne reception in the Deanery there was a wonderful tenminute recital in Hall by the Cathedral Choir directed by DrStephen Darlington.

Sir David Scholey CBE (1955), Chairman of the DevelopmentBoard, welcomed everyone and offered special congratulations to allthe Benefactors. He mentioned that Old Members have contributed£50 million towards the on-going challenge to continue inperpetuity what it means to be a member of the House. Inparticular he thanked Michael Moritz (1973, right) and HarrietHeyman for their enormous generosity and welcomed them to theoccasion. At Sir David’s proposal, the members of Governing Body inattendance rose and toasted the Benefactors and their guests.

The feast began with Goats’ Curd Beignets, Gingered Pear,White Truffle Honey and Port Syrup, with a main course of BraisedHaunch and Roast Best End of Wild Boar with Ceps. As one wouldexpect the Steward produced some fine wines for the occasion,including a 1995 Château Langoa-Barton and a lovely ChâteauDoisy-Védrines 2000 to accompany the Lemon Meringue Tart withBlackcurrant Jelly, Blackberry Sorbet and Cardamom Yoghurt.

The Dean reported news from the House and re-iterated thevital role of the Benefactors. “I believe that a splendid feature of theBoard of Benefactors is that it is achievable by the whole range ofages which make up our old members and friends, yet to us the helpis enormous.. . . For our part, we will provide you with material todemonstrate that we run a tight ship, managing our endowmentwell, spending money where it is most needed, thinking long-termabout the future. We are very much aware of our responsibilities asguardians of the House; and we have a long term perspective”.

He stressed the many ways in which he hoped Old Memberswould continue to participate in the life of the college, andconcluded by saying: “ I enjoy it all, in this splendid and multi-sided

institution. And among the many joysof my role is to have the honour ofthanking you.”

Mr Nick Prest CBE (1971) replied forthe Benefactors humourously contrasting the splendidfood served that evening with, in his day, a particularly toxicattempt at jugged hare. “It produced an astonishing, overpoweringand utterly revolting miasma. Strong men choked, weak men cried.Hall was partially evacuated and the stench lingered for days.Waggish House historians compared it to the great stink of 1858which led to the creation of the London sewage system.”

Nick stressed the importance of development and the expertmanagement of resources, in particular the endowment. “If everthere was a time to throw our weight behind our old college it isnow. I get the sense that the governing body and all those involvedwith the House have really grasped the nettle of steering the collegewith the highest level of professional management and achievementand competing successfully on the world stage, which is what it hasto do if it is to prosper in the future, whilst at the same timepreserving its historic sense of style and quality.”

‘The House’ was toasted with Taylor’s 1985, which continued tobe enjoyed with dessert and chocolates during the finale to theevening, a rousing performance of the ‘Danse Espagnole’ byManuel De Falla by Ruth Rimer (2005) and Katherine Tinker (2007)The Buttery then became the venue for further refreshments andtales of old friendships, historic achievements and not a fewmisdemeanours. Breakfast the next morning was an altogetherquieter occasion.

A huge thank you is due to the many people who made theevent possible. It was a splendid occasion, the first of many, and itis to be hoped succeeded in its aims of thanking current majordonors for their support for Christ Church, and encouraging othersto want to become members of the Board of Benefactors.

For further information on the Board of Benefactors, pleasecontact the Development Office or look at the website:www.chch.ox.ac.uk/in-perpetuity/board-of-benefactors. Since it ispossible that the threshold will have to rise in August 2011, earlyenquiries will be both welcome and economic. �

Marek Kwiatkowski, Development Director

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On Saturday 18th September 2010, a large gathering of formerChrist Church mathematics students returned to the House tocelebrate the lifetime achievements of Michael Vaughan-Leeand to send him off into retirement in appropriate style.Approximately 85 attended, covering matriculants from 1970through to 2010 graduates. The tables were broadly arrangedby age so that the young whizz-kids did not have to endure thenostalgic reminiscences of the ‘old fogeys’.

Michael’s former pupils in attendance included a numberwho have achieved much distinction, albeit some in non-relatedfields, such as Tony Scholl (1973), Professor of Mathematics atCambridge University, Trevor Llanwarne (1971), The GovernmentActuary, and Hew Dundas (1971), Past President of the CharteredInstitute of Arbitrators and Chairman of the Advisory Board,Chinese-European Arbitration Centre (Hamburg).

The House Chef was in fine form. We needed an Enigmamachine to decode the special diets catered for including V, NSF, NF/NSF, ND, NB, SD2, SD2a, NP, NP/NF. Amusingly, theshot glass containing a smoothie was much smaller than thespoon, thereby imposing an IQ test which most diners failed(the best solution was to pour it out onto the spoon).

Sam Howison (lecturer in Mathematics at the House since1991) made an excellent (and commendably succinct!) speechoutlining the magnitude of (but barely scratching the surfaceof) Michael’s achievements.

The diners each brought a bottle of fine wine as a farewellgift to send Michael on his way, including a very rare 1971Nieiersteiner Kranzberg Riesling Auslese (HF Schmidt) procuredfrom the producer’s private cellars, 1971 being the year Michaelarrived at the House as a tutor and also being a very greatvintage in Germany.

The programme sheet included four mathematics problemswhich no-one solved on the night. The sheet also included thefirst page of Michael’s 1970 Paper ‘Abelian by NilpotentVarieties’ (Quart. J. Math Oxford (2), 21 (1970) 193-202) in whichhe proved the theorem ‘The free group of countable rank of thevariety of all groups which are both abelian by nilpotent ofclass c, and nilpotent of class c by abelian, satisfies the maximalcondition of characteristic sub-groups’. Your correspondent hasno idea what any of this means.

A particular pleasure for all was the attendance of GlenysDavies and Sally Boardman, respectively widow and daughterof the late but very greatly loved Handel Davies. We wish themevery best wish as we remember a wonderful Tutor.

Farewell, Michael, with very many thanks from 40 years ofgrateful students. �Hew Dundas (1971)

Professor MichaelVaughan-LeeTutor and Professor at Christ Church: 1971-2010

Retirement Dinner

Rugger Eight Dinner 1958Having met up with Jock Craven after many years and enjoyed agood lunch, we resolved to arrange a re-union dinner of ourChrist Church Rugger Eight of 1958 which had bumped CorpusIV, New College III and Hertford III. At a glance, you can see thatwe were not inhabiting the dizzy levels of Ch Ch 1; and, in thosedays, the gender prefix ‘M’ before the Eight numbers wassuperfluous.

We discovered that, of our crew, Martin Hall had sadly diedin the 1990s; but all the remainding crew and our cox couldattend apart from Mike Bower and Christopher Story.

We had our dinner on the 4th June 2010 at the RiflesOfficers Club, in Davies Street Mayfair. Attending were JulianHall (Bow), Peter Ford (2), Floyd MacNeile-Dixon (3), Tony Parker(substitute 4) Jock Craven (5), David Pitman (stroke) and RobinWhicker (Cox). We also had Bill Rathbone (coach) and the wivesof Messrs Ford, Parker, Craven and Pitman. Many dusters wereworn.

We sat down to an excellent dinner, at the end of whichJock Craven proffered some Madiera of astonishing antiquityand some excellent port. Bill Rathbone regaled us with twosalacious jokes with which, from the tow-path, he had calmedour nerves in 1958.

Available on a side table were some contemporaneousgroup photos of our eight, including some taken the morningafter our celebration dinner. As a backdrop to our group, wereheld two sash window-frames from which, late the previousevening, one of us had systematically smashed out the glazing.This was an embarrassment in the light of the fact that two ofus were later to become Circuit Judges.

At the dinner, we drank to the health of the House and ofabsent friends. At the end of the dinner, we could not be called‘Nos miseri homines...’

Floyd Macneile-Dixon is due back in the country in theautumn and we then hope to gather in Mike Bower andChristopher Strory for a mini-gathering to complete the project.It has all been well worth organising. �David Pitman (1957)

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CHRIST CHURCH ASSOCIATION NEWS / EVENTS

Gaudy (1997-1999)I wasn’t really sure what to expect from our first Gaudy; perhapsthe one thing I didn’t expect was that it would actually feel thesame as when I was last up at the House as a member nearly 10years ago. Those who have engaged recently on the debatebetween member, old member etc forgive me if I have trespassedthe wrong side of the line. The weather was pretty awful and Iarrived in Tom Quad so covered by my rain coat that a lady in aburka would have been more recognizable and yet someone Ihadn’t seen for a decade managed to pick me out; by the time Iwas walking through the arch and heading towards Blue Boar Ihad passed so many familiar faces it felt like any day back as astudent, to my delight even the same friendly porters were there.Any mental images I had in my mind from American sitcoms ofschool reunions where people droned on about their careers werequickly forgotten as I found everyone slipped back into easybanter and in a funny way no one seemed to have really changed.

Before the Dean’s reception it was off to Peck for drinks insomebody’s room and standing there I felt like a student againrather than someone attending a reunion. We were given a lovelywelcome at the Deanery and it was wonderful to catch up withso many people.

At dinner the food, wine and staff were all superb. Drinkingout of the tankards at high table was a novel experience. LauraGyte gave an excellent speech that reminded us all of specialmemories and the contribution our time at the House has madeto our lives; friendship, fun and a lot of shared experiences. Thenwe headed off to the JCR for a bop. No cocktail in London hasquite the same vibe as the vodka and orange in a plastic cupserved in the JCR and I’ll take cheese over garage any day. As Ipushed my way through the crowd someone spilled a drink allover me without even noticing and I was officially back at my firstbop in 1998. �

Freya Howard (1998)

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1960 Reunion reportContinuing the new tradition instituted last year, September 2010saw the holding of the second reunion of House men who firstcame up to Oxford a whole fifty years previously. Thus it was thatseventy members of the older generation came back to ChristChurch, along with their guests, to take part in the 2010 Reunion of1960 Matriculands. It was noteworthy how many of those Housemen now living abroad came back for the event.

Most of the participants arrived during an afternoon of teemingrain, which relented immediately after Evensong in the Cathedral toreveal the most beautiful and striking setting sunscape behind TomTower.This was a fitting prelude to a memorable evening, whichbegan in style with a reception generously hosted by the Dean inthe Deanery.

The hubbub of conversation grew as reminiscences wereexchanged and old friendships were renewed. The highlight of theevening was the dinner in Hall, where the combination of fine winesand superb food from the Chef complemented the occasionperfectly.

The Dean proposed the loyal toast and the response was givenby Sir George Young whose witty and personal recollections werewell appreciated by all who were present. The personal warmthengendered by the dinner and by the atmosphere within the Hallmeant that everyone departed only reluctantly at the end of theproceedings.

For those who stayed in Oxford overnight, there was theopportunity provided of a behind-the-scenes tour of Christ Churchduring the following morning. Many of ‘the class of 1960’ joined thetour, and were treated to a seemingly inexhaustible supply offascinating facts and anecdotes about all aspects of the House. Thereunion concluded with a gathering for elevenses in the McKennaRoom at which we were delighted to see Dr Paul Kent, tutor forsome of us from way back in 1960. �Peter Morley (1960)

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EVENTS

Family Programme teaIn 2003 Christ Church launched the Family Programme towelcome families of its junior members to the House and toenable them to feel involved.

Members of the programme are invited to a welcome teawhen they drop off their children for the Michaelmas term asfreshers, and the photograph (above) is of the Dean speaking atthis year’s tea.

There is a Family lunch in Hall during the Hilary Term, andmembers are also invited to Association weekends and otherevents. They receive the biannual issues of Christ Church Mattersand the more regular electronic e-Matters. They are verywelcome to continue to receive these communications aftertheir child has gone down. �

If you would like to find out more about the programme, orjoin it, please contact the Development Office:[email protected] Offen (1986)

Alumni drinks for media,tech & start-upsIncoming phone call, 9.15pm, Thursday 21st October: “Kate, it’s Matt, listen I’m with 10 other Christ Church men aroundthe corner from your office in Soho, we’re just wondering where it’ssafe to go for a drink?” I recommended a few of the more salubriouslocal pubs and then set about clearing up the plastic cups and olivepackets remaining from a very jovial drinks reception. We had thepleasure of hosting about 20 college alumni now working in thefields of technology, media and entrepreneurship. I was heartenedby the turn-out and the good natured spirit of the group. FellowHouse members from media giants such as the BBC, ITV, Vodafoneand Saatchi, mingled with IP lawyers, market researchers andaspiring IT start-ups. Business cards were flung around and we evenhad to do a second alcohol run to top up the glasses. �Kate Jillings (1998)

SychellesJohn Purvis (Maths 1968) haslived and taught overseas mostof his life. He now works part-time for the new University ofSeychelles. He also manages acomfortable three-bedroomvilla called The House, which offers self-cateringaccommodation on one of the most beautiful islands, Praslin.He is pleased to offer big discounts to Old Members.www.thehouse.sc.

Rugby ShirtsChrist Church would like tothank the following alumniwho have financed a new setof shirts for the college rugbyclub. They are: 1972: Gwyn Davies, GraemeRocker, Steve Hnizdur, John Anderson, Tom Dowie,Philip Wright. 1973: Paul Fisher, Mark Perfect.

businessbecause.com

Set up by two friends, MariaAhmed and Kate Jillings,BusinessBecause.com is thefirst networking + news site forthe business school world. Weconnect business schools, currentstudents, applicants, professors and recruiters internationally,and publish daily news stories from our editorial team and themember community.

Launched as an online magazine in June 2009, we recentlyupgraded to a network. We're attracting nearly 3,000 uniquevisitors a day, and average time on the site is 8+ minutes -phenomenal for a new online media channel.

Kate and Maria both studied PPE, Kate at Christ Church,Maria at St Anne's. Our initial aim was to provide freshjournalism about life at business school and the global jobmarket for MBAs. We soon evolved into a social media service aswe quickly realised that our readers wanted to share their ownstories and to talk to each other. Schools are good atcommunicating with their own alumni and students but it'stough for students to connect with their counterparts at otherschools in the same city let alone on the other side of the world.

Recent graduates might find BusinessBecause.com helpfulfor networking with other young professionals, or if they'reconsidering doing an MBA BusinessBecause.com provides livelyjournalism about what it's like at top b-schools around theworld. More experienced graduates might be interested in themarketing and recruitment potential of BusinessBecause.com.We're about to sign-up some big corporate clients (e.g.Accenture and GlaxoSmithKline) who are interested in reachingour growing database of business student talent.Kate Jillings (1998)

John Anderson presenting a shirtto the rugby club captain, ChrisWhitehouse, May 2010

Kate Jillings (left) and Sian Fleming-Jones of businessbecause.com

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A View from Below:How to improve politics

It may seem strange, perhaps evenpresumptuous, for someone likeme to have written a book withthe sub-title ‘How to improvepolitics’. After all I did not readPPE, took no part in universitypolitics and was not even amember of the Union.

But, looking back, it feels asthough politics has alwaysbeen one of my main interests.From time to time this interesthas stirred me into action aswhen, for example, I was anactive member of the 1975campaign to keep Britain inEurope and, later, became a rather tentativeparliamentary candidate.

Mostly, however, I have just been anobserver of the political process. In the1960s I was a junior District Officer inNorthern Rhodesia, and saw at first hand thespeed with which power was transferred tothe new government prior to independence.A decade later, my job in Imperial Groupenabled me to glimpse something of therelationship between government and bigbusiness. And more recently, in my work as achartered accountant, as a non-executivedirector in the NHS and as chairman of anational charity, I have been reinforced in myview that the quality of government decisionmaking is not always as good as it should be.

This is why I wanted to highlight someof the more serious weaknesses in ourpolitical system, and suggest some ways inwhich matters could be improved. A Viewfrom Below, a slim volume of 96 pages,including illustrations by Sewell, sets out thethoughts of a family of mice, who live in andaround the corridors of power in Whitehall.From their detached and independentviewpoint they explain how our politicalsystem works and where it has gone wrong.They also put forward their ideas, some ofwhich are radical, for bringing about a fairerand more effective system of government.

A View from Below is published by BlackcapBooks with a cover price of£6.99. More informationcan be found atwww.blackcapbooks.co.ukThe book can be obtainedthrough amazon.co.uk,politicos.co.uk and otherbookshops. Tony Schur (1958)

The Fortune Hunter

On 8 November 1827 Prince Hermann vonPückler-Muskau wrote from London to his

ex-wife Lucie that he wasabout to win the hand ofthe heiress ElizabethHamlet: ‘My man ofbusiness and I have beensweating beads, and Godin Heaven give us Hisblessing! The fortune isimmense, and if I obtain it(which is of course notcertain) I shall be in clover.’Back in Germany, Luciefollowed his progresseagerly, for she wanted himto succeed too; indeed theirdivorce and his bridal quest

had been her idea. Notthat she wanted to losehim - they loved eachother too much for that.But they had spent theircombined fortunesturning his estate into ahuge landscaped parkand were close tobankruptcy. The onlysolution was for Pücklerto find a rich wife whowas also pliable enoughto share her home withher predecessor. And theobvious place to lookwas the destination offortune hunters from allover Europe: England.

Pückler is rememberedtoday as one of Germany’sfinest landscape gardenersand travel writers. But thefull story of his stay inEngland from 1826 to 1828,so formative for bothcareers, has not previouslybeen told. Drawing onmanuscript sources,Bowman gives blow-by-blowaccounts of his various courtships, traceshis social life among London’s fashionableelite, his love affairs, andhis gambling and moneytroubles, and shows thatPückler was anexceptionally astuteobserver of RegencyEngland. James Bowman (1990)

Jewish Refugees from Hitler in Britain

The Jewish refugees who fled to Britain fromGermany and Austria between 1933 and theoutbreak of war in 1939 are among the mostremarkable groups of immigrants to havesettled in this country in the mid-twentiethcentury.They form the largest community ofvictims of Nazi persecution in this country andthe most potent reminder of the Holocaust.

They also brought an exceptionalwealth of talent to Britain. From GeorgeWeidenfeld, Ernst Gombrich, Lucian Freud,Max Perutz and the Amadeus Quartet toJudith Kerr, Gerard Hoffnung, Ludwig Kochand Andrew Sachs, the 50,000 whocomposed ‘Hitler’s gift to Britain’contributed enormously to their adoptedhomeland. Astonishingly, my book, Jewish

Refugees from Germany andAustria in Britain, 1933-1970:Their Image in ‘Association ofJewish Refugees Information’,is the first ever history of thisgroup. Among those with aconnection to the House, Imention Sir Francis Simon(1945), the celebratedphysicist, as well as tworefugee professors of classics,Paul Jacobsthal (1938) andFelix Jacoby (1936), who foundpositions at Christ Church inthe 1930s; Peter Pulzer (1957),who left Vienna as a child in

1939, came to Christ Church in1957 and taught politics togenerations of students.

I have made systematic useof the monthly journal of therefugees’ own organisation, theAssociation of Jewish Refugees(founded in 1941), to write ahistory that covers their arrival,their experience of the war, andtheir post-war settlement inBritain. The book traces thestory of the refugees’

integration into British society, through theausterity of the late 1940s, the consumer-ledaffluence of the 1950s and the turbulence ofthe 1960s. It details theirinteraction with thatbaffling breed, the British,and the development oftheir own social cultureand communal identity as‘Continental Britons’.Anthony Grenville (1962)

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BOO

K REVIEWS

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CHRIST CHURCH ASSOCIATION NEWS

From ChristChurch Chemistto Master of theRollsIt was in 1966 that I went upto Christ Church to readchemistry under thetutelage of Paul Kent andRichard Wayne. Chemistrymay have been naturalscience, but it was not mynatural home. Nonethelesswith encouragement andindulgence from Paul andan alpha-delta mark fromRichard for a collectionspaper, I had four enjoyable, ifundistinguished, years at the House. Life atChrist Church prepared me well for theuncertainties and challenges of life,chemistry taught me to approach issues ina coherent, logical and dispassionate way,and my contemporaries encouraged me tobe articulate and committed, and helpedme to maintain and develop my sense ofhumour.

Having realised that I was no scientist,I had a go at what is now calledinvestment banking. Two years satisfiedme that I was even less of a banker than achemist. So I decided to train as a barrister,and it was a case of third time lucky –although not immediately. I had realdifficulty finding chambers who wouldtake me on; that was discouraging at thetime, but the difficult eighteen months,coupled with the previous realisationsthat I was neither scientist nor banker,helped to toughen me and make me moredetermined.

I ended up in chambers whichspecialised in the law of land and property.There is an irony there: when I was up, thesenior law student was Teddy Byrne,probably the leading academic landlawyer of his time, and we neverexchanged a word in four years. I havebeen lucky enough to get to know himsince, and I think that I must haveabsorbed his knowledge by osmosis whileI was at Christ Church.

Life at the Bar worked for me; thecombination of court work, paperwork,conferences, academic analysis andfactual investigation, appealed to me: forthe first time in my life, I really worked.Having become a QC in 1987, I wasappointed a High Court Judge in the

Chancery Division in 1996.This involved a change ofrole – decider not advocate– and a more mixed diet –insolvency, company law,commercial law, IP law, aswell as property law. Indeed,my Christ Church educationcame into its own, as therewas a need for a Judge whocould try patent cases, and Iwas chosen largely becauseof my chemistry degree.

This increased my versatility, which I thinkhelped my promotion to the Court ofAppeal, as a Lord Justice, in 2004, andthen to the House of Lords, as a Law Lord,in 2007.

The Court of Appeal normally involvessitting with two other Judges, and theHouse of Lords with four other Judges.Judges in the House of Lords were seen bythe then-Government as an anachronism,and the Law Lords were moved to becomeSupreme Court Justices in the newSupreme Court in October 2009. I did notgo with them, because I had decided toapply to become Master of the Rolls – thehead of the civil division of the Court ofAppeal. Whether to become a SupremeCourt Justice or the Master of the Rollswas a very difficult choice, and one I wasremarkably privileged to have to make. Inthe end I went for what one of mycolleagues called an elective demotion,and, like Lord Denning, I went back to theCourt of Appeal. It involvesadministration, policy-making, andmanagement, as well as judging. So it ishard work, but it is very rewarding.

I had a very good time at ChristChurch, and look back on my time therewith nostalgic, perhaps slightly rose-tinted, pleasure. Indeed, I encouraged mysister-in-law, Fiona Holdsworth (1981), togo there, and, more recently, I encouragedmy son, Max (2000), to do so as well. David Neuberger (1966)

Year, Country,Area, Sport &Society RepsWANTED!The Year Representative Scheme wasset up by the college and theAssociation in 2003 to improve thechannels of communication betweenOld Members, the Association and theHouse. The Year Rep’s role is to nurturelinks between those groups.

Reps help to keep in touch withtheir contemporaries. For example anumber run a Facebook page for theiryear, they come up with ideas forevents and sometimes help organisethem, and often they assist currentmembers, Old Members and the Housealike by helping with careers’ adviceand business contact networks.

In their Gaudy year, which occursapproximately every seven years, theReps help to ensure that ‘lost’ membersare found, and as many of theircontemporaries as possible attend theGaudy. They often arrange othersmaller events, to which spouses andpartners can also be invited, and theyencourage support for the Annual Fundfor student bursaries from theirfriends.

Being a Year Rep is in no sense anonerous responsibility; it doesn't taketoo much time and can be veryrewarding! There is an Annual Year Repmeeting in November which alternatesbetween London and Oxford. Ideally,there are about four Reps in any year toallow for such things as postingsabroad, busy work periods or familycommitments. If a Rep retires they areasked to help find a replacement.

Gradually, we are adding to thenumber of Reps; both for particularyears but also by seeking to appointCountry and Area Reps, and Sports andSociety Reps. If you are interestedplease [email protected] [email protected] Galbraith (1995)

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Marcus Scriven (1981,History) was briefly asoldier, then became ajournalist, initially for theSunday Telegraph,subsequently theEvening Standard, beforeresearching and writinghis first book, Splendour& Squalor: The Disgraceand Disintegration ofThree Aristocratic Dynasties.

Splendour & Squalor: The Disgrace andDisintegration of Three Aristocratic Dynasties(Atlantic) is a ‘witty, gossipy and profoundlyresearched portrait of four particularlydysfunctional 20th century aristocrats.’Christopher Hart, Sunday Times

Short-listed for Spear’s Book of The YearAward (Social History), it seeks to answer howfar each of the quartet under particularscrutiny could echo the epitaph composed byJohn Knatchbull, fourth son of a baronet,shortly before his execution in Australia in1844: ‘For some part I am to be blamed; forthe rest I am to be pitied.’ Available to buy at Amazon.co.uk.

RATS gnawed through garbage that washeaped, putrefying, on the streets; the deadlay unburied. It was January 1979, thebleakest days of what became known as‘The Winter of Discontent’.

On Thursday 18th of that month, TheHouse of Lords snapped into action. Thedebate, The Times later reported, was ‘oneof the best attended for some years’.William Francis Brinsley Le Poer Trench, 8thEarl of Clancarty, initiated proceedings. ‘Itis with much pleasure,’ he began, ‘that Iintroduce this debate about unidentifiedflying objects – known more briefly asflying saucers.’

Perhaps Clancarty (editor of Flying SaucerReview) inadvertently intensified theappetite for Upper House reform. If so, thereremained those who were appreciative ofthe hereditary principle, amongst them thesecond son of a Luton shopkeeper, KeithCheeseman. “If we’d get short, we’d go,‘Come on, Angus, let’s pop into the House ofLords”. You’d have subsidised food,subsidised booze, you’d come out withsubsidised fags, whisky and chocolates, allwith the portcullis thing on.’His friend, Angus Charles Drogo Montagu,12th Duke of Manchester, had already beendescribed by a High Court judge as‘absurdly stupid’; in 1996, he was jailed inthe USA for fraud (Cheeseman was by thenexperiencing his third custodial sentence).

The advent the following year of a newLabour government signalled that theLords’ days as a gilded day centre were over.

The late Earl Russell (historian ConradRussell), a Liberal Democrat, voiced unease,pointing out that, on issues where Lordsand Commons disagreed, public opinion (asrecorded by pollsters) more often favouredthe line taken by the Lords. Perhaps,suggested Russell, something of theindependent spirit of the hereditarypeerage could be preserved by selecting200 peers by lottery – ‘the system forselecting juries’ – who would sit alongsidethose nominated by the Prime Minister.

Russell’s proposal – described by BaronessBlackstone as ‘grotesque and lunatic’ - wasomitted from the House of Lords Act 1999,which finally gave the country an UpperHouse predominantly comprisingresourceful men and women from theprofessional political class. They includedLord Truscott and Lord Taylor of Blackburn(both suspended from the Lords for offeringto amend Government legislation in returnfor cash), Lord Bhatia and Lord Paul(suspended for difficulties concerning theirexpenses), Lord Taylor of Warwick and LordHanningfield (both facing courtroomcharges), and Baroness Uddin (suspendeduntil the end of the 2012 parliamentarysession, and directed to repay £125,349)

But it is Lord Watson of Invergowrie whomost convincingly suggests that the newelite has developed the self-regard andadvanced sense of entitlement of the oldaristocracy without the interveningcenturies of uneven service and sporadicself-sacrifice. After dining at thePrestonfield House Hotel, Edinburgh, on

11th November 2004, his lordship requestedmore drink, a request to which hotel staffacceded, although the bar was closed. Alittle while later, Lord Watson requestedfurther refreshment; this was refused.Shortly afterwards, he set fire to the curtainin the hotel’s reception, earning himself a 16month jail sentence for wilful fire raising.

Is it now time to revisit Lord Russell’s‘grotesque and lunatic’ proposal? �

‘It’s curtains for the (new) Lords’Marcus Scriven reviews 30 years’ progress in the Upper House.

Photo © Archant, Suffolk

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My first sight of Christ Church was inDecember 1961, when I came up for theScholarship Examination in Mathematics. Iwas given a room in Peck next door to JohnArmstrong who was also trying for a MathsScholarship. I remember asking him abouta particular question I had got stuck on, andbeing immensely impressed when hereplied airily “I realized at once that theanswer they gave was wrong. I did a quickdimension check, and it had the wrongdimension”. Goodness, I thought, how can Icompete against people as clever as that?As it turned out, we were both awardedscholarships to Christ Church and becametutorial partners and friends. We bothstayed on at Christ Church to do ourdoctorates.

I only recall one question in the scholarshipinterview: “What is the worst Mathematicsbook you have ever read?” I didn’t want toname a book which one of them hadwritten, but I thought I would be safeanswering Friar and Chignell’s Calculus, asFriar was the head of Mathematics atCharterhouse.The follow up question was“Why is it so bad?” My reply, “The answersare all wrong” provoked a big laugh.

I matriculated in 1962 with no less than 8other Carthusians - those were the days.Rob Walther was one, also readingMathematics and we too became firmfriends, sharing a flat together in our thirdyear in that curious house on Folly Bridgewith all the statues. One of my most vividmemories of Rob is sitting in the cinemawith him and watching him with awe ashe stuck the wrong end of a mentholcigarette in his mouth and lit the mentholend!

Our tutor was Handel Davies (right) whoused to puff away at his pipe duringtutorials. He had great trouble keeping italight, and spent more time strikingmatches than actually smoking it. The pipe,

matchbox and tobacco tin were valuableteaching aids as he waved them about toillustrate changes of frames of reference inMechanics. He was a great tutor, and animmensely kind man.

After 6 six years at Christ Church I receivedmy doctorate and left for America and myfirst job, at Vanderbilt University inNashville, Tennessee, (where I became a fanof Country Music) After that I taught at theUniversity of Queensland in Brisbane,Australia, before coming back to ChristChurch as Tutor in Pure Mathematics in1971. It was my extraordinary luck thatthere was a big expansion in BritishUniversities at that time, and Christ Churchwas moving from one tutor inMathematics to two.

Apart from the occasional sabbatical, I havebeen teaching at Christ Church ever since;and what a privilege it has been. Perhaps Ishould explain? My duties are to teach 12hours a week, though in my early yearsthat often shaded up to 15 hours, but Inever did any preparation for tutorials, andvery little marking, so that is hardly a fulltime job! But of course there is also muchresearch and some administration. I did 3years as Senior Censor and 5 years as Tutor

for Admissions and both of those jobs alsotook up far more time than teaching.Despite that, I still think of my job as‘teaching’. You can do research andadministration at any University, anywherein the world, but it is the teaching thatmakes Oxford stand out and gives it anenormous edge over other universities.Christ Church tutors really care about theirteaching and their students; you only haveto listen to the conversation at SCR lunchto realise that.

I am quite often asked “Is it a great thrillwhen you have a really brilliant student?”Funnily enough the answer for me is “Notreally!” Of course I like to have brilliantstudents around; they are no trouble toteach, and are good for our examinationresults. But they are going to do well withor without any input from me! For me, thejoy of teaching is the 2.1 student who I canencourage and help along to a First, or the2.2 student who manages to get a 2.1.However I mustn’t be too starry eyed aboutit. There were plenty of bleary eyedstudents at tutorials who couldn’t wait toget back to bed!

We have a tremendous teaching team atChrist Church with Sam Howison and ChrisBreward, and with help from John Wright,Becky Shipley and Chongrui Zhou. Over thelast few years well over half of ourundergraduates have been getting Firsts inFinals, and I do believe we can take some ofthe credit! �

48 years at Christ Church Michael Vaughan-Lee

(1961)

It is the teaching thatmakes Oxford stand outand gives it anenormous edge overother universities.

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Coming back for a Gaudy or for dinner One of the most tangible representationsof the lifelong link between the Houseand its members is the tradition ofGaudy hospitality. Many Old Membersalso enjoy returning to the House fromtime to time to take dinner at the HighTable. It may be helpful to describe thecurrent arrangements.

Gaudies:A new provisional programme,commencing in 2011, is shown below.Gaudy dates, necessarily linked to the datesof Term, are normally held on a Thursday inlate June and late September/early October.

The Governing Body customarily confirmsthe date about six months in advance ofthe event. Invitations are posted somethree months ahead. It is hoped to adhereto the following seven year schedule, whichis based on year of matriculation:

The High Table: The House is also pleased to welcomeOld Members wishing to dine from timeto time. Dinner is served at the HighTable, in Hall, on most nights during eachof three 10-week Terms. The High Table,as well as dinner in Hall for current juniormembers, is a popular and busy serviceand there are occasional evenings whenit is not possible to accommodate OldMembers, or when occasionally service issuspended. However it is available onmost evenings in Term and also duringvacations when it is served in the LeeBuilding of the Senior Common Room.

Very often, a member booking dinner willarrange to book with another member ofthe House, and the arrangements, asestablished, do not confer anyentitlement to bring a guest. But this canoften be waived, and a guest welcomed.The House is always glad to hear fromOld Members wishing to take dinner, andthe arrangements are implemented asflexibly as possible to encourageparticipation.

All arrangements for Old MemberGaudies and High Table dining areoverseen by the Steward. A paperdescribing the customs and protocols ofthe High Table is available on request. Forall further information and enquiriesplease contact the Steward’s Secretary,Miss Helen Smith, on 01865-286580 oremail [email protected].

Visiting the HouseOld Members may be aware that recentlythe number of tourist visitors at ChristChurch has grown considerably. Thespectacular architecture and associationswith Alice in Wonderland and HarryPotter have made us an increasinglypopular destination with close to300,000 visitors annually. This hasbecome significant business but ourCustodial team has the tricky task ofbeing both welcoming and providing areasonable element of control.

It also remains important that, amidstthese throngs, Old Members continue tobe welcomed. If you wish to visit theHouse please do so at any time duringgate opening hours and ideally enter viaTom Gate (which normally closes at8.30p.m.) Please feel free to bring one ormore immediate companions. If you havea University or Alumni card it would behelpful if you could show this to theCustodian upon arrival, but of course thisis not essential. �

John HarrisSteward of

Christ ChurchGAUDY HOSPITALITY

UP TO 1955 30 JUNE 2011

1977-1981 29 SEPTEMBER 2011

1961-1965 JUNE 2012*

1956-1960 27 SEPTEMBER 2012

1972-1976 20 JUNE 2013

1966-1971 3 OCTOBER 2013

1982-1986 26 JUNE 2014

1987-1990 2 OCTOBER 2014

1991-1993 25 JUNE 2015

1994-1996 1 OCTOBER 2015

1997-1999 23 JUNE 2016

2000-2002 AUTUMN 2016*

2003-2005 SUMMER 2017*

2006-2008 AUTUMN 2017*

26

* date not yet available

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Christ Church Picture Gallery iscommemorating the tercentenary of thedeath of Henry Aldrich (1648 – 1710) with anexhibition, and an accompanying study daywill be held on the 21 January 2011organised by Dr Brian Young and JacquelineThalmann.

Henry Aldrich, Dean of Christ Church from1689 to his death in 1710, and ViceChancellor of the University of Oxfordbetween 1692 and 1695, was a truepolymath: Anglican divine, politician,scholar, collector, musician, architect, toname but a few of his talents andoccupations. This concentration of interestsand activities combined with a powerfulpost which enabled Aldrich to promote andutilise them, made him ‘one of the mosteminent men in England’ in the late 17thcentury. But his life and activities are muchunder-researched and under-studied, a factthat might be explained through theabsence of most of his personal papers. Inhis will he asked for everything to bedestroyed except for his collections ofmusic manuscripts (c 8000), books (c 3000)and prints (c. 2000 - still in their originalalbums), which he left to Christ Church. Inrecent years scholars have started to studythese collections in more detail andscholarly cataloguing of them has begun.

With his collections still intact, theexhibition will concentrate on HenryAldrich as a collector. His fundamentalpurpose as a collector, especially in hisaccumulation of prints and music, was astrongly utilitarian one, and this prevailed

over pure academic curiosity on his part. Heused the prints in his collection to designplates for the Oxford Almanac; some of thedrawings by Aldrich which he seems tohave made for the newly appointedengraver and printer Michael Burghers,have survived. A glass window in ChristChurch cathedral, now lost, was alsodesigned by him after prints in hiscollection. Furthermore, the design for thewindow and the prints offer a link toGeneral John Guise (1682 – 1765), who wastaught by Aldrich, and who bequeathed hislarge and important art collection to ChristChurch. Several indications lead to thetheory that Aldrich was the major influencebehind Guise’s interest in art and hisextraordinary bequest. Prints afterGirolamo da Treviso’s Adoration of theShepherds and Cornelius van Cleve’spainting of the same subject - which weknow were repeatedly used by Aldrich -must have made such a deep impressionon John Guise that he subsequentlyacquired the paintings, which he thenbequeathed to Christ Church.

It is also the combination of theory andpractice which is specific to one of HenryAldrich’s major interests: architecture. Thisunion of interests can be seen both in hisunfinished treatise, Elementa Architecturae,which drew strongly on Vitruvius andPalladio, and in his designs for thePeckwater Quadrangle at Christ Church,built between 1706 and 1708. Thequadrangle can be regarded as the firstEnglish Palladian building in Britain,constructed several years before the

publication of Colin Campbell’s VitruviusBritannicus.

Aldrich’s considerable influence on theacademic, political and social life of Oxford(and England) became increasingly evidentin preparing the exhibition. To conclude theexhibition with a study day, therefore,allows us to investigate the cultural andpolitical climate in Oxford in more detail.The sheer breadth of Aldrich’s interestsinvites the inter-disciplinary exchange ofknowledge which the study day willprovide. For the full programme, pleasecontact the Picture Gallery or look at ourwebsite www.chch.ox.ac.uk/gallery �

TicketingFull conference fee, including coffee, lunch,and tea is £20 full price and £15 for studentand unemployed concessions. To registerfor the conference please check availabilitywith Laura Bleach at the Picture Gallery:[email protected] 01865 276172.

Members may wish to know that theGallery now has a Facebook page:www.facebook.com/pages/Christ-Church-Picture-Gallery/116315595092929?v=info

Henry Aldrich An Oxford Universal Man

27

Aldr

ich p

ortr

ait a

fter

Kne

ller

L ‘Christ Church Bells’ music by Aldrich.

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28

If we learned of an Oxford don whospent the proceeds of his first book onbuying a horse and the second on a largegrey Bentley that he parked in the quad,we could safely bet that he was a ChristChurch man; and it is as a Christ Churchman that Hugh Trevor Roper (aka LordDacre of Glanton) would certainly wantto be remembered.

Hugh came up in 1932 to read Greats,found the subject tedious and switchedto Modern History, graduating with FirstClass Honours four years later. After threeyears as a research fellow at Merton andanother four in the Intelligence Services,he returned as a Student in 1946. Hisheart remained here even when he hadto move his base (though firmly, not hisresidence) to Oriel when he becameRegius Professor of Modern History in1957. When later he emigrated toCambridge as Master of Peterhouse hewas utterly miserable and let everyoneknow it.

Even at Christ Church, though, Hugh wasrestive. He liked the company ofundergraduates so long as they wereclever, well-connected or good drinkingcompanions, but he found teachingthem a chore. He was no happier in aProfessorial Chair, with its endlessdrudgery of committees. Indeed heregarded Oxford (always excepting ChristChurch) as ‘a retrograde provincialbackwater’ and took little trouble toconceal this view from his academiccolleagues. As for Peterhouse, it was acomic nightmare, made tolerable onlybecause it satisfied that insatiable needfor combat, which ‘stimulated him’, asAdam Sisman shows in this magnificentbiography, ‘rousing him from lethargyand curing depression’.

The trouble was that Hugh had been fedtoo much red meat when young. Duringhis military service he had not onlycracked a key German code but fought aferocious battle at the highest levels ofWhitehall to transform the entiregovernance of the Intelligence Servicesand gain unrestricted access todecrypted information. He had gone onto lead the official investigation into thelast days of Hitler and write the book

Even at Christ Church,though, Hugh was restive.He liked the company ofundergraduates so long asthey were clever, well-connected or gooddrinking companions.

Hugh Trevor-RoperBOOK REVIEW

Prof. Sir Michael Howard(1941)

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29

that made him famous and, alas, to hisultimate misfortune, an acknowledgedexpert on everything to do with thatghastly man.

After such a rich diet, anyone would havefound it difficult to resign themselves tothe humdrum porridge of academic life.Hugh had acquired a taste for hob-nobbing with the great, for the rewardsof the higher journalism, and for thecompany of the beau monde. He franklypreferred the company of dukes to thatof dons because, as he put it, “I like theworld of grace and leisure and theopulence necessary to maintain it”; eventhough he was ‘continually disgusted bythe triviality and vulgarity of the greatworld, and bored by its lack of education’.That of course was one of the greatadvantages of Christ Church: it was amilieu where the world of dukes and thatof scholars overlapped.

It is thus all too easy to dismiss Hugh, asdid so many reviewers of this book, as asocialite and a controversialist, who got awell-deserved come-uppance over theaffairs of the Hitler Diaries. He was, andhe did. But he was also a true scholar,and one of the finest of his generation.His waters ran deep. He kept theshallows sparkling with his journalismand agitated by the controversies that heprovoked (and conducted with quiteunnecessary ferocity) with his academiccolleagues. But deeper down waslearning of awe-inspiring breadth anddepth; learning inspired by a curiositythat kept him constantly questioning

accepted historical explanations andunearthing new material in quantitiesthat far exceeded his capacity tocommunicate it. Evenhis staunchestdefenders found it hardto understand why hepublished so little, but itwas not for lack ofmaterial to publish. Hehad, as his Nachlasse hasrevealed, far too much.He was constantly firedby enthusiasm for hisnew discoveries, and alltoo often promised a book about them.Then further research would open newvistas, promise new topics, newinterpretations, and somehow the booksnever appeared.

But what did appear were articles, essays,and lectures that opened our eyes to newways of looking at the past. It was thetimidity of his Oxford colleagues, so oftenunwilling to look beyond their familiararchives and professional specialities,which he found so unforgivable. Rangingas he did over the whole field of Europeanand classical learning, he brought to everysubject he touched a new and illuminating

Only a master-biographercould do so complex andcolourful a character fulljustice, but that is exactly

what Adam Sisman has done

HUGH TREVOR-ROPER: THE BIOGRAPHY. By Adam Sisman. (Weidenfeld & NicolsonLondon 2010)

insight often denied to the specialists; andhe transmitted those insights with a style,wit, and enthusiasm that made everythinghe wrote a pleasure even for the mostignorant layman to read.

To this must be added the staunch moraland physical courage that he displayedas much in academic disputation as onthe hunting field, and a sense of theridiculous that made him such superbcompany for those fortunate enough to

be admitted to his friendship.Only a master-biographercould do so complex andcolourful character fulljustice, but that is exactlywhat Adam Sisman has done;warts and all. �

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30

Two regular events now characterise College lifeeach spring. One is the Sunday Times LiteraryFestival. The other is our own annual SpecialInterest Weekend which continues to enjoy thesupport of Old Members as well as those regularguests from home and overseas, who enjoybuilding up their own affiliation with ChristChurch. The twin themes for 2010 were History:The Korean War partnered with Science: ClimateChange - Evidence, Impacts and Solutions.

Christ Church’s Professor Judith Pallot and DrMark New led the Science programme which wasopened by Sir David King, former Chief ScientificAdviser to the UK Government and now Directorof Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise andEnvironment. Sir David’s work had led to theformulation of the UK’s energy targets, the firstcountry to formalise this process. In his lecture

‘More Dangerous than Terrorism’ he spoke starklyof likely global catastrophes such as there beingno large fish left in the world’s oceans by mid-century, oceans that are themselves acidifying, thedestruction of the planet’s lungs – the rain forests– and the depletion of its finite resources. Hecharacterized this as the Anthropocene Age,where man is himself determining the globaltemperature. The presentation was statisticallyimpressive but not unremittingly pessimistic withexamples of successful progressive collaborationand control, like automobile exhaust regulation inCalifornia and the reversal of CFC – inducedstratospheric reduction over Antarctica in 1987.The very significant gains available fromimproving our immensely inefficient energyconversion process gave further grounds for liftingthe gloom.

The co-stars of the History programme wereProfessor Allan Millett of Ohio State Universityand, once again, Professor Andrew Lambert,Professor of Naval History at King’s College,London. Professor Millett, himself a veteran,lectured on both Chinese involvement in Korea1950-1953 and the wider People’s War to liberateKorea 1947-1954, which focused on the Communistperspective and Mao’s model for a successful warof liberation.

Sir Lawrence Freedman put Korea in the nuclearcontext, a subject broadened significantly in livelyquestioning. He reminded us of Churchill’s words,that ‘Peace is the sturdy child of terror and thetwin brother of annihilation’.

Professor Lambert examined in careful detail thenaval war around the Korean Peninsula, theoverwhelming predominance of the navies of theUnited States, Great Britain, Canada and Australiaand their successful force projection from fleetcarriers. The first significant use of helicopters andthe sensitivity of the USA to possible escalation inTaiwan were notable features of this war. Thereport of the sinking by a British warship inKorean waters of a Soviet submarine wasregarded by the attentive audience as somethingof a revelation. In the endless debate between air

John HarrisSteward of

Christ Church

...with warmpraise for the

good service andfine food, many

had alreadysigned up for the

2011 SpecialInterest

Weekend...

The House in Spring

Special Interest days

CCM 26 [3]:Layout 1 19/1/11 12:07 Page 30

3131

power and navalstrength, thesuccessful naval warright around theKorean Peninsula hadconfirmed thepredominance of carrierborne power projectionover land-basedbombers.

The volcanic closure ofUnited Kingdomairspace throughoutthe weekend addedthe unexpectedchallenge of absentspeakers, to which theleaders of bothoptions rosemagnificently. JudyPallot and Mark Newchaired a livelyconcluding debate,and Christ Church’sProfessor SarahRandolph gave a well receivedpresentation on disease and health.

Professor Lambert showed his wide rangingscholarship and versatility by delivering, withstrong authority, presentations prepared bystranded and volcanically challenged speakers onInchon and the Amphibious War and the stillrelevant Armistice along the 38th Parallel.

Through the courtesy of Old Member MizfalAhmed (1997), the Climate Change Adviser to thePresident of the Republic of the Maldivesattended the weekend both to speak about thatcountry’s unique concerns and to award theluxury prize of a six-star Maldives holiday!

As guests departed, with warm praise for thegood service and fine food, many had alreadysigned up for the 2011 Special Interest Weekend:Blood and Roses. This study of the thirty yearconflict between the Houses of Lancaster and York

The volcanicclosure of UnitedKingdom airspacethroughout theweekend addedthe unexpectedchallenge ofabsent speakers,to which theleaders of bothoptions rosemagnificently.

THE SUNDAY TIMES OXFORDLITERARY FESTIVAL will be heldat Christ Church between 2nd – 10th April next year. The speaker programmeis published early in theNew Year and advanceinformation provided onwww.oxfordliteraryfestival.com.

The printed programme is available as a PDF, online atwww.chch.ox.ac.uk/emattersor by post or email.

Contact Becky Favell or JoannaMalton on 01865 286848 or e-mail [email protected]

will be held between 24th – 27thMarch next year.

The programme will be ledby Christ Church’s DrRowena Archer and run incollaboration with theRichard III Society. Regardedby many as an historicallyneglected but pivotal Englishconflict, the Wars of theRoses are nevertheless afamiliar theme in Englishhistorical memory. But theorigins and consequences ofthis prolonged warfare areless understood. Was thisreally a conflict betweendynasties badged with whiteand red roses? And whatabout that most vilified ofEnglish kings, Richard III? Asrecently as 2009, research intothe precise location of theBattle of Bosworth came to arevealing conclusion. �

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Dr Edward KeeneLecturer in International Relations andOfficial Student of Christ Church

A politics tutor reads a lot of essays inwhat one might call a professionalcapacity. Most of my students’ essaysare, of course, a delight to read; a few,alas, are not. Some put me in mind ofGeorge Orwell’s description of good badpoetry: ‘a graceful monument to theobvious’. It may therefore seem strange,perhaps even masochistic, that when Iread for pleasure in my spare time, ofwhich I have less than mynon-academic friends seemto believe, I particularlyenjoy reading essays.

The quality of the essay thatappeals to me is that, in theright hands, it is amarvellously well-equippedvehicle for combiningimaginative thinking withbeautiful writing. No idea isleft untortured in ascholarly monograph or anarticle in an academic journal, yetthe essay is slender enough to sustain afancy. By the same token, because itcannot rely on a barrage of facts or themassive authority that comes fromendless footnotes, an essay has nothingelse to recommend it but the sharpness ofits insight and the quality of its prose. Itlives under a ruthless Darwinism. If it is tosurvive, it has to have somethingimportant to say, and has to say it well. Agood essay has the same quality as a workof art: one does not tire of experiencing it.

The essays I read the most come from agroup of writers who were operatingfrom about the end of the Victorianperiod until soon after the Second WorldWar; not much earlier than Oscar Wildeor Robert Louis Stevenson, and not much

later than Orwell. This may seemrestrictive, and obviously it leaves out alot of wonderful essayists, but it stillgives me plenty to play with: Beerbohm,Belloc, Chesterton, Forster, Perelman,Thurber and Waugh, to name but a few.

There are two reasons why I find theseparticular writers so congenial. The firstis to do with style. Leaving asidechameleons like Beerbohm or Perelman,who could write well in whatever registerthey chose, the writers mentioned aboveall share what Chesterton said ofStevenson: a ‘beautiful and piercingsense of the clarity of form’. I do not wantprose that is gorged with words, orsentences that meander down the pagein a blizzard of sub-clauses. The first dutyof the writer is to write just enoughwords to convey his meaning, no fewerthan that but certainly no more. Theessayists I most admire all take thisresponsibility seriously. The result isprose so clear-headed that reading it islike taking a cool shower on a hot day.

The second reason is to do with content.Again, Chesterton put it well in an essay onanother writer, this time Kipling: ‘he hassomething to say, a definite view of thingsto utter, and that always means that aman is fearless and faces everything.’ Ithink also of Orwell’s famous descriptionof Dickens as ‘a man who is always fightingagainst something, but who fights in theopen and is not frightened.’ I see bothOrwell and Chesterton (strangecompanions!) and many of theircontemporaries in a similar light. They aresensitive enough to irony not to moralisewith blind over-confidence, yet they retainthe independence of mind and courage totake their own view of things in defianceof ‘smelly little orthodoxies’. It is a difficultbalance, and I wonder that so manywriters from this particular age were ableto achieve it. �L Oscar Wilde

Books with no ending...Reading for pleasure

L Robert Louis Stevenson

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS

MAY 2011

5 MayPATRONS’ LECTUREChrist Church Picture Gallery

The first Christ Church Picture Gallery Patrons’ Lecture to be given by DrNicholas Penny (Director of theNational Gallery, London) in Blue Boarlecture theatre at 6pm. Bookingessential but admission is free.

Contact: Picture Gallery +44 (0)1865276172 [email protected]/gallery

JUNE 2011

1-4 JuneEIGHTS WEEK

Christ Church Boat House

Come to support the House as theMen’s 1st VIII fight to retain theirHeadship!

Contact: The Development Office +44 (0)1865 286 [email protected]

18-19 JuneIRELAND EVENT (see back cover)

Christ Church Association’s first ever event in Ireland.

Contact: The Development Office +44 (0)1865 286 [email protected]

25 JuneCHRIST CHURCH COMMEMORATIONBALLChrist Church

A spectacular evening of entertainmentin the glorious setting of Tom Quadand the gardens of Christ Church.There are special facilities laid on forOld Members.

Contact: The Development Office +44 (0)1865 286 [email protected]

TBC JuneBOAT CLUB SOCIETY DINNERChrist Church

Members of the Boat Club Society are warmly invited to their annual dinner.

Contact: The Development Office +44 (0)1865 286 [email protected]

29 June – 3 JulyHENLEY ROYAL REGATTA

Contact: For more information, please visithttp://www.hrr.co.uk/

30 JuneGAUDY (For all years up to andincluding 1955 MATRICULATES)Christ Church

Contact: Helen Smith, Steward’s Secretary +44 (0)1865 286 [email protected]

SEPTEMBER 2011

10 September1961 REUNION

Christ Church

A reunion dinner for Old Members who will be celebrating the 50thAnniversary of their matriculation.

Contact: Development Office +44 (0)1865 [email protected]

16-18 September2010 OXFORD ALUMNI WEEKENDOxford

Join fellow alumni for three days oftalks, lectures, walks, tours and manymore activities.

Contact: Oxford University [email protected] +44 (0)1865 611610 or sign up for email updates atwww.alumniweekend.ox.ac.uk

Event booking forms are available to download at www.chch.ox.ac.uk/ematters

JANUARY 2011

30 JanuaryNORFOLK LUNCH

Lingwood, Norfolk

Catherine Blaiklock (1981) invites all Old Members in the Norfolk area to abuffet lunch at her house at 12.30pm.Partners/friends welcome.

Contact: Simon Offen, DeputyDevelopment Director +44 (0)1865286075 [email protected]

MARCH 2011

12 MarchCHRIST CHURCH FAMILY PROGRAMME

LUNCHEON

Christ Church

Family Programme Members and parents of current undergraduates areinvited to attend a lunch in Hall.Booking forms will be sent out inJanuary 2011.

Contact: The Development Office +44 (0)1865 286 [email protected]

20 – 23 MarchOXFORD AT WARChrist Church

An event organised by Holts Tours, combining lectures at Christ Church, alook at the College’s WW2 Archive, aswell as visits to Bletchley Park wheremany Oxford Dons worked on theEnigma codes during the SecondWorld War, and Blenheim Palace, thebirthplace of Winston Churchill.

Contact: [email protected]

24 – 27 MarchSPECIAL INTEREST WEEKEND: ‘BloodAnd Roses’ – The War Of The Roses.c.1450-1485 (see pages 30-31)Christ Church

26 MarchOXFORD & CAMBRIDGE BOAT RACE17.00 BST

Details of where the Association andBoat Club Society will be gathering forthe race will be circulated nearer thetime and posted in eMatters.

Contact: The Development Office +44 (0)1865 286 [email protected]

APRIL 2011

2 -10 AprilSUNDAY TIMES OXFORD LITERARY

FESTIVAL (see page 31)Oxford

14 AprilTHUILLIER GALLERY PRIVATE TOUR

14 Old Bond Street, London, W1S 4PP

Drinks reception, ‘Behind the Scenes’tour and specialist advice from Williamat his gallery in London.

Contact: The Development Office +44 (0)1865 286 [email protected]

2011 Chri� ChurchNaked CalendarThe 2011 Christ Church Naked Calendar is for sale at £7each or £12 for two (plus P&P) Each month features adifferent society or sports team, in different areas of thecollege – ranging from the GCR playing croquet in theMaster’s Garden to the Netball team in Tom Quad to theCollege Choir in the cloisters. All proceeds will be splitequally between the Multiple Sclerosis Society and theOxford Poverty Action Trust (OxPAT).

The calendar was organised by the RAG reps EmilyCornish and Hannah Cutmore-Scott, with photographerShaun Thein.

Please order your calendars from the Dev. & Alumni Office(01865 286325) or online at:www.chch.ox.ac.uk/development/ematters/2010/christ-church-naked-calendar-2011

18 September1546 RECEPTIONChrist Church

Contact: Development Office +44 (0)1865 [email protected]

18 SeptemberCHRIST CHURCH ASSOCIATION AGM

AND LUNCH

Christ Church

Contact: Simon Offen, Deputy Development Director +44 (0)1865 [email protected]

29 SeptemberGAUDY (1977-1981 MATRICULATES)

Christ Church

Contact: Helen Smith, Steward’s Secretary +44 (0)1865 286 [email protected]

CCM 26 [3]:Layout 1 19/1/11 12:07 Page c

Development and Alumni OfficeChrist Church . Oxford OX1 1DP . United KingdomTel: +44 (0)1865 286325 . Fax: +44 (0)1865 286587 . Email: [email protected]

designed and produced by baseline . oxford . photography by kt bruce and ralph williamson, unless otherwise acknowledged

On a peninsula to the north of Dublin, with breathtaking views over the Bay,sits Howth Castle. It is 13th century in origin but much altered subsequently,notably in the mid 18th century and in 1910 by Lutyens. Thanks to Old MemberJulian Gaisford St. Lawrence (1976) it is here that the Association will hold adinner on Saturday 18th June 2011. Julian is the direct heir of Dean Gaisford. Thecastle contains many artefacts with a Christ Church connection such as theremains of the Dean’s library, his letters, his furniture and his pictures; theseinclude some given to the Dean by John Ruskin.

And if that is not sufficient to entice you to join us, on Sunday 19th June theHon. Dr Desmond Guinness (1951) invites Association members to visit LeixlipCastle (bottom left), with origins in the 12th century, for a private tour and lunch.

Christ Church connections with Ireland’s rich heritage are numerous and weinvite Old Members not just from North and South but also those living in theU.K., the U.S. and Europe to take advantage of this splendid weekend of eventsand to come and look up old friends and spend time in the Emerald Isle.

Julian has arranged special rates at his hotel in the grounds of Howth Castle:www.deerpark-hotel.ie

Please contact Catherine White at thehotel to book at these discounted prices.You might also like to enjoy the golf, thespa, walking, and a visit to the local fishingport of Howth or a tour of Dublin, which iseasily reached by public transport. Aspecial lesson on local Irish food has beenarranged for those who wish to book intothe Castle Cookery School, housed in themagnificent Georgian kitchen of thecastle. www.thekitcheninthecastle.com

The visit to Leixlip Castle on the Sundaylunchtime does not have to be the endof your stay in Ireland, although Dublin

airport is handily placed for those whohave to fly home that afternoon/evening. Should you be free to staylonger Old Members Sir Brendan Parsons(The Earl of Rosse) (1957) and CharlesKeane (1960) are also eager to welcomeyou to visit their homes, Birr Castlewww.birrcastle.com andwww.cappoquinhouseandgardens.comrespectively.

For more information on this event pleaselook on the Alumni and Developmentsection of the Christ Church website or e-mail [email protected]

A Chri� Church weekend in Ireland...

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