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Journal 2019the

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The Fitzwilliam Journal Ex antiquis et novissimis optima

Volume XIV, No 6

2019

For all Students and Fellows, Past and Present

Cont ent s

Cover photographs by the Editor, Dr J.R.A. Cleaver: R.B. Somerset, first Censor of Non-Collegiate StudentsThe new Middle Combination Room

The Master’s Letter 2College News 4The Bursar’s Notes 12The New Middle Combination Room 18Fitzwilliam History – The Non-Collegiate Beginnings of Fitzwilliam 22Fitzwilliam History Books 27Library News 28Chapel News 29Master and Fellows of the College 31Recent Elections and Appointments 34Undergraduate Matriculation 39Graduate Matriculation 40The Senior Tutor’s Report 41College Statistics 42Academic Awards and Prizes 43General Admission 47Doctoral Dissertations Approved 48The Junior Combination Room 49The Middle Combination Room 51Academic Societies 53College Music and Drama 56College Sport 62Development Office News 69Celebration of the 150th Anniversary 70London Dinner 73September Reunion Weekend 74Graduate Alumni Gathering 78Golden Matriculants’ Reunion 79News of Members 80In Memoriam 83The Fitzwilliam Society 93College Information 100

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the master’s letter

It is convention for the Journal to summarise the past academic year but, having arrived at Fitzwilliam on 1 October, I would like to comment instead on my first term as Master. It has been a busy one and I can confirm what I was told in advance of my arrival – Fitzwilliam is indeed a special and welcoming College. I’ve been very impressed by the lively engagement of all of our members: current students, alumni, staff, and Fellows. The College has a diverse make-up and I think we derive a significant mutual benefit from having a wide range of people from all sorts of different backgrounds and geographies involved in our academic and community life. The map showing the home locations of this year’s cohort of new undergraduates demonstrates our reach around the UK, and is good to see. We have been joined this term by Research Fellow Dr Cléo Chassonnery-Zaïgouche and new Fellows Professor Giles Oldroyd, Professor Srinivasan Keshav, Dr Jean-Michel Johnston, Ms Stevie Martin, Dr Pedro Mendes Loureiro, Dr Christelle Abadie, Dr Sarah Kolopp, Dr Olenka Pevny and Dr Céline Vidal.

Michaelmas Term has seen a range of excellent events that reflect this diversity and I have been particularly invigorated by some of the lectures and talks I have attended. A highlight for me was this year’s Foundation Lecture, delivered in November by Fitzwilliam College Fellow, Graduate Tutor and Director of Studies in Geography, Professor Bhaskar Vira. In a talk that ranged from the Fens to the Himalayas, Bhaskar shared his thoughts about the difficult choices that come with balancing the needs of humans and nature on a local and global level. In October there were flash talks by Fitzwilliam PhD students. These six-minute presentations from 11 current postgraduates ranged from semiconductor physics to Polar studies and the modern politics of West Bengal to brain science. The enthusiasm, intellect, and potential impact was thought-provoking and infectious; a great advert for Fitzwilliam’s large postgraduate cohort. Similarly, the Fellows’ Lecture Evening (an event we hold each term) featured presentations from two of our five Research Fellows: Dr Cora Uhlemann, whose research is in the field of Cosmology, and Dr Benedict Wiedemann, who is a Medieval Historian – again providing an evening that was stimulating and fun.

The College motto ex antiquis et novissimis optima – the best of the old and the new – holds true. While we are firmly rooted in our values and our history, the College is moving forward. Fitzwilliam students flourish, achieving strong academic results. A total of 126 undergraduates were awarded Firsts this last summer – a record amount. 73% of our home Freshers are from state schools and 16% come from areas shown to be very deprived (according to the Multiple Index of Deprivation). Fitzwilliam is at the forefront of delivering on the University’s drive to widen access and, as the above statistics demonstrate, our commitment to widening participation goes hand in hand with academic success. We are also celebrating one of the highest-ever number of first-choice applications this year. We are confident that we can continue to encourage applications from a variety of backgrounds, accept a broad

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Where did first-year UK undergraduates come from in 2019?

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This is Dr John Cleaver’s final issue of the Fitzwilliam Journal before he steps down as Editor. I would like to say a huge thank-you to John for his dedication – his first issue as Editor was published in March 2005 (Volume XII, No 1) and it has continued to develop substantially since then.

This is, of course, also the final year of Andrew Powell’s tenure as Bursar. He will be much missed by me and by everyone at Fitzwilliam, and his is a hard act to follow. I know I speak on behalf of all the College in expressing heartfelt thanks to him.

BARONESS (SALLY) MORGAN OF HUYTON

group of students and help them succeed. There is more to do, of course, but this is a shared ambition at the College on which we make steady progress.

I have been very impressed by the way that our undergraduate and postgraduate students thrive and take advantage of the array of wider opportunities available to them in College and throughout the University. This means that, although undeniably they work hard, they also make time to enjoy themselves and develop hugely. Whether through music or sport, drama or debating there are many students involved in driving for excellence or enjoying new activities. (I gather mixed netball can get a bit rough!)

Michaelmas term also brings the 2018–2019 audited accounts, and we have had a successful year and are confident about the future of Fitzwilliam as we enter a new decade. Inevitably there are challenges ahead, including raising funds to refurbish student accommodation, investment in IT, and the provision of wider support services. These College financial pressures need to be seen against a continuing backdrop of economic and political uncertainty. There are potential concerns in relation to future research funding, HE government funding, and the attraction of academics, non-teaching staff, and students. The continuing dispute around the USS pension scheme is indicative of pressures in the system which are both understandable and difficult to resolve. Talented academic staff are the bedrock of both Fitzwilliam and the University, and the competition for talent is international. The College will continue to play its part in explaining this, and in developing the next generation of graduates who are ready to help grapple with national and global challenges.

The Vice-Chancellor addresses the Access and Widening Participation Conference (p.7)

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The Master at the Access and Widening Participation Conference

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COLLEGE NEWS

The Master

October 2019 marks another transition in the Mastership, as Baroness Sally Morgan succeeds Professor Nicola Padfield to become the ninth Master of Fitzwilliam College.

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Sally Morgan, Baroness Morgan of Huyton, studied Geography at Durham University, and then completed postgraduate qualifications: a PGCE at King’s College London, and an MA at The Institute of Education, University of London.

After teaching in London secondary schools, she entered politics. Between 1997 and 2005 she held senior positions at 10 Downing Street and was a Minister of State in the Cabinet Office. Made a Life Peer in 2001, in the House of Lords she has chaired the Select Committee on Digital Skills, and is a member of the Select Committee on Science and Technology.

A former Chair of Ofsted, she is Vice-Chair of the Council of King’s College London, and advisor to the educational charity ARK. Baroness Morgan brings deep experience of the educational sector, and of the particular challenges of widening participation. She is Chair of the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust and has a range of board experience in business, charities and the public sector.

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Professor Nicola Padfield stepped down from the Mastership on 30 September 2019 and, as she had been a

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Fellow of the College since 1991, became a Life Fellow the next day. As is customary for former Masters, she also was elected to an Honorary Fellowship. She continues as Professor of Criminal and Penal Justice at the Law Faculty, University of Cambridge, and has substantial research plans for the coming years, most notably into how the system for the release of prisoners from – and their recall to – prison works in practice, and how it is perceived by offenders. This provides a contribution to the understanding of how offenders are best supported in their attempts to desist from criminal life-styles, and how better to encourage the rehabilitation and resettlement of offenders.

Professor Padfield held a full series of Master’s Conversations through the year, covering an extensive range of current and controversial topics. To start the year, she discussed with Sarah Rainsford (MML 1992), BBC Correspondent for Russia, her book, Our Woman in Havana: Reporting Castro’s Cuba (published in September 2018 by Oneworld). This was followed by the question Does protecting the environment alleviate poverty?, with Professor Julia Jones (Bangor University).

In the Lent term the conversations turned to more local, but no less intractable, current issues. The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen Toope, came in to discuss the nature and challenges of Leading a Global University, as well as his career in Canada and his previous role as a human-rights lawyer. The question Sexual harassment – is the University (and the College) doing enough? was discussed with Sarah d’Ambrumenil, Head of the University’s Office of Student Conduct, Complaints & Appeals, and Amy O’Leary, the University’s Sexual Assault & Harassment Advisor.

The Master in conversation with the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen Toope

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Turning from controversy, Professor Padfield talked to alumnus and Honorary Fellow Humphrey Burton CBE about the life and works of the American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer, and pianist Leonard Bernstein. Musical illustrations from Bernstein’s works were provided by members of the College Music Society. See also p.56 and p.82.

Honorary Fellows and Fellow Benefactors

Professor Sir Angus Deaton received the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of Cambridge on 19 June 2019. Professor Deaton read Mathematics and Economics at Fitzwilliam from 1964, received his doctorate in 1974, and was a Fellow of the College from 1972 to 1976; he has been an Honorary Fellow since 2009. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2015 – becoming Fitzwilliam’s sixth Nobel Prize winner. He is the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs Emeritus at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Economics Department at Princeton University. On the day before the ceremony, Professor Deaton spoke to College members and guests in the Gordon Cameron Lecture Theatre, and there was a celebratory dinner in Hall.

The previous month The Institute for Fiscal Studies had announced that Professor Deaton would be leading a five-year review into inequality in the United Kingdom in the 21st century. The review will take a broad approach

to issues of inequality, including inequality in access to education, inequality in access to health, inequality in political access, as well as income inequality.

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Professor Deaton talking with members of the College, before receiving his honorary degree

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A musical illustration during the Master's Conversation with Humphrey Burton

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The Rt Hon Sir David Kitchin QC (1970; Honorary Fellow since 2012) was appointed to the Supreme Court with effect from 1 October 2018. Sir David was called to the Bar in 1977, taking silk in 1994; his particular interest was in intellectual property, and became Senior Judge of the Patents Court in 2007. He was appointed as a Lord Justice of Appeal in 2011. He sat as one of the eleven Supreme-Court judges who reached a unanimous verdict regarding the inadmissibility of proroguing Parliament in September 2019.

The Governing Body has elected Lady Julia Olisa as an 1869 Fellow Benefactor. Her husband, Sir Kenneth Olisa, has been an 1869 Fellow Benefactor since 2012.

In October 2018, the Economics and Finance Society of the College invited Honorary Fellow Sharon White (Economics 1985) and currently Chief Executive of Ofcom, to talk on Women in Economics: Stuck in First Gear? Sharon is the first female CEO of Ofcom, and previously was the first black person and the second woman to hold the position of Permanent Secretary at the Treasury. See also pp.81 & 82.

The Fellows

In the annual round of promotions to senior academic posts there were two appointments, with effect from 1 October 2019. Dr Christos Genakos was appointed to a Readership in Economics and Policy, in the Judge Business School. In the same promotions round Dr Julia Guarneri, in the Faculty of History, was appointed to a Senior Lectureship.

Dr Kenneth Platts retired in September 2019 from the Fellowship that he had held since 1995, during which he taught and directed studies in Engineering and in Manufacturing, and was elected to a Life Fellowship.

Dr Enrico Crema ceased to be a Fellow at the end of September 2019, but he will continue as a University Lecturer in the Department of Archaeology, where he is the Principal Investigator for a €1.5m 2018 European Research Council grant, investigating demography, cultural change, and the diffusion of rice and millet during the Jomon-Yayoi transition in prehistoric Japan.

In accordance with the annual rotation amongst the colleges, the Governing Body nominated Francis Knights to a position on the body of Proctors for the year 2018–2019. He served as Junior Pro-Proctor (p.45), and so for 2019–2020 is the Junior Proctor.

Professor Martin Millett, Laurence Professor of Classical Archaeology, is chairing a special eight-person Advisory Group mandated to find appropriate ways publicly to acknowledge past links to slavery, and to address its impact. Two full-time postdoctoral researchers will be based in the Centre of African Studies, and will examine specific gifts, bequests and historical connections with the slave trade, and any contributions to scholarship and learning that underpinned slavery and other forms of coerced labour.

The Advisory Group is expected to deliver its final report to the Vice-Chancellor in autumn 2021.

Professor Robin Langley has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Dr Angie Tavernor was one of two nominees commended in the Student Support category in the Cambridge University Students Union (CUSU) 2019 Student-Led Teaching Awards. Mr Paul Hoegger and Dr Robert Abayasekara also were shortlisted in this category.

Dr Sean Holly, who retired in 2017 and is a Life Fellow, has been appointed to a five-year term as a Governor of the National Institute for Economic and Social Research. Founded in 1938, it undertakes research into economic and social issues and policies.

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Around the start of the 2019–2020 academic year, ten new members of the Fellowship were admitted. Four of them previously had been Bye-Fellows: Dr Christelle Abadie in Engineering; Dr Sarah Kolopp in Sociology; Dr Olenka Pevny in Slavonic Studies; and Dr Céline Vidal in Physical Geography.

Fellows directly elected into the College were: Dr Jean-Michel Johnston in History; Dr Pedro Mendes Loureiro in Politics (he had been elected and admitted late in the spring of 2019); and Dr Stevie Martin in Law. A Research Fellowship was awarded to Dr Cléo Chassonnery-Zaïgouche, in Economics. At the start of the Michaelmas term, Professor Giles Oldroyd and Professor Srinivasan Keshav, respectively in Crop Science and in Computer Science, were elected to Fellowships.

Biographies of the new Fellows are on p.34.

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Dr David Winters, who was Isaac Newton Trust Rutherford Research Fellow in English from 2017, received his PhD in March 2019. The University of Durham has appointed him Assistant Professor in American Literature, and therefore he has resigned his Research Fellowship.

Former Fellows

Dr Iris Möller (Fellow 2000–2015), has been appointed to a Chair in Geography at Trinity College Dublin. She works in coastal geomorphology, focusing on bio-physical interactions in the intertidal zone, long-term coastal morphodynamics, nature-based coastal defence solutions, and the response of coastal systems to climate change.

Professor David Knowles (Fellow 1997–2002) has been appointed CEO of the Henry Royce Institute from February 2019.

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The Bye-Fellows

In the annual round of promotions to senior academic posts Dr Timothy Williams, in the Department of Veterinary Medicine, was appointed to a Senior Lectureship with effect from 1 October 2019.

From October 2019 several new Bye-Fellows have been appointed, and their biographies are on p.36.

The new Domestic Bursar, Alan Fuller, who took up office at the start of November 2019, has been appointed to a Bye-Fellowship. His biography is on p.38.

We congratulate Dr Sabine Schneider, who became a Bye-Fellow during the last year, on her election to the Rank-Manning Junior Research Fellowship at New College, Oxford. She took up the post in 1 October 2019. Other Bye-Fellowships have come to an end, and we thank their holders for their contributions to the College, some over many years: Professor Richard Marks (Keeper of the Works of Art, see also p.11); Dr Marco Geraci (Economics); Dr Benson Leung (Economics); Dr Carla Mulas (Medicine); and Dr Shyane Siriwardena (Philosophy).

Access and Outreach

The establishment of the Non-Collegiate Students Board in 1869 (p.22), to provide access to a Cambridge education for students who would not have afforded College fees, led to Fitzwilliam Hall, to Fitzwilliam House, and ultimately to Fitzwilliam College. Thus it was highly appropriate that the culmination of the 150th anniversary year celebrations should have been an Access and Widening Participation Conference, on Saturday 14 September. The whole-day conference attracted 120 attendees, ranging from Fitzwilliam students and staff, past and present, to charity representatives, academics and university leaders, teachers, and key alumni supporters.

The Master opens the conference on Access and Widening Participation

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The Vice-Chancellor at the Access and Widening Participation Conference

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The Senior Tutor opens the session on Dispelling the Myths about Cambridge Entry

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Access and widening participation for Fitzwilliam means admitting the brightest students and supporting them to succeed to their potential, and the College’s motivation in holding the event was to bring together interested parties to learn together how to improve practices. The Master concluded ‘We had some powerful presentations and challenging debates. The proof of the pudding is in the eating; please help us build on our very real commitment to ensuring admission to students of the highest intellectual potential, irrespective of social, racial, religious, and financial considerations. Of course we want to practise what we preach.’ The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen Toope, closed the conference and reinforced this message, stressing a determination to build on the day’s discourse across the University, and beyond.

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Undergraduate Jack Bailey (Law 2018) was an invited speaker at the Welsh Government’s SEREN Launch Event in Cardiff in July 2019 to encourage other Welsh students to get into top universities (‘seren’ is ‘star’ in the Welsh language), thereby passing on the support that he himself had received whilst at school. He talked about breaking down the preconceptions of privilege and barriers affecting getting into Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and about the possibilities for Welsh people. He was proud ‘to say with confidence and sincerity that Cambridge, and Fitzwilliam in particular, is setting the pace on access to higher education and is working harder than ever before to ensure that the access work they do is meaningful and has substantive outcomes’.

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On the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, 11 February 2019, Fitzwilliam MCR and the Development Office joined forces to celebrate some of the women in science in College and the wider community, and to inspire others to follow in their footsteps. Dr Cora Uhlemann hosted a panel of inspiring speakers from hugely varied fields of science – with hugely varying female representation, from veterinary medicine, which is female-dominated, to computer science and physics, where barely 25% of the workforce is female.

The panel contained both academics and practitioners: Dr Christelle Abadie (Fitzwilliam Bye-Fellow, and Department of Engineering); Dr Kanwal Bhatia (Lead Data Scientist, Visulytix); Alex Jenkin (Project Manager, Science and Plants for Schools); Dr Lizzie Radford (Academic Clinical Fellow in Paediatrics, Department of Medicine).

One thread ran through this inspiring evening: the course is rarely straightforward, but people should follow their instincts and pursue what makes them happy and – with hard work, self-belief and the taking of opportunities – things may work out!

Sir Kenneth Olisa makes a point in the session considering barriers to the admission of diverse candidates; at centre Professor Graham Virgo, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education

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Jack Bailey addressing the SEREN event in Cardiff

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The University is setting up a pilot programme for its Transition Year scheme, which aims to provide talented students from a background of educational disadvantage with teaching, support, and guidance to raise their attainment level and thereby to enable them to succeed in admission to leading universities, including Cambridge. It is planned that the scheme will take its first students in 2021. Its Course Director is Dr Alex Pryce, and we are very pleased to be able to welcome her to Fitzwilliam as a Bye-Fellow. Her biography is on p.38.

Junior Members

Fitzwilliam undergraduate Hassan Raja (History 2018) has produced and displayed online a series of portraits of Pakistani men studying in Cambridge. The inspiring project, The Pakistani Men of Cambridge, was created to highlight their achievements and academic talents, with the aim of redirecting the negative media image of Pakistani men. By providing positive media representation, he sought also to disseminate positive role models to which young Pakistanis could aspire – rather than being so often being portrayed in the context of criminality. By photographing young Pakistani men against the backdrop of their Cambridge colleges, Hassan hopes to make normal the idea that they are capable of obtaining places at these institutions.

Second-year postgraduate Kate Derkach (Applied Linguistics 2017) will be shortly recording her first album after raising more than £2,000 through crowdfunding.

Dr Cora Uhlemann and the panel on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science

Hassan Raja with photographs of The Pakistani Men of Cambridge on display in the College Hall

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Kate Derkach

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Kate now has more than 50 original tracks in her repertoire – all with her own piano accompaniment – under her stage name Kate Lucid. Originally from the Ukraine, Kate took her Masters in Oxford.

Craig Rogers (Biology 2018) has participated in many cycling road races over the summer. He won the Ian Mountain Memorial Road Race, finished second at the Cold Dark North Road Race, and finished sixth in Wales’ gruelling Harlech ‘Hell’ Climb – recently been recognised as the steepest climb in the world. With each race Craig has also been raising awareness of the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young, which offers subsidised heart tests for people aged 14 to 35, with particular reference to those participating in sport.

The undergraduates buried a time capsule to celebrate the 150th anniversary. Its contents included letters by the Master, and by students, and a selection of memories from alumni, as well as assorted memorabilia. The plan is for the time capsule to be dug up in 50 years’ time, on the 200th anniversary.

The Foundation Lecture

In the 2018 Foundation Lecture, A Feast and a Famine: James Joyce’s ‘The Dead’ Honorary Fellow Professor Paul Muldoon traced some of the unlikely sources of The Dead, including a tale of cannibalism set in the California Sierras in the 1840s – a period exactly coinciding with the great Irish famine, in which about one million died and a further million emigrated.Craig Rogers winning the Ian Mountain Memorial Road Race

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JCR President Ellie Brain and JCR Academic Affairs Executive Poppy Blackshaw burying the time capsule

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Professor Paul Muldoon delivers the Foundation Lecture

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The Arrol Adam Fund

The Arrol Adam Fund supports both a lecture series and literary prizes for students. In 2019, the Arrol Adam Committee awarded the Fiction First Prize to Diana Paulding and the Second Prize to Peter Wynch. The joint First Prize winners of the Poetry Prize were Corinne Clark and Tanya Brown. There was no prize winner for the Essay competition.

Professor Richard Marks (Keeper of Works of Art for the College) lectured on medieval English stained glass, and in particular on the ways in which it was funded – commonly by bequests, motivated both to encourage prayer for the well-being of their benefactors’ souls and to manifest their social status. The subject of this lecture is also the theme of a forthcoming book that will assess the contribution of wills to the understanding of medieval piety, patronage and commissioning.

The second Arrol Adam Lecture of the year was given by Professor Paul Seabright, on Understanding religious organisations as competing platforms: what has happened to religion in the world since the Second World War? He argued that the changes in the number of Muslims and of Christians depended both on demographic factors and on the absorption of local and folk religions, rather than on conversions between the major religions. Professor Seabright teaches Economics at the Toulouse

Arrol Adam lecture by Professor Richard Marks

Arrol Adam lecture by Professor Paul Seabright

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School of Economics and is Director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse; his undergraduate and doctoral studies were at Oxford, where he was a Fellow of All Souls, and in Cambridge he was a Fellow of Churchill.

The Arrol Adam Lectures were set up in memory of William Arrol Adam, who read Chemistry at Fitzwilliam Hall in 1905 and died in 1939. It was the stated intention of the bequest, made in 1962 by his widow Jane Wylie Adam, to disseminate knowledge, promote discussion of issues of general interest and concern, and to foster the use of plain and simple English.

Staff

In the Catering Managers’ Culinary Competition, Mr Richard Wayman (Executive Head Chef) won the International Street Food Challenge, Ms Naomi Spaxman (Chef de Partie) achieved bronze medal standard in the Coffee Shop Cake class, and the team of Mr Anthony Brock (Sous Chef), Ms Spaxman and Mr Paul Jefferies (Catering Assistant) achieved bronze-medal standard in the Cook and Serve event.

The College has supported two of its gardening team through an apprenticeship scheme in association with the College of West Anglia. Camellia Manzoori and Nick Squires have now both successfully completed the Work-based Horticulture Apprenticeship (Level 3) while working full-time at Fitzwilliam.

Also in the gardens, the College has signed up to the Hedgehog Friendly Campus initiative, which seeks to raise awareness of the difficulties facing hedgehogs due to habitat loss – since 2000, their numbers have fallen by around 50% in rural areas and 30% in towns and cities.

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the bursar’s notes

This is the last set of Bursar’s Notes I will write; by this time next year I will have passed the baton to a successor, who will have the privilege of steering this wonderful College through the next phase of its journey. It seems fitting somehow that this coincides with John Cleaver’s final edition of the Journal, so 2020 will be a new start in many ways!

Looking back at the first entry I made in the 2010–2011 Journal I am struck by a few things. The financial turmoil of 2007–2008 was still very fresh in our minds; interest rates were around 5% (a new low!); and swine flu had had a huge impact on the conference business. My first job was to manage the change of status to a fully registered charity, regulated by the Charity Commission – and in that first year I had to report the biggest operating deficit in the College’s history.

Back in 2010, as a newcomer, it felt to me as though Fitzwilliam was still a little apologetic for itself within the community of Cambridge Colleges. It felt as though we had to struggle to make our voice heard and be taken seriously as a College. In my early years, when asking students at College dinners whether they chose Fitzwilliam or Fitzwilliam chose them, the answer was almost always ‘I was pooled but I am really glad I came’. Today there is no sense left of that feeling. Very few students come through the Pool, and students and Fellows now want to come here because of the Fitz ethos and the Fitz story; we hold our heads high.

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College houses – concentrating accommodation in larger units: 110, 112 & 114 Huntingdon Road

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Estates

Two themes have characterized the development of the College Estate over the last 11 years – the requirement to address the longstanding need to increase the quality and quantity of graduate accommodation and the refurbishment of the Lasdun buildings on the main College site.

My very first meeting when I arrived in Fitzwilliam was a discussion with my predecessor and the Graduate Tutor about graduate housing, seeking to find ways of improving both quality and quantity. Subsequently, I discovered this was not a new issue, although the completion of the purpose-built accommodation at 1 Halifax Road had made a big impact. Since then, the purchase of 139 Huntingdon Road (the former Cambridge Lodge Hotel) in 2010, the switch of 138 Huntingdon Road (Neale House) to graduate accommodation in 2011–2012, and the acquisition in 2013 of 110, 112 & 114 Huntingdon Road and of 126 Huntingdon Road, have enabled our stock of graduate rooms to rise from 155 to 190. This is a 22.5% increase; over the same period, the number of full-time graduate students has grown by 17.5%. We now have a graduate ‘hub’ of some 60 units centred around 139 and 138 Huntingdon Road. We have developed the model of having a group of about 20 students around a shared multi-unit kitchen; it has worked well: graduates keep such different schedules, and this layout means there is better chance of more than one graduate being around at the same time.

More generally, the College houses are in need of continual investment, and a rolling programme of refurbishments has been established.

The completion of the Library in 2009 marked the completion of the College site – substantially this completion was led by my predecessor Christopher Pratt. My challenge has been to get to grips with the 1960s buildings, which were approaching 50 years old and were in need of substantial refurbishment – perhaps the legacy of being built on a shoestring in the 1960s.

One of my early priorities was to develop a masterplan: initially for the Central Building, and subsequently for the accommodation blocks. The prospect of finding over £20m (now nearer £25m, and likely to rise to £30m) was extremely daunting for a College without surplus financial resources – what is more, we would have only twenty years to complete the task before the New Court buildings reached 50 years old and became likely to require similarly extensive treatment.

There was no ‘magic money tree’ but the need was undeniable if we were to maintain the College as an attractive and comfortable place to live and study in the 21st century. The only way to proceed was to make a start, so we broke each programme down into projects we could afford, and got on with it. So far we have achieved approximately 25% of the masterplan, physically represented by the Upper Hall, the new gym, the refurbished Lantern roof of the Hall, three refurbished staircases, and the MCR extension (p.18). We have adhered to the financing principles laid down by the Governing Body, and in the process have proved that we can fund-raise for refurbishment. This progress would not have been possible without the underlying confidence of the Governing Body and the fantastic support of benefactors – large and small – who have responded to the call for help.

Now we face the biggest challenge of the whole programme – the buildings on the Huntingdon Road facade. We have an exciting design and have confirmed planning permission through the window replacements that were undertaken in 2019. However the next three staircases – D, E & F – have to be treated as a single project, no part of which can be completed in a Long Vacation. We will therefore have to close the accommodation for at least one academic year. The Governing Body will face a tough decision in January as to whether we can complete this project in 2020–2021, given the funding challenge involved.

Communal space in a graduate house: kitchen and dining area at 139 Huntingdon Road

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Students

In 2009, the 150th Anniversary Appeal had only just been launched – with a £20m target in 12 years which seemed huge at that time. That this target was achieved a year ahead of time is a huge tribute to the energy and focus of the Development Directors during my period in office: Iain Reid, Helen Bettinson, and Nicola Jones.

A major achievement of the Appeal has been the very large increase in the funds we have been able to direct towards financial support for students. The gross total of such awards has more than tripled over the period, from £295,000 to over £900,000 per annum, but that tells only a part of the story: the graph highlights how the central contribution to bursary costs has remained flat over the

period, so that the increase has come entirely from funds held by the College. Thus the contribution from the College has increased sevenfold.

As Bursar, I have enjoyed working with and getting to know more than twenty Presidents of the MCR and the JCR. The College has been incredibly fortunate to have such committed and talented people representing the student body. Being President inevitably means sacrificing a lot during the year of office, but all have said that their year was the best of their lives. And I remember from when I was going through the initial interview process to become Bursar that the meeting with the then Presidents was one of the most testing!

Window replacement in Fellows' Court – the new metal-framed windows are in place.

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Total of financial awards to students, showing that College awards are now much greater than funds from elsewhere in the University

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The College is an academic community in which academics and students at all stages in their careers live together, interact, and learn from each other. The Graduate Community links the undergraduates and the postdoctoral researchers and plays a central part in the College – yet the lives of graduate students do not make it easy for them to involve themselves in College life. In my early days, one of the major points of discussion was how to integrate the Graduate Community better into the life of the College. This is mainly achieved through the tireless work of the MCR Committee, of the Graduate Office, and of the graduate tutors. I have also tried to be alert to those unconscious signals that come from our heritage as an undergraduate College, which can risk making the Graduates feel like second-class citizens. One important aspect of this during my tenure has been the restructuring of the JMA Constitution to give separate and equal voice to the JCR, to the MCR, and to the Clubs & Societies.

I have tried to do my bit to support College sport and culture. In 2012 we welcomed the 1972 Cuppers winning team to their 40th anniversary. We looked back on the great heyday of Fitzwilliam Men’s Cricket and wondered whether such a thing could ever happen again! I am proud to have been the Senior Treasurer of the four-in-a-row Men’s Cricket Cuppers run, p.66. I have thoroughly enjoyed playing a similar role in Men’s Rugby (reaching Cuppers semi-final 2019) and FitzTheatre.

I am sorry to report that the College’s 20-year relationship with the Tsuzuki Gakuen Group came to an end this year. Not only has the Gakuen been a generous benefactor to the College but, perhaps even more importantly, over 100 students from Fitzwilliam have had the wonderful opportunity of an all-expenses-paid year in Japan. It has been an extraordinary opportunity to experience life in a very different culture; for many it has been a truly life-changing experience. We are very keen to find another opportunity for our students.

Finances

In 2010, when reporting the biggest deficit the College had ever made, I expressed confidence that the College had the wisdom and commitment to see us through to better times. We set in train a comprehensive review of income and costs, and took some key decisions – including a step-increase in graduate-student numbers. Ten years on, it is a great pleasure to report that the College is in a stronger financial position than it has ever been. Key to this achievement has been the increase in graduate-student numbers (full-time and part-time), a transformation of the conference business, and a significant increase in unrestricted donations which allow us to direct giving towards those elements of the student experience that typically pass through the general-expenditure lines.

The purpose of a surplus is to allow us to reinvest for the future, and that means making sure that our facilities can continue to meet the needs and aspirations of our students in the 21st century. To complete one staircase refurbishment a year and to provide for routine capital expenditure we need to generate around £2m a year. The chart below shows that we were able to do this for the first time in 2018–2019.

The 2018–2019 Management Accounts show that the College generated an overall surplus (after depreciation) of £441k. Readers may wonder why the Audited Accounts (now available on the College website) show an unrestricted deficit of £197k; the difference relates to a ‘one-off’ charge of £647k which arises from the need to increase future provision against the USS Pensions deficit in accordance with the completion of the 2017 valuation. This charge is included in the Audited Accounts, but not the management figures, which are intended to show the underlying performance. We expect a substantial credit in 2020 as we switch to using the 2018 USS valuation results.

Achievement of an operating surplus that meets College needs

Operating surplus and capital expenditure

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

£ th

ousa

nds

Operating surplus before depreciation Capital expenditure

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The College’s Endowment has nearly doubled since 2009, from £34.4m to £61.1m – and yet it remains one of the smallest among the undergraduate Colleges. One of the numbers we watch closely is the level of ‘free reserves’, which is that portion of the investment assets that is left over after we have met the requirements for the endowment and the restricted reserves. This is our contingency fund which has to cover investments in College buildings (over and above annual cashflow and donations) as well as things like pension deficits, unexpected losses, and loan repayments. This year, the free reserves improved to £9m, from a low point of £7.1m last year – which is not a lot in the context of the financial challenges we face.

Investments

I have been immensely grateful for the support of the Investment Advisory Committee over the years, especially from the seven external members who have served during that time; we have leaned on them heavily! The decision to invite student representatives to join the Committee in 2015 was a Fitzwilliam ‘first’ and was a clear statement of the College’s desire to be transparent in the management of its investments. Students participated in the 2016 review of the investment managers, and have been very much involved in the debate on ESG investing (see below). I hope they have found it a rewarding and enjoyable experience!

One of the effects of the 2008–2009 financial crash and the introduction of quantitative easing has been the collapse of traditional investment models. In 2016 the College took the decision to move away from the traditional equity-based investment approach, and to make a deliberate move towards a much more long term strategy – in line with those followed by leading endowment investors worldwide. The switch from Sarasin & Partners to J.P. Morgan as investment managers marked a move from active to passive management of developed market equities, and a significant commitment into Private Equity, which, whilst illiquid, offers the prospect of superior returns over a 10-year horizon. As a consequence of this policy we took the decision to move away from dividend-based accounting for income, to a Total-Return Accounting approach.

It is too early to judge the success of this strategy, since we are still in the investing phase for the private-equity holdings, and these investments will not start to produce a return for another 2–3 years. Also, the change in the exchange rate has not been kind to us for the last two years – we have paid a ‘Brexit penalty’ and, whilst our global investments have done well, the cost of hedging back to sterling has been high. However we expect to benefit as sterling reverts to something closer to its long-term average.

The period since the change of strategy has been characterised by refinement of the investment policy

Distribution of Invested Reserves between Endowment (capital in perpetuity, income expendable), Restricted Funds ( for specific uses), and Free Reserves

(available for general use)

Other 1%

Fees 29%

Rents 30%

Investments 14%

Catering 13%

Conference 13%

Alternatives

Equity

Fixed income

Cash

Cambridge property

Endowment Restricted Funds Free Reserves

Building up the EndowmentValue of Endowment reserve

Reserves

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

£ m

illio

ns

Analysis of Invested Reserves, in 2019

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in important areas, such as risk appetite and currency risk. The final part of this was put in place in November 2019, when, following a year of consultation with various constituencies in the College and with the support of the students, the Governing Body adopted an ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) based policy for its developed-market equities. In the view of our investment advisors, ESG no longer implies lower returns; to the contrary, a high ESG score is now more likely to be taken as a sign of quality – market forces are now driving companies towards higher standards of ESG behaviour and we want the Fitzwilliam portfolio to contribute to this. The investment markets have developed a long way since 2010, when such a policy would not have been possible.

Staff

Most of the Bursar’s job is about people. The permanent-staff complement has grown from 98 in 2009 to 116 at the end of July 2019, although the Fitzwilliam ship remains quite lean in comparison with other Colleges of similar size. Part of the increase has been brought about by a desire to improve the resilience of the staffing – to make sure that there are competent deputies in place to cover key people if they are absent. I feel much more secure against that sort of event than I would have done ten years ago. There also been a genuine increase in workload, associated with continual improvements to our accommodation, with the growth of student numbers and of the conference business, but also with the seemingly endless growth in regulatory requirements. Since 2009, we have experienced registration by the Charity Commission (2010), Student Accommodation Standards regulation (2010), the Carbon Reduction Scheme (2010–2019), the Fundraising Regulator (2016–2017), the Prevent Duty (2016), and GDPR (2018), as well as the ever-increasing (it seems) demands of the Freedom of Information Act, of ‘Know your Customer’ in financial-services regulation, of Health & Safety regulation, and of Pensions regulation. It has been a never-ending challenge to absorb the beneficial effects of new regulation, whilst minimising the bureaucratic drag on a small organisation.

Fitzwilliam is blessed with a wonderfully capable and loyal staff. Three Heads of Department have served throughout my time – Steve Kidger, Claire Claydon and Valter Monteiro – out of a total of 13–14. I should also mention my four assistants Anne Brooke, Anne Howard, Clare Jordan and Natalie Harvey who have held me together throughout my time here. I (and many others!) have cause to be very grateful for the extraordinary support of Sarah Rowland Jones, our HR Officer; it is hard to believe that we managed without such professional support before Sarah joined the College in 2011.

This year we were very saddened by the death of John Eisold, who had served the College since 1991 and been Head Porter from 2011 to 2015. John’s unique personality and sense of humour kept us all going at difficult times;

his loyalty to Fitzwilliam was total and he had many friends across the whole College community who mourn his passing. It seemed very unfair that he should be struck down by illness so soon after retiring, but the way he bore it was an example to us all, and even his funeral address – which he wrote to be read by the graveside – was full of his sense of humour. On a less sad note, we wished Caroline Choat a happy retirement after 28 years’ service to the College. Caroline joined the College in 1991 when it was in serious financial difficulty and was depending on a growth in conference business to save it. She has seen it through to today’s position where the conference income is at record levels, and its contribution is equivalent to an extra £23m of endowment.

It was a great pleasure to welcome Alan Fuller to the position of Domestic Bursar at Fitzwilliam in November, taking over from Andy Milne who left in May. Alan was previously Domestic Bursar at Wolfson College and brings a long experience of different Colleges to the role.

In conclusion

One of the wonderful things about a College community is the way people go and new people come, but somehow the essential character of the place doesn’t change. I have always marvelled at that, and wondered what the essential ingredients are for making it so. Some of it is self-fulfilling – we attract and recruit like-minded people – but I also think that it is embedded in the way we do things, and even in the architecture of the place. Lasdun’s original concept was a social construct, appropriate to the democratic ethos of the 1950s – and that same feeling lies at the heart of the College today.

When I first arrived I was told firmly that I must re-read The Masters, as there would certainly be a Mastership election in my time. I have served three Masters now and each one has been an inspiration in different ways. I am incredibly grateful for the support I have enjoyed from Robert Lethbridge, Nicky Padfield and Sally Morgan; all of them have Fitzwilliam in their heart and have been committed to keeping this unique place what it is. I would also like to express my gratitude to Paul Chirico for a great working relationship and also to the whole Fellowship at Fitzwilliam, whose trust I have always felt that I had. We have had some challenging debates in Committees and in the Governing Body, but always with the best interests of the College at heart.

In my first notes in the 2011 Journal I said ‘As we enter a more difficult economic climate, I am immensely encouraged by the sense of common purpose and frugal management culture that I have encountered here. The College has been through tough times before and emerged strongly; it will do so again’. Fitzwilliam has remained true to its ethos and style, and has not disappointed. I am incredibly proud and grateful to the College to have had the opportunity to be a part of this progress for the last eleven years.

ANDREW POWELL

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0pening the new middle combination room

The position before: the area at the side of The Grove, with a projecting single-storey boilerhouse, and the Olisa Library beyond

And after: the new building and paved area

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Fifty alumni, including 18 former Middle Combination Room Presidents, celebrated the completion of the new MCR at The Grove in May 2019. Generous donors, Fellows, past MCR Presidents and MCR Committee members enjoyed a series of talks on The Impact of Innovation, followed by afternoon tea, in the light-filled new space – which has transformed the experience of being a graduate student at Fitzwilliam.

Refurbished rooms within the main Grove building

Donors, alumni, research students, and Fellows at the opening of the new MCR

The main room in the new MCR

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The Master at the MCR opening

The underlying purpose of the MCR: reseach student André Neto-Bradley presents his work to the guests …

… as do Tobias Lunde and Aisha Sobey

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Some former MCR Presidents

Seven decades of MCR Presidents

The new MCR building at night

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Alumni donors made possible the new construction of the MCR building

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fitzwilliam history

The Non-Collegiate beginnings of Fitzwilliam

The direct admission of students to the University of Cambridge, thereby removing the costs of College membership and so broadening the opportunities for university entrance, had a long and highly controversial gestation1 which ran on for nearly two decades following its proposal to the 1850 Royal Commission of Enquiry into the best methods of securing the improvement of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

In 1869 the process ran its course, when the Council of the Senate proposed new draft statutes:

1. Notwithstanding anything expressed or contained in the statutes of the University framed and sanctioned in accordance with the provisions of the Act of Parliament, 19 and 20 Vict., c. 88, it shall be lawful for the University to admit as Students to matriculate and to confer degrees on persons who may not be members of any College or Hall or of any Hostel.

2. The functions assigned to the Head or Praelector of a College, or to the Principal of a Hostel in cap. I, sec. 3, and cap. III, sec.1, of the said statutes so framed and sanctioned as aforesaid shall be exercised in respect of such Students by a Member or Members of the Senate who shall be specially appointed from time to time for that purpose, but the said statutes shall in all other respects be deemed to apply and extend to such Students as well as others.

3. In addition to the provisions of the said statutes the University shall have power from time to time to frame and enforce such Rules as may be deemed expedient for the admission, government, discipline, and instruction of such Students, and for the payments to be made by them.

4. The University shall have power to make special provision for the temporary or permanent removal from the University of any such Student if at any time such removal shall appear necessary or expedient, anything contained in the said statutes notwithstanding.

5. The University shall have power from time to time to appoint a Board or Syndicate, to consist of such persons as may be determined by Grace of the Senate for the purpose of exercising and carrying into effect the powers and provisions of this statute, or any of them, subject to such Rules and Regulations as the University may from time to time prescribe, and all the acts of the Board for such purposes shall be deemed to be acts of the University.

and they were endorsed strongly by the Senate on 15 April. University Statutes have to be approved by the

1 See Willian Ewart MP and Non-Collegiate Students in 2018 Journal; W.W. Grave Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge (Fitzwilliam Society, 1983); and J.R.A. Cleaver Fitzwilliam: the first 150 years of a Cambridge College (Third Millennium, 2013).

Privy Council, and this occurred within a month. So the Non-Collegiate route was open.

In the summer of 1869, progress was, by Cambridge standards, extraordinarily rapid. The next step was for the Council of the Senate to nominate members to the Non-Collegiate Students Board under clause 5, and they were approved by the Senate on 27 May. Just a week later, the Board held its first meeting: Dr Bateson (Master of St John’s College) was appointed Chairman, and served the Board well for its formative first seven years. The following day they met again and agreed to appoint an officer under clause 2 of the statutes, who would be called the Censor. Two days later they agreed that the Censor of Non-Collegiate Students would be one of their number: Rev. Ralph Benjamin Somerset, of Trinity College.

Ralph Benjamin Somerset, first Censor of Non-Collegiate Students (1869–1889)

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From the Birmingham Daily Post, 28 June 1869

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The Board set rules for the admission of students, for keeping records of their studies, and for monitoring their church membership – an obsession of the Board in consequence of the attacks on the Non-Collegiate concept as a godless

scheme to admit members to this University who would in no way be brought into contact with religion; they would simply be students seeking a degree.

They resolved for the Censor:

That his duties embrace all correspondence with applicants for admission; making personal acquaintance with the students

The first page of Somerset's report in December 1869

***

Although the University had decided to admit non-collegiate students, it made no provision for them. No space was provided either for the students or for the Censor, who worked from his home in Trumpington Road – as the notice in the Birmingham Daily Post indicated. And there was no dedicated provision for teaching them; they attended lectures given in colleges, as at that time University teaching was limited to professorial lectures (the first University Lecturer was appointed around 1883).

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on commencing residence; advising them as to their course of study and general superintendence of their conduct; the receipt of the fees prescribed by the Senate as payable to the Board and the keeping of the accounts of all receipts and payments; collecting and laying before the Board once a term the returns to be made by the students of the studies they are pursuing, and of the lectures they are attending or the instruction they are receiving; and preparing and presenting to the Board every term a report of the operation of the Scheme.

For this part-time post, he received a stipend of £100 per annum.

Somerset submitted his first terminal report to the Board on 7 December 1869:

The first duty imposed on me by the Board was to circulate the paper of Information relating to Non-Collegiate Students sanctioned at a meeting held June 15, 1869. I sent this paper to the principal London and provincial English journals as well as to those published at Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin and Belfast. I believe it was printed in a fair number of these; others mentioned it and referred enquiries to me.

I have received written applications for information from fifty-eight persons, half of them reaching me before the end of July. A few of these simply asked for the paper of information; five imagined the new class of students would be non-resident; the majority were very careful in their enquiries about the whole cost of living at the University; only three wished to know what Exhibitions or Scholarships would be open to them. Many of my correspondents gave no information about themselves, but eleven were schoolmasters of Middle Class or National Schools. Three seemed to be hesitating between this mode of residence at the University and residence at a Theological College as a preliminary to ordination.

Besides these written applications (of which fourteen were followed by further correspondence) I have had a few visits from persons who came to make their enquiries on the spot.

Eight students were admitted in time to keep this Term. Two of these had been members of Colleges; of the six Freshmen three were Professional men previously resident in the Town. These have not been receiving any regular instruction, but have been devoting some time to the study of the subjects of the Previous Examination. The other three Freshmen have been attending lectures at Christ’s College. I have reason to hope they will all study seriously some of the subjects prescribed for Honour Examinations. One of the Junior Sophs has been attending the instruction of a private Tutor, as well as some Professors’ Lectures: the other being engaged as an Assistant at a school has not received any instruction.

By direction of the Board I gave notice of the names and residences of the Student to the parochial ministers in whose parishes they reside; in several cases I know that the students were called on in consequence of this notice. Six of the students state that they attend parish churches, the other two a Wesleyan chapel. They have all conducted themselves with due regularity, and all have kept, or may have kept before December 17, the required amount of residence for the Term.

In accordance with a resolution adopted by the Board on the 23rd October 1869, a circular was sent to Heads and Tutors of Colleges, asking them whether any Lectures in their Colleges would be open to Non-Collegiate Students. I have received several answers, but others may yet be expected.

There is good reason to believe that the number of the students will increase, and at present there are no applications which confirm the apprehension that students will choose this mode of residence as giving more opportunity for a life of mere amusement than residence in a college. All those who apply are of mature age, or are designed by their friends to be under the charge of persons of trustworthy age and character.

I may remark that scarcely any of the applicants are boys at schools. The eleven schoolmasters whom I have mentioned were interested in the scheme on their own accounts, not on account of pupils.

The enquiries regarding membership resulted in the admission of eight students in the Michaelmas term of 1869: six new entrants to the University, and two migrants from colleges. At least six were mature students: two schoolmasters, a surgeon, and a man who had lectured in Edinburgh and London. The academic performance of the cohort was not encouraging, only three proceeding to degrees. The lecturer achieved First-Class Honours in the Law and History Tripos – but did so after a Whewell Scholarship had enabled him to migrate to Trinity College. He was the first of a long line of students who gained access to Cambridge through the non-collegiate system but achieved distinction after migrating to become members of colleges.

***

When, in April 1873, the time came for renewal of the non-collegiate scheme, the Board reported on its success. Ninety students had been admitted, of whom 51 were currently non-collegiate undergraduates; five had proceeded to the degree of BA and 23 had migrated to colleges. Economy had been achieved:

the Scheme has already enabled some students to live very cheaply while enjoying the advantages of the University. Several have assured the Censor that their whole expenditure in Cambridge was under £50 a year.

The Grace recommending that the scheme be made permanent was approved at the Congregation of 15 May 1873.

The 1873 report was written when more than half of all the students who had entered as non-collegiate were still in residence; several were still to migrate. Tracking all 90 students through their entire careers:

45 entered as non-collegiate, and remained non-collegiate, yielding 21 BAs;

30 entered as non-collegiate, and migrated to colleges;

2 entered as non-collegiate, migrated to colleges, but returned, yielding 1 BA;

7 migrated from colleges, and remained non-collegiate, yielding 3 BAs;

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2 migrated from colleges, but returned to their original colleges;

4 migrated from colleges, then migrated to other colleges.

So it was a very fluid population, especially as students were not constrained to enter on a specific date; of those who came up as non-collegiate, only about 60% counted a Michaelmas term as their first term of residence.

In 1875, Somerset produced a report for the Board on the 61 students in residence in the Easter term. This time, even more detailed attention was paid to their religious affiliations: 88% were Anglicans, attending 16 different churches, whilst 9% were Non-Conformists and 3% were Roman Catholics.

Academically:

43 first-year men were preparing for one or more parts of the Previous Examination;

11 second-year men were preparing for the General Examination for the Ordinary BA;

7 third-year men were preparing for a Special Examination for the Ordinary BA;

5 second-year or third-year men were preparing for Tripos Examinations.

The rate of graduation was low. Of the 203 students who were admitted in the first seven years, 100 remained non-collegiate throughout their time in Cambridge and of those only 48 graduated. However, of the 103 who migrated to colleges, 95 graduated – nearly twice the yield. The non-collegiate body was being depleted of good-quality students. Further, students might start as non-collegiate to reduce costs, and transfer at a late stage to colleges to gain prestige; this troubled the Censor, concerned for the reputation of the non-collegiate body:

Those who thus graduate as members of Colleges thenceforth move in the world outside of the University in that character; the scheme under which they have mainly resided loses its natural representatives in the places from which new students should come; and the degree lists contain but few of the names by which a more general attention to the existence of the scheme might be excited.

A particular motivation for migration was that colleges could offer Scholarships or Exhibitions to the academically successful; therefore, if quality was to be built up within the non-collegiate body, financial awards would be needed. In Oxford, approaches had been made to livery companies in the City of London, and in Cambridge the Board acted similarly. In 1874, the Clothworkers’ Company announced that annually they would provide a three-year Exhibition worth £50 to a non-collegiate student, with preference to be given to a student in Physical Sciences – but that he would lose it if he moved to a college. The Physical Sciences Exhibition ran until 1895, with awards made to twenty-one students; of those, half were prepared to forfeit the awards when the opportunity arose of migrating. The Leathersellers’ Company provided their first Exhibitions in 1894.

***

Undergraduates were admitted directly to the University as an economical route into Cambridge. But how economical was it in practice?

The Student’s Guide to the University of Cambridge, in its 1874 edition, included a section on non-collegiate students, written by Somerset. This showed that University costs for a non-collegiate Arts student taking an Ordinary Degree totalled about £ 33. Somerset claimed that a non-collegiate student who spent the minimum time in Cambridge and lived frugally need not expend more than £ 150 over a three-year period:

£ s d

University Capitation Tax and payment 18 6 0

to the Non-Collegiate Students Board,

each year @ £ 6/2/–

Matriculation, Examination and Degree 14 13 0

fees, Professors’ lectures

College lectures, 4 courses in 3 terms 12 0 0

each year

Academical dress: cap and gown 1 11 0

Expenses in lodgings, board, washing, 103 10 0

coals, use of linen, gaslight and service,

three 23-week years @ £ 34/10/–

TOTAL 150 0 0

A non-collegiate student who was able to afford a less constrained life estimated annual costs (excluding clothing and travel) as about £ 85.

An undergraduate who was a member of a college incurred additional fees, and was required to purchase furniture for his rooms and re-sell it at a loss; he had to pay for his meals in Hall; and when he took meals in his rooms, the servants exploited him. The Guide suggested £ 105 per annum to cover College and University costs, plus up to £ 90 for grocers’ and booksellers’ bills and for personal expenses. Thus the annual expenditure of an undergraduate in a college, seeking an Ordinary Degree and making good use of his opportunities without being extravagant, would be more than twice that of a non-collegiate student with a quiet social life.

In addition, men who sought high Honours often paid £ 150 over three years to private tutors, whilst those with more modest aspirations might spend about £50.

***

The alert reader will have noticed that there is no mention here of Fitzwilliam. That would have been anachronistic, since the name arose only in Lent 1887 after the Non-Collegiate Students Board had purchased 31 and 32 Trumpington Street, opposite the Fitzwilliam Museum. The students voted on possible names for the building; shortly afterwards, a Board member proposed that the name Fitzwilliam Hall be adopted. The naming was not

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straightforward: the Censor was instructed to inform the students

that the name Fitzwilliam Hall is simply the designation of the buildings in Trumpington Street in the occupation of the Board; that the title should not be used as an official or collective designation of the Non-Collegiate Students; and that the title Fitzwilliam may appropriately be given to any club consisting of Non-Collegiate Students.

So, for instance, Fitzwilliam Cricket Club, not Fitzwilliam Hall Cricket Club – but naturally the more attractive

terminology crept back and Fitzwilliam Hall came into general usage both for the clubs and for the affiliation of the men themselves. Fitzwilliam was recognised formally by the University only in 1924, appearing in the form of Fitzwilliam House in the Statutes and Ordinances of the University.

***

Much of this article is reproduced or lightly adapted from Fitzwilliam: The First 150 years of a Cambridge College.

DR JOHN CLEAVER

Photograph taken in 1887 to define the property purchased by the Non-Collegiate Students Board: 31 & 32 Trumpington Street

Edw

ard

Whe

tton

(188

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fitzwillia m history books

There are two recently-published histories of Fitzwilliam, which are available for purchase from the Porters’ Lodge or from the Development Office via the Alumni web page.

Fitzwilliam: The First 150 Years of a Cambridge College

If you are interested in finding out more about the evolution of Fitzwilliam, this extensively-illustrated account was published in 2013. From the end-paper:

Fitzwilliam has a history unlike that of the other colleges of Cambridge. With no royal or noble founder to endow it with cash or land, it derived from an initiative to provide what nowadays would be referred to as wider access.

The Non-Collegiate Students Board was created amidst the major nineteenth-century reforms of the University, to enable students without the financial means to meet college fees to come to Cambridge and study for degrees. The first eight undergraduates were admitted in 1869. Although no collegiate form had been envisaged, almost immediately the beginnings of corporate life sprang up, driven by the aspirations of the men. They began to dine and play sports together; within a few years, a common room had been established and a boat club set up. Later, self-help made possible a chapel and a sports field.

So a quasi-collegiate institution arose: first as Fitzwilliam Hall, and subsequently as Fitzwilliam House. Finally and triumphantly, the long-awaited status of Fitzwilliam College was attained. This was to be only the start of further rounds of development, marked by the move to co-residence, the determination to drive up academic standards, the constant struggle to build up the endowment, and the many steps by which completion of the College site was achieved whilst respecting the concepts of the original Lasdun buildings. This book recounts this long and often difficult journey, painting pictures of a vibrant and constantly-evolving College, of its Senior Members and students, and of its high ambitions for its place in the University and the world.

Letters to the Censor: Fitzwilliam Hall in the Great War

This new volume was published in September 2018, so falling just within the centenary period of the Great War. From the end-paper:

Fitzwilliam College possesses much correspondence from the era of the Great War. At that time, half a century before Fitzwilliam received its Royal Charter as a college, its predecessor Fitzwilliam Hall was run by the Non-Collegiate Students Board to provide a base for students whose limited means precluded membership of a college – at that time, college costs were much greater than University fees.

The principal officer of Fitzwilliam Hall was the Censor of Non-Collegiate Students, William Fiddian Reddaway – and he was determined to enhance the Hall and to eliminate its perceived inferiority to the colleges. Reddaway was very successful in inspiring the enthusiasm and corporate spirit of the Fitzwilliam men. When war came, he received many letters from those who had graduated, from those who had interrupted their studies to serve, and indeed from those who joined Fitzwilliam during the war and spent little or no time there until afterwards.

We know of more than three hundred who made direct contributions during the war. The largest number were infantry officers, inevitably including Second Lieutenants who survived only a few weeks on the Western Front. Others saw combatant service for extended periods in many parts of the world; others provided medical, spiritual and welfare support; and still others enhanced the technology of warfare.

We can build up a picture of the social backgrounds of the men as well as of their lives and deaths in the war. Their backgrounds were diverse. Some were from middle-class families although some, such as those from clergy families, were far from affluent; others, from working-class backgrounds, had flourished as pupils in the recently-developed municipal schooling system and had continued in their turn to become teachers. They sought to advance through the access opportunities provided by Fitzwilliam Hall, and many succeeded – some to very substantial extents. Sadly, forty-five of them were to die in the war. And much of this we know through their letters to the Censor.

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college libr ary news – from the book-face

Last time my piece for this Journal was all about books and the new Library Management System. This year it is about people, and the exciting development of a new venture for this College Library.

Last year in conversation with Fellow Librarian Dr Hero Chalmers about library staffing, upcoming tasks, and where help might be needed, she raised the suggestion that we could consider employing interns from our student body to assist with particular projects during the Long Vacation. Hero is always helpful, supportive, and positive about the important place of this Library in College and – as the discussion progressed – we both realised what positive outcomes there could be to such a project for the library, the staff, and the individuals chosen, and also for the development of the library collection and/or its environment.

We soon decided to have two, two-week internships and to offer the work in two separate sessions to make the best of staff time and support, student expertise and working space within the library. No decisions were made regarding the actual work at this point, although I knew I wanted to be able to focus on collection development for future students. We decided to leave that until we saw the expertise and subject-specific knowledge of the applicants so that we could tailor our projects to get the best from the best applicants. Having explored costs, funding, and the facilities we should provide for interns, we advertised the posts to ALL undergraduates in late February. Applicants were asked to say WHY they thought they were suitable, HOW they would use their experience in their future career and HOW they would use their subject–specific expertise to benefit this Library.

In early April we had several applicants from a wide range of subjects and chose four strong candidates for interview. It was a really interesting afternoon and we

chose two very different students, doing very different subjects, and at different stages in their Fitzwilliam careers. However, the overriding similarity which made the most impression on us was how both were excellent library communicators: both had reserved books and requested for new books to be added to our collection; both gave the impression that this was THEIR library, and both were passionate about passing on their know-how to future Fitzwilliam students.

Our interns for 2019 were (in July) graduand Melissa Dicks, (2015, Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic Studies) and (in September, just entering her final year) Emily Baker-Thurston (2017, Human, Social & Political Studies).

Using trolleys, reading lists, and iDiscover, Fitzwilliam Library holdings were investigated thoroughly, with the added bonus of current user knowledge of teaching, tutorial requirements and (especially for HSPS with a large cohort) student numbers, which meant the requirement for several extra copies of books.

Mel, our ASNAC intern, gathered our current collection – from various parts of the library due to the breadth of the subject – onto one trolley and from her knowledge could easily see where the gaps were. All of these books and the newly-purchased ones now boast a beautifully-designed and visible label at the head of their spines which show that they are on the ASNAC syllabus. She also experienced as many routine library tasks as possible, as she does want to move into Library/Archive work later.

Emily, our HSPS intern, chose to deal with her subject from the Freshers’ perspective. She tackled the notoriously-long POL1 and SOC1 reading lists, the first faced by new students and also frequently chosen as option papers by students from other disciplines. Once the lists had been checked thoroughly, new books and many extra copies were ordered; the lists were saved as sharable electronic documents which have been

Emily Baker-Thurston

Christine RobertsLewis (centre) with Melissa Dicks and Tracey Piggott

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annotated by Emily to assist the Freshers in their first term. She has also designed a series of ‘student voice’ notices along the lines of ‘things I wish I had known as a fresher!’

2019 Long Vac was a really interesting, happy one for me – the time flew by and good work was accomplished with enthusiasm, alongside learning and sound library-collection development. I am really looking forward to repeating this exercise in 2020.

CHRISTINE ROBERTSLEWIS, College Librarian

chapel news

Ex antiquis et novissimis optima: The best of the old and the new.

The Chapel can be thought of as a focal point for the creative tensions found in the aspirations of our College motto. This is true in general, with the Chapel drawing on great riches of tradition in our collective worship, while the chaplaincy needs to respond continually to the changing dynamics of the emotional and spiritual needs within College. In particular, the questions begged by our motto – of what is the best of the old and the new, and how do we hold them together – were especially pertinent at the beginning of what was a new chapter for the Chapel under a new Chaplain.

Old and new were equally evident in the services held in Chapel on Sundays. Term-time Sunday mornings saw a small but committed group of students finding new fellowship and friendship through the ancient practice of sharing bread and wine in Holy Communion, as well as the not-so-ancient activity of sharing coffee and croissants after the service. Sunday evenings featured an effectively new choir gathering to sing Choral Evensong. Through their singing, the Choir created new moments of spaciousness and a different tempo for spiritual contemplation amidst the otherwise busy demands of term. The College Director of Music, Catherine Groom, along with our Organ Scholar, Anna Sozańska, did a marvellous job in recruiting and appointing new singers to the Choir which – remarkably – grew from three members before term began to fifteen choristers for the first service in October 2018. This new choir, which sounded fantastic from the beginning, only grew in confidence and prowess as term continued. The combination of liturgy and music dating back as far as the sixteenth century and sung by our excellent new choir offered a prime example of the best of the old and new. In addition to the Choir, Sunday services were supported ably by newly-appointed Chapel Officers: George Richmond (Clerk) and Jesse Marks (Sacristan).

The Sunday evening services featured a series of guest preachers, many of whom were new visitors to Fitzwilliam College, and some of whom were old – inasmuch as they were familiar to us as returning College members and one returning Chaplain. To the established tradition of a shared informal supper after the service an innovation was added: that of the option of a glass or two of wine. While the supply was moderate, the provision of wine made the occasions all the more convivial, helping to foster a happy fellowship and life for the growing Chapel-going community.

In addition to Sunday services, new and old activities took place throughout the year. Activities such as the Flagpole Act of Remembrance, a Shrove Tuesday Pancake Party, Contemplative Worship (including Taizé and Compline services) were repeated traditions pre-dating the new Chaplain. The Chapel also continued to reflect our ecumenical basis, including hosting worship and prayer led by the Christian Union and by a group from Kingsgate Church. New activities included led Mindfulness meditations, which gave attendees brief but restorative moments of reflective presence and contemplation. There were also various discussion groups through the year, termly family services, and Chaplain’s Drinks Parties.

A large part of the chaplaincy role involves the offer of pastoral care for all members of the College. While not a new activity, the take-up of support services across the University indicates that there is a growing need for pastoral support. New pressures arising from our digital age and its social (sometimes anti-social) media, combined with uncertainties over future employment and growing awareness of mental-health issues, all seem to play their part. The College chaplaincy offers pastoral and spiritual support to all members, regardless of faith. The College is enriched by a great diversity of cultures and backgrounds among members and, as we look forward, there is renewed consideration of how best to support the religious life and spiritual well-being of people of every faith and none.

In December, the Chapel hosted a memorial service giving thanks for the life of Fitzwilliam College member Peter Knowles (1964). The sadness of his passing was mixed with fond memories shared by family and friends. On a sunny Saturday in September 2019, we were delighted to host the wedding of Jennifer Platts (daughter of Dr Kenneth Platts, p.6) and Arron Merrill – an all-round happy occasion for everyone involved.

Finally, the new Chaplain is grateful to all who support the Chapel and to those who helped him to feel so welcomed and settled in his new role. It is wonderful to be a part of Fitzwilliam College – ex antiquis et novissimis optima!

REVD GRAHAM STEVENSON, Chaplain

2019

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The Chapel Choir

The Chapel Choir of 2018–2019 has comprised an exceedingly kind and agreeable group of people. I am deeply grateful to them and to Organ Scholar Anna Sozanska for their musical focus and their good company, and to The Reverend Graham Stevenson who has been unstinting in his support of the Chapel Choir from his arrival in Michaelmas 2018.

The Choir’s round of liturgical activity currently includes weekly Sung Evening Prayer services with termly Communion, Compline and Taizé additions; occasional additional services around Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, and Ascension; and services and Graces for Commemoration of Benefactors and for the Reunion Weekend. A particularly strong complement of tenors and basses this year has allowed for a varied and exciting repertoire including several new compositions. Extra services have included an ‘away’ Evensong with our Oxford sister College St Edmund Hall, involving a memorable Rheinberger Abendlied, and a Duruflé Requiem with former singers and Organ Scholars as part of the March 2019 Music Reunion Weekend.

Beyond the Chapel, the Choir is now heard in several concerts annually. Honorary Fellow Humphrey Burton (p.82) visited the College in November 2018 for an In Conversation with the Master about his new biography of Leonard Bernstein (p.5), and the Choir provided musical illustrations including Bernstein’s Missa Brevis for choir and percussion and excerpts from the West Side Story

Choral Suite. Later in Michaelmas Term we performed an all-Britten concert including Rejoice in the Lamb and Hymn to St. Cecilia. Other performances have included a Christmas concert, a Garden Party performance and a Walford Davies ‘150’ concert utilising sheet music from the recent gift of Dr Christopher Nex.

A new annual commitment for the Choir is the provision of the chorus for the fully-staged Fitzwilliam Chamber Opera, and in early Easter Term 2019 singers swapped cassocks and surplices for 1950s geometric prints for Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (p.58). Some principal roles also were cast from the body of the Choir, including Joe Folley’s charismatic Figaro, Ben Johnson’s oleaginous Don Basilio / Don Curzio and Dan Carter’s uproariously funny Antonio.

The 2018–2019 Choir went out with a bang at a Leavers’ Service involving a rendition of Walmisley’s D Minor canticles that was audible on the Huntingdon Road. We wished Summer 2019 Leavers Jonas Amend, Gwen Baines, Ben Johnson, Amy McCormick, and Gabby McHarg all the very best.

Incoming Choral Scholars and a Junior Organ Scholar have been elected for October 2019, and plans are afoot for 2019–2020 including an inter-Collegiate Beethoven’s 9th Symphony at West Road Concert Hall, Mozart’s Così fan tutte, events as part of the Cambridge Festival of Female Composers, and a tour to Rome in Summer 2020.

CATHERINE GROOM, Director of Music

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