The Year 2023 by Girton College

2022/23

The Year

The Annual Review of Girton College Cambridge

Contents Welcome

Anna Nickerson

Roll of Alumni

A Letter from the Mistress

Julia Andersson

2024 – Calendar of Events

102

Regional Associations

103

College Reports

Features Open Doors Meet the New Mistress A New Gateway into Cambridge

8 15

Births, Marriages and Deaths

Alumni and Supporters

Admissions and Widening Participation

Marriages and Civil Partnerships 110

Bursaries and Grants

In Memoriam

112

Postgraduate Affairs

Obituaries

126

Births

108

Stepping Up with STEM SMART

Chapel

Queen of the Kitchen Cabinet

Library

Lists

Archive

Culture and Heritage

Fellows and Officers of the College

142

Music

University and College Awards

148

Legacies of Enslavement: Unlocking a Door to Girton’s Past

An Ill Wind: the Covid Ventilation Story

Choir

Awards and Distinctions

154

Gardens

Research Evenings

Appointments of Fellows, Staff and Alumni

154

Hail and Farewell

Fellows’ Publications

157

Goodbye Old Friend

Alumni Publications

160

Lock up your Libraries? A Portal Between Science and Art

A Refugee in Cambridge Remembered

On the Threshold of Greatness 39 The 2023 Jane Martin Poetry Prize

Solution to 2022 Crossword 2023 Crossword

Alumni Information

Student Reports JCR

Spring Ball 2023: Beyond the Skies

Spring Ball Spin-off

MCR

Student Societies and Clubs

Fellows’ and Staff Profiles Toni Williams

Alex Liu

Update your Details

162

Alumni Events

163

Supporting Girton College

164

Giving to Girton

166

Designed and produced by Cambridge Marketing Limited, 01638 724100 Cover: ‘The Afternoon of Hope’ by Ting Zhou (2021 MPhil Education) Inside Front Cover: Honorary Fellow The Rt Revd David Conner, Dean of Windsor, places the Imperial State Crown and orb and sceptre on the high altar during the Committal Service for HM Queen Elizabeth II, at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle on 19 September 2022 (Getty Images). Inside Back Cover: Official Fellow, Admissions Tutor and University Senior Proctor Dr Seb Falk (left) with HM King Charles III at a reception following the Presentation of Loyal Addresses by the Privileged Bodies, including the University of Cambridge, at Buckingham Palace on 9 March 2023 (Ian Jones Photography). Section photographs: ‘Open Doors’ pp. 7, 87 Andrea Senf; 45 Jeremy West; 59 Karl Dawson; 101 Peter Sparks; 107 Rachael Humphrey; 141 Caroline Shenton.

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Welcome Welcome to the 2023 edition of The Year. ‘Open Doors’ is its theme, inspired by the arrival of both a new Mistress and a new Senior Tutor, as well as the range of new initiatives designed to fling wide the gates to our past, present and future for the benefit of everyone at Girton. You can read about these in the pages which follow.

Sparks and Girton’s first student comms intern, Hadeal Abdelatti, for their professional-standard images. As ever, I am deeply indebted to Peter Morrison, Derrin Mappledoram and Stuart Cleary of Cambridge Marketing for their expertise and patience in putting together the design.

I would like to thank, most warmly, all the content contributors and the editorial team of Jill Jondorf, Cherry Hopkins, Ross Lawther, Hannah Sargent and Rachael Humphrey, without whom it would have been impossible to produce this issue. I’m especially proud that the vast majority of the photographs in The Year have been taken by students, staff or fellows – and I would particularly like to thank Hannah Sargent, Rachael Humphrey, Peter

We all hope you enjoy The Year 2022-23. We are always glad to hear from Girtonians with news for here or our sister publication The Girtonian. Please do contact the Development Office at Girton College, Cambridge CB3 0JG (alumni@girton.cam.ac.uk) if you have a story to share. Caroline Shenton, Editor Rachael Humphrey

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Rachael Humphrey

A Letter from the Mistress My first ‘Mistress’s Letter’ comes with a hefty sprinkling of enthusiasm after a fantastic year absorbing, enjoying and throwing myself into the huge array of activities that characterise Girton. This is without doubt the busiest, buzziest college I’ve ever experienced. Arriving at Girton was a (happy) baptism of fire: a tea-drinking marathon as I met every single fresher face-toface; a majestic ceremony and dinner to mark my installation; a moving commemoration of benefactors; a dinner to mark our foundation; a robeflowing ceremony to admit Scholars, Exhibitioners and Fellows; a joyful party for new Fellows; not to mention the students cheerfully including me in their Freshers’ Week events: GADS showing no mercy in their opening musical as they ribbed the new Mistress (alongside the perennial character of the wicked plotting Bursar). There were myriad choir performances; research presentations; JCR yoga; apple harvesting; football matches…I could go on. Surely the College could not keep up this pace? Yes it could! That initial fortnight of non-stop drama turned out to be merely the opening curtain on what was to be a fantastic year-long play in three very active acts: Michaelmas, Lent and Easter, plus a lengthy curtain call as our international

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programmes sprang back to life over the summer. Girton is nothing if not industrious – at every level: teaching, research, sports, music, drama, art, activism, volunteering, entertaining, conferencing, summer programmes – and through it all, Girton is always learning, always enjoying, always advancing. I have also been joined by many other new faces this year among the Fellowship: you can read all about them in the pages that follow, but I want to extend a special welcome to our exceptional new Senior Tutor, Professor Toni Williams.

I’ve marvelled too at just how much goes on behind the scenes at Girton. As I’ve walked around our stunning grounds, bounded up the Tower to peer around, wandered along our corridors and toured our vast kitchens, I’m filled with admiration at the enormous team effort that goes into making our College run smoothly. This is greatly helped by some excellent new Heads of Department: Deji Olaniyi-Maxwell, our trailblazing Head of Welfare and Wellbeing; Julia Andersson, our visionary Head Gardener; Stephen Fleming, our always welcoming Head Porter; Hadeal Abdelatti

Leading the applause at the Summer Guest Night concert

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Rachael Humphrey

Portering at General Admission

Andrew Enticknap, our super-charged Head of Finance; Hugh Matthews, our long-suffering yet always creative Head Chef; and Maxine Purdie, our savvy new Head of Catering and Conferencing. We can all rest easy that our College is in safe hands. It is a huge privilege to be based at the heart of this lively College. I love the day-to-day running across colleagues and students, sometimes quite literally as I jog around

our beautiful perimeter in an effort to counteract the dangerous talents of the College kitchens. I’ve also really enjoyed meeting some of you on my visits to the USA and Singapore together with our Development Director, Deborah Easlick. I can’t wait to visit more of you to update you on new developments and listen to your ideas. I want to take this opportunity to thank Deborah for her service to College over the past seven years and wish her a happy and no doubt active retirement.

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Scarlett Morine

Lift-off with the W1 Crew at the Boat Club Dinner

Many new initiatives are underway, from digitised task lists and action logs to communication firsts such as ‘Spotlight Girton’ and exciting video projects, all produced in-house. You can keep up with all we’re doing and publishing by following our social media feeds. I particularly want to highlight our new series of reflections exploring Girton’s Legacies of Enslavement as the College seeks to clarify its own knowledge of itself. We are very fortunate to have former Mistress Professor Dame Marilyn Strathern steering us through the sensitive curation of these important narratives. As Girtonians, we can feel proud of being part of something really special. Our College is blessed with outstanding Fellows whose teaching and research continue to push boundaries, dedicated staff who keep the College ticking over so successfully, talented students who bring joy in the present and instil hope for the future and gloriously diverse alumni whose post-Girton trajectories prove that it’s all worthwhile. This is, of course, a wonderful testament to my predecessors, and I particularly want to thank Professor Susan J. Smith for her 13 stellar years of stewardship.

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You will be hearing again from me in the next few pages, so I’ll resist the temptation to go on. Let me close by saying that, if I reflect on all the impressions Girton has made on me over my first year, I realise that what I love most is the College’s cheerful spirit and can-do attitude, doubtless inspired by its pioneering history. It’s easy to take this for granted or pass over it in the all-consuming hustle and bustle of our packed terms, but it is a terrific asset and – I believe – exceptional among colleges. While there is no doubt that Girton’s academic excellence is truly world-class, it is this caring, inclusive and happy ethos that makes Girton so distinct. It is a quality greatly cherished by our Fellows, valued by our staff, fondly remembered by our alumni, remarked on by our visitors and loved by our students. So, in case you haven’t noticed, I can report that I am a 100% fully converted Girtonian and that I feel extraordinarily lucky to have landed in this special corner of Cambridge. I want to thank you all for your extremely warm welcome and for helping to make this an unforgettable first year of ‘Mistressing’. Elisabeth Kendall, Mistress

Features

OPEN DOORS

Meet the New Mistress Arabist Dr Elisabeth Kendall discusses her life and work and the impulse that drew her to step through the front door at Girton as Head of House. Interview by E. Jane Dickson

irton’s 20th Mistress was intrigued to find newspapers unopened in the Senior Combination Room. ‘Before I came here, I’d never been in an SCR where the papers are barely leafed through. It’s because everyone here is talking. The Fellows talk at lunch, they hang around to chat after dinner, and I get the impression they really enjoy each other’s company. It’s the first thing I noticed when I arrived.’

the UN, Special Forces at home and abroad, NATO and the Pentagon. Steering tribes towards consensus is not perhaps so different from steering a College and, a year into her Mistress-ship, Kendall has ambitious plans for students and Fellows at Girton:

‘We’ve begun a couple of projects aimed at demystifying Cambridge for applicants, keeping it special – we don’t Dr Elisabeth Kendall never underestimates the ‘soft want to make it sound as if it’s like everywhere else – but power’ of conversation. ‘I’ve got a very practical spirit,’ making sure people know they have access to this special she says. ‘I like working out how to move things forward. thing. It’s important to understand But first I need to know what it is that that not everyone arrives with the people really aspire to. So, I’ve been My first thought when benefit of a privileged education, but trying to do a lot of listening and I was approached for everyone arrives with bags of potential. thinking in my first year in College, the Girton role was, Tapping into that from the get-go is while keeping up some of the great “Wow! This is my really important. I’m thrilled that last momentum I inherited.’ dream job!” And as October Girton hosted the week-long it turns out, it is induction for the inaugural Foundation Kendall, who relaxes by trail-running Year (an initiative to bridge the gap in the Alps, radiates high energy. between school and university for less She came to Girton in October 2022 advantaged students) for the whole University. We’ve also from Pembroke College, Oxford, where she was Senior been talking to our students to find out what it was that Research Fellow in Arabic and Islamic Studies. Formerly pushed them to apply here; quite often they’ll say things like Director of the Centre for the Advanced Study of the “Well, we saw a video on YouTube that talked about how Arab World (CASAW) – a collaboration across the fantastic Girton is at Law,” or whatever. So it’s about finding universities of Edinburgh, Durham and Manchester – she the right medium for the message and scaling it up.’ sits on numerous advisory boards and holds multiple trusteeships. Her field work in East Yemen, which includes Most Cambridge Colleges now offer well-developed – and working closely with desert tribes and analysing the role highly competitive – access and bursary schemes. This, says of poetry in al-Qaeda propaganda, has won the attention Kendall, is an increasingly urgent issue within and beyond of governments around the world. With privileged insight the University. But it is disingenuous, she argues, to assume into militant jihadi culture, she has advised, inter alia,

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Phil Mynott

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Hannah Sargent

Getting ready to podcast with Girton postgrad, Sigourney Bonner, founder of Black in Cancer

that access issues disappear once you’re through the door. ‘We’re working hard to ensure that inequality doesn’t follow students through university. And students these days also want to know what happens next. We’ve got to find better ways of equalising chances for graduates, whether that’s mentoring by alumni, expanding horizons to include a wider range of careers, or sponsoring students to try out jobs over the vacations without having to rely

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on wealthy parents; fancy internships, for example, are often up for auction, and I find that obscene. We need to offer practical help with professionalisation, internships, presentation skills, managing your profile on social media – all those things that add value beyond excellent teaching.’ Kendall also believes that, to deliver excellent teaching, you must first ensure Fellows are fulfilled and well supported:

‘Life has got harder for Fellows. Back in the day, you became an academic because you enjoyed teaching, loved doing research and relished long breaks for reading and writing. That charmed life is barely recognisable today; it’s much more legalistic and there’s a significantly heavier administrative burden. We need to ensure Fellows get what they want out of the job, and I have a few ideas in that direction. First, we need to support them more financially – it’s insane that you need a mortgage many, many times your salary to buy a decent house in Cambridge. And of course both partners, in most households, now work. So, what are you going to do about childcare? And how do you help Fellows carve out blocks of time to get on with research, disseminate it broadly and build their networks? It’s on my agenda to tackle these and other issues so that Fellows aren’t trying to cram important research into evenings and weekends.’ Building Girton’s international presence is, she suggests, a way of enhancing Girton’s reputation and, ultimately,

attracting support for the College. ‘Getting Fellows’ research out there is a relatively low-cost way of helping their careers. That could mean “translating” weighty, intense papers into pithy web articles, blogs or press releases. We’re also filming a video series showcasing Fellows and their work. There are different ways of packaging the same research for the public, for policy makers, and for experts in the field. It’s about building different pathways to take all that fantastic knowledge to the broadest audience possible. I really want us to become a household name internationally. I want Girton to be recognised not just for being the friendly, inclusive college, but for the hard-core academic excellence that happens here.’ Clear-sighted ambition, and a talent for forward planning, surfaced early in Kendall. Growing up, she chafed against her parents’ ideals. ‘My mum was an immigrant from post-war Germany and left school very young. My dad worked as an engineer in a tea factory before becoming a mathematician and early computer scientist, but when he

Desert stop at sunset in eastern Yemen

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pragmatism’: ‘I was always very interested in the “other” – anything, really, that was the complete opposite to how I’d been brought up. Choosing Islamic Studies was a rejection of my restrictive, Christian-centric background, but it was also strategic. This was 1989. It was around the time of the Iran– Iraq War, and I had grown up listening to news about Israel and Palestine, and the Iran–US hostage crisis. It was all very interesting and even as a teenager, I felt the drivers of these conflicts were poorly understood. Also, I was worried that, coming from a state school, I might be at a disadvantage. I wanted the chance to excel, rather than be behind from the start. So, I thought, “I’ll choose a subject where everyone starts from scratch.”’

Four generations of a German family. Elisabeth (bottom right) with her mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and sister

Initial insecurities notwithstanding, Kendall graduated from Oxford with the highest first in her subject in 30 years. She remains passionately concerned, however, to throw a bridge from the ‘ivory tower’ to the outside world:

increasingly clear ‘ It’s to me that peace

‘I spent quite a lot of my academic career was in his fifties, he and my mum feeling slightly dissatisfied. My work, at and prosperity rely decided to become missionaries. one stage, was highly theoretical, centred heavily on the quality It was a strictly non-materialistic on literary criticism and Arabic linguistics. and inclusiveness of household: we had no social life I was going to conferences where it all education, even if the outside the church, and television, started to feel a bit like an echo chamber classroom is just a tent, when it arrived, was strictly rationed. and I thought, “I can’t see how I’m making using activities that In common, I guess, with many a difference, except in a very small niche encourage attendance, teenagers, I felt like an outsider, and in a very small field.” Then 9/11 happened inspire collaboration I took refuge in travelling in my mind and I started to publish short language and develop a peaceand through books. My parents were books I thought would be useful. When building mindset not particularly keen on me going to I published Media Arabic, I distinctly university, but when I gained a place remember being told by some faculty at Pembroke College, Oxford, to read Arabic and Islamic colleagues, “Oh, I wouldn’t put your own name on that, Studies, they saved up and bought me the best Arabic if I were you, because it’s not a very theoretical work.” But dictionary.’ students begged me to publish it, because this was before Google Translate and they wanted to know what most Her choice of subject was, she recalls, ‘part rebellion, part Arabic-speaking countries had settled on to express concepts

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like “global warming” or “intercontinental ballistic missile” and other terms that simply weren’t in any dictionary.’ Spurred by the immense success of Media Arabic, Kendall branched out to publish several other specialist volumes, including Intelligence Arabic and Diplomacy Arabic. ‘At the same time, the whole concept of militant jihad seemed to me one of the urgent issues of the day and I started to think, “How can I bring 20 years of literary training to bear on what’s going on in the world?” I took up the directorship of CASAW in Edinburgh and then used my research fellowship at Oxford as a springboard for field work in the Arabian Peninsula where the most active and aggressive branch of al-Qaeda was based. I thought, “If we are trying to understand why jihad has taken off, we could do worse than find out what local populations think.” So, I planned this huge survey and trained 70 grassroots workers to go out and speak to people in the Eastern tribes about what they really wanted. And they invariably said, “No one’s ever asked us that.”’

Speaking at the 2017 Forum on Security and Global Order in Riyadh

The results of Kendall’s survey showed little popular interest in a caliphate or, for that matter, in democracy. ‘If you’ve got a very religiously segmented society, or a society full of tribal loyalties, then Western-Style democracy and policy-based competition isn’t always that relevant. People don’t want to be “helped” in the sense of modernised or Westernised; they do want representation, but that doesn’t necessarily mean “one person, one vote.”’ Most strikingly, the survey confirmed the central role of poetry in jihadi propaganda: ‘74% of respondents said poetry was important, or very important, in their daily lives. And if you think about how hearts and minds are moved, it’s not necessarily by logical argument, it’s by directly addressing people’s emotions. It’s not surprising that militant jihad groups were using it, yet it was completely ignored by intelligence agencies. I’ve spent a lot of time

Learning to plant a tree for the 2020 cohort at the 2023 College Feast in May

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Working on a project with local Yemeni women

Beyond literary research, Kendall has worked extensively to provide social and educational support to women and children in East Yemen: ‘It’s increasingly clear to me that peace and prosperity rely heavily on the quality and inclusiveness of education. The projects I’m proudest of are the ones that help women fulfil their literacy ambitions, which have fantastic knock-on effects for their children and communities. It’s also about bringing fun into the classroom, even if it’s just a tent, using activities that encourage attendance, inspire collaboration and develop a peace-building mindset.’

‘I rarely feel unsafe,’ she insists, ‘I’m generally travelling as the only woman with 20–50 tribesmen. A small group meets me at the border and the first thing we do is drive to a rusty old petrol station two miles down the road to pick up their weapons – it’s like a valet service for guns. The men are incredibly respectful and I go with the flow – I’ll eat camel nostrils, or drink debris-strewn water from a communal tin bowl, and it helps that I have a deep appreciation of their language and culture. It’s quite weird for them – and very weird for their wives – but we have fun. It’s a bit of a festive atmosphere when I cross the border and I’m protected as a guest. That’s very important, and it’s where journalists and others make mistakes: they engage fixers, but once money changes hands, you’re very vulnerable, because someone else will pay more to let them kidnap you.’

Kendall’s adventures in the field will surely make a riveting memoir when she has time to write it. She has kept detailed diaries. On one occasion she was bundled, mid-speech, out of a meeting and driven at speed overnight towards the border and safety. Days later, in a neighbouring governate, a local speaker addressing similar issues was assassinated. Another of her gatherings was disrupted by al-Qaeda who arrived in heavily-armed land cruisers to deliver a religious homily.

Will she miss the adrenaline, becalmed in Cambridge? Given the Mistress’s flying start, this seems unlikely. ‘My first thought when I was approached for the Girton role was, “Wow! This is my dream job!” I wondered briefly if the time was right for me, because I normally associate this kind of role with an older person. But then I took a moment to reflect and realised what a fantastic opportunity and privilege it is to lead the College while I’m still very energetic, with batteries fully charged.’

analysing the winning “ingredients” of the most politically stirring poems or anthems, and I’ve succeeded in getting more attention onto this kind of material, but there’s more work to be done.’

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OPEN DOORS

A New Gateway into Cambridge The Cambridge Foundation Year Programme is the University’s new, one-year, fully-funded residential programme for students who have faced educational disruption or disadvantage. The programme recognises that academic achievement is a function not just of a student’s ability, but also of their circumstances. While we are under no illusion that this programme alone will right the wrongs of inequality, it represents an important step toward making Cambridge an inclusive place of study, and Girton has been there from the start, with Bye-Fellows Shyane Siriwardena and Marieke Dhont

riting now, in the summer of 2023, it is hard to believe that it was less than a year ago that we welcomed the first Cambridge Foundation Year cohort over the threshold, in the beautiful Stanley Library here at Girton. For a week, we and the 47 students were surrounded by images of pioneering women, and the symbolism was not lost on any of us. What better place to inaugurate the Foundation Year than a college with a unique history of championing the education of the disenfranchised? To begin their journey, students on the programme undergo a rigorous admissions process. After they submit their initial application form, those who are shortlisted are invited to complete a further test as well as two separate admissions interviews. Once on the programme, students complete an intensive year of study designed to prepare them for study at undergraduate level. Each week, they have approximately three hours of lectures, three hours of supervisions, and six to nine hours of seminars. This is in addition to the time spent on independent study, completing readings and writing supervision assignments. Students also undertake a series of assessed coursework essays and a short dissertation of approximately 5,000 words, in addition to an end-of-

year exam. In other words, the Foundation Year is a crucible of learning for these aspirational young people. Despite the demands of the programme, many of the students on it this year have been very active in their colleges and beyond. They have been members of their JCR committees, have competed in college and University sports, have been active in national politics, and much more besides. We are so proud of the way that our students have thrown themselves into university life, both academically and otherwise. Students on the programme get the opportunity to explore a wide range of topics, spanning a variety of subjects in the arts, humanities and social sciences. They have taken papers on, for instance, data and policy-making during the Covid -19 pandemic, an interdisciplinary study of King’s College Chapel, the poetry of Generation Windrush, and language in the age of the Internet. The benefit of this approach has been that we teach academic skills in an integrated and interdisciplinary way, so that our students are as ready as they can be to transition to the first-year undergraduate programme of their choice. The programme’s breadth has also enabled students to explore disciplines they have never encountered before. Indeed, while most students

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Lloyd Mann

The 2022 Foundation Year cohort during their induction week at Girton

arrived with an interest in progressing to subjects such as Law or Human, Social and Political Studies, many of those have since discovered a passion for disciplines they had not studied prior to the Foundation Year, such as Theology, Philosophy or Classics. It has been truly delightful to watch them develop over the last few months: to see so many of them flourish, even in the face of great personal adversity. So many people across the University are responsible for providing vital support, enabling our students to thrive, from the Accessibility and Disability Resource Centre and the University Counselling Service, to – of course – the stalwart Directors of Studies and Tutors at each participating college. Together, we form a safety net for students, empowering them with the confidence and skills to pursue their learning and realise their true

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potential. It is wonderful that Girton College has played a key role in supporting the Foundation Year and enabling this to happen; our Deputy Senior Tutor Dr Stuart Davis has championed the programme since its inception and is one of two representatives from the colleges on the Management Committee, while Girton itself has been home to four of the 2022 cohort. In October 2023, many of our students will begin their undergraduate Tripos of choice. We are delighted for each and every one of them, and will certainly miss them as they pass through the next gateway on their academic journey. As staff look to the second year of the programme, we will be casting our gaze forward and back. Back, to the 2022 cohort and all they continue to achieve. And forward, to the new cohort of promising young people whose University adventures are just beginning.

Shyane Siriwardena

Marieke Dhont

Foundation Year Teaching Associate and Bye-Fellow of Girton

Foundation Year Teaching Associate, Affiliated Lecturer at the Faculty of Divinity and Bye-Fellow of Girton

I completed my PhD in Philosophy in 2016 here at Cambridge. While my academic career has taken a winding path since then, one thing that has remained constant is that I have always delighted in sharing my passion for exploring interesting questions. Socrates once likened teaching to midwifery; it is an analogy that always resonated with me. I provide the tools and environment students need to birth their own ideas and lines of inquiry. I want to empower students to engage critically with everything around them. And I want my excitement to be infectious – I want them to feel the thrill that comes with asking big questions. For all these reasons, when I saw the job posting for the Foundation Year Programme, I leapt at the opportunity. I was fortunate enough to be chosen for the team and began working on the Foundation Year a year ago. I have absolutely revelled in every minute of it! It has been an extraordinary amount of work putting together the curriculum for this programme; all of the staff have dedicated themselves to providing students with a course that is edifying and engaging. I am very fortunate to be working alongside colleagues who care deeply about the project we are undertaking more broadly, and about the success and wellbeing of each student we see in our classes in particular. What is more, it has been incredibly rewarding teaching the inspiring young people on this programme. I cannot wait to see what the future has in store for them, and for the Foundation Year students who will walk into my classroom in the years to come.

My background is in Classics, and I have a PhD in Religious Studies and Theology from Leuven, focusing on ancient Jewish literature. I arrived in Cambridge in 2018 as a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Faculty of Divinity, and joined preparations for the Foundation Year in Spring 2022. Engaging in research in the humanities can be quite a solitary experience, and after Covid, I longed for the opportunity to focus on connecting with students again. When I saw the job ad for the Foundation Year just as my postdoctoral fellowship came to an end, it felt like the perfect next step. My main responsibilities relate to the papers in the languages stream. The first year of the programme has been stimulating, challenging, and rewarding. It has been a ton of work developing the programme, but the Foundation Year team has been wonderful and supportive, and being able to witness the enthusiasm and progress of our students is wonderfully encouraging. The Foundation Year exactly encapsulates what I wish for the future of the university: inclusivity and kindness, alongside a high academic standard.

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OPEN DOORS

Stepping Up with STEM SMART Girton is also one of the first colleges to participate in STEM SMART, a pilot widening-participation initiative from the University of Cambridge, run in association with Isaac Physics. Life Fellow and former Girton Admissions Tutor Julia Riley explains

TEM SMART provides free complementary In January 2022 the first cohort of 848 students with teaching and support to UK students at nonwidening-participation backgrounds started the course. fee-paying schools who either have experienced To illustrate the engagement of the students, during educational disadvantage or belong to a group that is Phase 1, between them they attempted 372,000 questions statistically less likely to progress to higher education. (nearly 40 questions per student per week); each student It was launched in autumn 2021 and attended an average of 19 hours of was targeted at students who were tutorials and 3 hours of mentoring. considering applying to Engineering 515 students progressed to Phase STEM SMART was so and Physical Sciences courses at 2 and then 372 to Phase 3. Several fundamental to my top universities. From 2022 it was Girton Fellows and research students experience in sixth extended to cover Biological Sciences participated by giving small-group form: I honestly do not as well. supervisions. Around 450 students know how everybody attended the residential course, else is getting by with accommodation provided by The programme starts in January in without it! It increased participating colleges – we were Year 12 and runs until May in Year 13. my confidence so much delighted to host 18 of them at Throughout this time students are set and improved my Girton. work each week via the Isaac Physics perseverance, work online platform which complements ethic and attitude. As We have had many favourable and supports their school studies. a result I reached a comments on STEM SMART. One The programme has three phases. In level where I could student said: ‘In Chemistry, at the Phase 1 (January–May), as well as the apply to a competitive beginning of the year I was an E grade set work, a weekly large-group online university student but thanks to the constant tutorial in each subject is provided. The push made by the tutors and mentors aim in Phase 2 (June – December) is to as well as individual study, I am now consistently getting help prepare students for application to competitive As in all my tests.’ Another wrote ‘It’s the best programme universities. Students who have demonstrated active ever and it does in fact change lives!’ engagement in Phase 1 can participate in small-group tutorials and attend a four-day residential course in Cambridge. In Phase 3 (January – May) the focus is on helping students to secure the best possible grades in Right: STEM SMARTers study the diffraction of their public examinations and to meet their university light by a laser, an experiment which culminates offer; as in Phase 2, small-group tutorials are provided. in them measuring the diameter of their hair

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Adam Page/University of Cambridge

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OPEN DOORS

Queen of the Kitchen Cabinet Domestic decluttering influencers are nothing new. TV historian Professor Deborah Sugg Ryan reveals how nearly a century ago a trailblazing Girtonian was giving similar advice to modern housewives in print and on the radio

n the really modern kitchen, where the method of a place for everything and everything in its place is followed, and where space is of the utmost importance, there is nothing to compare with the kitchen cabinet for convenience. It is true that the compact cabinet is the greatest stepsaver yet invented. It really brings the latest ideas in good grouping which have become universal in well run offices within the reach of the housewife. Easier Housework by Better Equipment (Country Life, 1929). These words by Girton graduate, domestic advice writer, lecturer and broadcaster Nancie Clifton Reynolds (1903–1931) were accompanied by a photo of a ‘kitchen cabinet’. It is a free-standing wooden cupboard with multiple doors and drawers: to all intents and purposes it is a kitchen in a cupboard. The three storeys of open doors of the kitchen cabinet reveal compartments for the storage of food and equipment associated with food preparation. They incorporate a flour sifter shaped like a funnel; flour bin; metal-lined bread drawer; rolling pin; bin for sugar; and storage jars. There is a sliding or fold-down enamelled worktop for food preparation with more cupboards underneath, including a meat safe, and drawers. The inside of the topmost doors often had a ‘shopping or household wants reminder’ – a list of products with a tab next to each item that can be flipped as a reminder to purchase it. Easiwork was the first company to sell kitchen cabinets in Britain. It was founded in 1919 by the Canadian G.E.W. Crowe who originally imported refrigerators and kitchen

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cabinets from Canada to Britain. These cabinets were a version of the American Hoosier cabinet, which was first manufactured in Indiana in the late 1890s. The Hoosier cabinet was inspired by the ideas of the Beecher sisters who advised women, in The American Woman’s Home; or Principles of Domestic Science (1869), to incorporate a ‘cooking form’ cabinet in their homes as a rational and hygienic solution to food preparation and storage needs. Production peaked in the 1920s when more than one in ten American households owned a Hoosier brand cabinet. It was championed by economist Christine Fredrick who drew on the methods of efficiency experts and time and motion studies and applied them to the home, installing a Hoosier in her own kitchen. The Hoosier cabinet was influenced by the nineteenthcentury fall-front secretary desk, patented in 1874 by the Wooton Desk Company of Indianapolis. In the original Wooton desk, hidden behind two massive hinged panels available in a variety of decorative finishes, were 110 letterboxes and cubbyholes to contain the businessman’s important papers and tools of correspondence, all of which could be reached from a seated position. When the working day was through, the sides of the desk could swing shut, and be locked securely to ensure privacy and also free up floor space. Wooton’s unique desk not only maintained order in the workplace but was also used by women in the home to keep household papers. Easiwork produced their own models of kitchen cabinet in Britain from 1922, opening a factory in Shepherd’s Bush, Right: A surviving Easiwork kitchen cabinet

Collinge Antiques Ltd

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Nancie Clifton Reynolds was a great champion of the kitchen cabinet, educating women in its use through her books, articles, demonstrations and radio broadcasts. Born Agnes Margaret Warden Hardie in Hampstead in 1903, she came up to Girton in 1923, and read two years of Economics and a year of History.

and a showroom in Tottenham Court Road, London. Their early models were quite expensive, and they aimed them at architect-designed houses. They created a wider market for their kitchen cabinets through advertising directly to servantless housewives in magazines like Ideal Home. One advertisement depicted a housewife working at her kitchen cabinet as if she were a secretary in an office. The Easiwork cabinet was also given credibility through its endorsement by the Good Housekeeping Institute, run by the magazine of the same name, and was featured frequently in the Ideal Home Exhibition. By the mid 1920s most British furniture retailers sold at least one style of kitchen cabinet and they were produced in a range of sizes, prices and specifications by several manufacturers, including Liverpool Hygena Cabinets Ltd who catered to more modest budgets and homes.

She met the businessman Clifton George Reynolds while she was a student and became his second wife (of three) in 1926, subsequently publishing as Mrs N. Clifton Reynolds. After graduating she worked with him at a factory in Merton, Surrey, manufacturing aluminium products, including cooking utensils. Thereafter they opened a short-lived shop in Streatham called ‘Better Housekeeping’.

Girton College Archive, GCPH 10/50/3

Nancie Clifton Reynolds at matriculation, 1923

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Nancie became an expert on using scientific principles of household management, addressing servantless housewives. A reporter commented, ‘She is a most interesting woman, and not only has she been educated in economics, and their various uses in life to-day, but she is backed by very practical experience, being a wife, and mother herself’ (Daily Mail, 15 April 1929). She made eight BBC radio broadcasts on domestic science, known as ‘Household Talks’, between 1927 and 1930. The Radio Times noted that Reynolds’ own home was ‘equipped with every modern convenience and laboursaving device’ (Radio Times, 2 September 1927). Nancie’s Easier Housework opened with a photograph of her own London kitchen. The doors of her kitchen cabinet are flung open and the worksurface is pulled out, its surface cluttered with a meal being prepared. She cautioned: The cabinet may make a perfect kitchen possible for its owner. It should also be remembered that it opens up vistas of untidiness…Unless the user is tidy in the first place and anxious to possess a tidy kitchen, the result will be disastrous. Whoever uses a cabinet must put everything back in the right place

after use, must keep the contents of the drawers and shelves clean, and must preserve the tiles which will make the porcelain slab useful for a lifetime. Unlike in America where Hoosier cabinets had fallen out of fashion by the late 1930s, in Britain kitchen cabinets continued to be produced in the 1940s under the Utility furniture scheme in wood and, later, surplus aluminium with an enamelled finish. They remained in production until well into the 1950s in Britain. Fitted kitchens took much longer to catch on and were not widespread until the early 1960s. After falling out of fashion, the freestanding kitchen cabinet is now having a comeback with original versions fetching high prices and modern versions being produced.

‘Mrs Clifton Reynolds’ Kitchen in London’ from Easier Housework by Better Equipment (Country Life, 1929) Helen Yates

Sadly, Nancie did not live to see the kitchen cabinet that she promoted continue to prosper. According to her husband, she struggled to combine her working life advising women on labour-saving in the home with her own domestic duties at home, unaided by servants. The couple separated and she relocated to Liverpool in 1931 with their daughters Ann (2) and Jean (1). Shortly afterwards Nancie fell ill with tonsillitis, and died, aged only 28, of sepsis on 27 December 1931, and Jean died ten days later. But in her short life, Nancie had a huge influence on women by opening the doors to her kitchen and showing them by example how to run their homes more efficiently. Deborah Sugg Ryan is Professor of Design History and Theory at the University of Portsmouth. She is author of Ideal Homes: Uncovering the History and Design of the Interwar Home (Manchester University Press) and is series consultant and a presenter of BBC Two’s A House Through Time. She is currently writing a book on the history of the modern kitchen.

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OPEN DOORS

Legacies of Enslavement: Unlocking a Door to Girton’s Past Opening doors to opportunities, or to glimpses of the future, may sometimes also involve confronting locked doors to the past. Professor Dame Marilyn Strathern, Life Fellow, former Mistress and Chair of Girton’s Legacies of Enslavement Working Group, offers a personal reflection on why and how the College recently began turning one particular key

ehind the impetus for Cambridge University setting up its Legacies of Enslavement Inquiry in 2019 were its historic links to unconscionable practices that had helped fuel more than two centuries of British prosperity. The legacy the University had in mind stemmed from that era: how racism was built into social inequalities. Had those inequalities gone away one might have opened that door out of interest or curiosity, but they have not gone away and the door must be opened with a more urgent sense of unfinished business. Of all forms of oppression, enslavement is egregious in denying people legal and civil recognition. One aspect of that unfinished business is acknowledgement of personhood denied. It was the combination of treating people as chattel goods and a period of huge economic expansion, on both sides of the Atlantic, which came to entrench a racist ethos. One of Girton’s redoubtable historians, the late Betty Wood, always emphasised that there was nothing inevitable about this process. If we are opening doors, it is initially onto a very specific epoch,

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and in Girton’s case onto nineteenth-century outcomes of that expansion. July 1885 It is summer 1885. Girton has just learned it was the principal beneficiary of a will of one Jane Catherine Gamble. The bequest – completely unexpected – recalls a moment when the young college, in this regard a struggling one, could see only a future of mounting debt. Gamble’s legacy was to be transformative: Girton’s land was doubled, the tower built, 24 student rooms added. Gamble had nothing to do with Emily Davies’s energetic circle of supporters. Of course, it was the promoters of a college for women who gave concrete form to how she wished to dispose of her residuary estate. Perhaps behind Gamble’s interest in a female establishment was her own predicament as an heiress, indeed someone who had had to flee from fortune hunters, as she herself openly publicised.

Girton College Archive (GCPP Gamble2/20pt)

Detail from Jane Catherine Gamble’s will,1882

That fortune derived largely from money made in the Americas, starting well before she was born but sustaining her for life. Gamble never disowned its origins; far from it. Across the Atlantic she had connections with plantations deploying enslaved labour on both her mother’s and father’s side. She benefited from those of the former, regretted that she was disinherited from the latter. Residing all her adult life in London, she fashioned her personal identity out of living connections with a plantation aristocracy. That was not in anyone’s head when the news came that surprised and delighted the College. It is what we know, and might want to ponder on, now. That said, among the propertied classes, people at the time would have been aware of the role that marriage and inheritance played in women’s independent ability to dispose of wealth. Opening a door in a women’s college is not going to be like opening other doors in Cambridge. The Working Group In tracing lines of inheritance, we slip through time; the foundations of Gamble’s wealth were being laid long before the abolition of enslavement was a reality for British interests (not that they applied to her connections with the Southern states). College did not

take its relatively late founding as a reason for avoiding the University’s challenge. As noted in The Year 2021/22, Girton’s Legacies of Enslavement Working Group was set up in 2020. The Working Group was asked to investigate what aspects of College’s history or endowments might be linked to the Atlantic trade in enslaved people. As a scoping exercise, the Group concentrated on six historical figures key to Girton’s early development, and on monetary gifts. A survey of some 70 major benefactions over the period 1869 –1929, which financed named prizes, scholarships and fellowships, pointed to about a quarter that would warrant further research. That included contributions from some of the six. As well as Gamble, these comprised Girton’s founder Emily Davies; two major benefactors, Barbara Bodichon and Henrietta, Lady Stanley of Alderley; and two early students who became officers of the College, Katharine Jex-Blake and Gwendolen Crewdson. Gamble turned out to be the only one to have lived (as a child) in the company of enslavers; no direct links to gains from the proceeds of enslaved labour were found for Davies. But complexities emerged. Here is one example. Girton had long known about the activism of its founders in the abolitionist movements, but until now had not

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inquired into the other side: the extent to which it had benefited from such proceeds. The joining of these strands created concerns familiar to at least some nineteenthcentury families, and family members could turn out to be multifaceted in their orientations. Consider the 1890s student and later Junior Bursar, Gwendolen Crewdson. Gwendolen’s forebears were merchants and manufacturers in sugar and cotton produced originally by enslaved persons; at the same time, the Crewdsons had been for three generations anti-slavery campaigners, as far as possible promoting cotton grown by ‘free labour’. While the Crewdsons might have been campaigners, and had sought to disinvest from economic concerns linked to enslavement, none of that stopped Gwendolen’s father marrying the daughter of someone who (unsuccessfully) claimed property compensation when enslavement was banned in the British colonies. On Gwendolen’s maternal side there had been substantial ties to plantations in Guyana and the Caribbean. Her mother was a Waterhouse, the sister of Girton’s first architect, the families being linked by their Quaker affiliations. As to present interest in where Girton might have benefited, the Working Group saw no alternative to investigating the precise paths along which enslavedproduced wealth travelled. For women, inheritance was key, and thus the Group found itself tracking family fortunes as they changed over time. Another Opening This is a moment to relinquish detail for a broader perspective – open an upper-storey window perhaps. The actions and aspirations of individuals are one thing; other issues also bear on the flourishing of institutions. Generations of scholars, including from Cambridge, played their part in theorising about human differences,

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an issue addressed by the University’s Legacies of Enslavement Inquiry. The bulk of its report is devoted to the institution’s involvement in the ownership and trade of enslaved people, over the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, with the long-term material benefits that the University and its colleges have enjoyed from this source. Percolating throughout society, plantation wealth was a significant impetus, if only indirectly, behind many Victorian developments, invigorated by the outfall from the 1833 government compensation scheme for former enslavers, including absentee owners with plantations in the colonies. By the 1860s, for an institution of Girton’s size and ambition, it would be surprising if – in addition to whatever direct links could be traced – there were no indirect links with the proceeds of enslaved labour. Racist assumptions seem to have been entrenched not just by enslavement but by certain aspects of emancipation. One unlooked-for consequence was that innate characteristics, as they were conceived at the time, moved to the fore as a rationale for discrimination. We live with the further legacy of that: among diverse reasons for today’s inequalities, it is obvious that such racism persists in too many forms and places. That there ever needed to be a movement called Black Lives Matter says it all. The University (of which Girton is a part) will be making its own recommendations as to what should follow its findings. On a rather different scale, and given its specific circumstances, the College will be acknowledging the part that these issues have played in its own history. Unfinished Business So what might be College’s response? The Working Group was charged with making recommendations and suggestions for future action. Its ethos has been one of addition not subtraction, not to erase the past but add to

Girton College Archive (GCGB 1/8/5)

our knowledge of it. In recalling the personal foresight of Girton’s benefactors, we can also recall something of what made those benefactors’ actions possible in the first place. It is there that the contributions of others are concealed. To return to the starting point, state-supported chattel slavery was an egregious act of concealment, insofar as someone with the legal status of property is not being recognised as a person. College’s question was about recognition: how to think about who and what is memorialised? We might append the further question, can we respond to individual involvement and to generalised – for example, institutional – circumstances alike?

Conveyance certificate with sketch map for the piece of land known as the ‘Crewdson Field’, 14 January 1914. This was drawn up between William Crewdson and Mary Lumsden, acting as executors of Gwendolen Crewdson’s will, and Girton College. The land was just over 5 acres in size

Given the extent to which early Girtonians were supported by prizes, scholarships and such like, called after individual donors (or those being remembered), including the originally prestigious Gamble Prize, the Working Group thought College should consider establishing a new prize to keep the issues in mind. This would be for work in the general area of legacies of enslavement, including modern slavery. Future prospects for recognition come into view. The Working Group recommended providing supplementary information to certain individual names that awards, or any other existing form of memorialisation, carried. Apropos of the Gamble legacy, it suggested that College think of a new memorial, perhaps a public sculpture or dedicated area, in its own space with its own authority. This would stand for a generalised recognition of

those whose work created some of the wealth that came to Girton. In a significant addition, it recommended finding new sources of nomenclature for the future. We now know the names of some of the enslaved individuals who worked on plantations that have become part of Girton’s history. Drawing on such names could never be more than a symbol of individualisation, but it is one that would bring home what recognition is about. However, this cannot be done quickly; among other things, College would need to make inquiries about any traceable descendants. The recommendation that College should be developing forms of dedicated support for BAME undergraduates and Masters’ students, such as bursaries to assist their studies, can be effected more quickly. This is also true of

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Girton College Archive (GCAR 2/3a/2/4/2/1pt)

Front elevation of Tower Wing by Alfred Waterhouse, 1886

a recommendation intended to reflect Girton’s general status as an educational institution. College’s idea all along was that the Working Group’s investigation would only be the beginning of self-knowledge in this arena – a venture that will change as generations of Girtonians change. It was the institution that grew with those individual benefactions and the Working Group made an institutional response. It has amassed a significant amount of material that can serve as the nucleus of a research hub to keep future scholarship and interest in this and cognate issues alive. Through such a hub College would maintain its memorialising intentions, while being open to what relevance incoming years of students and researchers might find in it and bring to it. Doorways to the future.

foundation links to such proceeds really opens one’s eyes. We are made aware of practices that we simply wouldn’t countenance these days. At the same time, they echo enduring discriminations, including access to university education, that remain issues for us here and now. Our inquiries do more than add to knowledge of the past, and thus of ourselves: pointing to an unacknowledged presence in our foundation helps make visible what also troubles us about current inequalities and prejudices. Girton’s pioneering sense of inclusiveness never had an end date.

What Have We Unlocked? Girton is contributing to knowledge of the ripple effects of proceeds from enslavement and the impetus they gave to promoting education itself. But having in its very

Further details, and the reflections they have prompted, can be found on the College website under ‘Girton Reflects: Legacies of Enslavement’ www.girton.cam.ac.uk/girton-reflects

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College accepted the Working Group’s recommendations. In The Year 2023/24, we shall report on what has been happening since.

OPEN DOORS

An Ill Wind: the Covid Ventilation Story Over the last three years, opening doors has of course been part of the thinking in how we might tackle the transmission of Covid -19. But how did we arrive at this thinking, and importantly, will the lessons learned help us be better prepared for the next airborne virus? Dr Shaun Fitzgerald, Official Fellow in Engineering, was a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (SAGE) Environmental Modelling Group, for which he was awarded an OBE in 2021

t is interesting to reflect on the Spring of 2020 when the world was changing fast. Case rates of Covid-19, the illness arising from the SARS-Cov-2 virus, were rising rapidly. In some countries the health care systems were being stretched to and beyond breaking point. It was a very worrying time for the UK. Individual cases were identified and cited in the news, and these and their close contacts were isolated to try and stop the spread. But the virus was already circulating in society. In addition to the memorable lockdown which soon followed, we will also remember the early messaging to us: ‘Hands, Face, Space’. All very sensible measures to try and limit the spread of the virus. It was impossible to stop all mixing since we still had to purchase basic essentials, and of course there were jobs undertaken by key workers which still needed to be done. So, the guidelines of ‘Hands, Face, Space’ were really helpful. But were they sufficient? There was little known about the new virus, and crucially it was not clear how the virus was in fact being transmitted. There were many researchers reviewing case studies of outbreaks, and the academic literature soon became populated with papers describing the environments which seemed to have unusually high numbers of cases. However, some studies went further and looked at the actual distances between those who became infected,

and whether they could have touched the same surfaces. It then became apparent that the virus could in fact be transmitted by aerosols, or small droplets which can remain airborne and carried by air currents. If this were the case, then the elegant three-word messaging of ‘Hands, Face, Space’ was no longer sufficient. The guidance for indoor spaces where people could mix was subsequently expanded to include the extra word ‘Ventilate’, which sometimes became ‘Replace’ (that is, ‘replace the air’) to make it rhyme with ‘Space’. It was remarkable in a way that this additional key step needed to be introduced in the first place. Shouldn’t adequate ventilation be a given in any multi-occupant space with modern building codes, and frankly our desire for pleasant and healthy spaces anyway? Alas, it has become increasingly evident that not all multi-occupant spaces have been maintained to ensure adequate airflow is provided, and some may have been poorly designed in the first place. In many older buildings, ventilation is provided just by opening windows, and many of these buildings were in fact well designed. Older educational buildings typically had higher ceilings in their classrooms than those which we build today. Sash windows were reasonably common in Victorian buildings. They were designed to provide good ventilation at all times of the year. The strategy

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for operation was rather simple. In winter, the top sashes should be opened a small amount so that stale air can leave, but also so that cold fresh air can enter; the big idea for this as an air supply route is that the fresh air can mix with plenty of the warm room air so that by the time it reaches occupants it no longer constitutes a cold draught, and the heating is provided by all the heat gains in the room. In summer, both the bottom and top sashes are opened so that cool fresh air can enter at the bottom and hot stale air can escape. The key question is whether all the sashes have been properly maintained.

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I have seen many, many sash windows which have been painted to preserve the woodwork. Furthermore, radiators have subsequently been installed under the windows to really minimise the risk of cold draughts. However, these radiators are so good that even if the lower sash is used in winter, the occupants are saved from cold draughts. The consequence of this is that the top sashes are commonly painted shut. The negative ramifications of this are significant. Firstly, in the context of Covid-19 the space is in fact poorly ventilated above the level of the (lower) opening, which in many cases is about chest-high when

rendered inoperable through either poor maintenance or a lack of it is that in hot weather the buildings can be stifling, and cannot be cooled down at night with a night purge. The increased focus on provision of adequate and proper ventilation in multi-occupant spaces has led to big improvements everywhere, including at Girton. Our beautiful College is an excellent example of Victorian architecture and we have many rooms with high windows, a number of which are of the sash type. The advent of Covid-19 has resulted in a significant effort from the College to ensure that these windows are working properly. It is such a pleasure to enter various teaching rooms for a supervision now and see the windows fully functioning. In fact, we have gone further than simply restoring the ventilation system (opening windows!) in rooms. Many now have carbon dioxide sensors with displays to help prompt us to open the windows when the carbon dioxide levels get too high. The next stage will be to change the location of the temperature sensors associated with the thermostatic valves on the radiators or to simply have the valves controlled by the room temperature rather than the temperature of the air falling onto them. This way the radiators will only turn on when the room temperature itself is below the desired level, and we will therefore only be able to keep comfortable and sufficiently well ventilated in winter by opening the top vents. seated. The crucial thing is that the breathing zone is not well ventilated, and therefore a room can be a perfect environment for transmission of respiratory viruses. The second consequence is that whilst the rooms might be draught-free, radiators heated by gas or oil are commonly being used to temper cold draughts rather than the other heat gains in a room such as from computers, lights and people. The heating bills and associated carbon footprint (if the energy source is from a fossil fuel) during occupied times are therefore much higher. The third consequence of a room where the upper openings are inadvertently

Our predecessors at Girton probably knew how to keep warm and healthy whilst teaching. So, as with many other areas of academic life, there is much to be gained from looking back. It doesn’t mean of course that nothing should change, and in fact the new rooms in Ash Court have an even more efficient ventilation strategy than the older wings. However, whilst we still use some of the older buildings, we can learn about sensible building operation from those who went before us. And in the hottest weather, as long as fire and safety issues have been considered, there is in fact still value in an ‘Open Doors’ concept for keeping cool.

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OPEN DOORS

Lock up your Libraries? For the early students of Girton, access to the University Library was profoundly connected with access to learning, as its Head of Special Collections, Dr Jill Whitelock (Denham, 1988, English), discovers

n A Room of One’s Own (1929), Virginia Woolf memorably describes being turned away from an unnamed Oxbridge college library (clearly identifiable as the Wren Library, Trinity College): ‘instantly there issued, like a guardian angel barring the way with a flutter of black gown instead of white wings, a deprecating, silvery, kindly gentleman, who regretted in a low voice as he waved me back that ladies are only admitted to the library if accompanied by a Fellow of the College or furnished with a letter of introduction.’ This refusal provokes Woolf’s famous declaration of female intellectual freedom: ‘Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.’ For the early students of Girton, however, negotiating access to the University Library – and other University spaces, such as lecture halls and laboratories – was profoundly connected with negotiating access to learning, part of the long battle for women to be given equal status to men in the University. Although Cambridge had played a leading role in University education for women, it soon fell behind the new universities and women were only admitted as full members of the University in 1948, after notorious defeats in 1897 and 1921. Equal access to the University Library came a little sooner, in 1923, but until then, women from Girton (and Newnham) – as non-members of the University – had no automatic right to enter the Library. For those early Girton students, the Library’s status as a semi-public space provided a partly open door, as non-members could enter the Library either as guests of

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members of the University, or as readers granted access in their own right. From the mid 1850s, it had been possible for a non-member of the University to apply for a Library card (or ‘ticket’, as it was known) and three women were amongst the first six readers admitted under these new rules – Mrs Barrett, Mrs Ellicott and Mrs Jessop. The rules meant that although Girton students didn’t have automatic access, they could apply for a Library ticket alongside other nonmembers of the University, men and women alike. The first application from a Girton student came in October 1874, from Malvina Henrietta Borchardt, who was at Girton from 1873 to 1877, taking Part I of both the Mathematics and Moral Sciences Triposes in 1877. Yet although the door to the University Library was at least partly open, checks and controls were still in place. A list of ticket-holders was displayed near the entrance to the Library, with the name of the University member who had recommended a reader to be included on the list. Time was also used to limit access: the hours of access for nonmembers were restricted to between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Most significant of all, ticket-holders needed to be at least twenty-one years old, and this placed women students at a serious disadvantage to their male counterparts. It wasn’t until 1887 that the age restriction was lifted for women students – and it led to a dramatic rise in admissions. Perhaps not surprisingly, there was soon anxiety around the rising number of non-members coming in, with Members of the Senate complaining that they couldn’t find seats because of the large number of ‘other persons’ allowed into the Library. Severe shortage of space for books and for readers was a constant problem throughout the nineteenth

A male and female visitor to the University Library in 1809, by Thomas Rowlandson

century. In 1885, the number of tickets issued to nonmembers (men and women) was 85; in 1887, after the age restriction for women students was lifted, the number climbed to 111; by 1890, it had shot up to 183. In 1891, a committee was appointed to draft new rules for the Library, including the introduction of a fee for non-members. In Oxford, where undergraduates, women students and other non-members had much freer access to the Bodleian Library and Radcliffe Camera, there were still similar concerns with overcrowding. A writer to the Oxford Magazine in 1900 complained that the Bodleian was becoming ‘a class-room for overgrown schoolgirls’ and that pens, ink and paper were being swept away by their skirts and boas. The allegation was swiftly refuted in the

following issue by Agnes Maitland, principal of Somerville College, who had checked the facts with library staff. What events at both Oxford and Cambridge reveal, though, is how at times of perceived crisis, when the traditional identity of an institution is placed under pressure by external forces – in this case, the arrival of women students – a rhetoric of overcrowding can emerge in which traditional male spaces are feminised and lose their core identity. Space symbolises and reinforces privilege and hierarchy – and so challenges to privilege and hierarchy are played out in these very spaces. The idea of an ‘inner sanctum’ also emerges – peripheral space may be conceded, but there remains a sacred space, symbolic of the perceived true identity of the institution, that must not be breached. The writer to the Oxford Magazine ends by remarking that the Radcliffe Camera has ‘irretrievably sunk to the position of an annex to the Ladies’

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Colleges. From such a fate, let us at least try and preserve Duke Humfrey’s Library.’ In Cambridge, the issue of overcrowding was not presented in gendered terms – rather as ‘Members of the Senate’ versus ‘other persons’. However, the women of Girton and Newnham joined forces and sent a petition to the University Library Syndicate (the governing body). The women, having heard of plans to introduce a fee for non-members and to restrict access to certain parts of the Library, ‘respectfully request that, subject to the payment of a fee, we may receive permission to work in the Library with the same freedom as heretofore, and also that the time of admission for us may be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.’ The signatories, 24 in total, spanned two decades of women at Cambridge, uniting Girton and Newnham in a common voice – powerful testimony to the importance of unrestricted access to library facilities for study and research. ‘Will it open to her?’ The Granta, 1 May 1897, before the vote later

Although the changes to the Library rules were brought in, the Library Syndicate did agree to consider applications for all-day access on a case-by-case basis, and two weeks later, leave to use the Library at all hours was granted to one of the co-secretaries of the petition, Ellen McArthur (1862– 1927), Staff Lecturer in History at Girton, who had studied History at the College from 1882 and in 1906 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. These new rules had an immediate impact on numbers. In the academic year 1890–91, 190 tickets had been issued to non-members, but this dropped dramatically by almost half to 96 tickets in 1891– 92, presumably as a result of the new fee. For Girton students, the fee was often paid by the College and it was also in the Syndicate’s gift to waive the fee in special circumstances, as they did from 1903 for the Sanskrit and Pali scholar Caroline Mary Ridding (1862–1941), ‘who had given much time and trouble to the work of entering Tibetan and Indian manuscripts.’ Ridding

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that month on whether to allow women the titles to their degrees

had been a student at Girton from 1883 to 1886 and maintained her connection with the College in subsequent years (the Ridding Reading Prize was founded in her honour). She was one of the first women to work for the University Library, though for an honorarium rather than a salary. In 1911 her nomination for the post of Curator in Oriental Literature at the Library was narrowly outvoted by six votes to five, and the post was left vacant; she was asked to prepare a handlist of the Sanskrit manuscripts, for an honorarium of £50. By the early 1890s, then, rules were in place to allow women students into the Library, though with controls to limit movement and numbers, as for other non-members. These rules remained broadly the same until 1923. Girton students could enter the Library – but who actually applied for a ticket? Looking at the admissions records, it is evident

Mary Clarke

that the Girton students who used the Library most were reading History or Modern Languages, though a real regular was the classicist Katharine Jex-Blake (1860–1951), later Mistress of the College (1916–22). However, the first six years recorded in the new admissions register (1890– 91 to 1895 –96) show that the average number of Girton students applying for tickets each year was only around 24, which represents just a fraction of the student body of the College (e.g. in 1892 the intake was 40 students at Girton, but the total number of students would of course have been much higher). Clearly, not every student working at undergraduate level wanted or needed to use the University Library. The College library was an immediate alternative. The first library was built in 1884 and Constance Jones (1848–1922), librarian from 1890 to 1893 (and later Mistress), recollected that ‘The library was to a great extent a lending library for the students, and the fine room which contained the bulk of our books at that time – the Stanley Library – was much frequented as a reading-room.’ Some of the departmental libraries that sprang up in Cambridge in the second half of the nineteenth century were also open to women on equal terms, such as the Balfour Library (Zoology), the new Modern Languages Library, the Moral Sciences Library and the Seeley Library for history. Change finally came in the 1920s. Oxford University had admitted women as full members of the University in 1920, but Cambridge voted against this the same year. In 1921, a further vote to admit women to all but full membership was again defeated, with only the proposal to admit women to the titles of their degrees approved. In the wake of this defeat, however, the Library was urged to examine the issue of access for women and in 1923 the staff and students of Girton and Newnham were given the same privileges as men, including the right for Tutors to borrow books on behalf of their students.

The Stanley Library from E.E. Constance Jones, Girton College (1913)

Women students finally had equal access to the Library (and also to lecture halls and laboratories) – but the ‘inner sanctum’ of the Senate remained inaccessible, the physical space in which students graduated and the symbolic space representative of full University membership, since graduates became members of the Senate, with voting rights and a say in University governance. Those women who had already passed through Girton, though – the early pioneers amongst them – were still at a disadvantage. Unless they retrospectively took their M.A. titular degree, they – unlike male graduates – had no automatic right to use the University Library and were still obliged to apply for and pay for tickets as non-members of the University. Many of them chose to take their degrees, including Caroline Mary Ridding in 1923. Yet it was not until 1948, when women were finally admitted as full members of the University, that the Library regulations were revised again with no need for a separate category for women staff and students. Finally, and in a good way, women were quite literally deleted from the rulebook. Adapted by the author from her article ‘‘‘Lock up your libraries”? Women readers at Cambridge University Library 1855–1923’, Library and Information History, 38(1), 2022, 1–22.

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OPEN DOORS

A Portal Between Science and Art Now in its second year, the Cavendish Arts Science Fellowship, a joint initiative between the Cavendish Laboratory of Physics and Girton, has been made possible by the vision and generous gift of Dr Una Ryan OBE (Scully, 1963, Zoology)

‘W

hen I was pursuing my PhD at Girton I worked on Circadian Rhythms of Colour Change in the Stick Insect’, explains biotech entrepreneur Dr Ryan. ‘This one insect could switch from being green in the daytime to being dark brown at night. In later life, science has always been the muse whether I was developing new biopharmaceuticals, assessing new investments, or now creating my own science-based art. My vision for this Fellowship was to provide the cues for artists to embrace the inspiration of science and scientists to grasp the magic of art – and to switch as comfortably between the disciplines as stick insects switch their colours in a day/night cycle.’

in their labs and their generosity in sharing insights into their research has given me wonderful new reflections for my work. Recordings I’ve made of the labs are going to be used in one of the compositions I’m creating for the 2023 Girton alumni weekend and other events beyond Cambridge. I’ve never been to an Oxbridge College before but I’ve experienced amazing hospitality and warmth here. “Care” is an overused word in creative circles but that’s what the fellowship at Girton has given me, as well as the time and space to create in my studio overlooking the orchard. I just feel like I’ve come on a magical retreat.’ For more about the Cavendish Arts Science Fellowship go to https://www.cavendish-artscience.org.uk/

‘Having access to physicists at the Cavendish at the top of their game – some of them Nobel-prize winning – has been fascinating’ says Ain. ‘And getting a sneak peek behind the scenes

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Ain Bailey

2023 has seen award-winning sound artist and DJ Ain Bailey in residence, using experimental physics as inspiration for her work. Ain’s practice explores sonic autobiographies and the constellation of sounds that form individual and community identities. Her compositions encompass field recordings and found sounds and are often inspired by reflections on silence and absence, feminist activism and architectural acoustics, particularly of urban spaces.

Helium tanks at the Cavendish Laboratory

Ain Bailey

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A Refugee in Cambridge Remembered In partnership with Cambridge University Library (CUL), this year Girton introduced a new research fellowship. It offers the chance for a manuscript scholar, practising archivist or manuscript librarian to undertake paid research into any aspect of the University Library’s world-class medieval collections as a member of its staff, while at the same time joining our academic community at Girton

Cambridge University Library Add. 9355/25

he fellowship is named after Dr Dorothea Oschinsky (1910 –1995): medievalist, palaeographer and archival educator. After completing PhD research in Breslau in the 1930s she was barred from taking her degree in Germany because she was Jewish. Oschinsky escaped to England with great difficulty, bringing her parents and other family members with her. Once settled, she began a second PhD at the London School of Economics, this time on medieval English history supervised by the great economic historian and former Girton Fellow Eileen Power, whose protégée she became. When the LSE was evacuated from London, Oschinsky migrated with Power to Cambridge, making extensive use of the University Library’s collections during the war.

In 1946 she moved again to Liverpool University, to teach palaeography and archival science for its new postgraduate archive qualification. She stayed there for the rest of her career, shaping generations of UK archivists, an increasingly legendary – if somewhat formidable – figure. Liverpool remains one of the five universities in the UK where postgraduate professional training in archival science is offered. She returned to Cambridge in retirement, on her death bequeathing her entire estate, which was substantial, to CUL. ‘It has been a perfect solution to join forces with Girton to honour the life and work of Dorothea Oschinsky’, says Dr Suzanne Paul, Keeper of Rare Books and Early

Dorothea Oschinsky

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Dr James White is our first Oschinsky Research Fellow. James specialises in the study of medieval Arabic and Persian literary manuscripts, and he has been bringing his expertise to bear in studying the University Library’s Middle Eastern collections throughout the year. ‘The Oschinsky Fellowship has been a wonderful chance to spend time with Cambridge’s unique and globally significant collection of medieval Middle Eastern manuscripts. The opportunity to work at the University Library on a daily basis has allowed me to make new discoveries, such as a previously mislabelled codex which is an incredibly valuable and early source for the verse of al-Ma‘arri, one of the most important medieval Arabic poets. Girton has made my fellowship extra special, and it has been fantastic to join such a dynamic and welcoming community. Being exposed to the diverse research that the College’s fellows are conducting, and presenting on my own work, have been transformative experiences.’

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Cambridge University Library MS Qq 115, al-Īḍāḥ fī siqṭ al-zand, f.1a.

Manuscripts at the Library. ‘Sharing our collections with the world and facilitating new discoveries are key strategic aims of CUL. By enabling a scholar to work intensively with our manuscript collections for an academic year, the fellowship actively honours Dorothea’s legacy and produces valuable new insights into our historic collections.’

The autograph of al-Khaṭīb al-Tibrīzī, being researched by James White

OPEN DOORS

On the Threshold of Greatness Former Girton organ scholar, Marilyn Harper (Flemming, 1974, Music), admires the self-effacing life of Jane Joseph – teacher, composer and Gustav Holst’s right-hand woman – whose tragically early death deprived the interwar world of a considerable musical talent

irtonian Jane Joseph (1894–1929) spent her entire educational and public life in the orbit of Gustav Holst (1874 –1934). She was a perfect administrator, facilitator, amanuensis and teacher, whose ambitions led her from the beginning to want to be a composer following his example.

Jane came from a Jewish family of lawyers from Notting Hill whose leisure-time activities were filled with music. Alan Gibbs’s book, Holst Amongst Friends (2000), displays a photo showing seven family members posed around a grand piano holding a range of instruments: wryly known as ‘the Josephs’ Orchestra’. I am grateful to Alan for introducing me National Portrait Gallery

Jane in the 1920s by Olive Edis

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Once a pupil at St Paul’s Girls’ School in Hammersmith, London, Jane fell under the spell of its Director of Music, Gustav von Holst (as he was then called), teaching Jane music and composition. Holst described her as ‘the best girl pupil I ever had’. Jane subsequently arrived at Girton in 1913 to study Classics, graduating in 1916 with a Class III degree. Music, drama and debating had filled her time. Despite her less than glittering exit from Girton, her wide knowledge of classics and literature enhanced her skills and appreciation of languages, and of translation, later enabling her to produce libretti for Holst to set to music, notably the choral ballet, The Golden Goose, based on tales by the Brothers Grimm. Jane also prepared the texts that led to Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda. Jane’s most famous pupil was none other than Holst’s daughter, Imogen, who wrote to her father that ‘theory with Jane is ripping’. Imogen (later of course a distinguished teacher, conductor, composer and festival administrator in her own right) was a pupil at Eothen School, near Caterham in Surrey, where teacher and pupil met shortly after Jane had left Girton. Jane’s teaching style was far from showy. Instead, she persuaded and encouraged her pupils in a quiet, gentle way. Present-day

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National Portrait Gallery

to Jane’s life and work. Jane was not in the picture (taken around 1931) as she had died two years before, and another brother was abroad. Distinguished musicians visited the family home, including Ralph Vaughan Williams, Adrian Boult and Malcom Sargent, and the scientist Rosalind Franklin was a distant relative on Jane’s mother’s side of the family.

music teachers are required to be experts in matters technological as well as in all aspects of directing, accompanying, performing and administration. Jane had all these qualities and would no doubt have mastered with ease the modern computer software able to produce scores and soundscapes.

As well as his work at St Paul’s, Holst taught music at James Allen’s Girls’ School in Dulwich, and at Morley College in central London. Jane deputised at, and was involved in, all the establishments where Holst had been appointed. Everywhere, Holst proved himself to be superb at delegating. As he suffered from neuritis in his right arm, copying out music was a job he frequently gave to his pupils. Jane’s particular responsibility was to produce the fair copy of ‘Neptune’ from The Planets. Other colleagues doing similar work included Vally Lasker, Nora Day and Dulcie Nutting. Vally and Nora had been Paulinas, Dulcie a James Allen’s girl who eventually retired from Morley College aged almost 80. These are just a few of the many scribes and helpers in Holst’s army of willing assistants. We hear a lot about ‘community music’ these days but it is nothing new: a century ago, local communities were vibrant with music-making in all available forms. In the world of classical music, Jane played a significant part in organising concerts, festivals and pageants. Her role was to prepare scripts, scores and parts, copy them, give them out, collect them afterwards, and file them away. She would contact people to take part. Whatever music-related job there was to do, Jane did it, taking on extra work to alleviate the burden on others. She also performed as a singer, a pianist, double bass and triangle player, and conductor. Whitsuntide

Festivals were popular for a number of years in Dulwich, Blackheath, Chichester, Canterbury and perhaps most famously at Thaxted in Essex (where morris dancing took place out of doors), as Holst was Organist at the parish church. The music of William Byrd featured strongly there under Holst’s baton, in particular the Mass for Three Voices which was carefully reconstructed for female voices for girls to sing: another example of Jane’s collaboration with him.

and administrative achievements would have ensued. Tributes in the form of concerts in Chichester and Canterbury took place, and one school established an annual prize in her name. Significant composers besides Holst, including Vaughan Williams and Havergal Brian, had noted her promise as a composer. Perhaps Jane’s gentle nature encouraged people to take less notice of her than they might have, had she had a more strongly assertive personality. The words of an unnamed friend on Jane’s death speak the loudest:

In 1919 Jane joined the Society of Women Musicians, and its subcommittee of composers. Composing being her chief ambition, she lectured on behalf of the Society. Her compositions received critical acclaim, particularly A Festival Venite, which premiered at the Queen’s Hall in 1923, scored for orchestra and chorus. Later, an organ accompaniment was created to enable the piece to be performed more easily in church, but the full score and parts are today nowhere to be found. Other significant works by Jane were A Hymn for Whitsuntide, A little Childe there is Ibore, Mirage, Seven Two-Part Songs, Bergamask, Morris Dance, song settings of poems by Walter de la Mare, a string quartet, and piano pieces for students which disguised technical exercises as fun. Her works were all aimed at amateur performers or were intended as teaching materials. Her musical style frequently displayed a strong tendency towards flowing modal lines, influenced by the growing wider appreciation of Tudor polyphony.

England won’t be the same without Jane. She was terribly difficult to get to know at all, and awfully lonely, I thought, in spite of all her friends – don’t you think so? But I cannot imagine Music without her.

Holst inspired Jane’s ‘doing’ of music. Their minds seemed to function on the same wavelength, and there is no doubt that a considerable part of his success was due to her behind-the-scenes support and organisation. When Jane died aged 34 from kidney failure, Holst was devastated. With modern treatments for hypertension and kidney failure, Jane would have lived much longer today and proper recognition for her own compositions

Thaxted, home of the festival founded by Holst and organised by Jane

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Jane Martin Prize for Poetry 2023

When We Moved to Morecambe Big and dipping, summer hung over us. The guinea pigs rolled like candyfloss in their cone-shaped hutches: Donna, Dixie, Daisy and poor Darcy

Our national poetry competition for young poets, established in 2010 in memory of Girton alumna Jane Elizabeth Martin, was won this year by Warren Mortimer for the poems ‘Forgive me, Augustine’ and ‘When We Moved to Morecambe’. Warren recently completed a Creative Writing PhD at Lancaster University. In 2022, he released his debut pamphlet through Green Bottle Press, Fruit Knife Autopsy. Since then, he has been published by a number of UK magazines, including The Moth, Magma, Orbis and Stand. In 2016, he won first prize at the Lanercost Short Story Festival. Warren teaches creative writing at Lancaster University and the University of Cumbria.

who wore the roundness of a hamster when her cheek bloated up like a pouch of dolly mix. It proved an abscess. I thought of piñatas and water balloons, grapes necked back, tablets of wine, the syringe we used to mosquito suck her atomic measure of antibiotics, less than a wooden doll imagines in her teacup, an unfair cut of a raindrop. No medicine hampered her passing through the Jolly Tube with its twist of colour cut from cardboard. I wanted to scream with my hands up or to test her death with wet spinach but my grief locked me in motion like the ghost train’s buzz bar. Then the shoebox tomb. The lawnwalk, the weight of a consolation prize, the constellations set like guillotines, half-guineas, the sun and other stars. © Warren Mortimer

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Alfresco Landscaping

Part of the new Sensory Garden from the air showing the monogram pathway commemorating Elizabeth Welsh, the sixth Mistress, who as Garden Steward from 1883 to 1903 first oversaw the landscaping of the College grounds

The Year 2021/22 Crossword Solution

D R E

E A N

Winners: Rachel Omotani (Turner, 1967) Helen Ougham (1974)

L I

C S A B 6

N G C 12

T M K H O O D 13

D L

E S K E R N

L E 9

L U M

P E D R W D R E E 15

P E T E R

16 18

All Change at the Top by Lex

N G E H N 17

T E

T E E N D E D D U M A S

A L

L D A W 25

C L 27

R E T

S D A L 28

T E R A T E D O

A P S

T O N I

D E

S E M E S E V E T O E S 31

Initial letters of answers to down clues, in alphabetical order of extra words, spell FAREWELL SUSAN SMITH; their replacements spell DR ELISABETH KENDALL, described as OUR TWENTIETH MISTRESS by initial letters of extra words in across clues. Answers to down clues: 1 recapitalise, 2 tailed, 3 untitled, 4 wimp, 5 ankers, 6 acorned, 7 slow, 8 midden, 9 fluent, 10 namelessness, 17 limation, 19 leister, 21 slater, 22 sacred, 23 headed, 24 epodes, 27 ease, 29 iota.

E R O D E R E D A N S S

FAREWELL SUSAN SMITH The Year

Crossword Sorting Out by Lex 1

13 14

26 30

34 35 36

Name .................................................................................................................................................. Address ............................................................................................................................................. ..................................................................................................... Postcode ....................................

Email .......................................................................... Year of Matriculation ...................... Entries must arrive by 29 February 2024, and should be sent either by post to The Editor, The Year, Girton College, Cambridge, CB3 0JG (a photocopy is acceptable), or in scanned form to theyearcrossword@ girton.cam.ac.uk. Senders of the first two correct entries drawn will each receive £50. Details of the solution and winners will be given in The Year 2023-24. In the middle row of the grid, the left half requires sorting out to produce the right half, and vice versa. Initially the result is false; those without might stop there, but solvers within our community must display greater resilience by changing each letter in this row, producing fourteen new crossing words and making the preceding sentence even more true. The Chambers Dictionary (2016) is the primary reference.

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Across 1. Light wood mostly turned to produce plank (4) 5. Circumnavigating isle, a blast so buffeted these (9) 12. Afterwards, one absorbed by antique embraces rivals (11) 16. One who chooses second half of Bostonian egg beater (5) 17. Of a tercet; ancient sorrowful one has elegance (10) 18. New Zealand bracken sees Australian desert retreat (4) 19. Shells estate after second troop leader is moved to the front (6) 20. Pimps also framed by bum raps (7) 26. Edmund’s treatment made me anew, essentially (7) 27. It’s housing mat, one from the East (6) 30. Stale Indian bread (recycled naan) … (4) 32. … one quarter of which involves truncated recipe, with hint of dough having steep rise (10) 34. Formerly in Celtic interior (5) 35. Space gamers modified astronomical distances (11) 36. The Reverend William’s fight; fray is cause of commotion (9) 37. New Year festival’s entertaining cross words (4) Down 1. Jazz fan participating in street tribute (5) 2. Just one’s a fish (5) 3. Basal matter oddly requiring development (8) 4. Two sailors with energy displaying sauce (7) 6. A key character in Cædmon’s Hymn (4) 7. Castilian boy in Ohio (6) 8. Belgium: “Nearby ally’s needed to form group of countries” (4) 9. Oldster’s gazing fixedly at ears waggling (6) 10. Freemason’s doorkeeper’s missing novice’s apron (4) 11. Australian in ornate skirt makes sudden movement in Perth (6) 13. Become weary? I dropped with effort, being out of practice (4) 14. Principally, a region (even allusively) (4) 15. Act: heat, fret (no odds made here) (5) 18. Iain’s most matted tackle; at first it’s a wet jumble (8) 20. Quietly shrank after losing; one’s humiliated online (5) 21. Wrap? Dress? Essentially, they’re involved (7) 22. Savage critic sees performer getting initial volume wrong (6) 23. Old hunting dog not once found in part of SE England (6) 24. Movement in rowing making 14 go crazy (6) 25. With head lowered finally utter this? (4) 27. Ornamental red mark making batik aficionado content (4) 28. Exotic fruit cake prepared with last of pineapple (5) 29. Day in classical location: Troy, that is to say (5, two words) 31. Small quantity of spirits with one alcoholic drink (4) 32. Fortified dwelling in the Borders having orange exterior (4) 33. Fine Cuban tobacco is swiftly rising; no end of value (4)

Fellows’ and Staff Profiles The Year

Toni Williams Senior Tutor Scott Family

After a professional career in academia outside the collegiate universities, I am delighted that my first year as Girton College’s Senior Tutor has been so much more stimulating, entertaining and inspiring than I had ever imagined. Girton’s proud history of pioneering women’s access to higher education, its steadfast striving for inclusiveness, the seriousness of its reflexive engagement with cultural, social and economic legacies of its past and the beauty of its buildings and grounds were among the factors that drew me to the College. This year I have learned about aspects of the College that are every bit as important but are known only through experience: the caring professionalism of the College’s staff teams, the enthusiastic creativity of Girton students and alumni, and the warm affability of the Fellowship.

Cabarita Island from Toni’s grandmother’s house in Port Maria, Jamaica

loved to make their homes in the UK. Driven by aspirations of social mobility, particularly for their four children, my parents tested out different English cities before settling in Manchester in the mid-1970s, where I completed O-levels, the University of Oxford entrance examination, and A-levels, and where members of my family continue to live.

Cambridge is a long way from the place of my birth – Port Maria, Jamaica, a small town that was a key site of Tacky’s Revolt, one of the most significant conflicts in the long fight for freedom by enslaved people In 2020 there were just 35 The Oxford jurisprudence degree on Caribbean islands. By the time Black female professors in was interesting even as the I was born, some 200 years after UK Universities, out of 23,000 experience affirmed to my 21-yearthat rebellion, Port Maria was better old self that the practice of law was known for its location between probably not for me! Instead, I embarked on PhD studies Goldeneye and Firefly Hill, the homes respectively of in Law and Economics at the University of Newcastle Ian Fleming and Noel Coward. Seeking education and upon Tyne. In 1984, I was fortunate to be appointed to opportunity that were not available in the British West a lectureship at the Faculty of Laws at University College Indies, my parents, Lascelles and Claudette Williams, London and then, with my partner Professor Iain Ramsay, moved to London shortly before Jamaican independence moved to another great faculty for academic law at in 1962. Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Canada. In 2007, Iain and I returned to the UK to take up Chairs in Law at the Life during the 1960s (and 70s, 80s and 90s!) was as University of Kent where I continued to teach, supervise challenging, and at times frustrating, for them, as it was postgraduate students and engage with a variety of for so many ambitious British citizens of West Indian research projects. islands who left behind the people and places that they

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Toni and her partner Professor Iain Ramsay at the Fellows’ Christmas Party in 2022

My research draws on diverse analytical frameworks, including critical and institutional economic analyses of law, socio-legal theory, feminist theory and critical race theory, and over a long career I have published in the fields of consumer finance regulation, social and financial inclusion, economic development and gambling regulation, contract law, criminal justice and sentencing law. The practice of academic research endures as a passion; I love working on my own projects, and these days probably am even more

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enthusiastic about taking opportunities to engage with, and support, other researchers – from undergraduate dissertation students through to emeritus scholars. Academic life has been exciting and stimulating in so many ways. I have had the privilege of teaching thousands of students, mostly law, and usually in English-speaking law schools, but I have also given classes to planners, sociologists, historians, criminologists, bankers, high

school students and postal workers, and to students learning in French, Cantonese, Japanese and Portuguese. In Ontario I served on a Royal Commission charged with investigating systemic racism in criminal justice, where I led much of the Commission’s research and the writing of its reports. I have designed and delivered judicial training in Canada and academic researcher training in Hong Kong, conducted collaborative research in Brazil on themes such as social inclusion, gambling regulation, gender and the law, and consumer law and presented my work at law schools, academic conferences and industry or professional meetings in cities across Canada, Brazil and Europe, in Peru, Colombia, South Africa, Hong Kong, Ireland, the US and the UK.

exigencies of keeping everyone safe and sustaining as much of our working and learning lives as possible during a global pandemic, but the experience of working under difficult conditions with such an engaged and dedicated group of interdisciplinary scholars and students was inspirational and a great transition to the multidisciplinary community of Girton College. Beyond work, I enjoy great food (preferably vegan), good wine, the company of dogs, the craft of crochet, the writing of Toni Morrison, the art of Jacob Lawrence and Paula Rego, the sport of tennis and the city of Porto.

At Kent I had the opportunity to lead Kent Law School, one of the world’s pre-eminent law schools for critical socio-legal research, for five amazing years, during which (with the assistance of Lady Hale) we opened new premises for the School’s renowned Kent Law Clinic, a major provider of free legal services and clinical legal education in East Kent; expanded and strengthened our international partnerships; and in 2019 celebrated the School’s 50th birthday. Towards the end of my term as Head of Kent Law School I was honoured to be recognised as one of just 35 Black female professors in the UK (out of 23,000 professors) through the Phenomenal Women exhibition of portraits by Bill Knight. Opening in London on the eve of the Covid lockdown, the portraits were exhibited in Cambridge at the end of 2021. My final two years at Kent were spent as Director of the Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice, one of the University’s six main academic divisions, working with students, educators, researchers and practitioners in journalism, law, sociology, social work, social policy, criminology, and health and social care research. Most of that period was consumed by the

Speaking at the Brazilian Congress of Consumer Law in 2016

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Alex Liu Christine McKie Official Fellow in Natural Sciences prominent and important nearby field locality. Covid travel I am a lecturer in Earth Sciences, a discipline that restrictions led me to start projects on the glacial geology encompasses all aspects of the workings of our planet over of Islay in Scotland (conveniently located close to some its 4.6 billion year history, from the physics of its hot, dense of the world’s leading distilleries…), and on the ancient core, to the chemical composition of the atmosphere, and environments recorded in the Long Mynd hills of Shropshire life’s myriad interactions with the Earth’s surface. Revealing – coincidentally taking me back to the site of my GCSE the secrets of our planet’s past fascinates me and drives Geography fieldwork. my research, which focuses primarily on the fossil record of early animal evolution. Specifically, I attempt to track how, where, when and why animals evolved ~580 million However, much of my usual fieldwork involves travel to years ago, and establish the impact that their appearance remote or lesser-known destinations, giving me an atypical on Earth had on other aspects of the planet, and on the perspective on the world around us. I’ve been able to see communities of microbial organisms that came before first-hand the incredible beauty of pristine natural habitats, them. For example, the evolution of filter-feeding sponges, from the deserts of Australia and Namibia to the rugged the most primitive group of animals, is likely to have coastlines of Newfoundland in Canada, the tropical forests ‘cleaned’ the global oceans, turning of China, and the biodiverse wetlands them from a murky soup of algae of the Brazilian Pantanal. There is Palaeontology is taking and bacteria into a clear, oxygen-rich often a surprising amount of human on a new role in efforts to water column that could support history recorded in these remote combat our ongoing climate complex organisms with high oxygen corners of the planet, evidencing the and biodiversity crises requirements. Similarly, burrowing longstanding dependence of humans on the ancient seafloor by early on the natural world around us. I’ve worm-like creatures mixed marine sediments for the first genuinely stumbled across aboriginal cave art in Australia, time, recycling buried nutrients back into the oceans, and and Neolithic rock carvings in Namibia, depicting the wildlife creating new habitable niches deeper beneath the seafloor. inhabiting those areas thousands of years ago. In such These examples of ‘ecosystem engineering’ – whereby an ancient landscapes, uncovering considerably more ancient organism changes its environment through an aspect of fossils, and camping beneath a canopy of stars and galaxies its behaviour – were singular events that had substantial draped across the pitch-black night sky, it’s impossible not impacts on the chemistry of our oceans and atmosphere to feel a sense of wonder at the vast scale of the Universe, and left a lasting legacy by making the Earth less hostile for and to be reminded of our minuscule role within it. Studying creatures like us. organisms that are millions of years old, and living selfsufficiently many miles from any other people, certainly puts Tracking evolutionary innovations and their consequences life into perspective. involves examination of the geological and fossil records, and so I visit rock units of the right age and rock type to My own humble beginnings can be traced back to study them first-hand. Some of my study sites are within Wolverhampton, where my childhood was spent on the the UK, with Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire being a boundary between the sprawling West Midlands conurbation

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Daniella Rizzo

51 The Year

and the leafy Staffordshire countryside. The latter fostered an early love for the outdoors and nature. My mum recalls taking me to see Jurassic Park at the cinema at least nine times back in 1994, suggesting that my interest in ancient life also formed early on! As my education progressed, I gravitated towards science and geography to better understand how the planet works. This culminated in university applications to study Earth Sciences, where my childhood passion for fossils was reignited by a particularly enthusiastic Professor at Oxford, Martin Brasier. He introduced me to an interval of geological time ~635–540 million years ago called the Ediacaran Period, and to the vast number of unanswered questions relating to life from that time. Whereas we know (or at least think we know) an incredible amount about most groups of ancient organisms – for example the colour, diet, speed, mating rituals, behaviours and even the sound of some dinosaurs – the creatures of the Ediacaran are utterly bizarre, and far older. At the turn of the millennium, we didn’t know with certainty whether Ediacaran organisms could move, how they fed, or even the environments in which they lived. We didn’t even know whether any of them were definitely animals, let alone how they relate (biologically) to modern living organisms, owing to their unique body-plans. The opportunity to explore these big questions, and to make a scientific impact on a field even

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as a fresh-faced student, inspired me to forge a career exploring this ancient assortment of exotic and unusual creatures. The Ediacaran was an interval of incredible evolutionary and environmental change, and I’m often required to use my imagination almost as much as my geological and biological knowledge to decipher the clues hidden in ancient Ediacaran rocks. So far, my research has unveiled early records of animal movement and musculature, and established the clonal reproductive strategies of some of the very earliest animal groups. In addition to the evolutionary insights these fossils can provide, they also excite the interest of local communities keen to know more about the deep history of their surroundings. This has even led to some of the areas I work in submitting successful applications to become UNESCO Geoparks or World Heritage Sites, protecting them (and their fossils) for posterity. Having completed a DPhil at Exeter College in Oxford but exhausted the vast majority of available opportunities to secure funding as a postdoctoral researcher, my hopes of remaining in academia rested on one final application to Girton, funded by a relatively new scheme launched by the Cambridge Philosophical Society: the Henslow Research Fellowships. My first experience of Girton was in 2011, when an unfortunately timed power cut severed my internet connection while on holiday, and forced me to do my interview for a Research Fellowship by phone from an Austrian hillside. I will forever be indebted

to (now) Development Manager Tamsin Elbourn-Onslow for ensuring that my interview could proceed despite the lastminute change of plans. Fuelled by a panic-induced rush of adrenaline, I made it through the interview and joined Girton College in October that year. From the moment I arrived and met Dr John Davies (one of Girton’s first cohort of male Fellows, and a wonderful man with many tales of Girton’s past), who had been assigned to me as a mentor, I was struck by the friendly, welcoming atmosphere and strong sense of community within the College. I genuinely do not believe there is a more appropriate College for me. I enjoyed living amongst the graduate student community at Wolfson Court, and relished being surrounded by Girton’s rich history. College life as a postdoc also enabled me to regularly discuss my research with people outside my area of expertise and was invaluable in instilling some confidence into my science communication skills. After a brief move to Bristol for two years, I returned to Cambridge as a University Lecturer in 2016, and needed no convincing whatsoever from the Senior Tutor to return to Girton. I have enjoyed a wide range of different aspects of College life at Girton, serving on the Personnel and Honorary Fellowships Committees, performing in the Girton Orchestra and the famous Gir-Ten brass group on my trombone, and raiding the orchard every summer for fresh fruit. I even managed a couple of seasons playing football in the Girton 1st XI, a slightly un-nerving experience for a Fellow. Outside geology, I try to stay in shape for fieldwork by completing increasingly ridiculous races and competitions, including a soggy appearance on Ninja Warrior UK in 2017, and a fundraising 10km–plus–half marathon weekend of races in 2021 dressed in an inflatable dinosaur costume, which raised around £1500 for the Sedgwick Museum’s outreach team. I also enjoy contributing to science outreach

efforts myself, attempting to educate and entertain children with tales of outlandish and barely-believable ancient creatures. Although they simply see it as fun, instilling a passion for creatures like dinosaurs engages youngsters with science more broadly, and in that sense it represents arguably one of palaeontology’s greatest contributions to society. In the face of human-induced climate change, palaeontology (like the rest of the Earth Sciences) is taking on a new role in contributing to efforts to combat the ongoing climate and biodiversity crises. Predictions of the response of modern ecosystems to changing climatic conditions can be informed by the responses of past ecosystems to environmental change millions of years ago. Proposed solutions to stem the warming of our climate, such as carbon capture and storage, require knowledge of the mineralogical properties of storage reservoirs deep within the Earth’s surface, including the influence of physical features such as fossil burrows on sediment porosity and permeability. Alternative energy solutions also require a broad array of geological knowledge, from studies of sediment stability to choose safe sites for wind turbines, to geological subsurface mapping to locate and extract mineral resources for lithium batteries. These are just some of the topics that my research can help to inform, and I am actively exploring ways in which I can adapt my expertise to address these challenges. Importantly, my College position also allows me to fire up new generations of students to tackle such questions, and to train them to uncover the mysteries of our planet’s past and help to guide the sustainable stewardship of its future. Girton as a College has embraced environmental sustainability, and I hope that in time our Girton geoscience graduates will be inspired to lead global efforts to develop and adopt solutions to the current and future environmental challenges faced by the entire planet: an ambitious legacy perhaps, but one that I would be proud of.

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Rachel Peat

Anna Nickerson Katharine Jex-Blake Research Fellow in English It is hard to say exactly when I became interested in philosophical questions about the nature and limits of human knowledge. No five-year-old admits to an interest in epistemology. But perhaps it has something to do with a childhood spent in a series of draughty rectories and an early familiarity with the story of Genesis. The very first command given to humanity concerns the need to respect the proper limits of knowledge: You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. To be human and to live well, it seems, has something to do with recognising the boundary between the knowable and the unknowable. For an intellectually curious child, this seemed rather an important idea. I became a literary scholar because I was fascinated by the claim – made by poets from antiquity to the present day – that poetry enables us to know that which is otherwise unknowable. I wrote a PhD entitled Frontiers of Consciousness in which I wrangled with T.S. Eliot’s dictum that ‘in poetry you can, now and then, penetrate into another country […] before your passport has been issued or your ticket taken’. Poetry, in this account, is a means of bypassing the usual epistemological controls on knowledge. Historically, this has thrown poetry into competition with philosophy. Plato thought certain kinds of poetry were incompatible with the philosophical life and expelled many of the greatest Greek poets from his Republic. Many centuries later, Samuel Taylor Coleridge argued

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In conversation with Kathleen Raine in the Fellows’ Drawing Room

that poetry has a ‘logic of its own as severe as that of science; and more difficult, because more subtle, more complex, more dependent on more and more fugitive causes’. My subsequent work has focused on the ‘logic’ of poetry and the ways in which it competes with the ‘logic’ of philosophy as a means of coming to know the world.

have touched on topics including pre-Socratic philosophy, the secular university and the contemporary psychedelic renaissance.

One of the pleasures of holding the Katherine Jex-Blake Research Fellowship has been finding out about one of the previous postholders, Kathleen Raine. Her time at Girton I am currently writing a book about the English poet and as a Research Fellow (1955–61) is just recent enough that priest, Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ (1844 –1889). He was she is remembered by some of the older members of the one of the finest and most original poets of the nineteenth fellowship. The rumours about her – an office filled with century, but also a trained philosopher – by all accounts white cyclamens, a chest of drawers stuffed with dead one of the cleverest of his generation – who became leaves and crucifixes, a curse that brought about the death Professor of Greek and Latin Literature at University College of Gavin Maxwell’s pet otter – suggest a strange and rather Dublin. Alongside his poetic and philosophical writings, he unapproachable woman. Her poetry and scholarship are drew, painted, composed music and a record of her lifelong preoccupation drama, kept diaries, wrote theological with esoteric, mystical and occult I am fascinated by the commentaries and mathematical essays, forms of knowledge, as well as her claim that poetry enables planned scientific works on ‘light and interest in perennial philosophy. After us to know that which is ether’ and classical papers on the leaving Girton, she published over thirty otherwise unknowable ‘Greek negative’, and even published volumes of poetry, literary criticism and short meteorological notes in Nature. autobiography, securing her position as His life and work provide a rich context for considering the a world expert on William Blake, W.B. Yeats and Neoplatonic interaction between different disciplinary modes of thought thought. In 1980 she co-founded the Temenos Academy, a – primarily poetry and philosophy, but also theology, charitable organisation dedicated to promoting awareness aesthetics, and linguistics – while his religious awareness of the great sacred traditions of East and West with the then ensures that questions about the proper limits of human Prince of Wales as its patron. The King and Raine were good inquiry are continually in play. Ultimately, the book – Gerard friends – ‘she understood what I was about’ he said at her Manley Hopkins and the Intellectual Life: Poetry, Philosophy, funeral – and a sculpture of Raine that he commissioned can and the Manifoldness of Knowledge (Bloomsbury) – is a still be found in the Fellows’ Drawing Room. study of why Hopkins thought thinking happened best when his attention was divided. Although my students like to think that Raine was a witch, and although she and I would disagree about where exactly Literary scholarship does not, in my experience, afford one should locate the boundary between the knowable many opportunities for travel or fieldwork, although I can and the unknowable, it gives me great satisfaction to feel often be found in the Girton grounds taking St Augustine’s that I am continuing a tradition of Girton scholarship that advice that solvitur ambulando. Nevertheless, I increasingly is concerned with the ways in which art tests the limits of find that my interest in epistemology is taking me in human understanding. Perhaps I will one day write a book unexpected directions: recent writing and speaking gigs about her.

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Julia Andersson Head Gardener Nature and plants have been an important part of my life for as long as I can remember. From an early age I learned to appreciate the woodlands surrounding the small town in Southern Sweden where I was brought up, learning the common names of many plants and the places where they grew. At the same time, I spent many hours of my childhood in my grandparents’ garden, and I enjoyed helping my grandfather who was a keen gardener.

Kew Diploma. Interview nerves got in the way and instead, I found myself at Chelsea Physic Garden in September 2014. My year at Chelsea was one of the most challenging years in my life. The work pace was very fast and expectations very high, but I made it through the one-year traineeship. During that year I cared for the fern collection, the succulent plant collection, the Pelargonium collection and the carnivorous plant collection. Carnivorous plants became the centre of my dissertation a few years later. In the middle of this crazy year, I had a second go at applying for Kew, this time with greater success.

Being exposed to these twin influences from a young age made my career choice easy. In August 2008, at 16, I started my level-three course in horticulture at Naturbruksgymnasiet Uddetorp, a land-based college located in Skara, Southern Sweden. As part of this three-year course, we had In September 2015 I moved into I love the constant to undertake several work placements. Gumley Cottage, next to the Botanist change in the seasons It was one of these placements, six pub on Kew Green, and started my here and never tire of weeks of work experience at Avonbank first year of the diploma. For those watching the wildlife Nursery, Pershore College, that first not familiar with the Kew Diploma, brought me to the UK. It was during it is a three-year degree-level course this time that I learnt about Kew run by the Royal Botanic Gardens Gardens and their Kew Diploma Course: undertaking this Kew (Gardens is plural, as it was originally two gardens). remained my main ambition throughout my late teens The course combines practical work, classroom-based and early twenties. teaching and coursework throughout the year. Some of the highlights of my time at Kew include working After graduating with the highest grades in my class from with the orchid collections behind the scenes and in the Naturbruksgymnasiet I returned to Pershore College, but Princess of Wales Conservatory; field trips to North Wales this time as a full-time student. Two years later, I left with and Southern Spain; and a travel scholarship to South a Higher National Diploma in amenity horticulture under Africa. In September 2018 I finally graduated, receiving a my belt. In September 2013 I moved to Cambridge for Kew Diploma with honours and awards for achieving the the first time, into an old Tudor house in Grantchester highest overall score in plant idents. to be more exact. I spent a year at Cambridge University Botanic Garden as a trainee, my first proper introduction Then I returned to Cambridge full-time for my second to botanical gardens and working with plant collections. real job. My first proper job had been working for the It was during this year I met my future husband (not a Church of Sweden caring for two of the local cemeteries gardener) and had my first attempt at applying for the back in the summer of 2011. This time I was a gardener at

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Caroline Shenton

57 The Year

King’s College. Having worked in botanic gardens for the past five years, being a college gardener felt surprisingly liberating. I no longer had to be mindful of accession numbers or worrying about killing a plant unknown to science, and for the first time since going to university I did not have to worry about coursework or plant idents. At King’s I took on the care of the plant nursery, which I ran at maximum capacity. I also cared for many of the high-profile planted areas, such as the Clare border, the Provost’s Garden and all the courtyards. Although I loved my time at King’s I soon realised I needed greater challenges, and in March 2020 I took on the role of deputy head gardener at Christ’s College. Arriving there at the same time as the first lockdown meant a rather strange first six months. We gardeners very much enjoyed the wildlife in the Christ’s gardens, with the famous Jesus College foxes living under our bee shed.

I cannot remember what I expected Girton to be like before I joined, but I’ve loved all aspects of it so far. It’s very different from other colleges I have worked in, in that it feels so open, more like a grand country estate than a Cambridge college. The woodland, and vast areas of long grass, really set the grounds apart from other college gardens. Every time I walk through the woods, I feel surprised by the number of snowdrops and winter aconites that seem to have appeared from one day to the next. I really look forward to seeing the snowdrops in full bloom

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I love the constant change in seasons, and I never get tired of watching the wildlife with which we share our green spaces. And there is no shortage of wildlife at Girton. Every time I spot one of the famous black squirrels it makes me smile as they remind me of Severus, one of my two cats. He also has a very long and rather bushy tail. The more formal parts of the gardens need a lot of work and have great potential. I feel confident that, now that we are back to a full team, we will be able to make improvements and changes at a much greater pace. I am currently working on getting the Sensory Garden implemented and putting a permanent composting structure in place. In the future I would love to re-create some of Gertrude Jekyll’s original planting plans. Hannah Sargent

Yet again I was running the plant nursery and after that strange first summer I ran the College’s ‘vegetable project’ the next summer, creating an ornamental vegetable display to replace the traditional summer display in Second Court. Produce was harvested weekly and offered to the college community, but halfway through the third summer I left Christ’s College to take up the Head Gardener post here at Girton College.

followed by the bluebells, with the areas of long grass coming back to life and – most of all – the apple blossom in the orchard.

College Reports The Year

Alumni and Supporters This has been a year of new beginnings. With the huge success of A Great Campaign behind us, we are turning our eyes to the future with our new Mistress, Dr Elisabeth Kendall, and Senior Tutor, Professor Toni Williams. In their first year here, both have been very involved in meeting and getting to know our alumni, students and Fellows, whilst attending many alumni gatherings held here in the UK and abroad.

Girton continues to be centrally involved in many programmes designed to widen participation: supporting more applicants from areas of low household income; those who are the first in their family to go to University; and those who have been in the care system or are managing with disabilities, whether physical or mental. We welcomed the first cohort of Foundation Year students, selected from those who live in a disadvantaged area but with assistance could be talented enough to read arts and humanities subjects at Cambridge. And on the sciences front, there was STEM SMART: for pre-A level students who need some extra help to read sciences at Cambridge, maybe because of a lack of laboratory facilities at their schools or limited availability of mathematics or

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We also thank everyone who donated through our Giving Day in October 2022 (raising some £95,000, a 45% increase on 2021) and those who gave during our Telethon in March and April 2023. Emma Cornwall

Your support makes all the difference It has also been the year when College life has got fully back to normal after Covid, but also a year in which the cost of living and rising inflation have impacted our students’ financial situations. We are therefore very grateful to all those alumni who have helped address the increased demand for bursaries and emergency grants. Our Student Services team has been expanded by three new posts (including a new Head of Welfare and Wellbeing and a Financial Welfare Officer) so that we can offer our students greater study and transferable skills programmes, as well as more targeted financial, wellbeing and mental health support and advice. Alumni have also enriched our cultural life through contributions to the acquisition of a new Steinway grand piano and to our Jane Martin Poetry prize, and have helped to enhance our beautiful grounds, including the Sensory Garden which is coming on apace.

science tuition, or for other reasons. Our Outreach Team was able to visit schools to inspire them to consider applying to Cambridge, and our International Programmes re-commenced. Most of these initiatives have benefited from contributions from our alumni, financially and otherwise.

The Steinway arrives!

Other events included the 14th London-based Law and Finance reception, kindly hosted by Slaughter & May, with over 110 alumni from those professions attending whose matriculation years ranged from 1950 to the present day. Our guest speaker was Richard Matthews KC, who regaled us with stories of his involvement in many high-profile trials and our thanks go to Dr Guy O’Keefe who hosts this ever-popular event. Around 50 students joined the careers networking event beforehand and received careers and life advice from a panel of our stellar alumni. This year these were Richard Matthews (1984, Law); Guy O’Keefe (1990, Natural Sciences); Sarah Hewin (1979, Economics), Senior Economist at the Standard Chartered Bank; Benedict Treloar (2007, Management Studies), Investment Scientist at Wellington Management; and Natalie Bird (2011, Law), Criminal and Regulatory Barrister at 2 Bedford Row chambers. Our People’s Portraits reception in partnership with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters was held in the Mall Galleries in May, with our keynote speaker, the historian, writer and critic Dame Marina Warner CH, talking on ‘Presences’. This year’s national Jane Martin Poetry first prize was awarded to Warren Mortimer, with Olivia Tuck receiving second prize. Our thanks go to Adam Crothers and Rebecca Watts, our

judges, as well as our English Fellows, Dr James Wade and Dr Anna Nickerson. The ceremony also remembered the Prize’s benefactor, Professor Sir Laurence Martin (1928–2022), a great friend of Girton, and Irene Wainwright-Snatt (1920– 2021) for her legacy contribution. The College hosted an Ian Olsen

Global alumni events, speakers and volunteers Many events this year were arranged so that our new Mistress could be introduced to as many of our alumni as possible. Our visit to the East Coast of the USA in December enabled us to meet Girtonians from the eastern seaboard over a drinks reception which included a riveting talk by Dr Kendall entitled ‘Militant Jihad and the Battle for Hearts and Minds’. Our visit to Singapore in March included an alumni gathering at the home of Karen Fawcett (1982, Economics) for over 40 Girtonians in Singapore and Malaysia, as well as many individual meetings. Sadly, we couldn’t visit Hong Kong and China in person this year, but a number of remote meetings were held with friends and alumni there.

Donors’ garden party in the sun

Dame Marina Warner speaking to alumni at the People’s Portrait Reception

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Funds were raised for a new Womens’ VIII boat from a dinner hosted by alumnus Peter Rutland (1997, Economics), as well as an ergathon, with the official naming ceremony of the Jim Rutland taking place during the May Bumps. The inaugural Sports Awards ceremony to present awards to and celebrate our elite sportspeople will be, we hope, the first of many to come. We were also very grateful for a gift from Honorary Fellow the Rt Hon Lady Arden of Heswall (1965, Law), and to the late Sheila Lesley (1930–2019) for her generous legacy to the College. Together they will fund two Fellowships in Law, each named in their honour, as well as a named postgraduate studentship.

online panel presentation on ‘Legacies of Enslavement: the perspective of a women’s college’ by members of our Legacies of Enslavement Committee, led by former Mistress, Professor Dame Marilyn Strathern (1960, Archaeology and Anthropology), and a fascinating discussion followed. We reunited a number of year groups in September and held three subject reunions for English alumni and students, for Medics and Vets, and for Geographers, as well as the MA dinner. Our Foundation Dinner and Commemoration of Benefactors this year focussed on the global importance of Visiting Fellowships including those named after Brenda Ryman (for scientists) and Helen Cam (for the Arts), as well as the Mary Amelia Cummins Harvey Visiting Fellow Commonership, for creatives, public servants and trade unionists. David Johnson

Our thanks also go to our Hong Kong Girton Committee – Chadwick Mok (1984, Engineering), Franklin Heng (1985, Management Studies), Kevin Chan (1986, Engineering), Richard Mun (1991, Law) and James Wong (2008, Economics); and to our Cambridge Colleges Scholarships Scheme, our tax effective IPC, in Singapore whose Board has Karen Fawcett, Yong Nang Tan (1980, Economics) and Marian Sng (1985, Law) from Girton. The College now has two ongoing postgraduate scholarships for those resident in Hong Kong, and there are two Singapore postgraduate expendable scholarships – our scholars Siu Yau Ng (Jesse) and Chung Chuan Hsu (Michael) are doing cutting-edge PhD research into ‘Recalibrating Hong Kong’s socially engaged Arts and Literature’, and ‘Many Body Quantum Dynamics’ in the Cavendish Laboratory. Farewell After over seven happy years working at Girton, I am sad to say that I will be retiring at the end of September this year. I wish to thank everyone for all their support for College and for the many happy conversations and meetings that I have had over the past years with so many of you across the world. I look forward to seeing Girton go from strength to strength in the future, and send you all my warmest wishes.

The naming of Jim Rutland with the Mistress, Peter Rutland, and Boat Club Presidents Jonah Gibbon and Ellie Wee, during May Bumps 2023

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Deborah Easlick, Development Director

Admissions and Widening Participation This year saw a return to something like stability for the Admissions team, following the disruptions occasioned by the pandemic. In October 2022 we welcomed 142 new undergraduate students, exactly the same number as in 2021. Among those new arrivals, 53% are studying Arts subjects, and 51% identify as male. Of the Home (UK-registered) students, 70% came from state-maintained schools. Forty (28%) of our new students came to us through the Winter Pool, 4 (3%) through the Summer Pool, and 4 (3%) through the August Reconsideration Pool (formerly known as Adjustment), which supports applicants from underrepresented backgrounds who have performed well in their A-level examinations. Four students (3%) are on the new Foundation Year in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Girton was pleased to host the induction week for the first cohort of these students just before the start of the academic year, and is playing a leading role in this pioneering scheme, alongside STEM SMART for the sciences, both profiled elsewhere in this issue. During this academic year we welcomed Tessa Doubleday, a Girton alumna, as Schools Liaison Officer. Tessa has led our return to in-person outreach and recruitment work, visiting schools in our Link Areas in London and the West Midlands.

She has organised online webinars giving advice to applicants, and increased the number of school groups visiting Girton. These visits are wonderful opportunities for prospective students to experience a little of College life: they often include lectures or masterclasses – which many of our diverse and dynamic Fellowship give – and always feature tours of the College led by current Girtonians. We are also restarting the ‘Pathways to HE’ scheme, which targets students across the secondary age range with a sequence of activities intended to promote aspiration to study at university (and Cambridge specifically). This was at an early stage when the pandemic halted its development, but we are excited about its potential. We are immensely grateful to the Student Services Office team for their work supporting undergraduate admissions. Admissions processes across the University remain in a state of transition, with important changes in the format of interviews and the provision of admissions tests. Through all these changes the expertise, efficiency and unflappability of Vicky Argent, Head of Student Services, and Emma Ling, Admissions Officer, have been invaluable. Stuart Davis, Seb Falk and Morag Hunter, Admissions Tutors

Girton Fellow Dr Sam Grimshaw (Engineering) leading a workshop with a group of Year 12 students from a school in the West Midlands

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Bursaries and Grants Concerns over money should not stop any student embracing the Cambridge experience, and Girton continues to provide a platform that enables undergraduate and postgraduate students to maximise their opportunities during their time here. This year we introduced a brand-new role to Student Services and welcomed Nicky Shevlane as our Financial Welfare Officer. Not only is Nicky able to publicise additional funding opportunities, but she also offers budgeting advice and provides a supporting role to students and tutors. Our first cohort of Foundation Year students, a new initiative featured elsewhere in this issue, has applied to continue their undergraduate studies at Girton College. Bursaries Twenty-seven holders of Emily Davies Bursaries (worth up to £3,500 per year) were in residence in 2022–23. The subjects read by the bursary-holders were: Architecture; Classics; Computer Sciences; Engineering; English; Geography; History; Land Economy; Law; Modern and Medieval Languages; Music; Natural Sciences; Psychological and Behavioural Studies; and Veterinary Medicine. Two Margaret Barton Bursaries for Undergraduate Medicine were held by students in residence in 2022–23. Two Paresh Patel Bursaries were awarded to students reading Engineering, two Class of 1985 Bursaries to students reading Law and two Christine McKie Bursaries to students reading Physical Sciences. The Class of 1958 Bursary was awarded to a student reading Architecture, the Class of 1990 Bursary to a student reading Chemical Engineering, and the Class of 1970 Bursary to a Human, Social and Political Studies student. The Northcroft Bursary, the Elizabeth Brown Bursary, the Margaret Fulcher Bursary and the Juliet Dusinberre Bursary were awarded to students reading Engineering, Biological Sciences, Psychological and Behavioural

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Sciences and English respectively. All 15 of these awards are worth £3,500 per year. The Bateman Bursary for Economics was awarded to a second-year student. One hundred and forty Cambridge Bursaries (worth up to £3,500 per year) were given to Girton undergraduates in 2022–23. Thanks to the generosity of a Girton alumna the College continues to participate in the University Top-Up Bursary Scheme which provides additional financial support to 90 undergraduates from middle-income households. There were four holders of Ellen McArthur Bursaries (worth £1,000 in the first year and £1,500 in subsequent years) and two holders of Jean Lindsay Memorial Bursaries (worth £800) in residence in 2022–23, all reading either History, History and Politics or Human, Social and Political Studies. There was one continuing Elma Wyatt Bursary awarded to a finalist reading Clinical Medicine. The Rose Awards (for which continuing undergraduates supported by the Cambridge Bursary Scheme are eligible) saw a jump in applications from students who demonstrated the intention to benefit society and serve the community in a practical way. Twelve awards have been made ranging from £250 to £1,000 in value. The Girton Pioneer Award (£500) was shared between two students who had contributed to College life through participation in student societies, forums or welfare initiatives. The costs of studying medicine are significant and the NHS medical bursary (for the fifth and sixth years of the course) has been cut substantially. Clinical medical students are at increased risk of financial hardship, particularly as their course covers the whole year and they cannot get holiday jobs to supplement their bursary. This Easter term saw the launch of the Dr Carlo Acerini Memorial Fund for Study Skills. Whilst this fund is being launched, we continue to support our clinical students with their elective studies. Eight Harry

Barkley Awards and Dinah James Awards have been made this year, the latter having a focus on tropical medicine and related global health fields. Grants The number of students applying for financial support has (not surprisingly) increased. The University has recognised this, and more funding to support students in hardship is available from central collegiate resources. Termly deadlines have been lifted too, and support is available throughout the academic year. As a College we continue to utilise all funding opportunities, match funding with as many of these schemes as possible.

Seventy-six undergraduate students received financial support from the Buss Student Support Fund totalling £21,091. Postgraduate students have received grants amounting to nearly £10,000 from the Pillman Hardship Student Support Fund. Grants for academic purposes totalling £6,853 were made from the Student Academic Resources Fund to 44 undergraduates. Thirty-seven postgraduate students received grants amounting to £5,700 from the Pillman Academic Fund. Victoria Argent, Head of Student Services

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Postgraduate Affairs Overview Girton’s postgraduate student population continues to grow. The total intake for 2022–23 was 214 (at 1 November 2022), a significant increase from the 175 admitted in 2021–22. This figure included eight Girton undergraduates who progressed to postgraduate studies at Girton and eight postgraduate students who went on to higher degrees such as the PhD. Of the new postgraduates, 104 identified as male, 108 as female and two as other; 41 were PhD/MRes or CPGS students, 150 were studying for an MPhil, Adv Dip or Master of Architecture and the remainder were on other one-year courses (MBA, MFin, LLM, MCL, MASt and PGCE); 149 were Overseas (including EU) students and 65 Home.

Postgraduate Research Awards This year Girton was able to award a range of Postgraduate Scholarships. They provided financial support to academically outstanding students undertaking studies in a wide range of subjects, including Real Estate Finance, Social Anthropology, Engineering and Population Health Sciences. Awards were also made to continuing students in Psychology, Engineering, Physics and Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic. These scholarships are a significant factor in attracting talented postgraduate students to Girton College, and we are actively seeking to expand these awards through new benefactions and through partner funding from the Cambridge Trusts and UKRI doctoral training centres.

Sources of funding for the 2022–23 intake included: Research body/Department, ESRC, Judge Business School, NERC, EPSCR, Cancer Research (27); Cambridge Trust including co-funded with Girton (12); Full Girton Research Awards (4); PG Loans (UK, Scottish, US, Wales and Indian) (23); Gates (2); Self-funding (136); Other sources (Marshall & Wellcome Trust Scholars, NHS, staff waivers, Saudi Government, Daiwa, OxCam NIH, NEA Singapore, corporate) (10).

Pre-arrival, arrival and induction 2022 Following the success of last year’s pre-arrival programme, College again hosted four weekly Zoom webinars for confirmed applicants, each one focussing on a different topic. Dr James Riley moderated each session and various members of college staff and the MCR took part as panellists. An average of 69 attended each week. We had a good range of questions, and the post-event feedback was excellent. These sessions very much paved the way for greater student engagement at the in-person induction event in the first week of October, and we plan to run them again in September 2023.

The total number of Girton postgraduates in 2022–23 was 412, representing a rich and diverse international community. We are delighted to have students from the following countries in 2022–23: Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States and Venezuela.

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Postgraduate student achievements Among the high-level work regularly conducted by our postgraduate students, we were delighted to hear that final-year student Sigourney Bonner (2019, PhD Medical Science), who works at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, won The Brain Tumour Charity’s Influencer Award 2023. Rhona Jamieson (2020, PhD English) must also be congratulated for organizing ‘The Functions of Criticism’, an international critical theory conference which took place in May 2023, jointly funded by CRASSH and the Faculty of English.

As reported last year, the lifting of restrictions related to COVID-19 allowed opportunities for academic exchange once again. Our Pillman Conference award supported postgraduate students who participated in a wide range of international conferences. Over the course of the academic year our students presented their research in 19 countries including the UK, America, Australia and Malaysia. Postgraduate administration in the Student Services Department Wendy Klein continues as the full-time Postgraduate Administrator and Paula Harper assists with postgraduate administration. The new Financial Welfare Officer role within the Student Services team is proving very helpful to the students, tutors and administrators.

Postgraduate Tutors Dr James Riley has moved from a Postgraduate Tutor role to become Fellow for Postgraduate Affairs. There are now five Postgraduate Tutors: Dr Hilary Marlow, Dr Sally Ricketts, Dr Liliana Janik, Dr Diana Fusco, and Dr Sophia Shellard, who also chairs the Postgraduate Research Awards committee. The team continues to uphold our strong tradition of support to postgraduate students on personal, academic, and financial matters. They meet their postgraduate students individually and at social gatherings throughout the year and enjoy their company at weekly Formal Halls. James Riley, Fellow for Postgraduate Affairs

Procession to graduation for higher degrees on King’s Parade, April 2023

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Chapel Amongst the riches offered by Chapel life is the opportunity to connect with and listen to the range of visiting preachers who generously agree to come and preach at evensong. Congregants remark on how much they appreciate these visits; and although they are too polite to mention it, probably appreciate that our guests dilute what would otherwise be an unbroken stream of sermons from the Chaplain. Fresh from his role in the funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II and preparing to play a significant part in the coronation of Charles III, Girtonian the Revd Dr Jamie Hawkey (1998, Theology and Religious Studies), Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey, began our Michaelmas series Virtue in our Time by speaking on prudence; followed by former Chaplain and Life Fellow Revd Dr Malcolm Guite on temperance; Revd Dr Carlton Turner from Queen’s College Birmingham on hope; and Revd Mae Christie from All Saints in Tooting on justice. In Lent, considering Transformation, we welcomed the Rt Revd Rose Hudson Wilkin, Bishop of Dover and former Chaplain to the House of Commons and HM The Queen; Revd Michael Bigg of Girton Parish; Revd Richard Springer from St George-in-theEast and the Centre for Theology and Community; Revd Sophie Young, Chaplain to the Homeless and Streetlife Communities in Cambridge; and Revd Will Lyon Tupman (2014, Theology

and Religious Studies). Easter Term’s series on Vocation included visits from bestselling novelist Joe Browning Wroe; Revd Theodora Jejey, curate, artist and actor; Professor Rob McCorquodale, barrister, mediator and member of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights; and Girton’s own Revd Dr Charlie Bell, John Marks Fellow in Medicine. These sermons enriched our thinking and our post-Chapel social time, and I was encouraged by the consistently good feedback following their visits. The Chapel community has also benefited from the presence of our ordinand from Westcott House, Will Moore, for the last two years. Will left us at the end of Easter 2023 and we wish him all the very best with his journey in ministry and his summertime wedding. Along with Will, we boasted a team of five Chapel Wardens, a Choir that continues to excel, and a Chapel Committee whose thoughtful input is invaluable. For all of them, and for the opportunity to serve in such a beautiful setting, I am very grateful indeed. Visitors are always welcome to Chapel, for services or indeed informal visits. Please do get in touch. Tim Boniface, Chaplain

The Chaplain taking the Thanksgiving Service in the Fellows’ Garden for our 2023 graduands and their guests. Begun for safety reasons during the pandemic, this outdoor event has since proved a hugely popular part of Girton’s general admission celebrations, so that this year there was standing room only for guests of all faiths and none

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Library The year started in the most positive way possible, with the ‘Big Thank You’ celebration in July 2022. As part of a packed programme organised by the Development Office to mark the end of A Great Campaign, we belatedly but officially opened Campbell Court with toasts in glorious sunshine. Originally created as part of the Duke Building in 2004, Campbell Court was redesigned in 2019 as a more enticing space for study or socialising and certainly proved its worth during the pandemic, when we all spent as much time as possible outdoors.

Bursar, we have also increased our budget for buying printed books and are working on filling some of the gaps in our print collections that support Part I papers, following three years of emphasis on online materials. We have also filled a staffing gap this year. We were pleased to welcome Dr Melina Márquez as Library Assistant for eight months from August 2022, and then to welcome Arianna Koffler-Sluijter in the role from June 2023. Arianna comes to us straight from an MPhil at St Edmund’s College and will be expanding the Library’s presence on social media, please do look out for us online.

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David Johnson

For the Michaelmas Term 2022 intake of new students, the pandemic was hardly noticeable, barring the occasional Jenny Blackhurst, Librarian and Official Fellow reminder to sanitise hands and shared equipment (and regular checks by Library staff that our carbon dioxide monitors were showing good air flow). It was lovely to see upward of 55 students ensconced at a single time in the Library during Easter Term, although I am sure they would all rather not have had exams looming. To help with that, we provided welfare support in the form of stress-busting toys and sweets, and we were able to resume our ever-popular doughnut events; yes, stressed students really can eat over 50 doughnuts in only three minutes! In another sign of the times, our most-borrowed item this year was not a book but the external DVD drive that students use to watch films on their laptops. The MML, Music and English triposes all have papers that include films as set texts. Former Mistress Juliet Campbell at the opening of the redesigned Campbell Court in July 2022 However, with the support of the

Girton Colle ge Archive (G CPP Fitzsim ons

Archive

Our researchers have been studying a wide range of topics including the history of science, legacies of enslavement, female archaeologists, women in politics, and the early Girton experience, to name but a few. Some of our researchers also focussed on individuals. This meant that a variety of our collections were consulted, including some of our lesser used personal papers collections, such as: Ena Burton (1937), Cynthia Crews (Jopson, 1924), Kathleen Raine (1926), and Roma Wilson (1911). The Cambridge Women’s Liberation Archive was also a popular collection. The catalogues for these collections are available to view on ArchiveSearch: https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/ repositories/19. We have received a variety of accessions this year, including small collections of personal papers, transfers of College records, and articles written by our researchers. One particularly pleasing addition was the journal The Grasshopper which includes an account of the College written by Mary Slater (1890) in 1891. This looks at student life in the 1890s and discusses the benefits of a College education: it even addresses the ‘popular fallacy’ that smoking was a regular habit at Girton. Also of interest is a small miscellany of additional papers of Judith Fitzsimons (1947) relating to her entry to Girton and her medical studies. These include correspondence between Judith’s mother and Lady Margaret House, Grange Road, Cambridge, 1944 –1947, concerning Judith’s enrolment there and the role it played in preparing her for entry to Girton.

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Visiting researchers have remained the focus of the Archive this year. We were delighted in January to be able to return to almost prepandemic opening hours, thus relieving the pressure on appointments. This has allowed what finally feels like a return to normality after a long period of restrictions, due primarily to the constraints of the ventilation system that serves the Littler Reading Room and other areas in the Archive.

Letter from the College informing Judith Fitzsimons of her room and what she should bring with her, including an information leaflet for new students, July 1947

Unfortunately, we still have a large cataloguing backlog; this means that not all our new accessions have been catalogued, but we remain grateful to all the donors of new material. This year also saw the return of in-person events in College and it was good to be able to welcome people back into the Archive for the 2022 July ‘Big Thank You’ event and the September alumni weekend. The Library talk during the alumni weekend saw the personal papers of Eugénie Strong (Sellers, 1879) taking centre stage. We also had a group from a German University resume their annual visit, which had not happened since 2019. I would like to thank Joan Bullock-Anderson, our Consultant Cataloguer, who continues to help address our cataloguing backlog, along with our three volunteers, Cherry Hopkins (Busbridge, 1959, Law), Hilary Goy (Corke, 1968, Classics) and Anne Cobby (1971, MML). Hannah Westall, Archivist

Girton College Archive (GCRF 4/1/36)

‘Girton from within’, first page of Mary Slater’s account of student life, 1891, including a sketch of the Tower

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Culture and Heritage We were delighted in 2022 to be able to celebrate our collections in person at the September Alumni Weekend, after being online for the previous couple of years. As already reported, Lucy Brownson (University of Sheffield) gave the Library talk about Eugénie Sellers Strong, the somewhat controversial figure who was the College’s first Research Fellow in 1910. The Lawrence Room talk was given by Dr Jana Mokrisova (Faculty of Classics) and Mrs Susanna Pancaldo (Fitzwilliam Museum) about the research they undertook on objects from the Fitzwilliam Museum’s Cypriot collection for the Being an Islander exhibition. Both these talks are available to watch online via the College’s events archive. ‘Love Disfigure’, a portrait of Sylvia Mac by Alastair Adams PPRP, was unveiled at the People’s Portraits reception. It was introduced by both Sylvia, a burns survivor and body positivity campaigner, and Alastair. Sylvia spoke about how empowered the portrait makes her feel and her hope is that it will empower others. Former Mistress, Professor Dame Marilyn Strathern, taking the portrait as her starting point, then spoke about ways in which seeing and not-seeing play into what is known and not-known.

Our collections have also been celebrated outside the College. In May 2023, the College hosted a reception at the Mall Galleries in London to celebrate the People’s Portraits Collection and our long-standing partnership with The Royal Society of Portrait Painters. We were pleased to welcome Dame Marina Warner CH as the guest speaker, and a selection of portraits from the collection were displayed as part of the Society’s Annual Exhibition. In June, the Lawrence Room loaned eight objects from the Girton cemetery to the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology for its exhibition Beneath Our Feet: Archaeology of the Cambridge Region. The exhibition marks the centenary of Sir Cyril Fox’s 1923 book, The Archaeology of the Cambridge Region, and these items from the Lawrence Room help illustrate how our understanding of Roman Girton has expanded since its publication. It will run until April 2024. Hannah Westall, Archivist and Curator (Pictures)

The Alumni Weekend marked the opening of DEGREE, an exhibition by Luke Burton (Artist in Residence 2019/20). It was very enjoyable having Luke’s works on display within College and it was fun to find his enamels in unexpected places, such as the Lawrence Room and on window sills. Work continues behind the scenes on display, conservation and in particular this year improving our collection catalogues. More items from the picture collection are now on display, making some of the College corridors more vibrant and welcoming. In February, Dr Lila Janik stepped down as Lawrence Room Curator; we are very grateful for all her hard work in this role. Dr Helen Van Noorden is now in the role.

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Right: ‘Love Disfigure’ by Alastair Adams (oil on canvas), detail 2020 (GCPH 11/23/47)

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Music After last year’s ‘symphony of farewells’, this year, by way of contrast, has seen a series of arrivals. Along with the new Mistress – a keen amateur pianist, though she cleverly avoided taking part in the Freshers’ Concert – we welcomed a new Official Fellow in Music Composition, Marta Gentilucci. Marta arrives in Cambridge as the first Music Faculty lecturer with a specialism in electronic music. Her background is cosmopolitan and distinguished. Initial studies in Italy, where she later returned as holder of the (in)famous Prix de Rome, have been complemented by periods in Stuttgart, Berlin, Paris and ‘the other Cambridge’, where she studied for a Harvard PhD in composition. She has already brought much to Girton music, helping arrange visits by noted instrumentalists and instituting what we hope will be an annual Music Society tea. The first of these events, which took place in March, was built round a

piano recital given by Sam O’Neal (2019, Music) and dedicated to the memory of Eileen Downes, a resident of Girton village who was one of the most faithful supporters of Music Society concerts. Marta joins Simon Fairclough, our Official Fellow in Music Performance since December 2021, and inaugural Director of the University’s new Centre for Music Performance. This body has the job of supporting existing musical activities in Cambridge, while opening up opportunities to constituencies that, traditionally, have fallen outside the remit of bodies such as CUMS (the Cambridge University Musical Society). I’m delighted that Simon took up a Fellowship at Girton alongside his University post. We first got to know each other during one of my stints as Chair of the Music Faculty. At the time Hadeal Abdelatti

Alice Rivers directing the College orchestra in the Bacchanale from Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila

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Elisabeth Kendall

The performers line up after the 2022 Freshers’ Concert. In 2023, Emily Clare-Hunt (fourth from left) won the College’s Siem Prize for overall excellence in the Music Tripos

Simon, recently graduated, was running CUMS virtually singlehandedly, and the skills he demonstrated so precociously during that period (and later, while working for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra) are helping him cope with the demands of a post that could leave lesser mortals floundering.

Tim Boniface, who combines his part-time post as Chaplain with a freelance career as jazz saxophonist and pianist. Tim and James will, we hope, bring international-level jazz to Girton on a regular basis. If the illustrated history of jazz they offered at the Winter Guest Night in November is anything to go by, great treats await us.

The third new arrival is James Pearson, recently appointed as a Musician in Residence. Though trained in classical music, James is probably best known as a jazz pianist, and his principal professional activity is as Musical Director of Ronnie Scott’s in London. Girton has gained something of a reputation for jazz since the arrival some three years ago of

The last of my new arrivals is inanimate but no less welcome. Thanks to the generosity of the family of Irene WainwrightSnatt, Girton has been able to acquire a new Steinway Model B. I had the pleasure of selecting the instrument in Hamburg in February, and the inaugural concert, given by Mateusz Borowiak (2006, Music), took place at the end of

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June. Mateusz’s dazzling programme consisted of works by Bach-Busoni, Chopin and Beethoven, with an exquisite piece by Albéniz thrown in as an encore. In the coming months, the new grand will be heard in different contexts – in a piano-duet concert, in chamber music and in jazz. Mateusz Borowiak’s recital provided a sparkling conclusion to the academic year. The year opened with another first-rate concert given by an alumnus – in this case, cellist Chris Hedges (2015, Music), accompanied by John Paul Ekins. In a recital linked to the 2022 Commemoration of Benefactors, they gave a passionate performance of Rachmaninov’s G minor Sonata for Cello and Piano. Between these two concerts we enjoyed an unusually wide range of events. Repertoire ranged from Rimsky-Korsakov’s rarely heard First Symphony, performed by the College Orchestra under Alice Rivers, to music for the later evening, in a ‘pyjama concert’ curated by Emma Scott. Alongside the concert series, the Music Society staged several masterclasses and coaching sessions. These included a repertoire class given by Dutch-Italian pianist Erik Bertsch, a composition session run by Jonathan Rathbone (a former musical director of the Swingles Singers) and an Alexander Technique class led by Poppy Walshaw. Recent alumnus Ben Glassberg (2012, Music), who was in Cambridge to conduct the principal University orchestra, returned to Girton to give an inspiring conducting workshop built round the overture to Mozart’s Don Giovanni. A new departure for the Music Society was a brilliantly executed class on improvisation devised by Tim Boniface. Unsurprisingly, this was rooted in Tim’s experiences as a jazz musician, but it was open to performers of all backgrounds. By setting participants the task of improvising on a limited collection of notes against a backdrop of his own keyboard improvisations, Tim gave even the least experienced players the sense that they were only a few steps from jazz greatness. No report on Girton music would be complete without mention of the May Week Concert. This showcase of the College’s

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musical talent is all the more extraordinary when one considers how much of the repertoire has to be put together, at short notice, after exams. Commenting on all the programme items would be impossible, but the contributions of the leavers deserve special mention. As well as directing the orchestra in a rousing performance of the Bacchanale from Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila, Alice Rivers gave a spirited performance of Marcello’s D minor Oboe Concerto. She and Emma Scott then took the main parts in a trio-sonata movement by Bach. Alice and Emma have served as GCMS Presidents for the last year, and their contributions to College (and University) music have been many and various. Like Jessica Clayton and Tom Williamson, who also played leading roles in the Music Society, they will be greatly missed. Felix Elliott and Emily Nott, who arrived as Organ Scholars in 2020, also completed their undergraduate courses this June. We hope that Emily will stay on for graduate work; Felix’s contributions to the May Week Concert included the solo part in movements from Tailleferre’s Piano Concerto as well as a song from his musical The Herb Garden – an appropriate choice as he now embarks on a course in musical theatre in London. Like all those just named, Joe Wardhaugh has given generously of his time to both Music Society and Chapel Choir. So, it was fitting that his main contribution to the May Week Concert should be a version for choir and orchestra of an anthem he originally wrote for the choir. His Sibelius-inspired scoring left some of the performers, and doubtless some of the audience too, in tears. The contributions of all these students reminded us of just how much this generation has achieved, despite years of study blighted by Covid. Bravissimi! Martin Ennis, Austin and Hope Pilkington Fellow in Music, and Director of Music Right: Mateusz Borowiak at the inaugural recital for the new Steinway

Hadeal Abdelatti

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Choir There has never been any doubt that the reason Girton Choir’s tour to Germany and Austria in 2022 was so special was because it was the first international tour to take place for three years. For some it was their first and only tour, and this desire to make the most of precious opportunities has continued to propel the group forward in 2022/23. A return to cathedral visits and residencies which, this academic year, saw trips to St Edmundsbury and Coventry cathedrals, in October and February respectively, was a particular delight and, again, a first for nearly every choir member. Both visits featured music written by current members and this aspect of the choir’s homegrown activity continues to set them apart from nearly every other chapel choir in the country; no fewer than six choir members have written music for the group this year, having composed anthems, psalm chants, Preces & Responses and full settings of the Canticles, and several of these composers have also shown themselves to be skilful conductors of their own work. The re-introduction of visits from school choirs has been a real privilege, pupils from Ampleforth School and Streatham and Clapham High School having had the opportunity to experience a Cambridge chapel evensong and thus receive just a small insight into what attending a Cambridge University college might be like. Joint services between chapel choirs, something which used to happen at least once per term pre-Covid, have started to happen again, and Girton Choir were very excited to sing a Compline service with Downing Chapel Choir at Downing College before playing host to Homerton Choir at Girton, possibly the first time that

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Cambridge’s ‘outermost’ choirs had joined together, although perhaps the real highlight out of these joint ventures was the performance of Verdi’s Requiem at Ely Cathedral in March, which saw Girton Choir join forces with the CUMS Chorus as well as Pembroke, Christ’s and Downing chapel choirs. The choir continues to receive plaudits for the adventurous nature of their repertoire choices, exploring areas which have historically been neglected, and this extends to their recordings as they continue to pioneer the music of Marc’Antonio Ingegneri (1535/36-92). All three volumes of their recordings of music by this composer have made their way into the classical charts (ahead of other, perhaps betterknown, composers not to mention chapel choirs), and volumes 1 & 2 (released in 2020 and 2022 respectively) have sold out and have had to be re-printed. An hour-long retrospective on their recordings by the BBC Radio Three Early Music Show, aired in January, led to volume two re-entering the classical charts and raised expectations for volume three which, having been released in May 2023, has been equally well received by critics. In July, at the invitation of Italian musicians, the choir returned to Lombardy in Italy to help celebrate the 380th anniversary of Claudio Monteverdi’s death and took the opportunity to promote further the music of Monteverdi’s teacher, Ingegneri. Performances took place in Cremona cathedral where Ingegneri was Director of Music while his pupil sang in the cathedral choir; St Abbondio, Cremona, where Monteverdi was baptised; in Venice; and culminated in a final concert in Santa Barbara,

Mantova, where Monteverdi was Director of Music and where his famous Vespers were first performed. This was followed by a return to England, this time to Oxford, to record a fourth volume of the music of Ingegneri in a programme which demonstrated that this great composer still has much fine music to be explored.

has been the continued growth of a community brought together by a love of choral music. Whether it is sung in the blazing sun of Cremona or in the frosty cold of Coventry, Girton choir have performed with friendship, commitment and enthusiasm and are grateful for the opportunities they have been given to do so by the College.

Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of the year, however,

Gareth Wilson, Director of Chapel Music Cremona Music Festival

Performing in Cremona Cathedral

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Gardens The summer of 2022 turned out to be one of the hottest and driest on record. It began with the retirement of two longserving members of the gardens team, Richard Hewitt and Colin Osborne. The remaining gardeners, Karl Dawson and Mark Harben, did an excellent job maintaining the gardens until I, as new Head Gardener, joined the team in early August. I spent most of my first month watering. Despite the staff shortage and the scorching weather, plant deaths were kept to a minimum. As we moved into September and October the rain finally returned, and we no longer needed to spend most of our time dragging hosepipes around the site. We carried out the first spring bulb planting in many years, which turned out to be a great success. New pot displays were created for outside the Mistress’s flat, Eliza Baker Court and elsewhere in College. This is something we are hoping to extend this coming autumn and winter. We also enjoyed a very good crop of apples and pears. Some were picked by the Social Hub staff for juicing, and others were used for a fruit tasting at the end of the autumn garden walk. November was marked by our annual tree survey and the arrival of the Christmas trees. December started with a week of freezing temperatures and snow. The gardens and grounds teams spent many hours clearing snow and putting salt down. The cold led to the death of some plants, especially the hebes, penstemons and more tender salvias. In the middle of the month the team created gorgeous Christmas decorations for the Stanley Library using materials foraged from the grounds. After a well-earned Christmas break, two new members joined us: Tom Bayliss-Smith and Rachel French. They quickly settled in, with Tom taking a special interest in the Old Orchard and Rachel enjoying long hours of work in the nursery assisting Karl with some new developments. During wet weather the whole team, with the assistance of Will Stander, took turns helping with the growing of plants for the Sensory Garden

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and elsewhere in College. Around this time a large number of dahlia tubers were purchased and potted up. In early March a team from Alfresco Landscaping arrived on-site to carry out the hard landscaping for our new Sensory Garden, profiled in The Year 2021/22. The build went smoothly and was only slightly delayed because of the weather. Once the Garden was handed back to us, Mark and Tom installed the rabbit-proof fencing and planted the hedges. The trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials were gradually added. By late May all areas had been planted up except for the white garden and the plants surrounding the pergola. Moving into late April and early May the team was increasingly busy with lawn-mowing, weeding and the planting out of seasonal bedding. When the fantastic tulips in Eliza Baker Court finished, bright pink pelargoniums took their place. Further splashes of colour came with more waterlilies added to the pool and the water dyed black to show them off. Julia Andersson, Head Gardener Right: The Social Hub apple-pickers: Lalena Walkley, Ben Rahim, Sue Ardley and Dmytro Vorobiov (with Iosif Alhendi and Jasmine Touchent, not pictured)

Karl Dawson

81 The Year

Research Evenings During 2022–23 the College continued its tradition of holding regular Fellows’ Research Evenings during term. These are occasions for Fellows to share their research with the broader Fellowship, to foster multidisciplinary exchange and to enjoy camaraderie. Two evenings were special joint SCR/MCR events, with speakers participating from both Combination Rooms. Unusually, the second Research Evening of the year, held on 1 November, was open to the entire College community, so that the speaker, our newly elected Mistress, could introduce herself and her research to the whole College. Her title was ‘Militant Jihad and the Battle for Hearts and Minds’. It was held in Old Hall and there was standing room only. The other research evenings in Michaelmas Term included the following talks: 25 October, from the MCR: Anika Damm, ‘Disrupting the Regulators of Parasitism in Plant-parasitic Nematodes’; from the SCR: Professor Samantha Williams, ‘The “Unruly Infected”? Enforcing the Plague Regulations in Cambridge in 1625’. 22 November, Dr. James White, ‘“The Noodles of Gnosis”: Food, Parody and the Poetic Canon in FifteenthCentury Iran’.

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In Lent Term we welcomed two Fellows to share their current research projects: 7 February, Dr. Sam Grimshaw, ‘Electric Jet Engines and Cricket Ball Swing’. 14 March, Dr. Morag Hunter, ‘Chemical Weathering and Camelids in the Peruvian Andes’. Easter Term concluded the year with an MCR/SCR Research Evening followed by two research talks from amongst the Fellowship: 2 May, from the SCR: Dr. Helen Van Noorden, ‘Right, Wrong, and World-End: Reframing the Ancient Greek Sibylline Oracles’; from the MCR: Zeke Coady, ‘Can Coconut Capacitors Halt Climate Change?’. 23 May, Dr. Stephen Peprah, ‘How Can Partners Be Slaves? Rethinking Politics in Plato’s Republic ’. 6 June, Ain Bailey, ‘Sonic Stories’, with special guests Dr. Elisabeth Kendall and Dr. Stuart Davis. James Wade, Fellow for Postdoctoral Affairs

Ian Olsson

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Hail and Farewell By now you will be well aware that the College welcomed its 20th Mistress, Dr Elisabeth Kendall this year. And, as well as our new Senior Tutor Professor Toni Williams (see p. 46), in 2022–23 the ranks of the Girton Fellowship were swelled by the arrival of anthropologist Dr Mike Degani as our Juliet Campbell Official Fellow; Professor Lucio Sarno of the Judge Business School as a new Professorial Fellow; and Alastair Flett, Deputy University Librarian, as a Non-stipendiary Fellow. Dr James White became our first Oschinsky Research Fellow (see p. 37); Dr Evelina Gambino our new Margaret Tyler Research Fellow in Geography; and Hannah Banks our latest Henslow Research Fellow in Physics. Joining the ranks of our Bye-Fellows were classicist and Cambridge in Africa Bye-Fellow Dr Stephen Oppong Peprah, and physicist Dr Hugo Lepage. On the artistic front, Ain Bailey was our Cavendish Arts Science Fellow (see p. 36), and James Pearson was added to our Musicians in Residence. Unusually, we had two Helen Cam Visiting Fellows this year: historian Professor Jon Schneer from Georgia Tech, and urbanist Professor Sasha Tsenkova from the University of Calgary. However, we sadly lost Dr Joan Oates, Life Fellow and Anne Wilson, Barbara Bodichon Fellow and their obituaries follow in later pages. Development Director and Official Fellow Deborah Easlick retired after seven years, during which she oversaw the successful completion of our ten-year ‘Great Campaign’ which raised £28.4m in donations and over £25m in legacy pledges, significantly strengthening Girton’s endowment capital and giving us a fantastic financial base from which to plan for the future. We congratulate Bye-Fellow Dr Stefania Fiorentino, who left to take up an official fellowship in Land Economy at Downing College, while Katharine Jex-Blake Research Fellow Dr Anna Nickerson (see p. 54) was elected Christopher Tower Official Student and Tutor at Christ Church Oxford. Our best wishes for the future go with all of them.

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Among our staff, three new Heads of Departments arrived: Julia Andersson, Head Gardener (see p. 56); Andrew Enticknap, Head of Finance (having been preceded by Interim Head, Raymond Tait); and Maxine Purdie, Head of Catering & Conferences. Hugh Matthews is our new Head Chef (replacing Simon Turner) and Deji Olaniyi-Maxwell, the new Head of Welfare & Wellbeing. Christine Tibbatts became our Management Accountant and Kathryn Booth, our Payroll Manager. In Student Services, Anita Cullum arrived as Student Programmes Administrator and Tessa Doubleday as Schools Liaison Officer. Miriam Arranz is our new Summer Programmes Manager; Arianna Koffler-Sluijter and Melina Marquez became Library Assistants and Rachel French and Thomas Bayliss-Smith, Gardeners. New arrivals among staff in Catering were Manuel Morales Cisnero, Dmytro Vorobiov, Iosif Alhendi, Miguel GodoyMandiola, John Gougiotis, Jackie Tang, Ferenc Horinger, Alex Dance, Chelsey Carter, Marco Nsue Nnang, George Knox, Matt Alesiani, Christina Sansford, Fabio Stochino and Owen Coyle. Vivi (Ge) Wang joined the cleaning team. Marking 30 years at Girton were Karl Dawson, gardener and Susan Kelly, House Services. Hannah James, Development Office, Steve Coe, IT, and Julie Roberts-Law, House Services, all reached 20 years of service. Staff who left included: Angela Newman, PA to the Senior Tutor; Ellie Courtney-Jones, Social Hub Operator; Kelly Blyth-Smith, Front of House Team Leader; Karen Gibbs, Front of House Team Leader; Jake Carter, Kitchen Porter; Daniel Wiseman, Chef de Partie; Francisco Morales Cisnero, Kitchen Porter; Tom Hammond, Development Officer; Toby Howe, IT Support Technician; Kinga Vincze, Sous Chef; Ian Littlechild, Deputy Head of Maintenance/Electrician; Chris Lawrenson, Sous Chef; Mark Foster-Johnson, Chef de Partie; Cass Whitman, Cleaner; Sharon Lewis, Front of House Team Leader; Tamas Lehrreich, Commis Chef. Caroline Shenton, Secretary to Council

Alistair Flett

Dr Evelina Gambino

Dr Hugo Lepage

Dr Mike Degani

Dr Stephen Oppong Peprah

Hannah Banks

Professor Lucio Sarno

Professor Sasha Tsenkova

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Goodbye, Old Friend Darwin, the College’s long-running therapy dog, reached the end of his natural life at age 16 and slipped away peacefully at home in January. His twice-weekly sessions outside the Library were always immensely popular, with students jostling to sit next to him, stroke him, or just talk amongst themselves in his presence. Darwin always looked forward to meeting everyone and would stop in the corridor and wait for attention whenever someone walked past. His presence in College brought smiles to the faces of students and staff alike, and helped foster the family atmosphere of which College is so proud.

Darwin, a Canaan dog, was adopted as a one-year-old stray from a shelter in Israel by College Fellow Dr Arik Kershenbaum, and accompanied his family to the USA, before arriving at Cambridge. At the end of a full and happy life, he suffered a severe stroke, but the excitement on his face was clear when he came into College in his wheelchair to say a last goodbye to the students. More than 50 people lined up to see him. Although the College feels empty without him, his legacy of support and enrichment for our students is one that we are certain to continue. Arik Kershenbaum

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Student Reports The Year

JCR This year the JCR adopted a particular focus on strengthening ties within College. Most students had never experienced Cambridge in ‘normal’ conditions, so we took this opportunity to bring back traditions lost from living student memory, as well as making sure those established during last year’s bounce-back were continued.

The 2022 Freshers’ Week was one to remember. Over seven days the committee prepared and ran 64 events for our new cohort, ranging from upcycling arts and crafts to a College-wide murder mystery, from bingo nights to ballroom dancing, and from pub crawls to ice-skating. There really was an event for everyone, and we hope all the freshers thoroughly enjoyed their first few days Lauren Court

Prepping arrival bags on the eve of Freshers’ Week

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Enjoying the petting zoo Katie Lane

Of last year’s new additions to Girton student life, many proved very popular as ways to celebrate Girton, promote wellbeing and even reverse some of the communitysplintering effects of the pandemic. These included petting zoos, schlub quizzes and themed formals. Student societies also took up the challenge, with an unprecedented number of new ones having been formed this year. This multitude of activities and events has managed to bring students together whilst impressively catering for everyone.

Katie Lane

in Cambridge. At Girton, we value our community above everything else, which is why we also endeavoured to foster inclusion and access from the moment our freshers stepped through our entrance archway. New and improved welfare sessions, an equal ratio of alcoholic to nonalcoholic entertainments, and dedicated safeguarding and access arrangements for each event were just a few tenets of our week that ensured this. Other highlights included seeing all Girton has to offer at the Societies’ Fair, indulging in a Schlub* hot chocolate on campfire night and being engrossed by GADS’ traditional Freshers’ musical to finish off an amazing week.

Girtonians enjoyed their first annual Spring Ball, with its music, entertainment and refreshments taking its guests ‘Beyond the Skies’. We also hosted the second edition of the Somerville vs Girton Sports Day, which saw an overwhelming Girton victory. And finally, after our prolonged lobbying efforts, news came from the local council that the much-anticipated extension of the city’s U-Bus service to Girton would go ahead, and with it, the prospect of a huge step forward in overcoming the travel challenges around Cambridge faced by all at Girton. Jules Pye, JCR President and Harry Goolnik, JCR Vice-President *nickname for the Social Hub, our onsite coffee shop

Getting creative during a welfare arts and crafts session

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Spring Ball 2023

Beyond the Skies All photos: Tobia Nava

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Spring Ball Spin-off Following their tenure as the 2022 Girton Spring Ball President and Treasurer, our students Tilly Palmer and Jack Davis decided to use their experience to get entrepreneurial. They’ve created Girton Cloakrooms, a sustainably-run business supplying cloakroom staffing and equipment to events around Cambridge. The aim is to help (mostly) May Week events run more efficient, inexpensive and ecofriendly cloakrooms – a necessary, but not necessarily fun part of planning any major occasion. The project has included everything from creating a business plan to a hiring agreement, and sourcing equipment. So far, they’ve secured contracts for six balls in May Week and are looking forward to bringing their idea to life.

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Eloise Richardson

MCR With a huge increase in the number of postgraduate students at Girton, I am delighted to report that our MCR community has continued to flourish post-Covid, building on the enormous success of last year’s committee. To this end, our annual Freshers’ Fortnight was quite possibly the best-attended one on record, the highlight of which was our pub crawl which saw around a hundred new and old Girtonians descend upon the streets and pubs of Cambridge and was a great way for students to form friendships and familiarise themselves with the town before their studies commenced. Late nights aside, we ran two impressively popular tours of our College grounds and library. Students were thus able to familiarise themselves with the College and what it has to offer. So, despite the historically looser ties between postgraduates and their colleges, MCR members here have continued to participate in College life all year round, within their busy and diverse schedules.

Postgraduate freshers touring the College library

Eloise Richardson

This year, we’ve been extremely mindful of welfare, holding joint events with the JCR and various board game and film nights, brunches and other social events. Most crucially, we’ve also introduced the first ever and hugely popular Swirles Court Welfare Petting Zoo, which visited our postgraduate accommodation twice this year and perfectly filled the ferret- and guinea-pigsized holes in our community. The MCR Super Formal returned too, where students let their hair down with a black-tie three-course meal, followed by dancing and live music from a Ceilidh Band. We have continued our longstanding termly research nights, including our lively postgraduate-run Pecha Kucha presentation evenings, and joint gatherings with the SCR in which PhD students can present and discuss their work alongside Fellows. All in all, the MCR has had another successful year, and remains engaged and integrated with the vibrant community Girton is famous for. Finally, I am thankful to and proud of my fellow committee members for their hard work this year.

Arshia Katyal, MCR Welfare Officer and Ferret Wrangler at the Petting Zoo

Eloise Richardson, MCR President

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Student Societies and Clubs Eray Bulut

t between Girton, Newnham, The annual Intercollegiate Moo nail-biting contest against truly a In yn. Pembroke and Selw Ryan Henry Ho and the Pembroke team, our advocates prevailed as the ty Socie Law n Girto Hasan Lone from Judge Andrew Shaw winners, judged by His Honour

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Michelle Meng

Our Boat Club women enjoying a gorgeous early morning sunrise on the river

Isabel Benson

chess in An evening of casual Girton the for Hub ial the Soc e Tsoi College Chess Club. Mik Emma and g) erin ine Eng (2020, tains of Scott (2020, Music), cap Teams, the two Girton Chess recently play a friendly after r-College competing in the Inte Chess League

Charles Yang

A tight game against Hughes Hall during Mixed Net ball Cuppers Finals at the University Sports Centre this Eas ter Term

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Tom Bullivant

The Football 1st team celebrates ir a 2-0 win in the gue lea ate ltim nu pe game of the season against The St. Catharine’s. ed nte ara gu rs ye pla their spot in the d playoff final, an the possibility of promotion to division one

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Lukas Pertl

Lukas Pertl (Natural Sciences, 2021) practising on our very own grass courts. After a quick series of promotions to the 1st division of the College Tennis League, Girton came into Cuppers this year as second seeds

Amelie Manzoli

ZYP it up! Girton’s new Zumba, Yoga and Pila tes club after a Saturday mornin g Pilates class in Old Hall

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Dik Ng

Lukas Pertl

defence in the Cuppers Bowl final ces) demonstrating his might in Oyare Aneju (2021, Medical Scien ined rugby team fought well ite ending in a 32–10 loss, the comb at Grange Road last year. Desp s in the stands orter supp of ds impact on the crow throughout and made a lasting

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Roll of Alumni The Year

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2024 – Calendar of Events Hosting events is an important way for the College to stay connected with alumni and supporters, and we look forward to welcoming as many of you as possible to the College during the upcoming year. Our provisional schedule for 2024 is set out below. To ensure you receive your invitation, and the latest news and information, please update your contact details by using the form on page 162 or on our website. All events take place in College, unless otherwise stated. February

September

12:

Mountford Humanities and Arts Communication Prize

20:

Alumni Reunion Dinner for 2003, 2004 and 2005

17:

Biennial Geography Society Gathering

21:

Alumni Reunion Dinner for 1995, 1996 and 1997

26:

Hammond Science Communication Prize

Roll of Alumni Weekend:

March 6:

Law and Finance Networking Reception in London

Girton Alumni Sports Association Sports Matches and Dinner

April TBC: Spring Gardens Walk 5:

MA Dinner

MA Congregation

May 2:

Jane Martin Poetry Prize

28:

Library Talk (all welcome)

28:

Lawrence Room Talk (all welcome)

28:

People’s Portraits Talk (all welcome)

28:

Concert for the Roll (all welcome)

28:

Roll of Alumni Dinner (all welcome, especially Matriculation years 1964, 1974, 1984, 1987 and 1988)

29:

Gardens Talk (all welcome)

October TBC: Autumn Gardens Walk 19:

Commemoration of Benefactors and Foundation Dinner

19:

1869 Society Event

June MML Reunion

15:

May Bumps and Boat Club Dinner

18:

May Week Concert

More details of the Roll of Alumni Weekend and Dinner can be found on page 163. Details of other events in the calendar can be found in due course on our website at www.girton.cam.ac.uk.

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Ian Olsson

Enjoying the 2022 Alumni Weekend dinner

Regional Associations An overview of the activities of regional associations at home and abroad Cambridge Local Girton Association It has been a pleasure once again to hold almost all our talks in person, although the Zoom facility has frequently been available and has enabled us to welcome visitors from the London Girton Association, St. Anne’s Society and those who do not wish to travel.

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3 December 2022: Professor Jane Buikstra, Director of the Center for Bioarchaeological Research at Arizona State University, described her study of the extensive human skeletal material from the great cemetery at Phaleron, near Athens.

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11 February 2023: An informal talk by Mrs. Anne Lonsdale, Former President of New Hall (now Murray Edwards College), a Pro-Vice Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, on her experiences in setting up new universities in Central Europe, China and Central Asia.

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25 March 2023: Dr. Liming Ying, Senior Lecturer in the Section of Molecular Medicine, National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College, London, spoke of his education and early career as a molecular biologist in China, the USA and the UK.

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13 May 2023: The Mistress, Dr Elisabeth Kendall, visited the Association and spoke on ‘Militant Jihad and the Battle for Hearts and Minds’, exploring the way in which terrorist organisations infiltrate societies and spread at grass-roots level inside the Middle East, also reflecting on lessons we might learn from the ‘Terrorists’ themselves.

We owe a great debt of gratitude to Hilary Goy, for her hospitality in making her home available for our meetings and for her expertise in the IT field – notably in organising our December talk, which came from New Mexico. Our talks and events, many suggested by members of the Committee, have again ranged over a variety of subjects; high points have been the visits of Mrs. Anne Lonsdale and especially that of the Mistress, Dr. Elisabeth Kendall. •

23 July 2022: Showing of the film ‘As Is Their Due’ by Amy Erickson, on the early graduates of Girton and Newnham finally receiving their Honours Degrees.

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8 October 2022: Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian, Oxford, spoke on ‘Burning the Books: a History of Knowledge under Attack’ highlighting examples of the deliberate destruction of culture in times of war.

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12 November 2022: AGM and a talk by Kasia Boddy, Professor of American Literature in the University, on ‘Saffron in Cambridge’, a university research project on the cultivation and use of saffron among the older colleges.

•

26 November, 2022: ‘Darwin in Conversation’, a tour of the University Library exhibition on Charles Darwin’s extensive correspondence, organised by Catherine Ansorge.

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8 July 2023: Dr Emma Brownlee, Ottilie Hancock Research Fellow in Archaeology, spoke to us about her current research on the Roman and early medieval cemeteries discovered during the construction of the College in the late 19th century.

Email: clga@girton.cam.ac.uk Website: www.sites.google.com/site/cambridgelga London Girton Association In October 2022, our programme included a private tour to the Dickens House Museum, starting off with drinks served in the Museum gardens. Our guide then led us through the historic house to discover Dickens’ literary inspirations and family heartbreak, immersing us in the author’s world. In November, Girtonian Dr Amy Jeffs talked to us about her books Storyland, A New Mythology of Britain and Wild: Tales from Early Medieval Britain. It was a wonderful evening of storytelling, illustrated by the author’s dramatic and beautiful original linocuts. During the Spring, we enjoyed two more events. In February 2023, the historian and writer Margaret Willes gave us an online talk entitled ‘The Curious World of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn’. An engaging and vivid picture was painted for us of their friendship and different characters. In April, thirty members toured the Royal Hospital Chelsea, guided by two Chelsea Pensioners. We heard the fascinating history of the Hospital, taking in the splendour of the Grade I and I I listed buildings, as well as unique insights from our guides into past and current lives of the residents. Our Book Circle, set up in March 2020 at the beginning of lockdown, is thriving. We meet online every three weeks to discuss a mixture of fiction and non-fiction. At the time of writing, we have read 43 books and the list continues to grow.

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We are delighted that our events have been fully subscribed, and that members of the Wales and West Association and the Cambridge Local Association have been able to join us online. Email:lga@girton.cam.ac.uk Website: www.girton.cam.ac.uk/london-girtonassociation Facebook: www.facebook.com/LondonGirtonAssociation Oxford Region Girtonians While the ORG no longer formally meets we do keep in touch informally, continuing the friendships developed over the years, so anyone in the Oxford area wishing to have contact with fellow OGs is very welcome to get in touch. Contact: Meg Day (1967) Email: org@girton.cam.ac.uk Tel: 01865 375916 Manchester Association of Cambridge University Women Our AGM held on 12 November 2022 was a bittersweet occasion. After an existence of 76 years, and after having recently held a successful 75th Annual Dinner, postponed from 2021, and a Summer outing to Salford Cathedral, it was decided to dissolve the Association. Times change and it was felt that the one-time Girton and Newnham Association of Old Students was reaching the end and it was important to go out in style. We lifted our glasses to toast all that MACUW had been over the years. The archives were on display and a splendid lunch was provided by Withington Girls School. Our oldest member who remembers the early days is Marjorie Hulme (Girton 1941, Moral Sciences) who celebrated her 100th birthday on 30 November 2022.

Miss Hulme is only our second centenarian: Henrietta Browne, also a Girtonian, was born in 1857. She was present at the original meeting on 26 February 1946. We have a visible legacy in the two trees and their commemorative plaques planted in autumn 2021 at two Manchester schools (WGS and MHSG) with close ties to MACUW over the years. All funds remaining were transferred to Cambridge University Development and Alumni Relations with the idea of kick-starting a Cambridge Society of Manchester. The MACUW archives will be held by Newnham. They are a very good historical record of the times and the slow integration of women into Cambridge mainstream. On a personal note, my lengthy involvement in MACUW and the Girton Alumni Roll has been immensely enjoyable and I (Joanne Bream, 1988, Law) wave a fond farewell and raise a glass to all whom I have met during that time.

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Wales and the West Girtonian Association As the largest branch by area we always welcome any new members who wish to join. There was a shorter than usual programme this year, but we took the opportunity to trial digital talks with great enthusiasm, as travel, mobility and packed diaries challenged us all. It was heartening that in some way all the events had a Girton connection at their core. Dr Josephine Flood (Girtonian, classicist, mountaineer who learnt her skills scaling Cambridge University buildings and expert on aboriginal archaeology) amazed us with her transition from ascending six previously unclimbed peaks of over 20,000 feet to lecturer in Australian conservation. Discovering a female Aboriginal skeleton, her research totally challenged the thinking about stone-age nomadic life. Former WWGA Secretary Barbara Hird skilfully hosted her contemporary.

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disciplines. We clearly all still have a great appetite for current research. Emma posed many questions and revealed her conclusions on burial practices. We jumped at the invitation from the London Branch to an equally enthralling talk from Dr Amy Jeffs on her excellent book Storyland, in which she illustrated and translated medieval tales. Collaboration is definitely the way forward. Everyone is welcome to join the Assocation. Please contact fjwhallworth@gmail.com or wwga@girton.cam.ac.uk for further details or go to www.girton.cam.uk/wwga. New York Girton Association The New York Girton Association has resumed its meetings that were on hold thanks to the pandemic. We met twice a year from 2013 until 2019: one meeting is a formal meeting with a speaker who is always a Girtonian. Our formal event is usually added to the Cambridge in America online calendar.

As a Girtonian and trustee of the Ken Stradling Collection in Bristol I invited members to visit this little gem, keen to share the delights of this unique personal collection of over 2,000 art and design household objects, gathered over 60 years, from Bauhaus to Bernard Leech. A personalised tour by the curator was well received, especially the Ravilious pieces, following our Ravilious art gallery visit two years ago. With time to spare we explored the adjacent Elizabethan Lodge and then lunched at Brown’s, housed in the former University of Bristol’s museum and library, inspiring at least two Girtonians to give talks in the future.

We need to update our email list and would welcome hearing from any Girtonian who lives or works in New York. Please contact us at the email address below to be included on our email list and please send a copy email to Emma Cornwall at the Girton Development Office: e.cornwall@ girton.cam.ac.uk.

When we were at Girton, many of us stared out of the windows composing essays little aware that beneath the grass lay a Roman burial ground. A fascinating insight by present-day Research Fellow Emma Brownlee was extremely well received, whatever our own academic

Hong Kong Committee We would be delighted to hear from any Girtonians based in Hong Kong. You can reach us via the College or by following our Facebook page. You can join the group here: https://facebook.com/groups/539478213416164.

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We would be happy to hear from any Girtonian who would like to speak at future events and/or who is interested in organising an event. Email: newyorkga@girton.cam.ac.uk.

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Births de Oliveira. On 26 March 2023, to Imogen (Smith, 2016) and David (2016), a boy, Simeon David. Levenston. On 26 December 2021, to Anisha (Sharma, 2006) and Matthew (2006), a boy, Joel Aarav. Mutter-Jocelyn. On 10 March 2023, to Natasha (Jocelyn, 2005) and Simon (Mutter, 2005), a boy, Casper James Ralph, a brother to Arlo.

Simeon David de Oliveira

Casper James Ralph Mutter-Jocelyn

Jemima Hope Rogers De’Ath

Alexander James Salmon

Rogers De’Ath. On 12 August 2022, to Oliver (De’Ath, 2011) and Charlotte (RogersWashington), a girl, Jemima Hope. Salmon. On 5 January 2023, to Emma (College Accommodation Manager) and Chris, a boy, Alexander James, a brother to Jonathan. Sohal. On 20 May 2022, to Charlotte (2007 Vie) and Prem (Clare College, 2006), a girl, Jiya.

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Marriages and Civil Partnerships Andersson – Hunt On 17 September 2022, Julia Andersson (Head Gardener) and Terry Hunt. Coates – Galilee On 1 October 2022, Claire Coates (2020) and Joel Galilee. Imanikia – Pinckert On 15 November 2022, Soudabeh Imanikia (Bye Fellow) and Malte Pinckert (Queens’ College, 2018; King’s College 2019). Roberts – Pymer On 3 September 2022, Elisha Roberts (2019) and Ben Pymer (2019).

Terry Hunt and Julia Andersson

Rogers-Washington – De’Ath On 9 July 2021, Charlotte RogersWashington (2011) and Oliver De’Ath (2011). Smith – de Oliveira On 28 December 2021, Imogen Smith (2016) and David de Oliveira (2016). Sohal – Vie On 24 July 2021, Charlotte Sohal (2007) and Prem Sohal (Clare College, 2006).

Ben Pymer and Elisha Roberts

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Claire Coates and Joel Galilee

Soudabeh Imanikia and Malte Pinckert

Oliver De’Ath and Charlotte Rogers-Washington

David de Oliveira and Imogen Smith

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Caroline Shenton

Cloister Court in the snow, December 2022

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In Memoriam This year’s Girtonian lives remembered: among them educators, medics and vets, historians, town planners, clergy, scientists, homemakers, economists, former staff, charity and community volunteers, a Chief Statistician of Canada and a motorbiking nun. BARKHAM. On 18 February 2023, Jane Suzanne (Ratcliffe) MA (1961 Geography). BEN-ISRAEL. On 12 May 2023, Hedva (formerly Mrs Ben-Israel-Kidron) PhD (1950 History). Obituary on p. 126. BLACK. On 2 August 2022, Anne Elizabeth (Shotton) MA (1951 Natural Sciences). Chris Bowie

BLACK. On 30 April 2022, Katherine McLeod BA (1953 Classics). After graduating from Glasgow University, Katherine read Classics at Girton as an affiliated student. Following Cambridge, she worked briefly at GCHQ in Cheltenham. She returned to her native Glasgow to teach Classics, first at the Glasgow High School for Girls, and latterly as Depute Head at its successor school, Clevedon High School. Katherine retained a lifelong love of the classical world and was also a keen golfer throughout her life. She died in Alexandria, West Dumbartonshire, in her 91st year. BOWIE. On 27 December 2022, Marie Christine (Kitching) MA (1960 English). Yorkshirewoman Chris met her husband John at Cambridge and in 1965 they moved to Killearn near Glasgow. Chris taught at Balfron High School for over twenty years, a job she loved and in which – kind and patient – she made it her responsibility to help every child

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to learn in a way that suited them and their capabilities. Chris was chair of the School Board and had an instrumental role in the building of the ‘new’ Balfron High School. She stood as a Liberal councillor, was secretary of the Community Council and President of her local Inner Wheel. More recently she enjoyed writing for The Courier. She was and still is very much loved by all: her husband, three children and two granddaughters, who miss her terribly. BOWKER. On 8 November 2022, Margaret (Roper) MA (1962) LittD (1983 History). Margaret, a historian of the Tudor church, was educated at Somerville, Oxford and came to Girton in 1960 where she was a Research Fellow to 1963, Official Fellow, 1963–72, and Senior Research Fellow, 1972–75, combining that with a lectureship in the University 1963–75. She moved on to the University of Lancaster to be Reader and then Professor in Social History. On returning to Cambridge with her husband John, former Dean of Trinity College, she became a Tutor in Prayer and Spirituality at Ridley Hall from 1987 to 1996. She was one of the first female members of the Crown Appointments Commission and Lady Margaret Preacher in the University, 1990. BRADY. On 31 October 2022, Kathleen Dorothy MA (1970 Natural Sciences). Born in 1930, Kathleen was originally a nurse and midwife. In the late 1960s she undertook further study, and at the age of 40 she was accepted as a mature student at Girton, where she read

Philosophy, changing to Natural Sciences (Psychology) for her third year, while living 20 miles away and bringing up three children. After graduating, Kathleen began work as a Clinical Psychologist at the West Suffolk Hospital and worked her way up to become a highly regarded Principal Clinical Psychologist, during a stimulating and rewarding career, retiring at 75. Kathleen was forever thankful to Girton for making it all possible. BROWN. On 31 December 2022, Susan Mary MA (1965 Natural Sciences). BUCKTON. On 14 January 2023, Christine Mary (Baker) BA (1955 English). After a career mainly in education and counselling, with a special concern for early child development, and during which she wrote educational and fiction works for children, Chris was awarded an MBE for her work developing the Family Literacy Strategy. In the 1980s she started volunteering as a mentor at Fulbourn Primary School, where she introduced a Listening Bench during playtimes. There she sat knitting a rainbow scarf, and children, often those with personal difficulties not revealed during normal schooltime, would come and talk to her. In April last year her poetry collection Holding It Together was published under her pen-name, Christina Buckton. Chris is survived by her husband, three sons and four grandchildren. BULMER. On 11 October 2022, Jill Audrey (Bolton; formerly Mrs Flenley) MA (1955 Geography). On leaving Cambridge Jill took up teaching.

Following her marriage to John Flenley (MA, ScD Natural Sciences, Clare College) she gave this up to focus on supporting his career and raising their three daughters. The family lived in New Guinea and Australia before settling in Cottingham, UK. After a divorce, Jill married Michael Bulmer, telecoms engineer, but was widowed almost immediately. Thereafter she channelled her considerable energies into her many interests, supporting good causes and maintaining a wide circle of friends until she was overtaken by dementia a decade ago.

Christine Buckton

BURNETT. In September 2022, Diana Mary (Hargreaves) MA (1957 Classics). BUSHELL. On 30 October 2022, Josephine Mary MA (1952 Mathematics). Josephine may have surprised many when she chose to join the Sisters of Notre Dame, a Catholic teaching order after graduating. She taught maths at an East End comprehensive followed by a DipEd and then senior posts in Liverpool and Oxford. Sister Josephine was appreciated for her enthusiasm in taking girls on sailing holidays, motorbike riding, playing guitar and seeking out truanting girls ‘on the game’, to see, as she wryly put it, ‘if they needed any help.’ After three years at the order’s Global HQ in Rome, in the Justice and Peace Commission, she began to focus on improving the order’s educational contributions to developing countries. This led to a decision to go to Rhodesia, struggling then to become Zimbabwe, where over ten years she revised the maths syllabus for public examinations, trained teachers, taught maths at a school for 300 girls and helped to set up a Zimbabwean novitiate.

Jill Bulmer

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She grew much of her own food and cooked in the open air. She returned to England, based first in Clapham, creating a refugee centre, and then in Liverpool, where she edited an in-house global magazine and engaged in educational parochial work, while continuing to ride a Vespa around her parishes, until two falls made that impossible. CHALONER. On 28 October 2022, Penelope Ann MA PhD (1970 Natural Sciences; 1973 Research Student). Penny chose Cambridge in preference to Oxford because ‘I thought light blue a prettier colour than navy!’, but went on to achieve the highest marks of the year in the Chemistry Tripos of 1973, under the direction of Christine McKie. She then completed a PhD on Coordination Catalysis followed by a junior research fellowship at St Hugh’s College, Oxford. Two years later, she became the first woman Senior Member of Christ Church. Following a spell at Rutgers University in the United States, she spent the rest of her career at the University of Sussex and later presided over the highly successful and profitable International Sussex Summer School. She took a sabbatical in 1984 to serve as Preston’s Lady Mayoress, when her mother was Lord Mayor of the city. Having taken early retirement for health reasons, she produced a well-regarded textbook Organic Chemistry: a Mechanistic Approach. She was always hospitable; drove fast, glamorous cars; was generous, if terrifying, to her friends’ children; kept a splendid cellar; and was a regular attender at Glyndebourne. CHANDLER. On 17 February 2023, Lucy Bertha (Buxton) MA (1951 Natural Sciences). Lucy was a keen and knowledgeable naturalist

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but, more importantly, she was a courageous individual with a determination to get things done. Her work in the voluntary sector began when she became a school welfare officer. She went on to work with Save the Children, initially working with traveller and immigrant communities. Later she travelled extensively visiting Save the Children projects internationally, and held a variety of roles including its UK Acting Chair. Latterly she became a trustee of Prisoners of Conscience and Anti-Slavery International and was awarded an OBE. In 1955 Lucy married Geoffrey (later Sir Geoffrey, who became an Honorary Fellow at Girton in 1986). She leaves four daughters, eleven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. CHAPLIN. On 31 August 2022, Betty Joan MA (1949 Natural Sciences). CHARLTON. On 5 February 2023, Joan MA (1939 English). COGGINS. On 5 April 2022, Lesley Frances (Watson, 1973 , Sarah Woodhead Research Fellow in Biology). Educated at Somerville, Oxford and Yale, cell biologist Lesley returned to the UK after postdoctoral research in the USA in 1972 to take up her research fellowship. After Girton, Lesley moved to the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow where she led the Electron Microscopy Group for 22 years, before setting up the cell biology laboratory at the University of Glasgow’s spin-out company Q-One Biotech, now BioReliance, retiring in 2009. She had many interests outside work: astronomy (she owned a seven-foot reflecting telescope and

coached local Scouts and Brownies for their astronomy badges); archaeology and history (she learned Mandarin and could read hieroglyphics); genealogy; local community affairs in Bearsden; and the East Dunbartonshire Liberal Democrats. She married fellow biologist John Coggins in 1970 and had two children, Andrew and Julia, and five grandchildren. EARL. On 26 October 2022 Timothy Derek MA (1985 Oriental Studies). Tim’s family were so proud when he was accepted at Girton and he enjoyed his time here immensely. After leaving, Tim worked as a Japanese-speaking City broker. In 2007 he decided to change careers and began producing videos for corporate and private clients, setting up Earl Films. He also continued to indulge his passion for music, curating infamous DJ sets. Tim was a rare and special person loved by everyone who knew him. Never was this more apparent than at his funeral – attended by so many in person, and even more online. He is deeply missed by family, friends and of course Digby his dog, whose lives are emptier without him. His legacy is ‘A life well lived’. ELLIOTT. On 1 May 2023, Oonah Sophia (Butler) MA (1945 History). Appropriately enough for someone who read history, Oonah’s family association with Girton stretched back to its early years. She was the granddaughter of Henry Montagu Butler (Master of Trinity) and Agnata Ramsay (1867–1931), the Girtonian who came top of the Classical Tripos in 1887, immortalised in the famous Punch cartoon showing her entering a first-class compartment of a train ‘for ladies only’. Her sister Katharine

(d. 1998) was also at Girton. Oonah won a Fencing Blue in 1947– 48 and was among that first cohort of Girtonians to be permitted to graduate in 1948 when the University finally voted to allow women to obtain their degrees. As the daughter of the distinguished diplomat Sir Nevile Butler she lived as a child in Tehran. On leaving Girton she rejoined her parents, living in Rio de Janeiro, Washington DC and The Hague. She also trained as a secretary and worked in public relations. In 1958 she married the leading historian of early modern Spain, J.H. Elliott – later Sir John (d. 2022). Thereafter she devoted her career to his, travelling extensively with him, indexing his books and entertaining his numerous students and historian friends. In the 1970s and 1980s they lived in the USA while John was at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. When he was appointed Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford in 1990 they settled in Iffley where Oonah indulged her lifelong passion for making gardens, had her own potter’s wheel and was a volunteer guide at the Ashmolean Museum – as she had been at the Princeton Art Museum. She was one of the founders of the Oxford Region Girtonians.

Oonah Elliott

EPISCOPO. On 12 July 2022, Diana Mary (Fountain) MA (1956 Medical Sciences). After Cambridge Diana went to University College Hospital, London to finish her studies and qualified as a doctor specialising in Ear, Nose and Throat surgery. She met her husband Stef, an RAF officer, in 1965 and moved with him to Lincolnshire and Cyprus. She had two daughters, Joanne and Katy, and on returning to the UK retrained as a psychiatrist. She became a Consultant Psychiatrist in Swindon until her retirement and dedicated her life to the National Health Service. After

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retiring she enjoyed garden design, photography, and arts and crafts (especially quilt-making), and adored being a grandmother to her four grandsons. Diana was one of the founder members of the Wales and the West Girtonian Association. FAZEKAS. On 11 July 2022, Péter Akos (2018 College Staff). Obituary on p. 128. Lizzie Frank

Jenny Gage

FRANK. On 11 May 2023, Anne Elizabeth (Marr) MA (1957 Classics). Following Girton, Lizzie worked for the London County Council before meeting and marrying Alec Frank. They moved to Sussex and started a family. Later she became an English teacher and librarian at Worthing Sixth Form College. She made several lifelong friends at Girton and very much enjoyed regular weekends back in Cambridge and at the College for alumni events. Later, in her 70s, she resumed learning her beloved Greek, taking classes from an old Girtonian, which she described as ‘challenging and great fun.’ Throughout her life, she maintained a great love of the classics and attributed much of that to Girton. GAGE. On 10 September 2022, Jennifer Anne (formerly Mrs Crockford) MA (1969 Natural Sciences and Theology). After Girton Jenny began study at Regent’s Park College, Oxford as a Baptist lay preacher. She then married, and brought up four children. When her first marriage ended she obtained a PGCE and embarked on a career in maths teaching, leading to her appointment to the Millennium Maths Project of Cambridge University and doctoral research at the Open

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University. In 2001 she and her second husband Andrew Evans moved to Ely, where she was ordained in 2010. Jenny then served in several rural parishes. She became Minor Canon for Social Justice at Ely Cathedral, tackling modern slavery in fenland agriculture and working on environmental issues at both local and national level. In 2019 she was appointed Bishop’s Officer for Self-Supporting Ministry in the diocese, and published further doctoral research on the topic. She loved the Anglican choral tradition and singing with the Ely Octagon Singers, and at the time of her death, aged 71, was planning a book on the theology of self-supporting ministry. She is survived by Andrew, her four children and three grandchildren. GRANT. In 2022, Elizabeth Lois (Belton) MA (1946 History). GUNN. In December 2021, Chit Wha (To’ Puan Lau-Gunn) MA LLB (1948 Law). Chit Wha grew up in colonial Malaya and became a committed and passionate lawyer, breaking glass ceilings in politics and law. At Girton she was close friends with Kwa Geok Choo, a Queen’s Scholar and fellow law student, who enjoyed the delicious food which Chit Wha cooked for her and Lee Kuan Yew, the future Prime Minister of Singapore, then a student at Fitzwilliam College. After Girton, Chit Wha returned home, and two years later, in 1952, was called to the bar, becoming the first of only four female barristers in Malaya. She was also the first female lawyer to join Bannon & Bailey in Kuala Lumpur and in 1954 was elected as municipal councillor for Kuala Lumpur’s Petaling Ward as the Malayan Chinese Association’s candidate.

News coverage of her success focussed on her appearance rather than her abilities, but ‘I never let societal prejudices about women put me down’ she wrote later. ‘I did not then and I do not now, either.’ In 1958 she married civil engineer Lau Foo Sun and the following year she became the only female State Councillor in Selangor. The couple had three children, Ruby, Paul and Andrew. In 2020 Chit Wha published Waves of Independence: Memoirs of a Malaysian Doyenne, a straight-talking autobiography. She loved travel, especially to France, and gourmet food and wine. GUTKIND. On 3 October 2022, Annerose Lore Barbara MA (1944 Modern and Medieval Languages). HALLE. On 9 December 2019, Frances Mary (Saunders) BA (1940 Natural Sciences). Born in 1921, Frances qualified as a GP in 1946 at Sheffield University following her pre-clinical studies at Girton, and just days before the introduction of the NHS in July 1948 began to work with her husband Hugh, as partners in a practice on the Manor Estate in Sheffield, which they ran for the next 39 years. She was a JP from 1966 to 1991, and when she retired aged 64 she became an area visitor for the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund. She remained active into her late 80s, walking in the Lake District, and, predeceased by her husband of 72 years, leaves behind three children, seven grandchildren and eight great–grandchildren. HAWKES. In November 2019, Françoise Madeleine Odette (Rousseau) PhD (1963 Natural Sciences).

HARINGTON. On 17 November 2022, Margaret Jane BA (1949 Modern and Medieval Languages). Margaret trained as a librarian at University College London and after posts at the Royal Statistical Society and National Institute of Economic and Social Research, she became Librarian of the Royal Academy of Music from 1966 to her retirement in 1986. This was a perfect fit for such an accomplished amateur musician, and she subsequently published guidance on conservatoire librarianship. She was an LRMA in organ performance and was assistant organist to Martindale Sidwell at Hampstead Parish Church for many years. She supported her ageing parents, and studied Greek, Russian, Arabic and botany during this time. In retirement she undertook meticulously planned journeys by rail in Europe, India and on the Trans-Siberian railway. When she moved to a cottage in a Wiltshire village on retirement, she continued to play the organ, and directed the village children’s church choir, sang in choirs in Salisbury, walked, gardened, read, spun, dyed and knitted. Margaret remained independent until a stroke a few months before her death aged 91, and leaves behind six nieces and nephews, ten great-nieces and -nephews and a great-great-niece.

Margaret Harington

HARRIS. On 23 December 2022, Rosemary Ann (Barry) MA (1952 History). HAWORTH. On 29 September 2021, Sybil Catherine MA (1958 Natural Sciences). HEESOM. In January 2023, Jill Sheila (Foulkes) BA (1960 History; 1963 Research Student). Jill married Alan three months after graduating, and later moved with him to Durham where he

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worked for the University. After bringing up two children, she worked for several years in the clothing and fashion industry, before a dramatic change into IT, and the training of young adults who had for various reasons dropped out of mainstream education. So much in demand were her skills that after retirement she was retained as an IT consultant for several years by the company for whom she had worked. She died in January 2023, after a long illness. Nicole Hopkirk

©Anne Crabbe, Girton People

Derek Hubbard

HERBERT. On 31 August 2022, Audrey (Sandham) MA (1954 Natural Sciences). HERRIDGE. On 2 March 2023, Georgina Gaye (Chopping; formerly Mrs Bromage) MA VetMB (1975 Veterinary Sciences). After Girton, Gina, who was born into a farming family, practised in the USA and the UK, and worked in surgeries in Yateley, Crowthorne, Wigan and Yeovil. She wrote Llamas and Alpacas: A Guide to Management (2006), a leading reference book for those keeping camelids. She was also a prominent figure in the training of advanced motorcycle-riding skills in Somerset and beyond, retiring in 2018. She died with her husband Peter and her children Jenny (Jennifer Bromage, 2005), Stevie, Bruce and Frankie at her side. HILLYARD. On 3 January 2023, June (1990 College Staff). June Hillyard worked for Girton for ten years as a college porter at Wolfson Court, from 1990 until her retirement aged 65 in early 2000. She absolutely loved her time at Wolfson, and appreciated being invited back each Christmas to the Mistress’s party, even though she was

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never able to come to any events for she had left Cambridge to live in Jersey and then Edinburgh with family. HOLLAND. On 5 August 2022, Susan Anne Maxwell (Telling) MA (1958 Modern and Medieval Languages). HOPKIRK. On 27 March 2021, Nicole Monique (Jaeger) BA (1960 Natural Sciences). Nicole was Swiss, though she was brought up in England. Following Girton, in 1966 she married and started a family. Nicole was always an intellectually curious person, showing interest in many topics which she loved to discuss in depth. Her family meant everything to her, and she always took time to listen to her children and grandchildren. Later in life, she returned to being a physicist and worked at EMPA (the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research for Industry, Construction and Commerce). Her last few years were impacted by Alzheimer’s Disease. HUBBARD. In 2023, Derek (1976 College Staff). Derek Hubbard joined the College as Assistant Boilerman in 1976 and within three years was promoted to Head Houseman, a post he held until his retirement in 2000. He had arrived from London in 1975 having previously worked as both electrician and plumber. He and his wife June lived in the College grounds throughout their time on the staff and both were characters well known to generations of Girtonians. A keen cricketer, he was always asked to play in Dr Marks’s annual match against the University Women’s team whose home ground Girton then was. Before the establishment of more precisely

focused departments he and his staff had wide-ranging responsibility for the maintenance, running and presentation of the College. These ranged from linen distribution, waste collection, room set-ups, furniture repair, heating and painting to maintaining the swimming pool and the terrifying weekly ‘rubbish burning’. Derek brought to all these tasks great energy and willingness provided that they accorded with his views, but when they did not he could take brief but dramatic issue with the Steward or the Domestic Bursar of the time. Nevertheless he was, through and through, a College man and a great supporter of its senior and junior members. With wry acceptance the work always got done. HUGHES. On 6 November 2020, Janet Elizabeth (Mrs Earl) MA (1964 Natural Sciences). KEDDIE. On 18 July 2022, Nell Georgina MA (1958 English and Anglo-Saxon). Nell Keddie was an outstanding adult education teacher and later Director of the Diploma in Adult and Continuing Education at Birkbeck College. While working as an English teacher after Girton she studied for an MA in the Sociology of Education at the Institute of Education in 1970. It was not long before she became famous, at least in radical education circles, for her dissertation. This was published as ‘Classroom Knowledge’, a chapter in Knowledge and Control: New Directions for the Sociology of Education (Macmillan, 1971), which was used extensively for the first Open University BEd for serving teachers. It revolutionised the way many teachers and educationalists saw schools and their curriculum. This was not just because

of the exciting new theory she drew on but because, unlike much ‘radical theory’ of the time, it was grounded in her acute account of what it was like to be a secondary school pupil. Nell followed this with an equally influential book, Tinker, Tailor: The Myth of Cultural Deprivation (Penguin, 1978). Nell was appointed to a lectureship in Sociology at Goldsmiths’ College, and subsequently developed pedagogical approaches for adults who had been failed by their schooling but had decided to return to formal education.

Nell Keddie

KHAW. On 15 November 2022, Kok-Tee BChir MB MA (1973 Medical Sciences). LOWE. On 10 July 2022, Emma (2004 History). After graduating in 2007, Emma continued her study of history, completing a Master’s at Manchester University. She then studied law and began her legal career at Clifford Chance in London and Dubai. Emma never left behind her enjoyment of history, nor her affection for Girton, attending the 150th birthday celebrations with her former Girton history colleagues and friends (by whom she is very sorely missed) in 2019.

Emma Lowe

MALLISON. On 9 October 2022, Juliette (Hallowes) MA VetMB MRCVS (1965 Medical Sciences). Obituary on p. 129. MILKMAN. On 28 August 2022, Marianne (Friedenthal) MA (1949 Natural Sciences). Marianne’s passions were nature and social justice. Born in Berlin, she and her Jewish family were forced to flee to England in 1939 and she grew up in St Albans. After Girton,

Marianne Milkman

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Dora Nash

Marianne became a biology teacher, earning a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the University of Michigan, where she met her husband, Roger, a young biology professor. They settled in Syracuse, NY, where they raised their four children until moving to Iowa City in 1968. Marianne and Roger were deeply involved in politics, working first on civil rights issues in the 1960s and then for the rest of their lives on local and national campaigns. In Iowa City, Marianne led the effort to build the city’s first bike path and she was a city planner for 25 years, before retiring with Roger to Woods Hole, MA, their summer home for many years in the 1960s and 70s. In retirement, Marianne served on the local planning committee, and loved bird watching, hiking in the Canadian Rockies, reading poetry and literature, listening to all kinds of music and composing songs. She moved to Washington DC in 2007 and is survived by her children and six grandchildren. MOWBRAY. On 9 January 2023, Sheila Myfanwy (Bell) BA (1948 Natural Sciences). NASH. On 12 September 2022, Dorothy Anne (Craven) MA (1973 Archaeology and Anthropology). After Girton Dora took a PGCE and then taught RE in a number of schools, most notably at the Oratory School, near Reading. There she helped to develop the Catholic syllabus for GCSE Religious Studies, for which she was the Principal Examiner, and wrote a Key Stage 3 coursebook about John Henry Newman, Out of the Shadows. Dora was much involved in work for the wider Catholic community as a pastoral volunteer, counsellor, lecturer and national speaker on

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family and life issues. She wrote the popular confirmation preparation coursebook Confirmed in the Faith, and the Jesus Comes to Me coursebook for First Communion and First Confession, both widely used in Catholic parishes throughout the country. Dora loved playing the piano and singing, camping, hill-walking, sailing the Norfolk Broads and travel abroad, especially to Italy. She is survived by her husband, and their four children and nine grandchildren. OATES. On 3 February 2023, Joan Louise (Lines) PhD (1950 Research Student; 1971 Fellow, Tutor and Director of Studies in Archaeology and Oriental Studies; 1975 College Lecturer in Archaeology; 1984 Senior Research Fellow; 1995 Life Fellow). Obituary on p. 130. OSTRY. On 7 May 2020, Sylvia (Knelman; formerly Mrs Wiseman) (1950 Research Student). Sylvia came to Girton for a year, in 1950–51, during research for her PhD in Economics at McGill University. After some years of university teaching, in 1964 she moved into the federal public service in Ottawa, first at the Dominion Bureau of Statistics (1964–69), and then as Director for the Economic Council of Canada (1969–72). In 1972 she became the first (and so far only) female Chief Statistician of Canada; and then later the first female deputy minister (Permanent Secretary) in the Canadian federal government (Department of Consumer and Corporate Affairs, 1975–78). She was then made chairman of the Economic Council of Canada (1978–79). In 1980 Sylvia was appointed head of the Department of Economics and Statistics at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. Returning to Ottawa in 1984, she was appointed Canada’s

diplomatic representative in multinational trade negotiations. In 1987 she was recognised by an Outstanding Achievement Award, the highest award for federal public servants. She was made a companion of the Order of Canada in 1990, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1991. Sylvia is survived by her two sons, Adam and Jonathan. PATON-WILLIAMS. On 1 January 2023, Margaret Jill (Harris) BA (1947 Mathematics). PELLOW. On 9 December 2021, Jill Winifred (Capewell) MA (1954 Geography). PERRATON. In May 2023, Jonathan Russell MA (1982 Economics). Jonathan (son of Jean Perraton (Warner 1955)) graduated in economics and gained a doctorate in economics from Nottingham University in 1993. After working as a research officer at the Open University on Globalisation and the Advanced Industrial State, he became Baring Fellow in Political Economy at the University of Sheffield in 1995, and later Senior Lecturer. He published widely in macroeconomics, international economics and globalisation, with a specific interest in the processes of economic globalisation and their policy consequences. Tributes from former students emphasise how much they valued his caring support and enjoyed his lectures, which helped them to understand economic theories in an interesting and engaging way. PLUMMER. On 28 December 2022, Barbara Ann (Lobb) MA (1953 History). After graduating, Barbara worked for IBM until

1962. She married Malcolm in 1958 and had a daughter and two sons. Barbara was a magistrate for many years and led a full and positive life as an active member of her church and the local community. She continued to find joy in learning and had wide-ranging interests which kept her mind active. Barbara was a great support not just to her family but also to her many friends. Her life was well lived and she was well loved. POOLE. On 4 March 2023, Elaine Margaret (Beanland; formerly Mrs Tofield) MA (1966 History).

Jonathan Perraton

PRESTWICH. On 17 June 2019, Beryl Heather (Plaisted) BA (1949 Modern and Medieval Languages). PYM. On 31 March 2023, Mary MA (1949 Classics). Mary retained her scholarship and love of Latin and Greek throughout her life: she was still teaching New Testament Greek to a small group when in her eighties. Mary taught Classics at St Paul’s Girls’ School in London, at Camden High School for Girls and Nottingham High School for Girls. She also taught religious education at Nailsea School in Bristol and Cirencester Deer Park School. In retirement Mary qualified as a counsellor and completed a degree at Cheltenham School of Fine Art. RADZINOWICZ. On 15 March 2023, Mary Ann (Nevins) MA (1957 Pfeiffer Research Fellow; 1960 College Research Fellow and College Lecturer; 1963 Official Fellow; 1965 Postgraduate Tutor (Arts); 1966 Librarian; 1973 Director of Studies in English). Obituary on p. 134.

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Esmé Robbins

ROBBINS. On 31 December 2022, Esmé Muriel Anne (Murray) MA (1945 Geography). Esmé followed Girton with eleven years’ work as a town planner for Northumberland and Somerset County Councils, and in 1958 she married fellow town planner, Kenneth. She was also an associate member of the Institute of Town Planners. While bringing up her son, Esmé became a part-time home tutor and then a geography teacher at Sidcot School in Winscombe. A very proud Girtonian, Esmé had been a member of the University Ladies’ Boat Club and received a blue for her role of coxswain in the eight in 1946–48. Her rudder and photos of the winning crews still have pride of place in her family’s lounge. She was delighted to return to Cambridge to graduate at last in 1998 having been a ‘titular’ holder of her degree up until then. ROGERS. In 2023, Jane Patricia (Wait) BA (1954 Archaeology and Anthropology).

Lou Scott-Joynt

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RUDLING. In October 2022, Larraine (Jones; formerly Mrs Muller) BEd (1972 Education). Larry became a geography teacher in Lancashire before switching to adult education, first in Leicestershire and then in Devon. Despite a diagnosis of MS in her late 20s, she became head of adult education for the Totnes area, and set up Bishopsteignton House near Teignmouth, a residential adult education centre. Returning to Devon County Council, she established an ‘access to the arts’ course aimed at helping adults into higher education. In 1987 she married Laurie Rudling, and on her retirement they moved to Norfolk where – aided by her mobility scooter and sticks – she enjoyed

concerts, theatre, restaurants, galleries and birdwatching, as well as travel abroad. SCOTT-JOYNT. On 2 April 2022, Mary Louise (White) BA (1961 Classics). Lou followed Girton with a PGCE in London, and later an MA in Counselling from Keele University. In 1965 she married Michael ScottJoynt (King’s College, 1961), and with great energy combined parish (later diocesan) duties with family (three children and four grandchildren), and her work as counsellor, supervisor and local Chair of Relate. Lou was always a keen singer: at Girton in Chapel Choir and CUMS, latterly with Waynflete Singers in Winchester, which was her favourite place, and to which she returned to live happily for the final years of her life. SECRETT. On 10 February 2022, Beryl Olive (Attrill) (1947 Natural Sciences). SOMERSCALES. On 17 June 2023, Gillian Rowena (Bromley) MA (1976 English). Gillian worked for a range of publishers, then had a successful career as a freelance copyeditor, working on books by a wide range of authors including well-known politicians and academics. She ran the London Marathon and played many roles in local drama groups. SMITH. On 27 January 2023, Jean Margaret (Knowles) (1978 College Staff). Obituary on p. 136. SMITH. On 6 March 2023, Jennifer Pamela (Black) MA (1982 Archaeology and Anthropology).

SMITH. On 21 February 2023, Shirley Elizabeth (Jenkins) MA (1961 Classics). SWANN. On 3 February 2022, Lorna (Fisher) MA (1967 Modern Languages). After Girton, Lorna pursued a career in teaching and taught at various schools across the south-east. She had two daughters and nine grandchildren to whom she was devoted. Lorna was a keen church florist and artist and completed portraits of her entire family. which are proudly displayed in her daughter’s home. TALALAY. On 24 August 2022, Pamela Judith (Samuels) BA PhD (1947 Natural Sciences; 1950 Research Student). Pamela met husband Paul in the lab while working on her PhD and after marrying in 1953, she followed him, first to Chicago and then to Baltimore in 1963, where she took up work as an editor at medical publisher Williams & Wilkins. From the late 1970s she held various positions in the Johns Hopkins University Biology Department and the School of Medicine’s Neurology Department until retirement in 2007. She was a pioneer in the field of scientific editing and taught a popular postgraduate course in science writing. Former colleagues remember the hours she spent helping to refine their texts for publication, as well as applying her very considerable skills to grant applications which brought in millions of dollars for projects at the University. She was also a contributing editor of Cardiac Arrest: The Science and Practice of Resuscitation Medicine, still considered the definitive reference book on the subject. Pamela was on the board of the Maryland Ballet Company and the Shriver Hall

Concert series at Johns Hopkins University, and a volunteer reader for the blind. A keen cook and gardener, and longtime member of the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, she never lost her English accent, despite living in the USA for nearly seven decades. She is survived by her four children and four grandchildren. THORNTON. On 22 January 2023, Annette (Gazeley) MA (1960 Classics). TOWLE. On 1 December 2022, Joan Evelyn (Barbour) MA (1950 History). Joan died aged 91, after a full – and fulfilling – life. After Girton, she went on to further studies at the London School of Economics, then became a youth worker. In 1956 she joined the Metropolitan Police. Leaving as a sergeant after marrying, Joan moved to Cornwall. She was widowed in 1975 and, whilst bringing up two daughters, dedicated many hours to voluntary work for community and charity causes including the Pre-School Playgroup Association, YMCA, Relate, the local Hospice and more. She was head governor for a local school and served on the Council’s Standards committee as well being a magistrate for 31 years. Joan served as national vice-chair for Cruse, the bereavement charity, and was instrumental in setting up the Cornwall branch. In 2002 she was awarded an MBE for service to the community.

Joan Towle

UNMACK. On 5 February 2023, Eleanor Gillian (Tait) MA (1958 Classics). VELDMAN. On 25 January 2023, Sheila Kay (White) BA (1948 Archaeology and Anthropology).

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Barbara Way

WARREN. On 29 May 2022, Sheelagh Ardill MA (1946 English). Sheelagh joined Gayaza High School, near Kampala, in 1957, initially to teach English and Religious Education, later becoming a Housemistress. Gayaza is the oldest girls’ school in Uganda, founded in 1905. In 1972 she became the school’s Headmistress and retired in 1990 back to the UK. She is remembered with fondness and respect by generations of her former pupils. WAY. On 3 February 2023, Barbara Jane (Whitehead) MA (1962 Geography). After teacher training at Bristol, Jane taught 11–18 Geography at Marlborough Grammar School, Wiltshire. During this early phase she also built on her undergraduate research on water meadows, publishing papers on Dorset meadows and research for the Nature Conservancy on North Meadow, Cricklade. The latter was completed during a term’s sabbatical as a Schoolmistress Fellow at Girton in 1973. She moved back to Cambridge permanently in 1979 to take up the post of Head of Geography at the Perse School for Girls, later adding responsibility for careers guidance. She was a long-serving Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a member of the Geographical Association and a staunch and active supporter of the Cambridge and District Geographical Association. A late marriage in 2001 to Tony, a geographical ex-colleague, was followed by (slightly) early retirement in 2002. This was spent happily keeping in touch with friends, church activities and making occasional forays to many locations around Britain and the world.

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WIGGLESWORTH. On 24 September 2022, Ann Rosemary (Livesey) BA (1958 Natural Sciences). A woman of deep faith, Ann taught before having a family and when husband Chris took up a water-management post with the Church of Scotland in India in 1967, the family went too. There, Ann set up the Montessori school in Jalna, Maharashtra, and when they moved to Bombay, she volunteered with Apnalya, a charity supporting slumdwellers. They came back to Scotland in 1979 and Ann returned to teaching. She established the first Fairtrade shop in Aberdeen, for which she was named the city’s Woman of the Year in 1986. Another move, this time to Edinburgh, saw Ann continuing to teach and volunteer, including with the Asian Women’s Support Network NKS and, after retirement, the Citizen’s Advice Bureau (for 20 years) and Hadeel, a nonprofit Fairtrade Palestinian craft shop. Ann was a great host, social campaigner, creative spirit and bundle of energy. Chris sadly died at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 but Ann’s legacy lives on in their children – Judith, Karen, Sara and John – and five grandchildren. WILSON. On 8 January 2023, Constance Anne MA (1945 Classics; 2005 Barbara Bodichon Fellow). Obituary on p. 137. WITTER. On 11 January 2023, Tania Judy Ingram (Lock) MA (1955 History). WITTMAN. In November 2022, Patricia Hilton (Curry) BA (1954 Natural Sciences). Obituary on p. 139.

If you would like to notify us of the death of a friend or relation who attended Girton, please contact the Development Office on alumni@girton.cam.ac.uk.

Peter Sparks

WRIGHT. On 9 March 2023, Rachel Lulu Elizabeth Ronike (Coker) MA (1958 Modern and Medieval Languages). Lulu served as Vice-Principal of the Annie Walsh Lulu Wright Memorial School in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in the early 1960s, and was Head of the Modern Languages Department at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, from 1986 to 1994. She was also Chair of the Board of Directors of the Ballanta Academy of Music. Lulu was subsequently made a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques in recognition of her services to French language and education. One of the first two black African women to obtain a degree from Cambridge, Lulu always spoke fondly of her time at Girton and is survived by her daughter Lynette, her son Dennis and four grandchildren – including Johari Adjei, who graduated from Girton in 2019.

Wild flower mini-meadow in the new Sensory Garden

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Obituaries HEDVA BEN-ISRAEL (1925– 2023) Hedva Ben-Israel, professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJ) and one of the foremost scholars of modern nationalism, died on 12 May 2023, after a long illness she had faced with grace and courage. A prolific scholar and lecturer, and a generous teacher and mentor, her table, always laden with elegant and abundant fare, regularly witnessed warm and vibrant conversation among friends, colleagues and visiting scholars. She was also the beloved mother of three sons, Oren, Dan and Irad, and the proud grandmother of 10 adored grandchildren. Born in Jerusalem in 1925 to a family of Zionist intellectuals, Hedva earned an MA under Richard Koebner at HUJ. She interrupted her studies to serve as a soldier in the British Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1945 – 46 and in the Haganah in 1947– 48 during the siege of Jerusalem and in Haifa and eastern Galilee as a company commander. When she returned to civilian life, she taught history for a year at HUJ. Hedva was then awarded a British Council scholarship to pursue a PhD at Girton College. Sir Herbert Butterfield advised her thesis, which was published as English Historians on the French Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 1968). Hedva cherished these years in England, where she taught Hebrew for the Cambridge University Jewish Society, gave talks in Hebrew over the BBC, made numerous friends and became an enthusiastic fan of old British films and television serials.

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Upon her return to Israel, Hedva began a 37-year tenure at HUJ until her retirement in 1994. Beginning in 1976, she held the Ben-Eliezer Chair for the Study of National Movements, and between 1980 and 1984 she served as head of HUJ’s history department. She was also a visiting professor at Tel Aviv and Haifa Universities and abroad at Trinity College, Connecticut; the University of California, Los Angeles; and the University of Munich. In addition, she was granted fellowships at the National Humanities Center in North Carolina (1985–86); the Unit for the History of Ideas in Canberra, Australia (1989); and HUJ’s Institute for Advanced Studies (2004). In 2000, Hedva joined the team writing and editing the history of HUJ. Her chapter on the Mandate period, documenting the institution’s numerous contributions to the Palestine economy and educational system, and to medical sciences, acutely analysed the variety of political opinions among its faculty, staff and students and the role of its famous chancellor and later president Judah Magnes in the debates over bi-nationalism versus a Jewish state. For almost five decades, Hedva actively participated in the debates over modern nationalism, which had drawn in historians and social scientists seeking to understand its strength and resilience in the late 20th century. Moving beyond a Eurocentric perspective, in numerous lectures, essays, and articles she stressed the contingency and complexity of this phenomenon and its diverse religious, cultural, historical, economic and political contexts from

India to central Europe, and from Ireland to the Western Hemisphere. With her investigations of the origins of modern nationalism, Hedva affirmed the enduring heritage of ancient groups who, conscious of their separate identity, had resisted foreign control and carried the memory of their homeland into exile. Another signal contribution was her critique of the rigid distinction between civic and ethnic nationalism, insisting on their coexistence in all modern nation states. And as one of the few Israeli historians to place Zionism in a comparative context, Hedva noted the irony that although Theodor Herzl had drawn inspiration for his ideology from European models, aiming to transform the Jews into ‘a people like the other people’, contemporary critics have singled out Israel’s inhabitants for their nationalism. To Hedva Ben-Israel, modern nationalism was a fluid, contingent and enduring historical reality: a fusion of culture and power. In her most striking piece, ‘Nationalism: Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, or Cultural?’ (Australian Journal of Politics and History, 1994), she noted its paradoxical nature: ‘With its feet of clay, stuck in ethnicity and territoriality, with its misguided notions about the natural division of humanity, with its by now obsolete ideal of the totally sovereign nation-state, [nationalism] still represents one of the many attempts by which . . . the human spirit has attempted to rise above itself . . . and recreate . . . a fraternal community.’ Carol Fink (reproduced from ‘Perspectives in History’, American Historical Association, 14 July 2023)

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PÉTER FAZEKAS (1989–2022) Péter was a highly-skilled chef who joined the Girton kitchens in 2018, and quickly became a very popular addition to the team. He and his family had arrived in the UK from Hungary when he was eleven, and settled

in Cambourne. His mother Zsusanna works at Addenbrooke’s and his father Gyorgy works in Asda. Wondering what to do as a career after school, Péter followed his brother David, also a chef, into the catering trade. He worked every section in the kitchens but specialised in fine dining. As a colleague Péter was quick-witted, honest and one of my closest friends. He had an immense thirst for knowledge, was a DIY whizz and had a fantastic sense of humour. He was always on the lookout for his friends and very kind. In February 2020, this gentle giant decided on a change of direction. He bought a beat-up 12m VanHool long-distance coach to convert into a giant mobile home, and planned to move in it to Spain with his partner Zsanett and little daughter Emily, both of whom he adored. Péter had spent time planning every stage of that bus, this was the dream! During the lockdowns, Péter spent his time with his family and working on the bus, parked in his driveway. But in 2021 he fell ill. When he was diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer at such a young age it was a huge shock for everyone. He began treatment and it looked as if he might have a couple of years left to enjoy his Spanish dream, but it was not to be. Péter and Zsanett married in hospital in May 2022, and he died at the Arthur Rank Hospice in July. Throughout his final illness he was brave, uncomplaining and graceful and he is very much missed by his own family and all of us at Girton. Lalena Walkley, Social Hub/Bar Manager

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JULIETTE MALLISON (1946 –1922) My friend Juliette Hallowes, as she then was, studied Natural Sciences at Girton from 1965 to 1968. She remained in Cambridge for the clinical vet course and was awarded the VetMB and MRCVS in 1971 and took her MA in 1972. She practised as a vet both in the UK and, after her marriage in 1974 to Volker Mallison, in Germany, moving to Giessen (where she obtained her doctorate on the reproductive hormone cycle of mares), and then in 1979 they set up home in Göttingen. Juliette and Volker were married for 48 years, and had four children, two boys and two girls: Robert, Peter, Helen and Sylvia. Born in Wiltshire in 1946 and educated in both England and Germany (where her father was stationed as an army officer), Juliette was a pony club stalwart and accomplished horsewoman in her own right before she came up to Girton and made the brave choice to specialise in equine veterinary science. That was not an obvious choice at the time in the profession. Women vets were expected to specialise in much smaller animals. But specialise in horses she did, over fifty years of a distinguished but mentally and physically demanding career, during which she demonstrated outstanding courage and personal resilience. As well as running a busy practice of her own, she acted with determination to improve a particular sport, namely Endurance Riding, across the world. As its name suggests, this involves long-distance riding with competitors being obliged to complete up to 160 km riding

in a single day. This is a remarkable feat for both horse and rider and involves substantial training. Horses can easily be ridden in a manner detrimental to their welfare, and so the rules require there to be judges and vets throughout the course. Juliette was both of those for many years – and an occasional competitor herself, travelling widely. She was for 16 years President of the Association of German Endurance Riders, and its Chief Veterinarian.

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Juliette was perhaps best known in the equestrian world for her campaign for fair and clean competition. In 2005 she wrote an explosive open letter to the international governing body of equestrian sports, the FEI, to tighten up Endurance Riding rules in the interests of the horses’ welfare. It was fitting that someone with her personal inner strength chose to support so tough a sport. She wrote to her friends in 2014, ‘the recent developments in international Endurance Riding competitions especially on rides in the Middle East [are] horrendous as they want to win at all costs, the welfare of the horse is secondary… the situation as regards doping, injured horses and corruption must be changed, we’ll make sure about that.’ Because of safety concerns, the United Arab Emirates have been repeatedly banned since then from competing in international competitions by the FEI because of safety concerns. German teams are still not permitted to compete in the UAE.

In what were to be her final years Juliette suffered from cancer. She put up a fierce resistance. She had worked in a local hospice as a volunteer for many years and did not give up when she became ill herself. She also continued to work for Endurance Riding until near the end. When she felt time was getting short, she and her husband bravely came to England and visited their friends, almost as if nothing had changed. Ultimately the cancer cruelly overcame her. Throughout all the changing scenes of life, in trouble and in joy (to use the words of the hymn), she quietly demonstrated her profound values. During her University career, Juliette was a good friend to many and gave many her support. She played her part in College Chapel and founded the Cambridge University Riding Club. She will be remembered and admired by fellow Girtonians for her warmth and generosity of spirit, her humility, her devotion to the welfare of others and her passionate determination, in spite of obstacles, to use her knowledge and skill by example and action to make the world a better place.

When Juliette moved to Germany, she quickly became part of community life but retained her British customs and values – though only the merest trace of an accent when speaking German. She was much respected for being British and so was a great ambassador for the UK among those she met. In August 1989, personal tragedy struck. Her elder daughter Helen, then aged eight years, died in a hiking accident in Scotland while Juliette had remained at their holiday home to look after her younger sister, Sylvia. This tragedy was understandably a lasting source of intense sadness to her and the whole family.

Lady Arden of Heswall, Honorary Fellow

DR JOAN OATES FBA (1928 –2023) Joan Louise Lines was born on 6 May 1928 in Watertown, upstate New York to Harold Lines, a businessman, and his wife Beatrice, a teacher. After attending Nottingham High School in Syracuse, NY and graduating with a degree in Chemistry and Social Anthropology from Syracuse University in 1950, Joan arrived at Girton as a Fulbright Scholar, at a time when the USA–UK postgraduate exchange scheme was still in its

Graeme Barker

infancy. She used this opportunity to travel widely, and not only in the UK. Still to settle on her PhD thesis topic, Joan spent her first year working under the supervision of Dorothy Garrod (1892–1968), Cambridge’s first female professor, whom she greatly liked. However, she discovered that her real interest was in neolithic rather than palaeolithic archaeology. Accordingly, Garrod referred her to Max Mallowan (1904 –1978), professor of Western Asiatic Archaeology at University College, London, who encouraged her to visit the British School of Archaeology in Baghdad, where he was Director, so that she could have a base from which to study the collections of the Iraq Museum. The British School was based

in a house in the diplomatic district of Karradet Mariam, which contained an extensive library, a guest house, and the Director’s residence. From there, Mallowan spent long excavation seasons at Nimrud each spring, living under canvas with his wife, Agatha Christie, who assisted with cleaning and recording finds and helped to fund his digs. Joan joined the excavation team, becoming firm friends with the couple. She would accompany Agatha on her shopping trips to the suq for rugs, copper bowls and antique furniture inlaid with mother of pearl to furnish the house on the banks of the Tigris, and she would barter in Arabic.

Joan in Shanidar Cave in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2011

Joan later found herself immortalised as the bright-eyed, red-headed Sally Finch in Christie’s

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1955 Poirot novel Hickory Dickory Dock: an American student in London on a Fulbright Scholarship, who is shrewd, practical and observant, and studying at ‘the Institute’ (presumably UCL’s Institute of Archaeology). Mallowan soon invited Joan (‘the cynosure of every young archaeologist’s eye’, he later reported) to travel with his party to Nimrud via Mosul, bumping along the rough roads of the Nineveh plain in buses carrying with them their bedrolls wrapped in colourful jajims from the suq, which doubled as quilts, and which they slept under snugly during the freezing nights, after stiflingly hot days. Agatha ensured that the team were fed extremely well, even on digs, somehow arranging for the field cooks to produce such delights as hot chocolate soufflés topped with thick water buffalo cream, well remembered by Joan in old age… as were the taxis which Agatha arranged for her and others when the bus suspension proved to be too much. In later life, Joan described this area as ‘an extraordinarily beautiful place… on a clear spring day one could see on the horizon the high, snow-covered mountains of Kurdistan, and herds of gazelle still roamed the fields below the Tell – truly a landscape of great interest.’ She greatly regretted the loss in the twenty-first century of the mounds of wild tulips, poppies, irises and anemones which had covered the fields at Nimrud in the 1950s. Joan was awarded her doctorate in 1954, and she returned to the USA, where she served as Assistant Curator in the Department of Near Eastern Antiquities at the Metropolitan

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Museum of Art, New York, from 1954 to 1956, while continuing to spend time with the Mallowans at Nimrud each year. She combined this with learning Akkadian (the language of ancient Mesopotamia with its cuneiform script) at Yale. It was during this time that she met David Oates (b. 1927), a young archaeology fellow of Trinity College and a regular on the dig team from the spring of 1955. They married, and made a home in Barton village, just outside Cambridge, dividing their time between there and Iraq. In the early years of their marriage Joan and David excavated the Hellenistic levels of Nimrud together, as well as the Roman remains and Sassanian camp at Ain Sinu, near Sinjar, and at Choga Mami, her first sole-directed excavation. In 1959, twins arrived – Jenny (who sadly predeceased her mother) and Tom – and in 1961, Susan. After a short spell in Istanbul, David became field director under Mallowan at Nimrud from 1958 to 1962, and then joint director of the British School back in Baghdad from 1964. Joan described this period of her life as that of a ‘dutiful wife’, but she was much more than that. During the late 1950s and the 1960s she spent her time in the field drawing what she called ‘the boring stuff’, namely potsherds, in between caring for the children, and in the process became by stealth the foremost expert in the world on the main artefacts used to date the sites and identify the ancient inhabitants of upper Mesopotamia. Her knowledge of MiddleEastern ceramics, whose fragments littered the ground at the Oateses’ main site at Tell Al-Rimah in Iraq, was unrivalled. Obtaining research funding was an ever-present problem, and so it

must have helped a little that Joan was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship in 1966– 67. Days off in the field during that idyllic period were spent picnicking in Kurdistan, snorkelling, painting and watching the glittering bee-eaters and rollers of the region as they flew overhead. But ‘if you want a hot bath every night,’ she advised, ‘don’t become an archaeologist’. Then, with the outbreak of the Six-Day War in 1967, Joan and her family faced real danger. Warned by the British authorities to leave, they turned down an Embassy request to head up a convoy out of the country, and instead stayed put, reassured by Iraqi cultural contacts and friendly neighbours who brought them strawberries – a rare fruit – as a gesture of peace. A year later, though, the public executions which followed the Baath party coup led by Saddam Hussein forced Joan and David to rethink when decapitated heads and bodies went on display in a square near their home, ‘and we had to make detours so the children wouldn’t see them’. They returned to Cambridge in haste, wondering when they would ever be able to make it back. Joan had loved her ‘extraordinary life’ in Iraq in the 1950s and 1960s, and in a lecture given in 2013 at the British Institute for Iraq at its London base, she made clear what a privilege it had been to dig at Nimrud; she much regretted that newer generations would not have that experience. In 1969 David, still at Trinity, was made Director of the Institute of Archaeology in London, like Max Mallowan before him, while in 1971 Joan, at the age of 43, was happily appointed to Girton as an Official Fellow, Tutor and

Director of Studies in both Oriental Studies and Archaeology. By 1976, their attention was turning to Tell Brak (Nagar) in Syria and the couple worked there over fourteen seasons to 1993. Excavations had begun under Mallowan in the late 1930s, but the Oateses made it their own and Joan’s interest in it continued to the end of her active life. Over decades, the excavations at Tell Brak, undertaken with extensive local and overseas teams, revealed it to be one of the earliest urban civilisations in the world, comparable with Ur in lower Mesopotamia. Joan’s research was ground-breaking, both literally and figuratively, as her dating of pottery found at the site enabled her to push its origins back by 1000 years to the late-fourth/early-fifth millennium BCE. She also identified a previously unknown stage in the development of writing, uncovering two clay tablets at Tell Brak using pictographs of animals and numbers. From 1984 to 1989 Joan became a Senior Research Fellow in College to allow her to spend more time in the field, and in 1989 she was finally appointed to a University Lectureship in the History and Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. In 1988 she was a Visiting Scholar at the Smithsonian in Washington DC and in 1991 was awarded the Arents Award by Syracuse University, bestowed only on the most distinguished alumni who have made the most extraordinary achievements in their field. Joan is remembered at Girton as an inspiring teacher and interesting colleague. The Lawrence Room benefited from her gift of a group of eye idols and other objects from pre-war excavations at Tell Brak. Her personal experience of coming to study at Cambridge from outside the UK made her particularly aware of potential problems faced by those from overseas. She was modest about her

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academic achievements, and few were aware of her other life. On Joan’s retirement in 1995, she became a Life Fellow at Girton and a Senior Fellow at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research in the University. This merely gave her more time for Tell Brak and especially for work on its publication. Many of her books were written jointly with David: The Rise of Civilisation (1976), Nimrud: An Assyrian City Revealed (2001), Excavations at Tell al Rimah: the pottery (1997), and most notably Excavations at Tell Brak, volumes I and II (1997 and 2001). Her single-authored Babylon (1979) ran into several editions and was translated into many languages. Her jointly-edited 2002 Festschrift for David’s 75th birthday was wryly entitled Of Pots and Plans: Papers on the Archaeology and History of Mesopotamia and Syria. Her own Festschrift, Preludes to Urbanism: in Honour of Joan Oates, ed. A. McMahon and H. Crawford (2014), arose from an international meeting the editors organised at the McDonald Institute in 2008 to celebrate her 80th birthday (and 57th year in archaeology). In addition, Joan published over 120 academic journal articles and book chapters; and was editor of World Archaeology and executive editor and subsequently Chair of the Board of Directors of Antiquity. Joan was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2004, and ten years later was awarded its Grahame Clark Medal for Prehistoric Archaeology ‘to recognise her reputation as one of the leading authorities on Mesopotamian prehistory as well as her fundamental contributions to our understanding of ancient Near Eastern

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Civilisation’. When David died in 2004 Joan took over as sole Excavation Director at Tell Brak. Her last visit there was aged nearly 84 when she slept as usual under canvas at night, her sharp eyes still casting around for interesting finds or outlines on the hillsides during the day. ’The most important things in my life have all seemed to be just a series of coincidences’, she reflected modestly in 2010, ‘falling on my feet, as it were’. Caroline Shenton, Editor with Dorothy Thompson, Life Fellow

MARY ANN RADZINOWICZ (1925–2023) Mary Ann Nevins Radzinowicz was born in Champaign, Illinois on 18 April 1925. She was the daughter of General Arthur Seymour Nevins, US Army, and of Ann (Stacy) Nevins and was educated at Radcliffe College and Columbia University (having switched from Harvard for her doctoral studies). Her PhD at Columbia focused on Milton and the Cambridge Platonists, and during that time she spent a year at Girton as an overseas research student in 1951–52 pursuing her research. She was first an instructor and then, after completing her doctorate, assistant professor at Vassar for several years before returning to Girton as Pfeiffer Research Fellow in 1957, working on free will and imagination in Milton’s work with special reference to Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes. So began over twenty years of happy association with Girton as College Lecturer and Official Fellow in English, Tutor for postgraduates in the arts, chairman of the

College’s admissions committee from 1969 to 1971, and Director of Studies. She was Librarian from 1966 to 1973. She was also assistant lecturer and then lecturer in the University from 1971 to 1980. In 1980, by which time she was one of the foremost scholars of Milton in the world, Mary Ann returned to the USA to become Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of English Literature at Cornell University. Former students and colleagues recall her wit, intellectual generosity and devotion to the English language, as well as the brilliance of her scholarship. She was Visiting Professor at the University of Virginia and at Yale University; held the Fannie Hurst Visiting Professorship at Washington University at St Louis; and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. She was an Honoured Scholar of the Milton Society of America. Her publications included Toward ‘Samson Agonistes’: The Growth of Milton’s Mind (Princeton University Press, 1978), which received the James Holly Hanford Prize of the Milton Society, and Milton’s Epics and the Book of Psalms (Princeton University Press, 1989). Mary Ann edited Book 8 of Paradise Lost for the Cambridge Milton for Schools and Colleges series and the anthology entitled American Colonial Prose: John Smith to Thomas Jefferson. In 2012, she was honoured with a Festschrift, Milton’s Rival Hermeneutics: ‘Reason Is But Choosing’ (edited by Richard J. DuRocher and Margaret Olofson Thickstun, Duquesne University Press, 2012). Mary Ann married Sir Leon Radzinowicz (19061999), Professor of Criminology at Cambridge, in 1958. They were divorced in 1978. She is

survived by her son, William F. H. Radzinowicz, her daughter, Ann S. Radzinowicz and her three grandchildren, Jack, Arthur and Perdita. She retired to Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare, Ireland, where friends from Girton would visit her home overlooking Galway Bay, and where her father’s military medals were proudly displayed just inside the front door. Bill Radzinowicz

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JEAN SMITH (1932– 2023) Jean was secretary to three Mistresses, as well as to an acting Mistress, over a period of eighteen years. She also acted as secretary to the Registrar of the Roll and was appointed additionally to the new post of College Secretary for her final eight years. Almost every member of College got to know Jean – from

each new undergraduate queuing to meet the Mistress at Matriculation, through to staff and Fellows needing guidance and to the many members of the Roll who communicated directly with her in those days before College had a professional Development Office. Jean steered the Mistress’s Office from handwritten and Gestetner-duplicated documents to early word processing and finally modern computing methods. She patiently instructed each of ‘her’ Mistresses, Brenda Ryman, Mary Warnock and Juliet Campbell, in technological advances as they were adopted. As Juliet Campbell acknowledges, ‘She was much more technologically savvy than me’. Jean was born in Solihull in the West Midlands on 31 March 1932 but lived in London through WWII and came to Cambridge on her marriage to John Smith. John suffered from motor neurone disease and died tragically young, in 1978, leaving Jean with two young children, Kathryn and Andrew. She joined the College later that year as part-time Mistress’s Secretary on the understanding that she could make up her wages through additional typing for any member of the Fellowship. That typing quickly expanded to ‘six to sixty pages needed by tomorrow’ and to considerable exploitation of her ability (far greater than any Fellow’s) with the technicalities of footnoting and layout. Finally, and famously, the ever-expanding demands of one Fellow’s book glossary forced Jean to ask to be relieved of her research-typing duties and she was appointed to the Mistress full time. From then on she also collated and effectively edited the Annual Review.

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All of us who worked with Jean realised that we and our suggestions were unlikely immediately to be appreciated or even accepted. As her son said at her funeral, she was ‘strong, very intelligent…hugely independent [and] sometimes stubborn’, but as Juliet Campbell writes, ‘she was very helpful…and gave unfailingly good advice. She certainly knew her own mind but didn’t put her oar in unless asked.’ It was that ‘unfailingly good advice’ rooted in deep knowledge of Girton and its varied membership that meant that she served the College so well over so many years. Though she might have been slow to admit to it, Jean truly felt herself a Girtonian: a status the College confirmed by appointing her first as an honorary member of the Roll and later as a full member of the Senior Common Room, something she described as ‘a miracle’. Peter Sparks, Life Fellow

C. ANNE WILSON (1928– 2023) Constance Anne Wilson (always known by her middle name) was born on 12 July 1927 in East Gower near Swansea. Her father, Rowland, who fought in the First World War, became Professor and Head of the Mathematics Department at Swansea University. Her mother, Constance (née Laycock), a mathematics graduate of Cambridge University, was forced by law to give up her teaching post when she married in 1925. Anne had a younger sister, Caroline, born eight years after her. In spite of the age gap they remained close throughout their lives.

Although children of this era had their childhood disrupted by the Second World War, Anne succeeded well at Swansea High School for Girls and was an excellent allrounder. Despite her mathematical ability, she developed a particular interest in Greek, Latin and Ancient History and in 1945 gained a place at Girton, her mother’s alma mater, to read Classics. She was awarded an Exhibition for her work in Greek studies at the end of her second year.

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After Cambridge, Anne, in her desire to help others less fortunate, began training as an almoner, but eventually decided this was not for her. She then became secretary to a Genealogical Society and followed this with a secretarial position at the BBC with a presenter of religious programmes. Next she took a twoyear diploma in Archaeology at the London Institute of Archaeology under Sir Mortimer Wheeler and completed this with a Distinction. Her final post in London was with the InterUniversity Council, organising inter-university book loans. She studied in the evenings for her qualification in librarianship, and here one of her specialist choices was Chemistry. Anne finally found her calling when she became a librarian in the Brotherton Library at Leeds University in 1961, working in Special Collections, and she remained there until her retirement in 1992. She was in charge of Classics, Archaeology and Ancient History; later she became the library’s Art and Music specialist as well. Her interest in the history of food was inspired by her experience of cataloguing the collection of 600 early cookery books, donated to the library by Mr John Preston. Her first book, Food and drink in Britain from the Stone Age to recent times, dedicated to her parents, was published in 1973. In this she used facts drawn from the early printed recipe books rather than relying on anecdotes and speculation. She included recipes alongside the factual information. She was one of the earliest food historians to use this approach and greatly helped to establish the discipline. The Book of Marmalade: its antecedents, its

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history and its role in the world today together with a collection of recipes for marmalades and marmalade cookery was published in 1985. It is still much in use as a standard reference book. Water of Life: a history of wine-distilling and spirits 500 BC to AD 2000, which Anne regarded as her magnum opus, was published in 2006. This contained a wide variety of themes, varying from the use of distilling in early religions and in the works of mediaeval medical and scientific writers, to spirituous liquors in commercial manufacture and to their importance in the domestic life of the 16th to 18th centuries in cordials and potions. In addition to her own writing, Anne also edited a number of books, such as The Country House Kitchen Garden (for the National Trust) and A Book of Fruits and Flowers, an early English household book of 1653. Anne’s approach was meticulous and she displayed an impressive knowledge of history over an extensive period. Her books are eminently readable and can be appreciated both by scholars and general readers. Anne founded the Leeds Symposium with help from three food-history colleagues in April 1986. The structure was defined at the outset: there was to be a one-day annual conference dealing with a single topic and solely concerned with food and drink in Britain. The subject of the first symposium was Banquetting Stuffe; this year it is Celebrations. Papers are presented by specialists, but also by a variety of others with different approaches, such as museum curators, experts in food science, fruit growers and butchers. On the lighter side the symposium lunch is a feast provided by

attendees, who make exotic dishes of the period under discussion. Anne greatly enjoyed these meals! The proceedings are published annually, entitled Petits Propos Culinaires and were edited by Anne, who dealt with both authors and publishers. She carried out the major share of organising the whole conference for many years. Eventually the amount of work involved in the process led to a committee being formed and the members are now carrying the torch. Anne had a considerable interest in art, architecture and archaeology of all periods. She visited numerous museums, archaeological sites and historic buildings in this country and abroad. Her travels took her to some of the less-known cities and sites in such countries as Libya, East Turkey and Albania, as well as many others in Europe and the Mediterranean countries. Her interests were furthered by her long-standing membership of the Thoresby Society (historical society concentrated on the Leeds area) and the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society (scientific, literary and artistic lectures). She also had a great love of music. At school she learnt the piano, but later she mastered the clarinet and became a capable performer. She played in amateur orchestras in Leeds very happily for many years. She went to concerts frequently and was a perceptive critic of performances. Anne had a passion for Classics and had derived enormous enjoyment and stimulus from her studies at Girton. As a result she wished to share this benefit with others, so

she started a Travel Fund at the college and followed this with bursaries for Classicists. In 2005 she was awarded a Barbara Bodichon Fellowship in recognition of her support for the College. Caroline Wilson

PATRICIA WITTMANN (1935 –2022) Patricia (Pat) Curry was born in 1935 in Shanghai where her father, an engineer, was posted from Sunderland. This was a tumultuous time, both in China and globally, with fighting between the Japanese and China. Although initially this did not affect her and she had a few happy early years, ultimately the occupying Japanese forces devalued all of the family’s assets and her father had to secure his and the family’s exit with a bribe of sorts involving the ‘gift’ of a set of golf clubs. With only one small suitcase each, Pat and her family embarked on a ship to Maputo (now in Mozambique), as part of a 1,000 civilian prisoner exchange for 1,000 Japanese prisoners. The family then moved to Mumbai, India where they lived out the rest of the war. Returning to Sunderland from Mumbai was a big culture (and weather) shock. However, despite the return having been driven by a desire to ensure that her brother had proper schooling, it was Pat who thrived at the local grammar school. Notwithstanding her father’s strong objections to her, as a woman, continuing into further education, she won a state scholarship to Girton to read medical

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ball programmes and survivors’ photos among her treasured mementos. Following Cambridge she went to Guy’s Hospital, London, qualifying as a doctor and then going on to specialise as an anaesthetist. Consistent with the times, as well as being hard work, including a one-in-one rota for a sixmonth period, it involved one stint at a hospital where she was the only female doctor. During this period, she met her husband Eric (also an anaesthetist: died 2010), marrying in 1964 and ultimately settling in Reigate. With the birth of her three children, David, Susan and Emma, she moved to working part-time for many years, before stopping her work as an anaesthetist. In later life, she engaged in further study in a range of areas (including law). She kept three Afghan hounds, with whom she spent many weekends travelling round the country, competing in Afghan races. She also kept active at the gym, doing t’ai chi and Pilates, and spent many happy hours in her garden. She had a strong belief in independence and sticking up for one’s rights. It spurred her to use her medical and financial knowledge and judgement, to take on the role as the medical member of Disability Tribunals for many years, and to volunteer in debt advisory work at the Citizens’ Advice Bureau.

sciences in 1954. Hers was one of the early cohorts allowed to take exams centrally with the university men, and she was one of only eight female medics in her year. She enjoyed her time at Girton and Cambridge to the full, with many

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She is survived by three children and five grandchildren. Girton always held a special place in her heart, with her son, granddaughter and daughter-in-law also being Girton alumni. David Wittman

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Visitor: The Rt Hon Baroness Hale of Richmond, PC, DBE, MA, Hon FBA, Hon LLD, Hon FRCPsych Mistress: Dr Elisabeth C Kendall, MA, DPhil (Oxon), PhD, Hon DLitt (Glasgow)

Fellows and Officers of the College, June 2023 Honorary Fellows Professor Anita Desai, CBE, BA (Delhi), FRSL The Rt Hon the Lord Mackay of Clashfern, KT, PC, Hon LLD, FRSE

Dr Margaret H Bent, CBE, MA, MusB, PhD, Hon DMus (Glasgow), Hon DFA (Notre Dame), Dr hon c (Montreal), FBA, FSA, FRHistS Dame Elizabeth L A Forgan, DBE, BA (Oxon), Hon FBA

HM Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, Hon LLD

Professor Dame Frances M Ashcroft, DBE, MA, PhD, ScD, FRS

Miss E Llewellyn-Smith, CB, MA

Professor Dame Athene Donald, DBE, MA, PhD, FRS

Dame Bridget Ogilvie, DBE, AC, PhD, ScD, FIBiol, FRCPath, FMedSci, FRS, Hon DSc (Nottingham, Glasgow, Bristol, Dublin, Durham, Kent, ICL, Leicester, Manchester, St Andrews)

The Rt Hon Dame Elizabeth Gloster, PC, DBE, MA

Professor Dame Gillian Beer, DBE, MA, LittD, BLitt (Oxon), Hon DLitt (Liverpool, Leicester, London, Sorbonne, Queen’s Belfast, Oxon, Harvard, St Andrews), FBA, FRSL The Rt Revd David Conner, KCVO, MA

Professor Dame Madeleine J Atkins, DBE, MA, PGCE, PhD Professor Dame Sarah M Springman, DBE, MA, PhD, FREng, FICE Ms Daphne Todd, OBE, Hon PhD (De Montfort) HIH Hisako, The Princess Takamado of Japan, MA, PhD, Hon LLD (Alberta, Prince Edward Island), Hon EdD (Hannam), Hon PhD (Josai)

The Rt Hon Lady Arden, PC, DBE, MA, LLM, LLM (Harvard), Hon LLD (Liverpool, Warwick, Royal Holloway, Nottingham, UCL)

Professor Dame Pratibha Gai, DBE, BSc, MSc, PhD, FRS, HonFRMS, FRSC, FREng

The Rt Hon Baroness Perry of Southwark, MA, Hon LLD (Bath, Aberdeen), Hon DLitt (Sussex, South Bank, City), Hon DEd (Wolverhampton), Hon DUniv (Surrey), Hon DLitt Hum (Mercy College NY), FRSA

HE Dame Karen E Pierce, DCMG, MA, MSc

Dame Rosalyn Higgins, GBE, LLB, MA, Hon LLD, Hon DCL (Oxon), Hon LLD (LSE), FBA

Ms Sandra B Toksvig, OBE, MA, Hon DLitt (Portsmouth, York St John, Surrey, Westminster, Leicester) Dr Suzannah C Lishman, CBE, MA, BChir, MB, Hon FRCPI, Hon DSc (Swansea)

Dame Ann Bowtell, DCB, MA, PhD (London)

Barbara Bodichon Foundation Fellows

Professor Dusa McDuff, BSc (Edinburgh), PhD, FRS, Hon DSc (Edinburgh, York, Strasbourg)

Mrs Sally Alderson, MA

Dame Ruth Runciman, DBE, BA (Wits), BA The Rt Hon Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean, PC, MA Lady English, MA, MB, BChir, MRCP, FRCPsych Ms J Rachel Lomax, MA, MSc (London)

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Mrs Margaret Llewellyn, OBE, MA Mrs Veronica Wootten, MBE, MA Dr Margaret A Branthwaite, BA, MD, FFARCS, FRCP Dr Ruth Whaley, BA, MA, PhD (Harvard) Miss Sarah C Holt, MA

Mr Colin S Grassie, MA

Richard J Evans, MA, PhD, MRCVS, Life Fellow

Mr Leif O Høegh, MA, MBA

Alastair J Reid, MA, PhD, Life Fellow

Ms Gladys Li, MA

Sarah Kay, MA, DPhil (Oxon), LittD, FBA, Life Fellow Howard P Hodson, MA, PhD, FREng, Life Fellow

Fellows

Peter C J Sparks, MA, DipArch, RIBA, Life Fellow

Enid A C MacRobbie, MA, PhD (Edinburgh), ScD, FRS, Life Fellow

Dorothy J Thompson, MA, PhD, Hon DLitt (Liverpool), FBA, Life Fellow Melveena C McKendrick, MA, PhD, LittD, FBA, Life Fellow Nancy J Lane Perham, OBE, MA, PhD, ScD, MSc (Dalhousie), DPhil (Oxon), Hon LLD (Dalhousie), Hon ScD (Salford, Sheffield Hallam, Oxford Brookes, Surrey, Heriot Watt), Life Fellow Gillian Jondorf, MA, PhD, Life Fellow Jill Mann, MA, PhD, FBA, Life Fellow Ruth M Williams, MA, PhD (London), ScD, Life Fellow Julia M Riley, MA, PhD, Life Fellow A Marilyn Strathern, DBE, MA, PhD, Hon DLitt (Oxon, St Andrews, ANU), Hon ScD (Edinburgh, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Durham), Hon Doctorate (Panteion), Hon DPhil (Papua New Guinea), Hon DSocSci (Queen’s Belfast, Yale, KCL), Hon LLD (Harvard), FBA, Life Fellow and Former Mistress

Stephanie Palmer, LLB (Adelaide), SJD (Harvard), LLM (Harvard), Official Fellow and Director of Studies in Law Frances Gandy, MA, MCLIP, Life Fellow

Christopher J B Ford, MA, PhD, Professorial Fellow (Physics)

Charity A Hopkins, OBE, MA, LLB, Life Fellow W James Simpson, BA (Melbourne), MPhil (Oxon), PhD, Life Fellow Anne Fernihough, MA, PhD, Life Fellow Angela C Roberts, PhD, FMedSci, Professorial Fellow (Behavioural Neurosciences)

Hugh R Shercliff, MA, PhD, Official Fellow and Director of Studies in Engineering

Martin W Ennis, MA, PhD, FRCO, KRP (Organ; Köln), KRP (Harpsichord; Köln), Austin and Hope Pilkington Official Fellow, Director of Studies in Music and Director of College Music

John L Hendry, MA, MSc (London), PhD (London), Life Fellow

Roland E Randall, MA, MSc (McGill), PhD, FCIEEM, Life Fellow

Jochen H Runde, BCom (Wits), BCom (Hons) (Wits), MCom (Wits), MPhil, PhD, Professorial Fellow (Economics)

Martin D Brand, MA, BSc (Manchester), PhD (Bristol), Life Fellow

Dennis Barden, MA, PhD, Life Fellow

John E Davies, MA, BSc, PhD (Monash), Life Fellow David N Dumville, MA, PhD (Edinburgh), Life Fellow

Andrew R Jefferies, MA, VetMB, FRCPath, MRCVS, Life Fellow Juliet J D’A Campbell, CMG, MA, Life Fellow and Former Mistress

*Abigail L Fowden, MA, PhD, ScD, Life Fellow

Peter H Abrahams, MBBS, FRCS (Edinburgh), FRCR, DO (Hon), Life Fellow

Juliet A S Dusinberre, MA, PhD (Warwick), Life Fellow

Deborah Lowther, MA, ACA, Life Fellow

Thomas Sherwood, MA, MB, BS (London), FRCR, FRCP, Life Fellow

Clive Lawson, MA, PhD, Frank Wilkinson Official Fellow and Director of Studies in Economics

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Julian D Slater, PhD, BVMS (Edinburgh), Supernumerary Fellow (Veterinary Medicine)

*3 Benjamin J Griffin, MA, PhD, Official Fellow and Director of Studies in History

A Mark Savill, MA, PhD, FRAeS, Life Fellow

S-P Gopal Madabhushi, PhD, FICE, Professorial Fellow and Director of Studies in Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering

Mia Gray, MA, BA (San Diego), MRCP (Berkeley), PhD (Rutgers), Supernumerary Fellow (Geography)

Ruth M L Warren, MA, MD, FRCP, FRCR, Life Fellow Alexandra M Fulton, BSc, PhD (Edinburgh), Official Fellow (Biological Sciences) Maureen J Hackett, BA, MA (Southampton), Official Fellow and Junior Bursar Crispin H W Barnes, BSc, PhD (London), Professorial Fellow (Physics)

Judith A Drinkwater, MA, Official Fellow, Tutor and Director of Studies in Linguistics, Modern and Medieval Languages, and History and Modern Languages

Fiona J Cooke, MA, BM, BCh (Oxon), PhD (London), MSc, FRCP, FRCPath, DTM&H, SFHEA, Official Fellow (Medicine) and Dean of Discipline Ross Lawther, MA, PhD, Olga Taussky Official Fellow and Director of Studies in Mathematics

Karen L Lee, MA, Supernumerary Fellow (Law)

Stuart A Scott, MA, PhD, Official Fellow and Director of Studies in Chemical Engineering

Stelios Tofaris, MA, PhD, Official Fellow and Director of Studies in Law

6 Liliana Janik, MPhil (Toruń), PhD, Official Fellow, Tutor for Postgraduates and Director of Studies in Archaeology

Samantha K Williams, BA (Lancaster), MSc, PhD, Official Fellow and Director of Studies in History and Politics

Susan J Smith, BA, MA, DPhil (Oxon), PhD, FAcSS, FBA, FRSE, Life Fellow and Former Mistress Nik Cunniffe, MA, MPhil, MSc (Bath), PhD, Official Fellow and Director of Studies in Biological Sciences

Edward J Briscoe, BA (Lancaster), MPhil, PhD, Supernumerary Fellow (Computer Science)

K M Veronica Bennett, MA, BSc (Leicester), PhD (CNAA), Life Fellow

*3 Harriet D Allen, MA, MSc (Calgary), PhD, Official Fellow, Tutor and Director of Studies in Geography, and Education

Helen A Van Noorden, BA, PhD, Wrigley Official Fellow and Director of Studies in Classics

*11 Shaun D Fitzgerald, OBE, MA, PhD, FREng, Official Fellow and Director of Studies in Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering

Stephen Robertson, MA, MSc (City), PhD (London), Life Fellow The Revd A Malcolm Guite, MA, PhD (Durham), Life Fellow Stuart Davis, MA, BA, MPhil, PhD (Birmingham), Jean Sybil Dannatt Official Fellow, Deputy Senior Tutor, Tutor for Admissions, Foundation Year Tutor and Director of Studies in Modern and Medieval Languages, and History and Modern Languages

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Katherine Hughes, BSc, BVSc (Liverpool), MRCVS, PhD, Dip ACVP, FRCVS, Non-Stipendiary Fellow (Veterinary Medicine)

Amy R Donovan, MA, MPhil, MSc (UCL), PhD, Official Fellow, Tutor and Director of Studies in Geography Alexander G S C Liu, MA, MEarthSci (Oxon), DPhil (Oxon), Christine McKie Official Fellow in Natural Sciences

Morag A Hunter, MA, PhD, Official Fellow, Tutor for Admissions, Tutor and Director of Studies in Physical Sciences

Heidi Radke, DVM (LMU Munich), DrVetMed (Zurich), FRCVS, Supernumerary Fellow (Veterinary Medicine)

*Emma J L Weisblatt, BA, MB, BCh, MRCP, MRCPsych, PhD, Official Fellow, Tutor and Director of Studies in Psychological and Behavioural Sciences

*Sophia M I Shellard von Weikersthal, BSc, PhD (Freiburg), Official Fellow, Tutor for Postgraduates and Director of Studies in Medicine

Henrik Latter, BA, BSc, MSc (Sydney), PhD, Bertha Jeffreys Official Fellow in Applied Mathematics

Matthew J Allen, MA, VetMB, PhD, Professorial Fellow and Director of Studies in Veterinary Medicine

James Wade, BA (Boise State), MA (York), PhD, Jane Elizabeth Martin Official Fellow, Director of Studies in English and Fellow for Postdoctoral Affairs R James E Riley, BA (Lancaster), MA (Lancaster), PhD, Muriel Bradbrook Official Fellow, Director of Studies in English and Fellow for Postgraduate Affairs *9 Simone Maghenzani, MA, BA (Turin), MA (Turin), PhD (Turin), Marilyn Strathern Official Fellow, Director of Studies in History and Praelector Samuel D Grimshaw, MEng, PhD, Mitsubishi Senior Research Fellow and Director of Studies in Engineering Arik Kershenbaum, MA, PhD (Haifa), ScD, FZSL, Official Fellow, Tutor and Director of Studies in Biological Sciences Deborah J Easlick, BA (Bristol), Official Fellow and Development Director Andrew C Irvine, BSc, PhD (Sussex), MA, Official Fellow and Director of Studies in Physical Science

Sebastian L D Falk, BA (Oxon), PGCE (Buckingham), PhD, Official Fellow in the History and Philosophy of Science, Tutor for Admissions, Tutor and Foundation Year Director of Studies

Aaron Hornkohl, BA (Biola), MA, PhD (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Official Fellow, Tutor and Director of Studies in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Claire E White, MA, PhD, Brenda Stacey Official Fellow and Director of Studies in Modern and Medieval Languages, and History and Modern Languages Shona Wilson Stark, LLB, LLM (Aberdeen), PhD, Official Fellow (Law) *Jenny K Blackhurst, MA (St Andrews), MA (UCL), MCLIP, Official Fellow and Librarian Carolina C Alves, MA, BSc (UNESP), MSc (UNICAMP), PhD (SOAS), Supernumerary Fellow (Economics) *Hilary F Marlow, BA (Manchester), BA (KCL), PhD, Official Fellow and Vice-Mistress, Tutor for Postgraduates and Director of Studies in Theology, Religion and Philosophy of Religion Diana Fusco, BPhys (Milan), MPhys (Milan), PhD (Duke), Official Fellow (Physics) and Tutor for Postgraduates

The Revd Charles J M Bell, MA (Durham), MA, PhD, MB, BChir, John Marks Official Fellow, Director of Studies in Medicine and Praelector Anna J Nickerson, MA, PhD, Katherine Jex-Blake Research Fellow in English David R M Arvidsson-Shukur, BSc (Durham), MASt, PhD, Official Fellow and Tutor *James S Anderson, MA, MA (Oxon), Official Fellow and Bursar Emma C Brownlee, BA, MA (Sheffield), PhD, Ottilie Hancock Research Fellow in Archaeology Collin M Constantine, BSc (Guyana), MSc (SOAS), PhD (Kingston), Official Fellow (Economics) Thomas C Hawker-Dawson, MA, MPhil, Brenda Hale Official Fellow and Director of Studies in Law Sally L Ricketts, BSc (Loughborough), PhD (Manchester), Official Fellow and Tutor for Postgraduates

Stéphanie M Swarbreck, BSc (Nantes), MSc (Nantes), PhD (Lancaster), Janet Harker Official Fellow in Biological Sciences Matthew R J Neal, MA, PhD, Official Fellow, Tutor and Director of Studies in History and Politics

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William E V Barker, MSc, PhD, Rosamund Chambers Research Fellow in Astrophysics

Kathryn J Burton, MB, BChir, MRCP, MD, FRCPH, Director of Studies in Clinical Medicine

*15 Simon N Fairclough, MA, Official Fellow for Music Performance

Stephen A Cummins, BSc (Durham), PhD (Durham), Director of Studies in Computer Science

John A Tadross, BSc, PhD, MBBS (Imperial), FRCPath, Official Fellow and Director of Studies in Medicine

Marieke I Dhont, BA, MA (KU, Leuven), PhD (KU, Leuven/UC, Louvain), Foundation Year Bye-Fellow

Marta Gentilucci, MMus (Conservatorio ‘F. Morlacchi’, Perugia), MA (Perugia), MA (HMDK, Stuttgart), PUK (Vienna), PhD (Harvard), Official Fellow for Music Composition

Jacob M R Currie, BA (Toronto), MPhil, PhD, Official Fellow (Classics)

Gail A Williams, BA (Oxon), PhD (Newcastle), Official Fellow and Senior Tutor

Sarah L Fawcett, BA, BM, BCh (Oxon), MRCS, FRCR, PhD (Medicine and Veterinary Medicine)

James C White, BA, MSt, DPhil (Oxon), Oschinsky Research Fellow

Stefania Fiorentino, BEng, MEng (‘Tor Vergata’, Rome), PhD (UCL), Director of Studies in Land Economy

Evelina R Gambino, BA (Goldsmiths), MA (Goldsmiths), MA (Nottingham), PhD (UCL), Margaret Tyler Research Fellow in Geography

Jonathan P Fuld, MB, ChB (Sheffield), PhD (Glasgow), FRCP, Director of Studies in Clinical Medicine

Michael J Degani, BA (Florida Atlantic), MA (Florida), PhD (Yale), Juliet Campbell Official Fellow (Social Anthropology) Hannah M Banks, MSci (Imperial), MASt, Henslow Research Fellow in Physics Lucio Sarno, MA (Oxon), BEcon (Salerno), MSc (Liverpool), PhD (Liverpool), Professorial Fellow 1, 12

Alastair J D Flett, BA (York), MA (UCL), Non-Stipendiary Fellow

Bye-Fellows Alice R Bird, MA, VetMB, DipECVAA, MRCVS, Director of Studies in Veterinary Medicine The Revd Timothy R Boniface, BA (Exeter), MA (Nottingham), PhD (Durham), Chaplain Caroline J A Brett, MA, PhD, Director of Studies in AngloSaxon, Norse and Celtic

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The Year

Claudia Domenici, BA (Pisa), MA (Lancaster), Director of Studies in Modern and Medieval Languages, and History and Modern Languages Margaret Faultless, MA, Hon FBC, FTCL, ARCM, Hon RAM (Music), Director of Studies in Music

Marie-Aude A C Genain, MA, DMV (ENVA), MSc (Université Paris-Est), MRCVS, Director of Studies in Veterinary Medicine

Soudabeh Imanikia, BSc (Shiraz), MSc (KCL), PhD (KCL) (Biological Sciences) André J Kortum, BVSC (Bristol), MRCVS, DipECVIM-CA, Director of Studies in Veterinary Medicine John Lawson, BA, PhD, Director of Studies in Politics, International Relations and Sociology, and Psychological and Behavioural Sciences Hugo V Lepage, BSc (McGill), MASt (Toronto), PhD (Physical Sciences) Hazel M Mills, MA, BA (Reading), DPhil (Oxon) Stephen Oppong Peprah, BA (Ghana), MPhil (Ghana), MPhil, PhD (Hradec Králové), Cambridge in Africa Bye-Fellow (Classics) Eleonora Po, DVM (Bologna), MS (Illinois), DipACVIM (LA), MRCVS, Director of Studies in Veterinary Medicine

Shyane Siriwardena, BA (Ottawa), MPhil, PhD, Foundation Year Bye-Fellow and Director of Studies in Philosophy Mark Smith, LLB (Reading), LPC (Law), MBA (Henley), MSc (Henley), Bye-Fellow for Workplace Transition John W Wills, BSc, PhD (Swansea), Bye-Fellow for STEM Career Transition Gareth F Wilson, BMus, MA, PGCert, DipPGPerfRAM, DipRAM, PhD, Director of Chapel Music and Assistant Director of Music Enterprise Fellow Sabesan Sithamparanathan, BEng (Sheffield), MPhil, PhD, FIET, FREng

Visiting Fellows Ain Bailey, BA (Central St Martin’s School of Art and Design), MMus (Goldsmiths), Cavendish Arts-Science Visiting Fellow Jonathan Schneer, BA (McGill), MA (McGill), PhD (Columbia), Helen Cam Visiting Fellow

Sasha Tsenkova, MArch (VIAS, Sofia), PhD (ČVUT, Prague), MA (Sussex), PhD (Toronto), Helen Cam Visiting Fellow Lectrice Ariane Schwartz (Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon) Secretary to Council Caroline Shenton, MA (St Andrews), DPhil (Oxon), PGDipARM (UCL)

External Directors of Studies Richard Jennings, PhD, Director of Studies in Philosophy, and the History and Philosophy of Science

Notes * Member of Council (trustee of the College) 1

University Professor (Grade 12)

University Professor (Grade 11)

University Associate Professor (Grade 10)

University Associate Professor (Grade 9)

University Assistant Professor

University Assistant Director of Research

University Senior Research Associate

University Teaching Associate/Associate Lecturer

Faculty Affiliated Lecturer

Secretary A, Department of Veterinary Medicine

Director of the Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge

Musicians in Residence

J M Keynes Fellow in Financial Economics, Judge Business School

Andrew Kennedy, MA, PGDip (RCM)

Director of Performance, Faculty of Music

Deputy University Librarian

James Pearson, GGSM (Guildhall School of Music)

Director of the Cambridge University Centre for Music Performance

University Senior Proctor

Jeremy West, BA (Durham), Hon FRWCMD

Completing a previous year’s residency disrupted by the pandemic

Natalie C Morningstar, BA (Yale), MPhil, PhD, Director of Studies in Social Anthropology Thomas J Roulet, MA, MSc (Audencia, Nantes), MPhil (Sciences Po, Paris), PhD (HEC, Paris), Director of Studies in Management Studies Frank E Salmon, MA, MA (Courtauld), PhD, LittD, Director of Studies in History of Art Sofia A Singler, MA, MArch (Yale), PhD, Director of Studies in Architecture

Nicholas Mulroy, MA, PGDip (RAM), ARAM

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University and College Awards University of Cambridge Awards Higher Degrees PhD: F Albertani, A Aramburu Villavisencio, C Ascanelli, R Bain, Y-H Chiang, D Georgiou, X Lin, D Maxwell, S M Mesoy, J Piotrowska-Karpov, D A Punin Albarracin, J W E Seah, T Skyrme, V Sokleva, J Tuffnell, E Wang, A Williamson, J-C Yu, F Zhang

MASt: M E Acalapati Madani, A K Dagnino, M Gorman, Y Guo, A M Lopez De Romaña Pancorvo, W Luo, F J Marañón González, A Mukherjee, C Nicholson, T Roberts, J Terentjevas, P Thulasiram, Y Zhang LLM: F Di Lizia, R Ho, J Jain, S Kabra, A Katyal, A G Riksen, D Srivastava, S Stojkovic, T Tandon MEd: C Garton

College Awards College Competitions Barbara Wrigley Prize: E Suckling Hammond Science Communication Prize: K Sin (Judges’ First Prize), J Bray (Judges’ Second Prize), E Onah (Judges’ Third Prize), V Filip (Judges’ Fourth Prize), R Mukhopadhyay (Abstract Prize), K Sin (Pathology Prize), E Onah (Audience Prize)

MRes: R Meng, O K Tomlinson MPhil: E Absalom, V Baktash, J D Barnreuther, S Berger, A J Breare, A Chandrawat, T Coibon, M K Cymerman, M Dara, A Z Davies, J Davis, M K Debowski, M De La Burgade, I Delikoura, A Dhaliwal, F Erskine, É Grenier-Benoit, J Hartmann, A Hiranandani, G Hodgkins-Brown, A Hoppe, S Horsfield, H Huang, N Ichoku, H M Jacob, J Jia, C S Jones, C J Kellmanson, R C Kelly, A M Knabe, W H Kok, P-Y Kuo, E E Latham Jones, M B Lawson, X C Li, A Lim, Y Liu, Y Ma, N Mazzucato, A McKimm, B Meredith, M Muyingo, Y Naqvi, Ð Ogrizović, R Omenetto Arcella, H O’Neill, V Panagiotaropoulou, A Pandey, C-Y Peng, S Perelmuter, L E Phillips, N Pillai, A Pregnall, D Priddy, J Reid, B Samingpai, J J Schoser, L Selle Arocha, Q Shen, A Shivakumar, D Teng, U Toeipomthong, O Walding, Yanqing Wang, Yicheng Wang, H L A Wong, X Yang, H Yusuf, W Zhang

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MB: C D H Bullock, A Chen, A Malik, P Patel, R Rashid, J Q Teh MBA: J Bianco Bekenn, C Tang MFin: A C Caceres Cruzado, J M Patel Prizes for Academic Excellence Cavendish Laboratory MASt Prize, for best overall performance in the MASt: A Dagnino 1 Chancery Lane Prize in Law of Tort (Faculty of Law): A Tuck-Bridge Members’ Classical Essay Prize (Faculty of Classics): Z Copeland-Greene

Humanities Writing Prize: Lara Orlandi (First Prize), Miranda Black (Second Prize), Rosetta Millar (Third Prize), Denis Morine and Oliver Laxton (Highly Commended) Jane Martin Poetry Prize: Warren Mortimer (First Prize), Olivia Tuck (Second Prize) Mountford Humanities and Arts Communication Prize: J Robinson and S Alert (Judges’ Prize – Joint), J Robinson and S Alert (Lawrence Room Prize – Joint), H Cao (Audience Prize), H Cao (Abstract Prize) Ridding Reading Prize: S White Rima Alamuddin Prize: A Rivers

Part III Armourers and Brasiers Medal and Prize (Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy): T Williamson

Tom Mansfield Memorial Prize: A Rivers and E Scott (joint winners)

William Vaughan Lewis Prize (Department of Geography): H Goolnik

MCR Postgraduate Communications Awards: Z Coady, D Folayan, M Graczyk

Jack Rich

Academic Awards Postgraduate Research Awards A Gurney Scholarship and Rhona Beare Scholarship: A Bastianelli Anne and Caroline Wilson Scholarship: E Nott Chan and Mok Scholarship: C Y Fu, H L Kwan Doris Russell Scholarship: R Jamieson Elizabeth Stribling Award: P Desikan G M Gardner: D Salmoiraghi Irene Hallinan Scholarship and Ruth Whaley Scholarship: S Lieblein Maria Luisa de Sanchez Scholarship and M T Meyer: A Maris Natera M Lambrinudi Scholarship and J E Cairnes Scholarship: E Watson M T Meyer: J Davies Pamela Thayer Scholarship: P Savery Pfeiffer Scholarship: Z Huang Rosalie Crawford: R Armitage Rosalie Crawford, Diana Worzala Award: R Demchuk The Girton Singapore Scholarship: C C Hsu Partner-Funded Postgraduate Research Awards Cambridge Opportunity Master’s & Rosalie Crawford Girton Studentship: C Hammenga, A Widdicombe, R Williams Cambridge Trust and Hong Kong Girton Studentship: S Y Ng

Jack Rich with his Part III research poster at the International Congress of Plant Pathology in Lyon, August 2023. Jack’s attendance there was funded by a College Travel Award, and success in his finals was recognised with a John Bowyer Buckley Scholarship

Cambridge Trust and Joyce Biddle Girton Studentship: T Crean Cambridge Trust and Rosalie Crawford Girton Studentship: J Naish Chemistry Department, Cambridge Trust & Singapore Studentship: B Choy ESRC DTP Studentship and Rosalie Crawford Girton Studentship: K Piccin NIAB, Cambridge Trust and Rosalie Crawford Girton Studentship: A Damm OOC AHRC DTP & Pamela Thayer Girton Studentship: J Gautron Rowan Williams Cambridge and Rosalie Crawford Girton Studentship: D Romero, I Vlasiuk Vice-Chancellor’s and Rosalie Crawford Girton PhD Studentship: E Campbell-Rowntree Postgraduate Scholarships Angela Dunn-Gardner (Law): R Ho, S Kabra, D Srivastava, T Tandon Florence Ethel Gwyn: T Runciman (History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine)

Henry Tomkinson: H Xin (Finance and Economics) John Bower Buckley (Medicine): M Margetts, M Pandiaraja, P Patel, R Rashid M T Meyer (Mathematics): E Acalapati, Y Guo, J Pérez Zarraonandia, J Terentjevas, R Thakkar Rosalind, Lady Carlisle: J Schoser (Scientific Computing), Q Shen (Archaeology), Y Shen (Education) Russell Gurney: Y Cohen-Shah (World History) Sir Arthur Arnold: A Dagnino (Physics) Finalist Scholarships Alice Violet Jenkinson (Natural Sciences (Physical)): J Brabin, S Dodgson, M Gaiser-Porter, J Humphries, T Niu, J Tall, T Williamson Angela Dunn-Gardner: J Punshon-Smith (Psychological and Behavioural Sciences) Barbara Bodichon: J Hawkes (Land Economy)

The Year

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The Year

Kane Smith

Izzy Porter, captain of the CURUFC Women’s Second Team (the Tigers) and recipient of a College Sports Award, in action

Florence Ethel Gwyn (History): K Proctor, S Rayner Jean Hunter (Modern and Medieval Languages): S Kennedy, E Pymer John Bowyer Buckley (Natural Sciences (Biological)): P Boonyuen, P Desikan, S M Ng, J Rich, B Tan Mary Graham (Natural Sciences (Physical)): R Azhar, P Dimitrov, T Lack Mary Higgins: E Bulut (Law) Mary Sparke (Economics): W Gilchrist, A Lee, N Testa M T Meyer (Mathematics): J Gibbon, D Miller, M Mrugala, T Pietrzycki Russell Gurney (History): E Callaghan, J Coffey, G Cooper Friedlos Sir Arthur Arnold: J Bray (English), H Goolnik (Geography), A Mielniczek (English) Sir Francis Goldsmid: K Calver (Chemical Engineering), R Marques Monteiro (Engineering), E Suresh (Engineering) Sophia Turle (Music): A Rivers, J Wardhaugh Todd Memorial: D Bui (Medieval and Modern Languages) William Menzies (Classics): A Bastianelli, T Bullivant, Z Copeland-Greene, E Nott Finalist Prizes Senior College Prizes The Thérèse Montefiore, Laurie Hart and Tutors’ Prizes will be announced in the next issue.

Director of Studies Prize for Outstanding Achievement: N Wittmann (Veterinary Science) First class Prizes (Finalists ranked in the top 25% of the First class) Janet Chamberlain: H Goolnik (Geography) Mary Arden: E Bulut (Law) Achievement Awards (Finalists ranked in the top 10% of the Upper Second class) Christina Barnard: G Jackson (Management Studies), A Parr (Architecture) Marion Bidder: M Perry (Natural Sciences (Biological)) Ming Yang Lee: S Sivakumar (Natural Sciences (Biological)) Thomas & Elizabeth Walton: O Swann (Law) Undergraduate Scholarships Angela Dunn-Gardner: M Cespa (Chemical Engineering), C Chen (Psychology and Behavioural Sciences) Barbara Bodichon: Z He (Engineering) Edith Lydia Johns: M Mak (Medicine) Emily Davies: V Filip (Engineering), H Shahrestani (Engineering), T Treutenaere (Engineering) Henry Tomkinson: K Shah (Engineering) Jane Agnes Chessar: A McLeod (Classics) Jean Hunter (Modern and Medieval Languages): F Stott John Bowyer Buckley: O Aneju (Medicine),

G Bernardi (Natural Sciences), M Budd (Natural Sciences), A Corlett (Medicine), A Davies (Natural Sciences), N Go (Medicine), M Hartley (Veterinary), P Jackson (Natural Sciences), Z McGuire (Natural Sciences), S Murphy (Veterinary), S Nayak (Medicine), C Ramsay (Natural Sciences), J Werner (Natural Sciences), N Wittmann (Veterinary), H Zhang (Natural Sciences) Lilias Sophia Ashworth Hallett: P Jiang (Manufacturing Engineering), J Slimmon (Manufacturing Engineering) Maria Degani (Italian): L Howes (Medieval and Modern Languages) Mary Gurney (Classics): J Hitchcock Mary Higgins: A Tuck-Bridge (Law) Mary Sparke (Economics): A Mukherjee, M Wright, X Zhang M T Meyer (Mathematics): C Clarke, J Hickingbotham, D Macartney, T Mehta, M Nicholson, A Pietraszkiewicz, L Wilkinson Rosalind, Lady Carlisle: W Matthews (Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic) Russell Gurney: M Averof (HSPS), I Hill (History) Sir Arthur Arnold: M Crawford (English), A Upshall (English) Sophia Turle 1914 (Music): E Clare-Hunt Sophia Turle 1924: F di Castiglione (Theology, Religion and Philosophy of Religion) Undergraduate Prizes First class Prizes (Undergraduate examination candidates

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The Year

Jeremy Feng

Jeremy Feng and Matias Silva on day seven of their long-distance trek traversing northern Corsica via the GR20, Europe’s most difficult and remote hiking trail. They successfully applied for a Charlotte Rycroft Award, which the College offers students for ‘adventurous travel’

ranked in the top 25% of the First class) Anita Banerji (Economics): X Zhang Appleton Cup: N Go (Medicine) Charlton Award (English): M Crawford Eileen Alexander (English): A Upshall J.V. Robinson (Economics): A Mukherjee Lilian Knowles: M Wright (Economics) Leslie Hall (Veterinary Medicine): N Wittmann Marion Bidder (Natural Sciences (Biological)): A Davies Satyanarayana Madabhushi (Engineering): K Shah Thomas & Elizabeth Walton: N Go (Medicine) Achievement Awards (Undergraduate examination candidates ranked in the top 10% of the Second class) T Cross-Zamirski, A Letchford (Mathematics) Raemakers: T Downey (Engineering) Ellen Delf-Smith: S Miccolis (Natural Sciences) Layla Adib: W Royce (Natural Sciences) Phyllis Tillyard: S Williams (Computer Science) Music Awards College Music Scholarship: L Armitage (trumpet) London Girton Association Award: A Rivers (oboe) Daphne Bird Instrumental Awards: I Chan (cello), E Clare-Hunt (trumpet), C Howdle (violin), G Kennedy (piano),

D Sandell (horn), E Scott (violin), A Titcombe (piano) Organ Scholarships: G Kennedy, B Nolan Siem Prize: E Clare-Hunt University Choral Awards: I Benson, G Burford, E Clare-Hunt, C Falls, M Lowe, H Mauldridge, C Ramsay, J Robinson, D Sandell, M Scrivener, S Vasieva University Instrumental Awards: L Armitage, V Baycroft, C Howdle Travel Awards Adela Marion Adam Grant: J Brabin, C Ramsay, A Rivers, E Scott Charlotte Rycroft: D Bacon, J Feng, F McMullan, M Wang Almeida e Silva College Travel Scholarship: J Brabin, C Ramsay Dorothy Chadwick Travel Prize: O Gibson-Watt Dorothy Tempest: S Brierley, J Gibbon Edith Helen Major: E Carden, E Hall, E Honey Eileen Ellenbogen: K Proctor E M and F A Kirkpatrick: J Whiteley E M Pooley: D Bui J K Brightwell: K N A Lee, S Murray, J Rich Judith Eccleshare: G Bernardi, W Gilchrist, A Perrins K J Baker: C Forrest Marina Shakich: R Marques Monteiro, R Rix, N Wittmann Mary Morrison: R Conley, Z McGuire, S Morrison Monica Wilson: M Averof Ruth Morgan Awards: O Gibson-Watt, S Kennedy, K McGreevey, J Whiteley

Sheila Spire: A Bastianelli, E Hain, A McLeod, I Shulman Sidney and Marguerite Cody Travel Award (Postgraduates): E Bashova, K Dreesbeimdiek, S Kabra, G Kim, A H Y Liu, L Luengo Gutierrez, D Salmoiraghi, M-A Spencer, M Sun Sports Awards Archery: R Dolan Athletics: J Dempsey, A Dray Basketball (Men’s): L Howes Cricket: U Modhwadia Eton Fives: S L Yuen Football (Men’s): J Hickingbotham, R Linney Hockey: E Sparrow Korfball: N Casstles Modern Pentathlon: L Steele Pentathlon: T Collis Polo: C Wade Rugby League (Men’s): T Green, E Hall, L Tedesco Rugby Union (Women’s): I Porter Swimming: V Baycroft, K W Go, C Manley Tennis: D Bacon, E Healy, L Trepanier Triathlon: F A D V McMullan Volleyball: M L Benthanane Khiar Waterpolo: E Honey, A Leeson Named Sports Awards Diana Lees-Jones Award: A Leeson Joan M McGrath Sports Award: T Green, U Modhwadia Robin Sports Award: J Dempsey, A Dray, L Steele

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Appointments of Fellows, Staff and Alumni ARDEN, M (1965; Honorary Fellow) appointed as an Independent Member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, with effect from 13 February 2023; appointed as a Yorke Distinguished Visiting Fellow, at the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, with effect from April 2023.

PEPRAH, S O (2022 Fellow) appointed a 2023 Visiting Fellow at The British Academy.

CLARKE, S (1984) appointed 122nd President of the Royal College of Physicians, only the fourth women to be so in the RCP’s 504-year history, with effect from September 2022.

SHENTON, C (2017 Staff) appointed to the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest, with effect from September 2023.

DIBOSA, D (1986) appointed Director of Research and Interpretation at Tate, with effect from April 2023. EVANS, E (1976) appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wales and University of Wales Trinity Saint David, with effect from September 2023. GLASSBERG, B (2012) appointed Music Director of Volksoper Orchestra, Vienna, with effect from January 2024. LISHMAN, S (1986; Honorary Fellow) appointed President of the Association of Clinical Pathologists, with effect from 2023.

SANDERS, J (1986) appointed Vice-Chancellor and Principal at Royal Holloway, University of London, with effect from October 2022.

TRUSTED, H (1974) appointed Spanish Gallery Collection Research Fellow (Senior Research Fellow) at the Zurbarán Centre, Durham University, with effect from October 2022 to June 2023. TADROSS, J A (2022 Fellow) appointed University Affiliated Assistant Professor at the Department of Clinical Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, 2023. TOKSVIG, S B (1977 Honorary Fellow) appointed the inaugural Qantabrigian Fellowship for 2023–24, by the LGBTQ+ research programme in Cambridge University’s Department of Sociology, October 2023.

Awards and Distinctions BELL, C (1977) awarded Welsh Non-Executive Director of the Year by the Institute of Directors Wales, May 2023. BELL, C J M (2018 Fellow) elected member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (MRCPsych), February 2023.

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BONNER, S (2019) awarded Influencer of the Year at Celebrating You 2023, the Brain Tumour Charity community awards ceremony, April 2023. BROWNLEE, E C (2020 Research Fellow) elected Member of the Internationales Sachsensymposion.

COHEN, T (1993) appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours List, for services to charity and social justice. COLLEY, L J (1975; former Research Fellow) appointed Dame of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2022 Queen’s Birthday Honours List, for an outstanding contribution to history. CONNOR, D J (1995 Honorary Fellow) appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) on relinquishing his appointment as Dean of The King’s Free Chapel of St George at Windsor Castle, Domestic Chaplain, and Register of the Order of the Garter, July 2023. COOKE, F J (1989; 2003 Fellow) elected Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. DE ANGELIS, D (1997) appointed Honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2022 Overseas and International Queen’s Birthday Honours List, for services to medical research.

GOOLNIK, H (2020) awarded Special Recognition in the University of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor’s Social Impact Awards, for his commitment, service dedication and potential for lasting impact in helping coordinate a successful campaign to get the Universal Bus to stop at Girton and Homerton, May 2023. FAULTLESS, M (2010 Bye-Fellow) elected Honorary Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, October 2023. HACKETT, M (1985; 2000 Fellow) winner of the Cambridge Student Union Student-led Teaching Awards: Student Partnership and Empowerment category, May 2023. JANIK, L (2008 Fellow) elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, August 2023. JONES MCVEY, R (2014) awarded a 2022 Early-Career Award by the Wellcome Trust, for Moral Terrains: An Anthropology of Green Social Prescribing. JENKINS, R (McDougall, 1968) appointed Officer of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2023 Overseas and International King’s New Year Honours List for services to mental health policy and research in the UK and overseas. KENDALL, E C (2022 Mistress) awarded Honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) by the University of Glasgow, in recognition of great distinction in the field of Arabic Studies, June 2023. LEWIS, C (1982) awarded the 2023 British Academy Medal (Landscape Archaeology) in recognition of her distinguished accomplishments in landscape archaeology and lasting impact on social sciences, September 2023.

Harry Goolnik receiving his award from the interim Vice-Chancellor, Dr Anthony Freeling

MEYRICK, A (1982) appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours List, for services to education.

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PIRKIS, G (Sugden, 1975) appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours List, for services to literature. SITHAMPARANATHAN, S (2011 Enterprise Fellow) awarded Europe Business Elite’s ‘40 Under 40’ Award as Founder & CEO PervasID Ltd, at the 2023 Business Elite Awards (Europe), June 2023; elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, 2023. STEPHENSON, E (2018) awarded the 2023 Salt Marlowe Poetry Prize by Churchill College, Cambridge, for her poem ‘Tattoo of Me’. SWALLOW, D (1978 Fellow) appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours List, for services to art and education. WHITE, C E (2017 Fellow) highly commended in the Cambridge Student Union Student-led Teaching Awards: Postgraduate Research Supervisor of the Year category, May 2023.

The Mistress, Dr Elisabeth Kendall, Hon DLitt (Glasgow)

WILLIAMS, G A (2022 Senior Tutor and Fellow) awarded Honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) by University College London, in recognition of her outstanding scholarly contribution to her field and inspirational leadership in higher education, September 2023.

Further Academic and Professional Qualifications FORD, A (Prescott, 1978) Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), from King’s College London, August 2022. SCOURSE, J D (1984 Research Fellow) Doctor of Science (ScD), from the University of Cambridge, February 2023. WILSON, G (2015 Bye-Fellow) Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), from King’s College London, June 2022.

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Senior Tutor, Professor Toni Williams, Hon LLD (UCL)

Fellows’ Publications Recent publications by Fellows and Officers of the College include: H BANKS. (Joint) ‘How broad is a neutrino?’, Journal of High Energy Physics 136 (2023). C J M BELL. Light to Those in Darkness: ‘Total Pain’ and the Body of Christ (SCM Press, 2023). E BROWNLEE. ‘Connectivity and funerary change in early medieval Europe’, Antiquity 95(379), (2021), pp. 142–159; ‘Grave goods in early medieval Europe: regional variability and decline’, Internet Archaeology 56 (2021); ‘Bed Burials in Early Medieval Europe’, Medieval Archaeology 66(1) (2022), pp. 1–29. F J COOKE. ‘Infections in people with diabetes’, Medicine 50(11) (2022), pp. 729 –732. N CUNNIFFE. (All joint) ‘How the epidemiology of disease-resistant and disease-tolerant varieties affects grower behaviour’, Journal of the Royal Society Interface 19(195) (2022); ‘How growers make decisions impacts plant disease control’, PLoS Computational Biology 18(8) (2022); ‘Metacommunity dynamics and the detection of species associations in co-occurrence analyses: why patch disturbance matters’, Functional Ecology 36(6) (2022), pp. 1483 –1499; ‘Optimal strategies to protect a subpopulation at risk due to an established epidemic’, Journal of the Royal Society Interface 19(186) (2022). A DONOVAN. ‘Volcanoes and the human and physical geographies of risk’, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Natural Hazard Science (Oxford University, 2022); (joint) ‘Interdisciplinary research in hazards and disaster risk’, Progress in Environmental Geography 2(3) (2023), pp. 202 – 222; (joint) ‘Managing cross-border eruptions: insights from recent crises in Chile and Argentina’, Journal of

Volcanology and Geothermal Research 435 (2023). S FALK. ‘Understanding the length of life: the glosses on Plato of Tivoli’s translation of the Quadripartitum’, SCIAMVS: Sources & Commentaries in Exact Sciences 22 (2022), pp. 195–251. S FITZGERALD. (Joint) ‘Conspiracy spillovers and geoengineering’, iScience 26(3) (2023). J FULD. (All joint) ‘Recommended summary plan for emergency care and treatment: ReSPECT a mixed-methods study’, Health and Social Care Delivery Research 10(40) (2022); ‘Asthma symptoms, spirometry and air pollution exposure in schoolchildren in an informal settlement and an affluent area of Nairobi, Kenya’, Thorax 78(11) (2023), pp. 1181–1125; ‘Vaping and hookah use among medical trainees: a multinational survey study’, American Journal of Preventive Medicine 65(5) (2023), pp. 940–949. E GAMBINO. ‘For other logistical worlds: accretion and infrastructure in the making of Anaklia Port’, Connections, A Journal for Historians and Area Specialists (2022); (joint) ‘Does the future ever come? An infrastructure and its multiple delays’, Tbilisi Architecture Biennial (2022); (joint) ‘A State in a State’, research and script for a film developed with the support of Han Nefkens Foundation – Fundació Antoni Tàpies Video Art Production Grant (film produced 2022); (joint) ‘Infrastructure’, The Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology, ed. F Stein (2023). B GRIFFIN. ‘Parliamentary authority and British political culture in the long nineteenth century’, in Staging Authority: Presentation and Power in Nineteenth-Century Europe. A Handbook, ed. E Giloi, M Kohlrausch, H Lempa, H Mehrkens, P Nielsen and K Rogan (De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2022), pp. 225–258.

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S D GRIMSHAW. (Both joint) ‘Aeroacoustic design and optimisation of an all-electric ducted fan propulsion module for low-noise impact’, 28th AIAA/CEAS Aeroacoustics: 2022 Conference (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2022); ‘Short ducted fan diffusers with integral splitter blades’, Proceedings of ASME Turbo Expo 2023: Turbomachinery Technical Conference and Exposition 13C (American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2023). A KERSHENBAUM. ‘Many ways to say things: what the diversity of animal communication on earth can tell us about the likely nature of alien language’, in Xenolinguistics: Towards a Science of Extraterrestrial Language, ed. D A Vakoch and J Punske (Routledge, 2023); ‘Are we alone in the universe?’, Isolation – Secrets, Solitude, Atoms, ed. D C Gershlick, J Gibson and H K D H Bhadeshia. (Darwin College, 2023); (joint) ‘Combining acoustic localisation and high-resolution land cover classification to study predator vocalisation behaviour’, Wildlife Research 50(12) (2023); (joint) ‘Genetic distance from wolves affects family dogs’ reactions towards howls’, Communications Biology 6(1) (2023). R LAWTHER. ‘Double cosets in F4’, Journal of Algebra 607 (2022), pp. 499 – 530. K L LEE. (Joint editor) International Law Reports: Volumes 200 to 203 (CUP, 2023). J MANN. (Editor and translator) Speculum Stultorum (OUP, 2023). A J NICKERSON. (Joint editor) Walter de la Mare: Critical Appraisals (Liverpool University Press, 2022); ‘Visible Swans: Walter de la Mare and T S Eliot’, in Walter de la Mare: Critical Appraisals (Liverpool University Press, 2022). R J E RILEY. ‘The Waiting Room’, The ISEU Gazetteer 1.1 (2022), pp. 27– 36; ‘Iain Sinclair, William Blake and the

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visionary poetry of the 1960s’, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 98(1), (2022), pp. 75–92. J RUNDE. (Joint) ‘Borrowing from Keynes’ A Treatise on Probability: non-probabilistic measure of uncertainty for scenario planning’, European Management Review (2023), pp. 1–13. L SARNO. (All joint) ‘Foreign exchange volume’, Review of Financial Studies 35(5) (2022), pp. 2386–2427; ‘The cost of foreign-currency lending’, Journal of Banking and Finance 136 (2022); ‘Exchange rates and sovereign risk’, Management Science 68(8) (2022), pp. 5591–5617. S J SMITH. (All joint) ‘Housing affordability and mental health: an analysis of generational change’, Housing Studies 37(10) (2022), pp. 1842–1857; ‘Residential mobility and mental health’, Social Science and Medicine – Population Health 21 (2023); ‘Mental and general health at the edges of owner occupation’, International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis (2023). M STRATHERN. ‘New and old worlds: a perspective from social anthropology’, European Review 29(1) (2021), pp. 34– 44; ‘Pandemic narratives: an anthropological overview’, Balzan Papers 5 (Leo S. Olschki, 2022), pp. 103–115; ‘Negative strategies: an afterword’, I’Homme 243–244 (2022), pp. 189–204; ‘Life-giving and death-dealing powers’, HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 12(3) (2022), pp. 943–946. J A TADROSS. (All joint) ‘HypoMap – a unified single-cell gene expression atlas of the murine hypothalamus’, Nature Metabolism 4(10) (2022), pp. 1402–1419; ‘Recurrent FOSL1 rearrangements in desmoplastic fibroblastoma’, Journal of Pathology 259(2) (2023), pp. 119–124; ‘Identification of an Activating PDGFRA Deletion in a Novel Sinonasal Soft Tissue Neoplasm’, Head and Neck Pathology 17(2) (2023), pp.

University of Cambridge

576 –580; ‘Dax1 modulates ERα-dependent -dependent hypothalamic estrogen sensing in female mice’, Nature Communications 14(1) (2023). H VAN NOORDEN. ‘“Vergil and Homer opened my books”: The Sibylline Oracles and the non-Jewish canon’, Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 32(2) (2022), pp. 167–186; ‘Anti-Roman Sibyl(s)’, in Articulating Resistance under the Roman Empire,, ed. D Jolowicz and J Elsner (Cambridge University Press, 2023), pp. 185–203. J WADE. ‘Entertainments from a medieval minstrel’s repertoire book’, The Review of English Studies 74(316) (2023), pp. 605 – 618. J WHITE. Persian and Arabic Literary Communities in the Seventeenth Century: Migrant Poets Between Arabia, Iran and India (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023). J W WILLS. (All joint) ‘Comprehensive interpretation of in vitro micronucleus test results for 292 chemicals: from hazard identification to risk assessment application’, Archives of Toxicology 96(7) (2022), pp.2067–2085; ‘Insulin expression in β cells is reduced within islets before islet loss in diabetic cats’, Journal of Small Animal Practice 63(11) (2022), pp.809 – 815; ‘Spatial statistics is a comprehensive tool for quantifying cell neighbor relationships and biological processes via tissue image analysis’, Cell Reports Methods 2(11) (2022); ‘Label-free cell segmentation of diverse lymphoid tissues in 2D and 3D’, Cell Reports Methods 3(2) (2023).

Dr James Wade, Jane Elizabeth Martin Fellow in English. James’ article in The Review of English Studies on a fifteenth-century manuscript describing a live comedy performance featuring red herrings, jousting bears and a killer rabbit joke became an internet sensation in May 2023 when it was picked up in the national and international media and broadcast around the world by Monty Python lovers. This stand-up discovery sheds new light on the role played by minstrels in medieval society and changes the way we should think about English comic culture between Chaucer and Shakespeare

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Alumni Publications Publications by Alumni of the College during 2022-23 include:

SCHELLHORN, M (1995). Howells: Piano Music, Vol. 2 (Naxos, 2022).

FORD, A (1978 Prescott). The Significance of Fabrics in the Writings of Elizabeth Gaskell (Routledge, 2022).

SILVER, A J (1986 Fineberg). The Ambrosia Project: A Burton & Lamb Case (Lightning Books, 2022).

GERLEIGNER, G S (2007). ‘“Am Freitag ist das Autodafé…” – Anmerkungen zum Erlanger Archäologieprofessor Georg Lippold in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus’,“So fahre nun zur Hölle!” Die Bücherverbrennung am 12. Mai 1933 in Erlangen, ed. A Jakob, C Link and C Wacther (Stadtarchiv Erlangen, 2023).

TRUSTED, H (1974). Baroque Sculpture in Germany and Central Europe 1600 –1770 (Harvey Miller Publishers, 2022).

GILLIES, M (1982). Piccadilly: The Circus at the Heart of London (Two Roads, 2022).

WANG, E C Y (1986). (All joint) ‘CD200 ectodomain shedding into the tumour microenvironment leads to NK cell dysfunction and apoptosis’, Journal of Clinical Investigation 132(21) (2022); ‘SARS-CoV-2 host-shutoff impacts innate NK cell functions, but antibody-dependent NK activity is strongly activated through non-spike antibodies’, eLife (2022); ‘ADAM17 targeting by human cytomegalovirus remodels the cell surface proteome to simultaneously regulate multiple immune pathways’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120(33) (2023); ‘Combined anti-S1 and anti-S2 antibodies from hybrid immunity elicit potent cross-variant ADCC against SARS-CoV-2’, JCI Insight 8(15) (2023).

HOLDEN, W (1983). The Princess (Welbeck, 2023). MASON, A (1965 Harroway). Nightshade (Cairn Time Press, 2022). OPPONG, C (1959 Slater). Female and Male in West Africa (Routledge, 2023). RICHES, M (1990 Stanton). All the Pretty Ones (Bookouture/ Hachette, 2022); The Silent Dead (Bookouture/Hachette, 2022); Nurse Kitty’s Unforgettable Journey (Orion, 2022).

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VAN HEYNINGEN, V (1965 Daniel). ‘A Journey Through Genetics to Biology’, Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics 23 (2022), pp. 1–27.

WHITELOCK, J (1988 Denham) ‘‘‘Lock up your libraries”? Women readers at Cambridge University Library 1855–1923’, Library and Information History, 38(1) (2022), pp. 1–22.

Nordin Catic

In the 2023 Boat Race, the Lightweight Men’s Blue Boat was coxed to victory by Girtonian Tteja Senthilnathan (2022 MPhil Land Economy)

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Update your details Please complete this form and return to: The Alumni Officer, The Development Office, Girton College, Cambridge CB3 0JG. Alternatively, you can update your details online at: www.girton.cam.ac.uk/alumni/update-your-details or email them to alumni@girton.cam.ac.uk

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Please let us have your new information before the end of May 2024 for inclusion in the next edition of The Year. Girton College likes to keep in touch with all alumni and supporters, and data held by the College will be used for alumni relations and fundraising purposes. For more details about how we use this information, please visit www.girton.cam.ac.uk /gdpr.

Alumni Events Roll of Alumni Dinner and Weekend

Invitations for the Roll of Alumni Dinner and Weekend, and details on how to book, will be circulated in Easter 2024. Please do get in touch if you require any further information in the meantime.

The Roll of Alumni Dinner is open to all Girtonians and their guests. If you would like to help organise a reunion for your year or for any special group such as a particular subject or society, please get in touch with Dr Emma Cornwall, the Alumni Officer, for assistance.

Emma Cornwall, Alumni Officer, The Development Office, Girton College, Cambridge CB3 0JG alumni@girton.cam.ac.uk or +44 (0) 1223 338901.

Draft Programme of Events

28 September 2024

Emma Cornwell

Details to be confirmed later in the year.

Library Talk There will be a talk for Girtonians and their guests at 11.00. Lawrence Room Talk There will be a talk for Girtonians and their guests at 14.00. People’s Portraits Talk There will be a talk for Girtonians and their guests at 16.00. In addition, a new portrait for the Girton People’s Portraits exhibition will be unveiled. Tea, Coffee and Cake From 15.30. Concert A musical performance will follow afternoon tea at 18.00. Dinner in the Hall 19.00 for 19.45 All Girtonans are invited to the dinner. We are pleased to be hosting reunion tables for those who matriculated in 1964, 1974, 1984, 1987 and 1988. 29 September 2024 Gardens Talk There will be a talk for Girtonians and their guests at 10.30.

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Supporting Girton College The Annual Fund supports all aspects of College life by providing the flexibility needed to fund the areas of greatest need: both ongoing, and those that arise throughout the year. By making an unrestricted gift to Girton this year you will help to support projects such as: Increasing support for students struggling with the cost of living at Cambridge Talented students with the ability to tackle the rigours of a Cambridge degree should be able to concentrate on their studies at Girton without worrying about financial barriers. However some students, particularly those from low income backgrounds, find themselves struggling to get by or facing unexpected financial emergencies. This has been compounded recently by the cost of living crisis. By donating to the Annual Fund you will help to increase the College’s ability to support students who are struggling financially, enabling them to focus on their studies and make the most of all that Girton and Cambridge have to offer.

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Expanding support for student welfare Girton is a leader among Cambridge Colleges in its approach to student welfare by providing a proactive and supportive environment for our students. The College recently appointed a Head of Welfare and Wellbeing as well as a Financial Welfare Officer for this purpose. However, we want to offer further support to our students to improve their physical and mental health by increasing the nursing provision from one full-time and one parttime nurse to two full-time nurses, making it easier for our students to get appointments quickly in term time. By donating to the Annual Fund you will help Girton expand the support for student welfare and ensure that our students can access the specialist services they need to thrive at Cambridge and realise their full potential. Supporting an all-round education Music, Sport, the Arts, learning study and business skills, and College Societies are a crucial part of life at Girton and the ability to take part in these activities should not be limited to those that can afford them. By donating to the Annual Fund you will help us ensure that the wider aspects of College life remain open to all, regardless of financial circumstances.

Improving facilities in the Library In the next year Girton’s Library is looking to create new spaces to improve study areas for our increasing number of students. By donating to the Annual Fund you will help improve library facilities including the addition of acoustic booths which will be used for both studying and meetings.

We shall be very grateful for your gift, at whatever level suits your circumstances. Alternatively, you could remember Girton in your Will. Please note that the College is a registered charity, which means giving can be tax-efficient. Those living in the UK, USA, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and certain European countries can make a taxefficient donation. Transnational Giving in Europe: https://donate.transnationalgiving.eu/landing/girton?lang=en_EN USA: www.cantab.org/supporting-cambridge/how-to-make-a-gift Canada: The University of Cambridge is recognised by Revenue Canada for the purposes of charitable giving to the University and Colleges and is authorised to issue receipts on behalf of both to enable Canadian donors to claim deductions when computing their taxable income. Please let us know by email on making your donation if you require a receipt. Hong Kong: Please contact The Friends of Cambridge University in Hong Kong, Ms Cannie Kwan at: kwanc@hkbea.com

Developing the Sensory Garden The sensory garden was designed in 2022 as one of our Green Girton initiatives with a focus on both sustainability and accessibility. By donating to the Annual Fund you will be supporting Green Girton by helping to complete this innovative project.

Singapore: Residents in Singapore can now make donations to the College tax-effectively. Please email cantabscholarships@gmail.com for more details.

Peter Sparks

Donations can be made using the form overleaf or online at: www.girton.cam.ac.uk/giving. Alternatively, please scan a code on your mobile phone to donate

Annual Fund Donation For more information about supporting Girton College, or to talk to us about a specific fund or gift, please contact the Development Office on +44 (0)1223 766672 or email us at development@girton.cam.ac.uk.

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Giving to Girton Donate Directly

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Making a Donation by Credit/Debit Card or Direct Debit: Should you wish to give by credit or debit card, or direct debit then please do so online at: www.girton.cam.ac.uk/alumni-supporters/give-girton Or by calling the Development Office on +44 (0)1223 766672. Making a Donation by Standing Order Standing orders can be set up via your own bank, either online or in person. If you choose to donate via standing order, please notify the College when you have done so, either by returning this form or by emailing development@girton.cam.ac.uk Leave a Legacy I would like to receive more information about leaving a gift to Girton College in my will. I have already included a gift to Girton College in my will.

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Girton College Huntingdon Road Cambridge CB3 0JG 01223 338999 www.girton.cam.ac.uk @girtoncollege

The Year 2023

Articles inside

A Refugee in Cambridge Remembered

Legacies of Enslavement:Unlocking a Door to Girton’s Past

Queen of the Kitchen Cabinet

A New Gateway into Cambridge

Meet the New Mistress

A Letter from the Mistress

Welcome