From the Master
We celebrate the creativity of our College community in this year’s edition of Once a Caian with alumni, students and Fellows featured in the 24th edition of the annual magazine.
Conductor Kwamé Ryan (Musicology 1989) is our cover star and a new Honorary Fellow of Caius, like Nicola Shindler (History 1987), who discusses her hugely successful career in television (page 6). Kwamé (page 20) comments on the transformative power of orchestral music.
The broad themes are on television, theatre and music, with comedy, open-air performances and more included. We know many more Caians are involved in creative industries and we would love to hear from you – please do get in touch via development@cai.cam.ac.uk.
Creative pursuits can prove to be complementary to academic work, and valuable distractions, meditation or escapism. Highlights in recent months for me have included the Music Society’s staging of My Fair Lady, which will live long in the memories of performers and audience members alike.
The College’s creative scene is thriving after a Covidenforced hiatus. Fellow Dr Zoë Fritz talks about the notso-secret Shakespeare Society (page 16), of which I am a proud participant – it really is a fabulous way to spend an
evening, with much laughter! Another Fellow featured is Mr Matthew Martin, who directs the Choir with aplomb – I am fortunate to hear rehearsals and recitals on a near daily basis – and is a renowned composer (page 26).
The Choir have been recording critically-acclaimed albums on tour in recent years, in part due to the quality of the College organ. We are now fundraising for a new organ – see cai.cam.ac.uk/organ – and would welcome your generous support.
The fundraising pages outline how your generosity makes a tangible difference to individuals and the collective within and beyond the College. We are grateful to all our donors – a list is published.
This is my final edition of Once a Caian… as Master. Professor Richard Gilbertson FRS FMedSci FRCP EMBO has been chosen as the next Master by the Fellows, and is due to take office on October 1, 2025. Congratulations to Richard on his forthcoming election.
It has been a privilege to serve as the 43rd Master of this wonderful institution, which I joined as a postgraduate student in October 1986. I am looking forward to seeing many of you across the next few months and to thanking you for your support in person.
PROFESSOR PIPPA ROGERSON
Nicola Shindler (History 1987) 6
Christine Langan (English 1984) 8
Zebulon Goriely (Computational Linguistics PhD 2021) 10
THEATRE
Stewart Collins (History 1975) 11
Deborah Shaw (History 1981) 12
Kate Pakenham (English 1993) 14
Dr Zoë Fritz (Medicine 1995) 16
Tia-Renee Mullings (History and Politics 2022) 18
Bella Hull (History of Art 2016) 19
MUSIC
Kwamé Ryan (Musicology 1989) 20
Emma Stenning (History 1994) 22
Jack Furness (Music 2007) and Finnegan Downie Dear (Music 2008) 24
Jennifer Johnston (Law 1995) 25
Mr Matthew Martin 26
Luke Fitzgerald (Music 2016) 29
College News
NEXT MASTER OF CAIUS ANNOUNCED
Professor Richard Gilbertson FRS FMedSci FRCP EMBO has been named as the 44th Master of Gonville & Caius College, due to take office in October 2025.
As the Li Ka Shing Chair and Head of Cambridge’s Department of Oncology and the Director of CRUK Cambridge Centre, Professor Gilbertson’s research focuses on the connections between disordered development and the presence of brain tumours in children.
Professor Pippa Rogerson became the first female Master of Caius in October 2018. She looks forward to returning to full-time teaching and research in private international law.
PROFESSOR KHAW NAMED UK’S BEST FEMALE SCIENTIST
Fellow Professor Kay-Tee Khaw CBE has achieved first place in the Research.com national ranking of female scientists.
Professor Khaw’s research in Gerontology focuses on the maintenance of health in later life and the prevention of chronic diseases. The ranking was based on publications and citations.
PROFESSOR HOLT RECOGNISED IN KING’S BIRTHDAY HONOURS LIST
Fellow Professor Christine Holt BMedSci FRS received a CBE in the King’s Birthday Honours List for her services to Neuroscience.
You may recall Professor Holt from last year’s edition of Once a Caian…, which celebrated her receipt of The Brain Prize 2023.
SAILOR TAKES ‘SCENIC ROUTE’ TO OLYMPICS
from the 100m victory of Harold Abrahams (Law 1919) at the Paris 1924 Olympics (page 39) Caius was represented at the 2024 Games by Hannah Snellgrove (Geology 2009).
Her journey to the Olympic sailing regatta was remarkable in itself, given Hannah deferred a year of her degree to seek a place at the London 2012 Olympics, ultimately unsuccessfully. Her “26-year project” via the “scenic route” concluded in a 12th-placed finish in the Women’s Dinghy in Marseille.
Hannah, a BellWade Bursary recipient when at Caius, became the 21st Caius Olympian, with all celebrated in the 2024 exhibition from the Library and Archive Blood, sweat and ink: sporting endeavours from Gonville & , which is now available online.
DUXFORD AVTECH – NEXT GENERATION SUSTAINABLE AVIATION
Gonville & Caius College and Imperial War Museums (IWM) have revealed plans to develop a major new centre for the next generation of sustainable air transport at IWM Duxford. Duxford AvTech will be the UK’s new home for the research and development, prototype testing, certification and manufacture of new low and zero carbon aircraft technology.
Senior Bursar Robert Gardiner said: “With centuries of both a presence in Duxford and of nurturing leaders and cutting-edge research within the University, the College is proud to support delivery of the next generation of aviation technology.”
Duxford AvTech is one of many achievements which Robert will reflect on when he retires as Senior Bursar at the end of January 2025.
Robert, who was appointed in 2018, guided the College through the Covid pandemic and, more recently, led the acquisition of property in Rose Crescent and Market Hill forming the largest expansion of the College’s site in central Cambridge for over a century and completing ownership of that important location.
Many alumni will remember Robert from events over the years, including on the riverbank, where Robert may have shown his conflicting emotions as a coach of Caius BC and Lady Margaret BC alumnus!
LSenior Bursar Robert Gardiner, left, and Endowment Property Consultant Martyn Chase with Jo Saunders, Head of Masterplan at IWM Duxford, beside the airfield
PEMBROKE’S NEXT MASTER IS CAIUS ALUMNA
Professor Polly Blakesley (History of Art with MML 1989) has been selected as the next Master of Pembroke, due to take office on October 1, 2025.
W1 CLAIM HEAD OF THE RIVER IN MAY BUMPS
After a near miss in 2023, Caius W1 were elated to claim Head of the River in the 2024 May Bumps. Although they were bumped by Lady Margaret (St John’s College) on the opening Wednesday of the bumps, they caught Lady Margaret on the Friday and claimed the Headship on the Saturday after catching Jesus W1. Scan the QR code for a video.
For this victory, the Caius W1 crew received the Ladies’ Mays Headship trophy. The silver plate was donated by Caius as a May Bumps trophy in 2011.
TWO MAJOR SUCCESSES FOR PROFESSOR CHINNERY
Fellow Professor Patrick Chinnery has had a memorable year. He was appointed Executive Chair of the Medical Research Council in August 2023, and in May 2024 was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society.
“It is a huge thrill to join the many illustrious Caians, past and present, as a Fellow of the Royal Society,” Patrick said. “I only wish the late Professor James T. Fitzsimons FRS could have been here to celebrate with me.”
Next year will mark the 25th anniversary of Caius’ double headship. Both the men’s and women’s crews from 2000 are planning a celebratory reunion. Please contact Tom Fardon on tom.fardon@cantab.net for more details.
Watch W1’s decisive bump to take Head of the River. This QR code links to this address: www.youtube.com/ watch?app=desktop&v=_ BTW6u7JTJI
While she was at Caius, Nicola Shindler had no idea that she would end up in the world of television. She was heavily involved in theatre in Cambridge and “was very lucky to be able to use some money from the Shadwell Society for putting on plays, which really helped me as I progressed in my career a lot”. She “directed a play almost every term that I was at Cambridge and really learned my craft that way”.
Reading History, too, helped Nicola a lot in her later career. Nicola, now an Honorary Fellow of Caius, says: “History is story. It is about people and it’s about characters and it’s about looking back and learning from events. And then everything I’ve learned in History you put into drama going forward because it’s only about humanity, it’s only about people.”
This deep connection with story has always driven Nicola’s production choices. When watching TV, Nicola almost disregards the “art” and says: “It’s just about the story and whether I’m gripped by things and surprised by the story and excited by the story and moved by the story; that’s always what I’ve loved.”
Many of the stories Nicola’s productions tell carry incredible emotional weight, which she thinks is essential to entertainment. Using It’s a Sin, her Channel 4 drama that takes the AIDS/HIV crisis as its central theme, as an example, Nicola says: “It takes you on a massive emotional journey. When you start off, you fall in love with those boys and then you know what’s happening to them, but you don’t see them as victims. What makes it really important is that you understand them as characters first, and then they take you on this journey.”
She thinks of this production as being very “important”, as it taught a new generation about the HIV/AIDS crisis, and “how this country treated people who had AIDS in the 80s”. She adds: “It was really important for the generation that went through it to acknowledge what the heroism of those people was, and the tragedy of what happened, which hasn’t been addressed on television.”
However, despite the subject matter being quite “hard-hitting”, Nicola notes that the show “still has humour in it. The fifth episode was humour all the way through, otherwise it would be unbearable”.
Treading this line between humour and tragedy defines “entertainment” for Nicola. “Our job is to make you feel so much and to keep you engaged so that you want to keep watching,” she says. By drawing someone in emotionally and making them fall in love with your characters, Nicola believes that TV producers can make programmes that “change the world.” She cites an example of her own production of a drama documentary about the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, when 97 football
Our job is to make you feel so much and to keep you engaged so that you want to keep watching.
fans died, as leading to “changes in the law that led to another inquest and prosecutions – all from a 90-minute television programme”. Nicola believes that TV carries enormous impact in a society where “the majority of people don’t read or watch the news. So if you tell them something really important through drama, it’s an easy way for people to accept and understand and empathise”.
All of Nicola’s shows have had long and lasting impact in the world and this is what she finds most rewarding in her work. As well as attracting the sheer numbers of viewers that she does, Nicola also takes pride in “the passion for the thing that we’ve made”. She says: “Like Queer as Folk; we still have people come up to us in the street saying ‘that changed my life. Thank you. That was really important.’ And it is now 23 years old. So that’s incredible. To know that many people are enjoying something you have worked on, that’s incredibly rewarding.”
Nicola’s relationship with writers has always been at the heart of her productions. She was “always very specific about what I wanted to do, which is work with writers”, and loves a writer with a strong sense of story, and a “pace” about their storytelling. One such writer with whom she has worked time and again is Russell T. Davies. She believes that the magic of their relationship is that “we’ve got very similar senses of humour and tastes in television. And we have very similar work ethics, which is we work very, very hard!”
This is Nicola’s key piece of advice to anyone wanting to work in TV production: “You have to be prepared to work really hard. It’s not a job you come home from.” Her current production studio, Quay Street Productions, aims to entertain and provoke. She says: “I want to do things that people notice. I want people to have to take notice, for one reason or another.”
The essential ingredient: emotional
entertainment
Nicola Shindler (History 1987) has always found storytelling compelling. When she was at Caius, she could not have known where her own journey would take her – to become an award-winning TV producer.
Christine Langan (English 1984) traces her journey from knocking on doors in Soho to becoming the Head of BBC Film and CEO of Baby Cow Productions. Now launching her own studio, Bonnie Productions, she reflects on her career as the alchemist of stories, and her aim always to capture an emotional consensus.
When Christine Langan arrived at Caius she was “self-conscious, fearful of not fitting in and a bit tortured by class”. She had no idea where her future would take her: to become the Head of BBC Film, CEO of Baby Cow Productions, producer of many award-winning series and films (including Cold Feet and The Queen) and an Honorary Fellow of Caius. When she met the actor, Simon Russell Beale, a couple of years ago, “he proudly told me he was an Honorary Fellow and I said ‘that’s lovely, Simon. And so am I’”.
The daughter of Irish immigrants and the first from her school to go to Oxbridge, Christine was encouraged to apply to Cambridge by her English teacher. When he asked her if she had thought about applying to Oxbridge, her response was: “Are we actually allowed to do that?” His offer to help her with her application was a “life-changing moment” for Christine and she set her sights on Cambridge and “never looked back”.
Christine says that she has always been “a grafter”. After Cambridge, she was “desperately trying to get my foot in the door anywhere where they’d give me a bit of time just to make coffee and witness things”. She says: “I actually walked around Soho knocking on doors – which is perhaps a bit ill advised! – thinking: something’s going on inside these edit suites and if I just pitch up and I’m very brave and say ‘I’m a graduate and I want to get involved in your industry – I’d be helpful’ they might give me a chance.” In the end, she walked into a company just off Carnaby Street, run by Stuart Urban and said: “I can work for you. I can run your office. I can do errands. I can do most afternoons for free because I work as a receptionist in the mornings”, and he gave her a job writing corporate video scripts.
But the industry is hard to crack and Christine found herself stuck in advertising, which was not where she wanted to be. She did not give up and her peers were helpful: “I was always asking, always looking around, always chatting to people – friends, friends of friends. Your peer group are so valuable because they’re all learning as they go and you exchange ideas and information. That network is absolutely vital.”
An important break came when Andy Harries, who Christine had worked with in Manchester, called her to do some holiday cover work for him reading scripts. She says: “I mowed my way through them, reading, reporting, writing up notes, tidying the whole office. It was a threeweek gig and then a day or two later he rang and said, ‘look, you’d better come and work for me’.” Andy was running the Comedy Department at Granada Television, and Christine became “his right-hand for a few years” before producing her first show, Cold Feet. Although confined then to a department defined by genre, Christine finds television most compelling when genres blend. She says: “To this day I love something that will make you laugh and make you cry. I like oscillating between the two because that feels closer to how life works.”
Christine worked as Head of BBC Film for many years and describes the “beauty” of that unit as being a place where “you can work with a diverse range of talent and tell an eclectic array of stories; the plethora of styles and sensibilities really appealed to me”. She also enjoyed the task of reflecting what the BBC is. She says: “You are fighting to stay alive as the film unit within the BBC – which is, essentially, TV, radio, online etc. Film is sort of an afterthought, and, if you’re not careful, a marginal operation. Politically, I was constantly trying to get film at the heart of the business to represent all that the BBC can and should be doing.”
Recently, Christine left Baby Cow Productions to launch her own production label, Bonnie Productions. The decision was motivated by a need “to nurture the creative side of things”, without getting too bogged down in strategising and management issues. She says: “I just want to be closer to the work – to get a great script, get it made brilliantly, get people buzzing about it. It sounds really simple but it’s hard to do and requires a lot of focus. But that’s the challenge and that’s what I love.”
Christine has always felt “viscerally connected to stories” and tries to “understand what their values are and why they move you or intrigue you or frustrate you, whether you need to strip them back or build them up”. But ultimately, what Christine loves most about film and TV production is achieving an “emotional experience” for audiences. She says: “When you get people having and maybe agreeing on a feeling, it’s very addictive. It’s transcendent. It’s very human, and yet magical.”
Bonnie’s first film is Hot Milk, adapted from a Deborah Levy novel. Christine says making it was “more nail-biting than anything I’ve ever experienced”. Despite this, it was a very “meaningful” experience: “I was proving something to myself as much as anything”. Hot Milk is “tense and immersive” and is coming soon to a cinema near you…
‘I love something that will make you laugh and make you cry’
Cinematic simplicity reaps rewards
When Zebulon Goriely (Computational Linguistics PhD 2021) spent Thanksgiving weekend with his family, he wanted to record the moments for posterity. Little did he know it would lead to an award-winning film.
Spurning the smartphone for a film camera and a microphone, Zebulon Goriely left Cambridge for a weekend with his family.
Little did he know just how many people would later see the intimate portrait, 36,000 words for love
“I always have this need of filming and trying to turn it into something that I can look back on as a way of preserving memories,” says Zeb, who moved to Oxford from the United States aged 10.
“I just wanted to set myself a challenge of ‘can I record this weekend in an interesting way with this limited ability; with only 36 photos for the entire weekend?’ For this one video, you hear the audio but all you see is still frames. I was always thinking about how many I had left, when I was going to use them…
“I’d been thinking a lot about how much more emotion and nostalgia you get from audio, more than visual. I think you see that in this film. It’s the real interactions you hear, the conversations people have. They’re much more meaningful than if you saw those without any sound.”
Zeb, who has his own YouTube channel, was inspired by a video seen years before. The original edit was about 10 minutes long; the final edit was three minutes. The shortened version was submitted to the Film at Jesus (College, Cambridge) competition, which Zeb won. And in spring 2024, the film
I always have this need of filming and trying to turn it into something that I can look back on as a way of preserving memories.
“ K
The poster for Zeb Goriely’s awardwinning film
won Best Micro Short Award at the British Film Institute Future Film Festival.
Named because a picture paints 1,000 words and each film roll has 36 pictures, the jeopardy of film photography excites Zeb.
“The fact it’s a limited resource means you have to be very intentional with the photos you’re taking,” he adds. “It’s the suspense – you don’t know how well it has turned out – and you have to be patient. It’s a lot of money every time you click. You’re always thinking ‘is this the right moment?’ As a medium, I like the physicality of it and the lack of ability to make edits afterwards.
“It’s better to have fewer photos and to have them be more impactful.”
The simplicity of the film was a major factor in its success, which has encouraged Zeb to pursue more film-making. He has worked hard to enjoy film alongside his academic work. He was in 2024 Director of Watersprite, the world’s largest student film festival jointly run by students from Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin.
“I first went to Watersprite in 2019; that was its 10th anniversary edition. It just had its 15th edition,” Zeb adds. “We had 1,750 entries this year from 93 countries, which is almost double what the BFI Future Film Festival got. It’s grown a lot in the last five years. I joined the committee properly two years ago for the 14th edition, as Head of Operations. This year I was the Director of the whole festival – a 60-person team, film submissions, partnerships with local businesses… It’s a huge endeavour and it was really cool to be part of it.”
Watersprite alumni have gone on to have illustrious careers in the film industry, a path which Zeb could follow.
Arts Festivals, of the kind that Stewart Collins (History 1975) has been directing for the bulk of his career, are a unique format for creating drama, spectacle, magic and kindness.
Stewart Collins believes bringing together diverse art forms across all genres and cultures has the power to build “mutual understanding” between people. Despite being a student of History (and, for a time, Economics!), Stewart’s artistic career was shaped by his time at Caius. It was at Cambridge that he met the other members of the successful a cappella group Cantabile, with whom he performed for many years, and where he developed the attributes he would later need in his career as a Festival Director. He says: “My self-confidence as a person, my willingness to sit amongst powerful, important, influential people and have absolute confidence in my mastery of the situation, or the ability to contribute – I put a lot of that down to the personality-building and education at Caius.”
Another characteristic which has served Stewart well in his career is “a mind trained for curiosity”. Taking nothing for granted, he believes it is his “duty to discover the worlds that I don’t understand” and makes it his mission to see hundreds of live performances of all kinds each year. He keeps a record of everything he sees, which is currently at around 20,000 entries. Stewart says: “It’s so that I can always say, if I book it: ‘I put my hand on my heart, I’ve seen this, it’s really good’.”
Live performance has made Stewart’s life “incredibly rich”, and he is passionate about sharing that richness with the world. He believes that festivals are the optimum format for this; outdoor spaces in particular are a “blank canvas” where play is possible. “Outdoors is where you can do extraordinary things because you’re not in any sense bounded by expectation,” he says. “There’s a completely different approach to drama and spectacle. That’s where outdoor theatre becomes exciting, because it’s very accessible; to have any impact it has to be visual.”
LIVE PERFORMANCES
Empowering & enriching
Bringing diverse art forms, from different cultures in particular, opens eyes and ears. “
He describes creativity as “the most beautiful part of our humanity” and for this reason is sure that live performance will always have a place. Live art, Stewart says, “adds kindness to the world”. He is passionate that festivals “add tolerance and mutual understanding”.
“Bringing diverse art forms, from different cultures in particular, opens eyes and ears,” he adds. “The arts have the power to show you the different ways people think, and once you start understanding the different ways people think, you might understand why they say what they’re saying, do what they do, believe what they believe. There are so many things about socialisation, self-development, selfunderstanding, mutual understanding that all come from the arts.”
L
Stewart devised and produced the Olympic Festival 2012: The Tree of Light at Stonor Park, Henley, above
Amongst a range of activities, Stewart is currently the director of Petworth Literary Festival, which is a “return to his roots” as a student at Caius, as he is spending a lot of time “reading, analysing and learning”. He reflects: “It’s like going back to what I used to do with a book at Cambridge. It’s a full circle.”
FILM
A SENSE OF PLACE &Theatre
Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the Tower of London in 2014
© Historic Royal Palaces
Deborah Shaw (History 1981) found her place was on the river as a student. Her career in theatre has taken her around the country to impressive effect.
Deborah Shaw is a titan of the theatre industry. She has worked as a director, artistic director and producer in theatres across the country, Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Director of the World Shakespeare Festival for London 2012 and commissioner and Creative Director of award-winning World War I commemoration Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the Tower of London in 2014. Since 2018 she has been CEO of the Marlowe Theatre, the “engine house” of creativity in Kent with a mission to “shape the spirit of the region”.
Deborah was the first of her family to go to university from school. She arrived “wide-eyed” at Caius, wanting to “grow and learn about the world”. On her first night, she recalls: “There was a hammering on my door. It was the rowing club saying: ‘you’re small and you’re loud, so be on the river at 5:30 in the morning’. I didn’t have much choice! I was a cox, which certainly blighted my academic career, but was brilliant fun.”
Coxing left little time for anything else and it was not until a few years after graduating that Deborah found her way back to her childhood interest in theatre. She says: “Theatre was the art form that spoke to me, that most excited me. One thing I love about it is that it is a magpie art form. It absorbs other art forms and new technologies, and it’s constantly reinventing itself.”
Deborah’s career has taken her around the UK, working in Windsor, Stratford-on-Avon, Chester, Bath, London and now Canterbury. Place, according to Deborah, “is everything” and informs a lot of creative decisions. Canterbury, she explains, is steeped in history, and this feeds into the work of the Marlowe Theatre. For example, the theatre has taken on an 800-yearold Poor Priest Hospital as part of a successful National Lottery Heritage Fund bid to create a new Creative Learning centre for young people.
Deborah says: “There’s a vibrancy in young people claiming an ancient building and unlocking its stories. Our young people feel that they are part of the sweep of the history of Canterbury, which is extraordinary.”
Being guided creatively by a building’s history is something Deborah practised during her years at Historic Royal Palaces. Her role as Creative Director was “all about the stories of the palaces and how you share them with visitors”. One of her creative legacies was Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, an art installation at the Tower of London commemorating 100 years since the start of World War I. The installation consisted of 888,246 ceramic red poppies, each representing one British or Colonial serviceman or woman killed in the War, in the moat of the Tower. Thirty thousand volunteers helped make it and it engaged 1.5 billion people around the world. Deborah’s installation made commemoration “an active thing to participate in rather than watch and encouraged a dialogue with the past. This period of her career she found liberating, to be creating work outside of conventional theatre spaces. She is applying this perspective to her work at the Marlowe Theatre. She says: “I don’t think of the theatre as 1,200 seats in an auditorium; I think about the organisation’s role as a cultural institution in Kent. What are we doing for our communities, our industry, the next generation?”
As well as contributing enormously to art and culture, Deborah believes in the economic
impact of theatre. The Marlowe Theatre has an impact of £44 million per annum. “All of the local suppliers, the restaurants, taxi drivers – everyone is gaining from the activity of the theatre,” she adds. “We’re enlivening the high streets and making Canterbury a brilliant place to live, work and study.”
The Marlowe is lucky in having a successful business model as an independent charity that raises all of its own income, but Deborah acknowledges that subsidy is vital in the wider ecology and many theatres reliant on it are facing a real challenge with the loss of funding from standstill grants, cuts and loss of local authority support. “There’s a real danger for theatres now, having just recovered from the Covid crisis, and now being asked to do more, with significantly less.”
Theatre, says Deborah, is the ultimate social artform. It “brings young people into healthy, live interactions and helps them develop confidence and social skills”. The importance of this in today’s “fractured society” is immeasurable. Deborah says: “You see this generation being screwed up by the isolation of living online, compounded by the restrictions of Covid – we’ve got a mental health crisis with the generations that have come through that.” In contrast, theatre connects people, “from individuals to society and the wider world”. She adds: “My mission with young people is to show them where their place is in that sweep of their past, their future: being able to own it and understand it. That’s important.”
From doubt to devotion I
Kate Pakenham's (English 1993) journey from an early curiosity to producing groundbreaking theatre is testament to a steadfast belief in the transformative power of live performance. She explores theatre's ability to unify, challenge and inspire in an ever-evolving cultural landscape.
I felt a deep instinct that theatre was the world that I wanted to be in.
t seemed inevitable that Kate Pakenham would end up working in theatre. From school, she was “always obsessed by theatre; acting, directing, producing, writing, everything”, and brought her love of drama with her to Cambridge in 1993, where she acted in the Freshers’ play in her first term and the Marlowe Society production in her second. In her second year she directed a production of Table Manners starring Olivia Colman. However, as the academic intensity of her degree grew, Kate withdrew from the directing scene and left Cambridge feeling that because of this she no longer “had the right to try and make a career in theatre”. Instead, she followed an opportunity to work in television but “hankered after this theatre love that I had abandoned”.
Four years later, Kate’s “instincts” led her back to the world of theatre. Supposed to be leaving imminently to direct a docu-soap on board a cruise ship, by chance Kate was offered a sixmonth position at The Old Vic theatre. She ended
I
The Oscar-nominated actor Ruth Negga as Hamlet in New York in 2020, in a production co-led by Kate Pakenham
up staying for 11 years. She says: “I felt a deep instinct that theatre was the world that I wanted to be in. Now I’ve been in theatre for 23 years. For the first four years I kept thinking it was just a sabbatical from television, but now I probably have to admit that it’s my career.”
One of the things Kate finds energising about theatre is its power to build community. She describes a theatre audience as a “momentarily made community”. In a world of divisions, Kate believes that the live theatre space can allow for people from all communities, cultures and backgrounds to “move beyond those divisions towards a shared humanity, shared empathy, shared understanding, towards something more human”.
Theatre is unique in this way, particularly as the ways in which we are consuming media are becoming increasingly antisocial. Kate says: “Theatre can do something special to the end of individual and group action in a way that film can’t – especially as film and television consumption have moved more and more into solitary spaces. So, I do think theatre holds a special place and opportunity in our culture to hold us together and get us thinking, feeling, working as a community. Plus, when it’s good theatre, it generally also has a sense of fun and playfulness about it – which we all need!”
One feeling shared by theatre audiences is the sense that anything could happen. Unlike television and pre-recorded media, every performance on stage is different by nature of time, space and the unique composition of each audience, and it is the thrill of the unpredictable that captivates Kate as an audience member. “It’s got to be made so truthfully by the actors each night that even if they are doing it exactly the same, standing in the same place, they are still discovering the stories, the interactions of the piece, fresh every night,” she says.
The honesty in live performance enlivens theatre and continues to challenge creators like Kate and immortalises the evolution of theatre. Kate says: “In some sense all the work that I’m doing is trying to reach the truth. But as soon as you’ve landed it, it moves on and it’s being reread, revised, renewed and re-understood. That’s why you can’t rest on your laurels; it’s in constant, gorgeous, uncertain movement.”
Theatre also helps us understand the truth of who we are as individuals, as audience members, creators and performers. Kate is interested in theatre that “asks us who we are and encourages and enlivens us to be the best versions of ourselves as individuals and in relation to each other”. Her current project, transferring the National Theatre’s production of Grenfell: in the words of survivors to New York, aims to teach us about our responsibilities to each other, combining the facts of the 2017 tragedy with storytelling that compels audiences to sit up and consider their own responsibilities as neighbours.
A project Kate credits with activating her belief in the power of theatre as a force for social change was her production of three all-female Shakespeare plays at the Donmar Warehouse
between 2012–2017 where she was Executive Producer. In 2012 a report had been published stating that for every two men actors on British stages there was only one woman. The productions, which were directed by Phyllida Lloyd and starred Harriet Walter, handed the “crown jewels of British theatre” to an all-female cast who played the productions as female prisoners, “arguably the most unheard people in our society”. At the time, and on a stage which was more used to exEtonians playing Shakespearean leads, the idea was radical, and paved the way for a change in attitudes across the industry.
Giving women the permission to step in to these roles illuminated other barriers faced by women in theatre and showed Kate where the boundaries within the industry lay. Behind the scenes, hurdles have been in place for women wishing to progress; a combination of antisocial hours and caregiving responsibilities often squeeze women out of positions of responsibility. However, a greater acknowledgment of these challenges over the last decade has, Kate believes, created room for a “sisterhood” within theatre. She says: “I have been and continue to be supported by and inspired by a large group of women who I have worked with in theatre. There are some fantastic female producers, directors and organisational leaders across the sector who make me feel optimistic that the changes in gender representation that I have seen over the last 20 years will hold strong and continue to build.”
Reflecting on her time making these productions, Kate says: “When I was suddenly enlightened in this way in 2012, doing all this Feminist stuff, I remembered that that was my favourite thing at Cambridge.” Although it took her away from theatre briefly, Kate also believes that her experience of Cambridge has “been massively valuable in my career. It’s a stamp of hard work and ambition that people have responded to”.
Kate Pakenham
Sharing the secrets of the Shakespeare Society
The Shakespeare Society is the oldest non-sporting society at Caius. President Dr Zoë Fritz (Medicine 1995) talks about the group's special place in College.
When Dr Zoë Fritz returned to Cambridge as a Registrar, following her clinical studies and early medical career away from the city, she enlisted as a supervisor at Gonville & Caius College. She also re-enrolled as a member of the Shakespeare Society, at the suggestion of Professors Roger Carpenter and James Fitzsimons, two of her medical mentors who were members of the society.
“I started attending very irregularly whenever shifts allowed – I loved being back in Caius, and the complete transportation that occurs when reading a play,” she says.
The Shakespeare Society lays claim to be the oldest non-sporting society at Caius: founded in 1847 when “some members of the College having expressed a desire that a society for the reading of Shakespeare should be formed; a meeting for that purpose was held in Mr O’Neill’s rooms”. Readings have been held in various places around College – and further afield – for more than 175 years. The society branched out to dinners, with each member’s menu being adorned with a suitable Shakespeare quote.
The late Professor Simon Maddrell was President for 50 years until 2018. During his tenure, as he said in an email, they built “a pile of wonderful memories”. He added: “Visits of the society to the National Theatre (Daniel Day-Lewis, Juliet Stephenson), to Stratford (Anthony Sher in Macbeth), to local pubs and restaurants on the coast for a reading and meal, day
trips to Pisa, Bologna, Venice and Paris to read a play and see and taste the local delights. And, of course, lots of memorable readings – and a thorough knowledge of Twelfth Night from Christmas readings.” The Christmas reading of Twelfth Night has most recently been kindly hosted by the Master – Professor Pippa Rogerson has also been a long-time ‘Shaker’ – in the Lodge with mince pies and port.
Shakespeare Society membership was secret, with new members being elected during an annual breakfast in the panelled room, using an old wooden voting box and sugar cubes. The sugar cubes had become rounded by handling and were eventually accidentally thrown out by the bedder who attended to Simon Maddrell’s room.
Zoë says: “When I was a student I got a slip of paper in my pigeon hole saying ‘you have been elected to join the Shakespeare Society…’. There was a frisson of excitement and I looked around to check who had seen me and if anyone else had the precious invitation. It was fun to be one of a selected few, but it wasn’t equitable, and perhaps the people who most wanted to read weren’t getting the opportunity. It can’t always have been a completely secret society, because there are tales of the play castings being read out in Hall, but certainly the process of election was not transparent.”
In 2018 when Zoë took over as the new President, it was decided that membership would be open to all, with the box and (new!) sugar cubes instead being used to vote for plays to be read in the
The rules of the Shakespeare Society
that shared experience of reading the words, laughing together in an evening, learning a new play – it’s a joy.
“It’s a complete leveller. Often the students are the best readers and it’s nice being all in the same room doing the same thing from the same starting point. Sometimes you can be quite surprised by who contributes and how.”
Zoë shares how a Visiting Fellow was cast as Sir Toby Belch, an alcoholic, in a reading of Twelfth Night
year to come. Invitations and term cards are distributed to all undergraduates, postgraduates and Fellows, with places being allocated on a first come, first served basis.
Zoë has long had a theatrical interest. She was President of the Shadwell Society during her undergraduate days, during which time she started a new writing festival in coordination with Corpus Christi’s Fletcher Society called Smorgasbord, which is still going biannually today.
While the time constraints make planning, rehearsing and putting on a theatre production impractical for Zoë and many others, the Shakespeare Society readings appeal to busy people leading busy lives. Zoë is a consultant in Acute Medicine 40% of her time, working as a diagnostician, and spends 60% of her time as a researcher in society and ethics, directing studies at Caius, and teaching. Her research is prompted by observations from clinical practice.
She says: “I do research into challenging how patient doctor interactions and processes work at the moment, looking at what might be inequitable or unethical, coming up with alternatives and then testing those out using as scientific a methodology as is possible, mixing qualitative research to establish the experiences of patients and health workers with quantitative evaluations to see what works.”
A distraction from such challenging work is a necessity, and Zoë enjoys family life, reading, music, and, of course, theatre.
“I think it’s really important to have a way of switching off,” she says. “When I interview prospective medical students I do ask people ‘how do you manage to maintain fun in your life?’”
The appeal of the Shakespeare Society to Zoë is that it is ‘across the rooms’ – JCR (undergraduates), MCR (postgraduates) and SCR (Fellows and members of the Senior Combination Rooms) – in an informal and equitable way.
She says: “I like the interaction – it’s a very collegiate scenario. Being able to just say we’re going to have
“He turned up, sat down, pulled an entire bottle of whisky out of his rucksack and said ‘If I’m going to play the part, I’m going to play the part!’. He was excellent,”
The Shakespeare Society now alternates readings of non-Shakespeare and Shakespeare, and Zoë believes immersion through the reading of the plays has helped her understand them better.
She adds: “Shakespeare plays have so many layers to them. If you watch one you get the physical comedy but you miss some of the nuances of the words, unless you know the play really, really well.
“Every time we read a play, we note things that Shakespeare was commenting on in the 1500s and 1600s that are so relevant today. I enjoy the process of learning and relearning all of them; there’s not one I keep going back to – well, apart from Twelfth Night and the accompanying mince pies!”
ANOTHER HIT SINGLE FOR SIX DUO?
After the critically-acclaimed, multi-award-winning SIX: The Musical comes Why Am I So Single? from Lucy Moss (History 2014), playing at the Garrick Theatre in London until February 13, 2025.
Lucy co-wrote SIX, a modern retelling of the lives of Henry VIII’s six wives, with Toby Marlow (Robinson; English 2014) when they were studying for their final exams at the University of Cambridge. It won two Tony Awards in 2022. Their brand new musical is about two perpetually single best friends who cannot understand why they are so single, and who are also (on a completely unrelated note) deciding what to write their next musical about.
Creative pursuits have proved complementary to her academic work for Tia-Renee Mullings (History and Politics 2022).
Award-winning playwright
Tia-Renee Mullings used to think her creative outlet was very different to her academic work. But since selling out the Corpus Playroom, the relationship has become clearer.
“Before I did Blackboard, it was just something very, very separate, doing the creative stuff on the side,” she says. “But I’ve now realised a lot of the things that I like to write about and touch upon are of the historical or of the political.”
Tia-Renee’s experience with Blackboard (Keep ya’ head up) – named after the Tupac Shakur song from 1993 and co-written with Katiann Barros Rocha (Robinson; HSPS 2022) – was overwhelmingly positive, with four sold-out performances at Corpus Playroom in February 2024. Blackboard was half written prior to coming to Cambridge and completed after matriculation.
“The tragi-comedy was born out of the expectations we had and explores the intersection between race, class, gender and academia,” adds Tia-Renee, who knows Katiann from sixth form. “There are a lot of surreal, exaggerated aspects, but it’s rooted in real experiences.”
It was another of Tia-Renee’s plays which earned her the prize. Little Angela Davis is a play about activism and identity which impressed judges of the Alfred Fagon Awards for leading Black British playwrights. TiaRenee was shortlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award, and then won an under-25 prize, the Mustapha Matura Award 2023.
The Mustapha Matura Award comes with a mentoring programme which will see Tia-Renee tutored by one of her inspirations, Ryan Calais Cameron.
“It’s an honour to have had my writing recognised in this way, and I’m incredibly excited to explore not only my craft, but the world of theatre, especially under the guidance of a mentor. An invaluable opportunity that I can’t wait to make use of,” Tia-Renee says.
Little Angela Davis is a long spoken word poem written in six weeks between Michaelmas and Lent last year (2022–23) and is yet to be performed.
Tia-Renee says: “It’s about activism and navigating the world as a marginalised person. It’s a delayed reaction to 2020 and activism in young people. When I applied for the awards I hadn’t even written a second draft. Barely anyone has read it, because I didn’t expect anything from it.”
“
What this whole experience has showed me is that like there aren’t any limits when it comes to where you can take yourself creatively.
Tia-Renee is from Greenwich and found the contrast between creative opportunities and performances in London and Cambridge to be so stark she started a new University society with another schoolfriend, Aishat Olawumi (Fitzwilliam; History of Art 2022). The Black Artists Society was formed as a space for people to show up and be their full creative selves.
Attending theatre performances in London in her teenage years proved inspirational, with Cameron’s work particularly powerful. She adds: “The first play I saw of his was in 2019, called Typical, starring Richard Blackwood, about the death of Christopher Alder, who was unlawfully killed in police custody. That changed my outlook on theatre completely.”
For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy is another play of Cameron’s she cites and Michaela Coel’s Chewing Gum Dreams is “an amazing play”, Tia-Renee adds.
Kwame Owusu won the 2022 Mustapha Matura Award and his debut play, Dreaming and Drowning, shows the path Tia-Renee would like to emulate after being given “life changing” opportunities from the prize.
“What this whole experience has showed me is that there aren’t any limits when it comes to where you can take yourself creatively,” she adds.
Tia-Renee Mullings (front left) and the Blackboard cast
From Footlights to FRINGE
Bella Hull (History of Art 2016) has a selfdeprecating style and a mission to connect through laughter. She credits Cambridge’s supportive audiences for her success in comedy.
From the age of 16, Bella Hull knew that she wanted to come to Cambridge “to do comedy”. As a teenager she was “obsessed with Footlights”.
She realised that “all my favourite comedians have been in Footlights, so I’m going to have to be in Footlights”.
Bella got into Footlights – the worldfamous student comedy society – in her second year, and believes this experience to be integral to her success. She says: “Once you get into Footlights, there is an opportunity to perform in front of an audience of 250 people every two weeks, which is gold-dust. Once you move to London and try doing open mics, you realise how special that is. I think that’s the reason why so many Cambridge comedians go on to be successful – because they’ve had so much stage time.”
Another reason Bella believes Cambridge to be fertile ground for young comedians is that “Cambridge audiences are famously the nicest”. Being encouraged by audiences as a novice comedian gave Bella the mental strength to keep going when faced with cooler receptions in London after graduating. She says: “I kept remembering those ‘Footlights Presents’ and thinking: ‘I was killing them there, there must be something I’m doing right’. It helped me to carry on and not give up.”
Comedy is “an amazing tool to illuminate our commonalities”, which is what she finds most attractive about the form. “If a whole room is laughing, the whole room is connected. Laughter melts away our differences,”
Bella says. “It can be hard to have conversations about lots
If a whole room is laughing, the whole room is connected. “
of topics at the moment, be it politics, race, or generational differences. A skilled comic can bring perspectives that haven’t been brought before and can add light and shade to things. Laughter is very healing.”
Ultimately, this is how Bella views her job: to bring people together and make people “feel better”. She describes her comedy as very “self-deprecating” which she hopes makes her routines “the psychological equivalent of watching You’ve Been Framed. I want my work to be an antidote to the culture that we’re in, a bit of a dock leaf in the stinging nettles”.
Bella’s aim is always to “make people laugh” and she is humbled by her position. She feels acutely aware of the expense of coming to see live comedy and is determined to give her audiences a great night out, which means listening to what they want. For comedy to be good, Bella says, “the audience is always right”. She adds: “Feeling you’re superior to the audience is the enemy of comedy. One of the magical things about comedy is that the audience decides.”
In a “full circle moment”, Bella supported one of her heroes, Phil Wang, on tour. She confessed to him that she had defined her career based on his path. She says: “And he told me that he used to do the same thing with someone five years older than him who was in Footlights. He said: ‘There’ll be someone that’ll be doing that with you, and then they’ll be supporting you, and the cycle will continue’.”
Bella took her new hour ‘Piggie’ to the Edinburgh Fringe in August.
Kwamé Ryan (Musicology 1989), Honorary Fellow and acclaimed conductor, traces his journey from Trinidad to Cambridge and around the world. He is driven by music’s transformative power and commits empathy and creativity to every orchestral performance.
EMPA T H Y CURIO S I T Y AND in the art of conducting
During his early years in Trinidad, Kwamé Ryan first discovered music in the theatre where, in her time off, his mother acted in plays and musicals. He recalls growing up “sitting in darkened auditoriums watching rehearsals, particularly absorbed by the make-believe aspect of theatre, all the more so when music was involved”. However, the aspirational “big bang” didn’t happen for him until he went to see Star Wars at the age of six. Kwamé says: “I was entranced by the sound of the orchestra. I didn’t really understand what it was, but I was certain that it was a kind of magic.” When his parents took him to hear Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess at an open-air festival soon after, he leaned over to his mother during the performance and said: ‘Whatever that guy at the front is doing, I want to do that’.
During his preparation for A-levels at Oakham, the Headmaster – previously the Head of Music at Eton – had given him sound advice: “If you want to become a conductor, you can either go to music college, which is the direct route, or you can go the scenic route, which is to go to university. And if you get a choral scholarship, so much the better, because it’s a fantastic musical training.”
When Caius offered Kwamé the choral scholarship he had hoped for, he knew it was an offer he could not refuse. The College would go on to support his postgraduate training in Germany, where he promptly began his conducting career and has lived ever since.
Kwamé, who was appointed an Honorary Fellow of Caius this year, feels that to be a successful conductor “requires that you tap into your humanity and compassion as much as into your artistry and technique”. He says: “Your job is really simple: it’s to galvanise the energies and gifts of your entire cast and orchestra into a cohesive and coherent musical result. Your instrument isn’t one that you can hold in your hands and operate. It literally consists of human beings and their interests, their desires and ideas, strengths and weaknesses.
“A big part of the job is based on persuasion and finding a way to have people believe that your core ideas about musical interpretation are interesting, convincing, or ideally both. The rest requires a willingness to nurture the best ideas emerging from the entire group, regardless of where they come from, so that people feel invested in the result. It’s a delicate process, as much psychological as it is musical or artistic.”
A key characteristic for any conductor, according to Kwamé, is empathy. “Every orchestra has different needs and you have to figure them out, ideally in the first couple of hours of rehearsal,” he says. “You have to hear what the players need (and don’t need) musically, and sense what they need personally – need rather than want, which are not always the same thing.”
Audience members sharing space with one another, the orchestra and the conductor is a unique communion, because they don’t just connect with the music, but with the musicians and with me through the music. “
As well as being attentive to the needs and mood of the orchestra in rehearsal, in performance, a conductor also tunes in to the posture of the audience, which can change from night to night. Although the music has been rehearsed, it can be “delivered differently based on the energy in the room”. Kwamé describes how “the orchestra can sense the audience in the same way that the audience can sense and see the orchestra”. He adds: “That can be a function of how quiet people are or how much they move in their seats, cough or unwrap sweets. It isn’t something you can see on an individual basis, but when there are 2,000 people in the room, how still they are becomes very palpable.”
A rapt audience is, for Kwamé, a very powerful thing. Hundreds of people quietly waiting to share an artistic experience is “a moment of attention that is precious and increasingly rare in our easily distracted society. It’s something that we need to preserve at all costs. Audience members sharing space with one another, the orchestra and the conductor is a unique communion, because they don’t just connect with the music, but with the musicians and with me through the music”.
As well as empathy, Kwamé believes that curiosity is of central importance and inseparable from his creativity. He says: “If I’m not curious about something, then I’m unlikely to work to the peak of my creativity, because for me, creativity responds to a question mark, unknowingness creating a space into which I can transfer my attention. If curiosity is not there, if that potential difference between knowing and not knowing isn’t there, then energy – in the form of interest – just doesn’t flow.”
Despite working all over the world in some of the most prestigious opera houses and concert venues, Kwamé finds that to this day, as his school Headmaster predicted, the musical training he enjoyed as a Caius Choral Scholar still rings in his ears. “It helped me set very high standards for myself in my music-making and overall work ethic, all of which has served me very well in my career,” he says.
Orchestrating change
Emma Stenning (History 1994) initially saw Cambridge as a gateway to her theatrical ambitions. Now CEO of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, she continues to bridge the worlds of theatre and symphonic music, advocating for innovation and inclusivity in the orchestral realm.
As a student, Emma Stenning kept her theatre and her academic lives completely separate. “Caius was History,” she says. “I was totally in love with the beauty of the College and the reality of College life, but I got sucked into the ADC and Footlights right from Freshers’ Week.” It was in her first week at Cambridge that she was recruited to produce The Canterbury Tales at the ADC with colleagues Simon Godwin and Stephen Brown, both of whom “continue to be important people in my life, but also immensely successful in their creative careers”.
Emma has spent most of her working life in theatre, but now finds herself as the CEO of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Although united by live performance, Emma has found theatre and live orchestra to be worlds apart in many ways. She says: “In my experience, the
theatre community that I’ve been part of is committed to exploration and experimentation, always looking for a new form or a new design language. Whereas music, symphonic music and classical music in particular is more: ‘well, this is perfect, and this is not perfect’.”
This sensibility is a great divergence from the more experimental world of theatre. Emma says: “There is a powerful school of thought in music that is deeply protective of the traditional way of doing things and is therefore deeply dubious of me trying to do new things. There are people who are fearful of something they love disappearing, but it’s not about that. It’s about me saying ‘if we want to find new, younger audiences, we have to figure out new ways of presenting and sharing the music that you love’.
Emma’s background in the more playful world of theatre gives her “immense liberty” to drive for change. She identifies the greatest challenge facing orchestras as being stuck in traditional ways of doing things, and her theatrical perspective allows her to “push the orchestra into a place of greater exploration and experimentation”, which she hopes will inspire new audiences to attend.
To achieve this, Emma aspires to diversify the Orchestra and its audience so that it more accurately
I’m more interested in us developing something utterly distinctive for CBSO than just trying to be better than another orchestra. “
reflects the diversity of Birmingham itself. Her hope is for the Orchestra to “matter to the entire city”, which means being inclusive of every community. In her first year, Emma has already been challenging the Orchestra by asking them to collaborate with Qawwali musicians, and performing a BBC Prom at the Royal Albert Hall dedicated to Bollywood music. Currently, she is asking them: “What would it mean to put some of Birmingham’s Grime artists into collaboration with the CBSO?” Answering her own question, Emma says: “I have no idea, but I’m really excited about it!”
Each of these experiments aims at letting the Orchestra speak the music of the city, which Emma believes is the key to making the CBSO stand out. She adds: “If we develop something that is uniquely speaking of Birmingham, whether that is collaborating with Qawwali musicians or symphonic Grime, I’ll be a lot more comfortable in saying ‘well, let’s take that to the world because it’s about the advocacy of the city’. I’m more interested in us developing something utterly distinctive for CBSO than just trying to be better than another orchestra.”
Emma truly believes in the power that experiencing live symphony orchestras can have on individuals. She is adamant that “there is nothing like feeling the music in
your body in the way that you do when you see it live”. She adds: “It gets to you viscerally and emotionally in a way that you just can’t get if you’re listening to the radio or online. It remains one of the great miracles of culture that orchestras exist and that the music they play has been written and continues to be written.”
It is here that theatre and symphony music do intersect, in the “opportunity for a communal experience”. Emma finds it “very reassuring that people of all ilks and backgrounds, who have all had different days and different moments in their life can sit together and share something”. Suspended in time by the music, Emma imagines “we’re all just floating here together”.
Live orchestral music connects everyone on a “human level” and Emma encourages everyone to experience its magic. “There’s something unfathomable about watching a group of people just walk out on stage and make that sound. It’s a miraculous thing to watch an orchestra,” she says.
I The Orchestral Qawwali Project, with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
MUSIC
A legacy of Caius Choir
Jack Furness (Music 2007) and Finnegan Downie Dear (Music 2008) met as undergraduates in the Caius Choir. They quickly discovered how much they loved chatting to each other about music and 16 years on continue to “enthuse” each other whilst leading the Shadwell Opera.
Jack Furness, who re-founded the Shadwell Society at Cambridge, admits titular reference to the Caius society. He explains: “When I started at Caius, the Shadwell Society was dormant at the time and I realised that it existed and there was a pot of money there and that things could happen. I got the society going again with Emily Skinner, a contemporary of mine, and we got some shows on.”
The first Shadwell Opera performance was Cosi Fan Tutte by Mozart in Great St Mary’s Church, conducted by Aiden Coburn (Music 2006). Jack says: “Aiden and I wanted to give our little opera venture some credibility, and because at the time I was President of the Shadwell Society, we called it Shadwell Opera.” Other Caians were involved in this first iteration of Shadwell, including Matthew Fletcher (Music 2007) and Sam Dressel (Modern Languages 2007).
The company is now in its “third phase”, with Jack and Finn Downie Dear working closely together to deliver new works of opera for contemporary audiences. Rather than focusing on the “gloomy” outlook for opera in the UK, they instead “try to focus on the joy that classical music and opera can bring” by “bringing new and joyful and beautiful things into the world”. Their mission is
simple and energising: giving young composers the chance to “pursue artistic excellence” and “make something gorgeous”. They are working with a young composer, Isabella Gellis, on her new opera The Devil’s Den, which Finn has no doubt will become “part of the firmament”.
“Leaving something of lasting value” is, for Jack, the ambition of Shadwell Opera. Commissioning new works such as The Devil’s Den is “not only helping and supporting the careers of young composers and making new opera, but also that very opera could then be performed by someone else in 20, 100, 200 years’ time”. “There’s something really magical about that process,” Jack says.
Finn adds that opera as an art form is “unfathomably old”. The combination of music and performance has existed for thousands of years and “the idea of people in some way communing to sing or to dance isn’t going anywhere. The sooner the UK realises that, the more fun and happiness and joy everyone will have”.
This immortality seems equally true of Jack and Finn’s partnership. Since their early days at Cambridge they “have always been good at unlocking each other’s enthusiasm” which “shows no sign of abating”. Finn draws on a musical metaphor to describe their relationship: “When conducting, everything is happening in advance, you’re always pre-empting what will happen, everything is about preparation. And with Jack, it gives me a great thrill to think that we are preparing for pieces we will do in 10, 20 years’ time.” Their relationship is “restorative and replenishing”, both of them “beholden to the piece”.
Shadwell Opera’s Ewartung / Twice Through the Heart
Shadwell Opera is an immersive experience
Opera is accessible
Jennifer Johnston (Law 1995) believes opera is for everyone, after developing her talent while at Cambridge.
Law practice and opera singing have much in common for Jennifer Johnston. “As a barrister, we always represent somebody else. That’s what I do playing characters as an opera singer as well; there are huge similarities between the two careers,” she says.
Although opera has a reputation for being elitist, Jennifer firmly believes that “opera is for anyone who wants it”. She says: “As an art form, opera deals with the big issues in our lives: love and death. It’s headlining these major emotions, which everyone can relate to, and telling these extraordinary stories today.”
Jennifer fiercely believes in live performance. She says: “Loneliness is a killer, and to be out in a society and experiencing things as a community is very important.” In the age of Artificial Intelligence, which can sample voices and generate recordings which are “a form of fakery”, live opera by contrast provides an authentic performance experience, Jennifer says. “Authenticity is what opera and classical music is all about,” she adds.
Jennifer was awarded a choral scholarship before coming to Gonville & Caius College. However, in the time between her offer and matriculation, her voice “doubled in size”, giving a “shock” to the Director of Music and eventually leading to her leaving the choir. Instead, she became heavily involved with opera in the University, performing Marriage of Figaro with the Cambridge University Opera Society in her first year, and then becoming president of the society in her second year.
Jennifer is a firm believer that “opera is for anyone that wants it”. She says: “When you do persuade people who haven’t ever seen an opera live to come to watch, they’re completely blown away and they wonder, ‘why didn’t I come before?’”
J Jennifer Johnston as Juno in Semele by Handel, Glyndebourne Festival Opera (Clive Barda / ArenaPAL)
Mr Matthew Martin is an accomplished composer, Gonville & Caius College Precentor and Director of Music. His musical story has not always followed rules.
As a pre-school child, before he could read, Mr Matthew Martin would sit at the piano trying to invent his own music. He attributes his ability to improvise and compose partly to these unstructured formative years.
“When I came to start to learn the piano at school, which I did at an early age, they actually thought I wasn’t very good at it because I found it very difficult to concentrate and a little bit boring to have to learn what that button was in relation to that blob on the page,” he says. “I was much more adept at just hearing stuff myself and then attempting to reproduce a version of it.
“As I’ve got older, I’ve realised that actually that’s quite a useful way for kids to start; it’s better to let them try things out by ear and, with a bit of guidance, learn about basic harmonic progressions. I was pleased in hindsight that it happened that way round because it has meant that later on in life, I found things like improvising and composing a little easier than I think I might have done had I just been put to music straight away with no avenue for creativity.”
Matthew is the Precentor at Gonville & Caius College and directs The Choir of Gonville & Caius College. He attended Tewkesbury Abbey Choir School and Dean Close in Cheltenham, singing in the choir. His interest in the organ was encouraged by the organist at his parish church, rather than school (who were rather reluctant to allow
Have the confidence to try again if something doesn’t work out how you expect it. Failure is essential. “
him to play the organ), and later prompted an application to the University of Oxford.
Matthew was awarded a place at Magdalen College to read Music with an organ scholarship in 1993. A postgraduate place at the Royal Academy of Music followed before Matthew studied in France with Marie-Claire Alain, a renowned French organist who died in February 2013.
He returned to Oxford, as an Assistant Organist at New College, before undertaking a similar role at Canterbury Cathedral.
Six and a half years as Assistant to the Master of Music at Westminster Catholic Cathedral followed. It was at Westminster where Matthew’s interest in Catholic music, plainchant and organ improvisation grew, and he followed that with four years as a freelance composer whilst being Organist at the Brompton Oratory in London.
Next came five years at Keble College, Oxford as Director of Music before Matthew joined Caius in April 2020, early in the global pandemic, as successor to Geoffrey Webber.
Under Matthew, the choir is recording regularly, usually on location. This is in no small part due to the need to replace the organ in Chapel and a fundraising campaign is beginning for a new instrument (cai.cam.ac.uk/organ). Supporting a new organ will stimulate an increased profile in Caius music, and attract and inspire promising music students and organ/ choral scholars from all backgrounds.
Maintaining high standards is of paramount importance to Matthew, who has composed throughout his career. Although directing College music and the Choir leaves Matthew little time, a sabbatical in Lent Term 2023–24 did afford an opportunity to compose with fewer distractions. He attributes much of his ability to hard work and knowledge of a wide variety of music, he adds.
Improvisation & failure
ESSENTIAL FOR MUSICAL SUCCESS
“I am a firm believer, slightly paradoxically, that if you want to be a composer and if you want to do music at all, you really need to know the nuts and bolts of how it’s put together, and to have studied the music of older composers such as Bach, Palestrina, Mozart, Haydn and so forth,” he says.
“Musicians like Beethoven and Mozart studied the music of the great polyphonist Palestrina, whose music we sing in choir sometimes, because that’s how you learn your counterpoint, that’s how you learn how to control consonance and dissonance. It’s essential to know what the rules are, even if you then decide that you’re going to break them. There’s no point in trying to compose in a vacuum. I think you’ve just got to know lots of repertoire and know the sort of thing that you want to write before you start.”
Matthew leans on his instincts extensively, he says.
“When I’m composing, playing, improvising and even directing the choir, I tend to do things by feel rather than by rules,” he says. “Often the two things combine and your instincts are correct.”
Matthew reflects on successes and perceived failures in his composing. He has learned to focus on the commission as requested, with meeting the deadline and the parameters outlined as key.
“It’s not like I go for a walk on the Malvern Hills and it all comes streaming through,” he says. “It’s like completing an essay for your supervision on time. Once you’re given those parameters (length, forces, text, difficulty etc), actually the restrictions help you.
“I’ve had some real hits and misses. It’s about having the confidence to say ‘I’m going to write something which is actually quite straightforward and quite normal that they
can use again and again – rather than the finest piece ever written!’.”
There is a distinguished history of composers as Precentor at Caius, with Peter Tranchell, Patrick Hadley and Charles Wood among them. Matthew would not presume he belongs in such esteemed company.
“
It’s essential to know what the rules are, even if you then decide that you’re going to break them.
Although he suggested the Choir’s next album should be a compilation of Caius composers’ work, the record label, Linn, preferred to focus on Matthew’s compositions, with the album scheduled for release in November 2024.
Time has taught Matthew a valuable lesson, which he endeavours to pass on to others – although it is one he has practised from the beginning of his musical education.
“Just have the confidence to try again if something doesn’t work out how you expect it. Failure is essential,” he says.
L For more information on the organ appeal, visit: cai.cam.ac.uk/organ
LIFE IN CAIUS CHOIR
Music and membership of The Choir of Gonville & Caius College have been integral to Laura Wood’s (Medicine 2020, intercalation in Music 2022) Cambridge experience (Jasmine Habgood writes).
The Choir’s reputation, alongside the College’s medical pedigree, drew Laura to Caius when she was applying. Not all college choirs allow medics to sing due to the heavy contact hours that the degree demands. But Laura found Caius Choir to be supportive of medical students. She says: “It is a very special community of medics in Choir. It has been lovely to be able to share my musical passion with those doing the same degree as me.
“It has been very hard to say goodbye to Caius Choir as I move onto Clinical School. I am very thankful to Matthew and the other Choir members for making my four years singing at Caius everything they have been. I just can’t imagine my time at Caius without Choir – it’s been such a fundamental part of my time here.”
L Laura, pictured on the right, with members of the Choir
Organs & opportunities
Assistant Director of Music at Coventry Cathedral Luke Fitzgerald (Music 2016) grew up in Cambridge, but the musical opportunities afforded by the abundant chapels and organs made his home city an ideal university choice.
Luke Fitzgerald grew up in the chapels of Cambridge. From the age of six he was a chorister at Jesus College, Cambridge, singing alongside the organ four times a week after school. When his voice changed and he left the choir, Luke was given the opportunity to learn the organ through the Harlton Organ Scholarship Trust, a scheme supported by Jesus College, sponsoring children from schools around Cambridge to receive organ lessons.
Although it “didn’t feel very cool to go to university in my home town”, Luke was always drawn to Cambridge because of the rich musical opportunities it could offer. He says: “To study somewhere with
It’s a real enabler and lets people join in in a way that’s really empowering. “
a wealth of choirs, organs and chapels was just a fantastic opportunity. I’ve learned different things from each director, choir and instrument I’ve been lucky enough to work with at Cambridge, which all started at Caius.”
Remembering his time as organ scholar at Caius, one of Luke’s most treasured memories was performing at the funeral of Stephen Hawking. He recalls: “The composer, Cheryl Frances Hoad (Music 1998) had written us a fantastic piece for his birthday dinner in Caius a couple of years before and we repeated that in the service in Great St Mary’s alongside a wide range of music. It was a formative experience for me in terms of how to prepare yourself for a big event and those are skills which I very much still draw on when we have big events here at Coventry Cathedral.”
Having performed at a wide range of cathedrals, churches and colleges, Luke determines that each organ has “its own character” and unique sound, but that all have the same ability to enhance and enable worship and choral activities. He believes that the organ offers special support to congregations. “It’s a real enabler and lets people join in in a way that’s really empowering,” he says. “It wraps people up in the embrace of its sounds and stops people from feeling too self-conscious about singing.” Unfortunately, access to organs can be limited and many young people are not aware of the opportunities to learn, Luke says. He feels very fortunate to have received sponsorships and thinks that outreach initiatives are crucial to giving more young people access to the organ. Now, he sees his professional role in an ambassadorial context. He says: “We have a tremendous number of school children who visit the cathedral day by day and many of them are absolutely fascinated by and have billions of questions about the organ. There’s an immediate payback in terms of people seeing an organ for the first time and asking questions, or maybe coming for a session to try it out. I do see myself as part of that movement to try and get people involved.”
Although there are still hurdles to overcome, Luke is very optimistic about the “growing interest in the organ over the last 10 years amongst young people and the types of young people who’ve been able to access it as an instrument”. Playing the organ is a “fantastic opportunity”, which Luke hopes soon everyone in the country will be aware of.
Caius Fundraising 2023–24
TELEPHONE CAMPAIGN 2023/24
£525,000
GIVING DAY 2023/24 £173,000
HIGHEST GIVING YEAR GROUP 1961
HIGHEST PARTICIPATION YEAR GROUP 2001
UG BURSARY RECIPIENTS 146
TOTAL SPENT ON BURSARIES £536,000
£2.7m
FUNDS RAISED £4.9m
Unrestricted Student support
Collections & Architectural Heritage
Academics
Freedom to discover Other INCOME
ATTENDED EVENTS IN 2023/24 1,958
ATTENDED REUNIONS 415
CAIAN DONORS ACROSS THE WORLD
Countries represented to date
Countries not yet represented
How your GENEROSITY makes a tangible DIFFERENCE
Many of you are grateful for your experience of Caius and will recognise the impact it has had on your lives: supporting your formative years, offering professional opportunities, and giving you lifelong friends. This gratitude prompts the desire to give back; be it giving of your time, sharing expertise, or including the College in your charitable decisions.
Your generosity has the power to transform lives, as philanthropy has done for Caians over the centuries. Contrary to popular belief, it is the small regular gifts or legacies that add up to make the biggest difference: for example, gifts between £10–£20 have added up to more than £200,000 within the last four years! Regardless of the size of your gift, you may want to reach your decision on where to direct the gift knowing what impact you can have.
Our fundraising priorities are identified based on most urgent and important need within the College’s strategic framework. Most recently and thanks to your donations, the College was able to attract the best students, regardless of background, by enhancing Outreach programmes. Attracting the best resulted in academic successes that saw Caius rise from the 15th to 7th place in the academic rankings in the past four years. Another priority has been and is still the Mathematics Fellow, as explained in last year’s edition of Once a Caian... The appointment for Michaelmas 2024 will shortly be announced.
The priorities in 2024–25 continue to be focused on student support: mental health provision, sports, music, study skills, books, travel grants or financial need, as more specifically detailed here below. Professor Peter Mandler is retiring at the end of this academic year and to celebrate all he has done for Caius as well as his contribution to this field, the fund in his honour is dedicated to supporting students in History Postgraduate funding is a requirement in academia and increasingly needed to be a successful applicant in a competitive job market, while the number of grants is decreasing. In addition to five-figure fees, the yearly maintenance cost is estimated at £18,500. In honour of Master Professor
Your generosity has the power to transform lives, as philanthropy has done for Caians over the centuries.
Pippa Rogerson’s retirement, a fund has been dedicated to endow a postgraduate scholarship.
Bursaries enable the best applicants to accept their offer to study at Caius, regardless of financial barriers. A yearly commitment of £3,500 will cover a full student bursary, allocated to students whose family household income is less than £25,000 per year. The number of eligible students is increasing and consequently so is the annual expenditure on bursaries: from around £450,000 last year to £550,000 this year.
With the rising cost of living, whatever support you can give matters and any level of gift will add up. “ “
Clinical Medics make up 2/3 of the applicants to the financial assistance fund in recent years, for an average yearly stipend of £1,000. The clinical years 5 and 6 mean students take on a study workload which does not allow them to take on paid employment despite increasing maintenance costs linked to having to stay longer in College.
The organ is expensive in maintenance and does not live up to the expected standard; a new organ has been costed at £1.1 million. You can find out more about the project on pages 26–28.
In the current context, the College spends more than double the income per student and relies on fundraising income, which covers 20% of the yearly College expenditure. With the rising cost of living, whatever support you can give matters and any level of gift will add up to help progress the above priorities: single gifts, monthly donations or a legacy pledge. Please contact the Development Office if you wish to discuss the purpose and impact of your charitable giving. We would be happy to advise on what may be possible and meaningful for you.
Thank you for the many ways in which you support the College community.
THANK YOU
The Master and Fellows wish to express their warmest thanks to all Caians, parents and friends of the College who have generously made donations in the period between 1 JULY 2023 AND 30 JUNE 2024. Your gifts are greatly appreciated as they help to maintain the College’s excellence for future generations.
1942
The late Mr K C J Case
1945
The late Professor C N L Brooke
The late Dr J C S Turner+
1947
The late L L Deakin
1948
The late Mr A C Barrington Brown
The late Mr E J Chumrow
1950
The late Professor K G Denbigh
Dr M I Lander+
The late Mr D L H Nash+
The late Mr D S Paravicini
The late Mr J A Potts+
The late Mr W A J Treneman+
1951
Mr P R Castle+
Mr S H Cooke
Dr J E Godrich
The late The Revd P T Hancock+
Mr P E Walsh+
Mr P Zentner+
1952
Professor J E Banatvala+
Mr G D Baxter+
Dr M Brett+
Mr C J Dakin+
Dr T W Gibson+
Mr D B Hill+
Mr P J Murphy+
The late Dr M J O’Shea
Professor M V Riley+
Dr N Sankarayya+
Mr R P Wilding+
1953
The late Dr G W Alderson
Mr J M Aucken
Mr S F S Balfour-Browne+
The late Dr K C A Blasdale+
The late Dr P M B Crookes+
Mr P R Dolby+
The late Mr S B Ellacott
Professor C du V Florey+
Mr G H Gandy+
The late Mr H J Goodhart
The late Mr F D Harper-Jones
Dr D H Keeling+
Professor J G T Kelsey
Mr J E R Lart+
Mr R Lomax+
Mr T I Rand+
Mr J P Seymour+
The late Mr P T Stevens
1954
Mr D R Amlot+
Mr J Anton-Smith+
Mr J L Ball
Mr P A Block
Mr D W Bouette+
Mr D J Boyd+
Professor D P Brenton
The late Professor C B Bucknall+
Mr G Constantine+
Mr D I Cook+
Dr A E Gent+
Professor R J Heald+
Mr R A Hockey+
Mr R W Montgomery+
Mr B C Price
Mr R M Reeve+
Sir Gilbert Roberts
Dr J M S Schofield
Mr M H Spence+
The late Mr D Stanley+
1955
The Reverend James Anderson
Mr A L S Brown
Dr M Cannon+
Mr D J Clayson+
Mr A A R Cobbold+
Dr R A Durance+
Professor R E W Halliwell+
Dr T G Jones
Mr J H Mallinson
Mr J J Moyle+
Mr A B Richards+
Dr A P Rubin+
The late Mr J D Taylor
The late Dr R B Walton
1956
Mr G B Cobbold
Dr R Cockel+
Mr J A L Eidinow
Professor G H Elder+
Mr J K Ferguson
Professor J A R Friend+
Mr R Gibson+
Mr M L Holman+
Professor A J Kirby+
Dr R G Lord+
Mr P A Mackie
Mr B J McConnell+
Canon P B Morgan+
Mr A J Peck+
Mr J A Pooles+
The late Mr I Samuels
Mr R R W Stewart+
Mr J P Woods+
Dr D L Wynn-Williams+
1957
Dr I D Ansell+
Dr N D Barnes+
Dr T R G Carter+
Dr J P Charlesworth+
The Revd D H Clark+
Mr M L Davies+
Dr T W Davies+
Mr E J Dickens+
Dr A N Ganner+
Professor A F Garvie+
Very Revd Dr M J Higgins+
Mr E M Hoare+
Professor F C Inglis+
Mr A J Kemp+
The late Mr A J Lambell
Dr R T Mathieson+
Professor A J McClean+
Mr A W Newman-Sanders+
Mr T Painter
Mr G R Phillipson+
The Rt Hon Sir Mark Potter+
Mr P W Sampson+
The Rt Hon Lord Tugendhat+
Dr A Wright
1958
Mr C Andrews+
Professor R P Bartlett
Dr J F A Blowers+
Mr T J Brack
Mr J P B Bryce+
Mr J D G Cashin
Professor A R Crofts
The late Mr W P N Graham+
Professor F W Heatley+
Mr D M Henderson+
Mr J A Honeybone
Dr P F Hunt
Dr R P Knill-Jones+
Mr R D Martin
Mr C P McKay+
Dr D R Michell+
Dr M G J Neary
Dr J V Oubridge
Mr G D Pratten+
The late Mr J D Pybus
Dr G R Rowlands
Mr M P Ruffle+
The late Sir Colin Shepherd+
Dr F D Skidmore
Mr A Stadlen+
Mr A J Taunton+
Mr F J W van Silver+
1959
Rev K N Bradley
Professor D S Brée
Dr D E Brundish+
Mr H R G Conway
Dr A G Dewey+
Mr T H W Dodwell+
Mr B Drewitt+
The Revd T C Duff+
The Rt Revd D R J Evans+
Mr G A Geen+
The late Mr P M Hill+
Mr M J D Keatinge+
Mr R G McNeer
Mr C J Methven+
Mr P Neuburg+
Mr G S H Smeed
Professor P Tyrer+
Dr I G van Breda
Mr J T Winpenny+
Dr M D Wood+
Mr P J Worboys
1960
Dr N A Bailey
Mr J G Barham+
Mr A J M Bone
Mr R A A Brockington
Mr J M Cullen
Mr T E Dyer
Mr N Gray+
Dr P M Keir+
Mr A Kenney+
Dr M J Lindop
Dr P Martin+
Mr M B Maunsell+
Dr H F Merrick+
Dr E L Morris
Dr C H R Niven+
Mr M O’Neil
Professor A E Pegg+
Dr J D Powell-Jackson+
Dr A T Ractliffe+
Dr R A Reid+
Dr F H Stewart
Dr M T R B Turnbull+
Professor P S Walker
Mr N J Winkfield+
Dr G R Youngs
Dr A M Zalin+
1961
Mr C E Ackroyd+
Professor G G Balint-Kurti
Mr P A Bull
Dr J Davies-Humphreys+
The late Dr J S Denbigh
Mr D K Elstein+
Mr J A G Fiddes+
Mr M J W Gage
Dr A B Loach+
Professor R Mansfield+
Professor P B Mogford+
Mr A G Munro+
Mr J Owens+
Mr C H Pemberton
Mr D C W Stonley+
Mr V D West+
Mr P N Wood+
Mr R J Wrenn+
1962
Mr D J Bell+
Dr C R de la P Beresford+
Mr M D Braham
The late Mr P S L Brice+
Mr R A C Bye+
Mr J R Campbell+
Dr D Carr+
Mr R D Clement
Mr P D Coopman+
Mr T S Cox+
Col M W H Day+
Mr M Emmott+
The late Mr T M Glaser+
Dr C A Hammant+
Mr D Hjort+
Dr J B Hobbs
Professor A R Hunter+
Mr J W Jones+
Dr D M Keith-Lucas+
Professor J M Kosterlitz
Mr F J Lucas
Mr A R Martin+
Professor Sir Andrew McMichael+
Dr C D S Moss+
Dr R N F Simpson+
Mr R Smalley+
Mr R B R Stephens+
Mr A M Stewart+
Mr J D Sword+
Mr W J G Travers
Mr F R G Trew+
Mr M G Wade
Mr G J Weaver+
Mr R G Williams
1963
Dr P J Adams+
Dr B H J Briggs
Mr P J Brown+
Mr R M Coombes+
Dr J R Dowdle+
Mr T R Drake
Dr S Field+
Mr J E J Goad+
Mr P M G B Grimaldi+
Dr P Kemp
Mr M S Kerr+
Dr R Kinns+
Dr V F Larcher+
Dr R W F Le Page+
Mr D A Lockhart+
Mr J d’A Maycock
Mr D B Newlove
Dr J R Parker+
Dr J S Rainbird
Mr P F T Sewell+
Dr J B A Strange
Professor D J Taylor+
Mr P H Veal+
Mr D J Walker
Dr M J Weston
1964
Mr P Ashton+
Mr D P H Burgess+
Mr J E Chisholm+
Dr H Connor+
Mr H L S Dibley+
Mr R A Dixon
Dr P G Frost+
Dr H R Glennie
Professor N D F Grindley+
Professor J D H Hall+
Professor K O Hawkins
Professor Sir John Holman+
The Revd Canon
R W Hunt
Mr A Kirby+
Dr R K Knight+
Dr H M Mather
Mr S J Mawer+
Mr J R Morley+
Mr R Murray+
Mr A K Nigam+
Mr J F Sell+
Dr R Tannenbaum+
Mr A N Taylor+
Mr K S Thapa
Mr C W Thomson
Dr T B Wallington+
The late Dr F J M Walters+
Mr R C Wells+
1965
Dr P J E Aldred+
Dr J E J Altham
Professor L G Arnold+
Professor B C Barker+
Mr R A Charles+
The Rt Hon Sir Christopher Clarke+
Dr C M Colley+
Mr G B Cooper
Mr J Harris+
Dr D A Hattersley+
His Hon Richard Holman+
Mr R P Hopford+
Dr R G Jezzard+
Mr K E Jones+
Dr R R Jones
Dr H J Klass+
The Hon Dr J F Lehman+
Dr M J Maguire+
Dr P J Marriott+
Dr W P M Mayles
Mr J J McCrea
His Hon Judge Morris
Mr T Mullett+
Dr J W New+
Dr K J Routledge
Mr R N Rowe+
Dr D J Sloan
Mr M L Thomas+
Mr I D K Thompson+
Professor J S Tobias+
Mr I R Whitehead
Mr A T Williams+
Mr D V Wilson+
Lt Col J R Wood+
1966
Professor D Birnbacher
Mr D C Bishop
Dr D S Bishop+
Mr P Chapman+
Dr K R Daniels+
Dr T K Day+
Mr C R Deacon+
Mr D P Dearden+
Mr R S Dimmick
Mr P S Elliston+
Mr D R Harrison+
Dr L E Haseler+
Mr R E Hickman+
Professor R C Hunt+
Dr W E Kenyon+
Mr D C Lunn+
Dr P I Maton
Dr A A Mawby+
Professor P M Meara
Mr P V Morris+
Mr S Poster+
The late Dr H E R Preston
Mr R B N Smither
Dr R L Stone+
Mr N E Suess
Mr D Swinson+
Dr A M Turner+
Mr J F Wardle+
Mr S M Whitehead+
Mr J M Williams+
Mr N J Wilson
The Revd R J Wyber
1967
Mr G W Baines
Mr N J Burton+
Mr P G Cottrell
Mr G C Dalton+
Dr W Day
Mr A C Debenham+
Mr P E Gore+
Dr W Y-C Hung+
Mr N G H Kermode+
Mr R J Lasko+
Mr D I Last+
Dr I D Lindsay+
The late Mr D H Lister+
Mr R J Longman+
Mr W M O Nelson+
Mr J S Richardson
Mr M S Rowe+
Mr H J A Scott
Mr G T Slater+
Mr C A Williams
The Revd Dr J D Yule
1968
Dr M J Adams+
Mr P M Barker+
Mr P E Barnes
Dr F G T Bridgham+
Mr A C Cosker+
Mr J P Dalton+
Mr D P Garrick+
Mr D S Glass
Mr M D Hardinge
Dr P W Ind+
The Revd Fr A Keefe
Professor R J A Little+
Dr D H O Lloyd+
Professor J I McGuire
Dr J Meyrick-Thomas+
The late Mr J A Norton+
Mr M E Perry+
Dr T G Powell+
Professor J F Roberts
Mr E Robinson
Mr P S Shaerf+
Mr P J E Smith+
Mr P J Tracy
Dr M McD Twohig
Dr G S Walford+
Mr C Walker+
Dr D P Walker+
1969
Mr L R Baker
Dr S C Bamber+
Dr A B E Benjamin
Dr A D Blainey+
Mr S E Bowkett
Mr A C Brown+
Mr M S Cowell+
Dr M K Davies+
Mr S H Dunkley+
Dr M W Eaton+
Mr R J Field+
Professor J P Fry+
Dr C J Hardwick+
Professor A D Harries+
Mr J S Hodgson+
Mr T J F Hunt+
Mr S B Joseph+
Mr A Keir+
Dr I R Lacy+
Mr C J Lloyd+
Mr S J Lodder+
Mr R G McGowan+
Dr C M Pegrum+
Dr D B Peterson+
Mr P J M Redfern
Mr B A H Todd
Mr P B Vos+
Mr A J Waters+
Dr N H Wheale+
Professor D R Widdess+
Mr C J Wilkes+
Mr D A Wilson
Mr P J G Wright+
1970
Mr R B Andreas+
Mr J Aughton+
Mr R Butler+
Dr D D Clark-Lowes+
Mr G J H Cliff+
Mr R P Cliff+
Mr L P Foulds+
Professor J G H Fulbrook
Dr D R Glover+
Mr O A B Green+
Mr J D Gwinnell+
Mr D P W Harvey
Professor J A S Howell+
Mr S D Joseph+
Mr C A Jourdan
Mr N R Kinnear+
Mr B S Missenden+
Dr S Mohindra+
Mr A J Neale
Mr J C Needes
Professor D J Reynolds+
Mr J S Robinson+
Mr B Z Sacks+
Dr R D S Sanderson+
Mr D C Smith
Professor R W Whatmore+
Professor G Zanker
1971
Dr J P Arm
Mr M S Arthur+
Mr S Brearley+
Mr J A K Clark+
Mr J A Duval+
Professor A M Emond+
Mr J-L M Evans+
Dr S H Gibson+
Mr L J Hambly
Professor B Jones+
Professor M J Kelly
Dr P Kinns+
Dr N P Leary
Dr G Levine+
Dr P G Mattos+
Mr R I Morgan+
Mr L N Moss+
Mr N D Peace+
Mr S R Perry
Mr K R Pippard
Mr P J Robinson+
Mr A Schubert
Mr T W Squire
Mr P A Thimont+
Mr A H M Thompson+
Mr S V Wolfensohn+
The late Mr S Young
1972
Mr M H Armour
Mr A B S Ball+
Mr J P Bates+
Mr S M B Blasdale+
Mr N P Bull
Mr I J Buswell
Mr C G Davies
Mr P A England+
Mr P J Farmer+
Mr C Finden-Browne+
Mr W J Furber
Mr R H Gleed+
Mr R S Handley+
Professor W L Irving+
Mr J K Jolliffe+
Mr P B Kerr-Dineen
Dr D R Mason+
Mr J R Moor+
Mr S J Roberts
Mr J Scopes+
Dr T D Swift+
The Revd Dr R G Thomas
Canon Dr J A Williams
1973
Dr A P Allen+
Dr S M Allen+
Mr N P Carden
Professor P Collins+
Mr S P Crooks+
Mr M G Daw+
Mr P C English+
Mr A G Fleming+
Mr J R Hazelton
Mr D J R Hill+
Dr R J Hopkins
Mr F How
Mr K F C Marshall
Mr J S Morgan+
Mr J S Nangle+
Professor T J Pedley+
Mr J F Points+
Dr W A Smith+
Mr C P Stoate
Mr J Sunderland+
Dr F P Treasure
Mr H B Trust+
Mr D G Vanstone
Mr G A Whitworth+
1974
Mr H J Chase
Revd Dr V J Chatterjie
Dr L H Cope+
Mr M D Damazer+
Professor J H Davies+
Professor A G Dewhurst+
Dr E J Dickinson+
Mr R J Evans
Mr P A Goodman+
Mr S J Hampson+
Mr W S H Laidlaw
Mr P Logan+
Mr R O MacInnes-Manby+
Mr G Markham+
Dr C H Mason+
Professor B Reddy
Mr N J Roberts
Professor D S Secher+
Mr C L Spencer+
The Rt Hon Lord J A Turner
Dr A M Vali+
Mr D K B Walker+
Mr S T Weeks+
1975
Dr C J Bartley+
Mr D A L Burn
Mr S D Carpenter
Mr H R Chalkley
Mr S Collins
Sir Anthony CookeYarborough+
Mr E A M Ebden
Dr M J Franklin+
Mr N R Gamble+
Mr M H Graham+
Dr N Koehli
Dr R G Mayne+
Mr K S Miller+
Dr C C P Nnochiri+
Dr H C Rayner
Mr D J G Reilly+
Professor J P K Seville
Mr G R Sherwood+
Dr F A Simion
1976
Mr G Abrams+
Mr J J J Bates+
Mr S J Birchall+
Dr M P Clarke+
The Revd Canon B D Clover
Mr D J Cox+
Mr R J Davis+
The Hon Dr R H Emslie+
Dr M J Fitchett+
Mr S D Flack
Dr P D Glennie
Dr K F Gradwell+
Dr G C T Griffiths+
Dr I C Hayes
Dr A C J Hutchesson+
Mr R A Larkman+
Dr P B Medcalf+
Dr S J Morris
Dr D Myers
Mr J S Price
Dr S G W Smith+
Mr S Thomson+
Mr J P Treasure+
The Rt Hon N K A S Vaz
Mr A Widdowson+
1977
Mr J H M Barrow+
Dr M S D Callaghan+
Dr P N Cooper+
Professor K J Friston+
Mr A L Gibb+
Mr K F Haviland+
Mr R M House+
Dr P H M McWhinney+
Dr L S Mills
Dr R P Owens+
Professor A Pagliuca+
Dr K W Radcliffe+
Mr I M Radford
Mr S A Scott
Mr M J Simon
Dr P A Watson+
Mr D J White+
Mr L M Wiseman+
Professor E W Wright+
1978
Mr J C Barber+
The Revd Dr A B Bartlett
Mr M D Brown+
Mr B J Carlin+
Mr C J Carter+
Mr J M Charlton-Jones
Mr S A Corns+
Mr M J Cosans
Mr A D Cromarty
Dr P G Dommett+
Dr J A Ellerton+
Mr J S Evans
Mr R J Evans+
Professor P M Goldbart
Mr A B Grabowski
Dr M Hernandez-Bronchud
Dr C N Johnson+
Mr P R M Kavanagh
Mr D P Kirby+
Mr R A Lister+
Dr D R May+
Mr C C Nicol
Mr A J Noble+
Mr S Preece
Mr P J Reeder+
Mr M H Schuster+
Mr P A F Thomas
Dr D Townsend+
Mr R W Vanstone
Dr P Venkatesan
Dr W M Wong+
Mr P A Woo-Ming+
1979
Mr D J Alexander
Mr T C Bandy+
Mr A J Birkbeck+
Dr P J Carter
Dr I M Cropley
Mr W D Crorkin+
Dr A P Day
Professor T J Evans+
Mr P C Gandy+
Ms C A Goldie
Dr M de la R Gunton+
Mr N C I Harding+
Mr R P Hayes+
Mr T E J Hems+
Ms C J Jenkins
Mr P J Keeble+
Mr D L Melvin
Professor C T Reid
Ms A M Roads+
Dr C M Rogers+
Professor P C Taylor
Professor R P Tuckett
1980
Mr C P Aldren
Dr L E Bates+
Dr N P Bates+
Mr C R Brunold+
Mr A W Dixon+
The Revd Dr P H Donald
Dr S L Grassie+
Mr M J Hardwick
Dr E M L Holmes+
Mr R H Hopkin
Dr J M Jarosz+
Dr J Marsh
Professor Sir Jonathan Montgomery+
Dr J N Pines+
Mr J H Pitman
Mr R N Porteous+
Mr T N B Rochford
Ms J S Saunders+
Mr J M E Silman+
Professor J A Todd+
Mr R L Tray+
Dr G J Warren
1981
Mrs J S Adams
Dr M A S Chapman+
Mr G A H Clark+
Mr S Cox
Mr J M Davey+
Dr M Desai+
Mr D P S Dickinson+
Mr R Ford+
Mr A W Hawkswell
Mr W S Hobhouse+
Mr R H M Horner+
Mr P C N Irven+
Professor T E Keymer+
Ms F J C Lunn
Dr J W McAllister
Dr M Mishra
Mr T G Naccarato
Dr A P G Newman-Sanders
Dr O P Nicholson
Mr G Nnochiri+
Mr J M Owen
Mr G A Rachman+
Mrs B J Ridhiwani
Mrs M Robinson
Dr R M Roope+
Mrs D C Saunders+
Mr T Saunders+
Dr D M Talbott+
Mr K J Taylor
Ms L J Teasdale+
Ms A M Tully+
Mr C J R Van de Velde+
Ms S Williams+
1982
Dr A K Baird+
Mr D Baker+
Mr J D Biggart+
Dr C D Blair+
Dr M Clark+
Mr P A Cooper+
Mr G A Czartoryski+
Professor S M Fitzmaurice
Mr A R Flitcroft
Mr D A B Fuggle
Mr P S Gordon
Mr M Hall
Dr I R Hardie+
Dr R M Hardie+
Mrs C H Kenyon
Mr P Loughborough
Ms E F Mandelstam
Professor M Moriarty+
Ms N Morris+
Generous donations saw 146 undergraduate students receive meanstested bursaries in 2023/24.
Mr R J Powell+
Lord Roberts of Belgravia
Mr J P Scopes
Mrs A J Sheat
Ms O M Stewart+
Mrs E I C Strasburger+
Dr J G Tang+
Mr J P Taylor
Dr A D Warinton
Professor M J Weait
Mr A M Williams
1983
Dr J E Birnie+
Mrs K R M Castelino+
Professor S-L Chew
Professor J P L Ching+
Mr H M Cobbold+
Dr S A J Crighton+
Dr N D Downing
Mr A L Evans+
Sir Timothy Fancourt+
Mr P E J Fellows+
Dr S F J Wright+
Dr W P Goddard+
Mr W A C Hayward+
Professor S Islam
Mr R M James+
Mr S A Kirkpatrick
Mrs H M L Lee+
Mr J B K Lough+
Mr A J McCleary+
Mr R H Moore
Dr L S Parker
Mr R M Payn+
Mr J A Plumley+
Mr A B Porteous
Mr K C Rialas
Mrs S D Robinson+
Mrs N Sandler+
Dr C P Spencer+
The Revd C H Stebbing+
Mr A G Strowbridge
Mr R B Swede+
Mr P G Wilkins+
Dr K M Wood+
1984
Dr K M Ardeshna
Mr A E Bailey
Mr D Bailey
Mr R A Brooks+
Mr G C R Budden+
Dr R E Chatwin
Professor H W Clark+
Mrs N J Cobbold+
Dr A R Duncan+
Professor T G Q Eisen+
Mr A S E Johnson
Dr J R B Leventhorpe
Mr G C Maddock+
Mr A D H Marshall+
Mr J R Pollock+
Mrs J Ramakrishnan
Dr K S Sandhu+
Dr H E Woodley+
1985
HE Mr N M Baker+
Ms C E R Bartram+
Dr I M Bell+
Mrs J C Cassabois
Mr A H Davison+
Dr J P de Kock
Professor E M Dennison+
Mr K J Fitch
Mr M J Fletcher
Mr J D Harry+
Ms P Hayward
Mr P G J S Helson+
Mr J A Howard-Sneyd+
Dr C H Jessop+
Mr C L P Kennedy+
Mrs C F Lister
Ms D M Martin
The Very Revd N C Papadopulos
Mr R J C Partridge
Dr R J Penney+
Ms S L Porter+
Dr D S J Rampersad
Mr A B Ridgeway
Mr R Sayeed
Mr E J Shaw-Smith
Dr P M Slade+
Mrs E M Smuts+
Dr J A Scrine+
Mr P L Ullmann
Mr B M Usselmann
Mr W D L M Vereker
Dr M J J Veselý+
Mrs J S Wilcox+
Mrs A K Wilson
Dr J M Wilson
Mr R C Wilson
Mr N A L Wood
Dr E F Worthington+
1986
Professor K Brown
Mr M T Cartmell
Mr J H F & Mrs A I Cleeve
Mr A J F Cox+
Professor J A Davies+
Dr S D Farrall
Professor R L Fulton Brown
Dr M P Horan
Professor J M Huntley+
Mr M C Jinks
Mr B R Kent
Mrs V K Kent
Dr H V Kettle
Professor J C Knight+
Professor M Knight+
Mr B D Konopka
Ms A Kupschus+
Professor J C Laidlaw+
Dr G H Matthews
Dr D L L Parry+
Professor P Rogerson
Mr H J Rycroft+
Mr J P Saunders+
Professor A J Schofield
Dr A J Tomlinson+
Dr M H Wagstaff
Mr S A Wajed
Mr J P Young+
Mr C Zapf+
1987
Mr J R Bird+
Mr N R Chippington+
Mr A J Coveney+
Dr L T Day+
Dr H L Dewing
Dr K E H Dewing
Mr C P J Flower
Mr J W M Hak
Dr M Karim+
Dr P Kumar+
Mr D M Lambert+
Dr J O Lindsay+
Mr L M Mair
Mr T J Parsonson
Dr W P Ridsdill Smith+
Ms J M Rowe
Dr J Sarma
Professor M Shahmanesh+
Mr D W Shores+
Mr A B Silas
Mr J M L Williams
Dr T J A Winnifrith
1988
Dr K J Brahmbhatt
Mr H A Briggs+
Mr J C Brown+
Ms C Stewart+
Mrs M E Chapple+
Mrs A I Cleeve
Mr N P Dougherty
Mr B D Dyer
Mr N D Evans
Mr E T Halverson
Dr E N Herbert
Ms A E Hitchings+
Ms R C Homan+
Dr A D Hossack+
Dr O S Khwaja
Mr F F C J Lacasse
Mr F P Little+
Dr I H Magedera
Dr M C Mirow+
Dr A N R Nedderman+
Dr D Niedrée-Sorg
Mr A P Parsisson
Mr A D Silcock
Dr R C Silcock
Mrs A J L Smith+
Mr A J Smith+
Mr R D Smith+
Dr R M Tarzi+
Ms F R Tattersall+
Mr M E H Tipping
Dr F J L Wuytack+
1989
Dr C L Abram
Mr S P Barnett+
Dr C E Bebb+
Professor M J Brown+
Dr E A Cross+
Dr S Francis+
Mr G R Glaves+
Mr S M Gurney
Mr S M S A Hossain+
Professor P M Irving+
Mr G W Jones+
Mr J P Kennedy+
Dr H H Lee
Dr S Lee
Mrs L C Logan+
Mr B J McGrath
Mr P J Moore+
Ms J H Myers+
Dr S L Rahman Haley+
Mr N J C Robinson+
Mrs C Romans+
Mr A M P Russell+
Mrs D T Slade
Dr N Smeulders+
Mr A S Uppal+
Mrs E H Wadsley+
Mrs T E Warren+
1990
Mr A Bentham
Mrs C M A Bentham
Mrs E C Browne+
Mrs S C Butcher
Professor L C Chappell+
Dr A A Clayton+
Mr I J Clubb+
Mr P E Day+
Mrs S V Dyson
Professor M K Elahee
Dr D S Game+
Mrs P J Gillett
Mrs C L Guest+
Mr A W P Guy+
Dr A D Henderson+
Mr I Henderson+
Mr R D Hill+
Mr H R Jones+
Dr P A Key KC
Dr S H O F Korbei+
Mr G C Li
Mr J S Marozzi
Mr T Moody-Stuart KC+
Mr G O’Brien
Mr S T Oestmann+
Dr C A Palin+
Dr J M Parberry+
Mrs L J Sanderson
Dr J Sinha+
Professor M C Smith
Mr G E L Spanier
Professor S A R Stevens+
Dr M H M Syn
Mr D S Turnbull
Dr J C Wadsley+
Ms R M Winden
1991
Mr M W Adams
Mr B M Adamson
Dr D G Anderson
Ms J C Austin-Olsen+
Dr R D Baird+
Dr A A Baker+
Mr C S Bleehen+
Mr A M J Cannon+
Mr D D Chandra+
Mrs B Choi
Dr C Davies
Dr A H Deakin+
Mrs C R Dennison+
Dr S Dorman+
Dr S C Francis+
Mr I D Griffiths+
Dr A J Hodge+
Dr M H Jones Chesters
Professor F E Karet+
Professor K-T Khaw
Mr I J Long+
Mrs L P Parberry+
Mr D R Paterson
Dr J E Rickett
Ms I A Robertson
Miss V A Ross+
Mr A Smeulders+
Mr L Stephenson
Mr J G C Taylor+
Ms G A Usher+
Mrs H-M A G C Vesey
Mr C S Wale+
Mr M N Whiteley
Mrs M J Winner
Mr S J Wright+
1992
Dr M R Al-Qaisi+
Ms E H Auger+
Mr D Auterson
Mrs R Auterson
Mrs S P Baird+
Mr J P A Ball
Ms S F C Bravard+
Mr N W Burkitt+
Ms J R M Burton+
Ms M H L Chan
Miss A M Forshaw
Mr R A H Grantham+
Thanks to funding from donors, this year we have been able to offer an additional six scholarships for MPhil students and two for PhD students.
Mrs F M Haines+
Mr O Herbert+
Dr S L Herbert+
Ms J Z Z Hu
Mr E M E D Kenny
Dr A C H Krook
Dr R M Lees
Mr J Lui+
Dr C R Murray+
Mrs J A O’Hara
Dr K M Park+
Dr M S Sagoo+
Mr J D Saunders+
Mr P Sinclair
Mrs S L Sinclair
Mrs R C Stevens+
Ms R G Swallow
Mr R O Vinall+
Mrs J M Walledge+
Mrs K Wiese
Mr L K Yim
1993
Dr A C G Breeze+
Dr C Byrne+
Mr C M Calvert
Mr P M Ceely+
Mr P I Condron
Dr E A Congdon
Mrs J L Crowther
Mr B M Davidson+
Mr P A Edwards
Dr A S Everington+
Professor I R Fisher
Dr A Gallagher+
Dr F A Gallagher+
Mr J C Hobson
Mr C E G Hogbin+
Dr A Kalhoro Tunio
Dr A B Massara
Dr S B Massara
Dr A J Penrose+
Mr R B K Phillips+
Mrs A C Pugsley
Dr J F Reynolds+
Mrs L Robson Brown+
Dr R Roy+
Ms S T Willcox
Dr F A Woodhead+
Mrs A Worden
Mr T J A Worden
1994
Mr J H Anderson
Ms I-M Bendixson
Professor D M Bethea
Dr L Christopoulou+
Dr D J Cutter+
Mr N Q S De Souza+
Ms V K E Dietzel
Mr D R M Edwards+
Professor T C Fardon+
Dr J A Fraser
Mrs C E Grainger+
Dr P M Heck+
Dr A P Khawaja+
Mr M R Matthews
Mrs S A Whitehouse+
Dr C H Williams-Gray+
Miss M B Williamson
Visit the Caius Networking and Mentoring web pages: cai.cam.ac.uk/ networking. Your professional advice and experiences could be of enormous benefit to current students and recent graduates.
Professor S G A Pitel+
Mr P D Reel+
Dr M J P Selby+
Professor P Sharma
Dr P J Sowerby Stein
Professor M A Stein
Mr M A Wood+
1995
Mr C Aitken+
Mr D F J-C Chang
Mr C Chew+
Dr P A Cunningham
Dr S L Dyson
Mrs J A S Ford+
Dr Z B M Fritz+
Mr J R Harvey+
Dr N J Hillier+
Ms L H Howarth+
Ms M C Katbamna-Mackey
Mr B J Marks
Canon Prof J D McDonald+
Dr D N Miller+
Dr M A Miller+
Professor K M O’Shaughnessy+
Mr S M Pilgrim+
Dr B G Rock+
Mrs G Rollins
Ms T J Sheridan+
Mr M J Soper
Dr X Yang
1996
Mrs S E Birshan
Miss A L Bradbury+
Ms C E Callaghan
Mr K W-C Chan+
Mr A E S Curran
Mr G D Earl+
Professor J Fitzmaurice
Mrs J H J Gilbert
Professor D A Giussani+
Mr J D Goldsmith
Mr I R Herd+
Miss F A Mitchell+
Ms J N K Phillips+
Dr S Rajapaksa
Mr A J T Ray+
Ms V C Reeve+
Mr P S Rhodes
Mr J R Robinson+
Mr D J Tait
Dr P G Velusami
Mr B T Waine+
Dr S Walke
Mr K F Wyre+
1997
Mrs L J Allen
Mr P J & Mrs L J Allen
Mr A J Bower+
Mr J D Bustard+
Mr P J E Charles
Ms S L Charles
Miss J M Chrisman
Mrs R V Clubb+
Ms R F Cowan+
Mr I Dorrington+
Mrs J R Earl+
Dr E J Fardon+
Dr S P Fitzgerald+
Mr J Frieda
Dr D M Guttmann+
Dr A E Helmy
Dr R Kembleton
Mr G D Maassen
Dr E A Martin+
Ms V E McMaw+
Dr A L Mendoza+
Dr S Nestler-Parr+
Ms R N Page+
Ms E D Sarma
Mr J P A Smith
Dr A C Snaith
Mr B Sulaiman+
Dr R Swift+
Mr J P Turville
1998
Ms H M Barnard+
Mr D M Blake+
Mr A J Bryant+
Mr D W Cleverly+
Mr B N Deacon
Dr P J Dilks+
Mr J A Etherington+
Dr S E Forwood+
Dr C Frances-Hoad
Mr M M Garvie
The Revd Dr
J M Holmes+
Mr A R Hood
Dr A J Pask+
Dr O Schon+
Mrs J C Wood+
Mr R A Wood+
Mr D J F Yates+
Dr E P K Yu
1999
Mr P J Aldis+
Mr I Anane
Mr R F T Beentje+
Miss C M M Bell+
Mr D T Bell+
Dr C L Broughton+
Ms J W-M Chan+
Mr J A Cliffe+
Mr J D Coley+
Ms H B Deixler
Ms L M Devlin+
Mr P M Ellison
Mr A Fiascaris+
Ms S Gnanalingam+
Mr A F Kadar+
Mr C M Lamb+
Mr M W Laycock+
Mr N O Midgley+
Mr N E Ransley
Dr J S Rees
Ms A J C Sander
Dr J D Stainsby+
Mrs L N Williams
Mr P J Wood+
Dr P D Wright+
2000
Mr R D Bamford
Mrs R A Cliffe+
Mr M T Coates+
Dr A D Deeks
Miss J L Dickey
Mr E W Elias
Mr T P Finch+
Mrs S Hodgson
Mrs J M Howley+
Dr N S Hughes+
Mr G P F King+
Mrs V King+
Ms M Lada+
Dr R Lööf
Dr I B Malone+
Dr A G P Naish-Guzmán+
Maj D N Naumann+
Mr H S Panesar+
Dr C J Rayson+
Dr J Reynolds
Mr C E Rice+
Mr M O Salvén+
Mr A K T Smith+
Mr H F St Aubyn
Dr D W A Wilson+
2001
Mrs E S Austin
Mr D S Bedi+
Dr D M Bolser
Mr J J Cassidy+
Dr J W Chan+
Dr C J Chu+
Mr E H C Corn
Ms J L Cremer
Mr H C P Dawe+
Dr M G Dracos+
Mrs A C Finch+
Mr D W M Fritz
Mr C M J Hadley+
Ms L D Hannant+
Dr D P C Heyman
Dr A-C M L Huys
Mr A S Kadar+
Mr C Liu
Dr A Lyon+
Mr M Margrett
Mr A S Massey+
Dr A C McKnight+
Mrs J C Mendis
Mr R J G Mendis
Professor R J Miller+
Mr D T Morgan
Mr H M I Mussa+
Miss W F Ng
Mr A L Pegg+
Dr C L Riley
Ms A E C Rogers+
Mrs J M Shah+
Mr K K Shah+
Mr M M Shah
Dr S J Sprague+
Mr S S-W Tan
Ms F A M Treanor+
Dr C C Ward+
Dr H W Woodward
2002
Mr C D Aylard+
Mrs E R Best
Ms S E Blake+
Dr J T G Brown
Mr M L C Caflisch
Dr N D F Campbell+
Miss C F Dale
Mr J-M Edmundson+
Mrs K M Frost+
Mr Y Gailani
Mrs J H Gilbert+
Mrs J L Gladstone+
Mr S D Gosling
Dr A C Ho
Mr O J Humphries
Mr T R Jacks+
Ms H Katsonga-Woodward+
Miss H D Kinghorn+
Dr M J Kleinz+
Dr M F Komori-Glatz
Mr T H Land+
Mr R Mathur
Mr C T K Myers+
Dr A Plekhanov+
Mr S Queen+
Mr R E Reynolds+
Professor D J Riches
Mr A S J Rothwell+
Mr D A Russell+
Mr N A Shah
Dr S Ueno+
Dr J W Waldron
Miss H C Ward
Dr L L Watkins+
Miss R E Willis
2003
Mr R B Allen
Mr J E Anthony+
Mr A R M Bird+
Ms C O N Brayshaw+
Mr C G Brooks
Dr E A L Chamberlain
Ms S K Chapman
Ms V J Collins+
Dr B J Dabby
Mr A L Eardley+
Mr T H French+
Miss A V Henderson+
Dr M S Holt+
Mr R Holt
Mr D C Horley+
Mr D J John
Mr J P Langford
Dr A R Langley+
Mr J A Leasure
Mrs J Lucas Sammons
Mr R A K MacDonald
Mr C A J Manning+
Dr D J McKeon+
Mr K N Millar+
Dr L M Petre-Firth
Dr C D Richter
Miss V K C Scopes+
Miss N N Shah
Ms Z L Smeaton
Ms M Solera-Deuchar+
Mr T N Sorrel+
Mr S Tandon
Mr J L Todd+
Dr R C Wagner+
Mr C S Whittleston
Mrs S S Wood+
2004
Mr S R F Ashton+
Mr M G Austin
Dr E F Aylard+
Ms P J M Brent
Mrs D M Cahill
Mr G B H Silkstone Carter+
Mrs H L Carter+
Mrs R C E Cavonius+
Dr T M-K Cheng
Dr J A Chowdhury
Dr A Clare+
Dr C W J Coomber
Dr R Darley+
Dr L C B Fletcher+
Ms C L Lee+
Ms C M C Lloyd-Griffiths+
Dr G C McFarland+
Mr P E Myerson+
Ms Z Owen
Mr J W G Rees
Dr C Richardt
Mrs L R Sidey+
Dr S M Sivanandan
Dr R Sun
Miss N J M-Y Titmus
Dr J Tsai
Mr H P Vann+
Mr L B Ward
2005
Ms P D Ashton+
Mr B Barrat
Mr R R D Demarchi
Mr M W Evans
Miss E M Fialho+
Miss J M Fogarty+
Miss K V Gray
Mrs K L Greenwood
Mr K F Huang
Mr J M Hunter+
Mr M E Ibrahim
Mr M T Jobson+
Dr E D Karstadt
Dr K Langford
Mr T Y T Lau
Dr E Lewington-Gower+
Miss J H Li
Dr S A Li
Dr A H Malem
Mr A J McIntosh
Dr E M McIntosh
Dr T J Murphy+
Mr D M Normoyle
Mr L J Panter+
Mrs E L Rees
Mr J L J Reicher+
Mr Y P Tan
Mr J F Wallis+
Professor J A Zeitler+
Miss W K S Cheung
The Hon H Z Choudrey+
Mrs R M de Minckwitz
Mr P C Demetriou
Mr M A Espin Rojo+
Mr R J Granby+
Mr I Hoo
Dr S P P Jones
Mr V Kana
Mrs N Kim+
Miss Y N E Lai
Dr C E S Lewis
Mr S Matsis
Miss T M Nell
Mr E P Peace+
Mrs H C Pepper
Mr J R Poole
Miss H K Rutherford+
Mr S S Shah+
Dr S K Stewart+
Dr E P Thanisch
Mr S Xu
2007
Mr H Bhatt+
Dr J P A Coleman
Mr D W Du
Ms A E Eisen
Dr E Evans
Dr S S Huang
Dr A B McCallum
Mr D T Nguyen+
Ms S K A Parkinson+
Dr S X Pfister+
Dr T J Pfister+
Miss S Ramakrishnan+
Mr D G R Self+
Dr B D Sloan+
Dr V Vetrivel
Mr O J Willis+
Dr S E Winchester
Mr Z W Yee
2008
Dr J M Bosten+
Mr O T Burkinshaw+
Mrs E C Davison+
Dr H G Füchtbauer
Mr J E Goodwin
Mrs J A Goodwin
Dr M A Hayoun
Dr R S Kearney
Mr K R Lu
Dr A W Martinelli+
Mr M Mkandawire
Mr D R Moore
Mr J M Oxley+
Mrs W C Ryder
Dr M C Stoddard
Mr X Xu
2009
Mr G M Beck
Mr L W Bowles
Dr S E Cope
Mr E D Cronan
Mr C A Gowers
Mr J H Hill+
Mr J R Howell+
Mr A W C Lodge
Dr O C Okpala
Miss F G Sandford
Dr C E Sogot
Mr J P J Taylor
Mr P Wangthamrongwit
2010
Mr B D Aldridge
Mrs J H E Bell
Dr C Chen
Ms H R Crawford
Miss C E Oakley
Miss H M Parker
Dr J O Patterson
Miss R Sun
Miss J D Tovey
Miss C M C Wong
Mr L M Woodward
Dr S P Wright
2011
Dr S Aibara
Mr A S Bell
Mr F A Blair
Mr A J C Blythe
Miss L E Cassidy
Mr J A Cobbold
Miss K E Collar
Mr I Manyakin
Dr K M Mathew
Ms Y Qin
Mr J C Robinson
Mr J R Singh
Ms M H C Wilson
Miss H Zhang
2012
Dr M A W Alexander
Dr L K Allen
Dr N H Ben-Yehoyada
Mr A K Christodoulou
Mr Z Guo
Miss M S Leonard
Mr J M B Mak
Dr C Parker
Dr H R Simmonds
Dr B Stark
Mr B R Swan
Dr R I Wakefield
2013
Dr J D Bernstock
Dr L Bibby
Dr D J P Burns
Mr J A Connan
Mr M M Gill
Miss E C Smith
Mr D R Twigg
2014 onwards
Mr C X Chua
Miss A M Kavanagh
Ms C M E Marincich
Mr K Purohit
Mr A Boruta
Miss T E Brian
Mr M Coote
Miss A E M Edwards-Knight
Dr T A Fairclough
Mr M S J Fynn
Mr P W Graney
Miss N J Holloway
Miss E Marwaha
Mr T J Selden
Mr J Thomson
Mr B A Tompkins
Mr V R Tray
Miss E Diamanti
Professor E Dimson
Mr R A F Khan
Dr M Sanguanini
Ms J Cheng
Ms E N Matthews
Mr Y Sato
Mr K S Tillmo
Mr N Sushentsev
Dr M Amatt
Miss D J Cairns Haylor
Miss S H Hundeyin
Mr O McGiveron
Mr L Webb
Miss H L Taylor
Mrs K Grabowska
Esther Magedera
Parents & Friends
Mr D F & Mrs A F Andrews+
Ms T Arsenault
Mr K & Mrs M Azizi
Mr A M & Mrs K Bali+
Mr E Baltins
Mrs A J Barnett
Mr S & Mrs S L Barter+
Mrs L M Bernstein+
Mr S M & Mrs A Bhate+
Mr R L Biava & Dr E J Clark
Mrs V Blake, in memory of John Rawson (1956)
Mr J Brewster
Mr R L Buckner
Mr M C & Mrs C M Burgess+
Mr J W & Mrs A Butler+
Dr A Caldicott
Mrs D Callaghan
Sir Geoffrey Cass
Mr D M & Mrs A J Cassidy+
Dr M D & Mrs E A Chard+
Ms E Cody Flores
Dr L Cornelissen
Mr A & Mrs G Corsini+
Mr R N & Mrs A J Crook
Dr T G & Mrs A J Cunningham+
Mr C H Jones & Mrs E L Davies
Mr D & Mrs C E J Dewhurst+
Mrs E M Drewitt
Mrs E C B Dugan
Mr P Evans+
Mr P J & Mrs S M Everett+
Mr T & Mrs A Fletcher+
Dr D & Mrs H Frame+
Mrs A Galea
Mr N & Mrs V M Gordon+
Mr K Gray
Ms E Hamilton
Ms L Hanssler
Mrs E A Hogbin
Mr J Hollerton & Dr J Hollerton
Mrs A E Howe+
Mr M & Mrs E Howells
Mohammed Islam
Dr T & Mrs S Jareonsettasin+
Mrs A Kelly
Mr T W J Lai & Mrs M F Lai Leung
Mr S Lamb
Mr D W Land & Mrs F Land+
Mr K W & Mrs L Lau+
Mr G Lawrenson
Mr A & Mrs A Lilienfeld
Dr H & Mrs V J Malem+
Dr K S & Dr V Manjunath Prasad+
Mrs J Mantle
Mr P C & Mrs S M Marshall
Mr W P & Dr J O Mason+
Mrs L Mercer
Mr J & Mrs E Miller+
Dr P Monck Hill+
Mrs H Moore
Mr J E Moore+
Mrs J Morgan
Mrs C Morris
Mrs L Naumann
Professor P E Nelson
Mr P F & Mrs S J Newman+
Ms T D Oakley+
Miss E H Parton
Mr K G Patel+
Mr P Paterson
Mrs E A Peace+
Mrs K E Plumley
Mrs E Pokorny
Mr C J & Mrs P Pope+
Patricia Pope
Ms G Power
Mr D H Ratnaweera & Mrs R A Nanayakkara+
Mr S M & Mrs L M Reed+
Dr G & Mrs D Samra
Mr A & Mrs C Scully+
Dr J V & Mrs C Y Shepherd+
Mrs A Sidhu
Mr R & Dr S Sills
Mr M S H Situmorang &
Mrs S T I Samosir
Mr G T Spera & Professor J C Ginsburg
Mr M & Mrs L J Spiller+
Mr R & Mrs S E Sturgeon+
Mrs K Suess
Mr P R & Mrs W P Swinn+
Mr R Tait
Mr J E Thompson+
Dr A Thrush & Dr H Bradley
Mrs T Waldron
Mr R B & Mrs C M Webb
Dato’ S J Wong
Mr M & Mrs V Wood+
Mr P M & Mrs J A
Woodward+
Dr A R & Dr H A Wordley+
Mr S M Zinser
Corporations, Trusts & Foundations
Barclays Bank
Basil Samuel Charitable Trust
Charles McCutchen Foundation
Highfield Charitable Trust Labcorp
Sir Simon Milton Foundation
The Andrew Balint Charitable Trust
The Chumrow Charitable Trust
The Ganton Furze Settlement
+ Denotes member of the Ten Year Club
2006
Dr D T Ballantyne
Dr T F M Champion+
Miss Y T T Chau
Dr T A Ellison
Miss A A Gibson
Mr S D Kemp+
Dr J A Latimer+
In a typical year, the College faces a shortfall of about £6 million between income received from, and spending on, students. Donors play a crucial role in bridging this gap, enabling Caius to do all it does for its students. Thank you!
Recognising our benefactors
Caius is the only ancient College of the University of Cambridge named after its major benefactors, Edmund Gonville and John Caius. To this day, the College depends on the generosity of alumni and friends to ensure that it provides a thriving environment for outstanding teaching and research.
In recognition of your philanthropy, we are delighted to recognise your generosity to Caius through the Court of Benefactors. Membership is organised by giving levels:
ASSOCIATE MEMBER
MEMBER
PATRON
FOUNDER
GONVILLE FELLOW BENEFACTOR
THE JOHN CAIUS GUILD
To this day, the College depends on the generosity of alumni and friends to ensure that it provides a thriving environment for outstanding teaching and research. “
£12,500
£30,000
£100,000
£250,000
£1 MILLION
£2 MILLION
All legacy donors are recognised with membership of the Edmund Gonville Society. Alongside distinct recognition at each level, all donors will receive invitations to special College events from time to time, as well as being mentioned in the roll of benefactors in College publications. Donors are, of course, welcome to remain anonymous, according to individual preference. If you would like to find out more, or discuss your recognition or support for Caius, please contact us on development@cai.cam.ac.uk or +44(0)1223 339676.
An Olympic legacy
The 2024 Olympic Games took place in Paris, 100 years after Harold Abrahams (Law 1919) won the men’s 100m title in the French capital. Archivist James Cox shares the College records.
With a tad of imagination and a bit of whimsical musical flare one can imagine the opening gambit of that 1981 Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire, with Vangelis’ tune coming over the airwaves as the gallant gathering of young athletes run along the beachfront, splashing through the waves in one of the most iconic scenes in cinematic history. How many, however, realise that one of the main protagonists was a member of our College? A certain Harold Maurice Abrahams.
Harold was born at Bedford, December 15, 1899, the son of Isaac Abrahams, financier, and Esther Isaacs of Maida Vale. He went to Repton School. He was admitted to Gonville & Caius on October 1, 1919, and to the degrees of B.A. in 1922, M.A. and LL.M. in 1932.
We have many beautiful images of the College, its people, buildings and events, from the very earliest days of photography, in the Archives.
We have many beautiful images of the College, its people, buildings and events, from the very earliest days of photography, in the Archives. Amongst those, we have the images of Harold as part of University and College teams.
He lived for most of his time at Caius in L2 Gonville Court. He was involved with the College May Balls, appearing to be part of the organising Committee for 1921. He was President of the Athletic Club, 1921–1922 and the University Athletic Club, 1922–23. As a University athlete, he was a winner of eight events against Oxford, including the 100 yards four times, the long jump and the quarter mile. He represented Great Britain in the Olympic Games, 1920 and 1924, winning the gold medal in the 100 metres at the Paris Olympics in 1924. He was Captain of the British Athletic Team, 1928.
Abrahams winning the 100 yards at the English Championships, weeks before his Olympic success (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)
After finishing his athletics career due to injury, he practised as a lawyer, wrote books primarily on athletics and was a sports administrator. He died in January 1978, at the age of 78. An alumnus to be very proud of, I think.
