Homertonian - Number 17

Homertonian The Newsletter of Homerton College, Cambridge & The Homerton Roll

in this issue

|

Twenty Years of Change

Number 17 | May 2013

|

Inner Core

|

Sports and Societies Homerton College

1

Homertonian contents

keeper’s letter

College News

Dear Member

Keeper’s Letter

2

Principal’s Letter

3

College News

4

Student News

13

Retired Senior Members Obituaries of former colleagues

26 26

Charter Campaign and Donor List Bursar’s Report

30

A Crisis in Funding for Graduate Students

30

Charter Campaign

31

Creating a Legacy for Homerton College

32

Donor list

33

Homerton Roll Roll Committee and Branch Details

34

Events Diary

35

Back Page Annual Roll Reunion 2013

36

The Homertonian is published once a year to keep members informed with College and alumni news.

Do contact us in the Development and Roll Office: Tel: 01223 747270 / 747280 Email: roll@homerton.cam.ac.uk All our publications are available to read online on the Homerton College website: http://www.homerton.cam.ac.uk/alumni/ publications.

Join us on Facebook. Details of events and College news are posted on our Facebook alumni page, ‘Homerton College Cambridge Alumni’.

Thank you to all of our contributors and to those who supplied images. The views expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily represent the views of Homerton College, Cambridge.

Cover photograph: Fran May Design and print management: H2 Associates, Cambridge

2

Homertonian

The Homertonian is the College’s main link with its former members, telling the story of the whole College community. In this year of change you will read of the Principal’s retirement, and of Dr Peter Warner’s as Senior Tutor. The Vice Principal, Professor John Gray, has written a pen portrait of the new Principal, Professor Geoffrey Ward, who comes into post on 1st October.

We have now published four of our termly e-Newsletters, each including the dates of events such as Formal Hall and Charter Choir concerts, and snippets of news.

We have had many positive responses, members commenting on particular news items and telling us their own stories which we tuck safely away in our archives. The e-Newsletter complements the Homertonian and the Roll News. We now place articles from the Branches in the Roll News published in November, but highlight one or two Branch events in each e-Newsletter. Both the Homertonian and the Roll News can be read online.

Many will realise that this Homertonian has arrived much earlier than in previous years.

The normal June date has not allowed us to publicise the Family Day. This year Family Day is being held on Sunday 23rd June, and there is a Booking Form inside. If you have children or grand-children, do come and enjoy the range of activities provided.

We have had splendid feedback in the last two years.

The Reunion 2013 will be special with Kate and Peter bidding farewell. To encourage as many of you as possible to come, prices for meals and B&B are much reduced. The Friday evening reception and Dinner will follow the normal pattern. However, the Saturday lunch time arrangements are a little different. After the morning talks,

Issue 17 | May 2013

we will proceed straight to lunch. We feel this will make lunch and the afternoon programme less rushed. Don’t worry, wine and soft drinks will be served with lunch.

The afternoon programme includes tours, a talk, and the Charter Choir will entertain us. Later in this Homertonian you will see a special note about the Reunion Saturday Dinner. We are encouraging all who have been students during Kate’s time as Principal and Peter’s as a lecturer and Senior Tutor to come.

Finally, this is my last letter to Roll members.

I am standing down in the summer after nearly nine years as Keeper, although I do hope to attend the Reunion. It is good that Dr Peter Warner is taking over. He has been on the Roll Committee for many years and has been a major contributor to the Reunion and other Roll events. I want to thank you all for your support and encouragement over these years. I have enjoyed meeting you at Reunions, Formal Halls and visiting you at your Branch lunches, though I am not sure that I will make it to the first meeting of our new Branch in China!

This is my last Homertonian; I want to thank all who have helped with its production and especially Peter Raby for his skill in proof reading. On your behalf, I must also thank Alison Holroyd and all who have worked in the Roll and Development Office for all that they have done in supporting the Roll, for their good ideas, for seeing them through and keeping me moving in the right direction.

With best wishes Dr Ian H Morrison Keeper of the Roll

principal’s letter

K at e P r e t t Y

O, if I start looking behind me, and begin re-tracing my track, I’ll remind you to remind me, we said we’d never look back.

Julian Slade, ‘We said we wouldn’t look back’ from Salad Days, 1954 Leaving Cambridge after 48 years and Homerton after 22, is a long slow process but as the academic year unfolds relentlessly, it also seems to move faster and faster even in the dreariest grey deserts of February, which is when this is being written. We are past Halfway Hall, the midpoint of the second years’ university life, Christmas (celebrated in November) is long past and in three weeks I shall have given my final lecture at Cambridge and can begin getting rid of my textbooks, hoarded booklists and

cuttings that might have come in useful and didn’t. It’s wonderfully cathartic.

Last week, I spoke to the students of the University’s Archaeological Field Club at their 65th Annual Feast. I’d presided at the 20th Feast myself but found it hard to find any points of contact to connect the two: the great and the good of my time were unknown to my audience, or dead.

Anecdotes seemed quaint rather than amusing and it seemed to me that we lacked a common physical background to unite us physically if not chronologically – there was no shared sense of place.

Every day someone asks me, ‘Won’t you miss all this’, whether it is a Monday morning encounter with the Porters; sharing the news of floods in the Archive; damage after a student bop; sickness among staff and students or a difficult University meeting to chair. I think I shall not miss having to cope with such things: retirement will bring much the same demands on a domestic scale, with leaking taps, collapsing fences and sick cats to replace the College crises and a long-sought release from having to persuade other people to do things they don’t want to do at innumerable meetings.

But I shall miss the places.

Cambridge, of course, belongs to all and none of us. I am so accustomed to dodging the traffic and tourists that I rarely see the

river and the willows or the great chestnut tree by King’s College Chapel. The University is more or less impervious to individual effort – at best our task is to preserve and improve it for the future, in our temporary role as caretakers. In 48 years, I’ve presided over many building projects, exhibitions and appointments boards but anonymously, like any other civil servant. The College, however, is different – here an individual, again working on a domestic scale, can make a difference and here the place itself acts as a link between the generations. What shall I miss of Homerton and my 22 years here?

• The gardens; the great copper beech at the curve of the path by the corner of Queen’s Wing; stachyurus praecox, raining green gold by the Hall in spring, and my bristlecone pine, planted in 1994 and flourishing little navy flowers and its first small cones.

• The birds; crows and jays, all three sorts of woodpecker and the grey wagtails on the lawns, drunken blackbirds on the pyracantha.

• The staff; academic and support staff alike, taking on every challenge I’ve thrown at them in more than twenty years, and creating an academic institution of which we can all be proud.

• The students from their shy corridor smiles in the first week of term, when they know me and I don’t know them, to the matchless occasion of their graduation when as they kneel before me and as our hands join we fleetingly share a pleasure.

• And Homerton itself, full of energy and movement, music, sport, endeavour, achievement and the promise of a future flowering.

I’ll miss that.

Young Leavers’ Dinner, April 2013. Kate (centre right) at drinks reception.

Kate Pretty February 2013

Homerton College

3

college news Twenty years of change and growth When a college undergoes the kind of transformation Homerton has experienced in the last 25 years, we have to look with some wonder at those who made this possible. Change on the scale we are talking about clearly cannot be entirely down to a few individuals but in this case it is impossible to imagine Homerton’s metamorphosis without the astonishing work of those who will be leaving us this year. We speak, of course, of our Principal, Kate Pretty, our recently retired Bursar, Gale Bryan, and our Senior Tutor, Peter Warner.

In 1991 when Kate became Homerton’s new Principal, the college’s future was doubtful. Known as the best teacher training college in the country, but at a time when such institutions were severely under threat, Homerton had to change to survive. One way, fraught with difficulty, to accomplish this was to become a college of the University. This required a serious endowment, rather than debt; buildings fit for purpose that could house and teach students; an understanding of how the university and its faculties worked; beginning to diversify into subjects other than Education, establishing teaching and research excellence across all of these. Not much to do there then! The team of Kate and Gale (not always harmonious!), with the powerful help of Tim Everton as Deputy Principal, later joined by Peter Warner as Senior Tutor, and backed up stoutly by Dhiru Karia as Finance Officer, made these impossible things possible.

In those first 10 years of Kate’s being Principal Homerton began to look different.

New buildings gave a shape and a focus to the college, as well as providing superb accommodation for students. The black and white buildings, alongside Trumpington House, had been the main teaching, library, office, catering and porters’ lodge areas since the 60s. They had outlived their twenty year lifespan (buckets were an essential part of teaching under the

4

Homertonian

leaking roof ) and the first development was the Mary Allan Building. A year later new accommodation blocks (West and East houses) went up and the college had modern en suite accommodation and new teaching rooms. Major refurbishment of the roof and then the internal layout of the Victorian buildings followed. Kate, and others, remained in their offices throughout – much of the time with no heating – but the end result was emerging. This was a time when the building was shrouded in scaffolding, a temptation for the climbers – one lovelorn soul was caught! With the demolition of the black and white buildings and the construction of Harrison Drive, the face of the college turned south to the gardens and orchard. South Court brought accommodation to three years of undergraduates. At this time,

1993

Homerton managed an extremely effective School of Nursing and Midwifery, which, when it moved elsewhere, helped build an endowment – an endowment further aided by the new buildings attracting a regular and significant conference business.

Lecturers were encouraged to build on their research activity with the result that Homerton became the only Teacher Training College in the UK to receive funds based on research excellence. The old regime of critical friendship with HMI changed to an Ofsted inspection regime that seemed, and was, ever present; we learnt how to play their game. And throughout this period we turned out extremely able, committed, degreebearing students most of whom went on to become the superb teachers Homerton had a name for producing.

2000

left Kate Pretty in 1993 above 2000 Staff photo, Peter Warner, Kate Pretty and Gale Bryan

present day

present day

Peter Warner and Keith Waters

Gale Bryan, Kate Pretty and John Gray

Homerton 1979

and today

college news

Homerton had been an Approved Society of the University of Cambridge since 1977; the direction was clear, to become a full college of the University. The vision of this had been with the Trustees and Kate from her appointment, although it took years of careful development and nurture both within the college and the university.

2001 saw convergence with the Faculty of Education and the diversification of undergraduate courses. New traditions became embedded – the ritual of the Homerton Horn has been shared with generations of students, with Kate and Peter explaining the Anglo-Saxon needed; swine flu prevented it one year but that cohort had their chance at their half-way hall.

No resting on laurels for the Homerton team, however. It would take another decade to get the Royal Charter, empowering the fellows to run their own college; to accept students for the whole range of academic subjects offered in Cambridge; to enhance and diversify the fellowship to teach these new subjects; and to see through an ambitious and continuing programme of fostering young academic brilliance by offering Junior Research Fellowships. Yet more new building enabled Homerton to house, very comfortably, the graduate community that was being established in the new college. By the time the Royal Charter was awarded noone could be in any doubt that the bold experiment had worked. A new college for the 21st century had come of age.

We would of course have found the going much more difficult had we not had a fine and expert set of Trustees, deeply committed to Homerton’s progress; and crucially a Principal whose knowledge of the workings of the university was so detailed and extensive. Kate had been Senior Tutor at New Hall, and served on the University’s Financial Board, as well as having departmental experience. This knowledge deepened all the time Kate was Principal, with her taking on one of the new Pro-Vice Chancellor roles for the University, binding Homerton yet more closely to the centre.

The University of Cambridge is a strange beast. In some ways, it is no more than the sum of fiercely independent colleges whose students, undergraduate and postgraduate, are the vibrant heart of the institution. But it is also made up of the subjects which it teaches and researches into. Most of us have a dual identity, collegiate and departmental, and the connections between these poles are rich and complex. Kate knew about these connections. She understood the sometimes tangled and difficult ways in which colleges and faculties were related. The establishment of an ambitious programme of Junior Research Fellowships was a sign of Homerton’s willingness to engage in the other core activity of the university (as well as teaching), not just in a toe-dabbling way but wholeheartedly.

That we could afford such a programme

was down to Gale’s enormous success in creating the sound financial basis of an endowment suitable for a Cambridge college (and larger than that of many older, more established colleges).

Many contributed to the position we are now in. Nothing can be done without the support of a team. But now much of this team is being disbanded. Gale retired last year; Peter, Dhiru and Kate will retire this September. It is enormously to their credit that Homerton looks to the future with justified confidence. We have already welcomed a new Bursar, we will welcome a new Finance Officer, a new Senior Tutor, and most momentously of all a new Principal.

These will be building on the soundest of foundations. The challenges Homerton now faces are serious. The world of higher education has been constantly subjected to changes in recent years, some exhilarating and some very worrying. Through these changes Homerton’s history of being at the forefront of education has been maintained, its commitment to fairness deepened, its support for academic excellence enhanced.

We have much to thank the team for, and special thanks must go to Kate who has captained us with such skill and determination.

Steve Watts Fellow and Admissions Tutor Anne Thwaites Fellow

Homerton College

5

NEW PRINCIPAL FOR HOMERTON COLLEGE He started his university career at Cambridge as a Scholar studying English at Clare where he obtained a first, and later taught for several Cambridge colleges. His subsequent career led him to teach in a number of universities, both in the UK and further afield.

An expert on American literature, he terms himself a ‘critic and literary historian’.

His research ranges from the Puritans to Stephen King. He has written a number of books as well as a novel, published poems and given talks on Radio 3 about his interests.

Professor Geoffrey Ward, currently Vice Principal of Royal Holloway College, University of London, will become Homerton’s next Principal on 1st October, succeeding Dr Kate Pretty who is retiring after more than two decades at the College.

Professor Ward is currently Vice Principal for Students and Staff at Royal Holloway where he previously served as Dean of Arts, and Vice Principal for Planning and Resources. Prior to that he was Professor of English and Head of Department at the University of Dundee before taking on the role of Deputy Principal.

Professor Ward said: “I am delighted and honoured to be taking up the role of Principal of Homerton. The College has long been known as a welcoming and supportive environment for study.

Working with Fellows, staff and students I aim to build on its traditions as well as the great achievements of recent years to ensure that it is recognised ever more widely as a first-class place for study, teaching and research.”

Homerton’s Vice Principal, Professor John Gray, who led the Fellows’ nationwide search for Dr Pretty’s successor, said: “Some extremely distinguished and talented people expressed interest in leading Homerton. In Geoff Ward

we believe we have found someone who combines a deep understanding of research and academic life with significant practical experience of teaching and the challenges of institutional development.”

Professor Paul Layzell, the Principal of Royal Holloway, told Varsity, the student newspaper, that he is “wonderful company”, offering “intelligent conversation with a dry sense of humour”.

Professor Ward is married to Professor Marion Wynne-Davies and has two sons.

Commenting on Dr Pretty’s leadership over the past two decades Professor Gray added: “When I arrived at Homerton back in the early 1990s it was on the brink, unclear about its future in the rapidly changing world of higher education.

Twenty years on it is now one of Cambridge University’s largest colleges with a sizeable Fellowship and a great deal of purpose-built accommodation offering some one thousand students a top-notch environment for their studies. As Cambridge’s newest college there is always more to be done but Kate’s successor can be assured of solid foundations. The last two decades have been a remarkable journey led by a truly remarkable woman.”

The Careers Service and today’s employment market: how you can help The employment market facing our departing students this coming year is complex and likely to be very different from the one you may have encountered leaving Homerton College, even a few years ago. Levels of student debt, a global recession and changing demands of employers are not making the transition from study to work an easy one for many of our students. They are

6

Homertonian

having to invest more time making well-researched applications, are expected to offer potential employers a raft of desirable transferable skills and to have secured relevant internships, and yet still manage their time to acquire the all-important 2.1.

The University Careers Service helps our students succeed in this transition by

offering advice and guidance at all stages from first year through to recent graduates.

Over 40% of first year students now use the Service, compared to a tenth of that ten years ago. And, by the time they graduate, 90% of all students will have attended a Careers Service event, met a Careers Adviser, visited Stuart House and used the website. Although complex, demanding and at times stressful, our students do well

college news

in the employment market. Cambridge’s unemployment rates are some of the lowest in the UK and Homerton College students boast personal successes across a great range of careers after Cambridge.

top and below Banking event right Consultancy event

If you would like to share your career story and offer advice by joining GradLink please visit http://www.careers.cam.ac.uk/gradlink/ Graduate opportunities and internships For Homertonians working for or running an organisation with graduate-level vacancies to fill, or internship positions to offer, especially those based abroad, please let the Careers Service know. We will advertise these vacancies for you, free of charge, on our website, accessible only to Cambridge students and recent alumni. 18,000 current students and researchers use this website. Through our vacancy listings recent graduates and researchers have been offered, for example, opportunities as Computational Chemists in New York, Medical Researchers in the Cameroons, academic research positions in Hong Kong, and Environmental and

Cambridge University Careers Service

Cambridge University Careers Service

GradLink Reliable advice and information straight from those actually doing the job is invaluable for current students exploring early ideas and confirming choices. The Careers Service runs its GradLink contact system to put current students in touch with alumni. This password-protected webbased service gives a brief career summary of over 1,200 former Cambridge students and their email addresses. We already have a number of Homertonians who have willingly signed-up to the system: a graphic designer, lawyers, a fashion consultant in China, IT consultants, a marketing manager for a London theatre, a researcher in the pharmaceutical industry, chartered accountants, a supply-chain manager and, yes, teachers too. All are willing to be contacted a few times a year by current students asking one or two questions about a GradLink’s career trajectory, their current or previous employers, the skills and nature of their current role and so on.

It is not intended as a way to recruit current students, although we regularly hear of jobs being secured as a result of an initial GradLink conversation. Furthermore, the Careers Service uses our pool of willing alumni to come and join us for informal careers-networking events hosted in Cambridge. Events such as ‘a career in the performing arts’ will attract 80 current students for an hour or more to hear from recent alumni on their successes (and failures) building a career in this precarious sector. The Service runs over 40 events like this throughout the year.

Cambridge University Careers Service

However, the Careers Service requires your help to maintain this success in supporting next and later years’ graduating students.

You can help in a number of ways, and none require you to open your cheque book.

Food production researchers in Shanghai.

Many of these roles came to us through our Alumni network and, had we not been told, our students would have missed them. Similarly, in addition to permanent graduate-level roles, we also welcome short-term internships offered through the summer vacation. Many employers now insist on seeing some evidence of relevant work experience on an applicant’s CV – with your help, even by offering only a week’s unpaid shadowing to one student, we can remove this barrier.

Advertise your vacancies free of charge Send us details of your vacancy using the brief form found here: http://www.careers. cam.ac.uk/recruiting/recvacancies1.asp Gordon Chesterman Director, Careers Service

Homerton College

7

JUNIOR RESEARCH FELLOWS Each year Homerton recruits three new JRFs, with nine researching in any given year. Two now tell us of their research:

Structure of the Inner Core

We can see the effects of the core’s presence at the surface of the Earth. Over time, the Earth is cooling gradually as it loses heat to space. As the core loses heat, material from the outer core solidifies on the surface of the inner core, similar to ice freezing from water. This means that the inner core is growing very slowly over time, at a rate of about 1mm per year. During this process, the heavier metals preferentially freeze out of the mixture, releasing lighter elements back to the outer core, as well as latent heat of solidification. The heat and the buoyant light elements drive convection in the outer core, creating the Earth’s magnetic field. Some of the latent heat travels further outwards to the mantle, where it helps to drive plate tectonics, and therefore earthquakes.

Despite the importance of understanding the processes occurring in the core, it remains relatively unexplored. The inner core was not discovered until two years after Pluto, which is smaller in size and billions of miles away. This is primarily due to the difficulty in studying the deep Earth. In seismology, we study the Earth using energy released from an earthquake.

Body waves are analogous to sound waves travelling through the Earth. They reveal localised fine-scale structure along their travel paths, such as the velocity (the speed the waves travel) and attenuation (energy loss of the waves). Larger

8

Homertonian

volumetric averages are investigated using whole Earth oscillations, or “normal modes”, similar to the ringing of a bell.

In my work, I use body waves to study the uppermost regions of the inner core, in an effort to expand our knowledge of the solidification processes and the evolution of the core. The growth of the inner core occurs at its surface, where the properties of the outer core are frozen into the inner core structure as it grows. This creates an age-depth relationship for the inner core, whereby deeper structure is older.

It also leaves a record of the changing environments at the inner core boundary.

By “peeling back” the layers of the inner core, we can look further into its history.

Although the inner core is a sphere, its growth is not uniform, and this creates some interesting and unexpected properties. In particular, we find a distinct hemispherical structure in the velocity and attenuation, separated into approximately east and west. This means that waves which pass through the east hemisphere of the inner core travel faster, and lose more energy, than waves which travel through the west hemisphere. These differences are frozen in as the inner core grows. Separately to these hemispheres, previous studies have suggested that the inner core “super-rotates” at –1° per year faster than the mantle. However, given the slow growth rate of the inner core, rotation rates of this magnitude would

Mantle Slow inner-core super-rotation

West

copyright Julien Aubert

The deep interior of our planet is an extremely dynamic and active section of our planet. The inner core is located at the Earth’s centre, just over 5000 km beneath our feet. It is a solid sphere of mostly iron, slightly smaller than the moon but with a temperature hotter than the surface of the sun. The inner core is suspended in the liquid outer core. This is composed of a mixture of turbulent molten metals and other materials, which are so hot that they swirl around with the same viscosity as water.

East Older

Liquid outer core

Dumberry, M., 2011, Nature Geoscience, 4, 216–217

Lauren on Fox Glacier in New Zealand

J. Aubert, et al., Nature. 2008. 454: 758–761

college news

erase the hemispheres before they could freeze into the structure, and any regional variation would be smeared out.

In order to reconcile these two properties, I compiled a large global dataset of body waves which travel through the upper inner core. I constrained the locations of the hemisphere boundaries, and found that they displayed a small, constant eastward shift with depth, corresponding to a westward shift as the inner core grows. From this, we can infer a superrotation of the inner core, at a rate of just 0.1 – 1° every million years. This is the first seismic observation of such a slow super-rotation rate, and has important implications for geodynamo modelling.

Lauren Waszek Junior Research Fellow in Earth Sciences

-1.0 1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 Differential travel time residuals (s)

Thin lines indicate ray paths through the inner core, and the locations of the circles correspond to the turning points of the rays. A clear hemispherical difference can be observed, with predominantly positive differential travel time residuals (red circles) in the east due to faster velocity structure here, and negative residuals (blue circles) in the west indicating slower velocity. Hemisphere boundaries as a function of ray turning depth are indicated: solid line 15 – 30 km, dashed line 30 – 57.5 km, and dotted line 57.5 – 106 km below the inner core boundary.

Religious Reading The basic point of departure for my work as a Junior Research Fellow is this: in order to understand the world, it is necessary to come to grips with the role that religion plays within it. The majority of the world’s population is affiliated with some religious tradition, and religion’s role in societies around the world is hard to deny. It is not difficult to think of examples, both close to home and farther afield. Here in Britain, the Church of England continues to make headlines because of its on-going deliberations about whether women might serve as bishops. In addition, celebrity atheist Richard Dawkins – hardly the first person that one would expect to underline the importance of religion – noted on the 400th anniversary of the King

James Bible that it is hardly possible to understand English literature, or even the English language itself, without a knowledge of Scripture. This is because many of its turns of phrase have entered common parlance. To move beyond Britain, relations between the West and the Muslim world, which involve both interdependence and conflict, have an undeniable religious dimension.

Religions are certainly diverse, and they can have a huge variety of roles in different societies around the world.

Yet one helpful way to explore religions themselves is by examining the place that scriptural interpretation plays within religious communities. This is true for the Jewish tradition and its sacred Scripture, the Tanakh, for the Muslim tradition and the Koran, and for the tradition on which my work focuses, Christianity with its Old and New Testaments. In fact, the Church of England’s discussions about the role

of women in the ecclesial hierarchy can be illuminated by noticing that questions about how to read passages of the New Testament in the modern world are right at the heart of the community’s debates. For the Church of England and every Christian denomination, arriving at doctrinal conclusions requires some form of engagement with Scripture. In addition, reading the Bible during worship forms a standard part of services for every major Christian denomination.

In order to understand the influence that scriptural interpretation has within Christian communities, it is important to see how what might be called “religious reading” is a distinctive mode of approaching Scripture. A religious reader, one who interprets Scripture in the context of a religious community, does not read Scripture mainly to find out how the text might have been understood by its original readers, who lived millennia ago in

Homerton College

9

Religious Reading continued circumstances that are markedly different from those of the modern world. Such readers may take notice of these concerns, but they are not primary. Instead, religious readers seek out what sense the text might have for them today. The book that I have recently published, Scriptural Interpretation: A Theological Exploration (Oxford: WileyBlackwell, 2013) makes a contribution to understanding religious reading.

To do so, the book draws upon the writings of Basil of Caesarea, who was a leading theologian in the fourth century CE, and uses his thought as a lens through which to view religious reading. Basil was a Greek-speaker who authored a number of significant theological texts and whose main contribution to Christian thought lies

a time when the Christian tradition was beginning to take a determinate shape; he thus shows us what is crucial to this framework of thought. The conclusion of the book is that Basil’s theology sheds light on religious reading by showing it to be an approach generated by having a theological view of who the reader of Scripture is, what the text is, and what is occurring during the practice of reading. The work also draws Basil into dialogue with a couple of theologians from the present day, all in an effort to bring attention to the inner logic of an important Christian practice. in helping to formulate the distinctively Christian understanding of God, that is, the doctrine of the Trinity. The book centres on Basil because he was active at

Dr Darren Sarisky Junior Research Fellow in Theology and Religious Studies

The Family Values of Empire (Or: How to make unfashionable history very fashionable indeed...)

10

Madeleine Foster, 2010

What family values commanded the British Empire? And how did these values change as the Empire changed?

For historians to explore these questions, one clear approach is to reconstruct the history of a single family who may have embodied these imperial cultures. But which family to choose? The very few most influential – notably the Churchills or even the royal families themselves – tended to overpower their surroundings to the degree that it is sometimes difficult to see how the nation and empire might have influenced them. Conversely, middle-class families whose fortunes rose and fell with business and imperial service can show us how families were shaped by empire – but they were not in the position to shape that empire in return.

The monument at the site of the 1777 Paoli Massacre, near Philadelphia Pennsylvania. The inscription reads: ‘The Atrocious Massacre which this stone commemorates was perpetrated

by British troops under the immediate command of Major General Grey’.

We believe that the imperial family that is the subject of our research strikes that crucial balance between influencing and being influenced. We did not have to look far – the family history of one of

the co-authors, the Earls Grey of Howick and Fallodon, Northumberland – grants fundamental new insight into imperial values that underlay how the empire was run. These Greys in question were an old

Homertonian

Norman family whose various members directly served a number of monarchs including William the Conqueror, King John, and Edward I before the line settled in for several centuries guarding the Scottish

In one sense, histories of statesmen, military leaders and aristocratic families represent an old-fashioned (some might say

college news

borders (one such guardian, Sir Thomas Grey, authored in the 1350s one of the first English histories written by an Englishman – the Scalachronica, while another branch would eventually produce the Tudor queen Jane Grey). In the branch with which we are concerned, family history and British imperial history began to merge in the mid 18th-century with the military career of Northumberland’s General Sir Charles ‘No Flint’ Grey, 1st Earl Grey, a genius tactician to his superiors, colleagues and soldiers, whose effectiveness made him the most notorious British general of the American Revolutionary War in the eyes of the rebels.

The General’s son, Charles Grey, the Prime Minister who brought about the 1832 Reform Act, was a cautious aristocratic abolitionist who, nevertheless, freely spent money made by his father in the slave trade. Next, Henry, 3rd Earl, made a more controversial mark as a tetchy Colonial Secretary who was a principal architect of convict transportation to Australia. After that, Albert, 4th Earl Grey, started out as an adventurer and associate of Cecil Rhodes in southern Africa before serving as an influential Governor-General of Canada and stalwart of the Imperial Federation League, exploring ways that Great Britain might emulate the United States as a would-be super nation-state. At the same time, one of the three American presidents Albert Grey befriended, Theodore Roosevelt, sought to learn from Grey about the British Empire in order to clarify the president’s vision for his own expanding nation. And, finally, there is Albert’s cousin, Sir Edward Grey of Fallodon, still the longest-serving British Foreign Secretary and also friend to several US presidents – the man who observed in 1914 that the lamps were going out all over Europe. (And, yes, this is also the famed tea family, but, no, they do not receive royalties every time black tea is infused with bergamot.)

top William Foster and Rosemary Grey, the authors of Empire in the Blood, in front of Howick Hall, Northumberland, the traditional family seat of the Earls Grey. bottom Howick Hall, Northumberland.

unfashionable) approach to the history of the British Empire. Indeed, imperial history over the last three decades has become an incredibly diverse and rich mix of cultural, social, economic and political approaches and methods. Yet we believe there is still fundamental work to be done in the critical evaluation – not merely description – of the cultures of command and the political decisions they supported.

At the heart of the project are a series of generational paradoxes. Charles Grey, the reform Prime Minister (portrayed

by Dominic Cooper in the 2008 Keira Knightley film The Duchess – Grey having being a lover of the notorious Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire) has been referred to by biographers as the ‘aristocratic reformer’ – the strong identification with the Whig party previewing the mark Grey’s descendants would make as ‘Liberal Imperialists’. Even the Prime Minister’s father Charles, the embodiment of British ‘tyranny’ to Americans, epitomized to his fellow Britons the creativity that could be exercised within a defined and expected structure of command seeking to, as one document we found in the Grey Family Papers in Durham has it, ‘terrify [the Americans] into obedience’. The ultimate goal, an 18th-century version of psychological warfare, would be to

re-secure the colonists’ greater liberty inside the empire – in spite of themselves.

Turning to the very end of our story, even the enigmatic Sir Edward Grey, perceived paradoxically as both the selfless strategic statesman and the detached bird-watcher (Oxford’s Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology is named for him, and being sent down from Bailliol at one point for idleness did not prevent him from eventually becoming Chancellor of the University of Oxford), worked with his cousin Albert to try the ideological convergence and alliance of peoples, American and British, that General Grey had failed to effect in the Revolution. The methods changed, but the core values remained.

Note: At press time it was announced that the book project based on this research, entitled ‘Empire in the Blood’, has just been awarded a substantial combined grant from the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust that will greatly assist in its timely completion. The authors wish to thank the Newton Trust and Homerton College for their support of this Homerton-based research.

William Foster Fellow and Director of Studies for History Rosemary Grey Homerton BA 2009 and Supervisor for History

Homerton College

11

HOMERTON COLLEGE CONFERENCE CENTRE As a Cambridge College it’s not unusual for Homerton to actively market its event and conference services. Out of 31 Colleges, 30 of them have space to sell to external clients to a greater or lesser extent and Homerton takes this part of its business very seriously. We are so lucky that not only do we benefit from accommodation and teaching rooms in vacation time when students have gone down but we also have a year-round day conference venue as well as 3 dining rooms to sell. These spaces not only absorb a proportion of the costs of running the estate but generate surplus funds to support College Educational activity. It is an important revenue stream for the College but we’re often asked, by the public and alumni alike, what we actually do and who uses our facilities: the answer is everything and everyone!

School’s Teacher Campus, and trainee teachers from all over the world join us for intensive language study each summer along with the Prince’s Teaching Institute (part of the Prince’s Trust) who run a three day residential course. Christmas vacation takes on a completely different slant with organisations such as Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Deloitte and Biofocus holding their staff Christmas dinners in the Great Hall, alongside smaller residential conferences.

Term-time events are largely corporate, educational and associations’ conferences, anything from a small meeting for 10 to a large symposium for 300 delegates. We also

host up to six weddings a year, mainly for alumni and generally during the summer vacation, as well as corporate summer garden parties, team-building events and anything else you can imagine; we try to be as flexible as possible and if we can host it we will!

So next time you or your company wish to hold an event in Cambridge, contact the sales team on 01223 747218 or email us at conferences@homerton.cam.ac.uk and tell us what you want. Alumni discounts are available.

Alexandra Cox

The type of events held here varies depending on the time of year; summer is busy with summer schools and corporate conferences taking up the bulk of the space. We are now officially Bell Language above Business exhibition in the Marquee left Dinner in the Great Hall

If you would like to book accommodation during the vacation periods, please contact the Conference Office at conferences@homerton. cam.ac.uk.

12

Homertonian

student news THE CHARTER CHOIR As well as now regularly singing Evensong on Tuesdays at St John the Evangelist, Hills Road, there have been other exciting additions to the life of the Charter Choir this year. It performed at Ely Cathedral in October and at Peterborough Cathedral at the beginning of May, and in addition has twice sung services at the University Church, Great St Mary’s, during the academic year.

In December, members of the Choir stayed up for an extra night at the end of term to record ‘Homerton’, a collaboration by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and Carol Ann Duffy, written to commemorate the Royal Charter of 2010. An abridged version was used as the soundtrack for a Christmas e-card sent to alumni, but the complete recording is now available to download from the Homerton website (http://www.homerton. cam.ac.uk/lifeathomerton/societies/ charterchoir/recordings ) with all proceeds going towards funding the Charter Choir.

In addition, the sixteenth-century anthem ‘If ye love me’, by Thomas Tallis, is available as a free download from the same page.

Another exciting first this year is the opportunity the Charter Choir had to entertain eminent guests at the Charter Dinner in March, performing to a crowd

The Charter Choir singing Evensong at Great St Mary’s Church, Cambridge

including the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, and the new Principal-elect of Homerton College, Professor Geoffrey Ward. As well as hearing Grace sung at the beginning of the meal as last year, this year guests were also treated to a set of madrigals before dessert.

Alumni visiting the College at the reunion weekend in September will be treated to music sung by the Charter Choir on the afternoon of Saturday 28th September. This will also be a chance to hear the choir perform the newlyrecorded ‘Homerton’.

Following the success of the Alsace tour in 2012, our tour this year will be to the Istria region of Croatia. The country is due to enter the European Union at the beginning of July, so the Charter Choir will be one of the first groups to visit under the new system. Details of our concerts and services are outlined below.

In Michaelmas Term 2013 the Choir’s ranks will be augmented by the addition of a Junior Organ Scholar and up to eight first-year students. College has generously agreed to fund a total of 18 choral scholarships in the Choir, potentially enabling all members of the Choir to be granted scholarships for their valued commitment, as well as a contribution towards singing lessons.

Forthcoming dates Tuesday 11th June 2013 Choral Evensong for alumni (6.30pm–7pm) at St John the Evangelist, Hills Road, followed by Alumni Formal Hall.

Saturday 15th June 2013 The Choir will be singing at the Garden Party for the retirement of the Principal and the Senior Tutor. Later that evening they will perform at Grantchester Parish Church in a fundraising concert for their forthcoming tour to Croatia.

Tuesday 9th July 2013 Concert at St Peter’s, Sudbury.

Thursday 11th July 2013 – Monday 15th July 2013 Croatia.

Saturday 28th September 2013 The Choir will perform a short concert at Homerton as part of the Roll Reunion.

Tuesday 15th October 2013 First Evensong of the new academic year.

The Charter Choir website has now moved to the main Homerton site: www.homerton.cam.ac.uk/ lifeathomerton/societies/charterchoir.

This contains full details of services.

Other forthcoming dates of interest are listed here.

Alumni can also now follow the Charter Choir on their Facebook page, at www.facebook.com/homcharterchoir.

Dr Daniel Trocmé-Latter Director of Music

Homerton College

13

HOMERTON COLLEGE MUSIC SOCIETY This year has been another success for Homerton College Music Society. The highlights were of course the concerts at the end of both the Michaelmas and Lent terms, and these showcased a great number of students in a variety of ensembles. The first of these concerts continued the now traditional Christmas theme despite it once again being held in November! The second presented a number of solo performances from a few of the Music students at the college, who dazzled the audience with their virtuosity. It was also pleasing to see a continuation of the trend of increasing audience attendance year after year.

The concerts were in part dedicated to the performance of choral music, and the college is very proud to maintain two choirs, the College Choir and the Charter

Choir, which ensures a wide level of student participation. The Charter Choir, has, in its second academic year under Daniel TrocméLatter, the Director of Music, gone from strength to strength, with the continuation of regular Evensong performances in St John the Evangelist’s Church across the road from the college, as well as performances in two cathedrals.

This year has also seen a busy and exciting recital programme given by students from within and without the college, both as soloists and in ensembles. It continues next term despite (or perhaps because of!) exams.

A particular highlight was the recital given in February by the professional violin duo, the Reid Sisters. We hope to invite further professionals to give recitals at Homerton, as we believe that they are a welcome addition to the growing musical life of the college.

That we are able to attract such talented performers is a tribute to the college.

Musicians at Homerton also continue to contribute to the musical life of the wider University, and we are proud that the college takes such an active role. This year has seen Homertonians participate in such varied ensembles as the CUMS Symphony Orchestra and the CUOS Main Opera, as well as giving recitals at other colleges. There has also been an increased student presence on the HCMS committee, especially from first-year students, so we are sure that next year will be another triumph for music-making at the college. It remains for me to thank the committee for all their hard work, and also the senior members drawn from the Fellowship of the college, for their support.

Elliot Thompson HCMS President 2012–13

Homerton Writers We were asked recently to identify authors on our library website who had been Homerton students or who were associated with the College as lecturers.

Other Cambridge colleges can boast Erasmus, Newton or Byron. We are not quite in that league; however, a search soon identified at least twenty authors distinguished in their separate ways.

We have recently celebrated the life of Dora Saint (1931–33), author of the Miss Reed books, who entertained three generations worldwide with her stories of life in an idyllic rural village school. Grace Dibble (1922–25), a prolific travel writer and ‘lone wanderer’, studied Geography under John Jones at Homerton and wrote over thirteen books.

Maude Bodkin (1875–1967), a lecturer at Homerton from 1902–14, influenced a whole generation of student poets with her Archetypal Patterns in Poetry published by Oxford University Press in 1934; she is less well-known as a poet in her own right, but her work is now beginning to be rediscovered.

14

Homertonian

Joan Chandler, a Lecturer at Homerton from 1958–1960, wrote her influential The Settlement of the American West and Television and National Sport: The United States and Britain (Sport and Society) in 1988.

Kay Melzi (1938–1970) was appointed Lecturer in art at Homerton in 1938. She ran Saturday morning art classes for evacuees, which continued after WWII, and became associated with the rock band Pink Floyd.

Her book Art in the Primary School (1967) is still regarded as a standard textbook.

She made a significant contribution to the introduction of modern art into schools.

Beyond living memory there are some great writers in Homerton’s early history in London. William Smith (1813–1893), a lexicographer, was appointed Classical Tutor at Homerton in 1843. He edited some of the most important Classical dictionaries of antiquities in the midnineteenth century for which he received a knighthood. Thomas Raffles (1788–1863), author, biographer and Homerton student

(1805–09), founded the Raffles Library at Manchester. His list of publications is impressive, including collections of poems and hymns. His biography of Thomas Spencer, published in Liverpool in 1813, ran to seven editions with several more in America. During his lifetime Marischal College, Aberdeen, and Union College, Connecticut bestowed honorary doctorates on him. His Letters during a Tour through France, Savoy etc, published in Liverpool in 1820, also ran to five editions.

Charles Wellbeloved, a student at Homerton Academy from 1785–7, is particularly important to us: Unitarian Divine, archaeologist and antiquarian author, he established Manchester College, Oxford where his portrait now hangs.

Manchester College has recently become twinned with Homerton College, Cambridge, largely because of our shared heritage in nonconformity and our distinguished alumnus who became their founder.

Dr Peter Warner Senior Tutor

student news

HATS Once again, and for the umpteenth year running, Homerton Amateur Theatrical Society (HATS) has been at the forefront of exciting drama and theatre, as we continue to showcase the best talent within Homerton and the University and continue our outreach into the wider community.

Since re-launching the society last year, we wanted to give back to those who have loyally supported us over the last few years. As ever, our HATStands Christmas Special in Michaelmas was immensely well received, perhaps even more rapturously so than normal due to the relocation to the bar and the waiving of an entrance fee! Boasting musicians, comedy and even a psychological illusionist who was able to read the mind of our Principal, all made the night immensely special for all in attendance. At the time of writing, HATStands returns for the Lent term with a special tribute to Dr. Kate Pretty, featuring some very special guests from the past… and I am sure A Very Pretty HATStands will be a fantastic night too.

You can view many of our performances from HATStands over the past few years on YouTube at the following URL: http:// www.youtube.com/user/HATSDrama This year, HATS successfully funded a new work entitled Hollow, featuring two new pieces of writing: Medea by Rhianna Frost and Caitlin Derham and Visiting by Ciaran Chillingworth. The event was very well attended, and showcased HATS’ commitment to putting on the best new talent and writing for all to see.

Other projects, such as HATS Poetry Group and our education group ‘LittleHATS’, continue to go from strength to strength, as we look to encourage adults and children of all ages to enjoy the benefits of drama and performance.

Our Senior Treasurer, Dr Abigail Rokison, has moved to work at the Shakespeare Institute with all of our best wishes and profuse thanks for her work for the society. We welcome Dr. Georgie Horrell who has very kindly agreed to take this position over!

Furthermore, I would like to extend my gratitude to all of those unsung members of the HATS and HATStands committees who continue to support and drive the

performances that entertain hundreds of people each year. Without your help, the show would simply not go on. Thank you to everyone who has attended or supported a HATS show over the past few years, and should you wish to support HATS in any other way, we would be delighted to hear from you.

Chris Hussey HATS President & HATStands Director

Homerton College

15

David Ponting

Rowing HCBC’s 2012 May Bumps campaign was the most successful of all the clubs on the Cam, and we were awarded the Pegasus cup for our achievements. Despite being one Blue down due to an injured Mike Thorp, M1 made Homerton history by bumping up into Division 1 from 4th in Division 2, thanks to the invaluable coaching from Sergej Using, and many hours of hard work put in by the crew.

M2 also moved up a division and attained blades, thanks to the coaching support of Sam Farmer (2002–2006). To top it off M3 achieved blades with an overbump on day 3, to give a total of 12 bumps for the men’s side. W1 were cruelly denied their blades in their last race and missed out on the overbump by a quarter of a length, a fabulous achievement in itself, but it has ignited their determination to get the much deserved blades next Mays. The result would not have been achievable without the coaching efforts of Mike Edey. W2, despite being a scratch crew with numerous subs on various days, made an impressive achievement in reaching to be the sandwich boat atop of Division 4 before being bumped by Sidney Sussex W2 on the last day. They are currently now second in the Division and ready to reach Division 3. Without a doubt W2 owed its existence and success to the hard work and numerous hours

M1 2012 May Bumps – Bumping into Division 1

16

Homertonian

M2 2012 May Bumps

of coaching put in by our then LBC Alex Courage (2010–2013) and also our stolen coach from ARU, Dave Hetherington. The women’s side added a further four bumps to the grand total achieved by HCBC in their Mays Campaign.

Michaelmas term of 2012 saw our biggest intake of novices on both the men’s and women’s sides, initially with enough new members to fill five men’s crews and three women’s crews. After the preliminary surge of rowing interest, two novice men’s crews and two novice women’s crews were selected to row at Clare Novice Regatta and the Fairbairn Cup. The senior men put out a consistent IV for Lent term, where they produced a convincing win against LMBC and a very close race with Caius in University IVs, achieved third place in Student Novice IVs at Cambridge Winter Head, and were the fifth fastest college IV for the Fairbairn Cup. We would like to thank Fred Lord for all the time he invested in coaching the

IV. The senior women for the first time in quite a while managed to put out a full VIII into Fairbairns and a highly competitive IV into University IVs. The IV managed to beat Emmanuel comfortably but then met their match with LMBC who went on to be the overall winners. The biggest success though for the senior women was the VIII going on to win Fairbairns, making history in the process!

Again, a success which is owed to Mike Edey’s coaching.

Our 2013 Lent Bumps campaign saw some adrenaline-packed races. On the first day M1 bumped Jesus II 20 metres from the finish line, M2 came to within half a length of catching Emmanuel III to produce a strong row over, and both W1 and W2 overbumped. M2 had a particularly tough draw from their fantastic result in the getting-on race, starting off at station 5 out of 18 in the M4 division. They were caught in a thrilling chase overlapping with both the boat in front and behind on the second day, and were just bumped, although it was a very close call. They completed their bumps campaign with two convincing row overs, which is good result after starting off in such a challenging position. Following from the first day, M1 continued to move up the bumps chart, and ended in a grand finale to bump First and Third II on the last day to achieve blades, thanks to the coaching support of Sergej Using and Fred Lord. M1 will go on to race on the Tideway at Hammersmith Head and the Head of the River Race at the end of this term. W2 had a hugely successful bumps campaign, moving up 5 overall courtesy of a technical row-over preventing them from attaining blades. All thanks for W2 go to Shruti Chaudhri, the

E.D.Tindall

STUDENT NEWS

W2 2013 Lent Bumps

previous year’s W1 cox and rower in W2, who in between her day job finds time to coach W2 on the water and the ergs. W1, despite the overbump on the first day, did not have bumps luck in their favour. An unfortunate crab on the second day when on overlap with the crew in front resulted in being bumped, and they were ¾ of a length off the overbump the third day.

However, they still moved up three overall and are in the highest position in Division

W1 2012 who won The Fairbairn Cup

2 a Homerton W1 crew has been in years, again with full credits going to Mike Edey.

W1 will go on to race on the Tideway as well in Women’s Eights Head of the River Race the week after bumps.

HCBC is currently in a fantastic position to do well in the next Mays campaign; we are hoping to put out three highly competitive men’s and women’s boats. This really has been an incredibly successful last year for

HCBC and Homerton is truly making a name for itself on the Cam, recently even being dubbed “danger Homerton” during Lent bumps.

The fantastic May results are due in part to last year’s HCBC Captains: thanks to Jon Rackham and Sophie Bell.

Steph Payne & Fiona Stewart HCBC Captains 2012–2013

CUWBC At the end of my second year I decided to trial for Cambridge University Women’s Boat Club, with the ultimate aim of making the lightweight crew for the Henley Boat Races in 2013.

To prepare I spent the first month of the summer holidays on a development squad in Cambridge, improving my technique and fitness and gaining invaluable racing practice at various regattas. When I returned in September I began the trialing process, which necessitated complete commitment to a demanding training programme involving weights and erg sessions as well as six water sessions each week. This level of work has placed a strain on all aspects of my life over the past few terms, including my finances as well as my body and what used to be my social life!

Although CUWBC is extremely fortunate to now be sponsored fully by Newton, female trialists are still expected to pay for their transport to and from weekly

Alex Courage seat 4 in the boat

sessions, racing and training camps, with costs amounting to at least two hundred pounds per term. Fortunately I was lucky enough to receive a grant from a Homerton alumnus specifically designed for University sportswomen. This funding has removed much of the financial strain involved in my mission to beat Oxford on Sunday 24th March, and enabled me to focus fully on training and, just as importantly, eating!

The whole squad is currently in the final stages of selection, after which we will knuckle down to even more training with the single-minded goal of coming out on

top in the clash of the blues at Henley. I very much hope that I will be selected, but even to have got this far has been an amazing experience which would not have been possible without Homerton’s kind donation.

Alex Courage Historical Tripos 2010–2013 Alex went on to be selected for the Lightweight Blue Women’s VIII for the Henley Races on 24 March. Cambridge were beaten by Oxford on this occasion.

Homerton College

17

The Bursar’s contribution to the integration of women’s rugby into the CURFU Soon after arriving at Homerton last summer, I was asked by the new Chairman of Cambridge Rugby Football Union, Nick Bennett, to get involved with the club and sit on its Executive Committee. Nick is seeking to move the club forward in terms of governance, finance, and of course to improve performances on the field. Specifically, Nick wanted me to help integrate women’s rugby in the University into the club. For the last five years I had chaired the Rugby Football Union for Women (RFUW) and in July 2012 we became fully integrated into the RFU, so this was something I felt I had some knowledge of. The RFU/RFUW integration process had started in 2005 so I am hoping Cambridge will not take so long!

with many of the Counties, Cambridge RFU is a Constituent body of the RFU responsible for running rugby in its constituency. The Colleges are member clubs of Cambridge RFU as is Cambridge University RFC, which is the club running the men’s representative sides. The men’s teams in the Colleges have their fixtures organised, referees provided and support for specialist training such as front row play, provided by CRFU. Conversely, the Cambridge Women’s Rugby Football Club is run by the current players and they also encourage women’s rugby in the Colleges. The CUWRFC play in two leagues, the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) national league as well as the RFU Women’s League. So playing twice a week, organising the club and studying does not leave much time to help organise women’s rugby in the Colleges!

Richard Langsford

The governance within the University has taken me some time to understand. Along

Richard Langsford

above The Cambridge University Womens team enjoy the company of Mike Gibson, Cambridge Blue, 69 caps for Ireland and toured 5 times with British & Irish Lions left Action from the women’s rugby Varsity Game

Richard Langsford

below Fiona Gillanders, captain of CUWRFC and Mike Gibson

One of the first things we did was to ensure that all women’s teams in the Colleges including the female only colleges were members of CRFU so that they would all benefit from the insurance scheme of the RFU. There have also been several meetings with the RFU development team to provide support during the Michaelmas term 2013.

Unlike the men, most women arriving at Cambridge have not played rugby before and need an introduction to the game that enables them to play full contact within weeks. It goes without saying that these sessions have to be fun so that initial enthusiasm shown at Fresher’s Fair is not lost to other competing sports. The RFU have been running introductory sessions over several weeks at other universities for a number of years. These have been very successful. Bringing together those interested in playing from all the Colleges ensures everyone receives safe and correct skills coaching from the outset.

It was a great pleasure to meet some of the CUWRFC ex-players at the recent women’s Varsity game and to find that many of them are playing for clubs such as Hampstead and Wimbledon. One of the Alumni even has a daughter playing at Saracens in the Under 18 age group. I also met Meg Gardener. Meg graduated from Homerton in 2008 and played rugby both for college and the university and was President of CUWRFC. As she is now a lawyer in London I encouraged her to get involved in the RFU disciplinary panels where they are seeking more females.

CURFU is now including women’s rugby in all its planning whether in the Colleges or at University level. Supporting the women’s game will expand the interest in rugby throughout the University and provide for the opportunity to recruit more referees, officials, volunteers and coaches from the women’s game.

Deborah Griffin OBE Bursar

18

Homertonian

David Jones

David Jones

Andrew Murdoch about to contest for the ball David Jones

It has been great this season to watch the progress of two Homertonians playing for the University and both achieving a starting place in the Varsity game last December. Both are undergraduates; Andy Murdoch is studying Chemical Engineering, plays in the centre and rather modestly in his article below fails to tell that he scored Cambridge’s only try in the varsity game. Andrew Abraham, a geographer, started at scrum-half.

STUDENT NEWS

VARSITY MATCH 2012

Andrew writes about the lead up to the big day.

“This was my first season playing for the Blues, and as such I was unaccustomed to each of the unique experiences leading up to the Varsity match at Twickenham on the 6th December. Following a rigorous pre-season training camp during the summer months, we began to play a number of university, academy and invitational teams under the leadership of captain Rob Malaney and new coach James Shanahan. Whilst the success of the team during the later stages of the term brought much confidence, selection remained a very real concern in the minds of each player; no-one was going to stroll into this team on past merits. Yet as a team we remained close, as we each continued to push ourselves further in both the gym and on the rugby pitch. In the lead up to the game we were given the very best chance in a final push of specialist coaching, video analysis sessions and the continued guidance from the coaching team and past Blues. Whilst we indulged in the frivolity that surrounds the varsity match, we also knew that we had given ourselves the best chance to get one up on the 6th.”

Whilst the result was ultimately disappointing as a resurgent second-half performance from Oxford overcame a significant deficit to win the 2012 Varsity Match, Cambridge led 16–6 at half-time,

above Andrew Murdoch scoring the try left Andrew Abraham kicking

after a late try by Andy Murdoch, but three tries saw Oxford overhaul the Light Blues in the second half.

Andy writes about the day itself.

“The culmination of 14 weeks hard work on and off the field was finally upon us.

We arrived at the hotel in London the day before the Varsity Match where we all tried to relax by playing table tennis and having a bit of a swim. But the mood in the camp had now changed; the joking around and lightheartedness had been swapped for a more serious and focused attitude. Sleep that evening was pretty hard to come by and the morning of the game seemed to drag on forever, but eventually 11a.m. came round and we were on the bus to the ground.

Once we got to the ground we had a little time to soak up the atmosphere and watch

the end of the Under 21s’ narrow loss to the other place. We were still quietly confident and were keen to make amends for their loss. The game started ideally for us, and we went in at half time 16–6 up. However, things from there slowly went downhill and Oxford scored three tries of their own to eventually run out 26–19 winners.

Although the result wasn’t what we had wanted (or expected) the whole experience was fantastic and I was incredibly proud to have represented Homerton and the University in such a prestigious event.”

Andrew Abraham Geographical Tripos 2011–2014 Andy Murdoch Chemical Engineering 2009 – 2013 Compiled by Deborah Griffin OBE Fellow and Bursar

Homerton College

19

HUS SPORTS AND SOCIETIES 2012/13 has been yet another stellar year for Homerton in terms of the extracurricular side of college life. For while we spend our days writing essays and completing examples sheets, we take our minds off these things by representing the college in a wealth of sports, or indulging in our interests through the wide variety of societies which are on offer not only in our own college, but on a broader, university-wide scale as well. We’ve seen the introduction of new societies. For instance, on the home front Lucy Rosenstiel has successfully campaigned for a Photography Society which she has started up herself and which is in the initial stages of its development. We have seen students take control of the Tennis Club, with Ross Lindsay and Gabo Quiros helping it off the ground this year.

Homerton not only has a fledgling Athletics Club, but among our number we find a wealth of talent, most noticeably in Matthew Houlden, our resident Athletics (and Karate) Blue in both the long and triple jump, and a half blue in a number of other events. His Varsity campaign this year has been stellar, and has involved personal best times in all of his events, and he is now going to captain the team going to the US this Easter, so we are truly lucky to have a man of such sporting status amongst our ranks! The Homerton club has also been successful in its short lifespan, making Athletics one of the up and coming sports in the college.

There has been great success in the Homerton Allotment Society, where the scope has been increased from a mere greenhouse to a full allotment, and great credit must go to Heather Plumpton, the society’s president, for overseeing such a growth in the society! In fact, she is also the co-president of the CUECS, the Cambridge University Environmental Consulting Society, which has also grown, doubling its membership intake and receiving corporate sponsorship from IBM to invest in a thermal imaging camera to help left Nahum Clements taking a rest at the allotment below left Matthew Houlden below right Jon Palmer, Homerton Men’s Hockey Captain, representing the University seconds in the annual Varsity Match

20

Homertonian

colleges and departments increase their environmental efficiency. So as we can see there are significant strides being taken by Homerton students in the University as a whole, tackling important issues such as these.

Homerton Sport in general has managed to grow more and more despite the loss of some key participants who have been vital in the past. Homerton Rugby took to the field in the First Division of the college league this year, after astonishing back to back promotions. Despite the small squad and a horrific injury plight, the team fought valiantly with our very own Griffins President at the helm, but were just unable to stave off relegation. However, with two Blues players in Andrew Abraham and Andrew Murdoch, a promising plate campaign is predicted. On a positive note, the first ever Old Boys fixture took place this year in celebration of the ten year anniversary of the club’s founding, and was won by the Old Boys in poor conditions.

Most importantly this fixture looks to be one which will be staged on a regular basis.

Homerton Basketball went into the 2012/13 season undefeated but has since struggled for results, but in spite of this we have turned out a Blue in Jorge Gomez Magenti who scored 8 points against Oxford in the Varsity match, and a half Blue in fresher Ben Evans, so we can still be proud of the college’s achievements in the sport!

The Homerton Football team has had a much quieter season this year, but has remained a force to be reckoned with, with the top three teams claiming a place in the highest league which it can occupy, with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd teams in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd division respectively, marking a period of dominance for Homertonian football. They should be commended not only for the success, but also for managing to be one of only two colleges in Cambridge to lay claim to four college teams. Additionally, Homerton has bred two Blues-level footballers, in Anthony Childs and Sol Elliott, who will be competing in the upcoming Varsity match.

We’ve seen a truly remarkable Homertonian influence on Uni-wide sport and society life, with Homertonians getting deeply involved in all areas, from the well-documented Blues Sports to the less-talked about Tea

STUDENT NEWS

In a similar vein, Homerton Men’s Hockey has struggled for numbers, rarely mustering 11 players including a goalkeeper, but we still have quality in our numbers.

For instance Jon Palmer turned out for the Men’s University seconds in the Varsity match, which was won by Cambridge.

There are several Blues players in the women’s team, such as Claire Jordan, the current Homerton Women’s Hockey captain. The Homerton Ultimate Frisbee team must be commended for being a strong force in the university college leagues, always putting up a sterling fight against all opposition. Unfortunately these performances have not always led to positive results, with a string of poor results leading to relegation from the top league at the end of this term. However, it must be said that the team has been successful in continuing its growth as a sport, developing players from scratch to become consistent top performers at college level, and instilling an ethic where everyone is encouraged to play regardless of experience or ability, truly encompassing the friendly nature of Homerton as a college.

right University Cheerleading Society middle Absolute Pandemonium Steel Pans Society below Tom Cozens Ultimate Frisbee Team Captain 2011–2012

Fever’, out of 24 teams, which is a remarkable performance given the relative facilities.

Society, as well as the fledgling Cambridge Cheerleading Society. Its captain is Megan Trimble, a Homertonian, and she leads a massive Homertonian influence of six members. This has been a big year for the Cheerleading Society, with Homerton having helped contribute towards the kit necessary to compete, and the very first Cambridge vs Oxford Varsity match having taken place this year. In a hopefully precedent-setting match, Cambridge came out victorious in what will be the first of many Varsity Cheerleading competitions.

In addition to this, the Cambridge Cougars managed an impressive 2nd place in the national competition ‘Saturday Night

One of the most successful societies in Homerton must be the Steel Pans Society, Absolute Pandemonium, which is an exciting venture, going from strength to strength the more it grows. The last two terms have been, in the words of President Steve Pates, ‘stellar’, and they have managed to purchase brand new equipment all the way from Trinidad to help them grow as a society and expand their talents. A performance at the Caribbean Poetry Festival at Homerton has paved the way for many more successful performances, as well as sponsorship from Zipcar, and the culmination of the team’s fantastic work this year will be their performance at the Jewish Society Ball.

In short, sports and societies in Homerton and Cambridge this year have gone from strength to strength, and everyone seems to be getting involved in one way or another, which is absolutely fantastic, and Homertonians should be commended for all their efforts in the last year! It truly is a shame that I haven’t been able to mention everyone that has taken part, but to everyone in Homerton and Cambridge for that matter, well done and keep up the good work!

George Jenkins HUS Sports and Societies Officer 2012–3 Homerton College

21

PILKINGTON TRAVEL AWARDS Again 10 students were awarded Pilkington Travel Grants. The students worked in six different countries. Here are reports from two them.

TAILORING IN VIETNAM Alora is a not-for-profit organization run by students in Cambridge that sells high quality, handmade bespoke dresses, which are made to order by a tailor in Vietnam. With the help of the Pilkington trust, I went out to Vietnam alongside three other Alora volunteers from Homerton to learn more about the charity and how to make it even bigger and better. I wanted to see for myself how the efforts I’d put in last year working as an Alora fundraiser and volunteer in Cambridge had impacted the lives of the women we were helping in Vietnam. After the trip, Alora became more personal to me, so I decided to take on the demanding role of Project Leader to help raise as much money as possible for these women.

During our visit, we were given the opportunity to meet the three women we had funded through the programme. Ms Luong has been physically disabled from birth. Since graduating from the Alora programme, Ms Luong earns her living by sewing for people in her village and runs her own small tailoring school. We spent some time with Ms Luong and her father at their small village home. They were the most welcoming hosts and kept feeding us dragon fruit and the sweetest, alarmingly bright green, but delicious green tea. Her father would not stop thanking us for how we’ve helped his daughter.

Ms Hang who lost her leg to illness as a child told us the programme gave her the confidence to start up her own disabled women’s support group in Hanoi. It is from this support group that all future Alora recruits will come. We visited the women in the support group at one of their meetings, and they told us how the friendships they’d formed in the group had helped them. One of the members of the group is running classes teaching other disabled people how to read and write. We went to see her teaching and I was inspired by her enthusiasm and dedication to her students,

22

Homertonian

above The Alora team & our partners in Vietnam (Zakira 3 from the right) above right Alora fashion show at Revolution in Cambridge, Nov 2012

above The Alora graduates below Ms Luong, who now creates & sells her own clothes from home

and how she had not let her disability stop her from helping others!

After seeing how much we’ve helped these women, it made us all the more passionate about Alora and its future. We brainstormed with the tailors about the types of dresses they can and can’t make, plans for expansion and how the money we gathered would be used. We decided in the short term that we want to enroll two more women each year in the tailoring programme. We hope to be able to fully support these women using the profits from dress sales in Cambridge.

The rest of the profits will go into a fund so that in five years’ time we can open a shop in central Hanoi.

So far this year, Alora has raised £1000 in sponsorship, raised £200 from an ethical fashion show using girls who bought dresses last year, and will have sold 50 dresses.

My visit to Vietnam was a rewarding, enriching and unforgettable experience.

I am so grateful to the Pilkington Trust for helping me to reach Hanoi and spend time with these women, learn from them and experience their hospitality and kindness.

Zakira Mohamed Natural Science Tripos 2010–2013

TRIP TO FIJI Fiji is a land of extreme contrasts. Five minutes past the main island’s most expensive hotel lies a community of tin huts that often sleep families with up to eight children in one room. Those that manage to come to school are frequently riddled with scarring skin diseases such as ringworm due to lack of access to basic hygiene. The tropical paradise of the islands fails to reveal the devastated sugar trade and the political isolation that is a result of Fiji’s coups and under which all of the population suffer.

Further, the friendly ‘bulas’ (Fijian for hello) are probably the only glimpse most tourists get into the country’s culture. That in itself is difficult to define – the welcoming attitude of the locals masks the deeply-felt tensions between the ‘indigenous’ Fijians and the large Hindu community. Teachers in the local schools actively refer to the children by their ethnicity – or rather, the children of Indian origin are primarily known to be precisely that. From an early age, then, the cultural divide that is felt by many inhabitants of the islands is cemented and reinforced.

The hope for changing cultural attitudes and the opportunities for the next generation then must lie in the education system. Teaching Class 4 (40 nine to twelve year olds) at Nadi Primary School was an enormous privilege. I can only hope that I managed to make a fraction of the impact on the children that they made on me. The young individuals I met were so talented from such a young age. There were singers, artists and linguists all in one classroom, yet no one was there to further their talents or spot their potential. Fruit day on Friday saw every pupil bring in a fruit from their local community, which they always shared with me. Their generosity and warmth was inspiring.

The children blossomed with individual attention. I was often left alone with the entire class of forty and these proved to be the most frustrating and unproductive days.

I managed instead to establish a reading group for the slow learners, who at the age of nine or worse, twelve, were often entirely illiterate and could not begin to tell the time. It was evident that many suffered from unrecognised or learned difficulties.

One girl, voluntarily mute, had clearly suffered from spending years with children whose literacy rates far exceeded hers.

Instead of helping her, the over-strained teaching staff made her, and other children in similar positions, the objects of abuse by subjecting them to corporal punishment (although officially illegal) or spurring the taunts of other children. top Two students from Mona’s English Class above left Nadi Primary School bottom left Mona (right) & Nadi Primary’s Headteacher (left) surrounded by the children of Class 4

For many, calling them by their names not to punish them, but to ask for an answer, a story, or their participation was an entirely new experience. I spent most of my days with a reading group of four or five, trying to teach them how to read in ways that were appropriate to their understanding.

Simultaneously, I felt it important to convey a sense of the value of education. I had brought hard-backed and elaborately illustrated children’s books with me so that what they were learning could seem tangible and worth cherishing.

The guilt at having to leave Nadi Primary School – particularly my reading group of Avneel, Sairusi, Sanjana, Pria, Poate and Isliesa – could only be allayed if I was sure that this school was going to get a steady flow of volunteers to help the over-worked, under-paid and sometimes unqualified teachers.

The bus groups of tourists who are unloaded onto schools like Nadi Primary to take photos and throw pencils into a singing crowd of children are clearly detrimental to any real progress that could be made in these institutions. A university like Cambridge, and a college such as Homerton, has the students who could provide for the needs of all members of the school. I would hope that qualified education students of the College could be actively encouraged to partake in the task of helping these schools and training their teachers.

Mona Ebert English Tripos 2010–2013

Homerton College

23

HOMERTON UNION OF STUDENTS jcr Getting involved with the Homerton College Union of Students (HUS) is easily the best decision I have made during my time in Cambridge. This is the third year that I have been on the HUS and I could not imagine life at Homerton without being part of it.

I was honoured and delighted to be elected President this time last year and I have loved my year as the Sabbatical President. Before I say much else, I would like to thank all of the brilliant people that have been on my team this year and everyone else on the other teams I’ve been involved with.

This year the HUS has been as active as ever. On being elected as President I set my team some ambitious targets for the year and I’ve been delighted at what we’ve achieved.

One of my main focuses for the year has been improving the college JCR common room. However, having asked students what they wanted from the room, we found that a large number of the student body were interested in having a college gym. Following this the college have agreed to let us turn the current common room into a gym and move the common room into the college bar (the Griffin).

The gym is scheduled to be built for Michaelmas 2013 and I hope it will be a great addition to the college.

My proudest achievement as President has been running a successful Living Wage campaign at the college. The Living Wage is a base level of pay calculated geographically which constitutes the minimum wage necessary in order to live. Homerton was previously one of the worst colleges for paying this and so I am delighted that we have managed to achieve this transition so quickly.

I’ve also been really proud to see the achievements of other members of the HUS team this year. Helena Blair, our Target

24

Homertonian

HUS JCR Team 2012

and Access Officer, planned and ran the first ever Homerton specific ‘Shadowing Scheme’. This March we had four students from our target London boroughs of Hounslow, Richmond and Kingston stay at Homerton for three days, attend lectures with current students and see Homerton and Cambridge from a student perspective.

The HUS was able to completely fund the students’ expenses and we hope that the experience will have dispelled any myths they have about Cambridge and maybe encourage them to apply in the future! Poppy Damon, our Environmental and Ethical Affairs Officer, also deserves a mention for planning and hosting two free student comedy nights. The HUS paid for professional comedians and recruited the finest student talent from Cambridge to put on a show for students to counteract the so called ‘week 5 blues’ each term. Both nights have been really well attended and I hope they continue.

I have loved my time at Homerton and I am sad that it is drawing to an end. I have many happy memories of my four years here which I will carry with me always and

I have been fortunate to meet so many brilliant people who I am sure I will be in contact with long after we all leave Cambridge. I am confident that the HUS will continue to be a really positive force for Homerton students and I wish my successor the best of luck. I also wish the new Principal well and add my thanks to Kate Pretty for all of her support to me during my time at Homerton.

Thank you Homerton, it’s been great.

Greg Hill HUS President 2012–2013

STUDENT NEWS

Mcr This has been an exciting year for the Homerton College MCR. Now in just our fourth year of existence, we have endeavoured to do more for graduates than ever before.

We started on a high note, with the College’s most successful PGCE Freshers’ Week yet. Together with the JCR we hosted a full schedule of events for the 327 new PGCE students, which involved a variety of events, ranging from a low-key Film Night to a Pub Quiz to a Cambridge Pub Crawl. Our MCR Freshers’ Week also boasted record attendance numbers, with students from all over the world coming together to go Punting on the Cam, experience the spookier side of Cambridge with a Ghost Walk, and cook their favourite dishes to present at a Film Night and Pot-Luck Dinner.

top A selection of incoming graduate students at a Fresher’s Week event at the Orchard Tea Room in Granchester

Chiefly, this year the MCR has focused its efforts on improving services for graduates at Homerton. In particular, we launched our new, redesigned website, which includes more photos and resources than ever before, including welfare information and a new MCR Common Room Booking System. We have also refurbished the Common Room itself in order to provide more seating and to make the space an overall more welcoming environment.

In another move designed to improve our ability to provide services and host events for graduates, we have also increased our interaction with Homerton’s JCR this year. Together, our two committees have hosted a number of Bops for both undergraduate and graduate students, as well as increased access to a variety of welfare groups. We have also liaised with College officials to develop a graduateundergraduate mentoring scheme which is planned to launch in 2013–2014.

Perhaps most exciting for students in College this year was the introduction of Graduate Formal Halls on the first

bottom Homerton Representatives at the Reception with Prince William & the Duchess of Cambridge. LaraLeigh NicDhughaill, Kenichi Udagawa, Kate Boehme, Robbie Stevens, Penny Barton (left to right)

Friday of every month during Term, as well as Graduate-Fellow Formal Halls during breaks. In addition, our students have enjoyed opportunities to visit other colleges and interact with visiting students from elsewhere during our frequent Formal Swaps. Together, these experiences have ensured that this year’s graduates have grown into a closely knit community.

However, Homerton graduate students have not only grown into an exceptional, dynamic community within College, but have also become a visible part of life across Cambridge. Our students have proven themselves in athletics, both on the sports pitch and on

the river. They have also excelled in theatrical performances, ballroom dance competitions, and academic conferences all over the world.

With such an intelligent, interesting group of students it is impossible to know where they will go next. All we can tell for certain is that, for them, success is surely right around the corner. It has been a pleasure living and working with each one of them, and I look forward to seeing how Homerton graduates continue to flourish in the coming months and years.

Kate Boehme MCR President 2012–2013

Homerton College

25

RETIRED SENIOR MEMBERS ASSOCIATION RSMA Chairman’s Report – Plus change…

There was a time when I used to be asked to give ‘lead lectures’ at conferences concerned with ‘Change’.

In the conviction that few of us want change, I always suggested the session should be titled “How to avoid change; 101 ways to kill a good idea stone dead”.

It was at one such conference that I first heard the quotation from Florence Nightingale (which I probably now misquote): “All one needs to do in order to move backwards, is to stand still.”

Looking back, over the past five years I can see that there have been changes. Each year, inevitably, we have had the sadness of losing and the pleasure of gaining members. Since my last report, we have suffered the loss of Dr Ian McMahon and Dr Louise Pirouet. Among other things, both will be remembered for their outstanding contribution not only to Homerton, but also to the wider community. We have welcomed to our ranks retired members of the administrative staff, namely Mr Gale Bryan, Mrs Charlie Jenner, and Mr John Chapman. In addition, our offer of membership has been accepted by Dr Bobbie Wells, Dr Jill Waterhouse and Dr Tim Rowlands, all of whom have contributed much to the academic life of college in the past. So this ‘Senior Alumni’ association,

unique in its composition among Cambridge Colleges, now has a record membership of seventy-six.

We have established a Teacher Education Bursary, the aim of which is partly at least to remind the new Homerton of its past. We have a series of talks, preceded by coffee and followed by luncheon on High Table (with wine from the illegal RSMA Wine Cellar). We have an Almonry team, who are proactive in their concern for the well-being of members.

Publications by members are displayed in the College Research Cabinet. We have a splendidly professionally produced annual Newsletter; a Website (albeit in need of some loving care); a Quiz Team (appropriately entitled ‘The Wooden Spooners’); a Book Club, and ‘Emeritus’, a group who meet to enjoy what often resembles singing, but is more an immensely enjoyable therapeutic noise-making session. Nevertheless, probably my favourite change has been to see Alison Shrubsole, the past Principal, who, along with Dr David Male, founded our association, suitably commemorated by a room appropriate to her significance in the movement of Homerton to a University College.

Of course, the greatest change faces us at the end of the year and involves the

hierarchy of the new Homerton. We lose a Principal, who, in Kate Pretty, has been a staunch supporter of our association and a Senior Tutor, Peter Warner, who many years ago was influential in our initial integration into the life of the college.

And Finally….

It only seems like yesterday that John Hammond suggested I should stand for election to chair the RSMA Executive Committee. But it wasn’t. It was nearly five years ago, and this is my final report. I have enjoyed the experience a great deal more than I had anticipated, and this has been to a large extent due to my colleagues on the committee, who have suffered my chairmanship with such good humour and tolerance. A special mention must go to our Secretary, Trish Maude, who is also retiring this year after many more years of service on the committee than me, and who, among many admirable qualities, has perfected a superb technique of writing substantial portions of the minutes in advance of the meeting!

Professor John Murrell MBE Emeritus Fellow, Sometime George Peabody Professor, Chairman, Homerton College RSMA

obituaries Dr Ian McMahon 1923–2012 Head of History, 1965–1988 George Ian Robertson McMahon was born on 5th February 1923 in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father, John Robertson McMahon, was a Scottish émigré and Presbyterian minister, and his mother, Henrietta Elizabeth Robinson McMahon, came from a family of New England

26

Homertonian

June 1986

academics and missionaries. Ian grew up in a number of the states of the union as his father‘s postings took him from Michigan in the north to Alabama in the south. It was possibly in order to introduce some stability in their sons’ lives that their parents sent Ian and his brother Jimmy to Howe Military Academy, Indiana, for their secondary education. It was here that Ian’s academic potential began to flourish, and where his lifelong love of history and

In due course Ian was offered a place, but not the necessary scholarship, at Harvard University. Instead he attended the local Presbyterian institution of Monmouth College, a ‘school’ which is still flourishing and regularly sends Ian its alumni literature. The Second World War now being underway, he was conscripted on graduation and seconded to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for a course in Spanish – a fruitful introduction to that university. He saw active service with the US Army signals corps in the Pacific theatre, and was in Japan as part of the occupying force when General MacArthur signed the act of surrender in Tokyo Bay. He remembered the country as a traveller rather than a soldier, and remained interested in it and its culture in later life. Otherwise, he was always reluctant to discuss his wartime experiences, although they must have informed his uncompromising aversion to autocracy in all its forms, and his unswerving advocacy of a robust military deterrent (which was in time to prove a cause of friction with the well-meaning Guardian-reading generation which he fathered!).

After demobilisation, Ian resumed his education at Chapel Hill, taking a master’s degree in history (his thesis relating to the Vatican and diplomacy), and where he undertook some supervision. By now his vocation to the Episcopalian ministry had become explicit, and the next three years were spent at the General Theological Seminary in New York City. His first clerical appointment was to St Mark’s, Roxboro, North Carolina (and its satellite missions, for one of which he oversaw the building of a new little church). He served the parish for five years and is still fondly remembered

obituaries

music in particular were fostered. It also seems likely that it was the experience of traditional liturgy in the Academy’s chapel that prompted the change of allegiance from the denomination of his birth to the Episcopal Church of America.

Landscape Historians 1987

there. It was the death of his father (whom he had brought to Roxboro to nurse through his final illness) which awoke in Ian the desire both to pursue his academic studies and see his ancestral country.

He travelled to Oxford in 1957, spending an initial year at Ripon Hall, an Anglican study centre on Boar’s Hill. In the autumn of 1958 he took up a place to read for the degree of Master of Letters at St Catherine’s College, his thesis being on a seventeenth century Scottish divine, John Forbes. Visits for research enabled him to deepen his relationship with his Father’s brother and three sisters and his five cousins in Dundee, Huntley, Aberdeen and Inverness.

Whilst serving as President of the Oxford Graduate Society, Ian was introduced at one of its meetings to a Cambridge graduate, Jennifer Petty, then working as an illustrations editor in the Schools Department of the Clarendon Press.

They were married on May 19th 1961 at St Peter’s-in-the-East, one of four Oxford churches at which he had been serving as assistant curate. Increasingly, however, Ian found himself drawn to the challenges of an academic career, and in the autumn of 1964 he took up a temporary position at the University of Edinburgh, his son Geoffrey being born in the city the following June. In September the family moved to Cambridge, Ian having been

appointed Head of History at Homerton, then an independent teacher-training college. His daughter Jessica was born just before Christmas of 1966.

In Cambridge, Ian had found the ideal location for the pursuit of his interests and responsibilities. He remained at Homerton until his retirement in 1988, consolidating history as a vigorous research-based discipline within the college’s curriculum, and overseeing his department’s coordination with the teaching of the Cambridge History Faculty when Homerton became an approved society of the University (a stage on its journey to full university status in 2010). His tenure was characterised by the concern and interest he would take in the welfare of his individual students, and he was especially proud of his role as the senior member of the college’s Rowing Club. Somehow he also found time to continue his own research work on The Scottish Episcopate 1600–1638, for which the University of Birmingham awarded him a Ph.D in 1973.

Ian had also been developing a relationship with the European Division of the University of Maryland since Oxford days, when teaching for its programme was an essential means of support. (The university offered modular degree courses to American military personnel serving overseas.) Now,

Homerton College

27

OBITUARIES continued

this would typically involve trekking across the East Anglian flats to deliver a midweek twilight lecture at a US Air Force base, sometimes to discover that it had moved to a higher state of readiness (the Cold War then being at its height) and that nonessential visitors were being turned back at the gates. Ian clearly valued this link to his transatlantic upbringing (as the cans of root beer and packets of lifesavers in the family car testified!), and was especially touched when the University of Maryland invited him with Jennifer to a ceremony in Heidelberg at which his long service was recognised, and when, in a later rationalising of faculty roles, he was officially designated ‘Professor’.

There was also ample opportunity in Cambridge for Ian to express his love of the traditional forms of Anglican worship, and he was frequently to be found amongst the congregations of St Mary’s Churches (both Great and Less), and at the college chapels of King’s and St John’s. He also made appearances to take services at King’s College Choir School and St John’s College Choir School when Geoffrey and Jessica were respectively pupils at these – a logical outcome of Ian’s own schooling.

Licensed for occasional duty as a priest in the Diocese of Ely, he became increasingly active in the parish of St Giles during the 1970s, particularly during its interregnum years prior to 1982. There then followed a similar pattern of involvement at St Clement’s Church, culminating in his being appointed priest-in-charge after his retirement from Homerton. As a fervent devotee of the 1662 Prayer Book, his was an eminently suitable pair of hands on the tiller for a small but committed congregation during a time of liturgical and political upheaval for the wider church.

Juggling these various activities meant that Ian led an undeniably busy life, especially in term time, but never to the neglect or detriment of his family or domestic duties (the Saturday morning

28

Homertonian

Ian, family and John Hammond

visit to the Co-Op was as faithfully observed as the following day’s Eucharist).

An essential component of his lifestyle was the succession of much-loved and invariably British-made second-hand cars which he tirelessly navigated through the narrow city streets, and much further afield on family holidays (sometimes testing their engines’ endurance beyond breaking point in the process!). Having learnt to drive before the era of mass-motoring had properly set in on either side of the pond, he was endearingly intolerant both of others’ discourteous driving and of modern traffic-calming measures, resentful at the introduction of compulsory seat-belts and, unhappily but perhaps inevitably, an early victim of the growing phenomenon of road-rage on more than one occasion.

Although Ian’s loyalty to the ailing UK motor industry (not to mention Cooper’s Marmalade and Twining’s Tea) was indicative of his sincere affection for British institutions and customs, he remained a US citizen throughout his life, participating without fail in each Presidential election by postal ballot, and regularly travelling to the Embassy in Grosvenor Square to renew his passport and submit his tax returns.

His subscription to the International Herald Tribune newspaper enabled him to keep a close eye on the fortunes of both the Democratic Party and the Chicago Cubs (rarely good in either case!), and we can be sure that he would have welcomed President Obama’s victory after the travesty of the Bush years (as much as he might

have wished that The West Wing’s Jed Bartlett had been a real person!). As air travel became more affordable during the course of his life, Ian was able to make more frequent visits to his friends and family in the States, and indeed to enjoy their reciprocal visits to Britain. His brother Jimmy died in 1994, survived by a daughter Barbara and grandchildren Carmelyn and Ricky; the family, all of whom live in and around Sacramento, California, has since grown to include four great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandson. Ian’s own grandson, Augustine, was born in January 2002, and the two of them had many opportunities to get to know one another during the period when Ian was being cared for in the family home.

When asked for their most abiding memories of Ian, friends, family, former students and parishioners alike will typically speak of a kindly, sensitive, genuinely caring and considerate man with, as one puts it, a ‘delightfully wry sense of humour and deep spirituality’. On making his diagnosis, Ian’s GP predicted that it would be precisely these personal qualities that would enable him to defy the harshest consequences of his developing condition, and so it has proved. If the last few years have afforded Ian a richly-deserved period of rest from a life enthusiastically and energetically welllived, then for that small mercy we may be thankful.

This was the Eulogy at Ian McMahon’s funeral

by Geoffrey McMahon, Ian’s son.

She was a regular attender at Great St Mary’s where she showed a similar impatience with the Church’s slowness to

recognise what to her was patently obvious – for example the place of women in the ministry of the church.

She was an extremely intelligent woman, knowledgeable in history, religious studies and fine art, but wholly unpretentious, living very modestly and focusing her energy not on her own needs or ambitions but on the service of others whom she saw to be more sorely in need of support.

Among her books were Black Evangelists: the Spread of Christianity in Uganda, 1891–1914 and her powerful plea for justice for asylum seekers: Whatever Happened to Asylum in Britain? A Tale of Two Walls.

David Bridges Emeritus Fellow Stephen Tomkins Emeritus Fellow Bill Palmer c.1982

Louise came to Homerton from the University of East Africa, at Makere in Uganda, where she had been teaching religious studies and undertaking radical and innovative research. She subsequently taught for many years in the Religious Studies Department at Homerton alongside Jean Holm and Grahame Miles: she kept in touch with Jean after Jean’s retirement to New Zealand.

only for their plight, but also for what she regarded as the often inhumane treatment they received from the authorities in the UK. In later years much of her energy was focused on the ‘obscene’ conditions in the refugee and asylum-seeker local holding centre in Oakington, Cambridgeshire, which was eventually closed in 2010.

Louise was a tough and feisty campaigner with a sustained commitment to social justice on all fronts. Within Homerton she contributed to the work on gender equality and to the development of multi-cultural perspectives in teaching. She did not have a lot of time for ideological posing or discussions: for her it was patently obvious that some residual attitudes and practices were nonsense and that we had better do something to change things ... now!

obituaries

Dr Margaret Mary Louise Pirouet 1928 – 2012 Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies, 1978–1989

Bill Palmer c.1982

In Uganda, she built on her doctoral research which had involved the extensive interviewing of African Christians about their perceptions of the faith that they had received from European missions. She was supportive thereby of the earliest African scholars’ own expressions of their adopted and developing theology. Louise left Uganda in the wake of Idi Amin’s ejections of foreign personnel and persecution of many of his own people. She had developed a deep attachment to Uganda and its people and retained many contacts both in that country and with exiles in the UK. There was a constant stream of visitors to her home and many also passed through Homerton.

Through their experiences and those of many others seeking political asylum in Britain she developed a deep concern not

Homerton College

29

charter c ampaign and donor list THE BURSAR’S REPORT This is my first opportunity to address the Roll members as I arrived at Homerton only last July. I have done many things in my career which I hope will allow me to carry on the excellent work undertaken by my predecessor, Gale Bryan, and Finance Officer, Dhiru Karia, over the past 20 years. Having graduated from University College London in Economics, I qualified as an accountant and then spent five years working in hotels, an environment not unlike that I find myself in at Homerton, just with longer term residents!

Whilst I count my blessings daily that I am working for a college that has been soundly managed and well-maintained, I am also acutely aware that the current financial pressures on students, both undergraduates and graduates, will not lessen in the future.

We must continue to improve the facilities and support we are able to offer them, to provide a College experience that measures up to the considerable investment they are now making in their futures.

We must continue to make sure our assets work hard for us. Our conference and events business earns very necessary funds to support the College which the Conference Sales Manager describes elsewhere. At a time of historically low investment returns, the development of the adjacent Homerton Business Centre, purchased in 2011, will provide superior returns that we

can invest in our endowment and estate for future generations. We are currently hoping to submit a planning application later this academic year for a mixed-use development which can start in 2013/14.

The College is now embarking on its estate strategy for the next decade.

The 1992 and 2001 Estate Strategies provided for major estates regeneration programmes and for a changed educational requirement in the light of the moves towards and accomplishment of the Royal Charter. In the short-term we are improving facilities for students and staff by moving the JCR and installing a gym in the vacated area, as well as increasing much needed office accommodation and guest rooms for our Fellows. We are also investing significantly in 2013/14 in the rooms in West House to update and improve functionality. In the longer term we are looking to provide new facilities for all students and enhance accommodation for graduates. I will keep you posted!

The College experience is not just about buildings and facilities but also about having sufficient financial support to enjoy University life to the full and not having money worries that interfere with academic studies and activities. Last year, working with University resources, we dispensed £1.2M and increased our funding through College grants and awards. The College continues to look at innovative ways to support our students such as helping them with accommodation whilst on internships in Cambridge. In today’s very competitive employment market, the provision of internships can be an important support for our students’ futures and alumni are encouraged to be supportive in this way.

To help students in their final year where internships are unpaid or require the students to fund their own accommodation, we have introduced a new scholarship for this summer vacation.

The College is undergoing many changes this year, not least the retirement of the Principal, Kate Pretty, and the Senior Tutor, Peter Warner. I will soon be an old hand! I look forward to working with the new Principal to carry on the work of my predecessor in managing the College’s endowment and estate with diligence and resourcefulness and to provide for an exceptional educational experience for our students.

Deborah Griffin OBE Bursar

A crisis in funding for graduate students As our students reach the end of their undergraduate careers, many begin to consider going on to a Higher Degree – a Masters or a PhD. Many love their subject so much that they can’t bear to leave it just yet. For an increasing number, a first degree is simply not enough to get one noticed in the job market, where nowadays every competitive edge counts.

30

Homertonian

Over the past decade there has been an astonishing increase in MPhil courses available, and an MPhil is rapidly becoming the pre-requisite for a PhD offer. As you would expect, perhaps, the funding for PhD studentships for UK students has become tighter and tighter in the current financial difficulties, with the Arts and Social Sciences being particularly hard hit.

However, a major barrier is now in place

at the Masters level, for which almost no funding is available. MPhil and MSc courses are not eligible for grants and loans from Student Finance, which now administers all undergraduate fee loans and grants, and the number funded by Research Councils has dwindled away as they focus remaining funds on PhD places. Most of our graduates are looking around for loans from family or banks to fund an MPhil, and these are

not yet the generation emerging with £30–60,000 debt under the new £9,000 fee regime, which will make the situation even more acute. In the meantime, universities are noticing that in comparison with new undergraduate fees these courses are a snip, and the fees have been creeping up.

We have definitely seen a move to a more bimodal distribution of students. On the one hand we have the well-funded: those lucky enough to have one of the scarce ‘1+3’ awards (funding both a Masters and a PhD) from the Research councils or big medical charities, those with a commercial sponsor, or with comfortable family backing. They are financially secure although often at significant personal cost.

On the other hand we have increasing numbers of graduate students whose financial situation may be perilous in the

extreme but who are determined to follow their dream come what may. In college we put a lot of effort into trying to help such students, but in the end our funds are limited, and what we can offer is a drop in the ocean compared with some students’ financial needs. When students come to me as Graduate Tutor and ask for advice about how to fund their graduate courses I find there is less and less to suggest. We have an excellent scheme of Charter Scholarships at Homerton. These make awards of £1,500 per year for MPhil and PhD students based on academic merit; however, whilst this is a welcome boost to anyone’s funding, it is less than 10% of the annual cost of even the cheapest graduate course. Even for those students whose families are in a position to be able to step in and help pay for these courses, it creates an unwelcome dependence on older generations of the

family at a time when young people should be striking out on their own; we have students in their late twenties and early thirties still dependent on the ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’ to pursue an essential Masters qualification.

This is why the new Kate Pretty Fund is so important. The university has recognised the graduate student funding gap and is making great strides in putting together a more coherent and joined-up process for matching funding to students. It is very important that Homerton students have the same opportunities as available elsewhere across the collegiate university.

Please support the Kate Pretty Fund in any way that you can!

Dr Penny Barton College Fellow and Graduate Tutor

CHARTER CAMPAIGN 2013 Whilst the fundraising priorities of the Charter Campaign continue to be Students, Research and Teaching, new needs appear all the time. This year we are launching the Kate Pretty Fund, which will provide a ring-fenced fund to help graduate students. There has been a 64% increase in full-time graduates at Homerton since the College achieved its Charter. There are particular concerns about the future funding of our UK graduates. The first generations of students to pay £9,000 in annual fees will graduate in a couple of years and they will need financial help if they wish to continue with their

studies, at PGCE, masters or doctoral level. We are also introducing an Intern Scheme. In the current economic climate work placements and internships are highly valued and the scheme will enable undergraduates to gain workexperience. If you are able to either support or offer an internship we would love to hear from you.

We have been delighted by the response that we have had from Roll Members since the Campaign was launched in 2011. The support of our members has allowed the College to increase financial assistance to students through scholarships and

bursaries and to provide additional help for our young researchers. If you would like to know more about how the funds are allocated, or about the Homerton College Charter Campaign or the Kate Pretty Fund please contact the Development Office at campaign@homerton.cam.ac.uk or 01223 747270. Further details are also available on the College website at http:// www.homerton.cam.ac.uk.

Alumni participation is important for Homerton. Moderate amounts given by a large number on a regular basis can produce a significant Annual Fund.

This can be used to meet the College’s immediate priorities.

Alison Holroyd Senior Development Officer, March 2013 All gifts, no matter their size, make a real difference. Added together they create an important resource to ensure Homerton’s continued success and excellence into the future.

Homerton College

31

My decision to leave a legacy My decision to leave a legacy to Homerton was an easy one. I owe a great debt of gratitude to the College, most particularly my tutors and to the lifelong friends I made there.

Homerton gave me the opportunity and the support to grow from a shy, unconfident teenager into a confident and articulate woman with a thirst for knowledge which has stayed with me. Homerton took a chance on me; my school had written me off because I didn’t fit into their standard mould. Homerton saw a teenager who would benefit from and embrace a Cambridge education and I embraced

somewhere we treasured then, do now and will in the future.

it with 100% commitment and passion.

I was given the freedom to explore and question my beliefs and opinions, learn, argue and question; when I fell flat on my face, which I frequently did, I was picked up again by tutors and friends who encouraged and supported me all the way through. Homerton was my formative education and for many it is

I was lucky enough to come up to Homerton under the system of grants – essentially getting a free education.

Current and future students are not so lucky and will start their working lives with a level of debt amounting to at least £45,000 following 3 years of study. Legacies will help Homerton to continue building its endowment and help to create bursaries and Access Funds so that students, no matter their financial background, will be able to benefit from a Homerton education as I and my friends did.

Julie Hogg Homerton 1991–1995

Creating a legacy for Homerton College For more than two hundred and seventy years Homerton College has been fortunate to benefit from the generosity of alumni and friends who have made a gift to College in their Will. Legacies have supported the College’s commitment to its core values, teaching, education and research. The history of making a bequest to Homerton dates back to the earliest days of the College and the future will depend on the generosity of its benefactors just as much.

As Homerton College is a charity (No. 1137497), leaving a legacy bequest to the College could have tax benefits by reducing the amount liable to Inheritance Tax (in 2012–2013 this is the excess over £325,000 and is fixed until 2015). Many estates, even modest ones, will incur Inheritance Tax on their net value – that is, on the amount remaining after the payment of fees, debts, the deduction of bequests to a spouse, charity or other exempt organisation.

Legacies to charities are exempt from Inheritance Tax and it is therefore possible to lower your total Inheritance Tax liability (see Example below).

Example 1*: No bequest to charities: Total Estate Value £500,000 Tax-Free Allowance £325,000 Taxable Estate £175,000 Tax at 40% £70,000 Total due to legatees £430,000

32

Homertonian

Example 2*: If a legacy of 4% of taxable estate is left to a charity: Total Estate Value £500,000 Tax-Free Allowance £325,000 Charitable Bequest (4%) £7,000 Taxable Estate £168,000 Tax at 40% £67,200 Total due to legatees £425,800 Cost of the legacy to the estate in this case is £4,200 (£7,000 less the £2,800 saved in Inheritance Tax) A new provision passed into UK tax law in April 2012 benefits charities further at a modest cost to potential donors. The UK Government is encouraging taxpayers to leave at least 10% of their taxable estate to charity; as an incentive the tax charged on the remainder of their taxable estate will be reduced from 40% to 36%.

Example 3*: If a legacy of 10% of taxable estate is left to a charity: Total Estate Value £500,000 Tax-Free Allowance £325,000 Charitable Bequest (10%) £17,500 Taxable Estate £157,500 Tax at 36% £56,700 Total due to legatees £425,800

*The examples above apply to an individual and do not illustrate the case where a surviving spouse will pick up their partner’s tax free allowance.

Cost of the legacy to the estate in this case is £4,200 (£17,500 less the £13,300 saved in Inheritance Tax) The figures will vary from case to case but the examples show that the testator who intended to leave 4% of his or her taxable estate to a charity can increase this to 10% without altering the amount inherited by the family and other beneficiaries. The amount left to charities may be divided between a number of different bodies but the total left to charities must be at least 10% of the taxable estate. Gifts made to charity in the seven years prior to death are also exempt from Inheritance Tax. Homerton College welcomes gifts of any sum by bequest. It especially welcomes money left for its general purposes, since such generosity allows the College to invest and to apply the income where the money is most needed. If you would like further information about leaving a gift in your will do please contact the Development and Alumni Office at campaign@homerton. cam.ac.uk.

Further details are available at http:// www.hmrc.gov.uk/tools/iht-reduced-rate/ index.htm. A legacy calculator is available at http://www.tax-effective-giving.org. uk/?pageid=Calculators.xml.

Alison Holroyd Senior Development Officer, March 2013

LIST OF DONORS – 1 March 2012 – 28 February 2013 The Principal and Fellows of Homerton College wish to thank all those alumni and friends who have generously made donations to the Charter Campaign over the last year. Every effort has been made to ensure the list is accurate; do please Cavendish Book Club Gibbons Family Charitable Trust Lynne Abell Horlock J Gay Adam Goodman Dr Eileen Alexander OBE Dr Roger Ali Della Allen Garrick Alison Allen Gamble Susan Amyes Fare Christine Andrews Harbottle Eleanor Ashworth Mohammed Azeem Eleanor Baker Alyson Baker Hall Hilary Ballantine Jenkins Anne Bambridge Scade Jacqueline Bardsley Lockhart Claire Barnard Burgoyne Ann Barnes Bernice Barton Banton Gayatri Basu De Sakkar Claire-Audrey Bayan Sarah Bayes Naomi Baynes Horn Elaine Beale Herbert Melanie Benson M Anne Benson Sheila Berry Marianne Billitt Baile Jane Bishop Scott Wendy Bishop Waterfield Margaret Blott Davies Edward Boydell Victoria Brahm-Schild Catherine Braine Braine Ruth Briant De Iogh Karin Brown Wendy Brown Dr Brenda Buchanan FSA Wade Matthew Buck Alison Buck Jill Burton Grant Erin Butcher Bond Jacqueline Butler Taylor C Margaret Butler Woolley Denise Butler Lloyd Andrea Caish Baker Angela Carmichael Pye Tracey Chaffel West Kim Chaplin Tarry Anna Chapple Raymond Cilia Frances Clare Wilson Jean Clarke Bonellie Natalie Cloud Travers Nicole Cohen Nerden Christine Cole Roberts Zoe Coombe Richards E Patricia Coombes Murphy Greta Cooper Markham Lorna Cordell-Smith Bird Claire Corkran Gill Corns Barker Dr Constance Counts Amie Cox Chopping Dr Olivia Craig Hurst Wendy Craston Strauss Helen Crawford Sheila Crowther Ward Dr Patricia Cusack Desmond Elizabeth Cutter Walton Margaret Dale Beales

contact us if you believe we have made an omission.

The College would in addition like to thank those who have made gifts of art works and books. We are also very grateful for those

Clare Danielian Collard Patricia Darke Jackson Eliza de Uphaugh Susan Dee Moss Anthony Delany Jeanne DelColle Sylvia Dibble Phyllis Dickens Uff Bill Dod Margaret Dowding Stewart Kathleen Down Hart Mary Dowse Buxton Helen Draper Schleger Linda Drummond-Harris Drummond Sheila Duncan Drake Wendy Dunnett Carpenter Juliet Dyer Cheadle Amanda Edwards Simmons Jane Edwards Patricia Elliott Dorothy Elven Kemp Amy Ely Dr F Dorothy Evans MBE Doreen Evans Caldwell Janet Farley Peyton Wendy Farmer Jones Katie Farrand Janice Felton Mason Adrienne Ferguson Lidia Fesshazion David & Mandy Fletcher – Elizabeth Fletcher Poetry Prize Miriam France Birrell Lady Dorothy Franklin Jenifer Freeman Haberfield Niven Frey Jo Frisby Margaret Funnell Phillips Emma Gage Wylie Alison Gall Walker Margaret Georgiadis Roche Christopher Gerdes John Gersh Annette Gordon Sarah Gordon Professor John Gray FBA Roger Green – Roger Green Organ Scholarship Margaret Hague France Gaynor Hall James R Jane Hammond Mark Hanley-Browne Helen Hansgate Turner Ann Hardie Miller Frances Hardy Essen Julia Harker Tennant Coral Harrow Hemsley Dr Daniel Harvitt Shirley Haslam Jefferies M Christine Hatt Jones Kathleen Hayward Grabbitas The Revd Claire Heald Harrison Gillian Hewin Bulpin Catherine Hicks Barnard Ruth Hill Sandler Susan Hill Morgan Dr Susan Hilliam Fiona Hobdell Rea Gregoire Hodder Ian Hodgson Phillippa Hogg-Andrews Horsfall

Joan Hollinghurst Aizlewood Susan Hollow Buckett Pauline & Donald Hood Robinson Richard Hopkins Amy Howarth Elizabeth Howell Bell Angela Huntley Taylor Leonie Hyde Kilburn Christine Irving Gaudin Joyce Ivell Lees Beryl Izzard Clark Ann Jackman Walton Jean Jackman Amanda James Katharine James Jean Jeffery Ash Elizabeth Jestica Curtis Dr Christopher Johnson Valerie Johnson Smith Paul Jones Alison Kellaway Christine Kershaw Edwards Michaela Khatib Burbanks Caroline Kinchin Smith Harris Catherine King Lisa Knight Chadd Audrey Knighton Land Joy Kohn Read Gwendoline Lancaster Teresa Lea Baker Lynn Lemar Tompkins Dr M Dawn Lewcock (d)* de Fraine Rachel Lewington Pamela Lewis Walker Rachel Linfield Sparks Mary Lister Smith Dr Alison Littlefair Ratcliffe Sally Mabon Andreas & Hannah MacFarlane Ann-Marie Mackay Joder Christine Macpherson Hay Dr David Male Sarah Mansfield Judy Manson Maddocks Pamela Marshall Johnson B Anne Martin Sparrowe Sheila Martin Robb Dr Maria-Esther Martinez-Cantu Selzer Jacqueline Matthews Jane Matthews Goldsmith Elaine Maunder Mills Julie McCleery Mary McCosh Wiltshire Susan McFarland Cluley Elizabeth McLean Davson Dr Victoria McNeile Cooper Ann Mead Prowse Patricia Mee Bates Brenda Meek Caroline Melrose Peover Lesley Mensah Stafford Paul & Margaret Meredith Schofield Kerry Merriam Proffitt Mary Millan Carol Milton Milton Robyn Mitchell McMillan Helen Mitchell Coles Liliane Mitchell Grunberg Naomi Moffatt Arkle

members who give up their valuable time in support of the Roll Office, in particular our Homerton Roll Committee Members and our Homertonian Branch Secretaries.

Key (d)* deceased

Abigail More Hine Remi Moynihan Anastasia Munro Riley Dilys Murch Inch Louise Mursell Harris Clare Myers Bradley Susan Newbold Mullins Jillian Niblett King Dorothy Nicholls Mills Rachel Nicol Giles Carole Nolan Hunt Jean Norton Katherine Nottage Alexander Priscilla Nunnerley Wendy Oakley Watford Tara O’Kelly Dr Linda Orchard Smith Josephine Oxley Deer Evelyn Parker Stovold Merilyn Parker Armitage Parker Christine Parkyn Molly Payne Brown Bridget Peachey Evetts Jean Pearch Polson Dr Augustine Pereira Anne Perrin Dawson Hefina Petrie Davies Christina Pike Whyte Ruth Pimentel Yates Susan Pinner Asker Marion Pogson Rees Patricia Porter Leaney Margaret Powell Piff Mary Powles Underwood Dr Kate Pretty CBE Denise Prosser Cawley Krista Pullan Jane Purwar Slater William Quinn Dr Peter Raby Elizabeth Rainsbury Vera Ratcliffe Sarah Rawlins Jeffries Rosemary Rees Dawson Ruth Rees Maillard Alison Reevey Marilyn Reid Ware Susan Rescorla Ruff Matthew Reynolds Margaret Rishbeth Margaret Robbie Upcott Gill Daniel Roberts Alison Roberts De Cleyn Katherine Rogers Anne Rogers Tudor Hayley Romain Dr Jeptepkeny Ronoh E Jane Rose Gillian Ross Denning Verity Rudd Phillipa Rushby Sweeney Jill Russell Blasby Gillian Sallis Chapman Helen Sandle-Baker Elizabeth Sartain Mosley Claire Saunders Escott Ruth Saunders Williams Patricia Saxton Hemmings Elizabeth Scott Sawers Mark Sendell Dr Rosslyn Sendorek Cromarty

maiden name

Alice Severs Hatt Jyoti Shah Doshi Katherine Shankland Haslam Lauren Sheldon Helen Sheppard Johnson Barbara Sherlock Susan Shippey Veale Joan Skelding Marsden Vera Sklaar Dorner Anne Small Mills Annette Smallbone Way Pamela Smart Barton Mary Smith Williams Emma Smith Craven Anne Sparrowhawk Althea Stevens McCord Judith Stiles Everard Susan Stirrup Clark Patricia Stockdale Shipley Deborah Stone Horan Giles Storch Barbara Studd Thomas Frances Surridge Box/Innes Jennifer Svreck Svrcek Alison Syner Barkham Sarah Taylor Matterson Elizabeth Thomas Owen Rosemary Thomas Knight-Revel Brenda Thompson Marjorie Thorley Bannister Patricia Tidswell (d)* Lisa Tiplady Dr Margie Tolstoy Sutherland Sheila Topping Sampson Cheryl Trafford Norbrook Victoria True-Bhattacharyya True Marilyn Tullys Steen Frances Turner Weddell Enid Turner Sample Josephine Turner Critchley Peter Ventrella Tessa Vivian Walker Emma Vyvyan Wilkinson Mary-Louise Wadsworth Clark Dr Peter Warner Laura Warren Whitford Charlotte Watson Baskin Janet Webb Bower Lucy Webber Saul Bridget Weir Hill Professor Stephen Weis Dilys West Frost Hilary Westcott Green Catherine Weston Wills Maralyn Westwood Steele Deborah White Bretton Dr David Whitebread Carolyn Whyte Evett Pamela Wignall Heather Wilkinson Hill Katherine Willis Madeleine Willmer Kate Wilson Angela Wimbush Nayler Sally Woodcock Ronaldson Emma Wright Satoko Yamamoto Fukada Runlin Zhou Plus 139 donors who wish to remain anonymous.

Homerton College

33

Homerton roll THE HOMERTON ROLL NEWS

HOMERTON ROLL COMMITTEE Chair: Dr Kate Pretty (Principal); Keeper of the Roll: Dr Ian Morrison; Teaching Staff Member: Dr PeterWarner (Senior Tutor); College Finance Officer: Dhiru Karia; RSM: Professor John Murrell; Editor of the Roll News: Mr James Thomson (1987–1994); President of HUS: Mr Greg Hill; Vice President (External) of HUS: Miss Emma Bowell; Alumni members: Mr Tobias Bown (2006–2010); Mrs Jean Carnall (née Barrie; 1966–1969); Mrs Isobelle Hasleham (1975-1976); Mr Dominic Norrish (1994–1998); Mrs Angela Payne (1960–1963) and Mrs Alison White (née Hogg; 1983–1987)

BRANCH CONTACTS During the year, there are groups of Homertonians meeting together around the country. So if you are unable to make it to the Cambridge Reunion, you may find that there is an active group near you. Each group has a local secretary/organiser.

Many Homertonians also attend Cambridge University local branches in the UK and throughout the world. If you do not have a branch of Homertonians in your area consult the University of Cambridge Alumni Worldwide Directory at www.alumni.cam.ac.uk/networks.

united kingdom Branches Cambridge Anthea Wicks wicks.hmc.eeur@lineone.net

Oxford Lucy Barnett glebecottage@gmail.com

London Stephanie Beardsworth stephanie.beardsworth@btinternet.com

Wessex Coral Harrow coralharrow@waitrose.com

Stephanie Rogers stephanie.rogers51@gmail.com

International Branches

Manchester Margaret Blott mblott_8@yahoo.co.uk

Southern California Branch Angela Das ad301@cantab.net

Newcastle Elise Wylie elise.wylie@gmail.com

China Xianwen Meng mengxianwenhf@gmail.com

The Roll News is a newsletter for members of the Homerton Roll. It includes news about the Branches and reports of the Reunion as well as death notices and obituaries, but the emphasis is on your news. We are interested in anything that you have to share, from simple updates of what you are up to now to more detailed accounts of your work, travel, achievements, publications and awards. The Editor, James Thomson (HUS President 1989–90), welcomes any news that you have to share, whether you’ve been happily tending to the garden or have recently become an astronaut. We are especially interested in articles under the general heading of ‘After Homerton’, and any memories of your time at Homerton that you think might be interesting, including photographs if you have them. Any news or memories from more recent alumni are particularly welcome given the changes in college life over the last decade.

By publishing in November, we are able to include so many more of your updates, and also accounts of the Reunion. The closing date is 30 September which means that you just have time to include Reunion reminiscences and photographs. Do keep us busy; it is YOUR news.

The Roll News is available to purchase and we will send it out to you in November.

It is also available on-line at http://www. homerton.cam.ac.uk/alumni/publications.

34

Homertonian

Ways of staying in touch Join us on Facebook to keep up to date with what’s going on in College.

Visit www.facebook. com/pages/HomertonCollege-CambridgeAlumni/38635419944 www.homerton.cam.ac.uk/alumni Do visit our website for details of our events, our regional branches, Roll member entitlements, to read our publications on-line, to update your details and to see if you recognise any names on our ‘lost’ list. You can also find details of the Charter Campaign and even make a donation.

Homerton College is now tweeting news and updates.

Follow us @ HomertonCollege.

SATURDAY DINNER

EVENTS DIARY 11 June 2013

Charter Choir Evensong and Alumni Formal Hall Join us for dinner at High Table. The Alumni Formal Hall will be preceded by the Charter Choir singing Evensong at St John the Evangelist, Hills Road.

23 June 2013 Homerton Family Day

An opportunity for Alumni and their families to

enjoy a picnic in Homerton’s lovely gardens. Children

and grandchildren are entertained in beautiful

surroundings on a fun-filled Summer’s afternoon.

27 – 28 September 2013

Do you receive our termly e-newsletter?

If not, send us an email at roll@homerton.cam.ac.uk to make sure you don’t miss out on College news, diary reminders and upcoming events.

Roll Reunion Weekend Homerton will host a variety of events for its alumni starting on Friday evening through to Saturday night.

This event coincides with the Cambridge University Alumni Festival 2013.

Michaelmas Term 2013 Alumni Formal Hall in College 21 February 2014

2014 Leavers’ Dinner in College For our 2013 graduates

Lent Term 2014

Alumni Formal Hall and Seminar Alumni can come back to college and dine at High Table after enjoying a seminar presented by a College researcher about their work.

April 2014

London/ wine bar event We hope to host our first evening drinks event in London for our alumni.

Easter Term 2014

Alumni Formal Hall in College

AT THE ROLL REUNION SEPTEMBER 2013 All are welcome to the Saturday evening dinner at the Reunion weekend. However, over the last few years, more of our younger members attend, especially those working until late in Friday evening.

You will know that the Reunion weekend will be the last weekend in post for Dr Kate Pretty, the Principal, and for Dr Peter Warner as Senior Tutor. So we particularly want to invite all those who were students in the 1990s and the 2000s, especially those who were in the last cohorts of the B Ed, the first years of the BA in Education, and, of course, those who have been at Homerton since the major change to the College from 2001 studying for a wider range of subjects.

Do come and join us for this very special evening, saying farewell to two special people in the history of Homerton.

Homerton College

35

HOMERTON ROLL ANNUAL REUNION Friday 27 to Saturday 28 September 2013

Programme Friday 27th September 19.30 for 20.00 Dinner in the Great Hall

Saturday 28th September Members of the Homerton Roll and their families are invited to visit the College for the day. Special Anniversary groups – meetings independently arranged.

9.30 Registration – Coffee available 11.15 Principal’s Address in the Auditorium President of HUS (JCR) AGM of Homerton Roll 12.30 Lunch in the Great Hall 14.00 to Trish Maude MBE and Dr Peter Warner will give a talk ‘Sport 15.00 and Physical Education at Homerton College over the last 130 years’ Tours of the College and Gardens 15.15 to Charter Choir performance 16.15 Tours of the College and Gardens 16.30 Tea – open to all attending 19.30 for Saturday Dinner in the Fellows’ Dining Room 20.00 Please make every effort to book early, this not only greatly assists the organisation and planning, but also increases the possibility of our being able to accommodate all who wish to attend. This year the bookings will be open from Monday 1st July 2013 until Friday 6th September 2013. Please ensure we receive your booking and payment within this nine week period. Unfortunately, we cannot accept any bookings received after Friday 6th September.

The University’s Alumni Festival will be held from 27th – 29th September 2013. A full programme of the University’s events can be obtained from: Cambridge Alumni Relations Office (CARO) 1 Quayside Bridge Street Cambridge CB5 8AB Tel: +44 (0)1223 332288 Email: contact@alumni.cam.ac.uk or visit: www.alumni.cam.ac.uk

36

Homertonian

SPECIAL ANNIVERSARIES organised for this Reunion Please contact the people named below for more information on your Special Reunion this year. If your year is not mentioned and you would like to help organise a Special Reunion, please contact Nicola Burgess on 01223 747280 or by email at roll@homerton.cam.ac.uk.

DIAMOND GIRLS GOING 1951–1953

Contact: Alumni Communications Assistant Tel: 01223 747280 Email: roll@homerton.cam.ac.uk

DIAMOND GIRLS IN 1953–1955

Contact: Alison Littlefair (Ratcliffe) Email: alison@littlefair1497.fsnet.co.uk

Special Request 55 YEARS IN 1958–1960

Contact: Elise Wylie Email: elise.wylie@gmail.com

GOLDEN GIRLS GOING Contact: Angela Payne (Mortimer) 1960–1963 Tel: 01359 244244 Email: angela@mulberry-farm.co.uk GOLDEN GIRLS IN 1963–1966

Margot Jacob (Coverdale) Tel: 01564 775325 Email: margot@chadwick.demon.co.uk

40 YEARS ON 1970–1973/74

Contact: Alumni Communications Assistant Tel: 01223 747280 Email: roll@homerton.cam.ac.uk

40 YEARS IN 1973–1976/77

Contact: Denise Prosser (Cowley) Email: prosser.denise@sky.com

30 YEARS ON 1979–1983

Contact: Brenda Thompson Tel: 01582 792102 Email: becjaytee68@aol.com

30 YEARS IN 1983–1987

Contact: Alumni Communications Assistant Tel: 01223 747280 Email: roll@homerton.cam.ac.uk

25 YEARS IN 1988–1992

Contact: Phil Coldicott Email: phil@philcoldicot.co.uk

21 YEARS IN 1992–1996

Contact: Alumni Communications Assistant Tel: 01223 747280 Email: roll@homerton.cam ac.uk

Saturday Dinner ALL WHO WERE AT HOMERTON FROM 1992

Contact: Alumni Communications Assistant Tel: 01223 747280 Email: roll@homerton.cam.ac.uk