rsma newsletter
newsletter of the retired senior members’ association of homerton college, cambridge september 2021
being a friend a Homerton change-maker the Knowledge Quartet (1) finding a way through farewells to RSMs and friends … and a little more
a word from the editor
RSMA committee chair: Libby Jared secretary: Anne Thwaites treasurer: Dhiru Karia social secretary: Sue Conrad
Dear Readers, Pulling out all the stops … Well, what a year it has been – though I doubt that you need me to tell you that! I can’t quite believe that ‘lockdown’, ‘isolation’ and ‘Covid-19’ are now such common words in our vocabulary and that ‘have you got your vaccination appointment yet?', became the most important of questions. Alas, we are where we are one year later – I can only hope that by this time next year we will have swung back into our whirl of social activities, aided a little perhaps for those of you not on the Cambridge doorstep by a ‘Zoom’ or two.
almonry: Carole Bennett
This year it is one particular photograph in Roger Green’s article that has provided me with my editorial’s title – I will leave it to you to decide which one. I am grateful for all the stops that contributors have pulled out (please see the contents box below) to help provide yet another bumper edition. Thank you one and all - how do you/we do it?
member: Ian Morrison
The editorial strapline could equally easily have been ‘unsuccessfully retired’ – a phrase at the beginning of Tim Rowland’s article on the Knowledge Quartet. I did a double take when I saw it, but then the penny dropped – happily retired but sometimes not too successful in not being drawn into ‘work’. I can vouch for that!
co-opted: Stephen Grounds Peter Warner
But Roger’s ‘Being a Friend’ was a possible third strapline. Maybe we do not all need preserving in stone, but we can all do with others looking out for us – which I feel is what the RSMs do so well. I chose the cover photograph from Jane Edden’s portfolio as although I am not sure if swans are like ducks and drakes, I think this Newsletter may give you the appearance of calm but I can assure you that there was a great deal of paddling underneath. This year of all years I would like to take this opportunity to thank Geoff for continually providing a ‘Principal’s Message’, It has been much appreciated, the more so in the knowledge that a Principal’s life is a (very) busy one. Still with Geoff poised to join the RSMs, he may find himself ‘unsuccessfully retired’ but certainly amongst ‘Friends’. Happy Reading … Libby Cover photo: ‘Fishing’ – Jane Edden (see pp.15-16) Acknowledgements: with thanks to Anne Thwaites & Peter Cunningham for proof reading
CONTENTS Chairs’ Letters Peter Warner and Libby Jared
Finding a way through … 3 Jane Edden
Principal’s Message Geoff Ward
New places close to home: Brook Leys Bursar’s Report 4 Anne Thwaites 17-18 Deborah Griffin
Being a Friend Roger Green
Rudduck Way 5-6 John Gray
Diaries … Philip Rundall
In conversation with Maria Whelan 7-8 Trish Maude
Robert Halley: a Homerton change-maker The Lost Film found Peter Warner 9-12 Peter Cunningham New on the Bookshelf Trish Maude
Hot News from the Archive 12 Peter Cunningham
Development Office update 15-16 Laura Kenworthy
Remembering David Whitebread Barbara Pointon George Hume 19 Paul Hirst Bibi Sachs Talieh Sotudeh 20 18
Art, Art, Art … 21-22 Libby Jared
The Knowledge Quartet Story (Part 1) Golden Anniversary: Reminiscences of … Social Secretary’s Report 2020-2021 Tim Rowland 13-14 Rex Watson 23 Sue Conrad
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24-25 25 26-28 29-32 33-35 35-36 36-37 38-39 39 40
Chairs’ Letters Peter Warner & Libby Jared
I
t is with mixed feelings that I retire this year as Chair of the RSMA; it has not been a happy time for anyone, yet I am grateful to our committee for helping to carry the RSMs through this tiresome and fearful pandemic. I have done my four years, two of them under lockdown, and the time is right for me to move on and leave the chair in the very capable hands of Libby Jared. She has done more than anyone else to sustain the functions of the RSMA during lockdown by producing ‘bumper’ editions of our newsletter, when there was no social activity to report. Besides, Irene and I have moved away from Cambridge and we now live in Torquay – not any easy process to move house during lockdown, but we managed it. We love living by the sea and being close to Vici and her family at Newquay. I took over the chair when John Murrell became seriously ill and we needed someone to step in temporarily – I did not expect to run for a full four years. During my time I have always been conscious of my eminent predecessors, particularly John who worked closely with Kate Pretty to consolidate the status of the RSMA. Also I recall David Male setting up the Association when I was involved in the disastrous first Homerton Appeal. We are forever in debt to David, for his wisdom and foresight. It is on their shoulders that we carry the RSMs forward as a vibrant and robust organisation. Covid19 makes us all rethink the way we do everything; true no less for the RSMA. Losing all social events could have been crippling, but communication by email, Zoom and Newsletter has brought us closer together on an equal
footing, regardless of whether we live near Cambridge, or Torquay, or on the other side of the World. Social engagement may never be quite the same again, whether it is coffee mornings, Christmas parties or simply dining in College as we loved to do; regardless, our human desire to keep in touch and reflect on shared experience prevails. The structure of the RSMA changes as more Fellows from the ‘new’ Homerton retire and choose to join our ranks. For new retirees who wish to stay in touch with colleagues, the RSMA is even more relevant now than it was in David Male’s day. However, we might need to change our name to salute them properly, but I leave that tricky problem to my capable and tactful successor!
I must thank Geoff Ward, who has been so well disposed to us during his reign as Principal. Setting aside two pandemic years, Geoff has presided over a golden era of Homerton College history and will leave his mark with some of the finest modern buildings: the new dining hall, the Griffin Bar and soon the new Porters’ Lodge. We are deeply grateful to him and also to Matthew Moss and the Development Office Team who have supported us in so many ways, not least through the practical help given by Clare Ryan, queen of Zoom! Regardless of Covid, the College has gone through the most extraordinary metamorphosis in the first 20 years of the twenty-first century; I am sure other RSMs share with me that collegiate sense of pride and achievement. It has been a hugely exciting rollercoaster ride and a great privilege to have participated in it. Long live Homerton and the RSMA. Peter (Retiring Chair)
Onwards (and upwards?)
P
eter and I agreed to share the Chair’s Report page and the larger share goes quite rightly to Peter – the ‘older’ chair in all respects. Peter disappeared part way through the AGM (or rather his mobile phone link did) perfectly timed to coincide with my becoming Chair elect and all Zoom eyes were on me to take over. In at the deep end then. However, it gave me the ideal opportunity to publicly thank both Peter and Trish Maude – who had somehow managed TWENTY years off and on as Secretary (what does it say in the constitution?) Although not serving for quite so long, I had found Peter to be an invaluable asset to the RSMs, and a very wise head whilst still working ‘part-time’ in College and a very useful networker. I ended by saying: “Trish & Peter you retire from the Committee with our very best wishes.”
This turned out not to be exactly true as I emailed Peter to tell him what I had said had he been able to be logged on and back came the reply immediately that he was willing to be co-opted to the Committee if we would like to agree. Yes – no discussion needed! So I take over the Chair not only knowing that Peter’s wise head is not far away, but several other wise heads (including Anne Thwaites, Secretary extraordinaire) are helping me to take up the reins from all those giants who have gone before me. Onwards definitely, but upwards? I would like to think so, but the bar has already been set very high. Nevertheless, I promise to try. Oh, and let’s hope we can meet up again in person soon! Libby (Incoming Chair)
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Principal’s Message Professor Geoff Ward PhD FRSA
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am sure that by now you could write this column for me, not only because I must have started to repeat myself over my eight years here, but because anyone’s account of the last year is going be essentially the same – an account of Getting By, under Covid. As Principal of the College, with a spacious Lodge, garden, and immediate access to Homerton’s orchard and meadows, I am conscious of living a very privileged life. To be ‘locked down’ next to the tranquil but everchanging gardens was no great privation. Nor was it a constraint to be told that social gatherings over a certain size were off limits. I have probably been to more than enough parties in my life, and although I missed the company and conviviality of dining across the Colleges, I told myself it wasn’t a bad thing for my waistline. I have, however, felt very sorry for our students. Their bedsit accommodation was not designed for round-theclock living and working, and they are at age where the student experience should include joyous times of freedom, experiment and fun alongside working for the degree. The core purpose of a college is to supply that extra, holistic dimension which rounds the student out as a person, gives their life enjoyment as well as structure, and catches them if they fall. It has caused me great sadness to see them, of necessity, cooped up, while not being able to join them for dinner in the Halls, jazz in the bar, applause on the river or in the theatre – that extra college dimension. I do however pay tribute to their forbearance and good sense. The great majority have behaved with extraordinary restraint and consideration. And, to be candid, when one or two have kicked over the traces a bit in this long period of social distancing and other limitations, I haven’t always had it in me to blame them. What a time to be young. It has finally dawned on me that I am not young, and this is my last column as Principal before retiring. Notwithstanding all the current difficulties, I know I am leaving Homerton in safe hands, and in good shape. Homerton is more academically successful than it was when I took up post; the number of applicants putting us as their first choice of college has risen by around 30% in each of the last three years. Although we have lost conference income, our investment portfolio has more than weathered the storm; we are significantly wealthier
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now, and are not assailed by the difficult decisions facing some others in collegiate Cambridge. We have some splendid new buildings – I look forward to coming back for the opening of the new Dining Hall early in 2022 – and the purchase of 3.5 acres of contiguous land has given us a bulwark against the vagaries of the future. We now offer all of the Triposes, Architecture having joined us this year. Importantly, in terms of our role in society, Homerton is the most diverse of the colleges, and the one most committed to widening access without lowering standards. This is the College that Lord Simon Woolley will lead, and I wish him every success. The achievements of the last eight years are far from mine alone. I have been blessed with a brilliant and tenacious Bursar, Deborah Griffin; as Senior Tutor, Dr Penny Barton by common agreement personifies the values for which Homerton stands: and I could not have had a better Vice-Principal than Dr Louise Joy. But these are just some of the names without whose support we would not be where we are. The encouragement of the RSMs and alumni assured me that the direction of travel was right. The mood of the students, the Fellowship, the staff, and the shared readiness for change and adventure have been an inspiration. I have not had to deal with the whispering cabals and nay-sayers that are said to disturb the sleep of other Heads of House at times. Perhaps now is the time to write that campus novel… If I do, I had better get the details right. In several documents recently I have made reference to retiring on 31st September, but have ceased to do this since it was quietly pointed out to me that there is no such date in the calendar. I take this to be Nature’s way of telling me it is time to step aside. There are books to write and (when we’re allowed, and I know that I can get back safely) places to see. I am delighted and honoured to say that the College aims to confer on me an Honorary Fellowship, so there will be plenty of excuses to come back. One of the great things about Homerton is that we have change, flexibility and aspiration in our DNA. The College is, in the best sense, a work still in progress, and I look forward to seeing the next chapters as they unfold. The diary is already filling, however. So let’s say that, at the very least, I will return every September 31st…. July 2021
Being a Friend A small chapter in the life of a medieval building but a large chapter in my life Roger Green
T
he medieval church of St Peter was in great danger and looking friendless. For more than 600 years it had crowned the Market Hill in Sudbury, Suffolk. But in 1958 St Peter’s was the subject of a “Brief Report upon the structural defects requiring the most urgent attention”. Timber had “split alarmingly” and “cavities extend right through the thickness of the wall”. Arches were “opening up”. The tower was in danger of falling down. Strangely the town did not seem to rush to the defence of the building.
Ten years later, an even more dramatic report warned of imminent collapse of the upper part of the tower. Immediate action was required. The local press was stung into action and sought opinions from 325 townsfolk. An unbelievable 112 inhabitants, mostly living in the town, wanted the church to be demolished. The building had some friends. 188 folk, mostly from the surrounding area, thought it should be kept. Unsurprisingly 25 respondents dithered. There were plans for demolition and replacement by a small garden, underground public toilets, a modern replacement building, a community hall, car parking and extending the market. At a public meeting, one member of the Town Council advocated taking off the roof and leaving it to become a “noble ruin” in which people could eat their sandwiches. The most fascinating suggestion was to demolish the building and replace it with an exact fibreglass reproduction. Facing objections that people would not be able to go inside, the proponent added “hardly anyone enters the present church anyway.” He had a point. Money was raised in the town, work was undertaken, the tower was reinforced with huge concrete ring beams.
Perhaps a brighter future beckoned but, unbelievably, just three years later, the church was closed for worship and locked up. There followed even more advice on demolition. I could not believe the devastation and neglect when I first entered the church. Nothing worked and it was all covered in dust and cobwebs, standing unloved and friendless at the centre of the town. I was invited to meet a Town Councillor, Tony Moore. His ambition was to revive the building. Tony inspired me and we hatched plans for a Festival of Sudbury to “prove the use of the building for the benefit of the town.” The Festival ran from May 16th to 22nd June, 1975. The list of events was huge. It was difficult to live in or around Sudbury without noticing that something was afoot. Many of the events were spectacular, and very well supported by the public. The Festival even made a profit but, much more significant, the attitude in the town towards the building changed. People from all walks of life had attended events and enjoyed the experience. They wanted more. Many of them looked at the building with new eyes. And so was born a registered charity, the “Friends of St Peter, Sudbury”, in readiness for the inevitable declaration of redundancy of the building which came towards the end of 1976 with the Friends being appointed as agents for the Redundant Churches Fund to run the building locally. Tony Moore was the first chairman and I had the honour of being the fourth, enjoying office for 27 years. We had already started opening the building to the public regularly and cleaning, cleaning and cleaning. The first major challenge was to take the bells (one is 500 years old) to the Whitechapel Bell Foundry for remedial work, build a new bell frame in the tower and enable their wonderful voices to ring out again over the town. While we were thus occupied we raised sufficient funds to cast two new bells to make a ring of ten in October 1979. The townsfolk soon realised the benefits of using the most central building in the town and it became popular for many different activities. Many of those who used the building or supported our aims joined the Friends group. The Rector of the day, mid 19th century, had controversially sold off the pews and so we had a wonderful open space that was adaptable to so many uses. Over the next forty years the Friends raised funds to provide new chairs, new staging (twice), new electrics throughout the building, new lighting (twice), new heating (twice), a new kitchen (three times), new tables (twice), and a sound system, as well as spending rsma newsletter september 2021 page 5
£350,000 on the organ and gently renovating parts of the building.
There have been many craft fairs but very few Medieval craft fairs Anyone for Bach? There have been concerts of so many kinds (even one by the Charter Choir of Homerton College), recitals, dramatic presentations, craft fairs, book fairs, charity fairs, town events of many kinds, receptions, celebrations, school holiday clubs, flower festivals, Christmas tree festivals, fireworks off the tower, cookery demonstrations, fashion shows, horticultural shows, historical exhibitions, art exhibitions, model railway exhibitions, medieval banquets, medieval fairs, Christmas card shops, farmers’ markets and so much else, even including a group juggling with flaming torches. I must admit that caused me some concern. For years the Churches Together in Sudbury have run a drop-in centre on Thursdays and that has helped so many folk. In my final years as chairman of the Friends the church saw over 60,000 visitors a year. No wonder that all the equipment wore out.
The building offers a tower of magnificent proportions, a historic font, a very rare carved angel with a forked beard (have you ever seen another?), a wonderful nave ceiling, an even more wonderful chancel ceiling, many notable examples of the Green Man, vibrant stained glass, an almost unique organ, medieval graffiti, a finely carved and gilded reredos by George Bodley and much more.
The challenge: Find another angel with forked beard
One of many Flower Festivals I believe that the Friends have managed to “prove the use … for the benefit of the town” and indeed to enable St Peter’s to find a way back into the hearts and minds of the townsfolk whose lives it had enriched for hundreds of years.
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What it has never offered is toilets. And so, for some years, the Friends and the Churches Conservation Trust have been raising funds and pursuing negotiations with grant-making bodies to finance a major construction programme to make good the damage of centuries externally and to construct yet another new kitchen and toilets under a new gallery (there have been several in the church over the years), as well as providing better facilities for interpretation and use of the building. The church will close later in 2021, for fifteen or so months, in order for all that to take place. When it reopens it will do so under the direct management of the Churches Conservation Trust and that will stimulate the Friends of St Peter to commence a new chapter in their relationship to this wonderful building. Fancy being a Friend? I believe that there is a building not so far away from you that needs you.
Diaries … Philip Rundall
I
n front of me as I write is the very first diary I ever bought, the Open Road Diary for Walkers: Cyclists: Motor Scooter Users: Motor Cyclists: Motorists and Caravanners for the year 1962. At that time I was 15 and, it being a pocket diary, there is only space for 20-30 words per day, but enough to trigger many memories. So, the idea of keeping a diary clearly struck me early on as being important, but it was only in 1973*, the year I joined the Homerton staff, that I began to keep a page-aday diary – and I’ve kept it up ever since.
reacted on a daily basis to his unfolding reality. He couldn’t stand hearing Hitler shouting over the radio. What was it like to be an academic in a university where one’s status was being steadily eroded week by week and one’s colleagues taking advantage of this? He had particular contempt for them and he wrote that there wasn’t a lamp-post high enough from which to hang them. Being a Christian convert from Judaism and married to a Roman Catholic, he escaped being transported to a death camp until the very eve of the bombing of Dresden, which in fact, saved his life. His is an extraordinary story. Back in March 2020 it was clear we were entering something beyond anything else we’d experienced during our lifetimes, so I began to write a parallel Coronavirus Diary in a rather beautiful Flame Tree Notebook that I’d purchased some months earlier at a garden centre. It was a very attractive notebook with a detail from the glorious Wilton Diptych on its cover. It was such a lovely book that I dared not use it – it was just too beautiful! With the pandemic hitting us like a wave it felt entirely right to enlist the help of its angels along with Mary and Jesus.
My first diary I have read Samuel Pepys’ Diary and also John Evelyn’s, both I found fascinating, but the diaries that most moved me were those of Victor Klemperer, a cousin of the famous conductor, written in Dresden throughout the Hitler years. It is the immediacy of his diaries that is so striking, written at the end of each day, not with the benefit of the long view with the time and opportunity for further research, reflection, re-writing or editing. There is no going back on what you’ve written, a diary reflects your tiredness, your moods, your poor punctuation and contains the odd spelling mistake as well as your story. Of course, Pepys’ diaries are particularly revealing as they were written in code, whereas Evelyn’s were written with an audience very much in mind. So they are very different. For a start, Pepys’ writing is a lot funnier. For me, Klemperer’s diaries tell me more about his daily life than anything he might have written had he written an autobiography long after the war had ended. It’s a period of history so closely related to my own and I was fascinated to know how a particular German civilian
First page The great advantage of a notebook is that it allows one to write more than just one page a day (my older diaries contain around 17,000 words per year on average), and I had a lot more to say during 2020. I began on 16th March and one year on I’m currently on Volume 5. I have really enjoyed the freedom to write more, and after a few weeks I gave up writing my regular diary as it was just a waste of time and effort writing both, and I will continue with the notebooks.
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Wilton Diptych Notebook I’ve mentioned the Wilton Diptych cover, so the selection of covers became important too. Volume 2 was Hokusai’s Wave as I anticipated a massive surge in infection numbers, something that our Prime Minister was clearly incapable of seeing coming. For any fan of our present government, I can tell them now that my diaries will make an uncomfortable reading. Volume 5, however, has a detail of Van Gogh’s Almond Blossom, a more hopeful sign for the future. Along with the Coronavirus Diaries, I began to write a family history, urged to do so by my eldest son’s motherin-law when we met over Christmas in 2019. In this project Pepys’ Library and his diaries get a mention in connection with my great-great-grandmother on my paternal grandmother’s side. She was called Elizabeth Jennings, the ‘Wingate heiress’, who lived in Harlington House, now called Harlington Manor, in Bedfordshire with her husband, George Pearse JP, who was a solicitor, Deputy Lieutenant and later High Sheriff of Bedfordshire. If you check out its website, Harlington Manor is now one of the best B&Bs in England, according to Alastair Sawday and others. Several years ago I contacted the present owner and he kindly invited myself and Patti over for tea. He gave us a tour of this fascinating old house and later I sent him more information about the history of the Wingate family. Incidentally, lots of members of the Pearse and Rundall families, both male and female, have been given the name as a middle name, including my father, my elder brother and my son, Nick.
Dining Hall up to first-floor level 17th September2020, only one week behind schedule.
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The website refers to Francis Wingate JP ordering the arrest of John Bunyan and his being detained overnight in the house. However, it refers to him incorrectly as Sir Francis; in fact it was his son, also called Francis, who was knighted when he married Lady Anne Annesley, the daughter of Arthur Annesley 1st Earl of Anglesey, Lord Privy Seal and treasurer of the Royal Navy under Charles II. Annesley was, for a while, Pepys’ boss, and is mentioned in his diaries (and also in John Evelyn’s) and it was Lady Anne’s brother, the 2nd Earl, who paid £23 to move his library to London from Clapham, where Pepys died, and then £18 to move it on to Magdalene College, Cambridge. Apparently, he offered the librarian £10 per annum forever. I only learnt about all this after the RSMA visit to the Pepys Library and so I didn’t get to ask whether she was still getting the money! Apart from the link to Pepys, what really interested me was that by marrying into the Annesley family, who were sympathetic to the Dissenters and had family connections with John Wesley, all of Francis Wingate JP’s children became sympathetic to Bunyan. Moreover, the Jennings branch have connections with the dissenting academy in Kibworth Harcourt and later Warrington Academy, the latter being the beginnings of what is now called Harris Manchester, in Oxford. With this background perhaps it is not surprising that I ended up teaching in a college with dissenting roots and one which now has connections with Harris Manchester College. Finally, what did I write in my diary on my first day at Homerton, on Thursday 27th September 1973? I’ll quote just one thing in relation to College, the rest not being of particular interest: “I went into Cambridge by bus. On arrival at College I met a post-graduate girl from Farnham Art School. She was complaining about the school-like regimentation of Homerton. She’s quite right, and what’s amazing, the girls straight from school are totally unconcerned about this aspect.” Anything else you want to know? [I am not sure whether this question is directed at you, the readers, or me … but I think you should know that Philip’s portrait shows his “Covid hairstyle”. Ed.] * Afterword: I've just been re-organising my studio, clearing the loft etc and I've now removed all my diaries from the 2 boxes that contained them and they're on a bookshelf again. I have now realised that they go back to 1971. I thought that I had started prior to arriving in Cambridge!
Underground heat exchange system being installed under the lawn.
Robert Halley: a Homerton change-maker Peter Warner
Principal, John Pye Smith. Halley was then aged 20 and his Principal, having been appointed in 1800 at the age of only 26, was in his early 40s. Halley struck a cord and friendship with his Principal endured after he had left the Academy, blossoming when Halley was lecturing at Highbury within walking distance of Homerton.
Engraving of Robert Halley DD., (artist unknown). From the frontispiece of his biography edited by his son of the same name, published by Hodder & Stoughton, London 1879.
T
his is a story of compassion: of one man’s ardent campaign against the forces of evil – against the continuation of colonial slavery into the 1830s. We know that ‘black lives matter’ and that the slave trade as such was banned by Parliament within British colonies in 1807, but colonial slavery went largely unchallenged and slaves continued working on British plantations long after 1807. The assumption that slaves would be granted their freedom once trade in them was banned proved to be false. There was also considerable political support at home for the commercial 'interest’ in slavery and the wealth generated by consumption of luxury items such as sugar, tobacco and cotton. So slavery was firmly imbedded in a carefree consumer society. The original ‘Anti-Slavery Society’, founded by Quakers in 1787 ceased to meet after 1807, but was re-established in 1823. It was the preaching of a small number of ministers to congregations in London and Manchester that rekindled the anti-slavery movement in the 1820s as a political force. Robert Halley was one such minister; his sermons, preached and published in London, circulated also in Manchester and America, so his influence was farreaching. Robert Halley deserves to be more widely celebrated as a ‘change-making’ abolitionist. He was admitted to the old Homerton Academy in London in January 1816 under its young reforming
As well as being Principal, Pye Smith led a wealthy and influential congregation at the Old Gravel Pit Meeting House at Hackney, which he initially drew together in the hall of Homerton Academy. A key member of this congregation was Samuel Morley, hosiery manufacturer, political reformer and philanthropist. Morley was never a student of Homerton Academy, yet Pye Smith became his spiritual and moral mentor. Morley and Pye Smith supported both the anti-slavery movement and the AntiCorn Law League, two important political pressure groups emerging in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. As the first Liberal MP for Bristol, Morley declared in Colston Hall his enduring support of the antislavery movement heading a long list of other liberal social reforms. The success of the Gravel Pit Meeting House, under John Pye Smith, was partly due to a monthly lecture programme established for the benefit of Congregational ministers in London. This famous Hackney meeting house was remarkable for the number of coaches parked outside on a Sunday morning. It attracted a fashionable well-to-do middle-class congregation. The ‘lecturesermons’ were usually published and focussed on key issues of the day. Consequently, they were hugely popular and attended not only by orthodox Congregational students from Homerton Academy, but also by political radicals, fundamentalist Unitarian students from Hackney New College and Hoxton Academy, as well as affluent local dissenting families. So, Robert Halley was invited by John Pye Smith to lecture on The Sinfulness of Colonial Slavery at the Old Gravel Pit Meeting House on 7th February 1833. ‘Intensely evangelical’ and an ‘ardent Liberal’, Halley’s approach was that of a biblical scholar and moralist, beginning with a text from Proverbs xxiv. 11, 12: ‘… and shall not He render to every man according to his works?' He observed that slavery was endemic in the ancient world as a reciprocal act of conquest and re-conquest, and as such was accepted by the Old Testament; this was an easy justification for plantation owners and the 'interests' of the hugely profitable sugar trade. Halley therefore makes a distinction between ancient slavery and modern colonial slavery. Could slavery be justified as a rsma newsletter september 2021 page 9
retaliatory action of war? But when did Africans ever attempt to enslave us, or our ancestors? ‘When did their vessels visit our shores, and their armed men burn our villages. Break up our families, carry away our children, and doom them to cruel, hopeless, exhausting, interminable bondage?’ ‘But that one race – the most inoffensive, and … utterly unable even if disposed, ever to interfere with the politics of Europe, should have become the common prey of every plunderer, – should, for ages have its several tribes bribed and stimulated to mutual wars by a traffic with professed Christians, in order to supply the slave markets of the World.’
In the 1850s, twenty years later, with his friend and fellow Homertonian, Thomas Raffles, Robert travelled through France and Italy visiting ancient sites and cities, visiting Rome in Holy Week. Their intention was to travel on to Jerusalem, but preparations for the Crimean War prevented them, so they diverted to Malta and the Greek Islands, and so on to Constantinople (Istanbul) where they saw the ancient slave market still operating. Then on to Alexandria in Egypt. There they watched African and fair-haired female slaves being auctioned. Slavery has never been totally extinguished, but British colonial slavery was theoretically ended by the Act of 1834, one year after Halley’s sermon. Other European nations, although intimidated by Britain’s naval power, did not follow her example until much later in the nineteenth century. Halley’s preaching and lecturing style was 'naturally vigorous and manly' – his son and biographer talks about his ‘abrupt’ and 'rugged' eloquence, which sometimes carried over into his published work. There was also a ruggedness about his appearance – clearly visible in his portrait, reminiscent perhaps of his Scottish roots. At Homerton Robert was taught rhetoric and 'pulpit style', essential for an early nineteenth-century ministry. As a lecturer, he once addressed a student who had given a particularly bad sermon: ‘Well…you only require three things to make you a first-class preacher. First, you require good thought. Secondly, you require good thought well expressed. Thirdly, you require good thought well expressed, impressively delivered!’
His delivery was so impressive that he quelled a riot by the power of his voice alone. This took place during the food riots at Sheffield in 1842. The Mayor, Mr Kershaw, who was a deacon and friend of his father, was facing down a mob in Stevenson Square and asked Halley to intervene as he was a well-known radical minister. Eventually he persuaded the crowd that the abolition of the Corn Laws through parliamentary action was the only solution to food shortages, and so they dispersed. Hayley had been appointed Classical Tutor at Highbury College when Hoxton Academy moved to Highbury in 1826. Open and frank discussion of religious and political issues suited Halley’s charismatic character. At Highbury: ‘the abolition of Colonial slavery engaged much of his time, and he threw into the struggle an amount of energy that was really useful to the great cause. rsma newsletter september 2021 page 10
During this time he campaigned with Lord John Russell and became a member of the committee of the Anti-Slavery Society, and secretary of an association of nonconformist ministers who were forward in this work of humanity…’
To Halley, colonial slavery was: ‘the scarlet stain of Christendom’… ‘a violent infringement of the natural rights of man’… ‘… of the family comforts, of the one class, in order to augment the gain, the luxury, the indolence, the power, or the ostentation of the other’
Halley then turned his rhetoric towards the fearful mortality among Black African slaves on West Indian plantations; it was he said a ‘murderous system’: ‘…it has been shown in the Anti-Slavery Reporter, and never, as far as I know, contradicted, that the ordinary law of increase [demographic], compared with the actual decrease, there has been, since the abolition of the slave-trade, a waste of life to the amount of 740,000 human beings. I have sometimes endeavoured to obtain data from which to compute the number of Africans originally transported to these western islands. It must have been much more than 7,000,000… There are now some 700,000, the scanty and miserable relics. Neither war when raging in Europe – nor the plague in Constantinople – nor the mournful cholera in India … has effected so general a destruction as British avarice has wrought in the West Indies. Are the charities of Englishmen frozen? Are their hearts, if they have any, encased in steel … ?’ ‘The system is murderous on account of the miserable insufficiency of food…is murderous, on account of the extreme mental depression and wretchedness which it commonly produces. There is a deed, fixed sense of degradation, altogether distinct from the physical suffering.’
As a committee member of the Anti-Slavery Society, Halley had read government reports and other official papers on slavery. He refers to the evidence presented by Sir Michael Clare, a physician from Jamaica, to the Lord’s Committee on slavery and to that of the judge, Sir John Jeremie*. The harshness of the punishment of slaves on Jamaica, frequently resulted in death. He quotes from the Jamaican slave code. Similar codes or laws existed on St Lucia and Martinique. He uses evidence from Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean then a British Colony, where at Port Louis, 12,000 slaves had declined to 7,000 over seven years – ‘…proven by indisputable evidence, judicial records, oaths of the military, and reports of Commissioners.’
He notes the evidence of ‘a humane Christian proprietor’, a Mr Wildman, who went out to examine the condition of his slaves. ‘He saw immediately there was a gain of produce by a loss of life …’ consequently he reduced the hours of work, only to be ‘bitterly persecuted by neighbouring planters'. Halley also quoted from a paper recently published in the 'Eclectic Review' on American slavery. This was a journal with strong nonconformist leanings to which John Pye Smith was a regular contributor. To achieve its aim, the new Anti-Slavery movement had to convince property owners, (those qualified to vote)
that this was a real issue – more important than problems nearer home. You did not have to walk very far in Hackney before you came across scenes of degrading poverty in the overcrowded slums of the East End. In 1812 the students of Homerton Academy went out to count the number of pauper children on the streets to see if there were enough to start an open-air school – they were not disappointed; a room was hired and a school established which survives as the Homerton Row School. Middle class visitors could take an omnibus to view the slums, just as modern tourists now take a taxi around Soweto in the suburbs of Cape Town.
Punch cartoon (by George du Maurier) mocking middle-class ‘SLUMMIBUS’ do-gooders Image courtesy of Punch Cartoon Library / TopFoto The years following the Napoleonic wars were a time of dearth, both in town and country. The price of bread rocketed. The slums of the East End were appalling, but symptomatic of a more general malaise: lack of work, lack of education and lack of housing. So much so that the middle classes feared revolution like that in France in the late-eighteenth century, which swept away the aristocracy and led to decades of war. Reform was needed, but where do you start? The revived Anti-Slavery movement of the 1820s forced the ‘chattering classes’ to make difficult comparisons, particularly between slavery in different parts of the world: between British slave colonies such as Mauritius and the West Indies, or the ancient slave markets of the Ottoman Empire, Alexandria, and Marrakesh. Then there were the serfs of Tzarist Russia, the plantations of French Louisiana, those around the Gulf of Mexico, and the southern states of America, not to mention the burgeoning slave economy of Brazil, expanding as a direct consequence of British anti-slave-trade measures. And of course there was India, where slavery was so deeply imbedded in a centuries-old caste system that it could not be disentangled from the rest of society. Where should you begin – and where should you stop? Even the Anti-Slavery Society had to give up with India. Then there was the question of economic slavery epitomised by child labour in the steam-powered factories of the north of England. Halley addressed his audience: ‘You have been lately grieved by the exposure of inhuman practices in our large factories, and you are
anxious to abolish them; The factory system only confirms … that humanity is never to be trusted when avarice is concerned.’
Who cared enough about these desperate bonded underclasses anyway? Bear in mind that at this time there were still public executions in England, which were hugely popular, and magistrates were happy to send criminals in chains to the penal colonies of Australia for nothing more than stealing a sheep. Victorian Christian society, although strongly evangelical, was not inherently compassionate. How easy it must have been to lean back in a coal-fired parlour in polite Hackney, shrug your shoulders, put another lump of sugar in your tea, and forget it all. Robert Halley prioritised these issues for his congregation and his readers: Colonial Slavery was the worst, the most heinous, unforgivable sin of all that commerce had ever devised. It was a crime against humanity that endangered the very salvation of a 'civilised' society. It had to be terminated; all other social problems fell into perspective behind it. His rugged delivery rattled the silver cage of London middle-class society, and activated the first great awakening of Victorian social conscience. He used the power of his voice and the power of his pen, very much like a modern journalist, to focus and energise a political pressure group that would ultimately lead, not just to the emancipation of colonial slavery with the Act of 1834, but also to a succession of other social and economic reforms propagated by the formation of modern political parties that we recognise now as central to our democracy. No listener could fail but be persuaded by the twenty-five pages of Robert Halley’s extraordinary sermon. Within a year he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Princeton University, New Jersey. In 1839, Halley moved to central Manchester, where he was invited to take up a ministry at the Mosley Street chapel. This was one of the older and more prestigious Congregational meeting-houses. There he remained for nine years. Manchester was regarded as a 'Radical, but not a Nonconformist town.' At that time the Anti-Corn Law League was centred on Manchester and the North. Halley soon became a strong supporter. The League was modelled on the Anti-Slavery Society. There was also a strong Chartist presence. Halley spoke out openly for reform and Free Trade. He established a series of winter lectures, which continued there for 18 years. During his time at Manchester, Halley continued to write and publish on theological and liturgical matters. He gave the Congregational Lectures in 1843 and 1850 and published several articles in the British Quarterly Review. He was appointed Chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales in 1854/5. Later he wrote a history of Lancashire nonconformity, which remains a starting point for modern research. A new, larger, chapel was built in Cavendish Street in 1848 nearer to the suburbs where wealthy nonconformist families were building their houses. Halley remained there for another nine years until 1857, when he was invited to become the second Principal and Professor of Theology at New College, London. Opened in 1850 by rsma newsletter september 2021 page 11
John Pye Smith, then quite infirm and almost completely deaf, New College, London became the theological college of the new University of London. Robert Halley had been ordained at the old meeting house, St Neots, Cambridgeshire in 1822, where he began his first ministry. He married Rebekah Jacobs, daughter of James Jacobs a timber merchant of Deptford in March 1823 at Lewisham. Of his six children, two sons went into the ministry. The eldest, Robert (Halley’s biographer), became minister of Arundel Congregational Church, Sussex, but Jacob, who suffered from consumption, moved to Australia for its drier climate and became minister of Williamstown, Victoria. Ebenezer, the youngest died in New Zealand, where he was surgeon at Lawrence, Otago. There were grandchildren in which Robert delighted, two of whom obtained scholarships to Corpus Christi and Balliol Colleges, Oxford. Sadly, he did not live to see them graduate. News of his youngest son’s death reached Robert late in 1875 while he was staying at Batworth Park near Arundel close to his eldest son. He died on 18th August 1876, close to his 80th birthday and was buried at Abney Park Cemetery, the great nonconformist burial ground where John Pye Smith and Samuel Morley were also laid to rest.
Change-maker, theologian, classicist, politician, abolitionist, radical dissenter, Robert Halley should be more widely celebrated by us as one of Homerton’s most influential, compassionate and liberal-minded students from the nineteenth century. Sources: Tom Simms, Homerton College 1695-1978, Trustees of Homerton College, Cambridge 1979. Robert Halley MA., A Short Biography of the Rev. Robert Halley DD., Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1897 Robert Halley, The Sinfulness of Colonial Slavery, a Lecture delivered at the monthly meeting of Congregational Ministers and Churches in the Meeting-House of Dr Pye Smith, Hackney, on February 7th 1833, Second Edition, Hamilton Adams & Co. London 1833. Reprinted to order by Lightning Source UK Ltd. Milton Keynes. Edwin Hodder, The Life of Samuel Morley (3rd Edn.) Hodder & Stoughton, London 1887. John Davies, An Account of the Old Gravel Pit Meeting House, Hackney, with notices of its Ministers, London 1853. * Jeremie was Chief Justice of St Lucia. His four essays on colonial slavery were based on his experience there. Later he was appointed Governor of Sierra Leone before becoming advocate general of Mauritius where he encountered overwhelming hostility on account of his abolitionist views: Recent events in Mauritius, 1835.
New on the Bookshelf
S
ome of you may well recall that, amongst my '20 creative activities' during shielding and lockdown, which were reported in the RSMA Summer Newsletter of 2020, one was working on the second edition of our 2014 book, 'Teaching Physical Education Creatively'. My special interest in undertaking this writing for the first edition was an attempt to free young children from PE lessons selected from published schemes, which resonated somewhat with my Primary school PE lessons, composed of Drill exercises, drawn from the 1933 PE syllabus. With my co-author, being of like mind, we were enabled to promote teaching around the areas of dance, games, gymnastics, that could encourage and enable children to become competent, knowledgeable, motivated and confident enquirers and learners, with an eye to developing a commitment to physical activity for life. As this proved popular and sold well, I jumped at the opportunity offered by the publisher to produce a second edition in 2021. My special interest in physical development, physical activity and physical literacy in children's early years had been further researched, enhanced and refined. We also built on feedback from reviewers of the first edition and could thereby offer new insights and practical guidance for learners and teachers. Thus, 'Teaching Physical Education Creatively 2nd edition' emerged onto the scene in February this year. This is my last major piece of publishing. I've hung up my 'authoring hat' and am currently embarking on a new venture, so watch this space …!
rsma newsletter september 2021 page 12
Trish Maude
The Knowledge Quartet Story (Part 1) Tim Rowland
O
nce in a while, a questionnaire of some kind asks me to state my occupation. For most of the last decade, my response has been “Unsuccessfully retired”. That happy way of life is largely due to research carried out 20 years ago, initially with friends/colleagues here in Cambridge and others elsewhere in the UK. That research was located in the field of ‘mathematics education’, but I hope that many colleagues with an interest in teaching and learning, of any kind and in any phase, will find this account of interest. In 1997, I was working at the London Institute of Education (now a department of UCL). The Blair government was elected in May that year, with "Education, education, education" the headline mantra. Five years earlier, in a government-commissioned report, ‘three wise men’ had called for improvement of the knowledge base of mathematics teachers, and Ofsted had identified teachers’ poor subject knowledge as a contributory factor in low standards of mathematics attainment in primary schools (Ofsted, 1994). An Education Department Circular (DfEE, 1997) then set out what it considered to be the “knowledge and understanding of mathematics that trainees need in order to underpin effective teaching of mathematics at primary level”, and in September 1998, “audit and remediation” of students’ subject knowledge became statutory. The only saving grace, back in 1998 at least, was that the means of assessment (so-called ‘auditing’) of pre-service primary teachers’ knowledge was not prescribed. Drawing on a body of well-established research that had identified common ‘elementary’ mathematics errors and misconceptions, my London colleagues and I devised a 16-item instrument to assess what our students knew about the mathematics relevant to their intended careers in primary schools. We also put in place arrangements to support and assist them where ‘gaps’ appeared to have been identified (Rowland et al., 1999). Analysis of the trainees’ responses to the audit enabled us to identify aspects of mathematics, such as generalisation, that seemed to be problematic for many of our students. In a follow-up study, we found a positive association between their mathematics subject knowledge – as assessed by the audit instrument – and their competence in teaching number, as assessed by their placement supervisors. In Autumn 1999 I was back in Cambridge. In Durham (and later, in York), Maria Goulding and her colleagues were conducting their own audit-driven research into trainees’ mathematics subject knowledge. I was now enjoying working in primary mathematics with Peter Huckstep and Anne Thwaites, then Fay Turner and Jane
Warwick, and together – supported by University Research Development funding – we instigated collaborative research with our colleagues in London and York, with the acronym ‘SKIMA’ (Subject Knowledge In MAthematics). When we began, each university had its own PGCE mathematics audit procedures, but our collaboration resulted in a convergence of support and audit practices in the three institutions, with a common audit instrument. A report of our findings when we implemented the audit in our three universities (Goulding, Rowland and Barber, 2002) continues to be cited in publications on mathematics teacher knowledge. By now, we ‘knew’ that secure mathematical knowledge, as assessed by our mathematics audit, is associated with greater competence in both the planning and the ‘delivery’ of elementary mathematics teaching. The next question needing to be answered was, of course – why is it so? In what ways is primary trainees’ teaching of mathematics – planning, reflection and classroom interaction – informed by their own knowledge and understanding of mathematics? In what ways can it be seen to ‘play out’, to make a difference, as they work with their students in the classroom? As to what we did to investigate this question – I shall do my very best to ‘keep it brief’! From one cohort of 149 Cambridge primary PGCE students, 12 trainees were identified to represent, as a group, the gender balance in the course as a whole, their upper/lower primary specialism, and their performance on the mathematics audit. The usual ethical practices concerning consent and awareness of the purpose of their involvement were observed, with respect both to the trainees and the participating schools. Two mathematics lessons taught by each of the trainees during their final 8-week school placement were observed and videotaped. They were asked to provide a copy of their planning for the observed lesson. As soon as possible after the lesson (usually the same day) the observer/researcher wrote a brief Descriptive Synopsis of what happened in the lesson, in order to contextualise subsequent discussion of any events within it. As for the analysis of these lesson regarding the ‘manifestation’ of these trainees’ mathematics knowledge as they taught, since there was no relevant analytical theoretical framework for us to draw on back in 2002, we took a ‘bottom-up’ approach, undertaking so-called ‘grounded’ analysis of the data, following the lead of US medical sociologists Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss some 30 years earlier. At the outset, we did not know what kind of ‘theory’ might emerge from our close scrutiny of the lesson videotapes. rsma newsletter september 2021 page 13
It might have been an explanatory (or predictive) theory of the kind “because this teacher knew x, he or she did (or did not do) y in the lesson”. Alternatively, it might have been a ‘lens’ type of theory – a new way of seeing classroom events from the perspective of teacher knowledge. In the event, the theory that materialised was more of the second kind. Perhaps this is the moment when I should say that our understanding of the task before us was helpfully informed and influenced by the seminal contribution of Lee Shulman, a former president of the American Education Research Association in the 1980s. Shulman heightened awareness that a significant part of knowledge-for-teaching is specific to the subject matter being taught (Shulman, 1986). So this knowledge will be different for teachers of literature, say, than that for teachers of history, or mathematics, and, in addition to knowledge of the subject matter per se, it includes knowing how best to enable a learner to come to know particular topics, processes and modes of enquiry. We were very aware of the fact that, even for the secondaryspecialist teacher, this is a special and distinctive ‘content knowledge’ dimension. For the primary-generalist, teaching across the curriculum, it will be acquired, enhanced and developed over many years. Shulman introduced the name ‘pedagogical content knowledge’ (PCK) to capture the teacher’s ability to represent and exemplify novel ideas so as to make them interesting and approachable. In Shulman’s own words, PCK includes knowledge of “ways of representing the subject which make it comprehensible to others …[and] an understanding of what makes the learning of specific topics easy or difficult” (Shulman 1986, p 9). Beginning in October 2001, a selection of the 24 videotaped lessons was viewed by the Cambridge-based team – Anne, Peter, Fay, Jane and myself – in a number of whole-day sessions. Additional lesson videos were watched and discussed by two or three members of the team. At these meetings we identified aspects of the trainee’s ‘behaviour’ that seemed to be significant – in the limited sense that it could be construed to be informed by their mathematics content knowledge or their pedagogical content knowledge. These were located in particular moments or episodes in the lessons. At first the identification of such moments, and accounts of their significance for our research, was in the form of proposals, or conjectures, for consideration by the team. They could be challenged or supported, and retained or rejected, by consensus. Once identified, we invented and assigned a succinct label, or code, to these moments or episodes. This ‘grounded’ process generated a set of 18 codes, examples included ‘anticipation of complexity’, ‘choice of examples’, ‘identification of errors’, and ‘responding to children’s ideas’. Next, each of us viewed four or five of the lesson videos and elaborated the Descriptive Synopsis into an Analytical Account of each lesson. In this account, significant moments and episodes were identified and assigned one (sometimes more than one) of our 18 codes, with appropriate justification and analysis concerning the role of the trainee’s content knowledge in the identified passages, and links to relevant literature. We kept a record of the number of occurrences of each code in each analytical account. rsma newsletter september 2021 page 14
By then, we knew that we had something to report! In September 2002, we made a presentation at the British Educational Research Association conference in Exeter. But it was in 2003, following many months of deliberation and debate back in Cambridge, that our most memorable breakthrough came about – a theoretical framework which we christened The Knowledge Quartet – the KQ for short. That must be enough for now. I shall save my account of that breakthrough, its subsequent application within and beyond primary mathematics, and its adoption and influence within and beyond the UK, for another Newsletter. Suffice to say that it has been remarkable, and humbling, to see how researchers in distant parts of the world have come to appreciate what we were trying to do here back in 2003. In a recent paper (Gumiero and Pazuch, 2021) two Brazilian researchers write “Rowland, Huckstep, and Thwaites (2005) developed a theoretical analysis tool called the Knowledge Quartet (KQ), that seeks to identify the knowledge mobilized by teachers”. We had never referred to teachers’ knowledge being ‘mobilised’, but I certainly will from now on!
References Alexander, R., Rose, J. & Woodhead, C. (1992). Curriculum Organisation and Classroom Practice in Primary Schools. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. DfEE. (1997). Teaching: High Status, High Standards: Circular 10/97. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Glaser, B. G. & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. New York: Aldine de Gruyter. Goulding, M., Rowland, T. & Barber, P. (2002). ‘Does it matter? Primary teacher trainees’ subject knowledge in mathematics’. British Educational Research Journal 28(5) pp. 689-704. Gumiero, B. S., & Pazuch, V. (2021). Teachers Knowledge Mobilized in Geometry Lessons and Contingency Situations. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 16(1), em0620. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/9371 Huckstep, P., Rowland, T. & Thwaites, A. (2002). ‘Primary Teachers’ Mathematics Content Knowledge: What does it look like in the Classroom?. Proceedings of the 2002 BERA Conference: University of Exeter. Ofsted (1994). Science and Mathematics in Schools: A Review. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Rowland, T., Martyn, S., Barber, P. & Heal, C. (1999). ‘Primary Trainees Mathematics Subject Knowledge: an update report’ In E. Bills, (Ed.) Proceedings of the BSRLM Day Conference at The Open University. Coventry: University of Warwick, pp. 73-76. Rowland, T., Martyn, S., Barber, P. & Heal, C. (2000). ‘Primary teacher trainees’ mathematics subject knowledge and classroom performance’ In T. Rowland and C. Morgan, (Eds) Research in Mathematics Education Volume 2 pp. 3-18. London: BSRLM. Shulman, L.S. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57(1), pp. 1-22.
Finding a way through … Jane Edden
W
hat a journey the Country has travelled in this pandemic. It seems unbelievable that the first lockdown was over a year ago. How did you fare? Were you like others I’ve talked to who found it easier to endure than the other two? Indeed, it was the most glorious Spring, and with few cars around, wildlife seemed to celebrate, giving folk with newly found leisure time, plenty of opportunity to enjoy the natural world as perhaps not experienced for many years. Gardens beckoned, as did all those uncompleted tasks neglected in the sometimes hectic timetable we forge for ourselves in retirement. Why then was I so astonished when in August one friend reported that she had ‘absolutely loved it!’? Quite simply because for me it was an altogether different experience. At 5am on Day 1 of lockdown, I found myself lying on the hard wooden floor in the hall having missed some stairs in search for water. How could this happen you may ask? Confession. All my life if I needed to get up in the night, I would do so in the dark, and up until March 23rd 2020, it had worked. What is that saying about Pride … ? Yes, it was an accident waiting to happen, you may rightly say, but some lessons have literally to be learnt the hard way. Once through the shock and nausea, I assessed the damage, was thankful I could still walk and eventually got back to bed. Without boring you senseless, it turned out in the days ahead, that my left side had taken the brunt of the fall, resulting in clearly what was a broken rib, twisted ankle and damaged finger. This put paid to any of the activities that I normally would have turned to at this time. Walking, gardening and playing were all out of the question and apart from being in considerable pain, I failed to get a diagnosis from three different GP’s – (all, of course, on a video call on my mobile phone) as to what had happened to my misshapen finger (alarming for a wind player) – that sorry saga could take the rest of this piece – but relax, I shall spare you. Suffice it to say it has been a very long journey, but eventually I was able to resume playing for which I’m most thankful. So, how to emerge from the doldrums into which I well and truly sank? Poetry was helpful. Did you perhaps hear various broadcasters reading their favourite poems on the Radio 4 Today programme? That introduced me to some new poets and I was able to join a U3A Poetry by Heart group on something called Zoom ! Hurrah – what a lifeline that became for so many of us! I signed up for
everything that vaguely interested me and it was marvellous to eventually continue both Book Clubs resulting in hearing and seeing everyone (another steep learning curve!) Still feeling rather physically limited. I pondered on how I might positively reach out to others within the restrictions we faced at the time. As I very much enjoy reading poetry aloud, I came up with the idea of Poems by Phone. This would have involved people emailing me with their phone number together with a favourite poem – I would then ring them at a set time and read them their choice. I tested the idea on a few friends and met with positive responses all round, and having set up an email, I braved it and contacted Look East. The next day I received an affirmative response which was quickly followed by a surprise phone call from Radio Cambridge. They too enthused about the idea and wanted to interview me on air. A radio interview in one’s own kitchen felt very strange, but whilst on air, someone phoned in and asked me to read Wordsworth’s Daffodils. So I was given a second 'airing', when standing by the sink I did just that! All positive with good feedback. So why didn’t the idea take off? It was pointed out to me by various friends that perhaps Radio Cambridge didn’t have the highest number of poetry readers, but I also wondered whether people were averse to giving their phone numbers? Or a mixture of both and a myriad of other reasons (I hasten to add that I don’t think I made too bad a job of Daffodils!) For whatever reason, it was at best good to have made the effort. Then came a suggestion made by a friend, which has had far greater consequences. Back last century (!) on my year’s teaching exchange in Trinidad, I found myself amongst a keen group of photographers, and with a wealth of photographic opportunities, it became a fulfilling hobby. Although I had still kept my old SLR camera and equipment, time and systems had moved on, laziness set in, and – as many of us do – I relied on my mobile phone and a small compact camera. It was the frustration, however, of their limitations that I was relaying to a friend one day, when she suggested I should invest in a ‘proper’ camera. (Incidentally, it was she who had asked me some years ago to be the official photographer at her parents' Ruby Wedding – a scary undertaking!). After some thought, I took action, sold my old equipment and ended up with something I’d never heard of – a mirrorless camera – lightweight, but with lots of possibilities. As luck would have it, an offer of a new one-term U3A Photography course appeared on my rsma newsletter september 2021 page 15
screen, which entailed offering up three photographs a week on a prescribed topic [a selection of four are shared below and another is this year's front cover picture Ed]. This was somewhat daunting as clearly the other members seemed to be much more experienced than I, but nevertheless I learned much from them, and they put up with my attempts! As someone who has failed dismally at drawing and painting throughout my life (when the art teacher enquired who wanted to do O Level Art, she bypassed my name!) photography is the only
way I can attempt to capture what I would love to be able to do with a paintbrush. I remember years ago a quotation from Jacqueline du Pré, which clearly must have sustained her, to the effect that it was important to turn to anything that had ever interested one. The pandemic gave us all that opportunity, and in a strange way, I feel fortunate to have been able to find new inspiration with which to move forward. I hope we were all able to find the good in this extraordinary time.
Sunset
December in Norfolk
January on the Dunes
Norfolk Walk
Household Chores Just after I had finished last year’s Newsletter I remembered that I could have added a ‘snippet’ to Charlie Jenner’s obituary. I truly love ironing – the perfect antidote to any stressful day – and each time the ironing board comes out so I remember Charlie, always. Well ever since that day in the Combination Room when Anne Johnson told me that Charlie had told her that if one irons 10 items every day, the ironing pile never grows! I think it is true. Libby
rsma newsletter september 2021 page 16
New Places Close to Home: Brook Leys Anne Thwaites
E
ddington is a new ‘neighbourhood’ on the outskirts of Cambridge between Huntingdon Road and Madingley Road. It is built on University land and part of the plan was to provide much needed housing and amenities for University employees. As for so many others, the last year has encouraged me to explore more of my local area and Eddington has been the destination for some of these outings. Gradually I have discovered lots of ‘cut throughs’ and back lanes that I had no idea existed.
The main route on foot to Eddington from central Cambridge is along a new cycle/walking path from Storey’s Way. This has been well used from the early days of Eddington and runs parallel to Huntingdon Road though well away from it. But then I discovered that I could go down All Souls’ Lane to the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground. The first burial there was in 1869. Many city and university dignitaries, scientists and scholars are buried there including Nobel prize winners. Perhaps one of the burial ground’s most famous graves is that of Ludwig Wittgenstein, philosopher (1899-1951). Once I have threaded through the more recent graves, there is a path out of the cemetery to the first of two fields (late May: this has been shut, too many visitors?); something approaching countryside close to the city centre. These fields have been the source of wonder and bounty – spring blossom, bird life and then damsons and blackberries. Over the winter, I splashed and slid through the mud and one field developed a very large wet patch which seems to have become permanent. As with so many walking areas, new paths have been established over the past year and it will be interesting to see if they remain.
Brook Leys And so to Eddington. The first building on the site was the University Primary School (universityprimaryschool.org.uk); this spectacular circular school was designed by Marks Barfield
Architects, the same firm of architects who designed the Cambridge Mosque (which some RSMs had the privilege to visit recently). The head teacher, James Biddulph, and a steering group were involved in the design; James gave a talk to the RSMA a few years ago about the philosophy behind both the building and the ethos of the school. Jean Ruddock had been a major influence on James’ thinking and it is such a pleasure to be able to walk down Ruddock Way, opposite the school. Penny Coltman is one of the RSMs who has been involved with the school from its inception. She has been a governor since it opened 2015 and wrote a fascinating article about the school in the 2018 RSMA Newsletter. Walking on through Eddington, I go past Girton College’s graduate accommodation, continuing gradually downhill towards Brook Leys. Eddington has a large number of energy and resource-conserving features – a central system for both space- and water-heating for the buildings, an underground refuse and recycling system and a water recycling system. Rain water is channelled throughout the site to a new lake, Brook Leys, at the lowest point of the site. After treatment this is pumped back to all the homes as grey water to be used in toilets and washing machines. There is a separate potable water supply in each home. The area around Brook Leys has been landscaped as park land with a wide path going round the whole lake. Reed beds were planted as part of the purification of the water along with a lot of trees and wild flowers. There are also two works of art – a huge pixelated mirror and a two storey tea house. The lake has been there for about six years but this spring has seen the wildlife Author (pixelated)! around it flourish to an extraordinary extent. All the water area is visible from one point or another around the lake making it a haven to watch, in particular, the bird life. rsma newsletter september 2021 page 17
There have been pairs of swans, coots and mallards nesting amongst the reeds – the swan and coot nests are easily seen, the ducks have been a bit more secretive. In addition, a pair of Canada geese and a heron are regularly there, feeding on and in the lake. Recently (mid-May), the swallows have arrived and a week later the first cygnet hatched. So many species in a small, new area – the wildlife in the lake must be good too, at least a cormorant thinks so. It has been encouraging to see this new neighbourhood gradually soften into the landscape – it will always be a densely populated area but the surroundings must be giving a lot of pleasure to the residents and certainly to this regular visitor. It is possible to explore Eddington by parking at the Madingley Road Park and Ride – details are available on the Eddington website: https://eddington-cambridge.co.uk/explore/how-to-find-us
So whether you go by car, bus, bike or on foot, hopefully you will enjoy the visit.
Rudduck Way
T
he University has honoured a former member of Homerton by naming a road after her on its new Eddington campus in North Cambridge. Fittingly Rudduck Way is located immediately opposite the main entrance to the innovative Cambridge University Primary School which many members of the College helped to plan and set up.
Jean Rudduck, who died aged just 70 of ovarian cancer in 2007, was a Foundation and Professorial Fellow at Homerton. She was well known for pioneering the potential of 'pupil voice' as a means of achieving school improvement and changes to teaching and learning. Her ideas and research were taken up not just across the United Kingdom but in many different countries around the world.
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Back in the 1990s, as Joint Director of Research, she played a major role in building the College's reputation as an international centre for educational research and innovation. A key actor in the convergence in 2001 between the College and the Homerton’s portrait University, she was of Jean Rudduck subsequently by Jane Cursham appointed as Cambridge's first female Professor of Education. Jean is the second person associated with the college this century to have had a road named after them. Some twenty years ago Homerton named Harrison Drive (which runs between the College and the Faculty of Education building) in honour of Sir David Harrison in recognition of his pivotal role in chairing the trustees over several decades. Under his watch the College moved closer and closer to the University. In 2001 Homerton became Cambridge's newest and largest institution and, a short decade later, was awarded its own Royal Charter as a full college of the University. John Gray
In conversation with Maria Whelan Homerton’s first Jaqueline Bardsley Poet-in-Residence Trish Maude
PM: Hello Mariah……. Thank you so much for taking part in our series, ‘A Conversation with……….’. Please tell us about yourself and about what you do. MW: I am Dr Mariah Whelan and was appointed to Homerton in October 2020 as the first Jacqueline Bardsley Poet-in-Residence. My interest in and love of poetry was first sparked whilst, in primary school in Oxford, we were encouraged to create free flowing poems, which we performed through speech, drama and dance, unhindered by any constraints of grammar. In secondary school we were encouraged to submit poems to national poetry competitions. I went on to read for a BA in English at Queen’s University, Belfast, honing my knowledge and understanding of poetry writing under the tutelage of Seamus Heaney and completing a module with the Irish poet, Medbh McGuckian, to produce a portfolio of poems. I went on to teach English in Japan where I first became more conscious of the wider world and recorded this in my first book of poems, before returning to the UK to read for a Master’s in Creative Writing at Oxford. I was then fortunate to be awarded funding for 4 years, to undertake my PhD at Manchester, along with teaching students and completing my second book of poetry. Having completed this last year, I was very soon drawn to apply for the post at Homerton. To date, as a result of the constraints of the Coronavirus pandemic, I have spent just 3 days at the College in September and October 2020, just enough to have a taste of the opportunities that lay ahead. PM: How was Homerton able to have a Poet-inResidence? MW: The Jacqueline Bardsley Residency was established by Dr Norman Bardsley in honour of his wife who was an alumna of the College and very sadly passed away a few years ago. Mrs Bardsley was a wonderful poet and Dr Bardsley funded the residency to help put poetry at the heart of Homerton life. The purposes of the Residency are firstly to help people to express themselves, through discovering and experiencing poetry, secondly, to foster community, and thirdly to continue to pursue my love of writing poetry. PM: What projects have you been able to start so far?
of which was on writing Eco-poetry. I have introduced two new poets to the College, Mary Jean Chan and Marvin Thompson, given one-to-one supervisions to undergraduates and postgraduates, and contributed to several College projects including recent videos for students on Mental Health and Inclusion. I was invited to select and read poems at the College Armistice Day Act of Remembrance on 11/11/20 and for the College Service of Readings and Carols for Advent and Christmas. PM: I have heard that you are interested in Homerton’s trees? MW: My most recent project, with support from another member of your RSMA, Stephen Tomkins whose expert knowledge of the trees in the Homerton grounds is amazing, is to produce a digital map in poetry of the trees in the grounds, including an aerial view. If funding permits plaques will be added to the trees represented, to complete the map. PM: Thank you, Mariah, for taking us thus far on your journey from childhood to Poet-in -Residence. Just before you go, you invited us to participate in upcoming Homerton poetry projects. Please tell us more. MW: We have two upcoming poetry projects at Homerton. In our first project we are writing a collective ghazal about Homerton’s wonderful trees. I invited everyone in College to select a tree in the grounds and express their poem in just one two-line couplet. I will assemble these into an interactive poetry map of the grounds as mentioned above. To participate members were invited to email me via mw830@cam.ac.uk. For the second project I am collating an anthology of poetry written by Homerton members. If RSMA members would like to see their poems published, they can send them to me at the above email address. Finally, members are always welcome at our poetry-writing and poetry-reading workshops. Again, just drop me an email and I will add you to the mailing list of dates and times. PM: We all look forward to the outcome of these projects, to learning more about your on-going work and to seeing you in person as soon as we can return to Homerton from our lockdown locations! Thank you and best wishes for success in all that you are doing as Homerton’s first Poet-in-Residence.
MW: In service of these purposes, to date, I have delivered two Creative Writing seminars each term, one
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Hot News from the Archive: The ‘Lost Film’ found! Peter Cunningham
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n 2009 Homerton Roll News reported Peter Cushing’s dramatic move from Hollywood to Homerton. The Hammer horror film star’s career (minor role in Hollywood’s Man in the Iron Mask, and entertaining wartime troops in Noel Coward’s Private Lives) inched forward in a Crown Film Unit production to support the Ministry of Education’s 1944 recruitment drive attracting teachers for post-war schools. Thanks to Senior Lecturer Robina MacIntyre’s connections, a propaganda film ‘The New Teacher’ (later re-titled ‘The New School’) was shot by Pinewood Studios at Homerton.
‘The New School’ – cast list Note: Music by Ben Frankel and the names of the first two players!
Production Stills (Homerton Roll News 2009) Production stills lay dormant in the College Archive. Thirteen years ago we followed these up in the National Archives, were excited to discover production notes and a script, and went in pursuit of the film. However, the British Film Institute (BFI) apparently had little evidence; Peter Cushing Appreciation Societies (UK and USA) weren’t able to help, and a promising link with the film archive at MOMA New York drew a blank. The general consensus was that no copy of the film existed, and the trail went cold.
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In 2013, archivist Svetlana Paterson arrived at Homerton and was soon enthused by the quest, tenaciously searching from cast-list and credits, through social media, for contacts. With the forensic skill of Miss Marple, she searched the web for key players. She found lead actress Yvonne Rorie (misspelt Dorie in cast list) who died age 52, laid to rest at the Ascension burial ground in Cambridge. Music was by Ben Frankel, and following this lead, Svetlana struck silver in April this year, acquiring from his family a digital copy, not of the whole film but of a substantial sequence of scenes shot in college. Yet even more recently, in May she struck gold making contact with Yvonne Rorie’s children and grandchildren, who agreed to donate to Homerton a family heirloom, perhaps the only extant celluloid copy of ‘The New School’ film. It has recently returned to College restored and digitised. We congratulate Svetlana for her role in all of this.
More Hot News from the Archive Peter Cunningham
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odern archives must be multi-media and, after the excitement of finding something that had been lost, … the next hot news is not video but
audio.
Some 30 years ago, our then Librarian/Archivist Liz Edwards together with historian Sallie Purkis, recorded interviews with staff and students. Cassettes are now being digitised with remarkable quality, entertaining and enlightening to hear. Good examples are memories from students of the wartime years, recorded at Homerton Roll Reunions in the early 1990s. Light-hearted and full of interest about social life in College and in Cambridge, the constraints of war, as well as their academic and professional experiences. Two themes resonate with other items in this Newsletter: memories of their colleagues from Sierra Leone featured in the lost film (see production stills previous page); and students’ encounters with Principal Alice Skillicorn, some daunted by her strict demeanour, others warmed by the personal interest and detailed memory she showed on other occasions – more about Miss Skillicorn in the next article. But for the moment keeping with recorded interviews brings us (apparently seamlessly) to the RSM Heritage Project, now re-emerging from lockdown. Following a suggestion made at the recent AGM, the Principal agreed to be interviewed by Steve Watts and me, recorded on Zoom and uploaded for public access on YouTube. Geoff provides an inspiring account of promoting the arts through his varied career in higher education, from Cambridge to Liverpool, Dundee, Royal Holloway and back to Cambridge. He also reflects on leading the College through its period of post-Charter growth, as Homerton has played a distinctively progressive role in 21st century Cambridge. This interview provides not only a valuable document to archive for posterity, but a welcome contribution by the RSMs to valedictory celebration of Geoff’s Principalship. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoiZ3JL7OuI Mathematicians, too, have made a start on committing their departmental memories to history, recording a fruitful discussion of how their subject developed in the last three decades of last century. Homerton acquired a high profile in developing teachers for the teaching and learning of maths in primary and secondary schools, over a period of curricular, cultural and technological change.
The opportunities and challenges are interestingly revealed, and it’s to be hoped that other groups of RSMs might take the opportunities presented regarding their own subject. The archive has a wealth of documentary material that could provide a backdrop or a focus for this kind of discussion. Finally, we can observe how far our archive has come in the last 40 years …
… from Homerton Roll News 1979 An item in Homerton Roll News of 1979 reminds us how the archive has grown and Miss Skillicorn’s crucial posthumous role in its development. From library cupboards in the Black and White building, via a basement cellar in Cavendish, to its penthouse suite in Queen’s Wing, with garden views and stunning sunsets. Rich seams of history are preserved, as College continues to benefit from this asset in its new home. The archive made a striking historical and artistic contribution to our 250th celebration in 2018; this was followed by Sue Conrad’s exhibit documenting the Royal Charter on its tenth anniversary, sadly frustrated by the pandemic but we hope this work may be more fully appreciated on a future occasion, with the opening of a new Dining Hall, perhaps?
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Even more news from the Archive: teacher education in troubled times
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iss Skillicorn has gained two mentions in ‘More Hot News from the Archives’ but she features again in a significant new book. Life and Death in Higher Education by Clare Debenham is the dramatic and ominous title of a volume published this year by Cambridge-based Lutterworth Press. RSMs might be scared off by her subtitle ‘A political and sociological analysis of British Colleges of Education’, but Debenham researched extensively in the Homerton archive, and her lively text follows our former archivist and librarian Elizabeth Edwards in a thought-provoking but controversial analysis of Alice Skillicorn. Liz Edwards published her challenging work on Women in teacher training colleges, 1900-1960: a culture of femininity (London: Routledge) in 2001, while books and journals carried chapters and articles on Mary Allan and Skillicorn who between them led Homerton for 57 years. The latter was in many ways an outsider in college, coming from a working-class background, her father a shoemaker; her degree was B.Sc. from London School of Economics rather than Oxbridge, and she attracted unfair criticism on her appearance and dress, as well as sometimes on her relationships with staff. She was accused by some of being autocratic. Yet she made a significant contribution to Homerton by improving its financial position and successfully campaigning for the college to have its own nursery school. As a result of her innovations the college was visited in 1941 by R.A. Butler, President of the Board of Education, who subsequently introduced the 1944 Education Act. Under her leadership the college grew academically.
Debenham’s work is ominous but timely as our College and our University, along with Oxford, the Russell Group, and many other universities as well as professional bodies, have responded this summer to an even more controversial ‘market review’ of initial teacher education undertaken by the DfE. Paul Warwick and Stephen Grounds have been leading informative discussion by RSMs on this topic Debenham’s book traces the fortunes of teacher-training through many of our own careers as colleges expanded rapidly, introduced B.Ed and later BA Education degrees, before many closures and mergers with local polytechnics and universities. She draws on interviews and archive material to record their ‘life’. What she could not have predicted as she researched and wrote, was a new attempt by government to impose central control of the teaching profession, and professional preparation of teachers in universities and schools. David Bridges recently reviewed Debenham’s book in the Times Higher Education, observing that ‘at their peak in 1968 there were 113 local authority colleges and 53 run by voluntary bodies’, a year when ‘some 40,000 men and women entered these colleges … compared with about 50,000 entering universities’. He recalls how from 1974 onwards, most were closed or merged, while a few diversified and became universities in their own right, and notes her account of the colleges’ ‘death’ as a starting point for ‘provocative analysis and questions about how and where teacher education is best provided inside, or increasingly, outside higher education.’
Competition 2020 – Editor’s Photo Quiz Photo taken on Jesus Green – Time for the Answers Level 1 Question: What was the year? 2020 (of course): March 30th, one week into lockdown number 1 to be precise. Level 2 Question: How many people are in the picture? Not quite sure but at least one – man in red jacket carrying a full Sainsbury’s shopping bag, bottom left; definitely more litter bins than people though. Level 3 Question: How many trees are in blossom? I hope that at least some of you think there are three – but no, just one! Never trust a camera some people say. A more intriguing fact (at least to me) was that during all the time I was out for my daily walk on Jesus Green I only met one person I knew: Anne Thwaites (twice). On one occasion I did hear someone shouting “Libby, Libby” but then realised they were calling their dog.
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Golden Anniversary: Reminiscences of arriving at Homerton one half-century ago Rex Watson
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rior to starting at Homerton in 1971, I worked on a four-year contract as a Lecturer in Mathematics at the Royal University of Malta. Part of this work was on a joint honours degree, but part in the Junior (Sixth-form) College, which fed the university. By the time the last of these years started, I had to decide whether to renew my contract. I was now married to Norma, and our daughter Lynda was the blondest person on the island. With a potential change of government, perhaps less well disposed to expatriates, it seemed time to return to Blighty.
In the TES one day in the autumn I came across the Homerton advert for a mathematician and decided to apply. We were returning to the UK for the festive season and an interview was arranged for a day quite deep into the vacation, perhaps as late as say 20th December. At this point we were in Lancashire with my parents. After a night in the Station Hotel, as it was then, I crossed the railway bridge and found Homerton (sounds like crossing the Rubicon and finding God). I was I think surprised to find that I was the only interviewee, at least that day. (In fact Bob Burn started with me in September following.) Much of the time (perhaps 10 to 2) I don't remember, but Hilary Shuard was in charge, being Head of Maths and Deputy Principal. In fact Principal Dame Beryl had departed for Christmas! There were no students around of course. I met Hugh Wood and Alison Carter, as she was then, possibly too Hazel Brown. I think much of the discussion concerned the maths course itself, but 'curriculum' work proved to be important too, of course, maybe causing me some angst in my earlier years in the college!
So much for getting the job. I could write much of course about doing it, but that would be a major task. Anyway, and briefly, fast forward about seven months. Norma was expecting (baby due October) and flew home to her parents in Southampton in early July. I went with the car on the ferry to Naples, then broke the record from there to Le Havre (in a Ford Anglia). After much to-ing and fro-ing involving Southampton, Lancashire and Cambridge, we moved to a rented house in Shelford early in August. My room at Homerton was ready, so in fact I started working before too long, even though the contract started in September. One vivid memory is of sitting in my 'black and white' room (N6), vertical ducting pipe and all, and feeling very cold (about 30 degrees Fahrenheit less than Malta); probably worrying too about how to present double integrals. However, Combination Room coffee and chat worked wonders as ever. Term probably didn't start till lateish in September. By this time I had my maths courses well enough mapped out I think, and was starting to get to grips with the way the College and its courses worked. Students arrived, courses started, Philip was born, I managed to fit a 'scrap' heater into our 'Maltese' car (my supreme mechanical achievement, ever), we bought our house (still there, us as well as the house itself!), we developed our sporting interests, etc.. How did we find the energy?
In later years in the Maths Dept, from say the early 1980s, we would expect interviewees to give a presentation on a piece of maths or a curriculum matter. Fortunately for me perhaps this was not in operation in 1970! Musing over things on the train journey north, I thought I could cope well enough with the maths teaching, and the curriculum work, teaching practice supervision, etc., were quite in the background. I liked my future colleagues, and the place generally. An offer came through the same day, which Norma and I agreed I should accept.
[Rex’s pen portrait at the top of this piece was taken by Alan Russell from Central Resources at the beginning of a Two Year Maths (TYM) course. I have one too. As Rex notes: the background looks like a snooker project, rather than a mechanics lecture. Ed.]
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An Update from the Development Office Laura Kenworthy
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fter 15 months of working from home more or less exclusively, the Development Office has come to some conclusions: i. Having interesting Fellows, alumni and students to interview is a lockdown lifeline ii. Co-ordinating online events is every bit as stressful as drafting table plans iii. We will never again take Homerton lunches for granted
Matthew Moss
Sally Nott
Chris Hallebro
Alumni Relations
Communications
Over the past year Sally Nott, who joined us as Alumni Relations Manager a week before the first lockdown, has moulded her role into a very different shape than the job she thought she was taking on. Instead of London drinks receptions, reunion dinners and visiting speakers, she has co-ordinated a hugely varied programme of webinars, coaxing Homerton academics into presenting their research to students and alumni. Recent topics have ranged from cosmology to sustainability, via race and political biography, and we have been thrilled that so many alumni have taken up the opportunity to engage with the wide-ranging interests of our Fellows.
Our External Communications Manager, Laura Kenworthy, has continued to share all things Homertonian with the wider world, from the achievements of Professorial Fellow Professor Ravi Gupta, whose views on the virus have become a media staple, to the two alumni, Olivia Coffey and Henry Fieldman, who will shortly be rowing for their respective countries in the Tokyo Olympics.
Sally also oversaw this year’s wonderful Kate Pretty Lecture, in which Luke Syson, Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, took full advantage of the benefits of an online lecture and delivered an intimate and thought-provoking discussion of the museum’s collections and purposes from the Fitzwilliam itself. We had 455 registrations for the event, many more than would have fitted in the auditorium, and it was wonderful to be able to offer a sense of connection with the museum which would not have been possible in a live talk. September 2021 will see the second online Alumni Reunion Weekend, and we are hugely conscious not only of the disappointment faced by RSMs and alumni at the lack of a live gathering, but also that Sally will have been in post for a year and a half without having sampled so much as an afternoon tea. Last year, Sally curated a joyful weekend of choral music, poetry, a crash course in virology, and opportunities for online year group get-togethers. Many attendees made a point of mentioning that they had never been able to attend in person and appreciated the chance to engage with the College in a new way. We look forward to sharing this year’s programme with you in the coming weeks, and to finding a balance in future that allows people to connect with us both in person and online.
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Day-to-day, the opportunity for casual connection with the Homerton community through social media has never felt so valuable, and these platforms have had a new significance for current students during the long periods when they have been studying remotely. Laura has also produced two issues of the Annual Review and two of the Homertonian magazine from home, with the latest issue of the Homertonian due out over the summer. Although the distance has had its challenges, she has relished the human contact that writing these publications demands. Conducting interviews from her kitchen table with novelists, teachers, scientists and entrepreneurs has provided a constant reminder of the richness of the College community. Fundraising Chris Hallebro, Deputy Director of Development, was about to launch a telethon when the world was put on pause. When the telephone campaign was rescheduled later in the year, with students calling alumni from their own homes rather than from the camaraderie of a shared calling room, we were conscious that asking anyone for money in these times could be regarded as tactless. But we were also acutely aware of the genuine need, and of how precarious many students’ finances would be as a result of the pandemic. We were overwhelmed by the generosity of the response, and of the willingness of our alumni to recognise the hardship faced by the current cohort of students, and to alleviate it.
We were reminded, this year, how long the impact of a positive Homerton experience can last. For Jean Mary Robinson, who trained as a teacher here during the second world war, Homerton was sufficiently significant nearly 80 years later for her to leave us over £1 million when she died, aged almost 95, last year. As a department, we were enormously touched by this legacy, and excited by the good that can be done with
it. But we were also reassured. Jean’s experiences at Homerton, in wartime, were compromised by global upheaval and far from the university life she might have imagined. Yet a long lifetime later, she saw her Homerton years as hugely valuable. We hope that our current cohort will, despite the unavoidable context, feel the same.
Bursar’s Report Deborah Griffin
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s I write this, we are hoping for a little return to normality in College life. In truth, it does not feel much different to last summer when we hoped to be returning to a normal academic year. We await government announcements and developments to understand how we might operate for the rest of the summer and as students return in September… and redo all the risk assessments covering every aspect of College life.
One of the most hard-working members of staff over the past year has been our Isolation Support Co-Ordinator who also doubles up as our Quarantine Co-ordinator. Bobbie Semple, our Conference Sales Manager, continues to perform these roles diligently and commendably. Many of you may remember Bobbie as the HUS administrator for many years. We hope Bobbie can return to her “day job” very soon as we need to build our events business back up as a critical pillar of College finances, although her team is working hard in the meantime. We are really looking forward to welcoming both old and new clients to the new guest bedrooms and auditorium in North Wing which were completed last summer. As the Dining Hall and Buttery near completion – February 2022 – we are refurbishing the Ibberson rooms to provide high standard meeting rooms to capture new business. In particular, we are looking at the audio-visual (AV) provision to be able to host hybrid meetings – meetings with both physical and virtual attendees. This is
a complicated refurbishment not only because it is a listed building but we are also improving fire and safety provisions so that capacities can be re-instated and increasing the environmental sustainability of the building as well. Local interior designer Eve Waldron is providing the design element. We have commissioned a study of the whole campus so that we can develop a plan to reduce our use of gas across the estate and improve sustainability. Who knew we had 32 gas boilers?! As you may recall, the new Dining Hall and Buttery is powered by electricity and heating and cooling provided by Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHP). The students were able to use our new sports facilities off Long Road during the year whilst the new pavilion and changing rooms are being built. These are due to be completed by the end of August 2021, just in time for the new academic year. I am looking forward to welcoming our Alumni for “old” matches against our current students. During the past year we have been running an architectural competition to choose an architect to design a new building at the Hills Road entrance to house a new Porters’ Lodge, Children’s’ Literature Resource Centre and additional group study spaces. Alison Brooks was the successful practice and we are starting working with them on the design to submit planning permission by the end of the year. We will also take the opportunity to improve the frontage and install covered cycle storage.
Dining Hall continuing construction, February 2021
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David Whitebread 9th July 1948 – 13th April 2021
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t nine o ‘clock on a Monday morning over 200 trainee teachers filed into the auditorium of the Mary Allan Building to the accompaniment of ‘We don’t need no education’. On this occasion it was Pink Floyd, another time it might have been the Do-re-mi song from singalong Sound of Music, or perhaps an engaging clip about orangutans from Attenborough. Whatever the soundtrack, the common element was David Whitebread. David’s PGCE lectures were always eagerly anticipated. With an enviable talent for rendering some complex aspects of psychology both accessible and engaging he demonstrated to all of us the value of playfulness in both teaching and learning.
that ‘tomorrow he would be going on a course’. It was usually the eighteen holes in Saffron Walden. David was responsible for establishing the Early Years PGCE course and in this role he offered the trainee teachers the levels of care that he would hope for from tutors supporting his own daughters. This determination to ensure a positive emotional environment for trainees remains a cornerstone of the early years and primary PGCE course. Colleagues on the teaching staff also benefitted from David’s support, with many, over the years, having reason to thank him for fostering their careers in academia. David was the first to invite less experienced colleagues to join in research teams, respecting their professional insights whist gently leading them down the paths of research methods, data analysis and report writing. Beyond the Faculty David was a champion for early years education at every level. He worked tirelessly to foster awareness of the critical importance of early learning and to raise the professional profile of early years educators. Locally he was the chair of governors at Homerton Nursery for many years and convened the meetings of the regional branch of BAECE (the British Association for Early Childhood Education). He was on the national executive committee of TACTYC (the association for professional development in early years) and through this became a nationally respected advocate for young children. Internationally he developed a vibrant research network, hosting global conferences and publishing books that were translated into a multitude of languages. In recent years he developed the relationship with the LEGO foundation that funded the PEDAL Research Centre (Play in Education, Development And Learning). To be David’s colleague was both great fun and an exciting privilege.
David had a strong personal history of playfulness. As a senior teacher in a primary school he had once showed prospective parents around the school whilst dressed as a North American native chief. When asked to move to a Year 6 class, he employed the pedagogical approaches he had developed in his reception class and looked back on the experience as one of his most successful and enjoyable years in teaching. The most enthusiastic of grandads and the keenest of travellers, we shared David’s sense of fun as he took on his seasonally type-cast role at Christmas, and all knew what was meant when he said rsma newsletter september 2021 page 26
Two of David’s previous PhD students and research colleagues offered to contribute to this article, both having consulted widely with an army of erstwhile PhD students who were keen for their thoughts to be represented. Deborah Pino Pasternak was awarded her PhD in 2008, supervised by David. She is now Associate Professor in Early Childhood Education and Communities at the Faculty of Education, University of Canberra. Marisol Basilio is based at the Faculty of Education, having achieved her PhD, again under David’s supervision, in 2014. Now an educational psychology consultant, she continues David’s tradition of teaching on aspects of the Early Years and Primary PGCE course whilst maintaining a heavy involvement in the PEDAL centre. Thank you both.
Penny Coltman
David as a PhD supervisor : Deborah Pino-Pasternak David wore many hats, touched many lives, and made contributions well beyond academia. This is a tribute to him as a supervisor, from those of us who were incredibly fortunate to complete our graduate degrees under his guidance. In the weeks after his passing most of his students have come together to share photos, experiences, and to organise initiatives that will sustain David’s legacy past our own trajectories in academia. This is a true testament to David’s impact on our personal and professional lives. We could talk here about his supervisory achievements, we could count how many students he supervised to completion, how many countries are now represented in his supervisory trajectory, and how many times he was honoured for his supervisory role. We chose, however, to talk about the richness and intimacy of the relationships that David formed with us. David thrived as a supervisor. He loved it! He was genuinely invested in each one of his students and hungry to learn with us as we deepened the understanding of our own topics. David took risks and saw talents where others did not, and was curious to learn how our vastly different cultural upbringings shaped our research journeys. David was a rare supervisor. Not many get the combination of warmth, support, challenge and critical engagement as right as he did. In reminiscing about his supervision sessions, we all came together in laughter, as humour, even during the lows of our candidatures, sustained us and gave us confidence in our abilities. We all laughed, we all cried, and we all had cups of tea, and David was our constant. David was more than a supervisor; he was a true mentor and our champion. He generously shared opportunities to become involved in his research projects and he advocated for us. He wrote with us and he supported us well past our completions. He probably has hundreds of reference letters stored somewhere in his computer. He took us to conferences, and he introduced us to our academic heroes. As a result, we were kindly and incrementally inducted into numerous aspects of academia and developed skills that many PhD candidates can only dream of acquiring while doing their higher degrees. Through conferences, symposia, journal articles, fellowship applications, and funding bids, David was our constant. We extend our gratitude and this tribute to Linda, Lizzie and Sarah, who welcomed us as an extended family and made us feel we had a home far from our own. We are grateful for every minute and every late night David dedicated to giving feedback on our drafts. We know this was time taken away from you and we know this would have not happened without your unwavering family support.
In closing this tribute, we thank David once again for all he did for us. He changed our lives and made us grow. We can only hope that, in following his example, we will continue contributing to a generation of researchers who hold a true fascination and curiosity for young children’s learning and development. With much love and endless gratitude, Dr Deborah Pino-Pasternak (PhD 2008) Dr Valeska Grau Cárdenas (PhD 2009) Dr Daniela Jadue Roa (PhD 2014) Dr Matt Somerville (PhD 2016) Dr Hanne Jensen (EdD 2020) Dr Lysandra Sinclaire-Harding (PhD 2017) Dr Mohini Verma (PhD 2017) Dr Aileen O’Connor (PhD 2015) Dr Sanjana Mehta (PhD 2006) Dr Donna Bryce (PhD 2011) Dr Martina Kuvalja (PhD 2014) Dr Marisol Basilio (PhD 2014) Dr Antonia Zachariou (PhD 2015) Dr Laura Renshaw-Vuillier (PhD 2014) Dr. Anies Al-Hroub (PhD 2006) Dr. Qais I. S. AlMeqdad (PhD 2008) Dr. Claire Sangster Jokić (PhD 2009) Dr Lisha O’Sullivan (PhD 2016) Mona Nemer (MEd 2010) Dr Heyi Zhang (PhD 2016) Eleni Papacosta (MPhil 2003) Dr Dave Neale (PhD 2016) Dr Pablo Torres (PhD 2017)
(and others who we were not been able to reach at the time of publication.) David as a research colleague: Marisol Basilio David was a teacher of teachers, a ‘Grandmaster Jedi’ of Education and a playful researcher. I was lucky to work closely with him from 2009 until his retirement, so I witnessed first-hand the most important successes of his research career. He led two applied research projects, working collaboratively with teachers to implement innovative pedagogies based on dialogue and play. Who gets to study children chatting and playing for a living? David did. David’s collaboration with the LEGO Foundation also started during this time and resulted in the foundation of a brand-new research centre: PEDAL. Who gets to say they founded a research centre in one of the most prestigious universities in the world? David. But to everyone who knew him, it was clear that his motivation was not prestige. I admired David’s selflessness during this process. He knew he would retire soon and wouldn’t personally benefit from the opportunities this new centre opened. He wouldn’t become the first LEGO Professor, and wouldn’t guide PhD students anymore. Yet the LEGO Professor of Play Chair, and the annual PhD scholarships at Cambridge to further the study of play exist because of David’s efforts. David was, as Sara Baker – a colleague at PEDAL – put it, a ‘trailblazer’ in his areas of research. A keen observer of young children’s development, he contributed to the evidence recognising signs of early self-regulation at a time when the field only accepted these skills to be present much later in life. He also contributed significantly to the understanding of the importance of rsma newsletter september 2021 page 27
play in children’s development and learning in various areas. Both of these ideas are now becoming mainstream and are being brought increasingly into educational practice. David held leadership roles in professional bodies such as the European Association of Learning and Instruction, and contributed many academic publications in psychology and education. He also held editorial memberships in a number of academic journals. But his most valuable legacy in this area is the large group of mentees from all over the world, who will carry on with his mission of understanding development and learning to improve children’s lives. I am lucky to count myself as one of them. David was a passionate activist. I remember in his office a poster that replaced the iconic red and blue image of Obama with that of Darwin, and a legend that said: “Very gradual change we can Believe in” – he lived by this, and he did his part. In 2012, he led a review on the ‘Importance of play’ for the European Parliament, which he presented in Brussels. For this work he received the BRIO Prize presented by the Swedish Toy company. This was very fitting because one of the main observation tools he and his team developed to assess self-regulation in young children used a BRIO Train Track toy.
Perhaps David’s most impactful work was his most recent involvement with the PlayLabs initiative, together with the LEGO Foundation and BRAC University. This is a community program in Bangladesh, Uganda, and Tanzania, that has reached the lives of thousands of children by providing opportunities for learning through play. He was proud of this work and I am sorry – like all his colleagues in this initiative – that he won’t get to see the full extent of the benefits it will create. It has been a source of comfort knowing that David received so much love and appreciation in life, through the 'best supervisor' award and the celebrations that took place when he retired. He deserved that 'fuss' and much, much more. For me, more than a mentor and colleague, he was a close friend. Without putting himself in a fatherly role, he was my champion and my guide. He really was the closest father figure I ever had, and I owe him a great deal. I will miss him forever, and I will live to make him proud.
David talked to government officials in the UK and many other countries, advocating high quality early childhood education. He participated in campaigns against early testing and the early school starting age in the UK, always putting children at the heart of educational practice.
I thought it would be lovely to reproduce here the first few lines of David’s article for the 2018 Newsletter with the splendid title of Dr Trouble and the Tutti Fruttis. Libby
When I came for my interview at Homerton in December 1985, applying for the post of Lecturer in Education and Psychology, I was questioned in some depth about my experience as a Primary school teacher and my MEd and PhD level academic studies in developmental and educational psychology. I thought I did OK in the various interviews. However, my interviewers’ ears really pricked up over lunch when I announced that I had played drums in various bands over the years. Oh, came the reply, we have a staff band at Homerton, but we don’t have a drummer! So, there has always been the suspicion in my mind that the other candidates for the post had equally good or perhaps rather better qualifications in education and psychology, but what really tipped the balance in my favour was my apparent ability to hit calf skin with a stick in a vaguely rhythmical fashion. The Drummer
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I joined the staff at the start of the Easter term in 1986, and I joined the staff band very soon after …
Barbara Pointon 13th August 1939 – 21st June 2020
With thanks to John for co-ordinating the contributions and for this own introduction to such a remarkable, talented, hard-working and caring person. The memories shared below are ‘topped and tailed’ by Janet Macleod and Sue Pinner who first came to Homerton as students. After Janet’s contribution comes two from Pat Cooper and Trish Maude, Homerton Colleagues and eventually members of Emeritus. Chris Doddington and Philip Rundall then share some reminiscences of some very enjoyable and successful collaborative ‘arts’ adventures. The penultimate contribution is from Jane Edden who worked with Barbara in the Music Department, but that is only for starters. The love and respect that everyone had for Barbara shines through their accounts – she was indeed a very special person. Ed.
Memories of Barbara
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arbara Pointon was in charge of Music at Homerton when I first started to work at the College, and I would first of all like to acknowledge the enormous debt of gratitude that I owe to her for giving me that chance. She was an amazing woman, who worked tirelessly for the students, for music and for music’s role in the school curriculum. As someone with very little teaching experience in schools myself, I was relieved to find myself responsible for the more subject-based aspects of the B.Ed music course, and for attempting to build bridges between that course and the Faculty of Music in West Road. I think it would be fair to say that relations with that Faculty were somewhat sticky at that time, but over the years it became possible to improve that situation to everyone’s benefit. Barbara was always very much the heart of the old Trumpington House Music Department, and many generations of music students were made to feel themselves to be a part of her extended family, and of course, being located at some distance from the main college buildings, we could make as much noise as we liked. Although Barbara took early retirement not long after I began to work at Homerton, we kept in touch for many years, a time when Barbara devoted herself to healthcare issues, prompted by Malcolm’s early onset of dementia, and for which she received national recognition when awarded the MBE. I fully agree with Janet Macleod’s comment in her contribution below that Barbara should also have received national recognition for her work in music education. Rather than write a formal obituary, it was decided that for the RSM Newsletter, a number of colleagues and former students would be invited to share their personal memories of Barbara, and these are collected below. At a time when the kind of music, the approach to music education, and the set of musical values that Barbara embodied and fought for, are under attack from several sides, these shared memories of a passionate, warm and generous personality are extremely welcome. John Hopkins
I
am part of that generation of Homertonions – all women then – for whom the Music Department meant David [Hindley], Barbara and Malcolm, yet when I arrived in 1972 Barbara wasn't there. She was on maternity leave, but wasted little time in returning to full time work, a relatively unusual decision back then. We saw her do it, we marvelled at her ability to juggle family and professional life and we talked about the fact that, one day, we could do the same; we didn't have to limit our ambitions. Trumpington House felt like a world apart but it was our home and Barbara, always approachable, always concerned for us as individuals, made it a warm and welcoming place to learn and grow. Barbara encouraged us to think clearly for ourselves about what we were teaching, why it was important and how it could best be achieved and developed. An example – we remember learning from her how not to run a singing lesson. We were her class and she, the well meaning and enthusiastic teacher who incorporated every classic mistake into the session for us to recognise, diagnose, consider and overcome. It encapsulated so much of what she taught us about what a music lesson should be: musical, practical, thought provoking, engaging, collaborative and, of course, thoroughly enjoyable. Barbara's influence and legacy will endure as so many of her students have gone on to teach and train successive generations of practitioners. Her belief in creative and active music making in the classroom continues to be passed on, touching so many lives. I know that I am not the only person who, while rsma newsletter september 2021 page 29
delighted to see Barbara honoured for her work with the Alzheimer's Society, felt that this should have been her second MBE, the first being given in recognition of her enormous contribution to music education. Janet Macleod
and conducted and 'held sway'. This was always a joyous occasion, full of variety, involving many performers and a wide range of performances, including audience participation. Trish Maude
W Emeritus farewell performance for Barbara
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arbara was an inspiration not only to her hundreds of students but to the happy few who joined the RSMA singing group, Emeritus, founded in 2009 in conjunction with her colleague Jane Edden. With infinite patience and skill they brought us the joy of singing and making music together. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude. Barbara gave generously of her time, her boundless enthusiasm, her infinite musical skill and her sense of fun and enjoyment to every project she undertook at Homerton, in her own village of Thriplow and in the wider world.
Apart from her work in College, she was a dedicated ambassador for the Alzheimer’s Society and throughout the long years of caring for Malcolm, her commitment to Homerton never failed and her spirit was undimmed. She was truly remarkable and courageous. Patricia Cooper
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remember Barbara with great affection, for example as a great mentor in my early Homerton days around 1974 when Saturday morning Music, Dance and Gym Clubs were in full swing. When my car broke down in Thriplow she provided tea and seats in the garden whilst we waited for the AA. Barbara was a brilliant role model and colleague, always positive, constructive and highly professional. The Christmas Gathering was one of the highlights of the College year. Held in the Great Hall, which was always packed and you needed to apply for tickets at the earliest, to secure a place. Barbara masterminded rsma newsletter september 2021 page 30
hen I think of Barbara, I think of her passionate belief in the value of the arts for education and her willingness to be playful in conveying enjoyment through the arts. Barbara’s enthusiasm for new ideas and for making things happen became clear in my early encounters with her. I had recently been appointed to the Drama department and we were planning themed ‘expressive arts’ experiences for the Primary PGCE students when she announced that a group of HMIs (Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Schools) were due to pay us a visit and would want to watch us teaching our groups. Along with Philip Rundall, she persuaded me that it would be a good idea if we brought our three student groups together so that I could take a drama session because my experience as a middle school teacher was much more ‘recent and relevant’ than theirs. Both she and Philip would be present of course and would be happy to take part! The result was hours of planning together until finally the day of the ‘observation’ arrived. Sixty plus students, willing and eager to do their very best for us, spilled into the echoing space of the empty Great Hall, high in expectation. Then together, within the space of two very active hours, we created the imaginary building of Noah’s Ark and a stormy sea journey complete with movement, music and sound effects. Barbara’s wholehearted wielding of invisible tools and enthusiastic pulling down the sails as the storm raged, was quite memorable!
A few years later, organisers of the annual Cambridge Music Festival approached Barbara for a suggestion of how Primary schools might get involved in the Festival. She and I discussed various options and we both wanted to be inclusive and to spread involvement as widely and as democratically as possible. We approached several local schools and eventually six teachers volunteered to work on developing a musical and dramatic performance around the theme of Circus with their class. Each performance would last 10 minutes making an hour long event to be shared with parents in the Cambridge Corn Exchange. The teachers offered their ideas and we loosely constructed the form of the performance. We could not get all the children together, nor find a space big enough to rehearse the whole performance so we bravely decided it would be a ‘happening’ improvised and structured by Barbara and myself on the day! More than 200 costumed children took part and Barbara and I, dressed as circus clowns, led a lively parade through the town and trouped into the Corn Exchange. The organisation of the children at that point was something of a nightmare but we’d taped the floor in segments for each class to sit squashed in the shape of a circus ring with the performance space in the centre. Then, acting boldly as two ringmasters we strode around the ring introducing each class to perform in turn. I think the timing stretched a little but apart from that, it was a success with everyone seeming to enjoy the event. I suspect
that, especially for the children taking part, the experience will have been somewhat unforgettable. It is my fondest memory of Barbara with her sheer enthusiasm, warmth and strong commitment to how significant arts education can, and should, be. Christine Doddington
and Rex, had a lot to do with this as they so appreciated their contribution. I remember Barbara as an encouraging and loving parent to both her sons. She was proud of her boys. Barbara was in addition to all this, for a long time, politically active beyond Homerton. She was also fully engaged in the affairs of the College, and of course, when Malcom became ill, she became totally devoted to his welfare and finally, after his death, Barbara continued to fight for support for carers and research into Alzheimer’s disease. I remember Barbara as a woman of great energy and kindness, she had a great sense of fun, she was down to earth and was a wonderful teacher and friend. Philip Rundall
… from A Spider caught in the web RSMA Newsletter 2017
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n 1973 I arrived aged 25 at Homerton, very green and yet Barbara, from the very start, was welcoming, enthusiastic and encouraging. She was not, of course, alone in this regard but throughout my years at the college, and indeed beyond, I valued her friendship and support. Clearly both of us being involved in specific areas of art education was very important but we both shared a love and concern for all of the arts. We both saw the importance of the arts as a whole in education and beyond and this eventually led to the joint Creative Arts Curriculum Course that we taught alongside David Male and Angela Bridges. Later other colleagues joined the team and eventually took over the course. I personally enjoyed hugely working as the representative of visual art with this great team of tutors and those who replaced them.
But earlier than this, Barbara and Malcom, being aware of my own musical activities, kindly asked me whether I’d like to take over Jon Betmead’s guitar chair in the band supporting the Homerton Children’s Music Club. I said yes and Barbara was musical director of several shows I played in, and beyond the club, I remember designing a programme cover for the show Smyke that involved Barbara’s local primary school in Thriplow. Playing in this show was a lot of fun too but perhaps the most memorable show of all was Joseph, the show we did with an adult amateur drama society (RADSOC), directed by the wonderful Rex Walford of the University Department of Education. The climax was going on tour for a week after the week run at Swavesey Village College, with a final performance held in a freezing cold Ely Cathedral. Poor Jesus was almost blue during the crucifixion scene! We later did a Christmas show with the society. Dave King, the most talented guitarist that I’ve known as a friend since childhood, joined us in the band and he loved Barbara. They got on so well, and Nick the bass player we recruited, who played in Dave’s own band, later looked back on the experience saying that it was one of the best times he’d ever had. Barbara, along with Malcom
A splendid vision at party time: playing a drum with wine glass in hand
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y earliest recollection of Barbara was being invited to Opus One in Thriplow, to discuss with her and Malcolm a course she was intending to run at Homerton, to which I, working then as Primary Music Specialist for the county, was invited to contribute. The impression I gained, was of a couple clearly at ease with themselves, who wanted to share a wealth of their knowledge with other teachers. A good sense of fun shone forth. This then was to be the backdrop of my working life with Barbara, her persuasive ways inviting me to take on some student teaching the minute I arrived at College for a two term sabbatical from the county, in order to write up my MA thesis. Barbara was through and through an educator, well organised, hardworking and passionate about helping students. Her fine analytical mind devised a programme which ensured they would receive a first class music education, benefiting them both personally in their own musical development, but equally equipping them with a thorough understanding of how to deliver the music curriculum in schools. Under her stewardship of the department moreover, she brought a special human warmth and sense of humour, thus enabling a family type atmosphere within the life of Trumpington House, something which students often commented on and enjoyed. Musical life with Barbara however extended far beyond the timetable. In any concerts, Christmas gatherings and parties at home, she would leave no stone unturned to ensure that everything was delivered to the highest possible rsma newsletter september 2021 page 31
standard. Parties at Opus One will always live on in the students' minds I’m sure, particularly with one never to be forgotten ‘double duvet’ joke which survives most probably in the minds of a particular cohort of first years! Even beyond college, her love of writing and performing sketches – many of which were written for her local amateur dramatic society – and her love of dressing up (she came to my 1940’s party in a Shirley Temple wig and was unrecognisable!) – were very much an integral part of who Barbara was. She taught me so much. Barbara was a hard task master undoubtedly, but always fair, always human, always innovative. Her decision to buy the steel pans knowing I had been involved with them over many years was something both I and countless generations of students will always be thankful for. Past music students will undoubtedly never forget Barbara and Malcolm Pointon, a team who contributed so much to their young lives, enriching them both musically and in terms of human experience. Jane Edden
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first met Barbara soon after I arrived as a student at Homerton in 1965. I had chosen Music as my 3rd subject intending to drop it after the first year. However I loved the course so much under Barbara’s leadership, that I continued throughout my 3 year Primary Teaching course.
I lost touch completely with Barbara at the end of my course but in 2002 I found that I had moved into the very village where Barbara lived – Thriplow. Barbara was a key Thriplow resident – she was on the Parish Council, started Thriplow Brass Band who performed regularly at the annual Daffodil Weekend as well as other performances, had presented several musical productions involving the local school children that would run for a week in Cambridge – and ran Thriplow Amateur Dramatic Society – TADS. I joined TADS – as did my husband – and we gave many performances in the village and beyond ranging from series of sketches and songs interspersed with a meal, Murder Mystery, Pantomime and Old Tyme Music Hall. Barbara was not only Producer and Director but also wrote a lot of the material herself! After Malcolm died Barbara worked tirelessly to promote the needs of Dementia patients and their relatives, as well as giving lectures about dementia (that she described as 'Brain Attack' – as opposed to ‘Heart Attack’) to audiences all over the country. She was also appointed to a Government Committee on Dementia care.
Barbara was so enthusiastic, and the course covered many and varied aspects of music – both for furthering students’ skills, knowledge and ability – and practical techniques and ideas to use teaching young children. I well remember her saying that Music was the most important subject as it taught children to ‘listen’ – high or low notes, quick or slow etc. This was invaluable when I started teaching at an Infants School and later successfully used these ideas when I was responsible for music as part of the syllabus for Nursery Nursing Students (NNEB qualification). Barbara of course had a Homerton Choir! I joined and thoroughly enjoyed singing a huge variety of music. Barbara always had time for her students and encouraged us all at whatever level we were. My year group could not have been easy to teach as our abilities and musical experience included most who had passed ‘A’ Level music, to a few who hadn’t even taken ‘O’ Level! Yet she managed to meet everyone’s needs without prejudice – and we had fun – especially all learning to play the guitar!
Barbara’s RSMA Emeritus Rose She inaugurated the ‘Crumblies Choir’ at Homerton – later re-named ‘Emeritus Choir’. Barbara asked me to join this and somehow I became its last leader/ Maestra! Barbara was an amazing woman and one I feel privileged to have known first as an Educator and in later years as a friend. Sue Pinner
From Barbara’s contribution to 'More on Moore', RSMA Newsletter 2018 … In the Sixties and Seventies I ran a Saturday Morning Music Club for children age 7-14 in Trumpington House and in the half-time break the children usually went outside to let off steam on the back lawn. They were delighted when a Henry Moore sculpture arrived and they explored it in every way possible. At the next staff meeting, I was severely chided by one of the older members of staff who proposed that the club be closed down if they couldn’t behave themselves. Miss Paston Brown smiled and declared that she knew Henry Moore very well and admired his work. He would have encouraged the children to be very tactile with his piece, clamber over it and view the world from new angles. I was a very green junior lecturer at the time, but I had the last laugh – my maiden name then was Miss Barbara Moore!
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George Charles Hume 5th July 1929 – 15th November 2020
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eorge lived a long and active life, and enjoyed a long association with Homerton, teaching at the College from 1972 and, after taking early retirement in 1989 remaining in contact with colleagues and friends for the rest of his days. He was appointed by Alison Shrubsole to the Mathematics Department and his arrival in Cambridge followed his expulsion from Uganda where he had been teaching at the University in Kampala. Stripped of his teaching post and all personal possessions, George with his family, and all other British nationals resident there, had been thrown out of Uganda in the summer of 1972 on the orders of the country’s new President, military dictator Idi Amin. George taught a range of subjects at Homerton including Differential Equations, Mechanics, Probability and Statistics to students on both PGCE and B.Ed courses, and with Rex Watson he was instrumental in putting together a new B.Ed Applied Mathematics course in the early 1980s. An early enthusiast for computer use in education, he made a major contribution to the introduction of the new technology in College; programming in BASIC was the main skill at the time and George patiently developed students’ confidence in using the new language, inspiring them, and many members of staff, with his infectious enthusiasm. Among his nondepartmental responsibilities he served for several years as secretary of the Schools Committee, chaired by John Ball, and he was later appointed by Alison Shrubsole to the new disciplinary and counselling post of Dean, a role to which he was well-suited as students respected his judgement, finding him firm but fair and a sympathetic listener. A kind and loyal friend with a good sense of humour, George will be remembered as a colleague who enjoyed sharing ideas, enthusiasms and jokes with friends over coffee in the Combination Room or at lunch in the Dining Hall (where a great favourite of his was Barbara Gordon’s bread and butter pudding!): ‘Despite having lost a lot both emotionally and financially, he always seemed cheerful, caring and positive, with a splendid sense of humour’, Alison Wood; ‘You could always have a discussion with George about work, be it Maths itself, or course development, or departmental policy, that remained on friendly terms . . . he always attempted to dampen down division on matters, when some others were tending to be dogmatic. Students liked him, saw him as avuncular’, Rex Watson; ‘ . . .although I didn’t know George well, we lived in his house when we first moved up to Cambridge . . . so kind of him’, Julia Anghileri; ‘George loved a pub lunch and the opportunity of talking politics or swapping sailing stories with like-
minded people; he had a sharp intellect and a quick wit’, Pat Cooper; Libby Jared, who was allocated George’s room on 2nd ABC when he retired, recalls that he had not cleared it, leaving only a small space for her books, but ‘ . . .best of all was the calculator in the top drawer of the desk . . . still working and marked ‘G C Hume’ in his own hand’, Libby has it to this day; ‘… his gentle nature and capacity to accept difficult times would get sorted was what I remember most’, Anne Thwaites; and lastly, ‘It was good to meet up with him again last year (2019), … I sometimes need help at RSM events remembering names of people I haven’t seen for a while, but I knew George instantly’ Tim Rowland.
George’s calculator (labelled) – and still working! Born in 1929, George grew up in the small Essex village of Silver End, not far from the coast and seaside resort of Walton-on-the-Naze where, as a schoolboy he had taught himself to sail in a borrowed boat on Hamford Water. Known locally as the Walton Backwaters, or to readers of Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons stories as ‘Secret Water’, this expanse of inland sea and salt-marsh, of muddy creeks, small islands, seabirds and seals was to become George’s own secret water, the area to which he would return again and again throughout his life to sail and relax. George was educated first at the village school in Silver End and later, during the years of World War II, at Colchester Grammar School where he made many friends, achieved high marks in all academic subjects and learnt to play the violin. During his wartime school holidays George frequently found work on local farms, acquiring in the process the practical skills that led to his later expertise as amateur mechanic, engineer, carpenter, builder and restorer of old boats and houses. From school, George went on to University in London having gained a place to read maths at Queen Mary College on the Mile End Road, habitually travelling there and back by bike, cycling from his home in Essex with his luggage in saddle bags at his side and his violin on his back. He graduated with a first and gained rsma newsletter september 2021 page 33
a post as a teacher of mathematics at Guildford Grammar School; he also got married, to a fellow student from QMC, and moved with her to Guildford. Not long afterwards he was called up for National Service, spending the two years as an RNIO (Royal Navy Instructor Officer, otherwise known as a ‘schoolie’) teaching Maths and Navigation to young naval recruits while living and teaching afloat on board HMS Ark Royal, at anchor in Portland Harbour in Dorset. After National Service, he returned to life ashore and his teaching post in Guildford. By the early 1960s, he was ready for a new challenge and accepted the offer of a lectureship in mathematics at the University of East Africa in Kampala, Uganda, moving there with his wife and young family. Despite the increasingly turbulent political situation in the newly independent country, George enjoyed this new experience, he got on well with his students and colleagues on the Makerere campus outside Kampala, learnt Swahili and made the most of long vacations to go on safari or on holiday to the Kenya coast with his family. However during these years his first marriage broke down and the frightening political situation led to an abrupt departure from Uganda in the summer of 1972. On his return to the UK George settled in Cambridge with his second wife Barbara and their children, bought a house in Leys Road and took up his new post at Homerton, cycling daily across Cambridge George and his beloved Mary Jane to work. It was during this period that he found and bought his old wooden boat, Mary Jane: originally a motor fishing boat, she had been converted to sail but needed complete restoration, which George painstakingly carried out himself, before becoming a seaworthy boat for holiday exploration of the Backwaters and nearby rivers such as the Deben with family and friends. In 1989 George took early retirement and made the decision to emigrate to France. Having sold his house and car, but not Mary Jane, he and Barbara left Cambridge, and drove away to their new French home, in an old 2CV, which George had bought from Homerton after it had been confiscated from an overseas student who had failed to pay his fees! There followed a busy few years, redesigning and rebuilding their house and making friends locally. The discovery of truffles on their plot was a great excitement, giving rsma newsletter september 2021 page 34
George an interesting new hobby. He also enjoyed keeping up with old friends including visiting Alison Shrubsole and her husband at their remote home in the Spanish mountains. However, his marriage came to an end and George returned alone to the UK Sue Macklin and Anne Thwaites Sue Macklin concludes the story … eorge and I got together some time after his return to England where he had been living alone on his boat in Essex since his divorce and the sale of his French house. We joined forces, enjoyed some sailing together and in the late autumn of 1998 travelled to France in the hope of finding a house to share. We were lucky, and found Le Gournié, a beautiful but completely un-restored old French farmhouse in the north of the Tarn department. For the next twenty years, from 1999, we divided our time between Le Gournié and my home near Cambridge, in an arrangement that, given our mutual love of France and of sailing in Essex, suited us both. They were happy years: George loved the life in rural southwest France, which perhaps reminded him in some ways of the rural Essex of his boyhood, and we both enjoyed the fun, and hard work, of our farmhouse restoration project. With his fluent French, George made many new friends locally and enjoyed taking part in community events in the nearby village of Milhars. He also became an expert on the local flora, especially the wild orchids, and fauna of the area, and we both enjoyed discovering something of the local history, both medieval and modern.
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Dining al fresco at Le Gournié Among the delights of living at Le Gournié was the chance to catch up with old friends, including many of our former Homerton colleagues, who either came to stay or dropped in en route to somewhere else, a holiday home in the Pyrenees, Chris and Roger Tubb, or in Spain, Bob Arthur with his twin brother Tony, or Richard Light, who came to stay en route to the jazz festival in the nearby town of Béziers and filled le Gournié with music during his visit. There were many others throughout the years and the last visitor before the house was sold in December 2018 was John Axon, George’s good friend, former neighbour in Cambridge and Homerton colleague. With their shared interests in engineering and technology, they made a two-day trip together in George’s small French car to see, admire
and drive across the technical achievement of the great Millau viaduct high above the river Tarn. George moved back to England for the last two years of his life. Many will remember his resilience in the face of advancing age, he never seemed to look his age with hardly a grey hair. However George’s health and energy were gradually declining and he came to his last Homerton RSM coffee morning in the summer of 2019; he died aged 91 in November 2020. Sue Macklin Tim & George: coffee time
Paul Hirst: An appreciation 10th November 1927 – 25th October 2020
P
rofessor Paul Hirst first came to Cambridge just after the Second World War to read Mathematics at Trinity. In a ‘Conversation’ piece for the Cambridge Journal of Education (issue 1:3) published on his return in1971 as Professor of Education and Head of the Department of Education, he recalled the University as ‘an intensely serious and earnest place…. From a social point of view life was pretty uninteresting, as it was a time of severe restrictions on food, clothing and facilities in general', though, after his up-bringing in a very confining religious sect that denied him even a trip to the cinema or theatre, Cambridge must have been quite emancipating. He attended Russell’s immensely popular lectures and lived in the same court as Wittgenstein, but it was Russell who fanned the flames of his interest in philosophy. From Cambridge for seven years he went into ‘schoolmastering’ (his term), first at William Holme’s School in Manchester and then at Eastbourne College, and then to the Oxford Department of Education to lecture on the teaching of Mathematics, though he gradually got drawn into the wider theoretical issues. He found the existing philosophy of education courses rather frustrating because of their heavy historical emphasis, but gathered round him students from the Oxford PPE programme who brought contemporary analytic philosophy to bear on educational topics. In 1959 Paul Hirst moved, at the invitation of Louis Arnaud Reid, to the London Institute of Education, and soon after that he was joined by Richard Peters, who succeeded Louis Arnaud Reid to the Chair in philosophy of education. The Hirst and Peters partnership, which continued after Hirst moved to a Chair at King’s College London in 1965, became a significant driving force for the development not just of philosophy of education but for wider approaches to educational theory and practice in the period that followed. This was carried through in part because the
development of degree level awards for trainee teachers required more academic approaches to educational theory in the colleges and departments of education and hence a new generation of teacher educators equipped to teach these programmes. Paul Hirst returned to Cambridge in 1971 to become Professor of Education and Head of the University of Cambridge Department of Education. He also accepted a Professorial Fellowship at Wolfson College. In doing so he joined what he described at the time as ‘a group of people in the colleges of education and the Institute who are beginning to contribute significantly to work in the philosophy of education’ which included Charles Bailey and myself (at Homerton) and John Elliott, Richard Pring and Hugh Sockett (at the Institute of Education). These were soon joined by Terry McLaughlin at the Department and Peter Scrimshaw at Homerton – and this group enjoyed stimulating and productive seminars together both in Paul Hirst’s rooms at Wolfson (oiled by some excellent claret) and in each other’s homes. He was very supportive to all of us, but never sought to take over the group. Paul Hirst’s own contribution to the philosophical literature was provocative and influential in its time. His writing on knowledge and the curriculum, notably his paper on Liberal education and the nature of rsma newsletter september 2021 page 35
knowledge, first published in 1965 but reissued in several subsequent publications, was seminal work in philosophy of education, though it also provoked considerable controversy in the philosophy of education community and among proponents of the newly fashionable sociology of knowledge. I am currently co-editing with Patricia White (his colleague at the London Institute and friend for many years) a special issue of the Journal of Philosophy of Education in tribute to Paul Hirst’s philosophical writing with so far 26 contributors drawn from every continent. But Paul Hirst really came into his own as a teacher. His lectures to a large cohort of BEd students (assembled, for some reason, in the Chemistry lecture theatre in Cambridge) were enormously popular, not just because of the intellectual challenge that they provided but because of his sometimes hilarious performative style. (One student referred to him as ‘an intellectual Kenneth Williams’!) No-one who attended can look at an innocent cat sitting on a mat without recalling his vivid demonstrations of the correspondence theory of truth! So Paul Hirst was a breath of fresh air in the Department of Education and, despite his sometimes austere outward manner, an enormously supportive colleague and teacher – always ready with shrewd advice as a number of us advanced our own careers. But other responsibilities awaited him in Cambridge – building bridges between the Department and other parts of the University and working out the future relationship of the University with the Institute of Education and with Homerton College. His predecessor at the Department, Professor Arnold Lloyd, had been no friend to either. I can still
remember vividly his somewhat patronising manner in the first encounter with him when a small team led by Charles Bailey went to meet him and my fury that this man should talk down to someone like Charles who I considered was three times his worth as a scholar and a teacher. But Paul Hirst had the vision to see the strength that might lie in bringing these three institutions close together, as well as enough insight into Cambridge processes to realise that this was not going to happen overnight. He had worked closely with Alison Shrubsole (in the London Area Training Organisation), and they worked closely together on the revised version of the BEd degree (with a 2 plus 2 structure that brought students more closely into the University) and Homerton’s bid for Approved Society Status, which would enable the College to matriculate its own students. His support was pivotal in securing a resounding majority vote of support by the University’s Regent House in December 1976, thus setting Cambridge on a course that would lead later, and under his successors, to the establishment of a Faculty of Education that in the end drew its strength from the Department, the Institute and Homerton College and in 2010 to the granting to Homerton of a Royal Charter as a full college of the University of Cambridge, in which delicate negotiations he was always willing to offer sage advice. Happily he lived long enough to see these outcomes of his early strenuous efforts. Sadly he is no longer with us to enjoy the latest Cambridge gossip (which he insisted on hearing when we met each year in Oxford at the annual Philosophy of Education Society conference, usually to the accompaniment of hoots of laughter) and to share his considerable good sense and wisdom. David Bridges
Remembered Always I never fail to be in awe of the amazing lives and achievements that are recorded in this Newsletter. Although we all hope that we may pass the baton onto younger generations inspired by our work in all its guises, the contributions from Barbara's and David's ex-students illustrate just how influential they really were – not only in academic life but personal friendships forged too. Clearly Paul Hirst was influential wherever he worked – but Homerton has reasons to be very grateful for the groundwork he began in bringing the College into the University. We also hope that our retirement may be long and for George, some 32 years on 'permanent holiday' is a total that I would be happy to have. This year, Bibi & Tali, two other Homertonians who were responsible for important areas of college life, who also had long retirements are affectionately remembered. Libby.
Anni Bibiane Sachs, “Bibi” 1930 – 2021
I
n early January, College received an email from Bibi’s niece (Ann Levi) to say that Bibi had recently passed away. Ann asked if it would be possible to make a modest donation to Homerton College in my Aunt Bibi’s name noting that she had been a loyal employee (secretarial/admin) of Homerton rsma newsletter september 2021 page 36
for decades up to the 1990s. and recently passed away this New Year in Cambridge. Ann went on to say that “I doubt there are any staff who still remember her, as she was over 90 when she died, but I enclose a picture with the order of service, just in case.”
But Ann guessed incorrectly – many RSMs certainly do remember Bibi. But the way in which her niece was offering a modest donation was so typical of Bibi’s manner – quietly and without fuss. In a follow-up message Ann explained the origins of the picture that had been chosen for the cover of the order of service: “You might be amused to know that the "glam" shot used for the order of service was apparently (so the story goes) one of a series of professional photos taken when Homerton acquired a new state-of-the-art electric touch-typewriter, which she had to model for a Homerton magazine spread. At least I think that was the story and is probably why she is looking so glam and self conscious! Here is another of the series [see right hand column]. I think they are rather good.” And so it seems only appropriate to include them in this Newsletter. By the time I arrived at Homerton, Bibi seemed to be an honorary member of the mathematicians, often sitting with us at coffee time: “Bibi? – 'You don't really need more paper clips, do you?' comes to mind – but they came whatever the reply! She sent me a lovely individual card when I retired.” [Rex Watson]
I cannot vouch for the paperclips but I can vouch for the kindness she showed to others: “Bibi was my 'minder' in my scary first few weeks at Homerton. She was a considerate colleague who helped with what, for me, was a really daunting task of entering the combination room for coffee. She was also an excellent 'go to' person when queries arose. Bibi was somehow the keeper of 'corporate knowledge' and remained a cheerful ally throughout all the changes as Homerton College evolved.” [Carole Bennett]
Many of us will remember just how immaculate Bibi was in her dress (apparently virtually all her clothes were handmade) and appearance which fed into fiendish efficiency in her work and the desire to maintain high standards, correcting others when necessary: “I remember encountering Bibi when I first started working at Homerton. I had come to Homerton following 10 years working as School Secretary at Queen Edith Infant School. There, I ordered my own stationery as and when required, here apparently, [but now] everything had to be ordered on a certain day, via Bibi. I was duly chastised for heading the list stationary, a mistake I never made again!” [Judith Witt]
Bibi’s long length of service at Homerton ensured she saw many people come and go, but some knew her for many years: “When I took up the post of Bursar at Homerton in 1976, I knew nothing of Cambridge. I was in my mid-thirties and had left a young family in Surrey while housing and schooling matters were resolved. I had much to learn. Bibi had been Secretary to my predecessor and welcomed me warmly into my new role. We got on well enough and she was supportive as I eased into the job and into a new way of life. A year or so later, in some re-organisation of staff Bibi moved to take on another role, a move that she would have preferred not to have to make but in time she became a regular if not frequent visitor to my home, coming to know my wife and children. I shall, though, always be thankful for her support in those early days.” [George Hubbard]
I have been privileged to see a copy of the tribute that Bibi's nephew Jeremy gave at her funeral which revealed to me a hitherto unknown side of Bibi as loving aunt to the three children of her adopted family, a role she took on happily and pursued with typical determination and gusto. From Jeremy's account I learned that Bibi was not only a fabulous seamstress but also a ferocious knitter, producing hand-knitted Fair Isle jumpers for each child like clockwork every Christmas and birthday. I have come to realise now that there were many things that I did not know about Bibi and I think which she did not want people like me to know. But I have also read the address that the Rev. Nigel Uden gave at Bibi’s funeral and with some caution and her family’s permission share with you a little about Bibi’s early life. She was born into a Jewish family in Brno, Czechoslovakia in 1930 and she came to England in 1939, with her sister Franzi, leaving behind the parents she never saw again. They were rescued by Sir Nicholas Winton’s Kindertransport scheme and with various people’s help, Bibi and her sister found a new life with Leonard Siggs and his family and eventually Bibi became that favoured Aunt to his grandchildren. Knowing this makes Bibi even more that remarkable person who was indeed the keeper of 'corporate knowledge' and remained a cheerful ally throughout all the changes as Homerton College evolved – ‘paperclips’ and’ stationary’ et.al. … Libby Jared
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Talieh Sotudeh “Tali” 15th January 1926 – 25th July 2021
five children and learning English was challenging while trying to navigate the education system and a new city. Ali was busy with work, traveling to and from Iran and the situation became overwhelming at times when extended members of the family and friends from abroad visited at random intervals and the Sotudeh household became a conduit for those who wished to work or study in England.
T
ali was born Talieh Mir-Fakrai, to Majd-al-Din Mir-Fakrai (better known by his poet’s name Golchin Gilani) and Jalil-al-Sadat, in the northern city of Rasht by the Caspian Sea. Tali’s early life held some of her favourite memories even under difficult circumstances. She was brought up by her grandparents after her mother died young and her father moved to London to study Literature and Philosophy. She always said her favourite sound from those years was the cockerel’s morning wake-up call and that life was playful and easy among her cousins with whom she shared a large house. Her father ended his studies, but continued as a writer and settled in London for the rest of his life, initially narrating newsreels for Movietone News and later working as a translator for the BBC. Eventually he studied Medicine, specialising in Tropical and Infectious diseases, and went on to become the doctor at the Iranian Consulate. Tali came to London at her father’s request around 1948, and at the dawn of the NHS began working as a nurse at the Whittington Hospital. During a British Consulate Dance she met her future husband AliAsghar Sotudeh who was on an Engineering scholarship from Iran. Returning to Iran they married and began to raise a family in Tehran, where she recalled the moment the 1953 coup d’état exploded outside their apartment. By 1966 they decided to emigrate to the United Kingdom as a family, which by now included stepdaughter Gilla, sons Yousef, Saide and Siamak, with Niki on the way. The journey was undertaken not by flight, but in a car (or two) across Central Asia and Europe. On arrival the family stayed in London for a short period before settling in Cambridge. This was not an easy time for Tali and the family. Friendships took time to establish when bringing up rsma newsletter september 2021 page 38
Life eventually became more settled and local friendships in the community were fully established when the family house on Kinnaird Way (for over 45 years) became a renowned base for those affected by the 1979 Revolution. Many Iranian families (perhaps coincidently) congregated in and around the Queen Edith ward during this time. I have wondered if Tali’s hospitality and Ali’s constant invitations formed the beginnings of what was then a vibrant Iranian community in Cambridge, drawn towards the smell of Tali’s memorable Persian cooking, while traditional songs and dancing jarred against the sons’ adopted ‘British’ teenage ways. All this alongside a constant intake of Language Students from around the world made Tali’s life and life with Tali busy, (bordering on hectic), rarely dull and always the stuff of fascinating anecdotes and stories. In the late 1980s, when the boys had left home, Tali started working at Homerton. She retired twice, enjoying her time and the people there so much she couldn’t resist coming back, as well as fully appreciating the freedom it gave her. Cucumber sandwiches by day and Persian stews by night suited her well over those years and she continued to meet her ‘Homerton Ladies’ for lunch long after she had left officially. A comparatively quiet end to a full and diverse journey through life, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and Dementia in her remaining years at home and sadly passed away on the 25th July 2021. Her favourite poem by Hafiz was read at the funeral by one of her oldest friends at a small family gathering – simple and without fuss, just as she would have ordered. Niki Sotudeh
[Space limitations allow only a few of the emails that were exchanged between RSMs about Tali “in honour of such a strong, impressive woman, who was such a survivor, and to remember her contribution to a small part of Homerton's history” Ed.] Once met, impossible to forget Tali. If ever there was someone who was in the right job, it was her. Roger Green Ah, that brings back memories. Coffee was served at lunchtime till 14.00 and not 14.01! The coffee 'pots' were not to leave the corner of the (old) combination room, even if you were looking to provide refills for a group of colleagues at your table. I remember once approaching the trolley looking quizzically up at a spot on the combination room ceiling, and quickly stealing off with a pot whilst Tali was distracted seeking to see what had my attention. I think she was amused – but not so much that I ever tried to repeat the trick! Keith Taber
vitally important bringers of happiness. It was not just coffee – how many of you can remember the cucumber sandwiches at tea-time? And cakes. Victor Watson Yes, I do! I'd only just joined Homerton – and I could NOT believe that tea included cucumber sandwiches and cakes. I met Tali several times in town after she left too. She remembered everyone! Mary Earl I too remember Tali with fondness but I think she had a soft spot for me. I was often late for my afternoon tea and those finely cut cucumber sandwiches. She would give me that look of being late again but then she would leave me a plate of cucumber sandwiches and a cup of tea in my office. Dhiru Karia Tali was a genius and fondly remembered by all who were lucky enough to be there to enjoy [cucumber sandwiches] …. Patricia Cooper
I remember Tali with great fondness. What a place the old Combination was in those days! And the provision of coffee was probably the biggest factor – one of those small but
Art, Art, Art – plus the one that got away Like many RSMs, I delighted in Philip Stephenson’s Art Series – an amazing 100 articles to read, pictures to scrutinise accompanied by the most extraordinary eclectic range of music (ever I should think!). It was (almost) worth being in lockdown to have those emails appearing with such regularity in my inbox (and thank you Clare for being the person who pressed the send button). Not only did they sustain me but offered some reassurance that others ‘out there’ were enjoying them too – bringing a little less isolation to our isolated selves. Sending thanks to Philip feels almost inadequate – but once again Philip, Thank You. If I am not editing the Newsletter or attempting to solve a fiendish maths problem that Rex has sent round to his ex-colleagues, then looking at and reading about Art is my next favourite hobby – I went to Madrid once just to see a Sisley exhibition. I am rather conservative in my taste (nothing too modern and certainly not contemporary) and nor had I ventured too much into the earlier Sienese or even Florentine masters. Philip opened my eyes somewhat to this period and inspired me to sign up for what I thought was six, two hour weekly sessions on ‘Stories of Art’ run online by the National Gallery. It didn’t go past 1400, but surprise, surprise after six more courses I arrived at the present day. A total of 84 hours of talk – though as the lectures were posted up for additional viewing for a further week, one could spend quite some time sitting on the sofa watching. Highly recommended! If I had managed to complete this Newsletter in time to book a Friends of the Fitzwilliam event, I would willingly have paid the ticket price to hear Philip give a lecture “Seeing Salvation – The Development of the Italian Renaissance Altarpiece, 1300-1500”. In fact, the museum was running it twice on the same day to make it more available. How does Philip find the time to do all of this? Well I am not sure, but I tried to ‘commission’ an article for the Newsletter from Philip, sketching out a couple of possible ideas. Philip had just the same idea and was about to put it into practice for the RSMs – remember the tour guide advice articles earlier this year? The second I shall keep secret as it may now appear in next year’s edition. It very nearly made this year’s though! Libby
Dining Hall exterior "almost there", August 2021
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RSMA Social Secretary’s Report 2020 – 2021
G
iven what life has been like over the past 18 months, Newsletter readers could be forgiven for expecting the Social Secretary’s Report to be a brief one-liner, i.e. ‘There were no social activities’. However, thanks to members’ suggestions and contributions, the support of members and Homerton staff, and the wonders of the Internet, this has not been the case. Despite there being no opportunities for face-to-face social activities over the period, contact with members has been maintained almost daily – a remarkable achievement – thanks to all contributors, and the magnificent Clare Ryan. Philip Stephenson continued to circulate his extraordinarily enjoyable, informative and insightful pieces about artworks in the Fitzwilliam Collection, drawing the series to a close, as he intended, when he hit his 100th piece on 19thJuly 2021. The emails and attachments are to be archived on USBs and retained in the College Archive. When the Museum opened its doors to the public again earlier this year, following the easing of lockdown, Philip offered members guided tours of the collection and these are still on offer, subject to Philip taking a very well-earned break over the Summer. I cannot thank Philip Stephenson enough for his remarkable contribution and efforts. Huge thanks also to Clare Ryan for circulating the emails. Christmas 2020 saw the production of an emailed Christmas Newsletter – the ‘Homerton Hygge’. Members were invited to contribute festive pieces, resulting in a lively compilation of reminiscences, musings and anecdotes – there was even some singing! Members were also able to see the College’s Christmas Service in St John’s Church online, which was much appreciated. In the Spring, there was a general acceptance that, even with an improving situation, it was likely to be a long time before RSMs would be able to meet in College. With that in mind, further thought was given as to how social activities could continue online. Links to items of
interest on the College website were circulated, including recitals and online talks. On 2nd July the Association had its first very own online talk – an excellent Zoom presentation by Paul Warwick focusing on how Initial Teacher Training has been delivered during the pandemic. This was an excellent event, and an inspirational and humbling testament to the hard work, dedication and ingenuity of all involved. The talk was followed by a lively ‘question and answer’ session. It also generated a strong response to Government plans to introduce radical changes to the way in which ITT is delivered, and a call to RSMA members to respond. In June I made enquiries about the possibility of having a Summer Picnic at the College. This was seen as a possibility, but the advice was to review the situation following the much-hoped-for further easing of restrictions on 16th August 2021. Since then, however, all RSMA members have been invited to a barbecue event at the College on 10th September 2021 to mark the retirement of Professor Geoff Ward. [So maybe by the time you read this let's hope we will have been able to congregate and say ‘hello’ to each other in person! Ed.] I would like to take this opportunity to thank Clare Ryan for her support in the circulation of emails and College information, and her positivity and good-humour throughout. I know Clare is very busy in her role of Bursar’s Secretary. We could not have managed without her. Thank you, Clare! I would also like to thank everyone who has contributed material for circulation, and ideas for activities, over this period. I am always grateful for suggestions for activities and visits, and hopefully these will become possible again over the coming months. I am very much looking forward to seeing members at the College again on 10th September! Sue Conrad, Social Secretary
Missed the deadline? Why not write an article for the next RSMA Newsletter? Photo credits: Front page & p.16 Jane Edden; p.5 & 6 Roger Green; p.7 & 8 Philip Rundall; p.9 Peter Warner; p.11 courtesy of Punch Cartoon Library / TopFoto; p.12 Trish Maude; p.14 Tim Rowland; p.17 & 18 AnneThwaites; p.18 Homerton College; p.20, 21 & 26 The Homerton Archive; p.22 Libby Jared; p.23 Rex Watson; p.28 Mei-Shui Chiu; Dining Hall photos: p.8 Peter Warner; p.25 Trish Maude; p.39 Clare Ryan
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