In Touch Autumn 2013 by King's College London

Autumn 2013

WHAT IF WE ALL Live to 110? CANCER CARE ON A HUMAN SCALE

KING’S OPERA

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In the service of society

Making childbirth safer Dr David Browning OAM, Medicine, Guy’s, 1964 James Horan

he lifetime risk for women dying from complications during pregnancy and childbirth in sub-Saharan Africa is nearly one in 12, a maternal mortality rate 100 times greater than in Europe. While that death rate is unacceptably high, there has been a 40 per cent improvement in the region since 1990. Several factors have contributed to this progress, including the efforts of people like Dr David Browning and members of his family, who have dedicated their lives to helping women survive childbirth. Dr Browning, an obstetrician in New South Wales, Australia, has established a foundation to help women in sub-Saharan Africa, specifically by supporting the work of his son and his sister. His son Andrew is a surgeon living in Tanzania and specialising in fistula repair. For 40 years, his sister Valerie has lived We still in the Afar region of Ethiopia, where have 1,998 she has trained to go more than 800 birth attendants. The Barbara May Foundation, named in honour of Dr Browning’s mother, has also constructed one hospital in the Afar region and will soon open a second – both providing free care. Much of the foundation’s funding comes from Dr Browning’s local health service, which has a workplace giving programme. More than 4,500 employees make an automatic weekly $1 gift to the foundation. What drives Dr Browning and his family? Their faith and the inspirational example of Dr Browning’s mother. ‘After my father died, when she was in her 80s, she travelled to the Afar

region, which is an inhospitable part of the world,’ he says. ‘On this very day, my sister’s in a place called Dallol, which is supposed to be the hottest inhabited place on Earth. It has more days above 50°C than any place else.’ Dr Browning has travelled to Africa five times to provide hands-on support, including three visits to Afar. ‘That was great fun, sleeping under the stars and getting to know the nomad people. Every time I go I’m called to give an opinion or help out. When I’ve gone out with Andrew,

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I’ve given the anaesthetics while he was operating.’ Dr Browning and his family have saved the lives of thousands of women. It is, he says, a start. Three years ago, he recalls, his son attended a UNsponsored conference focused on improving maternal services in Africa. ‘They listened very carefully to Andrew’s proposals and said, “Well, what we need are 2,000 hospitals like the ones that you’re building,”’ says Dr Browning. ‘We’re on to number two. We still have 1,998 to go.’ autumn 2013 IN TOUCH

Phil Sayer

Smiles on display In early July, the Dental Institute awarded BDS degrees to 151 students at a Southwark Cathedral graduation ceremony. The College celebrated nine graduation ceremonies over four weeks in late June and early July, all held in either Southwark Cathedral or the Barbican Centre, with more than 5,500 students taking degrees. A further 5,700 students graduated in January. ‘Those celebrating at these ceremonies are graduating from one of the world’s top universities, a major centre of research, teaching and innovation,’ said the Principal, Professor Sir Richard Trainor. ‘We are delighted to welcome these our most recent alumni, and hope they will always retain their links with the College and with the friends they have made here.’

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autumn 2013 IN TOUCH

Update

From the Principal

THE BIG PICTURE Smiles on display

World questions | King’s answers

UPDATE A global beat, celebrating CS Lewis, a look at Scotland’s referendum

CAMPAIGN UPDATE Science Gallery at King’s, human-scale cancer care

WHAT IF WE ALL LIVE TO 110? How prepared are we for a society where many live past their 100th birthday?

OPERA FOR ALL The student-run King’s Opera challenges and entertains

STILL DRIVEN, STILL WRITING Now 99, Chapman Pincher continues authoring books

CLASS NOTES Dreaming big, going barefoot and getting children excited about science

LETTERS More about John Crow and trams and another diamond jubilee

I recently announced my intention to retire as Principal in September 2014. It has been an honour to serve the College for the past nine years, but the 10-year mark will be an appropriate time for me to move on to the Rectorship of Exeter College, Oxford and to help King’s make the transition to a new Principal. Professor Ed Byrne, President and Vice-Chancellor of Monash University, will take up the post in October 2014. Ed has an excellent record at Monash, and previously at UCL and other institutions, and is well placed, building on the progress of recent years and of earlier periods, to take King’s to new heights in the years ahead. With a year remaining in my time at King’s, I am as committed as ever to a number of key priorities. We are dedicated to preparing our students for the 21st century’s global society. Whether talking about business, arts or sport, international boundaries today mean less and less; it’s essential therefore that we provide our students with seamless, transnational learning experiences. King’s has established a series of strategic partnerships with outstanding institutions across the globe, including Hong Kong University, the National University of Singapore, Jawaharlal Nehru University, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and the University of São Paulo. Individual Schools at the College have entered into IN TOUCH

LOGIC PUZZLE Nine states unlike the others

LONDON & ME Coronation Ball

IN TOUCH

Key priorities for a final, busy year at King’s

Internationalising the College

COMMUNITY A glorious weekend, We met at Guy’s, Reggie the diplomat

international partnerships. And of course we have created our Global Institutes, offering students and academics an opportunity to focus on the world’s emerging powers.

autumn 2013

Alumni benefits and services +44 (0)20 7848 3053 alumoff@kcl.ac.uk King’s College London, Ground Floor, Strand Bridge House, 138-142 Strand, London WC2R 1HH © King’s College London 2013

In Touch is published by the College’s Fundraising & Supporter Development office. The opinions expressed in it are those of the writers and not necessarily those of the College. The College will publish the next issue of In Touch in spring 2014

Editorial +44 (0)20 7848 4703 InTouch@kcl.ac.uk Editor James Bressor Assistant Editor Christian Smith Editorial Assistant Amanda Calberry

With an ambitious goal of improving the lives of people around the world, we launched our £500 million World questions|King’s answers campaign in 2010. The campaign focuses on five priority areas – neuroscience and mental health, leadership and society, cancer, children’s health and global power – as well as several on-campus investments, including restoration of Somerset House East Wing. While we are close to meeting our fundraising target, the more impressive measure of the campaign’s success is found in the accomplishments made possible by your generosity. The campaign has helped fund far-reaching achievements such as an innovative treatment that doubles the survival rate of newborns who suffer oxygen starvation during birth, pioneered by our Centre for the Developing Brain. It has also funded enriching on-campus programmes, such as the Joy of Influence series, which gave students the opportunity to meet internationally regarded novelists. Supporting students

A related priority is our commitment to ensure students can come to King’s regardless of their financial resources. We have established several bursaries and scholarships – some targeting certain groups of students and others available broadly across the Schools. One example: a student who receives a maintenance grant also has access to the new Living Bursary programme, which can provide up to an additional £1,500. Working on these and other priorities, I expect my final year as Principal to be as busy and as rewarding as the first nine. I look forward to working with you to strengthen King’s and support our students. Contributors Luisa Barbaro, Louise Bell, Gillian Best, James Bressor, Amanda Calberry, Julie Foreman, Lucy Jolin, King’s Public Relations, Helen May, Christian Smith, Amy Webb Photography Julian Anderson, Nick Ballon, Tom Campbell, Suki Dhanda, James Horan, Phil Sayer

Illustrations João Fazenda, James Lambert, Yann Le Bec, Belle Mellor, Alex Walker Design Esterson Associates +44 (0)20 7684 6500 Repro DawkinsColour Print Warners

In Touch has been produced using paper from sustainable sources and bleached using an elemental chlorine-free process. The paper is produced at a mill that meets the ISO 14001 environmental management standard and the EMAS environmental management standard. The magazine is fully recyclable.

Ananya Jahanara Kabir Q&A A global beat Professor Ananya Jahanara Kabir, who recently joined the Department of English, has received a grant from the European Research Council for a project entitled Modern Moves, which will explore why rhythms brought from Africa to the Americas have become globally popular. Can you summarise Modern Moves?

Modern Moves is a five-year project and its central question is: why have people, from New York’s Jazz Age onwards, presented themselves as ‘modern’ by dancing socially, on a space we now call ‘the dance floor’, to rhythms originally brought to the New World by African slaves? On the plantations of the Americas, these percussive rhythms combined with European dance forms to create ancestors of partner dances such as the Lindy Hop, salsa, samba, and tango. These now are danced in cities worldwide, by people who often have their own modes of dance and music: the project looks at the history as well as the contemporary manifestations of this global popularity.

Tom Campbell

Where did the idea come from?

In 2007, I began envisaging a project comparing South Asian and Latin American post-colonialism. I started learning Spanish and, to practice my new language, began listening to Cuban music of the 1940s and 1950s. Singing along, I found I was missing the cues. I realised that I needed to learn how to dance to this music. The next summer in India I discovered salsa lessons in my old neighbourhood. Seeing Indians trying to learn a dance from a culture they shared no linguistic connection with opened my eyes. I had found my project: it would be about the transnational movements of Latin American rhythms.

How will your research incorporate fields such as literature and philosophy?

I have always been fascinated by the challenge to textuality that other forms of cultural production offer: cinema, photography, visual arts, music. Thus, the ultimate challenge was to take on the moving body, which is what this project will do. Research will involve looking at a range of textual records that have discussed the rhythmic legacies of African slaves in the New World and beyond. In analysing this material I will use techniques of literary criticism – reading closely and against the grain to tease out preoccupations, prejudices and contradictory pulls on the part of the writer. Philosophically, the project participates in wider debates about pleasure, embodiment and textuality. Can you envisage a concert at the conclusion of this?

I would love to curate a concert that would present, through dance, the story of Afro-diasporic dance and how it spread through the slave ships to the hottest dance floors today across the world. Do you have a favourite form of dance?

The genesis of the project took me to salsa, through which I have been able to rediscover a whole new sense of self, one that can combine ‘brainwork’ with ‘bodywork’. Along the way, I have discovered other African-derived couple dances, especially those coming from Brazil and Angola. Salsa remains a comfort zone of selfexpression through dance for me, though my favourite is the Angolan form semba, which is fun, funky and a real game of virtuosity between the dancing couple. autumn 2013 IN TOUCH

Update

Honouring an author Maureen Duffy has devoted her life to the craft and business of writing

julian anderson

Maureen Duffy (English, 1956) will celebrate her 80th birthday this year and the Centre for Life Writing at King’s will host an event to honour her career as a writer and campaigner for authors’ rights. As an early birthday gift, King’s has given Duffy one of the windows on the Strand. She’ll take her place among other notable writers such as Virginia Woolf, John Keats and Hanif Kureishi – King’s alumni all. The all-day event on 6 December will offer a series of talks by speakers including Ali Smith, Maggie Gee and Anne Chisholm and will be followed by an evening reception. Duffy started writing poetry at the age of six and at 12 she decided she wanted to be a writer. ‘Goodness knows why,’ she says. ‘Nobody in my family had ever done such a thing before. And I had to disguise it because if you came from a respectable working class family at the time, you had to go into a bank or become a teacher. Get a proper job.’ And that she did. After finishing her degree at King’s, she worked from 1956 to 1961 as a schoolteacher. But that didn’t stop her urge to write. For Duffy, writing ‘is just there. Something I seem to have to do. I’m not happy unless I’m doing it. And I’m not happy when I’m doing it, because it’s a struggle and so on. It’s masochism, really. It’s not so much that you want to, as that you have to.’ It was that compulsion to write that she believes ensured she ‘was not a good student, because I spent a lot of time writing. In my third year, when I should’ve been doing my assignments, I wrote my first full-length play, which eventually won the City of London Young Playwrights Award.’ 6

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But did she learn anything that helped her writing while at King’s? ‘The great thing that I kicked against at the time was compulsory Anglo Saxon, Old English and compulsory Middle English. And yet it’s the thing I return to again and again and has been absolutely seminal to my writing.’ As well as writing over 33 novels, volumes of poetry and plays, Duffy has been an active force campaigning on behalf of authors. She was involved in the passing of the Public Lending Right Act allowing authors to get a return from the use of their books in public libraries. She also co-founded the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society, which is the secondary royalties organisation for writers in the UK. She is still very active, taking part in the treaty negotiations at the copyright branch of the UN, the World Intellectual Property Organisation. What made her get involved in the first place? ‘The question of payment for library loans came up and everybody in the library system got paid but authors got only a minimal payment, the initial royalty, for all the subsequent loans. It seemed wrong to me, so I got involved. ‘Why should you use somebody’s work for nothing? It will discourage a lot of people from writing if they’re unable to get some recognition and that should include payment. We call it intellectual property, IP for short, but no other kind of property can be taken away for nothing.’ Duffy’s latest book of poetry, Environmental Studies, is now available. Her next book, In Times Like These, will be published as an e-book. To learn about the 6 December event, email the Centre for Life-Writing Research at life-writing@kcl.ac.uk

Boggler, zapper, doobly & melly King’s recommends In the lively world of slang, that blabber in your hand goes by countless other names

In university slang the letters stand for ‘big name on campus’, and are almost invariably used ironically. A BNOC (pronounced ‘bee-knock’) is a selfproclaimed – perhaps self-deluded – campus celebrity, often the chair of a society or involved in student politics. Undergrads are adept at teasing and badinage; other cruel dismissals of earnest fellows include ledge (from ‘a legend in their own mind’) and keener (the modern version of swot). The quantified self or QS n phrase a new trend whereby individuals audit themselves using digital technology. Jargon and buzz-terms are constantly being coined to describe lifestyle innovations: one of the latest refers to tracking your own health, sleep patterns, diet, sports prowess and even your genetic profile by way of gadgets such as Nike+ Fuelbands and Google Glass. Soon, smart phone sensors linking with ever more sophisticated apps will allow the self-aware – or self-obsessed – to track multiple metrics simultaneously. Choong, chung, chong adj attractive, excellent. This exoticism (spelling in these cases is optional) has been an important vogue term in multi-ethnic youth slang since the beginning of the noughties decade. It first typically referred to physically attractive individuals, a synonym of buff and fit, later being generalised as an all-purpose term of approval. Like another synonym, peng, the word probably originated as a nickname for a strong strain of marijuana. Bloat n over-specced gadgets and their impact on budgets. You may be familiar with the term bloatware, describing the unwanted, unnecessary applications preloaded

belle mellor

Tony Thorne is a language and innovation consultant at King’s and oversees the Slang and New Language Archive. Here he shares five recent terms from the archive that highlight the quirkiness of modern English. BNOC n an outstanding student.

Buzz-terms are constantly being coined

by hardware manufacturers on a PC or other electronic device. The same phenomenon on a vastly increased scale is known simply as bloat, and has become not so much a nuisance as a major cause of imbalances in the global technonomy. Rarely used software apps cost organisations millions in revenue, as do servers and platforms which have been configured to provide services which are no longer needed. Blabber n a TV remote control. Other nicknames for the same device include boggler, zapper, clicky, doobly, melly and pringer. These are all examples of family slang, also known as kitchen-table lingo, the terms of endearment, puns and other linguistic novelties used within one household and sometimes traded with neighbours and friends. Family slang’s anonymous wordsmiths invent terms for items yet to feature in the dictionary, like Blenkinsop for the little tab which slides across the top to seal plastic refrigeration bags, or trunklements to describe one’s ‘personal bits and pieces’. To donate words to the archive, please email tony.thorne@kcl.ac.uk. To read more about slang, please visit kcl.ac.uk/study/elc/resources/ tonythorne/slangarticles.aspx autumn 2013 IN TOUCH

Update

Continuing to inspire and enchant CS Lewis died in 1963 but his ability to inspire and enchant lives on. Lewis’s Narnia Chronicles are casting their spell on new generations of children and his thought-provoking, accessible writing on Christianity is more relevant than ever, says Alister McGrath, Professor of Theology, Ministry and Education. To mark the 50th anniversary of the author’s death, Professor McGrath has produced a new biography, CS Lewis: A Life, which has garnered positive reviews. Professor McGrath follows in the footsteps of several high-profile biographers, including AN Wilson, who has commented: ‘There have been plenty of biographies of Lewis – I once wrote one myself – but I do not think there has been a better one than Alister McGrath’s.’ Professor McGrath, Head of the Centre for Theology, Religion and Culture at King’s since 2008, was first drawn to Lewis as an Oxford undergraduate. He shares the writer’s Irish roots – both were born in Belfast – and took a similar academic path, studying and then teaching at Oxford. Professor McGrath’s conversion from atheism to Christianity has also led him to defend his faith, like Lewis. ‘The shared aspects of our lives have certainly helped me to

understand Lewis more and take a fresh look at his writing,’ he says. Critics have praised the standard of scholarship and research in the book. Professor McGrath is the first biographer to use newly published correspondence and he has read everything the author wrote in chronological order to provide new interpretations of his work, devoting a section to religious themes in the Narnia Chronicles.

CS Lewis is still influential ‘because his work has the power to nurture our spiritual lives and our sense of wonder’, says Professor McGrath

Having spent four years juggling the biography with other research and teaching duties at King’s, Professor McGrath says the project has been immensely rewarding. ‘The greatest pleasure for me has been handling Lewis’s original documents, which is very satisfying for a historian,’ he says. ‘My work will also contribute to the College’s research profile and feed into some new postgraduate courses.’ Since the book’s publication earlier this year, Professor McGrath has been in demand for media interviews, both in the UK and the US. On 22 November, he will be a keynote speaker at a ceremony marking the anniversary of Lewis’s death with the installation of a new memorial stone in Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey, while also leading a two-day conference on the author. ‘There is no doubt that C S Lewis is still very influential and, 50 years on, can reach into 21st century lives,’ says Professor McGrath. ‘The recent movies have made the Narnia stories bestsellers again and his religious book Mere Christianity is still widely read. Maybe this is because his work has the power to nurture our spiritual lives and our sense of wonder, regardless of what is going on in the world around us.’

Hans Wild/getty images

A King’s theologian analyses the enduring relevance of the Narnia author’s work in a new biography

Three prominent members of the King’s community, including Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu FKC (Theology, BD, 1965; MTh, 1966), have been honoured with international awards in recent months. Archbishop Tutu returned to London in May to receive this year’s Templeton Prize, which recognises an individual ‘who has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life’s spiritual dimension’. On the eve of the award ceremony, Archbishop Tutu participated in a forum focusing on the essence of being human. ‘You learn how to be human from your relationship with other humans,’ said

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Archbishop Tutu. ‘We are made for interdependency and we won’t make it alone.’ In June, the Prince of Asturias Foundation awarded its annual Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research to Professor Peter Higgs FKC (Physics, PhD, 1954), fellow physicist François Englert and the European Organisation for Nuclear Research. The award recognises contributions to the ‘scientific, cultural and humanistic values that form part of mankind’s universal heritage’. Also in June, the Fondazione Vaticana announced that the Revd Richard Burridge, Dean of King’s, would be one of two

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu: recipient of this year’s Templeton Prize

recipients of the 2013 Ratzinger Prize for Theology. Professor Burridge is the first non-Catholic to receive the prize. ‘Richard Burridge today is definitely an eminent figure in the field of Biblical studies and not only of the English language,’ said Cardinal Camillo Ruini. ‘In particular, he has made a great contribution in that decisive area of the historical and theological recognition of the Gospels’ inseparable connection to Jesus of Nazareth.’

jillian edelstein

Reggie’s round-up

Opportunities and consequences International trade, constitutional law and the 300-year old Treaty of Union will be among the issues debated as Scotland considers its future

The referendum on Scottish independence is proving – as football commentators sometimes say – to be a fascinating spectacle for the neutral observer. During the long campaign leading to the vote that will take place in 2014, issues which are normally only the subject of academic, theoretical discussion are becoming matters of genuine practical concern. Many of them are of a constitutional nature, of fundamental importance to the way the UK has developed as a state, and its future. We have already had to face questions about self-determination and national sovereignty. The United Kingdom is unusual in the extent to which it is willing to concede to its component parts the right to secede. This principle has long been established for Northern Ireland, and now clearly applies to Scotland also. The future of Scotland is for the people of Scotland alone to decide. As referendum day looms, further questions are likely to be considered pressing. The ‘No’ campaign will play up the various complications and dangers that could come with secession; the ‘Yes’ grouping will emphasise the enhanced opportunities for an independent Scotland. One area of controversy will be the precise consequences for the position of Scotland within the European Union (EU), were it to exit the UK. Much turns on this issue. It has implications for Scottish access to the largest single market in the world, and consequently its future prosperity,

Jeff J Mitchell/getty images

Dr Andrew Blick, a lecturer at the College’s Institute of Contemporary British History, looks at some of the issues swirling around the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence.

The future of Scotland is for the people of Scotland alone to decide

This may simply be a first battle

as well as its status as a regional and international player. Supporters of the Union will argue that Scotland would not be permitted automatically and swiftly to become a member of the EU in its own right, while their opponents will minimise the possible difficulties. I suspect means would be found to quickly incorporate an independent Scotland into the EU. Indeed, it would be in the interests of what remained of the UK to support such an outcome. But Scotland would be entering into an area of legal uncertainty, and a number of experts have argued that it would not inherit membership of international organisations, which would be retained by the larger state it left behind. Yet the remaining UK would be moving into new constitutional territory as well. The Treaty of Union, negotiated in 1706, binding England (incorporating Wales) and Scotland into Great Britain describes itself as being in force ‘for

ever after’. It also establishes the British Parliament. Does the present UK Parliament have the power fundamentally to contradict the terms of a treaty which also offers the source of the Parliament’s own authority? In practice, probably it does. But if Parliament did repeal the Union, it would be unravelling the UK state as it has up to now been constituted. Finally, even if Scotland votes ‘no’ in 2014, independence is not necessarily off the agenda permanently. The history of the devolution movement may be instructive here. Both in Scotland and Wales, attempts to introduce a degree of self-government failed in the 1970s. But two decades later, they were successful. It may be that Scottish secessionists privately see this referendum as simply a first battle. It may be lost, but also could mark the beginning of a victorious campaign. autumn 2013 IN TOUCH

Update top

Most popular sports, by club membership

BEST Performing teams BUCS results for 2012-3

01: Hockey 233

01: Table Tennis King’s Men

02: Football 181

02: Volleyball King’s Women

03: Netball 148

03: Basketball King’s Women

04: Rugby 137

04: Badminton King’s Men

05: Boat 110

05: Netball GKT

06: Yoga 109

06: Squash King’s Men

07: Badminton 96

07: Badminton GKT Women

08: Fencing 77

08: Rugby Union King’s Women

09: Muay Thai Kickboxing 69

09: Fencing King’s Men

10: Swimming & Waterpolo 66

10: Lacrosse King’s Women

King’s in the media Antibiotics and eczema The Guardian, Daily Telegraph and several other newspapers reported on research findings that link the use of antibiotics in early life with an increased risk of developing eczema. The study, carried out by researchers from King’s, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, the University of Nottingham and the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, was published in the British Journal of Dermatology. The research found that young children given antibiotics experience a 40 per cent increase in the risk of developing eczema. ‘A better understanding of the complex relationship between antibiotic use and allergic disease is a priority for clinicians and health policymakers alike, as determination of a true link between antibiotic use and eczema would have far-reaching clinical and public health implications,’ said Dr Carsten Flohr of King’s, the paper’s senior author. More maths needed All young people should continue to study maths at least until they are 18, even if they have already gained a good GCSE in the subject, because the GCSE curriculum doesn’t provide the practical skills needed in the modern workplace,

Survey says: teens crave maths

joÃo fazenda

according to research reported in The Times and other media outlets. The research, prepared by Professor Jeremy Hodgen and Dr Rachel Marks of King’s for the Sutton Trust, reveals that maths is essential in many jobs not traditionally associated with the subject. Teens support the idea of more maths: an Ipsos MORI poll of 2,595 teens indicates that nearly two-thirds of young people believe they should continue learning maths and English to age 18.

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Returning to the UK in 2014 Professor Edward Byrne, King’s next Principal, comes to the College from Australia, where he helped raise Monash University to global prominence Neuroscientist Professor Edward Byrne has been selected to become the next Principal and President of King’s, succeeding Professor Sir Richard Trainor in September 2014. Professor Byrne has served as President and Vice-Chancellor of Monash University, Australia’s largest university, since 2009. During his tenure, Monash has risen substantially in the global university rankings, breaking into the Times Higher Education’s top 100. He has overseen the creation of a satellite campus in Suzhou, China, and an alliance with the University of Warwick. ‘King’s is already a top 100 university in the world league tables and is perfectly positioned to capitalise on that status with its London location, commitment to institutional excellence in teaching, learning and research and developing interdisciplinary and international focus,’ says Professor Byrne. ‘There is no question that the university world will see ever greater globalisation with the pace of the information revolution and the rise of Asia in the 21st century and I look forward to helping King’s make its

own contribution to this progress.’ Professor Byrne began his career in Adelaide after graduating with first class honours from the University of Tasmania in 1974. He was made Neurology Registrar at Royal Adelaide Hospital in 1978. He was later appointed Director of Neurology at St Vincent’s Hospital and Professor of Clinical Neurology at the University of Melbourne. In 2003, Professor Byrne became Executive Dean of Medicine, Nursing and Health Science at Monash University. For two years beginning in 2007, he served as Executive Dean of the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Head of the Medical School and Vice Provost at University College London. He is a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Royal Colleges of Physicians of London and Edinburgh and the American Association of Neurology. Professor Byrne was admitted as an Officer in the Order of Australia in 2006 and has dual British and Australian citizenship. He grew up in northeast England, and moved to Australia at the age of 15.

And a fond farewell Keith Hoggart heightened the College’s international profile After 35 years of service to King’s, Vice-Principal Professor Keith Hoggart retired in September. ‘As many of you will know, Keith is part of the fabric of King’s,’ said the Principal, Professor Sir Richard Trainor, when he announced Professor Hoggart’s plans to step down. ‘I would like to pay particular tribute to the wonderful role Keith has played in building up our international profile through the creation and development

of the Global Institutes, his great ambassadorial skill in establishing and building high-profile and enduring academic relationships for King’s across the world and his success in championing the massive growth we have seen in our international student numbers at King’s over the last several years.’ Professor Hoggart joined the College as a lecturer

in geography in 1978, completing his PhD at King’s in 1984. He was appointed professor of geography in 1998 and Head of the School of Social Science & Public Policy in 2004, when he was also elected a Fellow of King’s. Professor Hoggart became Vice-Principal for Arts & Sciences and External Relations in 2005, a post he held until last year, when he took on the newly created role of Vice-Principal (International). autumn 2013 IN TOUCH

Campaign Update

Supporting King’s transnational ambitions A Malaysian family’s generous gift establishes the Yeoh Tiong Lay Centre for Politics, Philosophy & Law, strengthening King’s position as a leader in transnational law Tackling the ethical and moral questions raised by complex cases is a major challenge for today’s lawyers. A gift of £7 million from the family of Malaysian alumnus Dato’ Mark Yeoh (LLB, 1987) will ensure that King’s can continue to lead in this field. Their generous donation will establish the new research-based Yeoh Tiong Lay Centre for Politics, Philosophy & Law, named in the family’s honour, which includes a chair, two lectureships and 16 full LLM scholarships of £30,000 each. The centre will investigate interdisciplinary subjects such as medical ethics, power, wealth and human values and feed into the College’s undergraduate Politics, Philosophy and Law LLB degree, launched last year. ‘I remember fondly my days at King’s and am delighted at the prospect of being able to contribute towards assisting others in their educational goals,’ says Yeoh. He is currently Director of Wessex

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Learn more about our campaign at kcl.ac.uk/ kingsanswers

Water Ltd, which is owned by YTL Corporation – one of Malaysia’s largest companies with interests in construction, utilities, hotels, property development and technology. Yeoh’s father, Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Yeoh Tiong Lay, founded the YTL Corporation from humble beginnings in 1955, when he was still in his 20s, and is well known for his strong commitment to higher education and learning. Having missed out on university himself, he has encouraged his seven children and many grandchildren to study in the UK before joining the family business. He established the YTL Foundation to provide scholarships for Malaysian students. YTL’s success is closely connected with the development of education in Malaysia. In the early years of his business, Yeoh Tiong Lay successfully bid for contracts to build schools during the construction boom in the newly independent country. Now under the leadership of eldest

son, Tan Sri Dato’ Francis Yeoh Sock Peng, the company continues to expand its portfolio, offering expertise in emerging fields such as digital media networks and carbon consulting. The £7 million gift is the largest from a Malaysian donor to any UK university. It follows a £20 million donation by Dickson Poon CBE last year – when the School was renamed in his honour – and the launch of a £40 million investment strategy to establish King’s as a leader in transnational law. Overseeing this dynamic new era at The Dickson Poon School of Law is the recently appointed Dean, Professor David Caron, whose scholarship covers many areas of international law. ‘I am fortunate to be joining the College when we have so much to look forward to,’ he says. ‘This generous gift from the Yeoh family will give us the chance to advance our research in an exciting new area of law. I am confident we can show our benefactors that their belief in the power of education is well placed.’

James Lambert

Chain Reaction

Through the generosity of seven alumni who included King’s in their wills – each leaving £1,000 to £5,000 towards the College’s greatest needs – King’s is supporting an additional 15 students facing financial hardship

Science Gallery at King’s to open in 2015 London’s newest creative space will foster collaborations between science and art King’s has outlined plans to open an innovative venue for science and art collaboration on the Guy’s Campus following two capital funding awards totalling £7 million. The College intends to open Science Gallery at King’s in 2015 following confirmation of funding of £3 million from the Wellcome Trust and £4 million from Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity towards a total funding target of £12 million. A site of 2,000 square metres at London Bridge, at the corner of Great Maze Pond and St Thomas Street, opposite the Shard, has been identified for a facility that will include exhibition galleries, a theatre, café, courtyard and informal meeting areas

as the College develops plans to open London’s newest creative space. The gallery will generate and host dynamic exhibitions, events, performances and festivals, bringing science, technology and health into dialogue with the arts and design. This leading space for innovation will be free to visit, with a focus on 15- to 25-year-olds as King’s continues to engage young people and inspire them through collaborations between science and art. College staff will work with local communities, inviting artists and researchers to contribute ideas, experiment and work together in an environment intended to incubate new ideas and partnerships. Neuroscientist Dr Daniel Glaser

Learn more about our campaign at kcl.ac.uk/ kingsanswers

has been appointed Director of Science Gallery at King’s. He will be responsible for managing the gallery, bringing together artists, designers, scientists, researchers, clinicians, visitors and local communities to explore themes at the intersection of science, health care, culture and the arts. Science Gallery at King’s is a flagship project for culture at King’s under the leadership of Deborah Bull, Director of Cultural Partnerships at the College. It will be part of the Global Science Gallery Network, incorporating eight university-linked galleries worldwide by 2020, engaging an audience of more than two million visitors annually. autumn 2013 IN TOUCH

Campaign Update

Better ultrasound scans make for better treatment High-resolution scans are enabling doctors at Evelina London Children’s Hospital to see the fine details of an unborn baby’s heart more clearly, resulting in the earlier and more detailed diagnosis of serious abnormalities and improved care and support for families. Evelina London, part of King’s Health Partners, has upgraded its foetal cardiology ultrasound systems after receiving a £150,000 grant from the Bonita Trust, a philanthropic trust established under Gibraltar law to help communities address some of the important health and education challenges facing them, leveraging cutting-edge technologies. ‘As a mother, I am particularly supportive of projects focusing on challenges affecting women and children. I am delighted that Bonita was able to support King’s Health Partners, and help Evelina London Children’s Hospital become a leading centre for treating children,’ says Ruth Parasol, principal benefactor and founding member of the Bonita Trust’s International Advisory Board. ‘This equipment allows the ultrasound scans, called foetal echocardiograms, to be seen at a far higher resolution, and has all the latest features, including 3-D scanning,’ says Dr Owen Miller, Clinical Lead in the Department of Congenital Heart Disease. ‘Better, more detailed images mean we now have a clearer idea of how to plan the child’s treatment during pregnancy, immediately after birth and then into their childhood.’ Evelina London is a recognised centre of excellence for the prenatal diagnosis and management of congenital heart defects. Around 2,000 pregnancies are assessed 14

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Phil Sayer

Made possible by a grant from the Bonita Trust, new equipment at Evelina London is helping diagnose heart problems in unborn babies

The new ultrasound equipment provides high-resolution images of an unborn baby’s heart

in the Foetal Cardiology Unit each year, and, in most cases, doctors can reassure the parents that their unborn baby’s heart is normal. ‘When parents have been worrying, particularly if they have had another child born with a heart defect, it’s very welcome news,’ says Dr Miller. ‘However, we do diagnose around 200 major heart abnormalities a year. These could be We are very problems with grateful to the the way the Bonita Trust heart has formed, or abnormal heart rhythms and function. Of course, the earlier we can spot them, the

easier it is for us to manage the baby’s problem and support the family.’ These diagnostic foetal heart images are vital tools for Evelina London’s Department of Congenital Heart Disease, which has grown significantly over the last decade and is ranked among the best departments of its kind in the UK. The department aims to continue providing the best services possible to treat congenital heart disease, further affirming Evelina London’s reputation as one of the world’s leading children’s hospitals. ‘Donations like these mean that our department can operate at its optimum level,’ says Dr Miller. ‘We are very grateful to the Bonita Trust for their gift.’ Children’s health is one of the priorities of the World questions|King’s answers campaign. To learn more, please visit kcl.ac.uk/kingsanswers

Why I give to King’s

Frederique Pierre-Pierre is a director at Deutsche Bank, member of the Principal’s Circle and law mentor who believes ‘education is a right for all who have the necessary skills’.

King’s gave me the tools necessary not only to carry out my profession from a technical perspective but also gave me a particular way of thinking, an intellectual rectitude that influenced my entire career. It also enabled me to see London as a welcoming place full of opportunities for those who had an open mind. I enjoyed the mentality, the culture and… the humour! I understand the aspirations of today’s students and their desire to fulfil their potential. But I am concerned about the obstacles. I would hate to see a good

student not able to attend university. I’m happy to help students as both a donor and a mentor. Mentoring is, first, greatly enjoyable as it is a way to share my experience, to impart what I have learnt if it can be of help. But I also find that I use my training as a coach. It is not all about my experience but what the student needs to unfold his or her potential. Finally, it is a way to give back. I’ve met a few great mentors outside work that have significantly altered my life. I’m a great believer in social mobility and the improvement of the human condition through education. I hope my contributions will help students who wouldn’t have the ability to study otherwise or who would start their lives with large debt. And I hope the students can have a little fun along the way!

Suki Dhanda

Frederique Pierre-Pierre LLM, 1986

Cancer care on a human scale The new Cancer Centre will deliver care using a village approach while incorporating research The new Cancer Centre under construction on the Guy’s Campus is designed to be a place of care. Though the building will be 14 storeys, it won’t feel like a large, overwhelming hospital. It will have a human feel with services being sectioned into different ‘villages’. This approach will ensure that patient pathways are streamlined, taking as much stress and anxiety out of the experience as possible. ‘One of the potential downsides of being a big institution is that it’s physically quite a disparate experience for patients,’ says James Spicer, senior reader in oncology. ‘They come to a clinic and then they have to go somewhere else to have their picture taken by an x-ray doctor and then they have to go somewhere else to have a biopsy taken and then if they’re admitted to the ward that’s yet another part of the hospital, and then they need their drugs when they leave the clinic and the pharmacy is in yet another place.

The new Cancer Centre on the Guy’s Campus will open by early 2016

‘So it turns from a fairly routine visit into something that is a bit of a physical ordeal and certainly sometimes a bit of a physiological challenge, particularly for people who are in a difficult time in their life.’ The Cancer Centre will be an important part of the Integrated Cancer Centre, which encompasses all cancer-related research and services across King’s Health Partners, an academic health sciences alliance that includes the College. The new facility, scheduled to open by early 2016, will have a major research focus and benefit from experts across the Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust as well as academics at King’s. Putting researchers and clinicians together under the same roof provides the most effective way to deliver high-quality research; it helps researchers and clinicians learn to speak the same language. Without this link, what happens in the lab has little impact on patients.

‘There is well-documented evidence that if you have a centre that is driving research, and being innovative about how they’re treating patients, their patients do better,’ says Professor Peter Parker, Deputy Head of the Integrated Cancer Centre. Research also involves clinical trials, which will be a major component of the Cancer Centre. Clinical trials allow researchers and clinicians to see how different patient groups respond – or don’t respond – to new drugs. ‘We need to improve treatment and that won’t happen without trials,’ says Spicer. ‘The best treatment for metastatic breast cancer or lung cancer is not good enough, there’s no hiding from that. Many patients with incurable cancers will be offered participation in a trial because that’s the best way of offering them the state of the art, the best there is.’ To find out how you can support the new Cancer Centre, please visit kcl.ac.uk/kingsanswers/cancer autumn 2013 IN TOUCH

Suki Dhanda

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autumn 2013

WHAT IF WE ALL

LIVE

TO 110? With more people than ever living into their 80s, 90s and beyond, society is entering uncharted territory By LUCY JOLIN

Dr Joginder Dhillon: still playing hockey, golf and tennis at age 78

Meet retired GP and St Thomas’ Medical School alumnus Dr Joginder Dhillon, ‘Jindi’ to his friends. Born in a small village in the Punjab in 1935, he and his family fled India during the riots of 1947 and settled in Kenya, where he entered school for the first time at age 12. He blossomed into an outstanding student and athlete: he represented British Kenya at hockey in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, spent 30 years as a GP in Ashford, Kent, and was doctor to the British hockey team, as well as teams from other nations, at the 2012 London Olympics. He’s retired, but still active both in sports and in his local community – ‘I am not a person for sitting still,’ he declares – and is, he says, healthy in mind and body. Dr Dhillon is a perfect example of a rapidly growing tribe: older people. Of course, old age is nothing new. There have always been those outliers who lived far beyond their allotted years. When Queen Victoria died in 1901 at the age of 81, her subjects’ life expectancy was just 48. But a population with hundreds of thousands of people with extended average lifespans makes for uncharted territory. Just how well are we prepared for a society where the majority could live far beyond a century? ‘We know that more people are getting older,’ says Dr Karen Glaser, reader in gerontology and Director of the Institute of Gerontology at King’s. ‘Global trends are for quite significant increases in percentage of the older population.’ Over the last 40 years, life expectancy in the UK has risen from 71.13 years in 1961 to 80.75 years in 2011. In China, life expectancy is now 73.49 years compared to just 43.46 years in 1960. ‘Nobody knows how high our lifespan could go,’ says Professor Finbarr Martin, consultant geriatrician at Guy’s and St Thomas’. ‘It hasn’t started to plateau yet. The people who are surviving into old age are living much longer. That adds up to an increased life expectancy worldwide of about five hours for every 24 hours. So if we speak at the same time tomorrow, life expectancy will be five hours more.’ It’s a strange dichotomy that though we fear death, we shy away from the idea of a longer life. A ‘dementia time bomb’, an unsustainable caring load on the state or an NHS struggling to cope with wards full of older people having expensive life-extending treatment have all been mooted as consequences of living longer. Professor Martin disputes this pessimism as inevitable. ‘If people lived to, say, 110, it might not be a bad thing. The challenge is: what are we going to make of this? It’s completely new. No society has ever done it before.’ An increased lifespan, says Professor Martin, does not necessarily mean spending your extra years in the twilight of the nursing home. Think, he says, of your life as an elastic Autumn 2013 IN TOUCH

band held between your hands. The last inch to the right is grey – your life as an older person. Stretch it out wider and you’ll see that the whole thing is stretched, and the grey inch is now two inches. ‘The life events of the last three to four years of life are not being stretched out in proportion to life expectancy being stretched out,’ he explains. ‘So instead of 60 years plus three years of grief, we’ve got 80 years and four years of grief. Though it’s not quite as simple as that, as about half the extra years you’ve got post-65 are with extra reported disability. Half those years are a free bonus. The other half is very old age lasting a bit longer.’ Yet there is no getting away from the fact that old age brings its own problems. Dementia is on the rise. Professor Clive Ballard, dementia specialist at the Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases at King’s, points out that Alzheimer’s International estimated there were 25 million people worldwide with dementia in 2005. When the organisation repeated the exercise five years later, the estimate stood at 35 million. By 2040, it’s projected that there will be almost 80 million people worldwide with dementia. These people have complex care needs. ‘In the earlier stages of the illness, people with the right support are able to function pretty independently,’ says Professor Ballard. ‘But as the disease progresses, more help is needed for things like organising bills, doing shopping. People lose the ability to do personal things, like washing or going to the toilet. Behavioural symptoms emerge. People can become restless, aggressive and suspicious. That can make it very difficult to look after people at home. If we don’t plan for higher rates of dementia, then it's going to be unmanageable.’ Living Well with Dementia: a National Dementia Strategy, unveiled by the government in 2009, is, say Professors Ballard

Older people contribute a huge amount to society

and Martin, an example of the kind of planning that needs to be in place. Yet, dementia research is still lacking. ‘On the clinical trial registries right now, there are 716 clinical trials for cancer and about 20 for Alzheimer’s,’ says Professor Ballard. ‘If you’re over 60, the two conditions are probably equally common and you are probably more likely to die with Alzheimer’s than with cancer. A lot of public surveys now suggest that dementia is one of the things that people are most frightened of. ‘People say that dementia now is where cancer was in the 1950s or 60s. I think there’s a lot of truth in that. People started to become more aware of cancer but because it was seen as something that killed you, nobody talked about it. I think we're on the same curve.’ An ageing population also has implications beyond the practical. The very structure of families will change. The ‘sandwich generation’ – older parents caring for their children and their increasingly frail older parents simultaneously – is already common parlance. The ‘beanpole family’, says Dr Glaser, is becoming the norm. ‘It’s family verticalisation. You are much more likely to have different generations alive. If you’re a child, you’re much more likely to have grandparents. What you don’t have is as many cousins. So inter-generational relationships are going to become even more important.’ Yet the future, says Professor Martin, is not so bleak. ‘Older people contribute a huge amount to society. They run societies and clubs, they work, they provide care in the home. But we do have to re-orientate our healthcare systems. We have to realise that dealing with older people is not just about the winter fuel allowance.’ Problems in old age are also not inevitable. A healthy lifestyle, Professor Ballard points out, can reduce chances of developing dementia by around 15 to 20 per cent. He wants to see better public health messages and more attempts to engage people in changing their habits. As for Dr Dhillon, who regularly plays golf with friends in their 80s, he believes that a healthy old age is in part due to attitude. ‘My philosophy of life is simple,’ he says. ‘Live for others. Look after yourself. Don’t get stressed. My father used to say these things and he lived to be 88. Not bad, for an Indian railway clerk.’

Life expectancy in the UK

Life expectancy in china

1961 2011 1960 2013 71.13 80.75 43.46 73.49

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Professor Patricia Reynolds: ‘Academic staff could create their

Exploring ways to retain wisdom and knowledge for future generations

‘Good content is the great currency in teaching today,’ enthuses Patricia Reynolds, Professor of Innovations in Education at King’s. ‘That’s what students want.’ Providing and managing that currency is the goal of an innovative pilot project called Donates All, which neatly stands for Digital Online Assets to Enhance Study: A Living Legacy. In essence, it aims to capture the teaching materials and methods of donor professors, and to create a secure social media network on which to share it – and more. The idea stemmed from a desire to preserve historical dental slides, which have been widely used in dental education and across the medical curriculum over the past 50 years. ‘All too often, when professors retire or die, their slides are just binned,’ says Professor Reynolds, who switched from a career in dentistry, maxillofacial surgery and teaching to focus on the future of education itself, particularly e-learning. Preserving professors

legacy as a matter of course’

‘Some of these slides are irreplaceable,’ she says. ‘And when they are thrown away, so too are the rich stories and the teaching methods that brought them to life. Hence the notion of a living legacy, which aims to ‘preserve’ professors and bring them into the digital fold.’ The project involves shooting videos of donors in a structured interview with Professor Nairn Wilson, President of KCLA, which charts their life and times in the Dental Institute. To date, four have been recorded: Professor AHR ‘Jack’ Rowe, past Dean of UMDS Dental School; Professor John Langdon, previous Head of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, KCSMD and GKT Dental Institute; and Professors Graham Roberts, previous Head of Paediatric Dentistry, and Stephen Challacombe, Martin Rushton Professor

Nick Ballon

A different form of immortality

of Oral Medicine. Meanwhile, the slides have been cleaned, digitised, catalogued and ‘tagged’ with relevant key words to aid retrieval by a team of postgraduate volunteers: Drs Tarik Shembesh, Scott Rice, Sami Stagnell, Sarah Kaddour, Miriam Bouchiba, Suzie Zhang and Yavar Khan. Handle with care

For now, while there are plenty of other keen donors, the first four are the limit of what is currently only a pilot project, made possible through a grant funded by alumni. To preserve slides from the late John McLean collection, Dental Circle gifts have kindly supported the project. Professor Reynolds says the project must be handled with care. ‘There are lots of issues here, such as quality assurance, patient confidentiality, privacy and copyright.’ That leads on to the second part of the project: creating a safe digital area to store and provide access to the material. ‘Initially this was a heritage project, but it has evolved to create a social network that allows students to build up a Flickr-like collection of teaching materials,’ says Professor Reynolds. ‘It means students don’t have to manage a load of hard disks or cloud storage.’ The pilot focuses on dentistry, but the idea could be applied to any image or video that aids learning, she says. ‘We want to do it right, so that when we start scaling up, we don’t have to backtrack.’ The team is now in the process of developing an open source content management system to make the project accessible online. ‘This could become part of everyday College life,’ says Professor Reynolds. ‘Academic staff could create their legacy as a matter of course, for example, making a video when they start and when they leave. That has the advantage of helping the College learn from their feedback. Cost would then be minimal. Imagine if we had access to an archive like this of such famous King’s people as James Clerk Maxwell, Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin.’ Autumn 2013 IN TOUCH

AUDITIONING

Each student auditioning, including Natasha Senanayake, above, has 15 minutes to perform before Emily Wenman, director, and Christian Prior, musical director. Several students vying for roles are members of the Chapel Choir, and many have performed in previous King’s Opera productions. There are also newcomers, including 19-year-old Mimi Dalton, selected as the soprano lead. ‘She has the most amazing, romantic soprano tone to her voice,’ says Wenman.

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REHEARSING

Rehearsals begin after Christmas. With the show’s jazz and Broadway influences and exaggerated characters, rehearsals buzz with excitement. Students Rich Moore and Oskar McCarthy, practice fisticuffs, far right. Prior, a third-year music student, conducts the 40-piece orchestra through all rehearsals. ‘Kurt Weill isn’t the most listened-to composer, especially in the UK. Most of the musicians didn’t really know what they were getting into.

AUTUMN 2013

But the vast majority of them enjoyed the project,’ he says. ‘It was fashionable in Berlin in the late 1920s to use lots of popular music, but taking it in a satirical direction, using a lot of American and western influences, trying to make it rather grotesque and macabre, criticising the music but at the same time really revelling in it. That sort of treatment makes it quite difficult because you have these recognisable melodies and harmonies but there’s always a little bit of sting to the tail.’

OPERA FOR ALL King’s Opera challenges, entertains and prepares some students for their careers

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JULIAN ANDERSON

‘Mahagonny is going to be a challenge,’ says Emily Wenman one month before the first audition for the opera she is about to direct. ‘It’s going to be a good challenge. In many ways, it’s the perfect student opera. Weill and Brecht believed opera should be for everyone, not just for an elite, which is a very 20th century idea.’ With support from alumni and other sources, the student-run King’s Opera produced two

productions in the 2012-3 academic year, the first time the company attempted two shows in a single year. The second production, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, is more cabaret than classical opera. With music composed by Kurt Weill and libretto by Bertolt Brecht, the production writhes with smoky jazz, lusty characters and dark humour. Wenman, studying for her master’s in musicology while

AUTUMN 2013 IN TOUCH

directing the production, says Brecht didn’t look to transfix audiences. She says he wanted audience members to question what they were seeing on stage, to consider what it revealed about their own lives and to examine their political responsibility. ‘For many students, opera doesn’t do much. That seems to be one of the main criticisms with it – that it doesn’t have a purpose,’ she says. Brecht sought to change that – and to an extent so does King’s Opera. ‘Our ethos is that we want to make opera accessible, innovative and entertaining,’ says Imogen Burgess, Mahagonny’s producer. ‘We want to break people’s preconceptions about opera.’ King’s Opera presented Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny in March, the first student group granted the right to perform

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AUTUMN 2013

Mahagonny in more than 20 years. It was an ambitious undertaking, made possible through several sources of support – including a College grant funded through the generosity of alumni – and the remarkable talent found across King’s. The show’s musical director, Christian Prior, says the College’s Music Department attracts strong performers, in part because of its links with the Royal Academy. Student organisations like King’s Opera only improve their prospects for careers in music. ‘I’ll be surprised if some of the singers in Mahagonny don’t go on to become professional singers,’ says Prior, who was offered a conducting job with The Opera Group because of the show. ‘By supporting our company, you could be funding opera stars of the future.’

PERFORMING

The shows are held in Tutu’s, transformed into a faux music hall. It’s the perfect locale, with its smell of stale beer, says producer Imogen Burgess. However, the venue presents challenges: the orchestra is crammed into a far corner. Singers on stage need TV screens to see Prior, who also serves as narrator. The audience enjoys the raucous first act all three evenings. In the second and third acts, however, as the story grows increasingly serious, the laughter and

whoops dissipate. At the end of act two, as the character Jimmy sings a sorrowful aria, there’s silence. ‘It’s just him alone on the stage in a prison cell and it’s just harrowing,’ says Wenman. Above, Anna Holloway, James Way and McCarthy as three criminals singing in the first act. Far left, above: Beca Davies checks her makeup before going on stage. Far left, below: Moore, Way and McCarthy in the final scenes of the opera, as the streets of Mahagonny degenerate into chaos.

AUTUMN 2013 IN TOUCH

PHILL SAYER

IN TOUCH AUTUMN 2013

STILL DRIVEN, STILL WRITING Now 99, Chapman Pincher continues authoring books and pursuing Soviet agents BY CHRISTIAN SMITH

A thorn in the side of countless politicians, Chapman Pincher is donating his private papers and 37 volumes of newspaper clippings to King’s

‘Can nothing be done to suppress or get rid of Chapman Pincher?’ reads a rather forlorn secret personal minute from Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1959. ‘I am getting very concerned about how well informed he always seems to be on defence matters.’ It’s quite an accolade, in its way, and one which the former defence and science correspondent of the Daily Express still takes cheeky pleasure in today: it’s framed and hung for all to see in his pretty Hampshire home, taking pride of place in the downstairs loo. Macmillan wasn’t the only prime minister to be ‘concerned’ by Pincher. Harold Wilson was too, after Pincher ‘clobbered’ him almost a decade later over the D-notice affair, a story about security service scrutiny of private cables and telegrams that blew up into a major political scandal. And even after he’d left Fleet Street, Pincher ‘put the skids under Maggie’ in 1981 with his bestselling book Their Trade is Treachery, which accused the former head of MI5, Sir Roger Hollis, of being a spy – a theme he has developed ever since, culminating in his hefty Treachery: The True Story of MI5, published last year. What is perhaps most remarkable about Pincher is that he’s been quite so busy for quite so long. He’s published 35 books and counting, ranging from spies to genetics to children’s stories. Even in his leisure pursuits, he’s prolific, setting a record for the biggest trout caught in a British river – 20 pounds, six ounces – when he was 90. He joined the Daily Express in its heyday straight after the war and, for the next 35 years or so, hardly a week went by when he didn’t have a front-page scoop, he says. He has the clippings to prove it, neatly pasted into 37 volumes, which he is donating to King’s, along with all his private papers. Pincher has a long association with

King’s, not only taking a degree there, but also being made a Life Fellow in 1978. ‘I was delighted by that,’ he says. The papers are quite a haul, not least for the extraordinary collection of names they contain. ‘All the leading doctors of the day, I knew them all,’ he says, underscoring that he was a medical correspondent too. He interviewed Alexander Fleming after he got his knighthood for discovering penicillin. He knew Sir Edward Appleton, ‘who has a layer in the sky named after him’. As for politicians, he recalls how he was called up one afternoon by his ‘great friend’ George Weidenfeld to ‘come round for tea’ with Wilson because ‘he’d like to meet you and apologise’ for the D-notice affair. Wilson shook his hand and said, ‘I’m sorry we fell out. It was all my fault.’ When Wilson later discovered that Pincher was a fellow Yorkshireman, he said: ‘Eee, I never knew that. It would have made a difference, you know.’ Pincher credits much of his success to a knack for getting on with people from all walks of life, learned from a young age. He was born in 1914 in a field tent in India, where his soldier father was stationed, but the family soon moved back home and settled near Darlington. ‘We lived in a marvellous pub that my father ran in a little village called Croft,’ he says. ‘It was a lovely place, with fishing, shooting, beagles – real country life. It taught me very early on to be at ease with anybody of any rank. I wasn’t put out by meeting Lord Southampton or something like that because they’d come into the pub and have a game of darts.’ Shooting helped a lot too: a great way to meet great people when they’re at their most relaxed. He got to know Mountbatten after sitting next to him at lunch following a shoot at the home of his great pal AUTUMN 2013 IN TOUCH

Pincher regrets that he was never on the staff at King’s,‘but then my life wouldn’t have been so interesting. I met everyone, went everywhere, travelled like a prince’

Tommy Sopwith, the aviation pioneer. Pincher went to Darlington Grammar School, where he was inspired by his biology master to become an academic. ‘When I found that he’d been to King’s, I wanted to go too,’ he says. ‘He also interested me in genetics, which was then in its infancy.’ Pincher arrived at King’s in 1932, at the height of the Depression. ‘Unemployment was enormous. When I walked down Southampton Row from King’s to my digs in Bloomsbury, there were Welsh miners in the gutter, all singing, 30 or 40 of them, for pennies.’ In those tough times, communism was rife, he recalls, and ‘there were always people who’d try to recruit you,’ which is strange to hear from such a scourge of Soviet espionage. ‘I went to some of the meetings and met Harry Pollitt. I asked him: “In the event of a successful revolution here, where would we be governed from?” And he said: “It would have to be Moscow to begin with.” And I said: “Well, bugger that!” That was the end of my connection with communism!’ Pincher was taught at King’s by the sometimes controversial genetics pioneer Reginald Ruggles Gates, who was so impressed with two of his papers that he had them published – unheard of for an undergraduate. (‘Google them and they’ll come up,’ says Pincher. They do too.) Pincher’s goal was to become an academic, and Ruggles Gates had him lined up to join the staff as a demonstrator – ‘the lowest thing that crawls in the science world’, essentially a junior lecturer – but money was so tight the funding never materialised. So he went to bide his time as a biology teacher in Liverpool, before the war changed everything. Pincher joined the army, first becoming 26

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a tank gunner, then an instructor and corporal, before being commissioned to join a cadre of officers with scientific training for liaison between weapons development and users in the field. He ended up in rocket research, which proved to be his route into journalism: by helping a friend on the Express write some technical articles on the V1 and V2, he came to the attention of its editor Arthur Christiansen, who offered him a job. When he was demobilised, he took it. It was Christiansen who renamed him. Pincher’s first name is Harry, but that wasn’t enough for a newspaper with the likes of Selkirk Panton and Sefton Delmer on the payroll, so they used his middle name instead, and he became Chapman Pincher. He proved to be a natural, and something of a pioneer too. ‘I discovered that the senior people who knew the secrets in Whitehall had never been approached by journalists,’ he says. ‘It’s common now, but wasn’t in my day.’ He had a stroke of luck – one of many in his career. When teaching in Liverpool, he’d written a simple guide to farming and genetics that was published by Penguin after the war. While on a press trip to Farnborough, he bumped into ‘a caricature of a civil servant, with pinstripes and bowler hat’, who recognised him as its writer. He was a keen farmer and asked Pincher to see his cows, which he did, and so a mutually useful friendship began. The civil servant was Sir Frederick Brundrett, then Deputy and later Chief Scientific Adviser to the Ministry of Defence. ‘He realised that after the war, instead of disarming, the government was rearming for the Cold War,’ says Pincher. ‘He felt that the public ought to be told why it was necessary, so he was looking for somebody who could take the side of the ministry and explain what

these weapons were and why we needed them. And he chose me as his medium. And when you are inside a charmed circle, you meet others…’ Brundrett introduced him to Duncan Sandys, Secretary of State for Defence, who gave him ‘scoop after scoop’, and Pincher’s circle and reputation widened in even measure. He describes himself now as one of the first investigative journalists, yet his stories were typically collaborative, often sourced over lunch at his favourite restaurant, L’Ecu de France, on Jermyn Street. In essence, Pincher pioneered the leak, which the Establishment took to as eagerly as he did. ‘A politician or civil servant would leak something that he wanted to promote, which might otherwise be suppressed,’ he explains. ‘Or there might be rivalry – between the air force and the navy, for example. Or there might be something that would cause uproar if announced in Parliament, but which would have the edge worn off if it was seen in the Express first. Or there could be sheer vanity: the peacock effect. People like to show that they know a hell of a lot that no one else does.’ Pincher left Fleet Street at the age of 65. ‘The paper had gone down market and shed readers. I’d had enough,’ he says. ‘I had a nice country house, a very good pension and I planned do

It’s like doing a giant jigsaw, this spy game

a lot of shooting and fishing.’ However, his biggest story was yet to come. Out of the blue, he was phoned up by Lord Rothschild, who mysteriously invited him to his house in Cambridge, where he was introduced to Peter ‘Spycatcher’ Wright: ‘white-haired, leaning on a stick, looking very old’. Wright had been a scientific officer at MI5 and wanted help writing a book about it from the safety of Australia. ‘So I spent nine weeks there with him and he spouted so much. The book revealed many things, including that Roger Hollis was suspected by many of his own officers of being a Soviet agent.’ Pincher is convinced that Hollis was ‘the most important spy in history’, but there is not a hint of James Bond or even George Smiley in the way he talks about what he clearly considers a very sorry business. All the spies he ever came across – and there were many – were ‘very ordinary indeed. I didn’t meet any with a sharp intellect. I don’t recall being impressed by any of them.’ He’s still clearly driven by a desire to nail Hollis once and for all, hence last year’s Treachery. ‘It’s like doing a giant jigsaw, this spy game, little bits keep coming here and there,’ he says. And he’s now just finishing off his autobiography, which he admits is ‘quite long’ because ‘I’ve met so many people’. Any regrets? ‘Only that I was never on the staff at King’s, but then my life wouldn’t have been so interesting,’ he says. ‘I met everyone, went everywhere, travelled like a prince. Tommy Sopwith gave me two pieces of advice. Always travel at someone else’s expense. We went first class and stayed in the best hotels because it paid to do so. And always do your travelling when you’re young, because when you’re old, you won’t want to go! He was dead right.’ AUTUMN 2013 IN TOUCH

Photographs by jim winslet

Community

The great and the global Alumni Weekend highlighted King’s international reach and the many cultures to be discovered in London This year’s Alumni Weekend was the largest in King’s history, with 800 alumni and 400 guests attending three days packed with music, food, tours and lectures – all highlighting King’s global reach and connections. With alumni aged 21 to 93 attending from 16 countries, activities ranged from sampling a world of flavours at Borough Market to learning about the College’s Institute of Global Health. One of the weekend’s highlights was a live cinema experience of Guillermo de Toro’s classic film Pan’s Labyrinth. Guests were led through a labyrinth, constructed in the old Anatomy Lecture Theatre, before being treated to an exclusive screening. The live cinema event was curated by Mat Burt (American Studies, 2009). In fact, alumni, staff and students provided all 28

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The College honoured Keith Newton (Civil Engineering, 1958) with the Reggie Award in recognition for his work in organising this year’s Engineers’ Lunch, which attracted more than 150 guests

of the weekend’s entertainment. On Friday evening, alumni celebrated the final Phase club night at Tutu’s, which closed at the end of the academic year. Several hundred alumni danced the night away to music from the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. For those not interested in Tutu’s sticky dance floor, there was a sunset drinks reception aboard HQS Wellington featuring Big Band music and a ‘World of Wines’ wine-tasting workshop. In keeping with the King’s: your global passport theme, there were also satellite events around the world on Friday – in India, Nigeria, Singapore and the US. Save the date for Alumni Weekend 2014, 6-8 June, which will focus on the realm of curiosity.

Plans are already underway for Alumni Weekend 2014. Hold the date: 6-8 June

Reunited and sharing memories This year’s Alumni Weekend was the perfect setting for more than a dozen reunions Fourteen reunion groups shared memories, wine, food and sunshine during Alumni Weekend 2013, rekindling friendships for alumni who graduated 10 to 60 years ago. Several reunions took place during the Principal’s Lunch. The largest reunion featured the pharmacists who graduated in 1988. They filled two tables and spent much of their time sharing and laughing over old photos. Other reunions were sprinkled across the Strand Campus and beyond, such as the Physiotherapy Class of 1993 gathering for strawberry tea and fizz on the River Terrace – with music provided by Sixteen Wires, a string quartet comprised of music alumni from the Class of 2008. For Mary Robertson and her friends in the KCSMD Medicine Class of 1963, the day was ‘altogether a very enjoyable experience’. ‘The lunch was in such wonderful surroundings and the strawberry tea and then opera in the Chapel were a really enjoyable way to continue the day,’ says Robertson. ‘The standard of the musicianship was high – at least one future professional opera singer?’ The weekend was particularly special for the Physics Class of 1953, with 10 of the 22-member class in attendance. The gathering released a flood of memories. ‘We remember lectures being held in the Small Lecture Theatre, famous as the place where the spy Alan Nunn

May (a reader in physics at that time) was arrested in March 1946, and many hours spent in the house in Hampstead converted into second- and third-year physics practical laboratories,’ says Bob Ridley. ‘Much of our free time in Hampstead was spent in political debate! Monday evening lectures and technical visits were organised by the Maxwell (Physics) Society. One memorable talk was on the progress in the development of colour television, with Mr Coe, the Physics Department’s chief technician, as the TV star. ‘We also remember the Festival of Britain in 1951, the processions on the death of George VI and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth and the Lord Mayor’s shows, queuing regularly to get into “the Gods” of the London theatres, student rags (one involving free wigwams in Trafalgar Square) and, for some of us, attending stimulating AKC lectures on comparative religion.’ David Davies, KCSMD Medicine Class of 1963, summarised the weekend for all alumni celebrating a reunion: ‘We all enjoyed ourselves very much.’ Now is the perfect time to start planning for your reunion in 2014. Whether you choose to hold it during Alumni Weekend or another time, the Alumni Team can help you arrange it. To learn more, call +44 (0)20 7848 7438, email reunions @kcl.ac.uk or visit kcl.ac.uk/reunions If you have photos from your 2013 reunion that you’d like to share, please send them to us at reunions@kcl.ac.uk

Wines from around the world: part of the weekend’s global experience

autumn 2013 IN TOUCH

Community qualified in 1980 or know people who did or just want to relive the late 70s, then come along.

Events National Theatre Live: Hamlet

St Thomas’, Medicine, Class of 1988

19.00, 22 October 2013, Anatomy Lecture Theatre, Strand Campus Olivier Award-winning actor Rory Kinnear plays Hamlet in a new production directed by Nicholas Hytner. There is a discounted rate of £12.50 for alumni, which includes a free drink. To book, please call +44 (0)20 7848 3053.

19.00, 22 November 2013, Old Consultants’ Dining room, St Thomas’. RSVP: Charlie Vivian at charlie.vivian@doctors.org.uk If you graduated in 1988 from St Thomas’ in medicine, then come join us for a curry and a drink. We’ll be giving prizes for everything from who has the most outrageous hair colour to who is least changed by the passage of time.

Badcock Dental Circle Septodont Lecture

National Theatre Live: Frankenstein

19.00, 31 October and 1 November 2013, Anatomy Lecture Theatre, Strand Campus Oscar winner Danny Boyle directs a sensational production with Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alternating roles as Victor Frankenstein and his creation. There is a discounted rate of £12.50 for alumni, drink included. Call +44 (0)20 7848 3053. KCLA Annual Dinner & AGM

1 November 2013, House of Lords This year’s dinner guest speaker will be Richard Coles presenting the topic Servant of Two Masters: Ministry and Media. Richard Coles (right) is an alumnus, musician, journalist and Church of England priest. Graduating in 1994, he is widely known for having been a multi-instrumentalist in the 1980s band The Communards. Please contact the Alumni Team at +44 (0)20 7848 3053 for more details. Principal’s US tour

4-7 November 2013, with locations in Boston, New York, Washington DC 30

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King’s, Medicine, Class of 1974 Mark your calendar: the 2014 Greek play will be presented on 14 February

Join the Principal, Professor Sir Richard Trainor, for his final tour of the US. For more information about these events or to book your place, please visit alumni.kcl.ac.uk/usevents2013 or call +44 (0)20 7848 3053.

or call +44 (0)20 7848 3053. For other performances of Aristophanes’ Wasps or for additional information, please contact the Classics Department at classics@kcl.ac.uk or +44 (0)20 7848 2343. Dental Alumni Weekend 2014

National Theatre Live: The Habit of Art

19.00, 7 November 2013, Anatomy Lecture Theatre, Strand Campus National Theatre Live’s 2010 broadcast of Alan Bennett’s acclaimed play The Habit of Art returns to cinemas as part of the National Theatre’s 50th anniversary celebrations. There is a discounted rate of £12.50 for alumni, drink included. To book, call +44 (0)20 7848 3053.

28 February-1 March 2014, Guy’s Campus Dental Alumni Weekend brings together professional development and social opportunities for alumni and friends of the Dental Institute. More details will be available on Alumni Online in early January. For more information, please contact the Alumni Office at alumoff@kcl.ac.uk or +44 (0)20 7848 3053.

Greek Play 2014

KCLA Address

14.30, 14 February 2014, Greenwood Theatre, 55 Weston Street Alumni are invited to the 2014 Greek Play, Aristophanes’ Wasps, a satirical comedy that mocks the institution of the courts in ancient Athens and the notorious demagogue Cleon. Following the Friday matinee, alumni are invited to a reception in the Greenwood Theatre bar, where you will have the opportunity to catch up with friends and meet current students and staff involved in the play. To register your interest for the 14 February matinee, please contact the Alumni Office at alumoff@kcl.ac.uk

6 March 2014, Southwark Cathedral The Rt Revd the Lord Harries of Pentregarth will speak on ‘Has Britain lost its moral compass?’ For more information, please contact the Alumni Office at alumoff@kcl.ac.uk or call +44 (0)20 7848 3053.

12.30, 12 April 2014, Strand Campus. RSVP: Pattie Troop (now Bowen) at h.p.bowen@btinternet.com Although it will be 40 years since most of us qualified, it will be 45 since starting at the Strand. It must be time to catch up on our life experiences and compare our wrinkles. Hopefully, those who went on to George’s and Westminster after 2nd MB and the people from Oxbridge who joined us at KCH can be persuaded to come along too. Guy’s, Dentistry, Class of 1964

28-30 September 2014, Bath Spa Hotel. RSVP: Helen Holden at holden802@btinternet.com A reunion to celebrate 50 years since qualification has been arranged for those that began in October 1960, at the Bath Spa Hotel (to include an afternoon at Bath race course). Fundraising events in aid of King’s College London and its health partners: Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital and South London and Maudsley

For information on any of the following events, visit togetherwecan.org.uk or call +44 (0)20 7848 7451. lVirgin London Marathon

Upcoming reunions Guy’s, Medicine, Class of 1980

19.30, 26 October 2013, Roben’s Suite, Guy’s Tower; price: £40. RSVP: Gary Calver at reunions@kcl.ac.uk As we approach a third of a century, this is the opportunity to re-live your youth before you claim your pension. If you

13 April 2014 One of the world’s most popular fundraising events lBUPA 10,000

26 May 2014 A 10-kilometre run past many of London’s most famous sights lNightrider

7 June 2014 A 100-kilometre cycle through London at night lTough Mudder

8 June 2014 A 10-mile obstacle course in the mud

David Levene/eyevine

17.30, 24 October 2013, Lecture Theatre 2, New Hunt’s House, Guy’s Campus All dental alumni are cordially invited to attend this year’s lecture, which will be given by Dr Salvatore Ruggiero, a prominent oral maxillofacial surgeon from New York. To book, please call +44 (0)20 7848 3053. Additional information is available by emailing tara.renton@kcl.ac.uk

Want to get involved? Contact alumoff@kcl.ac.uk or call +44 (0)20 7848 3053

We met at Guy’s

on the Orthopaedic Ward of Guy’s Hospital. She was a junior staff nurse and I was doing my first house job. I had to ask her for her name for the cremation certificate for a patient. No identity badges in those days! Mary: On a day off, I decided to go to the X-Ray Department for a routine chest x-ray. I entered my cubicle, put on a glamorous hospital dressing gown and, when called, left the cubicle. There to my surprise was David wearing a similar gown and about to have a similar x-ray! We laughed at each other and there was a definite spark between us. Shortly afterwards, a grateful patient sent enough tickets for the ward staff to see Ballet Rambert at Sadler’s Wells. Unknown to me, David had also been given a ticket! On the way back to Guy’s in the tube, he offered to take me home to my New Cross flat in his car, a 1958 Ford Pop. David: We met as regularly as possible after that. There was something between us then. Mary: We had many common interests.

I loved music and singing and had joined Guy’s Nurses’ Choral Society. David enjoyed going to concerts and was a beekeeper, which delighted me as I absolutely adore honey. David proposed to me in his car on our way back from spending Christmas at his family home in Hereford. I can’t remember where he stopped to pop the question, but I was thrilled and couldn’t wait to tell my flatmate. David: We married in Hereford Cathedral in 1965 on Sir Winston Churchill’s funeral day. The flags were at half mast and we had a muffled peal of bells. Mary: The florist was unable to get any white roses for my bouquet as they had all gone into floral tributes but they found some beautiful Eucharis lilies. The day before, we were asked to put the Union Jack on the cathedral tower at half mast and luckily I remembered as a Girl Guide that the broad white stripe goes at the top! David: We first lived in Ilkley and work has kept us in parts of Yorkshire ever since. We have taken up croquet with the local club in retirement. Mary: Always have your own interests as well as shared ones and have days out together whenever you can. In any dispute, find a compromise agreeable to both as it always seems to work and above all keep regular communication about everything.

The Incredible Adventures of Reggie Reggie played the role of diplomat when West German President Theodor Heuss visited London only a few years after the end of the Second World War. Ron Norman OBE (Engineering, 1960) recalls the event.

President Heuss returned Reggie’s bow

This is not a tale of a politician’s pub crawl. It is a story of King’s College London and its mascot, a large-scale concrete red lion called Reggie. The Engineering Faculty had the sacred duty of shielding Reggie from all comers, most particularly from those heathen vandals at University College. In 1959, when I was President of the Engineers, we successfully protected our mascot from all evil and we paraded him on appropriate occasions. Like state visits. Practically every formal visit of a foreign head of state involves a reception at Buckingham Palace followed by a luncheon at the Mansion House with the Lord Mayor of London. On these occasions we would ceremoniously carry Reggie out so that he could be saluted by the passing big-wig. In 1959, there was the first formal visit of the West German head of state since the end of the Second World War. Scars had not yet healed and there

was a grave risk of public demonstration against the visitor. Reggie is heavy and takes six men to lift. But lift him we did. We carried him out into the Strand for public adulation and we took our position under the old Broadcasting House. The German President’s entourage drove slowly by with flags flying and outriders buzzing. We stalwart six bowed Reggie’s front half in ceremonial salute. I think the President bowed in reply. The broadcasters above saw this and beamed out to the world that our gesture indicated that the youth of Britain welcomed Germany into the fold. The wounds had healed, they said. Of course, it meant nothing of the sort. What did we care about politics? We simply knew it was better to prance around outside with a red concrete lion than to sit inside attending lectures.

autumn 2013 IN TOUCH

Fox Photos/getty images

While their first meeting was in less-thanromantic circumstances, Mary and David Wilson (both Guy’s, 1963) spent many hours together in Guy’s Park, Kew Gardens (where they shared their first kiss) and later along The Backs in Cambridge, where she was a pupil midwife at the maternity hospital. David: My first meeting with Mary was

Community To get in touch with any of the alumni groups listed below, please visit alumni.kcl.ac.uk/connect UK alumni subject groups

International groups

AKC Alumni Group Steven Rhodes (Theology & Religious Studies, 1988) Bar Society Bahar Ala-Eddini (Law, 2007) Chemistry and Physics Deeph Chana (Physics, 2002) Dental Alumni Association Dr Suzie Moore (Guy’s, Dentistry, 1997) Geography Joint School Society Dr Paul Collinson (Geography, 1990) King’s College Construction Law Association (KCCLA) Joe Bellhouse (Construction Law, 1996) King’s College London Engineering Association (KCLEA) Graham Raven (Civil Engineering, 1963) Law Alumni Group Pierre Brochet (LLM, 1992) Theology & Religious Studies Giles Legood (Theology & Religious Studies, 1988)

01: Angola Alumni in region: 2 63 02: Argentina 03: Australia NSW 342 114 04: Australia QLD 05: Bahamas 35 06: Bangladesh 88 07: Belgium 669 08: Brazil 284 112 09: Brunei 10: Canada 1086 11: Chile 86 12: China Shanghai 165 13: Croatia 28 14: Cyprus 680 15: Denmark 172 16: Dominican Republic 4 17: Egypt 115 18: France 1769 19: Germany Berlin 288 20: Germany Bonn 26 21: Germany Munich 78 22: Grand Cayman 14 23: Greece 1890 24: Hong Kong 1569 25: Hungary 65 224 26: India Delhi 27: India Mumbai 135 84 28: Indonesia 29: Iran 123 30: Ireland 869 31: Israel 142 32: Italy Milan 102 33: Italy Rome 169 550 34: Japan 35: Kenya 155 36: Kuwait 77 37: Luxembourg 135 38: Malaysia 1063 94 39: Mauritius 40: Mexico 123 41: Monaco 17 42: Netherlands 390 43: New Zealand 262 344 44: Nigeria 45: Norway 255 46: Pakistan 477 47: Peru 19 48: Poland 215 49: Portugal 320 50: Qatar 39 51: Romania 102 52: Saudi Arabia 234 53: Singapore 1099 54. Slovakia 48 55: South Africa 184 56. South Korea 332 57: Spain 819 58: Switzerland 460 28 59: Syria 60: Taiwan 364 61: Thailand 468 62: Turkey 273 63: UAE 239 64: USA Boston Area 569 65: USA Chicago 58 66: USA New York Tri-State 1187 67: USA Philadelphia 62 68: USA San Francisco 106 69: USA Southern California 192 70: USA Southern Tri-state 258 71: USA Washington DC Area 673 72: Vietnam 27

Other UK groups Former Staff Barrie Morgan (former Geography staff) King’s Alumni Theatre Society (KATS) Kos Mantzakos (German & Modern Greek, 2001) Queen Elizabeth College Association Dr Sally Henderson (QEC, Biochemistry PhD, 1980) Southampton & Hampshire Tope Omitola (Mathematics, 1994) Student and Alumni Boat Club Rachel Fellows (current student)

If you don’t see your country listed here, please contact us at alumoff@kcl.ac.uk

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Delhi Committee President Sonal Singh (LLM, 2007)

I enjoyed attending my classes at King’s as the faculty was very friendly and interactive. This may sound boring, but I did not miss a single class during my time studying! I met some of the smartest, friendliest and most helpful people at King’s. Whenever I travel to any part of the world, I most likely find a friend to offer me a drink. King’s has contributed a lot to my growth, both professionally and personally. I volunteered to be a part of the Delhi Alumni Committee as I thought this could be one way in which I can contribute by acting as a bridge between the College and students from my country, and also help prospective students in taking the right

career decisions. I am based in Delhi, which, off and on, has been the capital city since the time of the Mahabharata, so almost everything in the city has a ‘heritage’ tag and is worth a look. Since Delhi is also regarded as the food capital of India, however, I would recommend a trip to the famous food joints in ‘Chandini Chowk’. They serve some of the most exotic and mouth-watering traditional Indian food that once used to be on the tables of the Mughal kings. My favourite is the Biryani at Karim’s, originally a recipe by the Mughal queen for whom, very deservedly, the Taj Majal was built.

For more information on alumni groups call +44 (0)20 7848 3053 or see alumni.kcl.ac.uk

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I started the Nigeria alumni group. I am joined by the following alumni on the committee: Mrs Obele Akinniranye , Secretary General; the Very Revd Pelu Johnson, Treasurer; Ms Kemi Ilori, Events Secretary; and Mr Jide Shoroye, Legal Adviser. If alumni are planning to visit Lagos, I would recommend a visit to Kuramo Beach, Ocean Beach Seafood Restaurant, the Museum at Tafawa Balewa Square, Muson Centre for musical concerts and the oldest cathedral in Nigeria, situated at 29 Marina Lagos. All alumni residing or visiting Nigeria are welcome to contact me on mide.ajose@yahoo.com

Calling Beijing and Russia King’s is always on the lookout for alumni volunteers to assist with alumni activities overseas. We are especially interested in finding two members of the King’s community to become alumni contacts in Beijing and Russia. The College’s network of contacts and branches around the world forms a vital part of the alumni community, providing a warm welcome to prospective students, recent graduates and visiting lecturers. They also organise events, ranging from informal gatherings to black-tie dinners, as well as excursions and lectures – all great opportunities for socialising and networking. If you’re interested, please contact us to learn more. Please send an email to alumoff@kcl.ac.uk or call +44 (0)20 7848 3053.

autumn 2013 IN TOUCH

Nigeria Mide Ajose (Chelsea, MSc, 1974; PhD Electronics, 1976)

I chose King’s College London because of its high reputation of academic excellence. I completed my Electronics MSc in September 1974 and my PhD in December 1976. I truly enjoyed King’s location on the Strand, with the nice cafés and restaurants nearby for enjoying lunch hours. After visiting King’s in 1998,

Community

Andy Parrish (Chemistry, 1966) One of the many difficulties in writing these columns is that they are penned several months before you read them. Events at King’s move so quickly that there is always a risk of being overtaken by them. Our next Principal, Professor Ed Byrne from Monash University, has just been announced. KCLA welcomes his appointment. He is an outstanding academic who has amply demonstrated a recognition of the huge value that alumni bring to a university community. We look forward to working with him in the same productive manner that we have enjoyed with the current Principal. It is, however, far too early even to begin saying our farewells to Rick Trainor, who will be in active harness until next autumn. At our 2014 AGM, just one month after Rick’s departure, I shall be standing down after six years as Chairman, as will Professor Nairn Wilson, our President, on the expiry of our constitutional terms of office. Several other senior officers will also retire next year. This substantial turnover poses some serious issues for KCLA, not least in terms of continuity with a new Principal, but also in sustaining the momentum, within KCLA and the College, successfully built up in recent years. Throughout 2014, we will seek to identify candidates to fill these vacancies. Please give serious thought as to whether you might put yourself forward for election. Talk to me or Nairn if you want to know more. The roles can be challenging and, admittedly, time-consuming, but can also be hugely rewarding. In the meantime, we look forward to our Annual Dinner at the House of Lords in November, when the broadcaster Richard Coles will be our speaker and Katherine Grainger our guest of honour. The KCLA Address in March will be given by former Dean Lord Harries in Southwark. Much to look forward to!

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Hall of residence memories: College Hall Elizabeth Beckmann (Electrical Engineering, 1974) remembers how a few late evenings led to her moving to a new residence

October 1970 saw me arrive at King’s to start my university course. I was registered for the degree in electrical and electronic engineering. Upon arrival, I discovered that I was the only girl on the course – not just in electrical and electronic engineering, but in the entire first year of engineering. In fact, there was one female in the second year studying electrical and two females in the third year studying civil engineering. In her welcome, the tutor to women students warned new female students about the perils of undergraduate life and included a special warning to beware of the medics and engineers! As an engineer myself, I always found my fellow engineers very protective and never any danger. The Strand Campus was a real challenge to find one’s way around, particularly the Engineering Department, which was in the basement. It was often referred to as a rabbit warren with the engineers living in the bottom burrows. The Engineers’ Common Room was in the basement of the Union building next to the bar, which was very appropriate since the engineers’ nickname was ‘beers’. I kept up the tradition by helping my fellow students type their computer programmes onto punched cards, which could be fed into the University of London mainframe, in exchange for pints of beer. I had decided that I wanted to live in a hall of residence, so I would have a mixed social life. I went to live in College Hall on Malet Street. The accommodation in College Hall was

basic but functional with few luxuries; the rooms reminded me of the dormitories at my boarding school. As it was an intercollegiate hall, I shared a room with a girl studying law at UCL. Life there was great fun, if by today’s standards a little restrictive. I recall that I was only allowed one late key a week, otherwise I had to be in by 10.30, when the doors were locked. I frequently found myself out somewhere interesting after 10 p.m. without a late key. Asking around, I always managed to find someone else with a late key. However, my activity came to the

notice of the warden, who said while she wasn’t worried about me – I was used to being away from home and was a responsible type – she had others for whom this was their first time living away from home. Therefore, she had to impose the rules. We agreed that I would move out of the hall at the end of my second term in College Hall. I enjoyed the freedom I gained by moving into a bedsit behind the Dominion Theatre on Tottenham Court Road, but missed the fun in the hall and the chats in the middle of the night over a drink! Richard Stone

The KCLA Chairman

College Hall: in the 1970s, only one late evening per week was allowed

King’s College London Association KCLA is the alumni association for all former students, staff and friends of King’s and the colleges with which it has merged. All alumni are encouraged to participate in the KCLA’s work by attending events and voting in its elections. KCLA will hold its next Annual General Meeting and elections on Friday 1 November 2013. Patron Archbishop Desmond Tutu FKC (Theology, 1965; MTh, 1966) Past President Professor The Lord Ian McColl of Dulwich CBE FKC (Guy’s, Medicine, 1957)

President Professor Nairn Wilson CBE FKC Past Chairman Steven Rhodes (Theology & Religious Studies, 1988) Chairman Andrew Parrish (Chemistry, 1966) Secretary Dr Max Chauhan (Dentistry, 1992) Treasurer Nicholas Goulding (Physics, 1968) Events Officer Alison Taylor (Human Environmental Science, 1990) Elected members ● Waheed Aslam Khan

(MSc Management IT Law &

Computing, 2010) ● Aprill Barry (Biomedical Science, 2011) ● Robin Healey (Law, 1968) ● Dr Andrew Papanikitas (Medical Ethics & Law, 2002) ● Professor Patricia Reynolds (Guy’s Dentistry, 1977) ● John Ricketts (War Studies, 2010) ● Ryan Wain (Law, 2009) ● Mary Zagoritou (Mathematics Education, 2007)

For the latest information about all of our alumni groups, go to alumni.kcl.ac.uk

Alumni benefits and services If you studied at King’s, or at one of the colleges with which it has merged, you are entitled to many great benefits. Please visit alumni.kcl.ac.uk or call +44 (0)20 7848 3053 for more details. Online alumni.kcl.ac.uk Facebook facebook.com/KCLalumni Twitter twitter.com/KCLalumni King’s Alumni is also on LinkedIn

Online journal access

Join Alumni Online to gain free alumni access to a huge range of online academic journals through JSTOR. Contact us for more details. Professional and Executive Development

The College offers a range of short courses, with many available to alumni at a reduced fee. For more information, please call +44 (0)20 7848 6814.

having the chance to explore London all over again. NEW! Royal Institution

The Royal Institution is offering a 20 per cent discount on membership to alumni until December 2013. NEW! New Scientist

New Scientist is offering alumni a one-year subscription (print and web) for £150, a 20 per cent saving.

Learn a language

In Touch and other publications

We are excited to announce that In Touch, your alumni magazine, is now available to you as an iPad app. Visit the App Store on your iPad to download it. In Touch and several other publications are also available at Alumni Online (alumni.kcl.ac.uk). Alumni Online

Alumni Online – alumni.kcl.ac.uk – is a great way to stay in touch with King’s and your friends from College.

If you’re interested in learning a new language, alumni are eligible for a 30 per cent discount at the King’s Modern Language Centre on its evening courses. For more information, email modern.language@kcl.ac.uk

Online Discounts Business Cards

Summer School

Glasses Direct

The King’s College London Summer School is an intensive academic program open to students from around the world. Building on King’s academic strengths, the Summer School offers university-level courses. Alumni are entitled to a 10 per cent discount. For details, please visit kcl.ac.uk/study/summerschool

Glasses Direct offers a 25 per cent discount for King’s alumni. Simply visit glassesdirect.co.uk and use the discount code GDSTUDY25.

MOO prints business cards, postcards and more. A 10 per cent discount is available to King’s alumni; visit moo.com and enter ‘MOOKCL’ in the discount code box.

Thresher & Glenny

Thresher & Glenny, one of London’s oldest outfitters, offers King’s alumni a 15 per cent discount.

Use the College libraries E-newsletter

Send us your email address to receive regular electronic newsletters. Keep up to date with College news and learn about the latest events and reunions. Drop us an email at alumoff@kcl.ac.uk or register at Alumni Online.

The College’s libraries are available to alumni. Reading in the libraries is free and you can borrow books and materials for an annual fee of £60. Download the application form at Alumni Online. Keep fit at King’s

Alumni email

For more please visit alumni.kcl.ac.uk

Join Alumni Online to register for your College email address for professional and personal use. Your alumni email is a good way to maintain a constant email address, even if you change service providers. To update your email address in future, all you have to do is change the forwarding address by logging into Alumni Online (alumni.kcl.ac.uk).

King’s Health & Fitness Centre offers alumni an affordable training facility conveniently located five minutes from Waterloo. Alumni receive a discounted rate. To learn more, call 020 7848 4650. Stay at King’s

Outside term time, alumni are able to take advantage of accommodation in some of the best locations in London, enjoying excellent new facilities and

In Touch goes digital In Touch is now available online and as an iPad app. Both versions feature all of the articles, class notes and other information you find in the print version of the magazine. ● To read In Touch on your iPad, go to the App Store and enter ‘King’s

College London’ in the search field ● To find the magazine on the web, visit alumni.kcl.ac.uk/InTouch By delivering In Touch to you digitally, the College will reduce its postage and printing expenses, and will direct the savings to wherever the need is greatest.

As a bonus, you’ll be able to read each new issue sooner: no waiting for the magazine to arrive in your postbox. The College has established more than 70 alumni groups around the world and is hosting more events than ever across the globe. Whether you read the

magazine online, on the new app or you choose the print version, King’s wants to stay in touch with you! Give it a try – and if you decide to go digital, please let us know by emailing alumoff@kcl.ac.uk or calling +44 (0)20 7848 3053.

autumn 2013 IN TOUCH

Class notes While we make every effort to verify the information here, which is selected and edited for space, we cannot guarantee its accuracy. If you have concerns over any content, please contact the Alumni Office. And remember, you can also update your personal records at Alumni Online. Visit alumni.kcl.ac.uk

Chelsea College John Gorrod

Medicinal Chemistry, 1979 Former head of Chelsea Department of Pharmacy at King’s. I was awarded a Silver Galen Medal by Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia for ‘services supporting the scientific basis of pharmacy’ at the university. I was presented with the medal by the outgoing Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy, Professor Jan Kyselovic. Janardan Dixit

Education, 1982 National Awardee Teacher. Received award from President of India in 1996. Lorna Speid

Pharmacy, 1983 I am the head of a new initiative to move molecules for rare and neglected diseases into the clinic. I am actively seeking new molecules and would welcome contact from anyone interested in finding out more about the initiative.

Guy’s

Board Examiner. Faculty on two national courses in rhinoplasty/ rhinology. Two years more?

Denis Reid

Roderick Bowering

Dentistry, 1945 I am a Freeman of Torbay, have been mayor and was on the Torbay Council for 38 years.

Medicine, 1974 Now working part-time in my practice and looking forward to spending more time in France when I retire next year.

King’s College London

Barrington Heath

Chris May

Frank Bisby

Dentistry, 1960 Retired 2002. Physically well, gardening, cooking, clay pigeon shooting and attending vintage/classic car/motorcycle events, with Trevor Redpath (Dentistry, 1958; Medicine, 1971). Two piano groups and village choir. Recommend retirement.

Dentistry, 1976 Retired – got bored. Moved from North – too cold.

Mathematics, 1935 By your next issue, if surviving, I shall have joined the ranks of the King’s centenarian alumni. Great days, in the 30s, when the quality of what we received was as good as now, but we were not shackled, on leaving, with today’s terrible debt. The longer I live, the more I realise how very fortunate we were.

Margaret Wise (now Philippson)

Medicine, 1976 I retired from general practice at the end of March 2013.

Anne Kenshole

Medicine, 1961 Professor Emerita University of Toronto. Still enjoying various ‘para medicine’ activities such as working with the Ministry of Transport to rationalise licensing regulations for drivers with medical conditions. Honoured to have been awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for services to the diabetes community. David Gatland

Medicine, 1972 I am still in full-time surgical practice as consultant ENT surgeon at Southend University Hospital. Intercollegiate

Gillian Dodd (now Claridge)

Medicine, 1979 Retired from general practice in 2011. Gerard Woodroof

Medicine, 1979 Retired after a career in the Royal Navy and then the NHS as consultant occupational physician. Now even more time for sailing – two transatlantic voyages since retiring. Jill Williams (now Alderton)

Dentistry, 1981 Resigned from National Childcare

The business of burlesque Tobias Oliver

From a young age, a love of theatre was instilled in Tobias Oliver (MA, Text & Performance Studies, 1995) by his grandmother, once an actress. He discovered his love of arts marketing 16 years ago whilst working at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester, which had reopened a year after a devastating fire. Helping to build up a huge increase in audience numbers in the years subsequent to the reopening, he found that he thrived on the ‘challenge of working on something from the very beginning, during a period of change and transition’. He was then headhunted

IN TOUCH

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to work at Sheffield Theatres, managing the media relations for the Crucible, the Crucible Studio and the Lyceum, on productions featuring luminaries such as Kenneth Branagh under the artistic directorship of Michael Grandage. Oliver’s partner, Matthew Bugg, a composer and choreographer, established the Mr Bugg Presents theatre company, specialising in musicbased theatre, which Oliver joined as Marketing Director. Over the summer, the company toured the UK with Miss Nightingale – a burlesque musical, which

Trust antenatal teaching after 20 years in order to concentrate on training for ordained ministry in the Church of England.

harks back to the traditional British roots of burlesque. ‘In 1942, when the musical is set, there was a limit to how rude you could be. It was less strip and more tease,’ says Oliver. He believes that the art of burlesque is currently so popular because ‘the power lies in the hands of the performer; it’s not like a strip club in which the woman is objectified. The audience feels a real connection with the person on stage.’ Oliver says that playing the West End – ‘the gold standard of theatre throughout the world’ – was a real homecoming. He and Bugg hope to return to London for a longer run and to take the production to the US. Oliver’s immediate priority after weeks of touring with a hectic and challenging schedule? ‘Easy, to have a long lie down!’

Ernest Martin

Mechanical Engineering, 1941 Still active and fortunately still healthy. Regret King’s will soon be missing their beers. Lewis Shaw

Mechanical Engineering, 1942 All my time at King’s was at Bristol. I regret that aged 92 I could not get to the celebration lunch, but hope you all had a happy time there. Frank and Joan Powell

Theology, 1952; French and Latin, 1952 We met at King’s in 1950. Became engaged on the terrace overlooking the Embankment one lunchtime. Celebrated our diamond wedding on 11 July 2012 at a weekend away with our four children and their spouses, 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. So much to be thankful for, not least King’s. John Bryant

French, 1954 Still just about in touch with Anne Berry (now Cook), Margaret Robinson (now Roussel), David Edwards, and Peter Martin (all French, 1954), Margaret Seeley (now Stables) and Jane Biddle (now Vass) (both French, 1953). A vous lire, les autres! Sally Watson (now Vincent)

Classics, 1956 Life goes on as normal!

You can view lots of fabulous old class photographs at alumni.kcl.ac.uk

Exploring the Creator and creation Revd Martin Allison Booth

Revd Martin Allison Booth (MA, Medieval History, 2006) worked in TV and media regulation before being ordained and becoming Vicar of St Mary’s, Riverhead with Dunton Green in the Rochester Diocese. ‘Getting ordained was always something in the back of my mind,’ he says. A keen writer and a life-long Sherlock Holmes fan, he has turned his hand to authorship, and has had his Holmes- themed novel The Reichenbach Problem, the first of a planned trilogy, published by Lion Hudson. The novel explores why, despite the evident success of his Holmes stories, Conan Doyle decided to fling his creation down the Reichenbach Falls. ‘My characters discuss the “spirit” of Holmes,’ says Revd Booth. ‘His goodness, intellect, wisdom, patience – and impatience – resourcefulness, stoicism, courage... and fallibility. We all, I am sure, aspire to some of those characteristics and respond sympathetically to others.’ Revd Booth explains that there is strong Christian element to his novel. ‘I am interested in that relationship between Creator and creation. Christianity is itself a kind of whodunnit: how did this universe come into being, why did it? Conan Doyle did not disbelieve in God so much as find organised religion

difficult to accept. He was a scientist in an age when science thought it could solve every riddle. He believed that ultimately science would prove the existence of things supernatural. I have him on a quest, one in which he – and we – ask questions. Doubt and enquiry are, after all, the way we arrive at the truth.’ With two more novels in the pipeline, Revd Booth says: ‘I can’t help writing. In whatever spare time I have to myself, I am usually thinking about writing. I think it was Somerset Maugham who made it clear that if you leave writing “until you feel like it”, you will never be a proper writer. So I write when I can, whatever mood I’m in, whatever kind of day I’ve had.’

Bill (Alonzo) Sparkes

Ann Oliver (now Mayfield)

Philosophy, 1962 Greetings to all comrades. I am now in an ‘aged care facility’ but still obsessed with the 17th century.

Physiotherapy, 1969 Meet regularly to walk with Liz Summerhayes (now Stuart), Dianne Slater (now Watterton, Physiotherapy, 1969) and Sue Howell (now Blackburn). Children and grandchildren scattered around the world.

Barbara Collinge (now Jones)

Geography, 1963 Paddock Community Trust delivers education and employment support for unemployed adults in community settings across Kirklees Metropolitan Borough, West Yorkshire. Tara Ghosh

Zoology, 1963 Though I have retired from the post of professor and Head, Department of Protozoology, Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine for many years, I am still actively engaged in subjects of history of modern sciences in India.

Modern Languages, 1966 Busy with church music and very busy indeed with two sets of twins plus two singletons in Witney and Wallingford – all under nine!

Revd Martin Allison Booth

Theology, 1966 Knighted in Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to UK education internationally and Anglo-Spanish cultural relations. Anthony Wills

Physiology, 1957 Started second MB in October 1954 (Westminster Hospital). Intercalated BSc Physiology March 1956 to September 1957 (1st Class Hons).

Education, 1959 I continue to be involved with the Mozambique Association (ALMA) as one of the commissioners for Biology Dinisserpulane. Involved in British Museum as eyeOpener lecturer. I play the cello in Enfield Chamber Orchestra and am in the church choir.

French, 1967 I am writing a book on seaside piers to be published by English Heritage next year, which is the 200th anniversary of the opening of the first pier at Ryde (Isle of Wight). Visit www.piers.org.uk

Philip Mitchell

Mechanical Engineering, 1959 I enjoy golf, fishing, snooker, gym and gardening after 20 years of retirement. I still have recurring dreams about King’s and three magical years in Halliday Hall.

Rosamund Briggs (now Barrett)

Dentistry, 1970 Retired community dental surgeon married to Peter (KCSMD, Medicine, 1970). Two sons. Andrew Banfield

Theology, 1971 Coming up to ruby wedding anniversary in 2014. Would love to hear from any of my old friends from King’s who attended our wedding in 1974.

Roger Fry

Elizabeth Tucker

Theology, 1959 In February 2013, Penguin Classics published my new translation of The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis.

Theology, 1969 Recently published my fifth collection of short stories (Winterhope and Other Stories) and Social Work in the Alcohol Problems Service (Edinburgh), the final book in my trilogy about my social work career.

Joy Crispin (now Crispin-Wilson)

John Patten

Robert Jeffery

Roger Paige

Malcolm Fox

Chemistry, 1961 Retired several times. Former professor of lubricant technology, De Montfort University, Leicester, now visiting professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds; R&D manager, Nylacast Ltd, Leicester; and expert witness consultant on lubrication, fuel and wear.

Martin Willson

French, 1967 I left King’s in 1968 after studying in the French, German and Education Departments. Then followed 30 years teaching French and German at Latymer Upper School, Hammersmith. After eight-and-a-half years working as a support assistant for Special Education Needs pupils at Slough and Eton Business and Enterprise College, I have now retired.

Cheryl Lovelace

Biochemistry, 1971 I spent 30 years in Africa, leaving for Ghana one day after my PhD viva at King’s. Lectured in biochemistry, becoming Head of Department and Dean of School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zambia. Now retired, I live in the UK, but still visit my family and my dairy farm near Lusaka every year. Jennifer Serle (now Fortnum)

Theology, 1971 Enjoying an active retirement with my husband Brian who has recently retired from full-time parish ministry. Lots of walking with an ex-guide dog and still involved with puppy training for that charity. Would be pleased to hear from anyone who remembers me. Linda Vance

Law, 1974 Since taking early retirement from the Crown Prosecution Service, I have started lecturing at the University of Cumbria. Cumbria has a very small autumn 2013 IN TOUCH

Class notes Department of Law (62 students), quite different from King’s. No one had done advocacy before! I also lecture health professionals on legal practice as well as working as an elected NHS governor and member of the Scrutiny Panel in Cumbria. Michael Day

Geography, 1975 In October 2012, I took up the post of Director of the School of Education at Roehampton University, plus was awarded a professorship in Educational Practice. I am also a board member of the Washington-based think tank NCEE.

Civil Engineering, 1975 Moved to Norway in 1997 where I now live with my wife, Mona. Have worked overseas on various projects in the oil and gas industries. Have spent the last five years working on BP’s Skarv project in Oslo and Stavanger. Elizabeth Chappell (now Pocknell)

Electronic & Electrical Engineering, 1977 Working freelance with a portfolio career and truly loving the lifestyle. I combine short-term and part-time contract work with my role as a district commissioner for working district scouts. It’s the best of both worlds. Chico Kidd (now Thomas)

Law, 1977 New novel, The Werewolf of Lisbon, published in the summer. Julie Mason (now Mason-Jebb)

English, 1979 I have been involved with Strawberry Hill House, Twickenham, Horace Walpole’s Gothic castle, since its restoration in 2010. I take history, art and architecture groups around the house. Please come and visit us! Truda Adams (now Thurai)

MA History, 1983 My new book, Barley, Bread and Cheese, is a collection of short stories inspired by the treasures of Rochester Cathedral and was officially launched on 24 July 2012. My first novel, The Devil Dancers, came out in 2011-2 and is set in 1950s Ceylon. IN TOUCH

Music-Composition, 1983 I wrote two specially commissioned works for the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Winner of FIPA d’Or for Best Music for a Television Series in January 2013 for the BBC’s One Night. It is with the greatest pleasure that I can announce that I am this year’s recipient of the Ivor Novello Award for Classical Music. The award was presented to me by Bradley Hemmings at a rather glittering affair at Grosvenor House Hotel on 16 May.

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and was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal in the same year. Also in 2000, I became a self-employed consultant and continue to be so. In 2006, I was accepted as a member of the Institute of Business Consultants, since renamed as the Institute of Consulting.

My OBE was given for services to charity. I resigned all my trusteeships on my 90th birthday, including the Foyle Foundation, which I set up and of which I was chairman. I was consultant to it until my 93rd birthday.

Peter Kershaw

Patricia Watt

Theology & Religious Studies, 1984 20 Ways, a satirical film on immigration which I wrote, directed and produced, was awarded Best Drama 2012 at the New Mexico Film-Makers Showcase.

MA, 1988 I spend about half the year in Canada, having married a Canadian/ British citizen nine years ago. Ten grandchildren gradually making their way through university or taking time out for travel.

Silas Krendel John Dixon

Law, 1984 I retired as a police officer in 2000

Robert Parker

Errollyn Wallen

Philosophy, 1987 I write books privately printed for family and friends as a hobby.

Walking with lions, working with Gorillas Henry Chuks Henry Chuks (Pharmacology, 1999) has set himself an ambitious goal: to have books sitting atop the bestseller lists for fiction and non-fiction simultaneously. The freelance management consultant earlier this year took a step toward that goal, with two books on the Kindle charts – The Lion of Umuna and the Legacy of the Nomads and Gorilla Theory: The Art of Avoiding Project Delivery Disaster. Amazon describes The Lion of Umuna as ‘a magical fantasy tale that draws upon the themes of family, loss, adulthood and destiny, fusing exciting African and Hebrew mythology’ – and Chuks says it was inspired by the family folklore shared by his father. ‘As a young boy, hearing about grandfather Igwe, who could turn into a huge lion, made me feel special – as if I had powers of my own,’ he says. ‘I’ve always been taken with fables and tales of people with special abilities. Growing up in the late 70s and 80s, I was in thrall to Superman films and TV series such as The Incredible Hulk and The Six Million Dollar Man. I’m a big dreamer.’ Gorilla Theory introduces a new project management methodology. ‘It was a eureka moment on a particularly challenging international project delivery,’ says Chuks. ‘It was a spectacular failure, and I thought to myself that there had to be a far better way for non-project managers

to prevent such car crash projects. I was tickled by the More Than Insurance advert in which US comedian Josh Robert Thompson (as Morgan Freeman) gives the amusing axiom: “When you wrestle a gorilla, you don’t stop when you’re tired; you stop when the gorilla’s tired.” An amusing and visual cue is important in storytelling, and the phrase “gorilla theory” stuck. ‘My hope for the future is to be the first person to top the bestseller lists for fiction and non-fiction at the same time. In terms of Gorilla Theory, I want it to be the next great business process movement. The grand vision is to create a technology delivery consultancy mentioned in the same breath as Deloitte, KPMG and Logica. King’s graduates have big dreams!’

Jessie Gibber

Philosophy, 1990 Would like to hear from anyone who remembers me. Now 81 and retired. Still in touch with Anna Maria di Stephano and Nikos Hassiotis (both Philosophy, 1990). Pauline Skinner

Music, 1990 Am engaged in integrated arts and medical work for Sane, Mind and various health support providers, as well as contributing to the work and skills base of several international humanitarian NGOs. Royce Mahawatte

English, 1993 I have published George Eliot and the Gothic Novel, which tracks Eliot’s reading of Gothic and sensational literature and her responses to them in her own works. I focus on the frightening, startling and melodramatic elements of Eliot’s fiction, placing her within a culture of mid-Victorian sensationalism and highlighting the connections between her and authors like Mary Braddon, Wilkie Collins and Edward Bulwer Lytton. I argue that suspenseful and popular tropes play a significant role in Eliot’s literary ethics and creativity, and that our understanding of the author’s writing needs to be broadened to include her extensive and complex engagement with the Gothic tradition. John Edmond

Henry Chuks: dreaming big

Law, 1994 Emigrated to Australia in 1998. Managing partner of Clyde & Co.’s

Educating young scientists

Kathryn Cobain

Nursing Studies, 1999 Gained a PhD in 2009 from the University of Liverpool, entitled Alcohol Treatment in the NHS: Challenging the Paradigm. Completed a master's in public health 2012 at the University of Birmingham.

Dr Sue Dale Tunnicliffe

Harnessing the observational skills of young children to nurture a life-long enthusiasm for science is the focus of a new book by Sue Dale Tunnicliffe (PhD, 1995). Talking and Doing Science in the Early Years shows that children will develop strong foundations in the subject if we simply let them experience and talk about the world around them. ‘Pre-school is where it all begins,’ says Dr Tunnicliffe. ‘As young children are naturally inquisitive, simple activities in nursery or school and trips to the playground or park will help to develop their interest in science. I hope my ideas will help educators who are under-confident about teaching the subject.’ A senior lecturer in science education at the Institute of Education, Dr Tunnicliffe has written many papers on how children learn and is also co-author of the acclaimed Zoo Talk, which looks at how zoos can inspire young learners. She taught at secondary and

Australian offices, which opened in 2012. Mandy Wilsdon (now Myers)

Nursing Studies, 1994 Just moved house to undertake a big renovation project and now have a lovely garden.

Mohammed Mannan

Computer Science, 1999 Little baby boy born on 25 December 2012. Called him Ishaq, meaning ‘the one who laughs’. He does smile a lot! Deeanne Martin (now Rothwell) Sue Dale Tunnicliffe: nurturing a love for science begins in pre-school

primary schools before taking her PhD. She started at King’s on the same day as her son Richard (History, 1994) began his degree, and followed in the footsteps of her mother, Phyllis Ward (Geography, 1939). In 2004, she became The Lady Tunnicliffe when her husband Let me help you with that coupon Denis was created a life peer. After 40 busy years of teaching, research and public service,

Dr Tunnicliffe remains passionate about educating young minds. ‘I’m looking forward to planning a new book about intuitive learning,’ she says. ‘I am also involved in developing science resources for primary teachers in 12 European countries. It’s been interesting to see the cultural differences but the key message is always that teachers need to simplify science and go back to basic concepts.’

Samantha Bloomfield (now Scully)

Joanne Fisher (now Hobbs)

Nutrition, 1997 Qualified as a veterinary surgeon from the University of Cambridge in 2005. Run a branch veterinary practice in Harrow. Married Kevin Scully, retired from the Royal Air Force, in March.

Pharmacology, 1998 Married to Steven. We have two wonderful sons, Nicholas and Jonathan.

Hunggia Diep Jagdeep Ahluwalia

Chemistry, 1995 Currently teaching chemistry – using my degree to positive effect! Got married in 1998 and have two boys, aged 10 and 11.

Human Biology, 1997 I started professional wedding photography and now would like to offer King’s College London alumni a £50-off promotion offer: just quote KCL50.

Arfan Sheikh

Jocelyn Graham (now Herries Graham)

Biotechnology, 1996 Qualified as a doctor in 2012. Graduated from Medical University of Gdansk, Poland. Now working in Barrow-in-Furness.

Chemistry, 1997 PhD Imperial College.

David Baines

History, 1997 I have just ended 15 years’ service with English Heritage. I joined them in 1998 after completing my MA.

David Loveday

Genetics with Biomedical Science, 1998 I was appointed as a consultant orthopedic surgeon at the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospitals in January 2012. Alex Sienkiewicz

Geography, 1998 Now working as chief of staff at Public Health England. Our third child, Elinor, was born in April 2012.

Pharmacology, 1998 Worked at the National Heart and Lung Institute soon after graduating. Decided to change track two years later, leaving research science to work as a change management consultant at Accenture. Am now full-time mum to two beautiful girls!

Daniella Vichaidith

Philosophy, 2000 After teaching for seven years, I completed an MSc in Experimental Psychology. I am now training to be an educational psychologist and completing a PhD at the Institute of Education. Basit Khan

Chemistry, 2002 A career in tax and finance has been put on hold as I’ve recently taken on the role of head of fundraising at Islamic Relief UK, an international aid agency and member of the Disasters Emergency Commission. Russell Wheeler

Text & Performance Studies, 2002 ‘Riots, fights, gangs and your head in the stocks.’ Darren Shaw is a 16-yearold street gang member living in the UK in the year 2037. Life is brutal. Read his story: Asbo Diary 2037. Sara Callen

Gemma Tyrrell (now Marshall) Salma Chohan (now Khan)

Mathematics & Education, 2000 Now married to Darren with two children, Kyra, nine, and Talen, seven. I am a landlady now in the Boar’s Head Inn in a little village called Northop Hall in North Wales. Very happy!

Diagnostic Radiography, 1998 Happily married to Stephen Marshall (Physiology, 1998), with a three-year-old daughter, Eleanor. Currently working as a superintendent radiographer at Harefield Hospital; Steve runs his own consultancy and digital forensics firm.

Epileptology, 2003 Company secretary at the Registration Council for Clinical Physiologists. Honorary Editor of the Journal of the Association of Neurophysiological Scientists, interim convenor of the British Association for the PersonCentered Approach (bapca.org.uk) and organiser of the Person-Centred Approach Network (pcan.info). autumn 2013 IN TOUCH

Class notes Shirley Birch

Harriet Owen (now Suenson-Taylor)

Public Health, 2004 Working part time. Spending time in France with my new husband. About to become a grandmother.

Theology, 2007 Married alumnus Andrew SuensonTaylor (Religion, Philosphy & Ethics, 2007) in 2009. We have a two-year-old old daughter, Elizabeth, born in September 2010, and a son born in December 2012.

Max Fincher

English, 2004 I have recently self-published The Pretty Gentleman, a historical thriller set partly at Somerset House in Regency London. Read more at maxfincher.com Pritpal Riat

History, 2004 Recently completed PhD in Sikh Studies at the University of Birmingham, Department of Theology and Religion. Currently working for the Nishkam School Trust in Birmingham.

Sarah Shakir

Law, 2007 After qualifying as a solicitor in 2011, and marrying the same year, my husband and I are pleased to announce the birth of our first child, Lina Naji, born in March. Ryan Wilson

War Studies, 2007 Relocated back to London to take up position with HM Revenue & Customs.

Steven Tull

Shakespeare Studies, 2004 My wife and I had a baby boy, Theodore Derek Tull, on 13 January. Teresa Devlin

German with Film Studies, 2005 Now fundraising for the wonderful charity Medicinema, which installs and operates state-of-the-art cinemas in hospitals and places of care across the UK, bringing the latest blockbusters to patients, their families and carers.

History, 2008 Appointed corporate improvement officer for Denbighshire County Council in November 2012, responsible for strategic policy and performance. Enjoying it tremendously. Oliver Simon

PhD Theology and Ministry, 2010 I have been consecrated Bishop of Antsiranana in northern Madagascar.

Sabrina Mahfouz

Diana Bebby

Classical Studies with English, 2005 I have recently won a Sky Arts Futures Fund Award to focus on making, creating and taking poetry everywhere. As a first step, I’ve set up a company called P.O.P. (Poetry On Production), which will be doing lots of good stuff with words.

French & Hispanic Studies, 2011 Passed my Masters in Translation (French/Spanish) at Newcastle University (2011-2) with Merit.

Peter Stokes

Music, 2005 Gained PhD in French at Birkbeck, University of London, 2012. Michael Mellor

American Studies, 2007 I completed my PhD in 2007 and after a brief start in counter-terrorism, moved into lecturing. My first book, a study of William Tanner Vollmann, will be published by Manchester University Press (hopefully with the others I’ve written since leaving King’s to follow). 40

Iolo McGregor

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– had the best time there! Now back at university to study a PhD in mathematics.

Biomedical Science, 2011 I am still a student at King’s, in my second year reading dentistry. In 2011, I gained a first-class BSc in Biomedical Science at King’s.

Medicine, 1967 Retired from general practice nine years ago now. I continue my medical and teaching interests as a director of national healthcare project in Tanzania (see natronhealthcare.org). It’s good to be in regular contact with Dick Warner (KCSMD, Medicine, 1967), Professor of Psychiatry, Boulder, Colorado.

Julian Harding-Richardson

Peter Barrett

Law, 2012 I finished the accelerated Legal Practice Course at BPP in Holborn in August 2012 and am in my second seat, project finance, of a four-seat training contract. My first six months at Hogan Lovells were spent in real estate.

Medicine, 1970 GP Nottingham – retired 2006. Past chair, Local Medicine Committee, Nottingham Health Authority, Trent Region NHSE, Independent Reconfiguration Panel. Appointed CBE 2006 (services to NHS), appointed deputy lieutenant of Nottinghamshire 2009. Married to Ros (Dentistry, 1970). Two sons.

Jessie Tebbutt

Michael Munnik

Religion in Contemporary Society, 2012 Busy summer – three papers at two conferences (in Leeds and Dublin) at the end of June and a new baby at the beginning of July! Here’s hoping I absorbed some time management skills during my time at King’s. Deborah Wicks (now Grice)

Late Antique & Byzantine Studies, 2012 After a happy year studying at King’s, I am now moving forward in time and am due, with some trepidation, to embark on a DPhil in Medieval History at Oxford University in October 2013.

KCHSS Jack Nickson

Sophia Craddock Williams

Medicine, 1953 Still working.

Comparative Literature, 2011 It is apparent that there is a lack of Ethiopian literature where literature from the rest of Africa is emerging.

William Hudson

Benjamin Macleod

French with Linguistics, 2011 I was awarded a distinction for the degree of MSc Psychology and am now a member of the British Psychological Society. Aleen Sheikh

Mathematics, 2011 Graduated with an MSc in mathematics from King’s in 2011

Penelope Rankin (now Aeberhard)

Medicine, 1964 Completed MRes course (History MA with long dissertation – Catholic Revival in Kent 1792-1875). Neil Weir

Medicine, 1965 My charity, the Britain Nepal Otology Service (BRINOS), is currently celebrating 25 years since foundation and the 50th ear surgery camp. We are also seeking funding to help us build the BRINOS Ear Health Care Centre in Nepalgunj. See brinos.org.uk for more.

KCSMD Diane Hoare (now Dixon)

Dentistry, 1959 I regret to inform you that my beloved husband Kevin Dixon (Dentistry, 1958) passed away earlier this year from cancer. He served five years as a dental officer in the Royal Air Force before opening a practice in South Wales. We met at King’s in 1954 and were married for 54 years. Penelope Newell

Medicine, 1961 Currently holding an offer for a PhD in English at King’s. Thoughts, efforts, interests still in writing and poetry.

Queen Elizabeth College Peter Tanner

Physiology & Zoology, 1962 Emigrated to Australia in January 2013. Patricia Marks (now Keeble)

Nutrition, 1965 Both Frank (General, 1965) and I graduated in 1965. Frank took a double first in maths and physics and I only managed a third in nutrition. Frank was asked by the college to do a PhD but he

You can view lots of fabulous old class photographs at alumni.kcl.ac.uk

Go ethical, Go Barefoot James Scipioni James Scipioni, a recent MA student in the Department of Geography, has launched Go Barefoot, a travel organisation that promotes and develops sustainable tourism projects. In partnership with governments, universities, NGOs and community co-operatives, the company focuses on both emerging and established destinations, ensuring that travel makes a positive contribution to the local economy and environment. While at King’s, James studied environment and development with a focus on tourism and fair trade. ‘King’s gave me the flexibility and self-confidence to focus my attention on the topics I was passionate about and wanted to pursue,’ he says. ‘The most rewarding aspect of my course was being able to meet people from around the world who offered different perspectives, ideas and interpretations.’

told them he couldn’t support a wife on the grant. He took up the offer of employment with STL in Harlow where he had worked for two summers in the long vacations. He did research on very early lasers. He had been there about three years when his project leader asked him to join in setting up a new firm, Electrotech. They began by making Vacit, a sort of Meccano for vacuum systems but by following what the customer wanted ended up making several machines that produced microchips. They were world leaders in this field and Frank was the director of research. He retired in 1991 and we spent the next 17 years on and off renovating our house in France where Frank made beautiful furniture in French oak. Until he became ill, he played bridge regularly and enjoyed studying astronomy. I had a few inconsequential jobs until the children arrived, two girls who now have five children between them. Once Electrotech was set up Frank worked all the hours that God sent and I did everything else – from plastering and plumbing to tailoring and entertaining. Latterly, I had a small outside catering business but when the second daughter left home I gave up to be able to go travelling with Frank whenever the opportunity arose. I am still travelling the world but this time

Following on from his studies, James developed Go Barefoot to combine his passion for both travel and the environment. ‘I was motivated to set up Go Barefoot after noticing the positive impact tourism could have on the environment, society and individuals,’ he says. ‘From my personal experience, I felt that travel should be more than simply visiting a destination and should provide a fresh outlook and a genuine understanding of a country and its people. Sustainable tourism has the potential to provide communities with longer-term self-direction, plus a better understanding and preservation of cultural identity. ‘We would like to see Go Barefoot establishing projects that set examples for others. We’ve already started to influence national tourism policies and regional projects in Rwanda and Brazil. I hope to be able to continue this level of influence elsewhere to ensure that tourism has a positive impact on communities and the environment.’ For more information, visit gobarefoot.org.uk

alone. One gets used to it in time though I do miss him by my side. Fiona Caithness

Biological Sciences, 1971 Have 20-year-old son and a studio in Provence. Still try to travel when I can. Lived and worked in Kuwait for three-and-a-half years and Malaysia for five years. Still swimming (ex- captain of the University of London Swimming Team). Do voluntary work for Marie Curie and Papworth Hospital.

St Thomas’ Gabriel Jaffe

Medicine, 1946 Is there anyone out there who qualified at St Thomas’ when I did in February 1946? If so, this retired Bournemouth GP would like to hear from you! John Robinson

Medicine, 1954 My recently published, medically orientated, illustrated autobiography, O, to be a Doctor! Seminal Moments and their Consequences in the Life of an

James Scipioni: ‘Travel should be more than simply visiting a destination’

Oxford Psychiatrist, includes an account of medical student days and of working with Drs William Sargant and John Pollitt. ‘This book illuminates and describes a great journey both for the author who wrote it and for the NHS,’ says Sir Muir Gray. Available on Amazon. Patsy Lachelin Watney

Medicine, 1956 Having celebrated my 80th birthday in September 2012, in October I was awarded a BA Hons (Fine Art) by Chichester University.

Navy, and finally a St Thomas’ senior registrar rotation that took me in addition to Norwich and Great Ormond Street. I have five fantastic children and two equally fantastic grandchildren, but sadly I’m divorced. Robin Luff

Medicine, 1976 Stroke in January 2013 led to complete retirement from medicine. Many plans for retirement – garden, motorcycles and golf. Andrew Sharp

Medicine, 1959 I have returned to live in South Wales (Penarth) after 49 years working and living in Edinburgh. Greatly enjoyed St Thomas’ Hospital Cambrian Branch dinner in Cardiff in March.

Medicine, 1979 My second novel, Fortunate, set in Zimbabwe, is out this year. My first, The Ghosts of Eden, won the 2010 Waverton Good Read Award and was shortlisted for the International Rubery Book Award. More at andrewjhsharp.co.uk

Brian Irwin

Richard Wharton

Medicine, 1971 I am now retired as an ENT consultant in Dorchester, having suffered a stroke in 1998. My path to my final job took me through house jobs at St Thomas’ and Bournemouth, a spell in the Royal

Medicine, 1991 Married to Natalia with two sons Aleksandr and Maximilian. Natalia just achieved her PhD at the University of East Anglia. Consultant surgeon in Norwich.

John Webb

autumn 2013 IN TOUCH

Obituaries On these pages we remember former students, staff and friends of King’s and its associated colleges and institutions. In Touch makes every effort to accommodate fitting tributes, and friends, family and former colleagues are welcome to submit obituaries to alumoff@kcl.ac.uk. However, constraints occasionally mean we may have to edit the entries. Hugh Burry

Hugh Burry was a consultant in rheumatology and an internationally recognised pioneer in sports medicine. To his friends, he was first and foremost an All Black, a man with a consuming passion for the game of rugby. Burry worked at Guy’s Hospital for two decades, beginning in 1966, before he took up a chair in Australia and then later returned to his native New Zealand, where he lived for the remainder of his life. At Guy’s, he turned a student-led hospital side into one of the best sides in the country. He instilled a love for the game and a commitment to the safety of its players. His evidence-based studies led to changes in the IRB rules and subsequent greater safety at the scrums. He was a humble, modest man, and all who were coached

Dr Ian Glyn Anderson

Guy’s Medical School Ian Anderson studied for a degree in chemistry at Battersea Polytechnic. Graduating during wartime, he applied for a posting as an officer in photographic reconnaissance. With no vacant officer posts available, he was told that under no circumstances could they have a graduate without a commission and as a result he was sent to industry working for Shell. His work there involved investigating how lubricants could be better formulated to improve engine performance.

by him feel privileged to have known him. John Howard Clark AKC

King’s, French, 1950 John Howard Clark served his nation bravely during the Second World War and then devoted much of his life to creating a more peaceful world. As a platoon commander in the European theatre, he was cited for remarkable

Chelsea College

KCSMD

Dawn Abbott (latterly Hurrell)

Dr Mary Kane (latterly Mills)

Pharmacy, 1977

Medicine, 1937

Mary Sherriff (latterly Watson)

Dr Joan Rae McClelland (latterly Gomez)

Applied Biology, 1977 Edith Parker Education, 1981

Medicine, 1945

Guy’s Peter Wilson Medicine, 1938 Hedley Grabaskey Dentistry, 1944 Colonel Dr Ian Johnston

Medicine, 1950 Dr Bryan Moore-Smith

Medicine, 1955 Jane Elliott (latterly Picton)

Dentistry, 1956 Dr Brian Batten Medicine, 1960 Dr Ian Field Medicine, 1960 Dr John Grime Medicine, 1962 Jonathan Cochrane Medicine, 1965

Institute of Psychiatry Dr Alick Elithorn Psychological

Medicine, 1950

Common sense, sound reasoning, life experiences

Dr Wilfred Littlestone Medicine, 1946 Dr Philip Arnold Medicine, 1953 Kevin Dixon Dentistry, 1958 Dr George Offord Medicine, 1963 Dr Michael Jenner Medicine, 1965 Alasdair Liddell Year unknown

King’s College London Horace Schwerin Law, 1934 Sir Professor Joseph Pope

Engineering, 1938 Dr John Stuart-Webb Chemistry, 1945 PH Coleman 1950 David Heal Law, 1950 Valerie Howard (latterly Anderson)

Spanish, 1952 Ronald Freedman Education, 1953 Colin Rodger Law, 1954 Hugh Tebay General, 1956 David Tolton Mechanical

Engineering, 1956

KCHSS

Brian Collins History, 1957 Elizabeth Darby (latterly Allsopp)

Elizabeth Hirst (latterly Hirst-Brown)

Geography, 1957

Household & Social Sciences, 1949

Joyce Bottomore (latterly Price)

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autumn 2013

When the war ended, he returned to his studies, completing his PhD and beginning his lifelong involvement in academia. He started at Guy’s Hospital Medical School as a junior lecturer/ researcher in organic chemistry in 1949, and is remembered for his clear and vibrant style of teaching. He enjoyed seeing his students qualify and watching them progress in their chosen professions, and he would take great pleasure in meeting his past students as they were promoted to more senior positions. With Professor Geoff Haslewood, he wrote many papers on the subject of bile salts.

Dr Anderson rose to the post of senior lecturer and served as the school’s first safety officer. At his retirement party in 1988, he was the happy recipient of a video recorder, which he used for many years. In 1994, he and several family members appeared in Four Weddings and a Funeral, in which, as accomplished Scottish dancers, they took part in the post-wedding celebrations. He was respected by family, friends and colleagues for the common sense he conveyed based on sound reasoning and life experiences. He was always, at heart, a Guy’s man.

service under fire, and he sustained serious injuries, including damage to an ear caused by a landmine. A citation stated, ‘He has at all times been a source of inspiration and confidence to his platoon and to his company as a whole.’ After the war, he attended King’s and became a founding member of the Commonwealth of World Citizens. He taught at several schools for the deaf and co-founded the Portsmouth Refugee Support Group, which helped

resettle Vietnamese boat people and other refugees. He and his wife Jill moved to Wales in 1983, where he continued to work with deaf children and also served as a vicar’s warden, governor of the local school and treasurer for the Clwyd Deaf Society. They later moved to Mold in Flintshire, where he became part of a circle of friends – the Friday Group – that met weekly to explore spiritual and ethical matters.

German, 1958 Peter Chiswell Law, 1959 Robert Dinsmore Engineering, 1960 Dr Gerald Elliott Biophysics, 1960 The Revd Mr Arnold Leigh Theology, 1960 Edward Richards Mathematics, 1960 Dr Adekunle Araba Human Physiology, 1961 John Heggadon Geography, 1961 Moyra Archibald LLB, 1963

Kalpana Patel Medicine, 2002 Anthony Diggle Health Psychology, 2008 Henry Whitworth Geography, 2012 John Garlick Member of staff David Wheeler Physics, Year Unknown

The Revd Canon Richard Kingsbury

Nursing Studies, 1954

English, 1963 Henry Bexfield German, 1964 Seymour Freed Chemistry & Physiology,

1964 Dr Malcolm Carpenter Mathematics, 1966 Adrian Pilgrim German, 1971 David Archer Mathematics & Physics,

1972 Roy Holliday Botany, 1972 Rose-Marie Kent (latterly Bowker)

Education, 1983 Edward Stroud English, 1989 John Thomas Education, 1991 Brian Williams Education, 1992 Vanessa Pires Life, Basic Medical & Health Sciences, 1994 Dr David Bennett Late Antique & Byzantine Studies, 1996 Emma Bennett Nursing Studies, 1996 Michael Rodger Nursing Studies, 1998 Daniel Davies Physics, 2000

Queen Elizabeth College Peta Smee (latterly Scott)

Royal Dental Hospital Walton Mackey Dentistry, 1952 Colin Godden Dentistry, 1953

St Thomas’ Dr Michael Riddell Medicine, 1941 Dr Arthur Sankey Medicine, 1945 Dr Robert Welch Medicine, 1945 Dr John Paterson Medicine, 1950 Dr John Glass Medicine, 1951 Dr Robin Ilbert Medicine, 1953 Dr Derek Swales Medicine, 1956 Dr Peter Eckhart Medicine, 1958 Dr John Chesser Medicine, 1959 Dr Michael Green Medicine, 1963 Dr David Lewis Medicine, 1963 Dr A Thomas Medicine, Year Unknown

Email us at alumoff@kcl.ac.uk

Molly Lefebure

Professor Alan Michette

King’s, Year unknown Molly Lefebure would become a novelist, children’s author and biographer, but during the war years, after studying journalism at King’s, she was known to Scotland Yard detectives as ‘Molly of the Morgue’, as she accompanied renowned forensic pathologist Keith Simpson to murder scenes and mortuaries. On her very first day of working for Professor Simpson she witnessed eight post-mortem examinations and deemed them ‘far too interesting to make me feel ill’. As his secretary, Lefebure would type up post-mortem reports based on the pathologist’s dictation as he worked at a porcelain dissecting table. She also accompanied him to hospitals, prisons and crime scenes, providing him with envelopes for collecting possible evidence. After the war, she married John Gerrish, whom she had met at King’s, and she worked for a time as a group therapist and youth club counsellor. In Cumbria, where she and her husband had a second home, she became a friend of the writer Alfred Wainwright. Among her books were biographies of Coleridge and members of his family as well as novels written under the pseudonym Mary Blandy, an 18th-century ancestor convicted of killing her father. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2010.

Alan Michette took a BSc and PhD at UCL and was teaching at Queen Elizabeth College in 1981 when that institution merged with King’s. He became an international authority on soft X-rays and their practical applications. He authored more than 200 publications, including Optical Systems for Soft X-Rays, a book still regarded worldwide as the bible of X-ray optics. Head of King’s Physics Department since 2011, Professor Michette was passionate about passing on his knowledge through teaching and outreach activities and was instrumental in organising the Maxwell Society’s activities. He is remembered for his boundless energy, commitment and tremendous sense of fun which suffused all of his endeavours. He is survived by his wife and son.

John Alan Mathews

Guy’s, Medicine, 1957 John Alan Mathews was physician to the Department of Rheumatology at St Thomas’ Hospital 1970-2000. During his career, he was a visiting physician to British forces in Germany, a violinist in the European Doctors Orchestra and a governor of the Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. An expert on spinal disorders, he fractured his own cervical spine in a horrendous skiing accident in 1997. His rescue was featured in the BBC television series 999. It was characteristic of the man that he resumed clinical work wearing a halo that immobilised his head and neck. An enthusiastic teacher, he trained many rheumatologists and maintained a long-term interest in their welfare and careers. He continued to attend the weekly staff round at Guy’s and St Thomas’ up to the time of his death. He could be relied upon to ask the speaker a searching or erudite question, leaning on his vast experience and depth of knowledge.

Roy Richards

King’s, Law, 1975 Beloved by friends as a larger-than-life figure, Roy Richards died in December after a 10-year battle against cancer. A popular partner at Sharpe Pritchard Solicitors, his passing was mourned by staff and clients alike. Following sporting success at King’s, he made a huge contribution to the Law Society Rugby Club as Captain and subsequently as Chairman. He was also a prominent player at Dulwich Cricket Club and a club golfer. He was proud of his three children, Katie, Gemma and Jamie, and despite his illness he saw all three grow up and start their careers. His wife Debbie ensured that he stayed at his home throughout the difficult closing months. Professor John AS Smith

John AS Smith founded and, for many years, led the Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance (NQR) Group at King’s. He graduated with a D.Phil from Lincoln College, Oxford in 1951 under the supervision of Dr Rex Richards. As his first research student, Professor Smith worked on and published with Dr Richards some of the first pioneering results to be obtained in Europe of applications of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to chemical systems in the solid state. This led to a position at the University of Leeds, where he soon headed up the NMR group. In 1965, he joined the staff of the new School of Molecular Sciences in the University of Warwick and established an NMR group, focusing his interest on

Dean, author of ‘the little green bible’ Dr James Houston

Guy’s, Medicine, 1939 Dr James ‘George’ Houston CBE was the first Dean of the joint school established through the merger of Guy’s and St Thomas’. A widely respected member of the British medical community, he wrote several works and co-authored A Short Textbook of Medicine, first published in 1962. Known to students as ‘the little green bible’, its concise, direct approach won great acclaim, with a 1969 review in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine proclaiming it a book that undergraduates ‘can ill afford not to own’. Shortly after graduating Guy’s, he found himself unexpectedly charged with administering anaesthetics to victims of the Blitz. As the Daily Telegraph reported: ‘Although he had no experience of “gassing”, his superiors were unfazed. “You’re a Guy’s man, you can give anaesthetics,” they told him – and he proceeded to do so without any further training.’ Dr Houston joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and served in India. He returned to Guy’s where, in 1965, he became Dean of

the Medical and Dental Schools, a position he held for 17 years. He oversaw the merger with St Thomas’ and spent a further two years as Dean of the new joint school. After his retirement, he continued to serve as Vice-President of the Medical Defence Union, as a trustee of the Hayward Foundation and as a director of the Clerical, Medical and General Life Assurance Society. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1956 and appointed CBE in 1982.

the study of solids by NQR, a subject on which he became a recognised world expert. He moved to Queen Elizabeth College in the early 1970s and joined King’s when the two colleges merged. He co-authored more than 200 papers and jointly held 16 patents.

then one of the biggest chemical companies in the world, which employed him for 25 years, 15 of them in Belgium. He retired to a farmhouse in Suffolk, where he kept hens, geese and ducks, planted an orchard and grew fruit and vegetables.

Terence Edward Smith

The Revd Ian Weathrall

LLB, 1952; LLM, 1954 As President of the King’s College London Union Society in the early 1950s, Terence Edward Smith was at the centre of two oft-recounted events of the era. When Clement Attlee visited to give the Commemoration Oration in the Great Hall, Smith made the welcoming remarks and dined with the former Prime Minister afterward, finding him to be, contrary to what many Britons thought, ‘utterly unstuffy’. He also escorted Greer Garson, a King’s alumna, during her famous visit to campus. Called up for national service, he was commissioned into the Queen’s Royal Regiment, in which he served as a platoon commander in the Malayan emergency. On demob, he joined ICI,

King’s, Theology, 1947 Father Ian Weathrall joined the Church of North India’s Delhi Brotherhood in 1951. When he died earlier this year, he was the Brotherhood’s last British member. During his six decades in this community of priests, and with his leadership, the Brotherhood expanded its social work in East Delhi, providing care for children, the elderly and leprosy patients. He first came to know India during the Second World War as an officer in the 16th Punjab Regiment. After the war, he earned his degree at King’s and briefly served as an assistant priest in Southampton. But the pull to return to India was too great. Although he gave his life to India, he remained proud of his Scottish heritage and returned to his homeland annually. autumn 2013 IN TOUCH

Letters We always love to hear from our readers, so please drop us a line. The best letter wins a £20 book token. We reserve the right to edit for space and clarity. Write to InTouch@kcl.ac.uk or Letters, InTouch, King’s College London, Ground Floor Office, Strand Bridge House, 138-142 Strand, London, WC2R 1HH

John Crow clearly was an unforgettable character. A letter by Geoffrey Weekes in the previous issue of In Touch prompted several alumni to write about this ‘brilliant if eccentric lecturer’. We thank Molly Mahood for helping us secure the sketch of John Crow that appears on the next page. THE GLORIOUS JOHN CROW

I was so glad to see the ‘glorious eccentric’ John Crow given his due by Geoffrey Weekes in the letters pages of the spring 2013 In Touch, though I’m afraid John was never ‘Dr’, his career until he came to King’s in 1946 having consisted of a pre-medical degree at Oxford followed by boxing journalism, crime reporting in New York and wartime schoolmastering. All his amazing erudition was acquired for pleasure. I was, like him, an assistant lecturer in the English Department of the time, and we were friends till his death in 1969, so I’d be delighted to exchange reminiscences with Mr Weekes if he’d care to get in touch with me. Molly Mahood English, 1941 Prize letter

LUCKY YOU

Re Geoffrey Weekes’s letter in the spring 2013 issue of In Touch, I too have clear memories of Mr John Crow (not Dr John Crow, according to my diary of 1954, when I attended his tutorials). He would travel to King’s from Oxford, a big, bald-headed, middle-aged man, in a khaki duffel coat, presumably army surplus. In lectures on Shakespeare, he invariably referred to him as ‘the Bard’ or ‘the Swan of Avon’, and delighted in quoting Robert Greene’s disparagement of Shakespeare as ‘this upstart crow, beautified with our feather’. He himself thereafter became known as ‘the upstart Crow’ to me and my irreverent friends. On one occasion he asked a question in the middle of a lecture – unheard 44

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autumn 2013

of in those days. When met with silence, he went on: ‘Oh, haven’t I told you what to think?’ Some years after graduation I happened to see John Crow at an open-air Shakespeare performance in Oxford. When I made myself known, saying I had ‘sat under him’ at King’s, his reply was brief: ‘Lucky you!’ Jean Wines English, 1955 STAY AWAY

The letter about John Crow reminded me of the stories told by Peter Shaw, a long-serving Secretary of the College. Peter used to say that he was Crow’s Boswell. My favourite story was of John Crow going to the south of France and sending a postcard to a colleague he did not like. The message read something like the following: ‘Weather wonderful, women beautiful, wine excellent, wish you were here!’ The last four words were then neatly crossed out in pencil. The Men’s Senior Common Room subscribed to papers and magazines, and each year there was an auction to earn the right to take a daily paper at the end of the day and a weekly magazine after a week. John Crow was always the auctioneer, and used to heckle and shame people to raise their bids. Alexander (Sandy) L Darling FKC Chemistry, 1965 MORE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT MEMORIES

Geoffrey Weekes’s letter mentioned memories of the eccentric English Department lecturer, Mr John Crow, a celebrated Shakespearean scholar. I remember him well and, though he could be disconcerting at first, he was kind with a sense of humour. Whenever we had to refer to the famous authority on the meaning of Shakespeare’s words, The Shakespeare Glossary of Dr CT Onions, he would say, ‘Let us consult the great sage.’ Mr Crow (I cannot call him by

his Christian name) is mentioned in Bevis Hillier’s book on John Betjeman as a friend of the great poet. Hillier writes, quoting from Harman Grisewood’s widow writing after his death: ‘One other memory of Harman: a lunch at our Albany Street house in the Fifties; the guests were mostly members of OUDS (Oxford University Dramatic Society) thirty years before – John Betjeman, Osbert Lancaster, J.T. Yates, John Crow. Conversation became more and more hilarious and luncheon ended in an unforgettable cod-“Shakespeare scene…”’ A footnote adds, ‘The historian A.L. Rowse… became very angry with the Times Lit Supp. for its treatment of him. His book William Shakespeare was reviewed in December 1963 by John Crow, a brilliant if eccentric lecturer in English at King’s College London… Crow had a fine sense of the nature of literature, and was appalled by what he considered the reckless and insensitive way Rowse had simply used Shakespeare’s work as evidence for his theories about Shakespeare’s life.’ The footnote continues: ‘AJP Taylor (celebrated Oxford history don) writes in A Personal History: ‘John Crow… was an enormous figure, over twenty stone, and with a corresponding enormous zest. One night, he and I went to see Casablanca. At one dramatic moment, when the German secret service were about to arrest a member of the Resistance, Bogart said to the café orchestra, “Play the Marseillaise.” I burst into tears. Crow did more. He let out a deafening howl and his whole twenty stone rocked with grief. The cinema seats rocked too. Members of the audience fell off right and left. The manager threatened Crow with the police. No good. He continued to howl until the scene was over.’ The English Department of my time, 1959-62, was exceptionally talented and I am grateful for the fine education I received. Two

John Crow Collection, Templeman Library, University of Kent

professors, Messrs Bullough and Garmondsway, were, and their books still are, world authorities, but they gave tutorials and seminars to humble undergraduates like me, and came to our English Department sherry parties. Eric Mottram had arrived and, while giving me tutorials on the Romantic poets, was starting American Studies. Derek Pearsall, subsequently to hold a Chair at Harvard, was a humble and very good-natured assistant lecturer in Middle English. I could name them all: they were scholars and gentlemen. They addressed me as ‘Mr Hester’ and as well as teaching us the whole of English literature and much language from Anglo-Saxon onwards, initiated us as scholars into the world of academe with high morals. We had, in those days, a moral tutor as well as academic tutors. Mine, the Anglo-Saxon scholar Dr Sheard, used to see me once a term and asked thoughtfully and carefully, though hesitantly: ‘Are you writing to your parents? Do you have any money problems?’ And (after a cough), ‘No problems with the ladies?’ Having received an affirmative answer to the first question and two negatives to the other two, he smiled and said that he would always be glad to see me. After my degree, I took the education diploma, also at King’s and could say much in praise of that department, but perhaps that should be in another letter. Eric Hester English, 1962 GOSSIP AND SUCH

John Crow: an enormous figure with enormous zest

My post-war generation of students (I qualified 1956) were still being regaled with the bon mots of characters who taught our predecessors eg surgeons Romanis and Mitch. The perpetual student, (always one or two in each year in those days – before the Dean’s ‘Books’ were government inspected annually) scarcely keeping his eyes open autumn 2013 IN TOUCH

Letters and trailing inevitably at the rear of the ward round was asked what type of cancer of the stomach would this patient have. ‘Sarcoma, sir!’ ‘Oh? Never seen one.’ Come the post-mortem, astonishingly the diagnosis returned ‘sarcoma’. ‘What on earth made you state that with such certainty?’ Oh, sir! It was revealed unto me in a dream!’ Romanis held the record time for a total mastectomy that included a neat amputation of his house surgeon’s index finger. ‘Pasty’ Barrett, proud of his waterborne record (Captain, Eton College 8; distinguished service in the Royal Navy), would have replied, ‘number one topsides’ – a category that all of us aspired to in his surgical outpatients. Of course, always much scurrilous gossip. R Pelham Borley, Secretary, was one such target. The fearsome matron whom all, not just the nursing staff, were in awe of on her late night round, shot instantly to hero status when she greeted Sam Costa (yes, that was his name) and another student as she passed them driving a Mini Minor down the main hospital corridor and nodded, ‘Good evening, gentlemen.’ Maybe she was the only one to figure out how this motor car came to be discovered on Borley’s roof next morning. Inter-hospital rivalry extended to beyond the rugby football field – all but six St Thomas’s 600 beds were destroyed by German bombs but our superior devotion to duty ethos was exemplified by the houseman whose head was literally blown off his body but he completed putting up the drip on his patient. Dr PWM Copeman FRCP St Thomas’, Medicine, 1956 STILL ON THE TRAM IN HONG KONG

The spring 2013 issue of In Touch arrived on my desk today. I read the article on page 48, ‘London & me: Riding the Tram’, with special delight and I’m sure many other alumni in Hong 46

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Father Edward Thompson

Kong would feel the same. The London trams Mr Bristow recalls are still running daily in Hong Kong (since 1904) and the Hong Kong Tramways is an important part of Hong Kong public transportation system (see www.hktramways.com). Mr Bristow’s descriptions are not at all unfamiliar to tram commuters in Hong Kong today. I also remember that in around 1988 I stopped by a small shop in Camberwell selling some old postcards. One postcard caught my eyes as it showed a tram running in Camberwell in the 1930s. What amazed me most then was that the trams looked exactly what Hong Kong still had in 1988! Ephraem Tsui, PhD IoP, MSc, Clinical Psychology, 1990 BACK ON THE TRAM

Just looking at the ‘Riding the Tram’ article in the spring issue of In Touch. Well, in 1945-7 I was training as a physiotherapist at King’s College Hospital, up Denmark Hill. A friend and I both stayed at Durlstone Manor up Champion Hill and cycled down each day to the hospital. We remember clearly the noises of the trains up Dog Kennel Hill behind, and then down past the hospital. If we wished, we could get on and go to Victoria where

it ended, or, up into London as described. All wonderful days, many of our set now dead, sadly. We were under Gladys Summerhays, and then training as Miss Kidd and Miss Scott, wonderful, strict, but just what we needed. We were at Heron Court, Epsom, and at Horton Hospital with servicemen back from the Second World War to begin our ‘hands on’ work. Lyons was at Camberwell Green for cheap snacky food and a cinema, the Odeon, I think, and in London the theatres, where we went in ‘the Gods’ and saw many wonderful shows. I’m sure today students also have a happy time. Where were our exams, our finals, in Bedford Row? Near Russell Square? We went to Turkish baths in Jermyn Street, I seem to recall. All wonderful. No ‘health and safety’, no internet, no mobile phones, no one had them, many things still on ration, but the same for all. King George was our king then; no Elizabeth II till I was working in Chester and met my husband-to-be in the Cheshire Regiment. Mary Kingham Normanby College, Physiotherapy & Radiography, 1948 ANOTHER DIAMOND JUBILEE

It’s a pleasure to record the 60th anniversary of the ordination

to the priesthood of Fr Edward Thompson (Theology, 1952), who has spent much of his life in the Southwark diocese. He was born in 1925 and brought up in Clapham, served part of his ministry as Vicar of St Michael’s Camberwell and now lives in retirement with his wife in Dulwich. Edward read theology at King’s College London, served his curacy in Leicestershire and then worked for a time at St George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem. While there, he contracted polio. After his recovery, he became chaplain of St Boniface Theological College in Warminster. Following his happy and long-lasting marriage to Mary in 1959, he became an incumbent in Devon, where the first three of their children were born. After his time at St Michael’s Camberwell, his final appointment was as priest-incharge (later rector) of St Mary-le-Strand with St Clement Danes (the RAF Church), where he served for 27 years. Edward’s diamond jubilee, a rare event these days with ordinations often taking place later in life and after another career, was celebrated on Sunday 9 June at the church where he and Mary have been worshipping regularly for the last seven years, St Stephen’s South Dulwich. Despite his history of polio, with which he and Mary have coped valiantly, Edward was able to preside, celebrate and preach at the regular choral Eucharist with a large congregation rich with family and friends. Messages of congratulation were read out from the Bishop of Southwark and from the Archbishop of Canterbury, who declared that Edward’s ‘lifetime of devotion is a shining example of a true vocation – with the anniversary of Her Majesty’s coronation also taking place this year, you are in good company’. Revd Canon Bernhard Schunemann, Vicar of St Stephen’s, South Dulwich

Logic Puzzle border the Mississippi River? Then Tommy walks up to the blackboard and writes the name of nine states: Maine, Vermont, New York, Florida, Iowa, Texas, Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. ‘These states aren’t like the other 41,’ Tommy says. ‘Can you tell me how they’re different?’ Karen looks at the list and thinks about what characteristics those nine states share – and she can’t think of any. Some are northern states, some are southern. Some consistently vote Democratic, others always go Republican. Maine, New York, Florida and Texas have seacoasts, the others don’t. Karen is stumped. How about you? What sets those nine states apart? Alex walker

Nine states unlike the others

Karen is a recent King’s graduate who takes a teaching job at a primary school in Bedfordshire. Among her responsibilities, she’s teaching geography to a class of nine-year-olds. A few weeks into the school year, they begin a unit about the United States, which secretly pleases Karen. She loves travelling to the States and over the years she has gathered all sorts of tidbits about the US. For a homework assignment, she tells the students to memorise several facts about states in America for a trivia contest to be held the next day. Most of the students come to class the following day with the sort of questions Karen had expected: Which state has the tallest mountain? What are the six New England states? How many states

Send your solutions to: Logic Puzzle, InTouch, King’s College London, Ground Floor Office, Strand Bridge House, 138-142 Strand, London, WC2R 1HH or email InTouch@kcl.ac.uk. The three best solutions received before 15 January 2014 will each win a £10 book token

Last issue’s puzzle… Spilt pills

In the previous issue of In Touch, you learned about an alumnus named Reg, who is prescribed two medicines because of recurring chest pains. Reg’s doctor gives him two bottles, each holding 30 pills, and he tells Reg that he must take one pill from each bottle simultaneously at bedtime every day. The doctor warns that if he takes two of the same pills by mistake, he’ll become gravely ill. That evening, Reg takes his first round of medicine, leaving him with pills for the next 29 days. The next morning, Reg travels

to his cottage in the Outer Hebrides for a two-week holiday. When he arrives, he discovers that both bottles have spilled open in his suitcase: one bottle is completely empty, the other has three pills in it. All of the other pills are at the bottom of his suitcase. He then realises that the pills are all the same colour, size and shape. Using his digital scales, he discovers that the two medicines even weigh exactly the same. Reg doesn’t have mobile coverage or internet access, and there’s no landline phone. The ferry

that brought him to the island doesn’t run again for a week. Does he have to risk it and take two pills at random? Or is there a safer way for him to take the two prescriptions? Fortunately, Reg realises there is another option. He grinds up the pills, mixes the powder thoroughly and makes 29 equal piles of medicine. Our winners, drawn at random, are Frank Bisby (Mathematics, 1935), Richard Gill (Business Management, 2006) and Professor Tak-Wah Chow (Royal Dental Hospital, Dentistry, 1976). autumn 2013 IN TOUCH

Carl Sutton/getty images

The young Queen Elizabeth II as she appeared in the first televised coronation

The dancing and the partying went on until dawn

london & me

coronation ball

IN TOUCH

autumn 2013

The unexpected telephone call came in the late morning of 2 June. ‘Do you know anyone with a dinner suit who could come to the Senate House this evening for the Coronation Ball?’ I don’t remember who made the call but it probably came to me because I was Social Secretary of Halliday Hall. The background story, as I remember it, was that a group of undergraduates from France were being entertained by the University Union, and one of the hosts had dropped out. There was only a moment’s hesitation before saying, ‘I’d be delighted to be there.’ The call had come while five of us were watching the coronation on a black and white, nine-inch-screen TV set in my room at Halliday. We had subscribed to the hire of the set for the day, for a total of 10 shillings, I recall, from the neighbouring radio and TV shop. To improve the picture, we were viewing the proceedings with the curtains closed. In February 1952, we had seen and heard the Accession Proclamation made at Temple Bar, and later watched the funeral procession of George VI as it crossed London, from Westminster Hall to Paddington Station, en route

to Windsor. We had good memories of Elizabeth’s father leading us through the war and were happy to have a young Queen of our generation. The best way of following and celebrating the coronation had been the subject of much prior discussion. Some of our fellow residents decided to travel into town and join the throng along the processional route ‘to experience the atmosphere’. They got very wet. Those who stayed at Halliday to view the flickering images were more comfortably rewarded with free beer, from accumulated bar profits, and a ‘Mrs Merry’ cold buffet lunch. The ball was a hugely enjoyable and very special occasion. The dancing and the partying went on until dawn. After a sunrise breakfast, with the weather clear and fine, but my head less so, I started my walk south. From Bloomsbury, I took a tortuous route through the beflagged but empty streets, to view the decorations, the Queen’s Beasts and so on, to Waterloo where I boarded an early tube train back to Clapham Common. Those were 24 memorable hours of my life. Were they for others too? Norman Nicholson, General Science, 1954

Do you have memories of a special place or activity in the capital during your days as a student? Please let us know. Write to us at In Touch, King’s College London, Ground Floor, Strand Bridge House, 138-142 Strand, London, WC2R 1HH or email InTouch@kcl.ac.uk

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