Looking Back on Somerville at 140

Many Happy Returns:

As we come to the end of our birthday year, one thing that has made us smile is thinking back to last October when we celebrated together at a wonderful birthday party. The festivities began with speeches from our special guests, Vice-Chancellor Louise Richardson, Baroness Shirley Williams and our former principals Dr Alice Prochaska and Dame Fiona Caldicott. Later, there was a chorus of happy birthday in a standing room-only dining hall, before the festivities ended with slices of a sumptuous birthday cake, generously commissioned for the occasion by Somervillian Basma Alireza (1991, PPE). We can’t wait to be together again soon!

“Today Somerville is, I’m delighted to see, at a stage of life where it can take up issues, address them, fight for them... To those who helped build this Somerville and are still building it today, our deep thanks for all you have achieved and all you will go on to achieve.” Baroness Shirley Williams of Crosby (1948, PPE)