JOURNAL TRANSCRIPT

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Postmaster & The Merton Record 2017

Merton College Oxford OX1 4JD Telephone +44 (0)1865 276310 www.merton.ox.ac.uk

Contents

College News

Features

Records

Edited by Claire Spence-Parsons, Duncan Barker, Bethany Pedder and Philippa Logan.

Merton in Numbers................................................................................4 The College year in photos

A long road to a busy year...............................................................60 Dr Vic James (1992) reflects on her most productive year yet

The Warden & Fellows 2016-17......................................................108

Front cover image Flemish astrolabe in the Upper Library. Photograph by Claire Spence-Parsons. With thanks to Dr Petra Hofmann and Emma Sillett.

From the Warden...................................................................................6 JCR News..................................................................................................8

Mertonians in… Media.........................................................................64 Six Merton alumni reflect on their careers in the media

Additional images 4, 5, 6, 45, 48, 56-59, 106, 113, 121, 127, 130: John Cairns (www.johncairns.co.uk) 4: Des Dubber 4: Ryan Lothian 5, 34: Gwyneth Hanson 5, 42, 50, 116: Dan Paton (www.danpaton.net) 12, 16, 17, 24, 28, 118: Bertie Beor-Roberts (2014) 19: Roy (flickr CC BY-NC 2.0) 27: Catherine Hale (2011) 29: Daniel Kim 30: Anders Sandberg (flickr CC BY-NC 2.0) 31: Valerian Chen (2016) 32-33: Emma Sillett 37: Cathy Lewis (www.cathylewisphotos.com) 38: Colin Dunn (Scriptura Ltd) 40, 44: The Anglican Centre in Rome 47: Charlie Hopkinson 54, 55: Simon Cope 57, 64, 70, 132, 133: Todd Photography 65: Caroline Furneaux 72: Hak Liang (flickr CC BY-NC 2.0) 94: Jo Naylor (flickr CC BY-NC 2.0) 110, 120: John Rux Burton 138: Louise Brown You can download a digital copy of Postmaster online at http://www.merton.ox.ac.uk/alumniand-friends/publications

MCR News..............................................................................................10

Merton Cities: Singapore....................................................................72 Kenneth Tan (1986) on his home city and its best-kept secrets

Merton Sport..........................................................................................12 Squash, Croquet, Karting, Hockey, Rugby, Rowing, Tennis, Blues & Haigh Awards

Spybiotech – the Secret to Next-Generation Vaccines............... 74 Professor Simon Draper on his biomedical spinout company

Clubs & Societies................................................................................20 Biology Society, Chalcenterics, English Society, Neave Society, History Society, Mathematics Society, Poetry Society, Roger Bacon Society, Bodley Club, Christian Union Interdisciplinary Groups.................................................................... 30 Ockham Lectures, History of the Book Departments.........................................................................................34 Schools Liaison and Access, The Library, The Chapel, The Choir, The Gardens, The Archives, Development, Academic Office, Bursary Hail to New Fellows.............................................................................56

Finding Hope in an Egyptian Mud-Brick Village............................76 In a follow-up to his 2014 Postmaster article Dr David Salter (1975) reports on encouraging developments in Egypt Highfield Remembered........................................................................80 Emeritus Fellow Philip Waller pays tribute to Dr Roger Highfield

Elections, Honours & Appointments...............................................111 New Students 2016............................................................................. 113 Undergraduate Leavers 2017............................................................. 115 Undergraduate Results, Awards & Prizes 2016-17...................... 116 Graduate Leavers 2016-17.................................................................120 Graduate Results, Awards & Prizes 2016-17.................................. 121 College Staff........................................................................................ 122 Publications..........................................................................................124

Mertonians

Max at Merton.....................................................................................86 In honour of Dr Roger Highfield, a special reproduction of his 1960 feature on Beerbohm

The Merton Society.............................................................................131

Baker Remembered..............................................................................90 Professor Michael Baker, as remembered by Mark Newton (1986)

Alumni groups and events................................................................134 Merton Lawyers’ Association, Merton Golf Society, Merton in Manhattan, 2017 Oxford Town and Gown, Merton in the City, 1966 Reunion

Suez Demonstration in 1956: a Mertonian’s Tale..........................94 Richard Thomas (1956) on his eventful matriculation year Nine Centuries of Merton History.................................................. 96 David Greene (1958) examines the history of Merton Priory

MC3........................................................................................................132

News of Old Members.......................................................................140

In Memoriam

Lost, Little Known and Unbuilt Merton (14).................................. 98 Alan Bott (1953) looks at the historical footprint of Merton’s Gardens

Tributes and obituaries.....................................................................196

Farewell to Dave................................................................................ 100 Much-loved College barman, Dave Hedges, bows out

Events

Book Reviews......................................................................................102

Forthcoming Events.......................................................................... 226

Merton in Numbers on the Norrington Table

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University prizes

120 Services sung by the College Choirs

1 New lift in Patey’s Quad

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Regatta win for the women’s crew

Blues and Half Blues

19

Guest speakers

156

JCR members

New students

21

286

Countries visited by the Warden

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7 New Fellows

26 Fellows receiving Honours

39 Publications by Mertonians

300

MCR members

and Appointments

Meals served in Hall daily

16 Merton Society events

53

gifted to the Library

Outreach events in College

310

Plant species in Gardens

1,500

FROM THE WARDEN

Unusually, I have to begin with very sad news, the deaths of two of our Emeritus Fellows, Dr Roger Highfield and Professor Michael Baker. Roger Highfield was beloved by the entire Merton Family. To paraphrase Dr Steve Gunn (Fellow; 1979) – Roger was the man who gave modern Merton its sense of history. He gave his life to the College and we are indebted to him for his friendship and fellowship. While still recovering from this, in August we were saddened to learn of the death of Michael Baker after a long illness. Many of Michael’s former pupils have been in touch to share stories of his empathetic nature, his unwavering guidance and support during their studies, and his genuine interest in their lives after Merton. They will be sorely missed. Roger's Memorial Service will take place around the time you receive this edition of Postmaster, and Michael’s Memorial Service will take place on Saturday 10 February 2018 – please check the College website for full details. The College community has been as active as ever and some wonderful things have happened in this year. A personal highlight was going to Rome to see the Choir perform at the Vatican. This marked the first time an Anglican service had ever taken place in St Peter’s Basilica and Merton played a central role: it was simply amazing and a huge privilege to be a part of it. Our new Girls’ Choir has made great progress in

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its first year topped with a performance at the Passiontide Festival in April, a wonderful example of the community outreach in which Merton is firmly invested.

As ever, our students have outdone themselves academically as we were once again ranked top of the Norrington Table. The academic achievement for which Merton is renowned is evident in the many prizes awarded to our students, not least to Sandor Kruk who joint led the UK school students team to compete in the 2016 International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics, bringing back one gold, one silver, and one bronze medal and securing 6th place. Secondyear Law student Ioana Burtea represented the University at the International Rounds of the Monroe E Price Media Law Moot, being placed second internationally in the competition and amongst the top ten individual mooters – a fantastic achievement considering the competition came from over 100 universities. In sports our greatest achievement was undoubtedly the victory of our Women’s Eight during the Christ Church Regatta, marking the first time that Merton has ever secured the top place. Our squash and handball teams were Cuppers’ winners, and our cricket team were finalists. Well done to all involved. Merton is home to many exceptional individuals, not least our Fellows who have also enjoyed a spectacular year of

Closer to home we are on the cusp of change at Merton and have had exciting improvements in College – including the new music practice rooms, lights in Chapel, and conservation on the stained glass in the Upper Library. We have most recently had a wonderful addition to the perfectly coherent style of Merton’s old buildings: the new lift to Hall looks superb and is a great facility, marking a very significant addition to the College and illustrating our forward thinking. We have also had significant change in College in terms of people and have welcomed new colleagues in the Development Office, Academic Office, Conference and Events Office and elsewhere: already their impact is felt in our activities. For the next year we will be undertaking a size and shape discussion, assessing the teaching needs and student needs. The results of this will inform our strategy for the next few years and will link my Wardenship with that of Merton’s incoming Warden. Together we will build on the momentum of these past few years to ensure that Merton continues sustaining excellence.

COLLEGE NEWS | FROM THE WARDEN

achievements. Sir Andrew Wiles (1971) received the Copley Medal for his proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem. The medal was first awarded in 1731 and when you see who has won in the past – Einstein and Gauss – it truly places him amongst the greats. This is the second time in three years that a Mertonian has won the medal, an almost unheard of feat. Professor Hugh Watkins has been made a Fellow of the Royal Society for his work on the genetic basis of inherited heart diseases. Moreover, Professorial Fellow Ulrike Tillmann, already an FRS, has been elected as a member of the Leopoldina, the German National Academy of Sciences. It is truly a fantastic time for Merton – we seem to be getting a Fellow of the Royal Society elected every year at the moment, typifying our excellence as an institution. Extending this achievement to the humanities, we were delighted that our new Merton Professor of English Literature, Lorna Hutson, was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. We have also heard great news about medical firsts and breakthroughs, one of which is featured later in this edition in Dr Simon Draper’s article about his spinout company, SpyBiotech. As we welcome eight new Fellows to the fold we know that this excellence will prosper in the years to come.

Sir Martin Taylor FRS

But it is not just here at Merton that our community is strong. I had the pleasure of touring South East Asia in early 2017, meeting with Mertonians from Beijing and Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore. We spoke about utilising online communities such as WeChat and WhatsApp and the potential for these platforms to engage with College life. It was encouraging to see how incredibly enthusiastic and engaged with Merton these alumni were, in spite of the distance. A particularly magical moment came in Beijing when I met for dinner with Wu Xu, a great friend of the University who had been introduced to us by a Mertonian. I explained with great pleasure that we had topped the Norrington Table, and that this year Oxford was ranked the number one university in the world, making Merton the best college in the best university. Mr Wu found this so terrific that he made a toast and declared that two of his company’s graduate scholarships should be attached to the College. As ever, we received a typically warm and enthusiastic welcome from our MC3 contingent in New York in April. As is so often the case, at our dinner on Saturday I was surrounded by people from various walks of life and could feel the strength of support for the College.

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COLLEGE NEWS | JCR NEWS

JCR NEWS

The academic year of 2016-17 has been a successful and enjoyable one for the JCR. After our ignoble fall from grace in the Norrington Table the year before, we were pleased to take the top spot once again, and thus focused our attentions on redressing our reputation as the place where, according to the rumour-mill generated by other undergraduate colleges, ‘fun goes to die’. Certainly, as the array of activities, events and support offered to our undergraduates shows, nothing could be further from the truth. Spicing up the term card, the Entertainment Reps, Oliver Hull (2015) and Megan Husain (2015), hosted several events, from karaoke nights to a wine and cheese evening accompanied by the melodious notes of a live jazz band. One particular success was ‘Merton’s Got Talent’, organised by the JCR Charities Rep, Henry Grub (2016), in support of the four JCR charities. It witnessed several (failed) attempts to break world records, hilariously bad comedy routines, and rather few glimpses of actual talent. Another triumph this year was ‘Cathartsis’, masterminded by the JCR Arts Rep, Samuel Moriarty (2016), and the Welfare Reps, Nick Ridpath (2015) and Georgina Fooks (2015), which gave students an opportunity to channel their stress through various artistic mediums. The arts were chiefly celebrated, however, in a highly successful Arts Week, showcasing a huge and diverse range of creative talents.

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As if these were not enough, the activities of College societies have made significant contributions to the cultural and intellectual stimulation of JCR members outside their studies. The Merton College Music Society held weekly lunchtime recitals in the TS Eliot Theatre, and the Kodály Choir and Fidelio Orchestra continued to perform termly, while the creation of five new music rooms on the College precinct invested undergraduate life with a further zest for musical pursuits. Added to this, the Neave Society has run fortnightly debates addressing topical issues (indeed, the political headlines of the last year have afforded plenty for discussion), and the Bodley Club has been active in hosting prominent speakers, such as Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield, in addition to hosting the annual dinner. Amidst the many extracurricular activities on offer, welfare support continues in a strong way, with weekly welfare teas, yoga sessions, massages, games nights, and offerings of free cake daily during exam season. (It is a truth universally acknowledged, that food is the pillar on which the stability of the JCR depends.) It is lucky, then, that in balancing out the consumption of sugary foodstuffs, JCR members have also been active on the playing field and moderately successful in their sporting endeavours. There were a few outstanding achievements: the women’s crew stormed their way to first

Merton matriculands 2016. This photograph has been reproduced by kind permission of Gilman & Soame and can be ordered by visiting www.gsimagebank.co.uk/merton with the login token: merton2017

place in the Christ Church Regatta; the squash and handball teams were victorious in Cuppers; and the cricketers displayed admirable zeal in reaching the Cuppers final. On the wider College level, the voice of the JCR has made itself heard. Although our attempts at ‘strong and stable’ at the beginning of the academic year were thwarted somewhat by a rash and ultimately abortive declaration of war on Corpus Christi JCR, as well as a perpetually malfunctioning coffee machine, the views of the JCR continue to shape the direction and vision of College through committee discussions and debates in general meetings. The Academic Affairs Rep, Alex Piggot (2015), and the Gender Equality Rep, Niamh Kelly (2015), have worked with the Senior Tutor, Rachel Buxton, towards addressing gender inequality, with a particular focus on the ‘gender gap’ prevalent in Final Honours Schools. Meanwhile, the LGBTQ Rep, Mason Hancock (2015), led the way in lobbying College to fly the rainbow flag for the duration of LGBT History Month in February, a proposal that was warmly accepted. In drawing further attention to the treatment of minority groups across the University, Ioana Burtea (2015), the JCR International and Ethnic Minorities’ Rep, has been involved in coordinating the BME Network for Merton Street colleges, promoting useful discussions at both a college and University level. The JCR has therefore had much to contribute to College life.

All in all, it has been an incredibly busy year, and I express my thanks to the Fellows and staff, whose help, cooperation and support have been invaluable. In particular, the JCR bids a fond farewell to Dave Hedges, our beloved barman, whose presence has enlivened the bar and the JCR community for so many years. Lastly, immense gratitude is owed to the JCR Committee, whose tireless efforts throughout the year have ensured the smooth functioning of many aspects of undergraduate life. I now leave the JCR in the capable hands of my successor, Jules Desai (2016), whom I wish the best of luck for the year ahead. Natalie Nguyen (2015) JCR President 2016-17

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COLLEGE NEWS | MCR NEWS

MCR NEWS

Just as Merton’s claim to be the oldest college cannot be reasonably questioned, its MCR is indisputably among the most active and beloved graduate communities in Oxford. In true academic fashion, here are a few words from non-Mertonians to support this statement; a frequent guest from Balliol raved that Merton has ‘the most lively and interesting people – everyone encourages camaraderie and seems to look out for each other’. A regular visitor from St Cross lauded the ‘space, events and opportunities’ provided to bring ‘Mertonians and their friends from across Oxford together to learn from one another’. A photographer from Kellogg noted that Merton’s MCR is ‘very hospitable…and simply super friendly’. A graduate academic visitor observed, after just two events, that the MCR as a community is ‘highly engaged’, makes ‘everyone feel welcome’, and offers ‘inspiring conversation and a positive vibe’. Contrary to stereotypes, there is growing recognition of Merton’s social prowess. A regular Linacre visitor to Merton bops notes the ‘affordable beer’ and ‘good music’; one from Balliol notes the ‘contagious passion for port’; and one from St Cross posits that while Merton is ‘known for its academic rigour, the MCR can still teach the rest of Oxford a thing or two about how to have a great night’.

As quantitative support, here are a few metrics summarising a fantastic year. In 2016-17, the Merton MCR has been a devoted

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community of 310 members with 85 freshers and 48 associates. On the social front, we have (a) hosted exchanges with nearly 30% of Oxford colleges; (b) dressed up for three black tie dinners; (c) put on nine bops at which upwards of 1,500 classic Mertonian power pints were consumed; (d) consumed 13kg of steak, 5kg of sausages, and 10kg of chicken at our Trinity BBQ; and (e) invited upwards of 200 guests for dedicated MCR Guest Nights in Hall. On the welfare front, we have partaken of roughly 3,000g of smoked salmon at ten brunches and ten teas, refreshed our pores through a dedicated face-mask session, engaged intellectually during four group and book club discussions, and enjoyed three LGBTQ drinks events built on partnership with Queen’s and Hertford. On the academic front, the colloquium series designed by our returning Vice-President Louis Halewood (2016) proved a fabulous success, and is now joined by biweekly academic writing group sessions in which Masters and DPhils alike take a break from their online presence for devoted study. These dedicated morning sessions are often so productive that they motivate two-hour-plus lunch coffee breaks in the MCR. On the subject of post-lunch coffees: in the second twohour handover session at the end of Hilary Term, President Emeritus Tim Foot (2011) introduced me to our coffee machine as the centrepiece of MCR life. Purchased nearly three years

Members of the MCR 2016

ago under the 2014-15 committee, its flashing ‘Coffee ready’ button indeed provides predictable joy and fuels Mertonian accomplishment, but frequent ‘Press rinse’ messages and occasionally weak espresso sow deep frustration that bonds freshers to long-active members. Indeed, the machine provides a trusty source of conversation, if not caffeine. Beginning this past term, the graduate experience has also been forged and fuelled through accessories of the coffee experience – biscuits equally beloved by MCR members and our ever-present JCR visitors. To reflect the international diversity of the Merton MCR, we have moved away from plain digestives to American double-stuff Oreos and Irish fig rolls. Needless to say, the treasurer now must make twicedaily visits to the MCR for refilling. Lest you think MCR life is all about social and edible treats, the year has not been without challenges. We have fended off approximately five hacks of the MCR website, one of which changed the default language to Japanese but zero of which give indication of Russian sourcing. We also lost roughly 12 valued mugs from our MCR community. On this front, we explored several options (including, as they do where I’m from, building a wall and making the JCR pay for it) but opted instead for an Amazon Prime delivery. That said, if you do catch glimpse of a faux-China mug floating

around Fellows’, please do let us know. It is rumoured that several JCR members have been spotted subtly searching the A4 kitchen for a place to store a large bowl of mugs. We will continue to monitor the situation. As I write this, the MCR is greeted with new beginnings and the end of an era. Over the next week, many of my MCR colleagues will be sitting their final exams, getting their red carnations, and departing Oxford for the cold, harsh reality of the real world. In this time of transition, I would like to extend some words of gratitude. Thanks first to the College and its staff for supporting us both financially and practically, and also physically: the room we are provided with is a treasure that brings graduates to College together throughout our tenures at Oxford and binds us symbolically to Merton long after we have left. Additionally, thank you to a departing MCR President with five years of history at the College. Tim Foot is nearly as Merton as the revered Walter, and I speak on behalf of the MCR in expressing gratitude for his extensive service to our common room. Finally, thank you to all my fellow graduates for making Merton’s MCR what it is – a room, a community, a place ‘where fun comes back to life after the JCR has killed it’, and, for many, a home away from home. Lily McElwee (2016) MCR President 2016-17

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Squash

Merton squash has had another very strong year. After victory in last year’s Cuppers tournament we had a bye in the first round, followed by convincing wins against Magdalen and Exeter to reach the semi-final match against New. This match was a close one: strings two through four played their matches first, resulting in a 2-2 scoreline and leaving Alex Roberts (2014; St John's 2010) (Blues second seed) to play the deciding match against the Blues fourth seed. The match lived up to its billing and lasted a thoroughly enjoyable and gruelling one hour and 55 minutes, ending in a 3-2 scoreline in Alex’s favour, putting us through to the final against St John’s. The final was played on the St John’s courts in front of a much larger and more enthusiastic crowd than in previous years and Merton hit its way to a 3-2 victory, with two hard-fought and closely contested losses. Alex should also be recognised for organising the Cuppers tournament for the past few years in his role as Men’s Secretary for the University Squash Club. Next year he will swap this role for another as he becomes captain of the Men’s Blues squad.

Special Mentions

This past year of squash at Merton was the most enjoyable of my four years playing here, due in no small part to the participation of James Gallagher (2016), a new addition to the team. He quickly became a mainstay of Merton squash after joining the College this year as a graduate fresher. I would divide my time playing Merton squash into pre- and post-James eras, such was his enthusiasm and sportsmanlike contribution to the team this year. James Chalaby (2016), another new addition to the team, will become the College Captain next year. Finally, I should mention Andrew Turner (2013), who put in another solid performance this year, winning all his second string matches 3-0.

Croquet

The Chestnut Lawn saw plenty of action this Trinity, as Mertonians sought respite from exams in the traditional manner – whacking coloured balls through metal hoops with wooden mallets. The College’s natural competitiveness yielded croquet matches against other colleges and within Merton itself, not to mention plenty of informal games. Merton fielded a respectable 13 teams of four in Cuppers this year, up from eight in 2016 (though not a patch on Magdalen’s colossal 38). Of the Mertonian teams, seven were knocked out in the first round, three in the second, one in the third, and one in the fourth. Our most promising effort came from the team comprising Frederick Crowley (2015), Benedict Holden (2014), Stefan Marjanovich (2014) and Jonathan Wolstenholme (2016), who defeated teams from Lincoln, Christ Church, Somerville, Magdalen and Oriel. Reaching the last 16 (round six), their impressive run of success came to an end at the hands of Brasenose.

COLLEGE NEWS | SQUASH & CROQUET

Merton Sport

Not content to fight it out against members of other Oxonian institutions, Merton students relished the opportunity to face off against one another in an intra-college competition. Twenty pairs entered, though somewhat predictably it was the members of our dominant Cuppers team who reached the final. On a balmy Friday afternoon at the end of eighth week, Crowley, minus an absent Wolstenholme, defeated Holden and Marjanovich convincingly in front of a capacity crowd (as many as could fit on a bench outside the Grove building). Congratulations to all involved. Croquet at Merton continues to go from strength to strength and we all look forward to seeing what new heights might be reached in 2018. Edward Thomas (2014) Croquet Captain 2016-17

John Townhill (2013) Squash Captain 2016-17

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Merton’s Karting Team, the Merton Mavericks, welcomed many new drivers during the 2016-17 season, who showed skill while completing in multiple intercollegiate events. During Michaelmas Term we had our first indoor session at Teamsport in Reading, where some new and existing drivers had the chance to test out their skills in a time trial. These skills were then put to use when competing in Freshers’ Karting as a joint team with other colleges. We raced on a tight indoor track where overtakes were difficult but managed to take fourth place, falling just short of a podium position. Two teams competed in Cuppers in Hilary, comprising

Hockey

Merton-Mansfield Hockey Club enjoyed a relatively successful season this year, with strong performances in the league making up for slightly disappointing Cuppers campaigns. Michaelmas Term started off in the best possible way, with a dominant 8-1 victory over Keble. Further wins against Christ Church and St Catz resulted in us ending the term in second place in Division 2, and hence earning promotion to the first Division. A couple of narrow defeats unfortunately denied us the opportunity to win the league; however, the team were proud of their efforts, with our main goal of promotion never looking in doubt. For a variety of reasons, such as a lack of pitch availability and fixture clashes, we only played two matches in Hilary Term. Although we would have rather had more game time, a comfortable win over St Hilda’s ensured that we finished the league in mid-table, and hence secured our position in Division 1 for next year, so the term can be considered another success.

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both new and existing drivers, and generously sponsored by the College’s AMALGAS fund. The racing was tough in wet conditions and in more powerful karts than some drivers had previously experienced, but drivers from both the A and B teams adapted quickly, driving swiftly through the downpours to put in some excellent lap times. Nimbly avoiding puddles, our A team managed to finish in fifth place, equalling last year’s performance, and the B team finished 15th. With experience under our belt, we hope to improve on this performance in a hopefully drier race next year. Laura Clark (2013) Karting President 2016-17

Cuppers was not so successful for us, as we suffered firstround exits in both Men’s Cuppers in Michaelmas and Mixed Cuppers at the start of Trinity Term. Both these defeats came with heavily depleted squads for multiple reasons – having less than the full complement of players meant that we were always going to struggle. Thanks must go to all those who stood in at the last minute to ensure that we at least managed to remain reasonably competitive in these games. Overall, we had a very enjoyable year of hockey, and it was especially pleasing to see the improvements made by players who were picking up the sport for the first time, as well as seeing more experienced University players consistently turning out to play for us, often despite already having played two or three matches over the weekend. With only a few of our players graduating this year, hopefully next year should bring further success for the team. Jenny Dingwall (2015) and Oliver Paulin (2015) Merton-Mansfield Hockey Co-Captains 2016-17

Rugby

The 2016-17 season has seen some unprecedented results for the M&Ms. Not only reaching the semi-final of Cuppers Bowl, losing a hard-fought game at a dusty Iffley Road, but also managing to field a full team for most of this season’s games and, well, winning some games. This was despite the injury plague of dislocated shoulders, concussions, broken wrists, hangovers and a broken thumb, as well as a mysteriously reoccurring ankle injury.

To what can such success be attributed? We attempted to seek answers to this question when Eddie Jones, the England coach, had a private counsel with some members of the senior leadership group and the developing leadership group. In return for some advice on tactics and training, he expressed his belief that our core values of sustainable banter, champagne rugby and big socials underpinned the season’s victories. There is also an unwritten core value for the M&Ms: a ‘never say die’ attitude. This was repeatedly displayed when losing men mid-game, we held on till the bitter end, often coming out on top. It was gloriously exemplified on the road to the Cuppers (Bowl semi-) final in our game against Pembroke, which we won, finishing with only 13 players on the pitch, having initially being three tries down. Close to this was nearly defeating Christ Church, multiple divisions above us, in our first game of the Cuppers run, putting up a good contest over whose ‘house’ it was. This can also be attributed to Connor Brogan’s (2013) advice that besides champagne rugby, we should do the things that require no talent better than anyone else.

Another highlight of the season was an enjoyable Old Boys’ match. With great turnout from both teams it was a real showcase event, not just of our new kits, but of how strong the M&Ms bond is, and how sub-par our chat has always been. The Old Boys began to get the upper hand, being of a slightly more physical style of play. Henry Sasse (Mansfield 2016), however, took one for the team, with an injury scare that turned out to only be a mild concussion, allowing us to call the game early. An obligatory photo around the body piled high with coats allowed us to keep the scoreline tight and turn to losing at a boat race instead.

COLLEGE NEWS | KARTING, HOCKEY & RUGBY

Karting

Honourable mentions go to all the senior leadership group; those who were injured on the field of battle, and those who played on, such as Lucas Kruitwagen's (Mansfield 2016) thumb; player’s player George Prescott (2014); Eddie W-M (Mansfied 2015) for his skills as a raconteur; turnoverJosh Nav (2016), despite his three-pint limit; Dafydd Foster Davies (2016) for dedication and entertainment; and to our captains, Matt Lawson (2015) and Christoph Baridos (2014), for all the work they put in. In short, ‘It’s been great craic’ (Chris Baird). We relish the challenges and opportunities in the future and, to use the words of another M&Ms veteran, James Costello O’Reilly (Mansfield 2013): ‘Yours is the time that will not come again’. Forever Standing. Alex Villiers-Smith (Mansfield 2016) Merton-Mansfield Rugby Captain 2016-17

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Women's Rowing

This has been an exciting season for women’s rowing at Merton. We have built on the groundwork laid in previous years to achieve some perhaps unexpected successes. The highlight of the year came early on, with a win for the women’s team in Christ Church Regatta. This is the first time a Merton boat has won the event in the Boat Club’s history, and represents a tremendous amount of hard work put in by the team. Torpids saw the first W2 in several years, and they managed to bump three times. Sadly, their dreams of blades were thwarted by a collision with a tree. W1 managed to bump on the first two days, then fought hard to row over on the next two, managing to keep ahead of St Anthony’s until a klaxon cut the racing short on the final day.

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Summer Eights Dinner

In Summer Eights, W1 sadly achieved spoons, but the crew improved continually throughout the week, and the term leading up to it. As I was busy with finals, thanks must go to Sinead Duffy (2015 Vice-Captain), who led the team admirably in my absence. Thanks must also go to our coaches, Ian Smith and Ann Lohse, who have provided valuable support and guidance this year. Paris Jaggers (2016) and Venla Karppinen (2016) will be taking over as Captain and Vice-Captain respectively for the coming year. They have showed outstanding commitment, and I am confident that we are leaving the Boat Club in capable hands. I wish them, MCBC in general and Boat Club the best of luck for next year. Rebecca Hardy (2014) Women’s Rowing Captain 2016-17

It’s been another brilliantly successful year for the men’s side of the Boat Club, where both the improvements in the gym and the results on the water represent the hard work and dedication that has been displayed by the squad. Right at the start of Michaelmas, a surprisingly large intake of novices was the first indication of the strong squad that would form over the course of the year. While the male novices trained for the first few weeks in mixed boats with the women, the development squad were out on the river at Godstow getting back into the swing of things. Although the men’s novices were outshone slightly by the women’s result at Christ Church Regatta, they performed admirably and evidently were holding it back for when the real races began in Hilary and Trinity. Following on from the development squad having trained together as two matched eights throughout Michaelmas, we had remarkable depth in the squad entering Hilary with a large number of people in serious competition for seats in the M1 boat. While hampered a little by a lack of X-status coxes when faced by the traditional turbulence and resulting flag colours of the Isis throughout January and February, the squad was in a good position going into Torpids. Both crews had a hard-fought Torpids and ended up level; however, the quality of racing was very high.

With the weather beginning to improve and a strong period of land training under our belts over Easter vac, the tone was set for Summer Eights. The M1 crew took on a new coach who put together an intense training plan, which was matched by a number of notable scores on ergs in the gym. When Summer Eights came around it proved a frustrating affair with both M1 and M2 rowing over on the first day and therefore removing the possibility of blades. However, a serious degree of credit is deserved by the rowers for pulling it back in both boats to give a great set of results. While M2 faced tough competition on the middle two days, they had an incredible row on the last day achieving, without even quite realising, an almost-unheard-of triple over-bump. M1 decided that a row-over was not going to prevent them from jumping up as many spots as possible and, thanks to jumping up through a division, they bumped on every other day ending up +4 for the week. All in all, it was a very successful year for the men’s side of the Boat Club as it continued on its sharp upwards trajectory. I have little doubt that, with the talent that currently rests in the squad, we can expect another strong year next year. Bring it on!

COLLEGE NEWS | WOMEN'S ROWING & MEN'S ROWING

Men's Rowing

Thomas Lousada (2015) Men’s Rowing Captain 2016-17

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Tennis

Merton forged ahead in tennis in 2016-17, cementing our place in the top four across the University in both Cuppers and Division 1 League. After reaching a Cuppers quarter-final in 2015-16, our team was eager to move one step further this year. We began our quest promisingly, with a 7-2 defeat of St Anne’s in the first round, relying on stellar performances by the everconsistent Natalie Barber (2015; Brasenose 2011), along with Alessandro Geraldini (2010), Jennifer Dingwall (2015), Mark Van Loon (2011), and my doubles partner, Ryan Powell (2015), all of whom became integral to the College Cuppers team. Round 16 against the well-reputed Teddy Hall had us on edge at the end, with both teams at 4-all before Jenny and Mark revealed their nerves of steel to clinch the deciding set for us. James Kempton (2011) slotted back into the team, forming a highly efficient duo with our Blues-level player, Alessandro – memorable for the pair’s serve-volleying. Our quarter-final against a quality St Catherine’s team relied on the combined efforts of Alessandro, James, Jenny, Sai Gourisanker (2015), Natalie and Archie Bott (2015), enabling us to win comprehensively 6-3. Only in the semi-finals were we defeated by top seeds St John’s, but we can rest content knowing we achieved our Cuppers goal and made our mark on the competition. Thanks to our assertive wins over Wadham and University, Merton will remain in the top division for League in the 2017-18 season. Special mentions to Kwok-Ho Cheung

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(2012), Jenny, James, Ryan and finally Mark, who powered through some incredible singles matches as our No. 1 player, for joining me on the courts in their ongoing commitment to League. Lily McElwee (2016), Roshan Dodhia (2016) and James likewise ensured the team’s strength at trainings throughout the year. For possibly the first time, Merton entered a team in Women’s Cuppers. This proved to be a popular event, contested by a dozen women and attended by some appreciative spectators. Jenny and Lydia Higman (2016) battled valiantly before losing a close match to an excellent first seed Keble team, while Lily and I managed to secure a definitive win against Keble’s second pair. Congratulations must go to Jenny Dingwall who was our most valuable player of the season, playing across all three competitions to win a notable proportion of Merton’s overall set tally. All in all, we improved our positions, introduced a new competition, held more frequent training sessions, purchased new racquets, and enthused Mertonians to take to our courts for social hitting and matches. I am grateful for the support I received as Captain, which helped in every aspect of our progress, and hope that after this season more Mertonians feel that they can enjoy the College tennis courts and thrive on them in the future. Amy Steinepreis (2015) Tennis Captain 2016-17

It’s been a mammoth year for Merton sports. No team has fared badly; and many have enjoyed some wonderful successes. Highlights include the triumph of the squash team in Cuppers over St John’s (for the second year in a row) and the promotion of the cricket team to Division 1. The team also managed to make it to the final of Cuppers, but lost to St Edmund’s Hall in the penultimate over, but with their heads held high. It was a great occasion, held at Merton’s own pavilion, and many members of College came to support from the concrete portico. The season involved so many players from both Merton and Mansfield such that in a single week more than 30 people played, as team selection varied from the SCR game, the semi-final of Cuppers, and the weekly league game. The football team made good headway in Division 1 following last year’s promotion, and the netball team also dominated their pool. Scores sometimes reached double-figures in their favour as they swept aside unworthy adversaries. A further success was the sports day this year. Many members of College participated on a sunny Saturday afternoon and enjoyed not only the weather but also Pimms aplenty, and burgers and hot dogs from the barbecue. The day also featured a Merton vs Mansfield football game. It was a chance to really prove that the old jibe ‘Merton provide the pitches, Mansfield the players’ was nonsense. Sadly, the score ended at 0-3 to the away side. It was more about the taking part, really, though… It was, however, perhaps the best attended fixture of the year in terms of support, save for Summer Eights, and the crowd loved watching the Mertonians put in some hard challenges and touches of flair. Oliver Howe (2015) was the darling of the fans. The crowd’s rapturous applause and swooning could be heard from as far as St Catherine’s every time the boy got a whiff of the ball! To conclude, it has been a year of sporting success. All, it seems, have enjoyed sport as a healthy and enjoyable addition to their year of study at Merton, and long may it continue.

Blues and Half Blues

Andre Bekker (2016) Powerlifting Alexandra Bibby (2016) Women's Sailing Laura Clark (2013) Motorsport Jacob Cushnie (2016) OU Boat Club Catherine Felce (2016) Squash Alesandro Geraldini (2010) Tennis Alice Love Twelves (2014) Skiing Isabelle Naylor (2013) Tae Kwon-Do, Boxing Matthew Naylor (2015) Football, Cricket Valentin Nicod (2016) Volleyball Julie Osgood (2015) Dancesport Alexander Roberts (2014; St John's 2010) Squash John Townhill (2013) Squash Andrew Turner (2013) Squash, Trampolining, Cheerleading Mark Van Loon (2011) Croquet James Walker (2014; Jesus 2011) Triathlon Georgina Whitaker (2015) Hockey

Haigh Awards

Harry George (2014) Rebecca Hardy (2014) Ben Holden (2014) Brendan Kjellberg-Motton (2013) Lukas Koch (2013) Alice Love Twelves (2014) Verena Schenzinger (2011) Adam Stanway (2013) Ed Thomas (2014) John Townhill (2013) Andrew Turner (2013) Dan Whittle (2014) Edmund Wrigley (2014)

COLLEGE NEWS | TENNIS, SPORTS OVERVIEW, BLUES & HAIGH AWARDS

Sports Overview

With thanks to Jonathan Prag for composing results table

Henry (Harry) Clements (2015) JCR Sports Rep 2016-17

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COLLEGE NEWS | BIOLOGY SOCIETY

Clubs & Societies

Biology Society

Throughout the year the Merton Biology Society has been a source of enthusiasm, friendship and entertainment for those studying biological sciences at Merton. Students get to know each other well, enabling ideas and advice to be shared freely, be that about the best spots for bird-watching or the optimal pub crawl route. The year began with our Welcome Tea where our biology freshers were told what they could expect from their first year, and were sold ancient second-hand textbooks. A discombobulating selection of teas helped calm the nerves of newcomers. In Michaelmas, we enjoyed a social at the White Rabbit, which was also attended by Merton biology graduates undertaking further study in Oxford. Because of the College parenting system many of them are great-grandparents. They don’t like being reminded of that! The term ended with an informal talk by visiting Biodiversity Fellow Hans Ngoteya, who enlightened us about the challenges faced by conservation ecologists, particularly while working with communities in Tanzania that border national parks. Hilary Term offers the highlight of the year – the Merton Biology Society Black Tie Dinner. Our guest lecturer, Dr Penelope Watt from the University of Sheffield, talked about the personality traits of guppies, their heritability and implications for guppy evolution. This was followed by a drinks reception in the New Common Room where the main topic of conversation was the closure of the Tinbergen Building (named after Nobel Prize-winner Nikolaas Tinbergen, former Fellow of Merton), displacing the Zoology and Experimental Psychology departments. The response across the University has been superb and undergraduate teaching hardly disrupted. Hilary Term saw a Merton Biology Society trip to Port Meadow, which was particularly enjoyed by our bird-watchers, one of whom is famed for having mistaken a rugby ball for a lesser black-backed gull. It was apparently far away. We have petitioned for funding for new binoculars from College on his behalf. Visiting Biodiversity Fellow Divya Narain delivered a talk on the interface between biodiversity, sustainability and business. During the term Dr Craig Maclean, Merton’s

Henry Grub (2016) discovers a slowworm

Associate Professor of Evolutionary Biology, took paternity leave. We wish him all the best. The pressure of exam season in Trinity Term was partly relieved by Professor Tim Guilford’s (Director of Studies) annual BBQ, at which a tremendous number of sausages were consumed. Ahead, the summer for Merton biologists looks exciting. Two second years will be studying homing pigeon navigation and plant development; others will travel to Borneo to study tropical rainforest ecology, and Regensburg, to study ant foraging decisions. The first years are going to Islay to investigate the source of chough parasite infections; one will be undertaking a 12-week research project in Cambridge; another volunteering at the Natural History Museum identifying species of ammonite. It’s been a great pleasure to serve as Merton College Biology Society President this year. I am pleased to pass on the responsibility to Thomas Miller (2016), who I am sure will do a stellar job and certainly not mistake a rugby ball for a lesser black-backed gull. Victor Ajuwon (2015) Biology Society President 2016-17

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It’s been a successful year for the Chalcenterics and, more importantly, an enjoyable one. In Michaelmas, we were fortunate to hear Professor Nigel Wilson, Emeritus Fellow of Lincoln College, whose talk ‘Why prepare a fresh edition of Herodotus?’ addressed the challenges faced by a modern editor in preparing new volumes. Indeed, this particular text had not been revised since 1927. The celebrity of the speaker drew in quite the throng from across the University. Kresimir Vukovic (2011, now Lecturer in Classics at Oriel) gave a talk on the transgressive aspects of Faunus and Silvanus. This was particularly interesting for the undergraduate students, who are rarely graced with the opportunity to examine comparative mythology. Stimulating chit-chat again followed in the Mure Room. It is always pleasing to have the chance to discuss classical scholarship in a relaxed environment with more experienced and learned members of the field - surely one of the great successes of our termly talks. Early in the New Year, the annual Chalcenterics dinner was held in the Savile Room. Revellers dressed in all their evening finery sipped bubbly in the New Common Room before sauntering down to enjoy a positively delectable meal, replete with scholarly discussion that ascended to badinage and finally department gossip as glasses were drained and charged. In Trinity the Chalcenterics had a talk from Tristan Franklinos (2011) on Propertius, a fine and informative address. The annual summer garden party was a happy affair, but it did mark the end of the four-year careers of the finalists, a cheerful and intelligent bunch who’ll be sorely missed, and tutor Guy Westwood. Guy has been central to the study of Classics for so many Mertonian undergraduates in recent years. Thank you, Guy, for all your hard work. Henry (Harry) Clements (2015) Chalcenterics President 2016-17

English Society

Neave Society

Throughout Michaelmas and Hilary Terms myself and Jade Cormack (2015, Co-Treasurer) held drop-in sessions for first-year English students and offered academic and welfare support. In Trinity Term we hosted multiple advice sessions on Prelims coursework and on exam technique. The subject tea went off without a hitch, and was well attended by all our undergraduates. Our brunches and picnics, although low budget, were well enjoyed by all attendees (as was our literature-themed playlist). Following those, our annual dinner was well attended by both undergraduates and graduates, and we truly hope to create a better relationship between them over the coming year. In previous years graduate attendance has been incredibly low or nonexistent at Merton EngSoc events, and so to have a whole three graduates turn up was an exciting development.

The past year of tumultuous national and global events has provided an abundance of motions for us to debate, ranging from the political (‘This House believes grammar schools best promote social mobility’) to the moral (‘This House believes hunting animals for sport is wrong’), and from issues close to home (‘This House would allow a second Scottish referendum’) to those abroad (‘This House believes Hillary Clinton is the reason Donald Trump won the US Presidential election’).

This year the Neave Society has continued to be a bastion of free speech and stimulating debate in the College. Every fortnight, supported by drinks and snacks, Mertonians gathered in the informal setting of the JCR to discuss the issues of the moment. As ever, debate was robust and all views were challenged, which allowed a thorough conversation to ensue about the issue at hand. The previous year’s committee did a fantastic job at welcoming freshers to the fortnightly debates in Michaelmas, before handing over the reins at the end of the term.

It’s been a great year for the College’s English Society. We have worked closely with the Merton College Poetry Society (MCPS) to encourage our members to attend events. The highlight of my year has to be Trinity Term in which, in conjunction with the Oxford Poetry Society and its Twentieth Century Reading Group, Merton EngSoc was proud to host Kay Redfield Jamison who spoke on her biography of Robert Lowell. Yashwina Canter (2014), former EngSoc president, deserves the utmost praise for organising this during her Finals and after handing over the role of presidency.

A revolt against the mainstream defined 2016 and we rounded off the year with the arguably hyperbolic motion ‘This House believes that 2016 marks the beginning of the end’, discussing Brexit, Trump and other political events in Europe and further afield. In contrast, 2017 has so far been marked by the mainstream trying to navigate this new uncertain global landscape and featured the snap general election in June – our General Election Special debate gave a forum for Mertonians to discuss the decision the country faced.

We have multiple plans for next term, with speaker events, film nights (our Trinity Film Night was cancelled due to it being on the same night as the finalists’ final exam), and cohosted events alongside the MCPS. We hope Merton EngSoc can continue to be the developing, welcoming and active community it has proven to be over the past few years.

COLLEGE NEWS | CHALCENTERICS, ENGLISH SOCIETY & NEAVE SOCIETY

Chalcenterics

Along with Vice-President Andrew Dixon (2016) and Treasurer Olivia Shiels (2016), it has been a pleasure to lead the Neave Society this year, and we look forward to welcoming the next generation of Mertonian debaters as the freshers arrive in October.

Bethan Hughes (2015) English Society President 2016-17

Francesco Dernie (2016) Neave Society President 2016-17 Officers of the Neave Society 2016-17. Left to right: Andrew Dixon (Vice-President), Francesco Dernie (President), Olivia Shiels (Treasurer)

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The past year has been very busy for the Merton College History Society. Michaelmas Term began with a tea in Freshers’ Week to welcome the new history students and give them an opportunity to meet historians in older years. We also held a Subject Formal in Hall which was a well-attended and enjoyable dinner. In November we held our Speaker Event for the term when Dr Erica Charters, Associate Professor of the History of Medicine, discussed ‘Humanitarianism and war in the 18th century’, which was thought-provoking for the students, both from Merton and other colleges, as well as other guests who attended the event. In Hilary we had our annual Subject Dinner, which was attended by more than 30 students and tutors. The dinner was an enjoyable evening with highlights including Professor Steven Gunn (Fellow; 1979) sharing various stories of accidental deaths, and Dr Matthew Grimley (Fellow; 1989) drawing on similarities between a tutor writing a speech and a student writing an essay. Our speaker event for the term was by Dr Andrea Purdeková, Departmental Lecturer at the University of Oxford in African Politics. Dr Purdeková explored the topic of commemoration in post-war Burundi, by looking at three sites, and how memory is erased and misplaced through the memorialisation of those sites.

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History Society Annual Dinner

Trinity Term started with our speaker event, for which we were fortunate to have Professor Lyndall Roper, Regius Professor of History at Oxford, Fellow of Oriel and Honorary Fellow of Merton. Professor Roper discussed Martin Luther, marking 500 years since the Reformation, and those present shared their thoughts on the commemoration of the Reformation in this special anniversary year. We also had a garden party on Sundial Lawn, which was a chance for historians from different year groups to catch up with each other in the sunshine, particularly for finalists who had finished their exams. The Secretary Bethany Brand (2015), the Treasurer Baruch Gilinsky (2015) and I have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and it has been an honour to run the Merton College History Society for 2016-17. We are excited to see what the committee for 2017-18 achieve and proudly introduce the new President, Miranda Gleaves (2016), the new Secretary, Elena Grant (2016) and the new Treasurer, Jake Woods (2016). Sinéad Duffy (2015) History Society President 2016-17

Mathematical Society As the recently elected President of the Merton College Mathematical Society, I am honoured to be taking over from our outgoing President Emily Flicos (2014), who has done a wonderful job of leading the society over the past year.

The biggest event of the year for the Mathematical Society is the annual society dinner held at the end of Hilary Term – it is always a great success and this year was no exception. Following the champagne reception and delicious dinner, Professor Yang-Hui He delivered an inspiring speech about ‘Regina Mathematica’ in which he called us all mathematical poets contributing to the great edifice of mathematics. Then came my memorable election in which my sole opponent was a bread roll (introduced in the interests of democracy, as I was running unopposed). Fortunately for my dignity, the roll received only one vote. The lovely weather at the start of Trinity Term saw a high turnout at the Mathematical Society Garden Party, an annual opportunity for undergraduate and postgraduate mathematicians to come together on Sundial Lawn and discuss mathematics (among other things) over tea and cake. This year, the festivities put our knowledge of knot theory to the test – a large group of us linked hands to form a human knot and attempted to unravel it, resulting in much hilarity!

The significance that mathematics has at Merton is currently hugely underrepresented by its page on the College website and this summer we are hoping to rectify this. Throughout the year, under the guidance of Professor Radek Erban, undergraduate mathematicians at Merton have been working on a project to discover more about the history of mathematics at Merton and the fascinating contributions Mertonian mathematicians have made to our subject. Now much of that research is complete, and over the long vacation we will be uploading our articles along with various other materials which we hope will help to inspire future mathematicians to apply to study maths at Merton.

COLLEGE NEWS | HISTORY SOCIETY & MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

History Society

My congratulations to those who are graduating this year – we will be sorry to see them go – but I look forward to welcoming the incoming mathematicians to Merton in October and am confident that they will be a fantastic addition to the wonderful mathematical community we have here. I wish them all the best as they begin their journey and am excited to see where this year will take us! Francesca Lovell-Read (2015) Mathematical Society President 2017-18

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2016 marked the birth of the Merton College Poetry Society! Molly Clarke (2014) and Alex Peplow (2013) acted as CoPresidents, with a supporting committee of Roisin McCallion (2014) and myself. The society hosted bi-weekly events throughout Michaelmas and Hilary, cutting down in Trinity as students buckled down for exams. Events were open to the general University community, with the majority of attendees being Mertonians. The most enjoyed events were definitely themed. A spooky Halloween walk was followed the next term by a ‘Queer Poetry’ night in celebration of LGBTQ+ History Month. At Christmas we held a poetry Secret Santa, and Molly organised a Secret Valentine in which members of the society were pidged anonymous love poems. We also held workshops and a picnic. A highlight of my year as a member of the committee was holding an eisteddfod during Arts Week, an event that the new Arts Representative Sammy Moriarty (2016) and I intend to make an annual occurrence. The eisteddfod is a Welsh celebration, culminating in the chairing or crowning (depending on the style of poetry) of a bard. The Merton Eisteddfod welcomed entrants from all over the University, and was hosted and judged by three druids (myself, Sammy

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and Niamh Simpson (LMH 2015) with the support of the MCPS in room booking and advertising. The bards crowned were Alex Peplow himself, and Will Shaw (Corpus Christi 2014). The most exciting part of the eisteddfod was seeing students from different colleges gathered to celebrate language. 2017 marked the first edition of The Pierian Rose, a journal of arts co-created and edited by Sammy Moriarty and Patrick Naylor (2016). Although it has no official affiliation with the MCPS, many members – including the committee – contributed towards it. Both Sammy and Patrick should be incredibly proud of themselves and their contribution towards arts at Merton, and the attendance at the Rose’s launch party demonstrates that this is the consensus. Next year we hope to continue with our events, and provide a platform for all Mertonians to celebrate and enjoy poetry – both in composing it and reading it. Perhaps I am biased, but I want to share my love of poetry, and the strength poetry gives me, with the rest of our beloved community. After all, as Leonard Cohen said: ‘Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.’ Bethan Hughes (2015) Poetry Society Committee Member 2016-17

Roger Bacon Society The Roger Bacon Society, under the tyrannical reign of President Hornigold (2013), celebrated another year of sustaining physics excellence. As time continues, habits harden into traditions, which solidify into iron-clad laws. For this reason, all the physics freshers in Michaelmas were dragged along to Physics Tea in the JCR; celebrated with a variety of snacks, goodies, and some almost-cakes baked by the President himself. As is our custom, the Baconians descended to the Turf Tavern for further discussion and a rendezvous with any surviving postgraduates. The physics fun went on long into the evening. Many escape attempts were foiled by the swift and decisive action of physicists in the older years.

After the welcomes were over, the society lay dormant until its flagship event: Physics Dinner. This affair, for the second time, invited recent alumni and it was lovely to be reunited with old friends. Undergraduates and tutors alike shared in the wine, mezze, chicken, and a sumptuous cheese course, gradually becoming intoxicated with the intellectual conversation on offer (and port). The low-light was undoubtedly the speech, where the President staggered around delivering physics-based chat-up lines to frightened and concerned professors, and rambling on about Genghis Khan. Fortunately, he was eventually forced to deliver the election results. Despite massive Russian interference on

Roger Bacon Society's Annual Dinner

behalf of Robert Stemmons (2014), and a spirited effort by seasoned campaigner Toby Adkins (2014), David Hosking (2014) was duly elected President: he will surely take the RBS from strength to strength in the coming years.

COLLEGE NEWS | POETRY SOCIETY & ROGER BACON SOCIETY

Poetry Society

The final event in our calendar was the garden party in Trinity Term. It was an astonishing feat of organisational and planning success, taking place on the only overcast day in a glorious three-week heatwave. Despite the best efforts of RBS management, some undergraduates did, in fact, manage to attend, and enjoyed the opportunity to sample a delicious pavlova and mitigate the stress of exams with the aid of Pimms and sangria. On a personal note: being the President of the Roger Bacon Society has been one of the highlights of my time at Merton and giving a presidential speech on the day of the US President’s inauguration was a miracle of timing. I hope that the undergraduate physicists of Merton College recover quickly from my reign of terror, and find in their hearts and minds the fortitude to struggle with the secrets of the universe until the end of their days. Thomas Hornigold (2013) Roger Bacon Society President 2016-17

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Over the past year, the Bodley Club has endeavoured to uphold its constitutional mandate of hosting a range of ‘fabulously interesting’ speakers. Setting the standard for the year, we were pleased to welcome the Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, the Sikyong, Dr Lobsang Sangay. The Sikyong delivered a fascinating talk on the position of Tibet within the international community, enhanced by the rich natural resources it possesses. In Michaelmas, we were also delighted to host Dr Daniel Gerrard of Warwick University (formerly St Peter’s, Oxford and previously tutor to Merton’s medievalists) who spoke on the English city in the High Middle Ages (c.900–1200). The new year brought a change of leadership, with Naomi Gardom (2014) stepping down as President to concentrate on finals. Hilary Term saw two new members elected to the committee: Alice Walker (2015), a second-year lawyer, and Victor Ajuwon (2015), a second-year biologist. Our first event of the term was the Bodley Club Annual Dinner, which was attended by members of all three common rooms, as well as the Senior Proctor and his family, and guests from outside the College and the University. Our distinguished speaker was none other than our very own Dr Guy Westwood, Leventis

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The Bodley Club Annual Dinner

Research Fellow in Ancient Greek, who, given that his principal interest lies in ancient oratory, delivered an appropriately hilarious speech on ‘After-dinner speeches in Ancient Greece’. In conjunction with the Oxford Bar Society, we hosted Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield who spoke to the Bodley Club on ‘Brexit: Where are we now?’ This transpired to be a fantastic event, attended by many who were eager to hear the foremost British constitutional historian discuss the defining moment in contemporary politics. Our final event was a talk given by Dr Mark Whittow, the Senior Proctor and Lecturer in Byzantine Studies, on the subject of ‘Eunuchs’. This marked a tasteful end to yet another year of fabulously interesting talks and I am indebted to the committee, particularly to Frederick Money (2013), whose donation of a new minute book for Club activities was gratefully received; to Joseph Hutchinson (2011), to whom we say a fond farewell after his many years of service as Club Secretary; and to Fra' John Eidinow (Fellow; 1986) - the Senior Member - as well as to all who attended our events this year. Natalie Nguyen (2015) Bodley Club President 2016-17

Christian Union

The Christian Union at Merton has had another busy year, running a range of events, growing in community and continuing to work closely with the Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union (OICCU). Among the main things happening this year have been the multiple evening text-a-toastie events, where we offer toasties and answers to questions about Christianity to our fellow students at Merton. These provide an interesting and challenging opportunity for us to engage with a wide range of questions (and to test our toastie-making skills) and continue to be quite popular. We have had a wide range of questions including ‘Is Satan a necessarily just force since he punished sinners?’, ‘Do modern-day miracles exist?’, ‘Why do you believe in God?’, and ‘Who’s your favourite disciple?’. The Christian Union exists to give every student an opportunity to hear and respond to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One of the highlights of our year is the OICCU Main Event, and this year we were privileged to hear from Michael Ramsden and Stephen Foster, speaking on the theme of ‘Home’. It was wonderful to be able to gather together in Oxford Town Hall, share in community over food or coffee, and explore why some of us have found our home in the

Lawrie and Sam

COLLEGE NEWS | BODLEY CLUB & CHRISTIAN UNION

Bodley Club

church, and what that means. Overall, the week was joyful, engaging and at times very moving, and quite a number of Mertonians attended or were involved. Other events throughout the year have included a talk on suffering from our very own Josh Parikh (2014), an evening discussion on post-truth with wine and cheese, and drinks before the annual carol service. Our events have often featured copious quantities of cake from Jonathan Wolstenholme (2016), of Merton Bake Off fame, and we hope that this tradition will continue. We were encouraged to welcome a number of new members at the beginning of the year, including four who joined us for the very first Freshaway, OICCU’s getaway for incoming freshers in September. Jonathan and Hope Middleton (2016) were among those joining us and have now taken over as CU reps for the next year. In Merton, we meet weekly for prayer and for Bible study, and are always happy to welcome new people. It has been a good year with the CU, and we look forward to seeing what God will do over the next year. Samuel Banks (2014) Merton Christian Union

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COLLEGE NEWS | OCKHAM LECTURES

Interdisciplinary Groups Ockham Lectures

The Ockham Lectures have become a Merton College institution, and, although firmly grounded in physics, it seems that they are beginning to attract a cult following. As well as the fascinating talks, the opportunity to drink and make merry with the speakers and with fellow tutors at the notorious after-parties is popular with undergraduates and Fellows alike. This year, we hosted three speakers from different walks of life and different fields of physics academia. First, returning alumna Juliet Davenport OBE (1986), with her talk entitled ‘From atmospheric physics to the boardroom’. After graduating from Merton College with a physics degree, she went on to found Good Energy, which is now one of the UK’s leading suppliers of entirely renewable energy. She gave us a fascinating perspective on the green revolution that is already underway, and the challenges of adapting the grid to renewable sources of energy. The unique perspective that her physics degree gave her has proved invaluable as a CEO; innovation and environmentalism are at the heart of her mission, and for the sake of the planet, we all hope that she continues to succeed. In Hilary Term, Ockham paid host to visiting Professor Charles Clark, with his talk entitled ‘Twisting the neutron wavefunction’. He gave us a whistle-stop tour of the history of wavefunction representations of particles in quantum mechanics before demonstrating how, in recent experiments,

scientists at the Physical Measurement Laboratory in the USA have been able to manipulate the de Broglie wavelengths of neutrons. It was fascinating to see how historical theory and historical and modern experiments have tied together to confirm the fundamentally wave-like behaviour of particles that we can observe in quantum mechanics. In Trinity Term, we paid host to Professor David Charlton, FRS. He was introduced as the spokesman for the ATLAS collaboration by one of Merton’s finest, Professor Alan Barr, for a talk entitled ‘Beyond the Higgs discovery: The coming of age of ATLAS and the CERN LHC’. Now that the Higgs boson has been discovered and the Nobel prizes have been doled out, what’s next for CERN? The talk reviewed the current status of the LHC as it reaches its full luminosity; the unanswered questions about the Higgs that it may yet shed light on, including probing its decay modes, and hunting for supersymmetry. Could there be a Future Circular Collider? The Ockham Lectures continue to move from strength to strength and provide an opportunity for all Mertonians to be exposed to the frontiers of physics research, and scientific endeavour more widely. Check the website (www.merton. ox.ac.uk/ockham-lectures) for details of the next speakers. Thomas Hornigold (2013) Ockham Lectures

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Most History of the Book Group meetings are one-off events, but on 6 May 2017 a successful follow-up to last year’s Teaching the Codex colloquium took place – once again at Merton. ‘Teaching the Codex II: Further thoughts on the pedagogy of palaeography and codicology’ was

History of the Book

History of the Book Group events this year spanned the globe and the centuries from 19th-century New Zealand to 15thcentury China and 16th-century Ottoman Constantinople. One does not usually associate large New Zealand sheep stations with books and reading, yet in 1884 the Beetham family established a library at the Brancepeth Station (Wairarapa, North Island). The library is now preserved intact at the Victoria University in Wellington. In her November 2017 talk at Merton, Professor Lydia Wevers, Director of the Stout Research Centre at the Victoria University, demonstrated how much one could learn from the library’s records and from a detailed study of the marginal notes and markings left by readers in the Brancepeth books. Her careful and sympathetic research brought to life the various members of the Brancepeth community, from shearers and clerks, to Mrs Beetham and her daughters. Merton student Guus Eelink

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organised by Mertonians Dr Mary Boyle (2011) and Dr Tristan Franklinos (2011), joined by current Mertonian Alexander Peplow (2013) and Jessica Rahardjo (Faculty of Oriental Studies, Oxford). It is a great accomplishment that a new generation of Merton students are now involved in sharing their enthusiasm, experiences of teaching, research and outreach relating to medieval manuscripts. The Teaching the Codex website (www.teachingthecodex.wordpress. com/) contains links to a Storify collection of tweets from the colloquium, as well as to the continuing blog about teaching with manuscripts. Both the History of the Book Group and the Merton Lancelyn Green Foundation Fund helped make this successful colloquium possible. Dr Julia Walworth Fellow Librarian

COLLEGE NEWS | HISTORY OF THE BOOK

Dr Rahel Fronda (Bodleian Library) spoke about ‘Littleknown Hebraica treasures at Merton College’ on 12 June 2017. Dr Fronda discussed some of the particularly significant Hebrew books at Merton, explaining how Jewish printers expelled from Spain in 1492 established presses in the Ottoman empire in the early 16th century. Copies of some of these books were acquired by Merton Fellow Robert Huntingdon while he was based in Aleppo, and were donated by him to the College in the late 17th century. After the talk, attendees had the opportunity to view selected items (see also the Library Report on page 36).

Sefer Kad ha-ḳemaḥ (Receptical of the Flour. Discourses on religion, morality and ritual practices by Baḥya ben Asher ben Hlava). Printed in Venice, 1545. (MER 76.F.8(1))

(2015) has written a more detailed account of the talk for the College website (www.merton.ox.ac.uk/node/2182). Early in the academic year, students asked whether the group could learn about some non-Western book traditions. In Hilary Term Merton JRF Yegor Grebnev helped organise a group visit to the Weston Library to learn about the early printed Chinese books now kept there. Dr David Helliwell, Curator of Chinese Collections at the Bodleian Library, gave a brief description of how Chinese books were printed and bound and explained how so many came to be acquired by the Bodleian. Experiencing books involves touching and holding as well as reading and looking, and it was a memorable moment when Dr Helliwell allowed the group carefully to examine a number from this collection, an unusual privilege given that some were as much as 500 years old.

Opening to Sefer Tehilim (Psalms and commentary by David Kimhi and others). Printed in Naples in 1487. (MER 119.F.16(1)).

Great Rabbinic Bible of 1524, opening to Exodus. Printed in Venice, 1524-25. (MER 76.E.7)

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Schools Liaison and Access

I am very pleased to report that outreach work has gone from strength to strength this year with increasing numbers of events held in College and more student ambassadors getting involved than ever before. We continue to work closely with schools, parents and individuals in our link regions of Wiltshire, Dorset and the Borough of Merton, as well as with those in other parts of the UK. Our work spans the range from direct recruitment to Oxford and Merton, to widening access to Oxford and widening participation in higher education in general. This year we have held 53 different outreach events in College including day-long visits, shorter tours and intercollegiate events, as well as supporting department- and student-led outreach work. After the success of last year’s experiment we have offered tours to students and their families each day of the February and May half-term holidays. This attracts attendees from a wide variety of schools and is a good opportunity to open our doors to young people from the city of Oxford. We are always keen to work collaboratively and have actively supported a range of different organisations involved in outreach work. We provided an insight into College life for students attending events in the Faculties of Law and Classics and the Departments of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science. We continued our support for the student-led Target Schools programme by providing lunch in Hall, a tour of College and a Q&A session with our student ambassadors for Year 12 state-school students shadowing an undergraduate for the day. We welcomed school groups with teachers who are Merton alumni and provided a venue for a graduation ceremony for the organisation CoachBright, which had been working with students in the Birmingham area on a sustained contact programme. From further afield we welcomed students from the Danish Academy of Gifted and Talented Youth and we continued our strong support of the intercollegiate Pathways programme, hosting large groups of 60-90 students for three days, and providing lunch and workshops from smaller groups of 20 on five days.

Student ambassadors 2016-17

As well as our work in Oxford, I took part in 29 outbound events in a wide range of schools in our link regions delivering talks and workshops to young people, their teachers and families. We have seen an increase in requests for support for the admissions process and Michaelmas Term in particular was very busy with interview workshops. I represented Oxford University at large UCAS conventions in London, Bath and smaller HE fairs at schools, colleges and a mosque. We are trying to make our outreach work ever more impactful by taking part in bigger, multi-school events, but we are also mindful of the need to be seen to take part in opportunities to promote higher education alongside other universities, particularly in areas with low progression to higher education. In Dorset we continued our strong collaboration with Downing College, Cambridge holding our annual Oxford and Cambridge Information Day with a much larger audience than last year.

COLLEGE NEWS | SCHOOLS LIAISON AND ACCESS

Departments

One of the most rewarding aspects of my time at Merton has been working with the very able team of student ambassadors recruited from the undergraduate student body. This year we have had 28 ambassadors, headed up by the JCR Access Rep Bethan Hughes (2015), who lead tours, talk about their experience studying at Merton, facilitate activities and answer questions about student life. They continue to garner praise from students, teachers and parents whenever they meet them. I am very grateful to all the College staff, students and Fellows who contribute their time and efforts to making Merton’s outreach work something to be proud of. I don’t doubt that it will go on improving under my successor Andrew Miller who will take over as the new SLAO this summer. Hazel Wigginton Schools Liaison and Access Officer

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At the opening of the exhibition in June, the College’s contribution received a special mention.

The Library

In the spring of 1673 the Fellows of Merton were excited to receive a gift of 32 books and manuscripts sent by the former College Librarian Robert Huntington from Aleppo, where he was serving as chaplain to the Levant Company. Most of the texts were in Hebrew and included rare editions of commentaries on biblical books, religious law, ethics, and philosophy printed in eastern cities like Istanbul and Salonika. The nature of this collection marked a departure from the multi-lingual bibles, Hebrew grammars, and dictionaries found in almost every good academic library at the time. Merton’s Hebrew books are still considered unusually diverse, and this year’s project to create detailed descriptions of them in the online catalogue (OLIS) ensures that scholars can locate them easily. We are grateful to Dr Rahel Fronda, a specialist Hebrew bibliographer from the Bodleian Library, for cataloguing the collection and sharing her knowledge of the books. A selection of Merton’s Hebrew books were the focus of the Upper Library exhibition this summer and can be seen on the College website (www.merton.ox.ac.uk/ hebrew-books). Another achievement this year was the completion of the cataloguing of the Neil Ritchie Sitwell Collection by Cathy Lewis, the Resource Description Project Librarian. Cathy writes: Special collections cataloguing brings many surprises. They

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Dr Pauline Souleau (2010) with a student at the Cheney Academy event

certainly abounded in the more than 2,000 books and 595 journal articles by Edith, Osbert, and Sacheverell Sitwell in the Neil Ritchie Sitwell Collection. In total I created or edited 2,686 OLIS records, 1,087 of which were new to Oxford. During this project I learnt how to create catalogue records for individual journal articles and requested that new Library of Congress subject headings be created. I also got an impression of how the arts fared during the Second World War and post-war periods. Some of the books have as many as 100 plates (illustrations), which I checked and recorded in the bibliographic record. On 31 March 2017 I finished the project and wished the three siblings had written even more. On a cold February afternoon young Mertonian academics, along with the Librarian and the Assistant Librarian, welcomed a small group of pupils and teachers from Oxford’s Cheney Academy. A visit to the Upper Library and a talk about the making of medieval books were followed by a chance to examine several medieval manuscripts. Each pupil was paired with one of the young scholars to examine and discuss manuscripts including a bestiary, a Latin translation of the Koran, and a richly decorated copy of the Statutes of England. It was an enjoyable and unforgettable experience for everyone. We hope to do more with local schools in the future.

Neil Ritchie Sitwell Collection. Tropical birds from plates by John Gould. With introduction and notes by Sacheverell Sitwell. Ritchie/VI/34

Lending items to exhibitions is another way in which the College shares its treasures with a wider public. This year one volume returned temporarily to its earlier home in Germany, as Assistant Librarian, Petra Hofmann explains: During the summer, one of Merton’s early printed books was displayed at the Museum am Dom in Würzburg (Germany) as part of an exhibition illustrating the life and work of the PrinceBishop Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn (1545-1617). Echter was a prominent figure of the Counter-Reformation, notorious for his role in Germany’s early modern witch-hunts and persecutions of Protestants and Jews. He is more positively remembered for re-founding the University of Würzburg (1582), numerous building projects, and administrative improvements. His renowned court library was looted by Swedish troops during the Thirty Years’ War (1618-48). Through Merton’s arguably most controversial Warden, Thomas Clayton (1661-93), the College Library came to possess three of Julius Echter’s court library books. The volume exhibited in Würzburg (a 1575 edition of Jacques de Vitry’s sermons; 81.HH.13) is a fine example of Echter’s personalised book bindings: wooden boards in blind-

The fun of unpacking a sizeable donation was experienced by library staff this year when the Lancelyn Green family presented a collection of books by Roger Lancelyn Green (1918-87). Roger had a long connection with Merton, having taken his first degree in 1940, returning in 1944 for a BLitt in English, and serving as Deputy College Librarian from 1945 to 1950. He was taught by both C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, and he dedicated much of his literary career to bringing medieval literature, myths, and legends of many cultures to 20thcentury readers both young and old. The multiple editions and translations into languages as diverse as Hungarian and Japanese demonstrate the extent of Lancelyn Green’s popularity and influence.

COLLEGE NEWS | THE LIBRARY

tooled alum-tawed pigskin, a red and black hand-coloured armorial centre stamp on the upper board, and the fore-edge of the text block gilded and marked with the title, Echter’s ownership inscription, and the date 1578.

This year the Library welcomed Emma Sillett in the new role of Senior Library Assistant, and Lucy Norman as Library Assistant. The full complement of staff has already made it possible to improve our service to the College, and to implement some of this year’s initiatives such as the outreach session and the online version of the exhibition of Hebrew books. I would like to conclude with a personal acknowledgment to Roger Highfield. As Fellow Librarian for 34 years, he built up special collections and instilled a love of the library in generations of Mertonians. After retirement he shared his extraordinary knowledge generously in informal ‘tutorials’ over morning coffee in the Upper Bursary. Explanatory notes written in his distinctive handwriting are kept with many individual library items and will help his successors. Roger would provide timely hints, but he never gave you the feeling that he was breathing down your neck. Instead, he was at your side in doing the best for the Library, as he did for his tutorial pupils and the College generally. Dr Julia Walworth Fellow Librarian

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Allen, PRH (1967), By Water 4: Journeys of Hardship and Hope (London, 2016)

Gunn, SJ (1979, Fellow), Henry VII’s New Men and the Making of Tudor England (Oxford, 2016)

____ By Water 5: Full Circle (London, 2016)

Haynes, IP (1990), Blood of the Provinces: The Roman auxilia and the Making of Provincial Society from Augustus to the Severans (Oxford, 2016)

____ Brussels Sprout (London, 2016) ____ Our Friends in the South (London, 2016) ____ Out of Sight 1: A Suspicious Death (London, 2017) ____ Out of Sight 2: Invisible People (London, 2017) Galen 45.B.2 donor detail

Donations to the Library and Archives 2016-17

It is a pleasure to record the following particularly noteworthy donations to library and archive collections: • Two autograph letters from Sandy Irvine (1921) to Noel Odell concerning preparations for the Merton Spitsbergen expedition of 1923 (Julie Summers) • Collection of over 100 publications of Roger Lancelyn Green (1937) (Scirard Lancelyn Green, 1968; and the Lancelyn Green family). See photo on page 102 • 1951 Head of the River trophy blade (David Tristram, 1947) • 1951 Head of the River and 1952 Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race trophy blades (family of Nigel Sanders, 1948) • A collection of the publications of Dame Helen Gardner (190886), the first woman Merton Professor of English Language

• • • •

and Literature in 1966 (from the collection of Anne Becher; thanks also to Rosalind Tolson and Robert Peberdy, 1975) Collection of printed ephemera relating to political movements at the University in the early 1970s (Martin Bould, 1971) Pottery vase originally given to Dr Roger Highfield by the Crown Prince of Japan (bequeathed by Dr Roger Highfield (Emeritus Fellow; 1948)) Silk-screen print of rubbing of brass of Warden Henry Sever (William B. Street, Cornell University) Paperwork and photographs for Merton College: A Longer History of the Buildings and Furnishings (2015) (Alan Bott, 1953)

Grateful thanks for gifts and support are extended to:

Alan Barrett; William Barry (1992); William Beharrell (2006); Julian Blackwell (Honorary Fellow); Canon Rupert Bursell QC; Yashwina Canter (2014); Daniel Carrell (1963); Robert Dingley (1974); Andrew Davies (1994); Paul Everson (1965); Timothy Foot (2011); Steven Gunn (1979, Fellow); Michael Hind (1960); Nancy Kelly; Leonard Cheshire Disability; Chen Li (2009); Library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford; Denis MacShane (1966); Anna Marmodoro (Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford); Richard A McCabe (Fellow); Nigel Middlemiss (1967); Christopher Miller (1980); Mitsubishi Corporation; Susan Naquin (VRF 2006); L Norman (Library Assistant); Oxford Society of Bibliophiles; Oxford University Press; Robyn Phillips (2012); John and Rose Randle; Carter Revard (1952); Paul Saenger; Alexander Schekochihin (Fellow); Dana Scott (Honorary Fellow); Henry Shue (Emeritus Fellow; 1961); Eugene Skolnikof (1950); Tyler Smith (1990); The Victorian Society; Julia Walworth (Fellow); Mrs Philip Watson (Fellow & Tutor in Mathematics 195093, d. 2009); Elia Weinbach (1967); Eric Whatley (1963); Jake Woods (2016); Diocese of Würzburg

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Isherwood, JDG (1956), Dr Joseph Stevens of St Mary Bourne: Public and Private Health in North-West Hampshire c.1835-1900 (Hampshire, 2015)

____ Out of Sight 3: An Invisible Conspiracy (London, 2017)

Jenkinson, MT (2003) (ed.), Hour-Long Shakespeare: Henry IV, Part I, Henry V and Richard III (Woodbridge, 2015)

Bellis, J (Fellow), and L Slater (eds), Representing War and Violence 1250-1600 (Woodbridge, 2016)

____ Hour-Long Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and Julius Caesar (Woodbridge, 2015)

Blom, H van der (Lecturer in Ancient History 2007-2010), Oratory and Political Career in the Late Roman Republic (Cambridge, 2016)

____ Hour-Long Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night and The Tempest (Woodbridge, 2016)

Bowers, WJ (JRF), and HL Crummé (eds), Reevaluating the Literary Coterie, 1580-1830: From Sidney to Blackwood’s (Basingstoke, 2016) Carey, J (Emeritus Fellow), The Essential Paradise Lost (London, 2017) Clews, RJ (2007), Project Finance for the International Petroleum Industry (Amsterdam, 2016) Delahaye, BP (2001), LM LoPucki, and AI Abraham, ‘Optimizing English and American Security Interests’, Notre Dame Law Review, v.88:no.4 (April 2013), pp. 1785-1863 [offprint] Everson, PL (1965), and D Stocker (eds), Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture, XII: Nottinghamshire (Oxford, 2015) Garfitt, R (1963), In All My Holy Mountain (Craven Arms, 2016) [CD] Gren, AR (1974), The Victoria Cross, 1914-1928: A Chronicle of Courage (York, 2014)

McElligott, J (Lyell Fellow 2005-08), and M Leonard, Hunting Stolen Books: An Exhibition in Marsh’s Library, Dublin from May 2017 (Dublin, 2017) Michailidou, A (former Merton Visiting Scholar), Weight and Value in Pre-Coinage Societies, II: Sidelights on Measurements from the Aegean and the Orient (Athens, 2008) Moody, AD (1953), Ezra Pound, Poet: A Portrait of the Man and His Work, 3 vols (Oxford, 2007-2015) Payne, JS (Fellow), et al., Principles of Financial Regulation (Oxford: 2016) ____ and J Armour (eds), Rationality in Company Law (Oxford, 2009) Perry, G (Lecturer in History), John of Brienne: King of Jerusalem, Emperor of Constantinople, c.1175-1237 (Cambridge, 2016)

Joshi, VR (Emeritus Fellow), India’s Long Road: The Search for Prosperity (New York, 2017)

Shue, H (Emeritus Fellow; 1961), (contributor) in S Gardiner and A Thompson (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Ethics (New York, 2017)

Latham, AJH (1959), SM Miller, and DO Flynn (eds), Studies in the Economic History of the Pacific Rim (London, 2016)

____ (contributor) in DG Arnold (ed.), The Ethics of Global Climate Change (Cambridge, 2014)

____ and H Kawakatsu (eds), The Evolving Structure of the East Asian Economic System since 1700: A Comparative Analysis (London, 2016)

Winston, BN (1960), G Vanstone and W Chi, The Act of Documenting: Documentary Film in the 21st Century (New York, 2017)

_____ Asia Pacific Dynamism, 1550-2000, first paperback edition (London, 2016)

COLLEGE NEWS | THE LIBRARY

We also thank Mertonians who have given copies of their publications to the College:

Wynn-Evans, CA (1989), The Law of TUPE Transfers, 2nd edn (Oxford, 2016)

Lucas, JR (Emeritus Fellow), Against Mechanism, ed. P Labinaz (Milan, 2016) MacAuslan, J (1971), Schumann’s Music and ETA Hoffmann’s Fiction (Cambridge, 2016) Markwell, D (Fellow 1986-1997), Constitutional Conventions and the Headship of State: Australian Experience (Redland Bay, 2016)

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Last year I reported the decision of the Governing Body to establish a girls’ choir at Merton as part of the Choral Foundation, the first collegiate girls’ choir in the University. Twenty-four girls, aged 10-16, from local schools sang their first service, attended by the Vice-Chancellor, on Wednesday 12 October 2016. Hearing them sing their final service of the academic year in June, it was hard to believe how much progress has been made in such a short space of time. I am very grateful to our Director of Music and those who work alongside him, particularly our verger, Chapel administrator, organ scholars and other helpers – this year, Mary Boyle (2011), Florence Butterfield (Pembroke 2016), Naomi Gardom (2014) and Anna Gatrell (2015). The Chapel’s term-time schedule now includes four sung services each week. It would not be possible to maintain this level of liturgical activity without the help of our team of student Chapel officers. I am grateful to them all, and give special mention to the finalists among this year’s team – Bertie Beor-Roberts (2014), Molly Clark (2014), Naomi Gardom, Oliver Pateman (2014) and Harry Spillane (2014), and to Tim Foot (2011), Joseph Hutchinson (2011) and Freddie Money (2013), who have served as Chapel officers as both undergraduates and graduates.

The Chapel

Our Sunday evening worship has been enriched by a variety of preachers. This year’s episcopal visitors have included the new Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Revd Dr Steven Croft; the Rt Revd Martin Seeley, Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich;

COLLEGE NEWS | THE CHAPEL

On 13 March 2017 history was made as the first ever Anglican Evensong was celebrated at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. It was an enormous privilege for the College to be invited to participate in this event. The service was sung by the College Choir, accompanied by our organ scholars and directed by Benjamin Nicholas; Leah Stead, our verger, led the processions, and several members of the Chapel community welcomed the congregation and acted as stewards. It is hard to overstate the ecumenical significance of the occasion. One of the great strengths of the worshipping community here is its diversity. The Warden, who is the first Roman Catholic Warden of the College since the Reformation, and Lady Taylor have enhanced this, and so it was particularly appropriate that they were able to be present, together with Reed Rubin (1957), whose generosity enabled the choir to accept the invitation to sing.

Above: The Revd Dr Jarred Mercer, the Revd Canon Dr Simon Jones, Benjamin Nicholas and Leah Stead at St Peter's Facing page: Verger Leah Stead leads the procession of the Merton College Choir at St Peter's Basilica in Rome

the Rt Revd Humphrey Southern, Principal of Ripon College, Cuddesdon; the Rt Revd Philip North, Bishop of Burnley; and the Rt Revd Christopher Chessun, Bishop of Southwark. Our link with the Anglican Centre in Rome made possible a visit from its Assistant Director, the Revd Marcus Walker. We have also enjoyed visits by Canon David Porter, the Chief of Staff and Strategy to the Archbishop of Canterbury; the journalist and historian Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield; the Revd Katherine Price (2001), a Mertonian who, when she visited us in January, was a curate in Grimsby, and has since moved to Oxford to be Chaplain of Queen’s; and the Revd Ellen Eames, Chaplain of St Gabriel’s College, Camberwell. Closer to home, we have welcomed Dr Jennifer Strawbridge, GB Caird Fellow at Mansfield; and Professor Martyn Percy, Dean of Christ Church. Finally, from among our own community, Christine Taylor, Emeritus Fellow and the-then Director of Development, gave the address at the Commemoration of Benefactors in Michaelmas Term; and Naomi Gardom, an undergraduate historian, choral scholar and Chapel clerk, gave a very fine sermon at the corporate communion in Hilary Term. Returning, finally, to Rome, the Vatican Evensong was only part of the itinerary for the 19 Merton Chapel pilgrims who spent several more days in Rome after the choir had left.

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In terms of financial support, the funds administered by the Student Support Committee continue to meet a variety of needs. We award grants to assist with financial hardship; to

Baptisms and Confirmations

• Elina Cotterill (Information and Research Officer) and Emily Bicknell (2015) were confirmed by the Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich on 12 February 2017 • Louise Elizabeth Jones, niece of the Chaplain, was baptised on 18 February 2017 • Zara Violet Zachariah, daughter of George Zachariah (1991) and Susanna Millard, was baptised on 5 March 2017 • Professor Peter Pormann (former Fellow) was confirmed by the Bishop of Burnley on 7 May 2017

Merton College Chapel

The pilgrimage included visits to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, Forum, site of St Paul’s house arrest, St Paul's Outside the Walls, and a walking tour of Trastevere and the Jewish Ghetto. We also attended that week’s Papal Audience. It was a wonderful privilege to be a fellow pilgrim with some of the people who make Merton Chapel their spiritual home.

Leightonstone South (Ely), has been appointed Priestin-Charge of the Benefice of The Staughtons with Hail Weston (Ely).

Patronage

The Revd Dr William Lamb, Vice-Principal of Westcott House, Cambridge (Ely), has been appointed Vicar of St Mary the Virgin, St Cross Holywell and St Peter in the East, Oxford (Oxford).

The Revd Paul Allinson, Priest-in-Charge of Greatham and Chaplain of the Hospital of God, Greatham (Durham), has been appointed Vicar of the Benefice of Ponteland (Newcastle). The Revd James Ashton, Placement Priest in the Oxted Team Ministry (Southwark), has been appointed Team Vicar in the Benefice of Warlingham, Chelsham and Farleigh and Mission Enabler Priest in the Deanery of Tandridge (Southwark). The Revd Nicki Bland, Assistant Curate in the Benefice of

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The Revd Dr Patrick Gilday, Assistant Curate of All Saints, Ascot Heath (Oxford), has been appointed Rector of Benson with Ewelme (Oxford).

Welfare and Student Support

Coordinating the College’s welfare provision and student financial support takes up about half of my time in an average week during term. I am fortunate to work with a very talented and dedicated team. Merton is rightly committed to providing the highest level of support to all members of

Ordinations

• Christopher Statter (2002) was ordained a minister in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in England and Wales on 20 May 2017 in Olton United Reformed Church, Solihull • Samuel Carter (2002) was ordained deacon by the Bishop of Chichester on 1 July 2017 in Chichester Cathedral to serve in the parish of All Souls, Eastbourne (Chichester)

Weddings

• The convalidation of the marriage of Lewis Liu (2010) to Andrea Snaveley on 21 October 2016 • Alun Perkins to Veronica McCormick (2008) on 22 October 2016 • Dr Franck Silva (2004) to Lucy Coombs on 27 May 2017 • Professor Peter Pormann (former Fellow) to Dr Nil Palabiyik on 3 June 2017

enable graduates to attend academic conferences; for travel (including the Sir Gerry Grimstone Travel Awards), sport, music and drama; to support modern linguists on their year abroad; and as Doctoral Completion Bursaries (including those funded by the Simms family) when no other sources of funding are available. Total funds awarded in 2016-17 amounted to £189,000. Merton is in a very fortunate position of being able to support our students in this way. We greatly appreciate the generosity of those who make this possible. The Revd Canon Dr Simon Jones Chaplain

COLLEGE NEWS | THE CHAPEL

the community to enable them to achieve their academic potential in a supportive and inclusive environment. To further enhance what we are able to provide, we look forward to welcoming Frances Raimo to the team in September as our Student Support Administrator. In recent years we have tried to organise a range of welfare-related activities to enable us to be more proactive in our approach to wellbeing. Part of Frances’ role will be to help develop these.

• The dedication and blessing of the marriage of Rami Chowdhury (2003) to Kathleen Burnett on 8 July 2017 • Thomas Barrett (2007) to Georgina Johnson (2009) on 18 August 2017 • James Mithen to Catriona Dann (2010) on 19 August 2017

Funerals, Services of Thanksgiving and the Burial of Ashes

• The ashes of John Walden (1943) were buried in the Grove Meadow on 16 October 2016 • A service of thanksgiving for the life of Dr Roger Highfield (Emeritus Fellow; 1948) was held on 9 May 2017; his ashes were buried in the Grove Meadow on 17 June 2017 • The ashes of Ralph Feltham (1940) were buried in the Grove Meadow on 28 May 2017 • The funeral of Royston Maxwell (Fire and Health & Safety Officer) was held on Thursday 13 July 2017 • The funeral of Professor John Michael Baker (Emeritus Fellow) was held on 11 September 2017; his ashes were buried in the Grove Meadow on 14 September 2017

Memorial Services

• A memorial evensong for Virginia Rushton (former member of the Chapel Choir) was held on 21 February 2017 • A memorial service for Neil Caulfield (1983) was held on 13 May 2017

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The Choir

In what has been a busy year for the Chapel music at Merton, two dates will remain in the memory for a long time. On Monday 13 March, the College Choir sang the first ever Anglican liturgy at St Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican. Described by the Church Times as ‘another milestone in relations between Canterbury and Rome’, the service of Choral Evensong, including music by William Byrd, Charles Wood and Edward Bairstow, was recorded and broadcast by BBC Radio 3 on 28 June. In addition to a group from the Chapel community who were on pilgrimage in Rome, we had the support of a number of Mertonians and were particularly pleased that Reed Rubin (1957) – who made the choir’s visit to Rome possible – was with us. Wednesday 12 October was also a key date in the history of the Chapel music, as our Girls’ Choir sang its first service, following a month of rehearsal. The 24 choristers, who attend

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Merton College Choir sings at St Peter's Basilica in Rome.

eight different schools across the city, rehearse twice a week and sing Evensong on Wednesdays during term. Their progress over the year has been impressive and they have sung in their first concerts: a programme of Christmas music for Oxford University Press and the ripieno part in Bach’s St Matthew Passion at the Passiontide Festival. A short residential trip to Cheltenham at the end of the summer break, culminating in singing at Cirencester Parish Church, will help them prepare for their second year. The generosity of David Harvey (1957) has made this exciting addition to the Chapel’s musical life possible and we remain very grateful to him. The College Choir’s year began with a visit to Godalming parish church, where we sang Evensong, having been entertained splendidly by Caroline and Alan Bott (1953) at their home. For the nine members of the choir who were with us for the first time, the punting on the Botts’ private lake proved

to be a wonderful bonding experience. We also managed to work on some of the repertoire which has punctuated our year. The choir’s contribution to the Oxford Lieder Festival was a concert of music by Mozart, Schumann and Brahms, a highlight being the singing of the Brahms Songs for Female Chorus Op.17 with the beautiful accompaniment of harp and two horns. Our annual contribution to Music at Oxford’s season was a programme of Bach (Singet dem Herrn and Christ lag in Todesbanden) and Handel (Dixit Dominus), for which we combined with Oxford’s new ensemble – The Instruments of Time and Truth. A number of choral scholars undertook the various solos with great assurance and their performance was a testament to the excellent work of their singing teachers – Giles Underwood, Carys Lane and William Purefoy. The last concerts of the year were given in France in July, where we attracted large crowds at Saint Germain-des-Prés, Paris and at the Collegiale Saint-Etienne de Hombourg-Haut. The choir’s Christmas schedule included a carol service for alumni at St Luke’s Church, Chelsea, and an appearance in the Christmas Festival at St John’s Smith Square, London. Our programme included seasonal works by Victoria and Praetorius, Poulenc’s Quatre Motets pour le temps de Noël, and popular carols with piano-duet accompaniment provided by our organ scholars. Some time was spent in December preparing Robin Holloway’s epic Christmas Sequence, of which we gave the first performance in a live broadcast of Choral Evensong in early January. The service also included music by Britten and Dyson, and Alexander Little (2015) gave a virtuoso performance of Messiaen’s Les enfants de Dieu as the voluntary. For the 2017 Passiontide at Merton festival, we welcomed

COLLEGE NEWS | THE CHOIR

Girls' Choir

The Marian Consort and The Martlet Voices to give concerts, and the College Choir took part in a concert that included James MacMillan’s The Seven Last Words on the Cross and Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, which was played by the Berkeley Sinfonia. The final concert was Bach’s St Matthew Passion, for which we welcomed back Rogers Covey-Crump, who was celebrating 50 years as an ‘Evangelist’ in Bach’s Passions, and Elin Manahan Thomas. This performance would not have been possible without the generous financial support of the Morris-Venables Charitable Foundation, to which we are most grateful. The Dobson Organ has attracted a great number of visitors and both the Royal College of Organists and the Incorporated Association of Organists have held summer conferences based round the instrument. Of our many guest recitalists, Olivier Latry’s visit from Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris, in November was particularly memorable. Not only did he play a virtuoso programme of Liszt, Widor, Vierne and Dupré entirely from memory, but he attracted the largest audience I have seen at an organ recital for a very long time! As media outreach becomes ever more important, we are pleased to continue our relationship with Delphian Records: A Merton Christmas will be released in October and a disc of choral music by Richard Allain will be available in July 2018. All of the choir’s recordings and recordings of the Dobson Organ are available through our online shop www.merton.ox.ac.uk/chapel-choir/recordings. The services that take place in the Chapel remain the heart of our work and it has been a pleasure to welcome a number of choirs to sing with us as we continue our outreach work through our Choral Open Day and other events. As ever, I welcome enquiries from potential organ and choral scholars, and potential girl choristers (aged 10 at admission); I am ready to meet them at any point in the year. 2018 brings the tenth anniversary of the Choral Foundation and there will be events to which we invite back our former choral and organ scholars. Benjamin Nicholas Reed Rubin Organist and Director of Music

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Nowadays the peas we enjoy eating in Hall are mostly unripe green seeds or even, as mange tout, whole immature pods – this is all thanks to improvements in picking, canning, chilling and freezing technologies. For much of our history we have eaten mature dried pea seeds; they were an important element of the crops grown in Neolithic agriculture more than 8,000 years ago. Peas not only provide us with a protein-rich food but also provide a nutrient source for other crops: atmospheric nitrogen is relatively inert; the fixation process that peas and legumes perform frees nitrogen, making it available to other plants.

The Gardens

Over the course of a day I might expect to come into contact with products of about 100 different plants. This is not because my job as Head Gardener means I am messing about with plants all day, but because there are few aspects of anyone’s everyday life that are not directly affected by plants in their many guises. For example, take my morning biscuit. It has taken 10,000 years of human selection to produce the wheat; industrial ingenuity to manufacture chocolate; and the histories behind sugar, palm oil and coconut oil are no less amazing, not to mention the tale of tea which accompanies my biscuit. We are too often inclined to think of plants as accessories, yet plants pervade every aspect of our lives, no less in a modern urban world than in the wilds of rural past.

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of options available when it comes to considering what to buy, from horse power to cutting height, manoeuvrability to decibels. Most of our machines have to fit through narrow gates and could cross over easily as domestic machines. We have included a picture of our fleet for reference. We service all our machines ourselves, a welcome indoor break from the winter cold, so some of us are oily fingered as well as green. Lucille Savin Head Gardener

COLLEGE NEWS | THE GARDENS

probably came from south-western or Central Asia. Damage to onion cells catalyses the short-lived production of sulphuric acid, which reacts with an enzyme to produce lachrymatory factor (which is why we cry when we chop them), the plant’s biochemical defence against being eaten. Leeks, however, evolved from a single species of wild leek distributed throughout the Mediterranean.

Silver birch planted at Merton for its white bark and gracefully drooping shoots can be used in making furniture, plywood, veneers, parquet blocks, skis and kitchen utensils. The thin sheets of bark that peel off contain a waxy resin and are easy to ignite when wet, making them useful for starting fires. Its sap has similar properties to maple syrup and can be drunk fresh or concentrated by evaporation into a ‘wine’. Farming changed us from being ruled by plant habitats and the animals we found there, to dramatically transforming wild plants into crops with altered morphologies, anatomies, physiologies and chemistries. So much so that many domesticated plants can no longer breed with their wild counterparts and have become dependent on us just as we have become dependent on them. At Merton we grow alliums as ornamentals; they have the same characteristic sulphurous odour as do onions and their cousins in the allium family (including leeks, garlic and chives), which though not essential to our existence certainly enliven our taste buds and are consumed across the globe. Their wild parentages are controversial, with authorities agreeing that wild relatives of garlic and onion

Even our weeds can be useful. Stinging nettles not only beat both spinach and broccoli for vitamins and minerals, but they also thrust themselves up from barely warm soil as early as February. Spring is the time to crop them by picking the tips on each spear (the first four to six leaves) before they become coarse and hoary. Use in any of the ways you might employ spinach, wilted and buttered, added to soups or gnocchi or even a nettly version of the Indian saag paneer. If you want to look into this further, I recommend Stephen Harris’ book, What Have Plants Ever Done for Us? Western Civilization in Fifty Plants. On a different note altogether, tours often ask how so few people can look after such vast grounds including 1,500 species of plants? We rely on a wide range of tools and professional machinery to save time. There are a lot

What modest Lucille failed to mention in this year’s report is the fantastic news that she has been recognised as one of Britain’s top Head Gardeners’ in a new book by award-wining writer and garden historian, Ambra Edwards. Head Gardeners is published by Pimpernel Press. Ambra writes, ‘Lucille is singled out for her adventurous plantsmanship, especially for her exuberant container displays and her bold use of exotics, which miraculously thrive within Merton’s benign microclimate even when their counterparts only yards away in the Botanic Garden perish. At the same time, she is careful to preserve the sense of timeless tranquillity that is so special about the garden. Its most important role, suggests Lucille, is as a decompression chamber for over-stressed students.’

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The Archives

Another year has rolled round since the last edition of Postmaster, and three years since I was reporting on the events associated with the College’s 750th anniversary. The past year has been quieter, without some of the diversions of recent years, but an important development has been the addition of Emma Sillett to the Library and Archives team, as Senior Library Assistant. While all members of the team share the responsibility for invigilating and assisting visiting readers in the special collections, Emma is giving additional assistance to the archives, answering some of the many enquiries we receive, especially those relating to Mertonians, and continuing a conservation survey of medieval account rolls and other documents begun by her predecessor Noemi Raventos. The production for research of a large number of such medieval rolls in 2016 revealed the damage and wearand-tear that had been suffered by some of the records after, in some cases, more than 600 years of existence. Damage varies from accretions of surface dirt, water damage (evidence, perhaps, of being carried in a bursar’s saddle bag while on Progress?), and what occasionally looks suspiciously like mouse teeth marks, to the inevitable damage that accompanies manual handling, such as folds, tears, and the

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September 2016 saw continued work on the cleaning and listing of records in the Muniment Room in Mob Quad by Merton students Henry Drummond (2014; Trinity 2013) and Benedict Holden (2014). Besides estates records, their work revealed broken sequences of election papers for both Fellows and Postmasters between 1791 and 1865. We are grateful to Henry and Benedict for their contribution to the archives. A more unusual object for ‘conservation’ this year came in the form of the chapel verge; the ceremonial rod carried in processions by the verger. The Oxford Conservation Studio provided it with a purpose-made box, so that it could be safely transported to Rome for the College Choir’s celebration of evensong in St Peter’s Basilica in March, and for safe storage in College.

Merton, I never cease to be surprised by their range, nor to be reminded of how much of the history of Merton and its members remains to be discovered in the archives. Besides perennial subjects of enquiry like J.R.R. Tolkien and T.S. Eliot, this year’s enquiries have included the union of the benefices of the Oxfordshire parishes of Cuxham and Easington in the 19th century, the history of Morris’ motor garage on Longwall Street, the painting of Duns Scotus that hangs in Hall, American soldiers at Merton in 1919, and the history of the Merton chimes. The chimes, installed in 1933, copy the chimes introduced at Canterbury Cathedral in 1897, and are based on the eighth tone employed in Gregorian chant. The medieval musical theorist Adam of Fulda assigned a quality or attribute to each of the tones; the eighth tone he associated with knowledge. I have been unable to establish whether the College was aware of this at the time. If not, its preference for the Canterbury chimes over those of Westminster was a very happy coincidence.

Mention has already been made of the many enquiries received over the year. Some are internal but many come from beyond the College; some are of a legal or administrative nature, others are historical or biographical. After 14 years at

Another enquiry revealed, in passing, that two of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ cousins attended Merton in the late 19th century. They were not, as one might expect, brothers but were themselves cousins. Roland Edmund Vaughan Williams,

detachment of documents that were originally sewn together. The survey is helping to identify items in need of conservation and so can be fed into our conservation programme.

Music also formed the subject of a small summer exhibition in the Beerbohm Room. 2017 sees the 50th anniversary of the death of Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodály on 6 March 1967. In 1958 Kodály had accepted the invitation to be patron of the Merton College Music Club Choir, and had visited the University in 1960 to be made an honorary Doctor of Music. As he left the ceremony he was met by the 60-strong Kodály Choir singing his own setting of an 18th-century student song. Four years later he contributed to the College’s 700th anniversary by composing a setting of Arthur O’Shaughnessy’s ode The Music Makers. The commission was performed on 1 June 1964 by the Kodály Choir under the direction of László Heltay (Honorary Fellow; 1957), a former student of Kodály’s. The premier was preceded by a performance by Yehudi Menuhin of Bach's Violin Concerto in E major. The exhibition included the Kodály Choir’s scrapbook recording Kodály’s reception of an honorary doctorate, Kodály’s autograph score of The Music Makers, together with letters from Kodály regarding progress on the commission, and a poster and programme from the septencentenary concert.

COLLEGE NEWS | THE ARCHIVES

son of Sir Roland Lomax Vaughan Williams QC, matriculated in 1886 and his cousin Lewis Egerton Vaughan Williams, son of the Revd Edward Vaughan Williams, matriculated in Michaelmas 1893. A nearer musical connection was made with the discovery that, when he was 17, Gustav Holst spent four months in Oxford studying counterpoint with George Frederick Sims who was at the time, among other things, organist of St John’s parish church – otherwise known as Merton College Chapel.

I cannot finish this report without acknowledging the generous gift this year of a number of trophy rowing blades, comprising two from the Head of the River Eight of 1951 and one from the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race 1952; the gifts of David Tristram (1947) and the family of Nigel Sanders (1948). Nigel Sanders’ 1952 Boat Race blade is already hanging in the lower Mob Library. It is intended that the Head of the River blades will be hung, together with the blades of Christopher Milling (1949) and Hugh Quick (1950), on the staircase leading to the Mure Room. This seemed appropriate, as both a public space where they will be seen, and as a tribute to Warden Mure who coached the victorious crew. Julian Reid Archivist

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Development and Alumni Relations

While the past year has seen significant change in the Development Office, the team has continued to engage actively as usual with Mertonians in Oxford, the UK, North America and Asia. Indeed, following on from my predecessor’s visit to South-East Asia in 2015, the Warden, Lady Taylor, Christine Taylor and Peter O’Connor undertook a major tour of four cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore – over the course of three weeks in January this year. As a result of the warm welcome they received and the enthusiasm to keep in touch, Mertonians immediately established informal networks in China and Singapore and it is hoped to build on these in future years, particularly with a further visit to the region scheduled for January 2018. In addition, I was delighted to attend my first MC3 Reunion in April – the tour of the New York Times offices, courtesy of Mark Thompson (1976),

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Merton Society Family Fayre 2017

being a particular highlight – and see first-hand the immense interest in and engagement with the life of the College from Mertonians based in North America. Plans are already under discussion to coincide next year’s Reunion with the University’s Weekend in San Francisco and the West Coast. Events in the UK itself ranged from an incredibly popular Benefactors’ event at Lord’s Cricket Ground to the annual gathering of the 1264 Society at a concert given by the College Choir in the run-up to Christmas at St John’s Smith Square. Those 1264 Society members who were not able to join us for this still enjoyed a ‘Merton moment’ over the festive season courtesy of the special College chocolates sent out to all members. We are, as ever, indebted to everyone who delivered lectures or participated in talks in

In terms of philanthropic support for the College, we are delighted to report that a further Tutorial Fellowship in Law is now endowed in full thanks to the generosity of two benefactors who offered a matched gift to finish this appeal, if 50 Mertonians joined them in giving their support. This continues our work in Strengthening the Tutorial System, one of the key areas of our ongoing development, and brings the number of tutorial fellowships safeguarded for the future to ten, over a third of the total required. Other fundraising activity during the year has continued to focus on graduate studies and we are pleased to have secured support for new scholarships, and to have advertised new awards from previous gifts. These scholarships, with many more still to secure, will help the College on the road to our stated aim of needs-blind graduate admissions. This is an area of focus in its fundraising that Merton shares with the wider University and the Development Office is working actively in partnership wherever possible to move this forward. Not forgetting undergraduates, the target of £2.57 million for Undergraduate Student Support set during the 750th Anniversary Campaign was reached in late 2016 with a generous gift from Richard Burns (1964). We are immensely grateful to all Mertonians who responded so positively to our Merton Fund appeal in the autumn, who participated in our November Giving Tuesday campaign and who spoke with our fantastic team of student callers in the March Telethon. The annual appeal from MC3 focused on the Boathouse Extension and new shells for the Men’s and Women’s first eights and we are delighted that through the generosity of Mertonians in North America the target

of £250,000 has now been reached. It is hoped that we might see the renewed and extended facilities on Boat House Island, together with two new boats, in place over the summer next year. Anyone working in Development in the charity sector will be fully aware of the implications of the incoming General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) due in May 2018. While the College, like the rest of the collegiate university and higher education sector, is likely to pursue the course of legitimate interest to maintain contact with Mertonians, the Development team will work to ensure that the College is compliant over the whole of its communications activities. As more of our communications move online, we hope that every Mertonian will respond swiftly to calls to provide, update and renew their contact details with us, electronic and otherwise. We are aiming that The Merton Messenger, our email update, will increase in regularity and become the main means by which we give advance notice of events and report on news from the College throughout the year. In early 2017 we said a sad farewell to both Christine Taylor, Fellow and Development Director, and Helen Kingsley, Alumni Relations Manager, who jointly had given over a quarter of a century to their work on behalf of the College. It is testament to their incredible efforts that Merton boasts a range of alumni events and a highly successful Anniversary Campaign that are the envy of other Oxford colleges. We also said farewell to Catherine Farfan de los Godos, Alumni Communications Officer, who left the College in November to take up a fantastic new role at the Saïd Business School. New faces in the office – in addition to myself – include Chelsea Chisholm, Alumni Relations Officer, who joined us from the Development Office at Keble College and Claire SpenceParsons, Alumni Communications Officer, who most recently worked for publishers Taylor & Francis. We are immensely grateful to our colleagues of longer-standing, Elina Cotterill, Sarah Jones (2011), Peter O’Connor and Bethany Pedder, for their patience in ‘showing us the ropes’ and helping us to settle in. We have much to look forward to in the year ahead and I hope to be in touch with many Mertonians over the course of my first year at this wonderful College.

COLLEGE NEWS | DEVELOPMENT AND ALUMNI RELATIONS

2016-17 and to Mertonians who hosted these events on our behalf. These include The Rt Hon Sir Brian Leveson (1967) who moderated the Merton Lawyers’ Association discussion, Sir Howard Davies (1969) for hosting the London Lecture given by Professor E J Milner-Gulland at RBS, and Mustafa Abbas (1990) for hosting Merton in the City, with speaker Vijay Joshi (Emeritus Fellow) at Deutsche Bank. The year of events was rounded off by the wonderful Merton Society Family Fayre in June, on which occasion the College grounds were given over to more than 300 people of all ages, Mertonians and their families, who enjoyed an afternoon of face-painting, games, tours and trails, falconry and ferrets!

Dr Duncan Barker Fellow and Development Director

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That said, it seems to be becoming something of a fixture in this report to note the changes in personnel in the Academic Office team. Hilary Term found us bidding farewell to Lynn Featherstone, who had for five years held the post of Academic Registrar, and who left us to take up the position of Registrar and Director for Admissions at Hertford College. Our considerable sadness at losing Lynn was tempered by the recognition that we were fortunate to hold on to her for as long as we did.

Academic Office

Another busy year draws to a close in the Academic Office, and it has been a good year for us in a number of areas. Academically this is certainly the case, with – as is evident from the Schools Results – impressive showings in public examinations by both our graduates and undergraduates, augmented by the award of a slew of University prizes. Of course, although the overall cohort performances are undoubtedly noteworthy, it is often the individual stories that can be the most cheering – be it the student who, after a shaky start, has through dint of hard work and perseverance made a breakthrough in their understanding and gone on to perform at a high level; or another who, despite contending with a range of non-academic pressures and problems, has

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Neil Heslop, Chief Executive of Leonard Cheshire Disability, with Lord Puttnam at the Equality Conversation in March 2017

maintained their focus and succeeded in doing justice to their academic ability despite their circumstances. In such cases, while credit is of course due to the individual student concerned, we must not overlook either the oftenexemplary commitment of our tutors or the superb support of our welfare team. As a college, we are fortunate to have the resources to provide high levels of academic and non-academic support to each of our students, but more importantly we are blessed in sharing an ethos that sees all constituent parts of the community – including, of course, the junior and middle common rooms, and the domestic and administrative staff – seeking to do the very best that they can for every one of our members, to the benefit of us all.

Dr Katy Fifield joined the team as our new Academic Registrar and she has settled in splendidly. Katy was an academic researcher for several years before moving into university administration, and previously worked in Oxford as Head of Examinations and Assessments, and before that as Deputy Clerk to the Proctors. Both of these roles provided her with extensive experience of student administration and welfare matters, enabling her not only to adjust rapidly to the role here at Merton, but also to contribute specialised technical and operational expertise that has stood us in terrific stead, particularly during the examination season. We were also very sorry to say goodbye to Hazel Wigginton, our Schools Liaison and Access Officer, who, after two productive years in post which saw us make some smart and effective adjustments to our approach to outreach, elected to return to her former career as a teacher – she will be shortly be taking up a new role as teacher of History and Politics at St Helen and St Katharine in Abingdon. That departure saw us welcome Andrew Miller to the team in

July 2017. Prior to his move here Andrew was administrator for the Oxford Pathways outreach programme, and before that he managed higher education advice in several schools, in addition to having a stint in publishing; we are already enjoying the benefits of his extensive Oxford- and schoolsbased experience. Finally, we will shortly be saying farewell to Kirsty Stewart, our supremely capable Academic Administrator who has among other things taken a transformative approach to our JRF administration and right-to-work monitoring, and who is moving to a post at the University of Edinburgh. The College is very grateful to all three of these team members for their sterling contributions, and wishes them all good things for the future.

COLLEGE NEWS | ACADEMIC OFFICE

Speaking of administrative staff, it has been pleasing to note how quickly and effectively our new Academic Office team structure has bedded in, and it is clear that this has served to enhance the support that we are able to provide to Fellows, lecturers and students, as well as to potential applicants and alumni. The new structure has given the team the capacity to advance some new initiatives, such as an annual Essay Prize for undergraduates in Humanities and in Social Sciences, judged by our Junior Research Fellows, as well as to support and develop activities such as the graduate mentor scheme, whereby graduate students provide study-skills assistance to our undergraduates, and which has proved a tremendous way of fostering cross-common-room engagement and a strong sense of subject family.

Our new team structure has enabled us to navigate these departures with minimal disruption to our work. In addition, Frances Raimo will soon be joining the College in the new part-time, term-only position of Student Support Administrator, and this will further strengthen the team. Frances moved into higher education administration following a career in the Civil Service, and most recently held the post of Diversity and Inclusion Officer at the University of Reading. Much of her work will be to support the welfare team in the delivery of welfare, financial and other non-academic support to the student body, but alongside this she will be supporting me with some of the College’s processes, such as those around student suspensions. Frances will also provide administrative support to the College’s equality-related activities, such as the annual Equality Conversation – an event that has now run for four years. This past year the Conversation was held in conjunction with Leonard Cheshire Disability and included a memorably challenging talk by Lord Puttnam on ‘A duty of care’. In summary, we can look back on 2016-17 as a strong and successful year – but already we find ourselves impatient for the arrival of the new cohorts of graduates and undergraduates, and look forward to welcoming them to our community as the year cycles around again to autumn. Dr Rachel Buxton Senior Tutor

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With an international workforce of 115 permanent and some 40 casual employees, the domestic operation of College encompasses 17 different departments that represent every aspect of College life. Both organisationally and operationally, it is also necessary for the staff community to evolve and adapt to meet the needs of the College. In this regard, we have sought to improve communication activities and strengthen resources in a number of key departments. The addition of Shelley Boal as an assistant to Fiona Lawrence has resulted in great progress being made in the area of human resources and enabled the completion of a major review of sickness and holiday arrangements, resulting in Merton increasing its staff holiday provision in line with the collegiate University.

From the Domestic Bursar

It gives me great pleasure to write what is my first full report for Postmaster and with it to share some of the notable events and activities from the domestic side of College over the past year. Much of our activity is, of course, determined by the academic calendar; after the long summer break our efforts increasingly focus upon the arrival of new Fellows and students as we speed toward the start of Michaelmas Term. Prior to this, however, the long vacation has provided an opportunity to use some of the College’s world-class facilities for other purposes. An extensive summer-long programme of conference events brings guests both old and new from all over the world, who enjoy the warm hospitality and beauty of Merton’s historic buildings and gardens. The summer break also provides the domestic teams with

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In an effort to improve how events and conferences are organised, the Conference and Accommodation offices have been amalgamated. Led by Sally Hague as Head of Conference and Accommodation, the new team consists of Alex Moore as Conference and Events Manager, Rebecca Raftery and Marta Mas in new roles as Conference & Events Coordinators. Benjamin Nicholas in one of the new Music Rooms

an opportunity to access rooms and carry out a variety of essential cleaning and maintenance tasks. Over the centuries, this work has helped to preserve College buildings and provide a clean and comfortable environment for Fellows, students and guests to enjoy. The scheduling and logistics of conference, housekeeping and maintenance works around the academic calendar is becoming an increasingly complex activity. Careful thought is given to how these activities can be best synchronised and to the creation of a detailed long-term maintenance plan. The way in which College buildings are used has inevitably evolved over time. Although the historic structure and fabric of the buildings remain firmly intact, there is a perpetual effort to ensure that the estate meets current and future requirements. In this respect, works have been successful in creating five new

New lift at Patey's Quad

music practice rooms from the former maintenance workshop in the basement of the St Albans building. Most notably building work to create a new passenger lift in Patey’s Quad was completed recently. This forms an important part of a long-term commitment to improve access within College and although the project has not been without its challenges, the new lift enables College members and guests to gain safe access to the Hall and SCR areas for dinners and other social occasions. Serving an average of 300 meals per day, food at Merton remains a central and fundamental part of College life. Led by Head Chef, Mike Wender, a food survey has been carried out, in order to establish satisfaction and expectations around our catering provision across the common rooms and staff group. This exercise forms the start of a three-

COLLEGE NEWS | FROM THE DOMESTIC BURSAR

year programme that will help us to measure and better understand how we can develop our food services.

We are also pleased to welcome Khris Watts in a new role of Maintenance Manager, which is the first of a number of appointments that will enhance our in-house maintenance capability. With sadness, we have said goodbye this year to some of our longest-serving and dearest of colleagues, with the retirement of Chris Hedges from the Maintenance Department, David Hedges as Bar Manager, Rose Butler from the kitchen, and Maureen Ponting from the Hall. With particular sadness, we have seen the passing of Maureen Ponting and Royston Maxwell. Finally, I would like to recognise the considerable effort and contribution given by all of the staff community at Merton, many of whom are not in public-facing roles but all of whom play an essential part in the continued success of the College. Tim Lightfoot Fellow and Domestic Bursar

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Dr Anthony Ashmore

Dr Duncan Barker

Dr Yegor Grebnev

I was elected to a Junior Research Fellowship in Physics in October 2016. Previously, I was a physics undergraduate at Jesus College, Oxford, before moving to Imperial College London for a PhD in theoretical physics.

I was delighted to join Merton in February 2017, taking over from Christine Taylor, my predecessor of the past ten years. There have been a great many changes in the Development Office over the last six months and it has been a real privilege to get to know the College and the warm community of Mertonians in the UK and overseas so quickly.

I joined Merton in October 2016 as a Junior Research Fellow in Oriental Studies, having completed my DPhil thesis at Wolfson College. I work on peripheral texts from the ancient Chinese tradition (known as the Yi Zhou shu 逸周書 or the Leftover Writings of the Zhou Dynasty) that are conventionally considered dubious and remain neglected in the mainstream studies focused on the better known canonical parts. Nevertheless, many of these ancient peripheral texts, as has become obvious after several years of scrutiny, provide valuable clues allowing us to question what we deem to know about the canon and its complex origins.

Junior Research Fellow in Physics

My research focuses on the interplay of physics and geometry in string theory. String theory is the best idea we have for a consistent theory that combines gravity and the quantum nature of space-time. This theory predicts extra spatial dimensions that influence our four-dimensional lives. Though they are too small to probe directly, the shape of these extra dimensions determines the particles and forces we observe. If we hope to make contact with the physics of our universe, we must have a deep understanding of these spaces and their geometry. The spaces have a rich structure due to supersymmetry and are complicated when viewed through the lens of conventional geometry but, remarkably, they point to a new class of geometrical structures, known as ‘generalised geometries’. One can think of these structures as a natural language for understanding lowenergy physics from string theory. My work has pushed in two complementary directions: developing the underlying mathematics of these structures and using them to solve problems in physics. In particular, my work has implications for strongly coupled field theories via the gauge/gravity correspondence, where deformations of the geometry translate to perturbations in the field theory. Merton is an ideal place for carrying out my research thanks to the academic freedom allowed by the JRF. I am very grateful to be part of such a supportive and challenging academic environment.

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Fellow and Development Director

My first connection with Oxford was as an undergraduate when I read Music at St Edmund Hall from 1991. I then headed north to undertake postgraduate research at the University of Durham on the life and music of Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie (1847-1935), a contemporary of Parry, Stanford and Elgar. I was incredibly fortunate to receive a full threeyear scholarship from Durham to complete my PhD and this planted the seed for my interest in the impact of philanthropy in enabling others to pursue their academic potential. Following my postgraduate studies, I began working in various external relations and fundraising roles in the arts and, almost 15 years ago, moved into the specialist conservatoire sector which has broadened and tested my musical background in equal measure. I joined the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London in 2006 to establish its first full-time Development Office and over the past decade led the institution’s firstever capital campaign to provide new performance, teaching and rehearsal facilities at Milton Court, as well as raising significant funds each year to provide scholarships for young musicians, actors and theatre technicians. I am incredibly excited to be back in Oxford and by the opportunities presented in the role of Development Director at Merton, and look forward to meeting many more alumni over the coming months and years.

Junior Research Fellow in Oriental Studies

COLLEGE NEWS | HAIL TO NEW FELLOWS

Hail to New Fellows

In my attempts to make sense of the Chinese material, I find it extremely useful to identify and explain the parallels in compositional structure with texts from other parts of the ancient world, in particular South Asia and Mesopotamia. Ancient China was not an exotic exception in history, and the study of such parallels has the potential to demonstrate how much it shared with other parts of humanity and how much ancient Chinese sources can contribute to the study of human history and literacy overall. Merton is particularly convenient as a hub for the comparative study of pre-modern literacies, and I have hugely benefited from its supportive environment, both in my own research and when organising the meetings of Early Text Cultures, a comparative seminar series that I convene together with colleagues working on a broad range of ancient and mediaeval textual sources. One can hardly dream of a better working environment.

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Dr Matthew Hosty

Professor Ehud Hrushovski

Professor Lorna Hutson

I was delighted to be elected in November 2016 as the new Tutorial Fellow in Biochemistry at Merton. It has been about a decade since the College admitted an undergraduate to study biochemistry and I am looking forward to the arrival of the first three of our new generation of biochemists in October 2017.

I came to Merton in October 2016 as a Junior Research Fellow in Classics. I originally read Lit Hum at St John’s; followed by an MSt and DPhil in Classics, and then three years as a fulltime lecturer in Classics, first at Jesus then Wadham. Those three years let me build up teaching experience but left little room for research, so it is a great pleasure to be able to spend whole days in the library again.

I joined Merton in October 2016 as the Merton Professor of Mathematical Logic. I came from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where I had worked since 1991.

I joined Merton in September 2016 as Professor of English Literature. I read for my DPhil at Somerville and have since taught in many different institutions – among them, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of St Andrews and Queen Mary University of London.

Tutorial Fellow in Biochemistry

My research revolves around the interactions that molecules from human infective parasites make with molecules from their human host. As an example, the parasites that cause malaria must get inside human blood cells in order to hide from the defences of the human immune system and in order to replicate. We are characterising the molecular details of this process and, with our friends at the Jenner Institute in Oxford, are designing vaccine components that will prevent red blood cell invasion. Oxford has proved a wonderful place to combine our molecular studies of hostparasite interactions with the powerful vaccine development work underway at the hospital sites. I am looking forward to the next years, in which I will continue to work towards designer vaccine components to treat some of the most deadly human infections, and will work towards the re-establishment of Merton as an excellent environment in which to study biochemistry. I hope that this will also bring the opportunity to meet many Merton biochemistry alumni in the months to come.

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Junior Research Fellow in Classics

I work, broadly speaking, on ancient Greek and Latin parody. All Classical texts imitate their predecessors one way or another – but I am specifically interested in where and how they imitate for the sake of humour. This can be a cruelly comic imitation of another author’s style, or it can be a sort of self-deprecating silliness, a deliberate failure to live up to the genre’s august standards. My doctoral thesis was an edition with commentary of the Battle of the Frogs and Mice, a lovely cod-Homeric Greek poem probably written in the 2nd century BC, which describes a war between two tribes of animals as though it were the Iliad. This year I have expanded that thesis into a book, to be published by OUP. I am now embarking on a more general survey of some other ancient parodic texts. Merton has a very strong reputation for Classical subjects, and I am delighted to be here. I have already felt the benefits of having such knowledgeable and supportive colleagues, and at a recent open day I took questions from a veritable horde of bright and enthusiastic prospective Classicists. Floreat semper domus!

Professor of Mathematical Logic

Since Euclid at least, mathematics has a linguistic and logical aspect. One may study geometry with a visual and physical intuition in the background, but one’s tools are descriptions formulated in a specially tailored language, and the process of discovery is mirrored by a sequence of deductions from one proposition to another. The study of the structure of this activity itself begins with Aristotle, but has known extraordinary developments since the late 19th century. Best known is Gödel’s 1931 theorem on the impossibility of encompassing all of mathematics within a single, complete, axiomatic system. Perhaps less so are results showing that nevertheless, vast areas can be so axiomatised. Tarski proved this kind of completeness for Greek geometry, around 1940. Doing the same for more modern areas of mathematics is the subject matter of contemporary mathematical logic, specifically model theory; at times this understanding permits developing unexpected tools for the underlying subject matter itself. My predecessors in Merton – Dana Scott, Angus Macintyre and Boris Zilber – have shown results of this type for probability theory and parts of algebra; my own work continues theirs in a rather direct line, concentrating both on intrinsic tools of the subject and on attempts for capturing significant parts of number theory. Merton is a college of extraordinary beauty. My academic duties are entirely in the Mathematical Institute, but discovering some of the institutions and people of Merton has been a wonderful experience in this past year.

Professor of English Literature

COLLEGE NEWS | HAIL TO NEW FELLOWS

Professor Matthew Higgins

I work on the literature of the early modern period in England and have always been interested in the complex interrelations of literary form and other forms of cultural practice. I have tried to focus on literariness itself, on the properties that invite readers and audiences to respond imaginatively to particular kinds of composition and to find them ‘true to life’. One way I have tried to historicise the apparently transhistorical verisimilitude of great literature has been through linking literature and law. Questions of guilt and innocence stimulate our imaginations and our story-making capacities: forensic rhetoric thus plays an important role in the truthlike effects of fiction. In my books The Invention of Suspicion: Law and Mimesis in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama (2007) and Circumstantial Shakespeare (2015), I have revealed the importance of forensic rhetoric, showing, in particular, how Shakespeare’s creation of imagined offstage worlds and the inner lives of dramatic characters would have been impossible without the forensic ‘topics of circumstance’. My interests are in women’s writing, in Ben Jonson and, most recently, in literature, law and constitutional myth. From 2014 to 2017, I held a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship for a project tentatively entitled Shakespeare’s Scotland, which looks at Anglo-Scots fictions of nationhood in the century leading up to Shakespeare’s great tragedies.

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I was also entirely serious. Except some career plans take a little longer than others to come to fruition. It is – to our collective disbelief – 25 years since my matriculation class went up to Merton in 1992. In that time many of my peers, possessed of the infamous Merton work ethic, have risen to the top (or found deep satisfaction, because there is more than one form of success) in every walk of life. Then there was me. I took a leisurely approach to the notion of a ‘career’, spending my post-graduation decade completing a PhD, travelling, and working as an arts journalist in Tokyo. Only as my 30th birthday approached, did I write a novel. It was so terrible I wanted to ritually burn it and salt the ashes. When dreams die, you get on with real life. I entered current-affairs television, making investigative reports for Channel 4 News on subjects from public-sector fraud to child sex tourism. It was fascinating, and a privilege, to work on stories that changed legislation and – just occasionally – lives. Yet I never forgot that mortifying yearbook pledge. Writers are always asked, after publication, if they’ve ‘quit the day job’. But for me, quitting was the scary first step towards it. I realised that I needed to create space in my life in order to create. So I went freelance as a documentary producer, imagining that during doubtless lengthy ‘resting’ periods, I could write. But you know what they say about best-laid plans.

A long road to a busy year – or, be careful what you write in the yearbook!

My lightbulb moment came slap-bang in the middle of a frantic project: a BBC Two series The Superrich and Us, which examined the facts and figures of economic inequality. A typical work day involved talking to billionaires, and I discovered that while some spend their money on football clubs or Mayfair property, and others campaign for the minimum wage or peace in the Middle East, they all understand that their wealth gives them power not possessed by the rest of us. The way they describe money, I thought. It sounds almost like magic. BING!

Here was an idea that connected the day job I'd come to love with the writing dream I'd never quite forgotten. I imagined a novel about contemporary Britain that cast the superrich one-percenters as a magically gifted aristocracy. I drafted feverishly, 5am-7am every morning before work. Once the superrich series aired and I polished the manuscript, I realised that here, at last, was a story I could show people without abject shame. I queried a handful of agents, and the one I'd crossed my fingers tightest for wrote back saying he loved it. Soon after, Gilded Cage sold at auctions in the UK, the US, and overseas. Finally, Merton yearbook honour would be satisfied! Now I just needed one of those ‘resting’ periods to focus on my writing. Instead, an email landed in my inbox. An independent production company was making a BBC One programme with Jeremy Paxman on the imminent EU membership referendum. Was I interested in directing it?

FEATURES | A LONG ROAD TO A BUSY YEAR

Features

Future career plans, asked the College yearbook. Woman of letters, I wrote. What can I say in my defence? I was 20 years old and most probably frightful.

Why yes, I certainly was. I knew I had a book to edit, and a second one to write, but the referendum would likely be the most important political decision for this country in my lifetime. I wanted to be part of ensuring it was fairly reported and clearly explained, and threw myself into the reality and history of EU–UK relations. It was an intense and painstaking experience. Once the programme was complete, though, it was straight back to drafting book two. I was halfway through when another email arrived. Jeremy would be going to the US to cover the presidential election – would I like to make this programme, too? Why yes, indeed I would. As I got my head down to complete the draft before production began, it dawned on me that the novels I was writing were ‘political fantasy’. I shouldn’t have been as surprised as I was. I am not politically active or strongly opinionated, and yet I have spent my professional life exploring both the workings and impact of those that govern us, and analysing our socio-economic structures. My book’s description of the interior of the parliament building? Clearly inspired by visits to Westminster. Those scenes of civic unrest? Doubtless drawing on my time in the

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FEATURES | A LONG ROAD TO A BUSY YEAR Vic with her crew, including Jeremy Paxman (right), inside the US Capitol rotunda, Washington, DC

Above: Vic with her US editor, Tricia Narwani of Del Rey Books/Random House, at San Diego Comic Con 2017 Top right: Images from the SDCC Penguin Random House party photo booth, where Vic ran into Chris Taylor (1992), author of How Star Wars Conquered the Universe. Bottom right: Vic's Merton College 1995 Yearbook entry

newsroom during the London riots. Another subplot was likely informed by a report I'd made on sexual harassment in the Commons. And when protesters tie a mask onto a statue and hoist banners? Well, I'd seen that during the Occupy movement.

it,’ wrote one reviewer. I gave a tiny cheer and snatched a few hours’ sleep, then went back to editing book two. Soon after, my email inbox pinged. How about a third film, on the first 100 days of the Trump presidency?

I realised – with a gulp – that I had somehow set my series in a country governed by a black former lawyer, whose political rivals are a woman determined to be the first female leader, and a self-confident, super-wealthy older man. This was pure coincidence, as the opening was written long before Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump secured their parties’ nominations, and any character resemblances end with those just outlined. But it was still enough for me to consider begging my publishers to print the ‘This is a work of fiction …’ disclaimer in inch-high block capitals.

Just to make absolutely certain no readers are confusing my fantastical world for the real one, though, book three comes with added dragons. I have yet to see one swooping over Westminster or the Capitol – though I live in hope.

My debut, Gilded Cage, was published at the start of this year. Would anyone else spot the crossover between my two careers? It seemed they did. ‘If ever there was a speculative fiction book that captured the zeitgeist of an era, this is

My reply was three letters long. It was at this point I realised that not only did I not want to choose between my two day jobs, but also that they are marvellously complementary.

Vic James (1992) Vic James is the author of Gilded Cage, a Radio 2 Book Club choice. The sequel, Tarnished City, is out now in the UK (Pan Macmillan) and February in the US (Random House). The series concludes with Bright Ruin in summer 2018. Find Vic on twitter @drvictoriajames

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Graham Hodge is a producer of film and online content for broadcasters, digital publishers 'You don’t find the truffles if you stay on the path.' Those were the words of a Piedmontese farmer type who I and some Merton contemporaries encountered while hiking in the summer of 1997. They have come to mind often as I have tried to navigate the media industry. All I ever wanted was to be a music journalist. Grunge, rave and Britpop had all just happened, and for an obsessive music fan with a literary bent, being embedded on the frontline looked like, well, nirvana. After the customary few terms of making friends and trying to get to know myself, I wrote my first words in anger. Dance music was beginning to get a foothold among the Dreaming Spires, so I duly pitched myself to the Oxford Student as a chronicler of new 12” releases and club nights. As graduation approached, I started thinking about what I ought to do. Somehow I ended up in public relations. I lasted two years, but I was grateful for the early exposure it gave me to a phenomenon that would define the years ahead: the internet.

Mertonians in… Media

There followed an internet start-up with Azeem Azhar (1990). Running websites at Capital Radio. Some adventures in advertising, including a gloriously surreal moment filming an interview with Andy Cato (né Cocup, 1991), on the beach in Rio de Janeiro. A production company owned by the millennial-oriented media giant Vice. A mixed bag, with the ups and downs that attend any career, but always trying to keep music as my Magnetic North. Then I started up my own production company, Infinite Jest, as an umbrella for various film projects that had been brewing, including a feature documentary and a series of

online films for the Arts Council. It continues to house a range of commercial projects that touch music in some way – and some very uncommercial ones. Meanwhile I started another company, Cup And Nuzzle, a partnership with BBC Radio 6 Music’s Matt Everitt, to service a podcast series we sold to Spotify. We now make two more series for Spotify and several others for record labels and artists.

FEATURES | MERTONIANS IN… MEDIA

Graham Hodge (1992)

There is a lot of variety. I could be shooting a music documentary in Iceland while pitching a story design project to a video games studio. There is also a lot of change. Each New New Thing (or New Old Thing) that the internet throws up – YouTube, Instagram, podcasts – spawns new opportunities which may or may not deliver on the hype that accompanies it. Change also means uncertainty. Projects can be briefed, commissioned and cancelled in the same week. Spotify might have been sold and reimagined by the time you read this. But mainly it's fun. Bringing things to life, whether they have originated in my own mind or someone else’s, is really satisfying. Working with people who are passionate about the same things as you is thrilling. If they're old friends, even better. ('If you work with people you love, the hard times become an epic adventure,' said movie mogul Jerry Weintraub). And for the most part it's a very flexible lifestyle, without much need for commuting or office life, and which allows you to be home for your daughter's end-of-year show. The other day I interviewed one of my heroes, Thurston 'Sonic Youth' Moore, for Spotify. We talked about everything from the perfection of Miles Davis's 'Kind of Blue' to a particular North London café’s egg mayonnaise sandwiches. It was one of the most pleasurable hours of my life. Does that mean, 20 years after graduating, that I am finally a music journalist? No. That would feel too much like a path.

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Melissa Williams is a film producer with Speakeasy Productions, having previously freelanced in various roles with, among others, BBC Films, Working Title, ITV Studios and Asylum Features. I first considered a career in the media industry pre-Merton. Fuelled by stories from my godfather – who had misspent his youth as a Props Master – and far too many behind-thescenes featurettes, I toyed with the idea of studying Film. The thought didn’t last long, though. One needed a ‘proper’ degree for a ‘proper’ career. I chose English... (More on this later.) In third year, as the urgency to decide upon ‘A Career’ reached DEFCON one, and traditional English Graduate options failed to appeal, I wondered whether Film and TV was such a crazy idea? I have been in the media industry for seven years now. Viewed from above, my career trajectory is misleadingly linear: runner, assistant director, production assistant, assistant producer, producer. However, there have been many winding roads, dead ends and blind summits. I obtained my first opportunity by ambushing the producer of ITV’s Lewis during filming on Holywell Street. It was undoubtedly an unorthodox approach to securing work experience, but I learnt an important early lesson: you cannot wait for opportunities to present themselves, you have to create your own. In an industry where it is most definitely ‘who you know’, connections and impressions are what truly matter for advancement. Connections I nurtured while interning at Carnival Film and TV during the launch of Downton Abbey blossomed into an interview at Eleventh Hour Films a year later. Impressions made on a low-budget horror – best not named, but regularly found on the Syfy channel – landed me work as an assistant director on two High Art short films directed by Zawe Ashton of Fresh Meat fame. The production

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Emily Unia (2001) team on The Voice passed my details on to The Voice Kids. Connections, connections. Impressions, impressions. One of the attractions of a career in media was a life less ordinary, and that’s certainly been the case. If you will excuse the cliché, no two days are ever the same. I have lugged bloody prosthetic limbs through hotel lobbies, filmed in maximum-security prisons with trusted inmates for runners, and commandeered £21,000 a night hotel rooms for production offices. I have watched Tom Ellis and Daisy Lowe waltz on a roof top at dawn, observed adders while filming on peatland, and roamed Scottish forests with Nick Baker. And, unfortunately, I have been roped in as an extra more than once. In 2012, I decided to take a ‘brief break’ from the freelance world to join Speakeasy Productions as a production assistant. Five years later, I am still here, now as a producer. If you are familiar with Mad Men, the work is not dissimilar. We develop an idea from a client brief for a brand, charity or documentary film, and I oversee the creative aspects of the project from commission to delivery. I spend my days writing scripts (finally, my English degree has proven its worth!), filming across the UK, directing voiceovers, and bouncing between edit suites. Having elbowed my way into the creative team from a largely administrative entry position, I am the ‘Peggy’ of the office. What’s next in this unproper career of mine? Well, a short film I have produced will hit festivals next year. Aside from that, I am eager to spread my wings again. Whether that’s a return to freelance work, a jump across the great divide to Broadcast, or something entirely new outside the industry, I don’t know, but I am looking forward to finding out.

Emily Unia is a UK and Foreign Affairs Reporter for BBC News. It’s ten years since I became a ‘proper’ journalist (who gets paid) and 20 years since I really caught the bug. Here’s how it happened. I grew up listening to BBC radio and as a child I had a notvery-secret wish to get a job in broadcasting. I didn’t really know if I wanted to be a writer, an actor or a journalist, I just knew I loved radio and wanted to be on it. This led to some teenage work experience at the now-defunct Oxygen FM, which was Oxford University’s first student radio station. I carried on volunteering with their news team until I finished school. I then fell out of love with journalism during university and had very little involvement in the student papers or the radio. After graduating, I toyed with the idea of other career paths, including law, but realised I would never forgive myself if I didn’t give journalism a proper go. I didn’t have any connections to help me, so I lived with my parents, got a temping job as a medical secretary and wrote theatre reviews for the Oxford Times in the evenings. I persuaded the news editor of the Oxford Mail to let me do a week (for free) with his team. After a few attempts, I also managed to get work experience with the BBC radio newsroom. It was a very well-constructed introduction to news journalism; I received tips on writing and broadcasting from lots of different editors and producers – and was given newsreading lessons by Corrie Corfield and the late Peter Donaldson. I then went to Cardiff to do a postgraduate diploma in broadcast journalism – a course that I knew other BBC and ITV journalists had also completed. After that I won a place on the ITV News traineeship and eventually I found my way to BBC News, which has so far included stints at the World Service, local radio and regional TV and Radio 4.

My current role involves lots of very early starts and late finishes. I get into the studio for 5am and am on air from 6am until 9am, sometimes longer - delivering news reports to a range of BBC radio stations. I am sometimes asked to do TV too. It is good to multi-task and I appreciate the variation, although I have been known to need the loan of a smart jacket at short notice. If there is a breaking news story, I jump on a plane or train as quickly as possible so I can report from the scene. In recent years I have travelled to Sousse in Tunisia, Paris, Brussels, Orlando and Kathmandu to cover the news. It is exciting and exhausting and a lot less glamorous than it sounds. The long hours and the unpredictable nature of the job can be fairly wearing, but I love being able to witness the world on behalf of my audience.

FEATURES | MERTONIANS IN… MEDIA

Melissa Williams (2007)

I have no idea what I might do after this job, although I am beginning to feel drawn towards longer-form work. However, I may be addicted to breaking news and travelling. A recent trip to Romania to observe a NATO training exercise resulted in my first piece for From Our Own Correspondent on Radio 4. I have always loved the programme and was delighted to be commissioned – but being allowed to write a piece that lasted just two minutes longer than my standard three minutes made me realise that I would like more space and time to consider the stories I am covering. We’ll see.

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Emma Bullimore is an entertainment journalist and TV critic, based at TV Times and often seen and heard as a contributor on TV and radio. In September 2017 her first documentary, Puttin’ on the Glitz: The Strictly Story, aired on BBC Radio 5 Live. She studied Modern Languages (German) as an undergraduate at Merton. The Merton Warden was unimpressed by my interest in journalism. Standing in her garden awkwardly holding a bowl of strawberries, I nodded blankly as she despaired: ‘Emma, not everybody has to become a journalist, you know.’ But my mind was made up. Cherwell had been exciting, work experience placements at German magazines during my year abroad had been stimulating, and I was ready to write about something other than Brecht. After finals I flew straight to Berlin to complete an internship at Spiegel International, the English website attached to the prestigious German news magazine. Once I got home, there was a worrying period writing letters to every magazine I could think of, while I translated press releases about staplers to pay the rent. Nothing is more soul-destroying than being told to make your stationery sales pitch ‘a bit sexier.’ Eventually, after gaining the ‘tenacity’ and ‘thick skin’ journalists always talk about, I snagged some maternity cover at TV Times, where I still work today. I was thrown straight in at the deep end with huge cover stories and trips to the Caribbean and New Orleans to visit TV sets. I couldn’t believe my luck. I interviewed everyone from Dame Judi Dench to John McEnroe, attended the BAFTAs many times and even had the surreal experience of grilling a concerned Dame Helen Mirren as paramedics dressed my

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Matthew Rose (1990) bleeding leg (true story: I still have the scar). After a few years in the job I received an email from BBC 5 Live asking me if I would like to appear on its regular Monday afternoon TV slot. I was nervous and unsure, but said yes. Little did I know this would ignite a fierce love of broadcasting – I was to become a regular on the show, and a familiar voice across Radio 5 Live, Radio 2, BBC Breakfast, BBC News and even the Today programme. When Channel 4 buys the Bake Off or the BBC announces the new star of Doctor Who, my phone lights up and I jump on the tube to Broadcasting House to join the conversation. One of my favourite parts of the job has been reporting on Strictly Come Dancing and learning lots of secrets about the nation’s best-loved series. I have shared some of these titbits in my recent 5 Live documentary, Puttin’ on the Glitz: The Strictly Story. Thanks to a generous editor I have also been able to write some freelance pieces during my time at the magazine for publications including Marie Claire, New Statesman, Stylist and CityA.M. I also enjoy hosting Q&As at preview screenings and TV festivals… especially when you get your own dressing room (this has only happened once, unfortunately). It is true that journalism isn’t a get rich quick scheme – those wanting to make big bucks would be better looking elsewhere. But it is an endlessly exciting way to keep your finger on the pulse and meet the people everyone’s talking about. Despite what you may have read about the death of print journalism, I still consider myself hugely fortunate to be part of such a creative, fun industry. And also to see new episodes of Sherlock before anybody else. Emma is on Twitter @emmabullimore

Matthew Rose has worked at The Wall Street Journal for more than 20 years, in various positions including coffee gopher, media reporter and enterprise editor. He lives in Brooklyn, NY. Compared with the span of historical time, it really wasn’t that long ago when I joined The Wall Street Journal as a copyboy/coffee-fetcher/dogsbody. In our sped-up age, it feels like a lifetime. This was the mid-1990s and one of my jobs was to cut and paste newspaper articles, with scissors and glue, and put them into binders for the grown-up reporters in the bureau. We used green-screen computers that would have killed someone if dropped from a height. Editors communicated through a system that squirted out messages on a single dot-matrix printer using archaic language. Every message I would sign off with ‘Rgds, Rose/LDN – or, in English, ‘Best regards from Matthew Rose of the London bureau’. Still do a variant of that sometimes, but that’s a tic. In the intervening 20 years, email become ubiquitous, Steve Jobs invented the iPhone, Mark Zuckerberg built Facebook, and nothing in the world was ever the same. This is a trivial but telling example. The first check we make after publishing today is to ensure the article or graphic or video looks good on our phones. Print comes last and no one is paid to smear ink on their hands cutting clips from the paper.

So I became a journalist and by luck or laziness never left the Journal. These days, based in New York, my title is Enterprise Editor, which is an oblique way of saying it is my responsibility to help the newsroom produce its most ambitious journalism. That comes in many shapes and sizes, such as narrative features, investigations, complex graphics and forms yet-to-be-invented.

FEATURES | MERTONIANS IN… MEDIA

Emma Bullimore (2005)

Through the radical changes in how we publish and the, shall we say, ‘challenges’ to the industry’s business model, the lesson from Hearts of Darkness is still the most important. Valuable journalism comes from ferreting out the story behind the most important phenomena of our time or, put more crudely, WHAT THE HELL IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING? It then synthesises and describes those findings for an audience in a way that educates and illuminates and maybe even entertains. It doesn’t matter whether you are typing on an IBM 386 or an Android phone, whether you are cutting and pasting or swiping and pinching, these underlying principles never change. Rgds, Rose/NY.

When I was still at Merton, I saw Hearts of Darkness, a documentary about the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. It was directed by Eleanor Coppola, his wife. The Vietnam movie is a classic. The documentary was jaw-dropping, at least to my 19-year-old self. The story behind the story, why it looked a certain way, what really happened behind the scenes (how FAT was Marlon Brando!), what went horribly wrong, felt more powerful and meaningful than the fiction it was explaining. It might have been better than Conrad.

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Martin Schmidbaur is a communications advisor at Milltown Partners, a London-based consultancy for strategic communications and reputation management. Depending on who you talk to, working in ‘communications’ can mean anything from running an advertising campaign to writing speeches for politicians. More narrowly, ‘public relations’ (PR) tends to have a media-specific meaning – working with journalists, drafting narratives and messaging, and helping executives manage public appearances. When I got into communications, I did not have a wellthought-out career plan: I started out doing internships at start-ups and technology companies like Facebook and Rocket Internet, doing everything from online marketing, writing press releases, briefing journalists, and developing copy for websites. I liked working in the communications teams, because of the role you can play in shaping how a business talks about itself and ‘earns’ recognition, even without paying for advertising. After about 18 months in the PR team of an international money-transfer start-up, I now work in strategic communications for Milltown Partners, a small consultancy based in London. My clients tend to be large US-based technology companies, but my colleagues have come from a range of backgrounds – including former journalists, directors of communications in No. 10 and Kensington Palace – and we have a client list that includes corporations as well as individuals with a public profile. The reason I am not naming individual clients and that we as a firm do not publish our client list is that when it comes to people’s reputation, discretion is key. All our clients trust in advisors who can stay ‘behind the scenes’. Thinking about reputations, both personal and institutional,

means understanding how a person or an organisation wants to be seen in the public eye. What is it that they want to be known about them? What do they want to accomplish? Who is it they care about? My job involves finding the answers to those questions, and then helping people and businesses communicate in a way that speaks to their audience, and reflects their goals and public aspirations.

time, because no two days will be the same. Much like when I started my career, I still do not have a definitive plan for the next 20 years. A part of me enjoys the excitement of working in an industry where things are open to change, where there is the potential to construct new narratives and stay on top of technology as it evolves.

FEATURES | MERTONIANS IN… MEDIA

Martin Schmidbaur (2010)

This is where it gets interesting – because there is no such thing as one ‘right’ way to communicate today. Of course, traditional media still carry lots of weight and sometimes the right thing to do may be a press release or a press conference, a carefully placed op-ed, or briefing a journalist. And yet, some clients might find it worthwhile to hold a live Q&A session on Facebook, build a profile on Twitter, or start their own Medium channel. Others may find that the right communications strategy for them involves a well-prepared speech in front of a select audience. One part of the job I particularly enjoy is working closely with spokespeople and executives – doing things like mediatraining executives to improve their tone of voice or body language ahead of a big interview, for example. Experienced execs who generally focus on their day jobs, rather than giving interviews, tend to place a significant amount of trust in their communications advisors – something that I have always found rewarding. Working in the media space – even on the communications side, where there isn't an editor breathing down your neck – I have found that the pace of the news today can be a strain. It sounds like a platitude to say that the internet has changed traditional news cycles, but understanding the implications of this always-on business is important. You have to want to be connected all the time and deal with breaking stories as they pop up. If you do, it's exciting and rewarding at the same

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Where is the best place to eat and drink? Singapore is really an epicurean’s delight. However, for an authentic local touch, I recommend visiting Newton Circus Food Centre, Singapore’s most famous hawker centre. It has a rich hawker history stretching back to the 1960s when street hawkers from Singapore’s legendary Glutton's Square were relocated to Newton as part of the government’s plan to bring order to the avalanche of street hawkers sprouting in all corners of Singapore post-independence in 1965. Newton sees a lot of tourist traffic that complements a huge local presence from residents and office workers from around the area as it offers a one-stop comprehensive mix of Chinese, Malay and Indian street food. An evening meal at Newton is a must. It is famous for its BBQ seafood, sugarcane juices, ice kacang and chendol (local Malay sweet-toothed delights), satays (BBQ chicken, mutton or beef) and otahs (smoked fish maws). What is the best way to spend a morning? For the less energetic, a leisurely early morning stroll at the 150-year-old Botanic Gardens, a UNESCO heritage site, is a must for the sophisticated traveller and local resident. It is one of the most visited gardens in the world, possessing a wide array of horticultural collections that are truly unique, set in an informal English garden landscape style. Opposite the gardens is Dempsey Hill, a former British military base with a unique collection of colonial buildings. …an afternoon Arguably one of the hottest dining destinations in Singapore, Dempsey has dining options from simple brunch to a Michelin star meal for lunch or dinner. Dempsey Hill is also an antique lover’s delight with many antique shops winding through it.

Merton Cities: Singapore

… an evening? If you still have energy to commune with nature in a sprawling urban metropolis, an evening stroll to the Gardens by the Bay with its unique flower domes containing a million plant species in juxtaposition with 30m high solar trees is a must for one to appreciate how nature, technology and urban societies can live in harmony.

What is Singapore’s best-kept secret? I would recommend taking a ferry to St John’s Island, a small secluded islet located just six kilometres south of Singapore. It is the perfect place to go if you are looking for respite away from the highly structured business atmosphere of the city. The island is packed with beautiful lagoons, picturesque beaches, picnic spots and trekking routes that put you in close proximity to some of the natural tropical flora that are indigenous to Singapore and South East Asia. What is the one place you must visit? I would recommend a trip to the Night Safari, the world’s first nocturnal zoo. It houses more than 2,500 animals, of which 38% are threatened species. Set in a tropical forest, the Night Safari is an open-air zoo that is open only at night. It can be explored via foot or, if you feel less energetic, you could ride in a tram. The animals are uncaged and, so as not to disturb their usual nocturnal behaviours, lighting that resembles moonlight is used to highlight them. To separate visitors from the animals, all the enclosures simulate the animal’s natural habitat by natural barriers such as moats that look like streams, artificially created gullies and hot wires that look like twigs to keep the setting as close to nature as possible.

FEATURES | MERTON CITIES: SINGAPORE

Mertonians have made many of the finest cities in the world their home. Postmaster talked to Kenneth Tan (1986), Chairman of Global Food Ingredients Pte Ltd, for an insider’s view of the best-kept secrets of Singapore.

What is the best view in Singapore? A good way to appreciate the compactness of Singapore is to have lunch, afternoon tea or dinner at the Tower Club in Republic Plaza which is located in the middle of Raffles Place, the heart of Singapore’s Central Business District. Standing 280m high you will be able to see Indonesia 40km to the south and notice the huge expanse of sea between Singapore and Indonesia dotted with huge supertankers that account for more than 50% of the world’s trade plying between Europe, the USA and Asia. To the north, east and west, you will be able to see the hills of Malaysia. Only then would you be able to have a sense of wonder as to what is compacted in this 40km by 20km island called Singapore – the industrial townships in the west, the famous Changi Airport to the east, the gleaming office towers in the Central Business District in the south, and the rows and rows of public housing in between. What do you love most about living in Singapore? The comment everyone makes about Singapore is the ability for anyone of any age to walk and stroll in any part of the country in absolute safety without fear or concern.

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SpyBiotech spun out from the University of Oxford in late March 2017. The spinout, which will use ‘biochemical superglue’ to facilitate the rapid development of novel vaccines, raised £4 million at launch in seed financing to develop the technology. Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI), the patient capital investor for the University of Oxford, led the investment with GV (formerly Google Ventures), the venture capital provider for Alphabet, joining in participation.

The company was founded by four academics within the University – Professor Simon Draper, Associate Professor in the Jenner Institute, Nuffield Department of Medicine (NDM) and Supernumerary Fellow, Merton College; Professor Sumi Biswas, Associate Professor in the Jenner Institute, NDM, and St Catherine’s College; Dr Jing Jin, Jenner Institute, NDM, and Professor Mark Howarth, Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Fellow of Worcester College. SpyBiotech gets its name from the bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes (Spy), the same organism behind a number of infections including strep throat, scarlet fever and impetigo. The team behind SpyBiotech divided a Spy protein into a peptide, SpyTag, and a protein partner, SpyCatcher. Once combined, the two react irreversibly to form a covalent bond. This proprietary protein superglue technology now makes it possible to produce vaccines more quickly, cheaply and effectively, and the company will harness this unique platform

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The Founders of SpyBiotech

to generate vaccines against major human and veterinary health challenges for Europe, the US and worldwide. A vaccine is a biological preparation that stimulates the body’s immune system to recognise the agent as foreign. Through the remarkable ability of the immune system to ‘remember’ what it has seen in the past, a vaccine-induced immune response will lead to destruction of a disease-causing pathogen (e.g. a virus or bacterium) should it ever be encountered for real. Many existing vaccines are made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, and these approaches formed the foundation of success for 20th-century vaccine development and manufacture. Today, immunisation and provision of clean water remain the most effective interventions to improve global public health, with millions of lives saved each year through routine vaccination programmes. However, despite this success, a new generation of vaccines remains urgently needed – to help counter difficult infectious organisms of humans and livestock as well as cancer, and also to help stem the growing tide of antimicrobial resistance. Many of these vaccine strategies cannot use the ‘whole organism’ approach, and thus rely on the production of so-called subunit vaccines that encode toxins, or surface protein or sugar components from the microbe or disease target. A critical disadvantage of this approach to vaccination, however, is that on their own

subunit components are weak stimulators of the immune system. One key strategy to overcome this is to display the target on the surface of a virus-like particle (VLP). VLPs were first reported in the 1960s, and have since become a cornerstone for a number of vaccines. These particles resemble viruses, thus triggering all the alarms bells of the immune system, but are completely safe and noninfectious because they contain no viral genetic material. More recently, VLP-based vaccines have been developed for human papillomavirus (HPV) – the causative agent of cervical cancer. In both these cases, a ‘native VLP’ is used in the vaccine, whereby a VLP is based on the same virus against which the vaccine will provide protection. Modern vaccine developers, however, have sought to take this a step further, in order to produce ‘chimeric VLPs’. In this case, the aim is to stick a protein (the subunit) from another microbe onto the surface of the VLP. This strategy is particularly attractive for two reasons: i) because the VLP is a natural potent immuno-stimulator in itself, and ii) because a repetitive array of subunit protein on the surface of a virus is the best possible means to induce high-levels of protective antibodies by vaccination. However, herein lies

FEATURES | SPYBIOTECH

Figure: Overview of Plug-and-Display VLP assembly. SpyCatcher is genetically fused to the AP205 phage coat protein (AP205 CP3) and expressed in E. coli. Self-assembly of monomers generates SpyCatcher-VLPs. Upon mixing, SpyTag-antigen forms a spontaneous isopeptide bond with SpyCatcher-VLPs, yielding decorated particles for immunization. (c) Scientific Reports | 6:19234 | DOI: 10.1038/srep19234

SpyBiotech – the Secret to Next-Generation Vaccines

the critical bottleneck that has hindered the vaccine field for many years – it is extremely difficult (if not often impossible) to produce chimeric VLPs. The two most common methods used until now have been genetic fusion and chemical conjugation. Genetic fusion relies on production of a virus where the subunit protein is genetically encoded as a fusion onto the surface proteins of the virus – in this case the VLP more often than not misassembles and forms incorrectly. Chemical conjugation uses chemicals to ‘stick’ the subunit protein onto the VLP’s surface – this is frequently imprecise, and often destroys the conformation (or shape) of the proteins, leading to failure of the vaccine. The game-changer for SpyBiotech has been the development of VLPs instead using the SpyTag/SpyCatcher platform. Here, the VLP is produced with the small SpyCatcher protein on its surface. In a separate production system, the subunit protein is produced with the small SpyTag peptide encoded at one of its ends. These two components are then simply mixed together, and the VLP and the subunit protein efficiently combine, leading to a full array of the target subunit protein across the VLP’s surface. The team behind SpyBiotech developed the SpyVLP approach in order to produce vaccines against difficult proteins from the human malaria parasite as part of their ongoing academic research at the Jenner Institute, and they are continuing to progress these novel vaccines for malaria into early-phase clinical development. However, it rapidly became apparent that the SpyVLP vaccine strategy had many exciting applications, reaching far beyond the field of malaria, and thus SpyBiotech was born. Since March, SpyBiotech has furbished its own laboratories at the Oxford Business Park North, with the official opening taking place in August 2017. Initially, the spinout plans to target global infectious diseases including major viral infections, with a view to developing SpyVLP into a universal platform that can be adapted to target a wide variety of diseases. The company intends to get its first candidate vaccines ready for Phase I clinical trials during its first 30 months. The team is excited to begin the journey of taking this versatile and innovative approach forward and moving the new vaccines from the laboratory to human clinical testing. Dr Simon J Draper Supernumerary Fellow

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FEATURES | FINDING HOPE IN AN EGYPTIAN MUD-BRICK VILLAGE An email from the Archbishop of York about David's work in Egypt and the UK

Fundamentalist terrorism in the Middle East and Europe is still harming everyone, whether Muslim, Christian or neither, so political and religious leaders appear ineffective. Here, following my 2014 Postmaster article, I want to report encouraging developments in Egypt.

Finding Hope in an Egyptian MudBrick village

In 2013, civil and interfaith tensions led to deaths and burnedout places of worship. Coming from a Church of England church burned out in 1941, I volunteered to help. I met His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, worldwide head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, then travelled to troublespots all over Egypt with just a small camera, talking with people whom diplomats, clergy or even journalists do not meet, guarded in the most dangerous areas, banned even to the BBC, by up

to 30 men armed with machine guns. In 2014, I showed my film at Westminster to members of the Commons and the Lords. I gave His Holiness copies, saying that I am working to create international ecumenical genuine two-way partnerships at the lay level, which he confirmed as new, and warmly welcomed. Also, Jamie Bowden, then Deputy Private Secretary for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs to Their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, invited me to Clarence House, HRH Prince Charles being known worldwide for his active and informed interests in community and interfaith development. Throughout Egypt, besides economic, population and environmental pressures, there are additional difficulties for

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Interfaith problems can arise at any time, often involving kidnappings of Coptic girls who are forcibly removed and married off to Muslims, like an 18-year-old from near the area, kidnapped just days after I left. Girls’ names and identity cards are changed within days, and cannot be changed back to Christian ones. In September 2014, Daily News Egypt reported there had been 239 Christian kidnappings for ransom in the previous six months, mostly in Upper Egypt, and Copts had had to pay 21 million LE for their return – which sometimes never happened. Ransoms reduce many already poor families to abject poverty. All this is rarely reported inside or outside Egypt, being a public embarrassment. Legal safeguards are still ineffective and prejudice against Christians means jobs are especially hard to come by. The 20 Copts martyred by Da’esh in Libya in 2015 went to that war-torn country fearful, but desperate for work. Many in Egypt despair of top-down solutions, as detailed in Jack Shenker’s book The Egyptians. I heard it from many folk myself. Lay people and even priests are absolutely fed up with bishops who spend their time just talking ‘holy’ platitudes and mingling with other ‘important’ people. Muslims have similar frustrations with senior clergy at Al Azhar in Cairo. So people are taking direct action.

His Holiness Pope Tawadros meets David in England (Flickr CopticMedia)

the Christians, who were there 600 years before the Islamic conquest and still form nearly 20% of the population. In 2016, an opportunity arose to stay for a week with a family living in a mud-brick village in Upper Egypt. This, the poorest region, also has the most Christians, so it is a good place to find out how they are addressing interfaith tensions with their Muslim neighbours, and how community life can be improved together. The village has about 1,000 residents and the nearest city is Luxor. I stayed with a family whose breadwinner sells beans, herbs and spices. Beans, together with esh shams, sun-baked bread, are the cheap staple foods for locals, as they were in Pharaonic times. Villagers use herbs for home-

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made remedies, being too poor to afford factory-made pharmaceuticals. My host’s tiny shop, filled with sacks, opens onto the main street made of packed earth. Travel is by foot, donkey-cart, or low-power motorcycles on which up to seven helmetless people travel together. Sharing with just two others, I bumped over the rough roads on one to reach Luxor. But in the village, strong social cohesion compensates for the material deprivation, as HRH Prince Charles saw in India and noted in his wise and perspicacious book Harmony (pp. 234-5). Many villagers have only 70 LE (Egyptian pounds) per month to live on, and rents to landowners outside the village are typically 200–500 LE per month. Rents have risen

Near the village, several Coptic monasteries are creating jobs and benefiting their communities, including the local Muslims, thus helping interfaith tolerance. At the Monastery of St Pachomius, Father Ashaiaa and veterinary staff run large-scale agricultural training and farming with cattle, water buffalo, ducks and bees. At the Monastery of El Gidiseen (the Saints), near the poverty-stricken town of Tod where the mud-brick houses often have no toilets, Father Sarabamon is running a primary school and a hospital with pharmacy, X-ray, physiotherapy and dental facilities, plus building a secondary school, all serving both Christians and Muslims. Workshops in the monastery employ local men to make everything needed. As the main hospital in Luxor only a few years ago was selling chickens from underneath

its X-ray machine, the poor people of the desert areas near Tod are greatly helped. I met His Holiness again briefly on his first visit to Luxor, but not until our fourth meeting on his first Papal visit to England could I tell him about these signs of progress. I also reported to HRH Prince Charles, and much discussion followed. Some months later His Royal Highness most kindly sent me a personal letter, to say that following my ‘excellent report on the life of impoverished Copts’, he has made (very substantial) donations to the two monasteries I particularly mentioned for their community work. Their example also inspired His Royal Highness to initiate a collaboration with the Cairo centre for The Prince’s School for Traditional Arts, so that traditional metalworking, woodworking and other skills can be shared between faiths, promoting respect. Meanwhile, terrorists are still attacking the peacemakers. Last December a male suicide bomber infiltrated the women and children’s area of a Sunday service inside the Papal compound in Cairo, killing 29. Pope Tawadros was uninjured, but 18 were killed in another assassination attempt on him in Alexandria this Palm Sunday. Another Palm Sunday attack killed 29 in Tanta. But I was most deeply shocked on 29 May, when the isolated 20 km desert track to Deir El Anba Samueil that I know well, having travelled it many times by day and night, became the place where 33 Christian men, women and children were robbed and martyred in broad daylight by Islamist bandits, having refused to renounce their faith.

FEATURES | FINDING HOPE IN AN EGYPTIAN MUD-BRICK VILLAGE

by more than 10% in four years and rentiers are normally quite ruthless, so houses are dilapidated, overcrowded, or both. Money and suitcases of used clothing and old shoes accompanied me. In 2017 the Egyptian pound was devalued by a further 50%, making people even poorer.

Following a very positive meeting with Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, I am now volunteering with the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Reconciliation team at Lambeth Palace, working to reduce interfaith conflict. With a cultural history of more than 7,000 years, Egyptians are strong and skilful people. Their progress suggests opportunities for neighbouring countries and here in the UK. With mutual respect, there can be real partnerships. I remember an evening with one illiterate fellah in his seventies, who spent his working life digging ditches. His English was nil, and as my Arabic is not brilliant I had a hard time understanding his stories about fighting with the Egyptian army in Yemen. But later he turned to me and said ‘Enta TAMAM!’ (‘You’re OK!’), showing the welcome any friendly efforts by us receive. Dr David Salter (1975)

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Sixty-eight years a Fellow, the majority (1951-89) as history tutor, a position he long harnessed to that of archivist and librarian, Roger Highfield was a fixture in the post-war life of Merton. A late medievalist, he displayed great originality and influence as a Hispanist through his stimulation of research as well as his own publications. A trio of articles by Evelyn Proctor apart, Spain in the Middle Ages was almost completely disregarded by British historians repelled by the Black Legend, Francoism, linguistic inadequacy, and assumptions – not illfounded – about the intractableness of Spanish archives. Roger’s importance in countering this neglect was recognised in 1989 by the festschrift God and Man in Medieval Spain (edited by Derek Lomax) and by the award of the Order of Isabella the Catholic from the Spanish government.

Highfield Remembered

When, after winning a First at Magdalen in 1947, he disclosed his keenness to pursue Spanish history, his tutor K.B. McFarlane coolly remarked that he might be in a position to contribute to the history of another country if he first made a contribution to his own. Far from being upset, Roger regarded this douche as salutary; certainly, he was better placed to win a tutorship with a doctorate on Edward III’s bishops supervised by the Regius Professor Sir Maurice Powicke, following which he could exercise scholarly independence. That tutorship arrived in 1951, at Merton, where he had been Senior Scholar (1948-49) and Junior Research Fellow (1949-51). Hereafter, his Hispanic studies ran in tandem with University and College history. Again, his contribution has been outstanding, led by his edition of Merton’s Early Rolls (1964), of which among all his publications he was most proud. There followed a major chapter ‘The Early Colleges’ in The History of the University of Oxford: Volume I (ed., J.I. Catto, 1984); he also co-authored an illustrated general history Oxford and Cambridge (with Christopher Brooke, 1988), and A History of Merton College (with Geoffrey Martin (1947), 1997), while acknowledging that he had no special flair for popular history. Nevertheless, cohorts of Mertonians at matriculation had eyes and imaginations opened by his annual lecture on the College’s history, latterly projected by DVD with the wheelchair-bound Highfield at hand to respond to questions; and through his long involvement in the Oxford (since 1972, Oxfordshire)

Architectural and Historical Society he bridged town, county and gown. His articles in Oxoniensia and editorial work on its text publications, together with frequent essays in Postmaster, constitute an enduring legacy. John Roger Loxdale Highfield was born on Valentine’s Day 1922, at his parents’ home in Carlisle Mansions, off Victoria Street, London, his father William a junior partner in a firm of consulting electrical engineers. A gentle, sensitive man, William Highfield kept a workshop where he would make toys for the Christmas bazaar; he considered it important too that his children – Roger had an older brother and younger twin sisters – learn to maintain their bicycles, as he maintained his car, an open Austin tourer, of which he was quietly proud. Politically, he had been Liberal, until disenchanted by Lloyd George. The Great War was another taboo subject. Exempted as a key worker, William was distressed at being handed a white feather. Bookcases in the family home, relocated to Streatham when Roger was aged two, contained history and biography foremost; he also read and re-read Dickens, before discovering Scott and ‘how gripping Rob Roy was’. His mother Margaret, a primary teacher of maths (at which Roger was confessedly bad) and English, encouraged daily piano practice while she made breakfast; and, having been at James Allen’s Girls, she was set on her boys going to Dulwich College, following prep school. Muscular Christianity, rugby especially, was too dominant at Dulwich for Roger’s liking. He moved into history after being ‘sacked as a classicist’; but its teacher A.W.P. Gayford had taught McFarlane, and this was decisive. So too was the school trip to Spain in 1936, before it disintegrated in civil war; from this he returned wanting to learn its history. As a prize for him passing matriculation, his father paid for weekly Spanish lessons.

FEATURES | HIGHFIELD REMEMBERED

Dr Roger Highfield died on 13 April 2017, aged 95.

Their happy family life was shattered in 1934 when Margaret Highfield died of a brain tumour; in 1938, William succumbed painfully to cancer. A maiden aunt, William’s sister, now kept house. She exuded kindliness, and her love of literature and the French language rubbed off on Roger who liked to drop French words into tutorials, in a rusé manner (to pick on one that gave him particular satisfaction). In the late 1950s he took a College house for her in her last years; and his walks to and from College to Manor Road for breakfast and tea with her were of such regularity that, from hearing the

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off his own war as piffling compared to that of his brother Martyn. Roger recalled him returning exhausted from Dunkirk, sand still in his hair, collapsing on the sitting-room carpet. A major at 25, and awarded the Military Cross, Martyn became a professional soldier and at his funeral in 2006 was accorded full military honours. Roger felt his loss sorely: he had been best man at his wedding, and they corresponded most weeks. Martyn was 86 when he died, but their sister Barbara was only 54 when she fell victim to cancer in 1980.

In 1940 Roger progressed to Magdalen on an exhibition. He obtained a First in Part One, and enjoyed cycling out to inspect country churches. This remained a pleasure, latterly being driven about by his former pupils Robert Peberdy (1975) and Peter Truesdale (1976), their day’s excursions divided by lunch at a village pub. In 1941 he joined the 97th (Kent Yeomanry) as an NCO and was sent to the Middle East and Italy where he converted his Spanish into Italian. Since the 97th provided artillery for the 10th Indian Division, he was detailed too to train Indian intelligence personnel; for this he acquired an Urdu grammar and soon passably spoke the language. He regarded this assignment as the high point of his army career, a fascinating intellectual challenge, because his charges had been taught to obey orders, not to show initiative. Sent with them into Slovenia, he recalled how very cross the Indian command was that the war should end without being able to fight the Soviets. Roger’s Yugoslav interlude had another legacy, an ability to startle and impress undergraduates by exclaiming ‘Death to fascists!’ in Serbo-Croat. His own breadth of reading, immense and ever-expanding, now included Indian (and West Indian) writers whom he relished for bringing to the English language a new exuberance.

In 1946 Magdalen had been crowded with demobbed servicemen starting or resuming course. Five, six or more years older than conventional adolescent freshmen, they had intellectual and emotional maturity, ‘a different order of intelligence altogether’, as McFarlane put it. They worked harder and quicker; they also worked their tutors hard. McFarlane found them stimulating. This was unsurprising in the case of Roger and John Cooper, Karl Leyser and Gerald Harriss (both would become Magdalen tutors) and Eric Stone (Roger’s closest friend at Magdalen; later, tutor at Keble). ‘There’s never been such a galaxy here before’, McFarlane acknowledged.1

Service in the ranks left Roger unruffled about talking to all sorts; but his singularity was undiminished. He did not swear. ‘Gracious!’ and ‘My hat!’ did duty as his most violent expletives. He published poetry (categorising it as ‘decayed Housman’) in his divisional paper Diagonals. His pack contained Stubbs’s Select Charters. Other history books he stored in a smoke ammunition box. McFarlane assiduously corresponded with undergraduates away at war; thus, Roger was put in touch with the formidable John Cooper (later, tutor at Trinity, Oxford), a year senior, who sent him by field-post Kern’s Kingship and Law in the Middle Ages (1939). Afterwards, he would shrug

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The winter of 1946-47 was exceptionally harsh, with deep snow, persistent sub-zero temperatures, and fuel shortages. Roger found himself paired with the erudite Karl Leyser in A.J.P. Taylor’s tutorials. Taylor’s provocative tutorial style, continually peppering students with questions during their essay reading, Roger would not afterwards imitate; he preferred the McFarlane method, staying silent until the end when he would pick off key points, criticise omissions, indicate gaps in historians’ knowledge, and seek to start a dialogue. He was closer to McFarlane from historical interest and liked the way he kept open hearth after dinner, when he would be playing Mozart, writing a review, or simply reading, yet ready to entertain discussion with pupils who dropped in. He also appreciated McFarlane’s advice to search out highquality lectures on things he was not studying, and it was then that Roger heard (Sir) Peter Russell on Poema de mio Cid and (Sir) Hamilton Gibb on Arabic history and the Islamic world. On the other hand, McFarlane could be difficult, not just serious-minded but intense and with it prickly and periodically distant. After Roger migrated to Merton, their relationship dimmed, following disagreement about how the Paston Letters should be edited.

the advent of Ralph Davis (tutor, 1956-70), a paladin of the Historical Association; and with every member of the history team – first with Norman Gibbs (tutor, 1936-53) and Michael Wallace-Hadrill (tutor, 1947-55), then with John Roberts (tutor, 1953-79; Warden, 1984-94), Philip Waller (tutor, 19712008), and Robert Gildea (tutor, 1979-2006) – Roger was a model colleague, as a bachelor selflessly shouldering petty administration whilst deliberate about forging consensus on major questions. A legion of star historians resulted, among them John M. Fletcher (1953), Henry Mayr-Harting (1954), Conrad Russell (1955), Anthony Fletcher (1959), Garth Fowden (1971), Robert Gildea (1971), Peter Ghosh (1973), Christopher Duggan (1976), Andrew Pettegree (1976), and Roger’s own successor as tutor, Steven Gunn (Fellow; 1979).

Portrait of John Roger Loxdale Highfield by artist Jeff Stultiens

In another respect Roger determined not to follow McFarlane. He had revelled in a reading party McFarlane took to Llanthony Priory one vacation; but McFarlane invited select students only. When Roger instituted the same for finalists at Merton in 1953 – these continue still – he insisted that anyone reading History should have the opportunity to participate. Favouritism in a tutor he abhorred. A second innovation, the foundation of the rising quality of Merton history undergraduates, was Roger’s decision to conduct principally one-on-one tutorials; this, together with his discriminating choice of Special Subject tutors and care over admissions, making great efforts to place worthy surplus candidates in other colleges, raised Merton’s stock among schoolteachers who regularly directed promising pupils to apply. This reputation was reinforced with

FEATURES | HIGHFIELD REMEMBERED

click, click of the metal heels on his shoes crossing Front Quad, undergraduates unerringly knew the precise time of day. Roger’s self-containment can partly be attributed to the premature loss of both parents. He was always careful not to intrude on others and stoical about any affliction, but his siblings and their families mattered greatly to him. Young nephews and nieces fondly remember him playing snap with them and at Christmas producing puddings made by the Merton chef.

Such attentiveness came at a cost, a heavy teaching load especially. Only towards the end, as specialisation intensified and it became impossible to keep pace with new material emerging across the range of topics he covered, did Roger admit to dissatisfaction and ‘on retirement … the sense of tremendous pleasure and relief that I shall never have to teach seventeenth-century Prussia or seventeenth-century Sweden again’. Always, the Library provided uplift, ‘a source of unending interest’. There he made important discoveries, instigated vital preservation, and improved scholars’ access. He first revisited Spain on vacation in 1957, crossing the frontier to Gibraltar to see his brother who was C.O. of 54 AntiAircraft Regiment; but failing eyesight after 1982 precluded further archival work there. He was Sub-Warden in 1959-61, also Acting-Warden when Warden Mure was in the USA. He seldom took up his sabbatical entitlement, not before 1964, and when in 1973 he accepted a visiting professorship in South Carolina this was in order to include Mexico in his itinerary. He greatly enjoyed America, but that upon his return he greeted a colleague in Front Quad with ‘Howdy!’ is likely fiction. Until illness overtook him, Roger habitually attended chapel. He was touched when the choir sang ‘Happy Birthday’ on his 90th. In retirement his intellectual inquisitiveness was undimmed. Colleagues always received a letter, containing appreciation and acute observation, following occasions to which he had been invited. His courtesy and consideration towards other guests were unfailing. He was the obvious appointment as in-College tutor when Prince Naruhito,

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The number and variety of Roger’s friendships were remarkable. Once made they were retained, as that from his army days with the horticulturalist Christo Lloyd who, he remembered, infuriated his sergeant by arranging flowers in a fire bucket. Roger himself was not as guileless as he sometimes appeared. Lloyd reported to Beth Chatto in 1996: 'Roger once told me that in Oxford, if you find yourself talking to a stranger at a party, you only have to ask "And how is the magnum opus?" for the floodgates of conversation (or monologue) to be opened. A couple of years later, when Roger had come on a visit, "How is the magnum opus?", I enquired. All unsuspecting, he immediately entered into the details of what he was working on.'3 Yet it’s quite probable that Roger knowingly walked into Lloyd’s trap and enjoyed doing so. Unpompous and blessed with a keen sense of the ridiculous, with Roger laughter was never far below the surface. It was invariably signalled, as he vividly recalled people and events, by a sparkle in the eye and puckish chuckle. When Rowan Williams came to preach in chapel, Roger prayed he wouldn’t be recognised as one of the interviewers who – decades earlier – turned down the future Archbishop of Canterbury for a Junior Research Fellowship. Tolkien mania both amused and baffled him. He liked Tolkien personally but couldn’t fathom the fuss that surrounded him. Approached by a television producer for reminiscences, he deftly recommended Bruce Mitchell at Teddy Hall as a Tolkien pupil – a rare bird indeed, Roger remarked confidentially, because Tolkien was very lazy and supervised few. This deflection spared him having to admit that, aside from having played squash together, all he could say of Tolkien was that he was incomparably the worst Sub-Warden ever.

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The ultimate high or (depending on the vantage) low point of Roger’s and Merton’s experience of Tolkien came when Tolkien offered to bequeath to the College the priceless manuscript of The Hobbit (1937). Roger as Librarian was naturally beset by visions of queues, stretching along Merton Street and endlessly beyond, of miscellaneous devotees and doctoral students, taking it in turns to prostrate themselves before the sacred relic; but he and the Warden and Fellows manned up and duly assembled for a ceremony in the New Common Room at which Tolkien handed over the treasure to the sound of popping corks. Later, when Roger cut the string and opened the brown paper parcel, he discovered that the great man had wrapped up a different and still unfinished manuscript. Not only was he working on it, he wanted it back. It turned out to be The Silmarillion (1977) which, along with The Hobbit, Merton never did get. ‘Waste of good champagne’, was Roger’s withering verdict. In 1997, when a new undergraduate library was created in the Old Warden’s Lodgings, I wrote as Senior Tutor to Roger to convey a wish that he should set modesty aside and allow the room housing the history collection to be called the Highfield Room, in recognition of his extraordinary services. Happily, he acquiesced, but only after feeling ‘a faint pang in so far as the History Library was formerly Wallace-Hadrill’s teachingroom, and I well recall how outraged he was when his former teaching-room in Mob Quad was turned by me into the Beerbohm Room. He had no use for frivolous Max at all. So now …his ghost will surely reprove me sharply for usurpation.’ The lasting memories must always be, for his many hundred pupils, those of Roger as tutor. As age succeeds age, so attitudes and expectations imperceptibly shift. Roger retained the unsentimental manner of the war generation. It was not unfeeling, still less joyless, yet marked by a clear perception that everyone had a job to get on with. Roger was efficiency personified. Make a request of him and, long before email was dreamt of, an answer would appear in the pigeon-hole within hours. In his study, on a side table by his chair, were neatly piled blank cards. During a tutorial he would take one to jot down notes about the essay being read to him; at the end, the card would be ritually torn up as the undergraduate left. Methodical and professional, it symbolised what a tutorial is designed to be: dispassionate

intellectual exchange. Roger’s gesture was not unkindly and simply signalled that the business was over. This matter-of-factness was one reason he was so admired. His demeanour was never off-putting; on the contrary, pupils recognised that with his approachability went a great loyalty towards them. Directness and honesty being Roger’s hallmarks, he didn’t believe in gilding the lily. His congratulation of one undergraduate who had bagged a First – a much scarcer occurrence 40 years ago than nowadays – included the uncommon accolade that it was ‘the worst First it was possible to get’. Every generation is tested to hit the right note in communicating with another. Roger overcame this problem by ignoring it and being himself. His occasional misfires endeared him the more. Deep in thought while peregrinating round Christ Church Meadows one afternoon in the early 1970s with Peter Ghosh, silence prevailed and grew heavier with each resounding stride on the gravel until Roger, not slackening pace, inclined his head in the direction of grazing cattle. They were not long-horned highlands or any special pedigree, mere bog-standard cows; nevertheless, they inspired from Roger an imperishable obiter dictum: ‘Splendid beasts!’ Politeness having been served by this small talk, silence enveloped them more tightly for the remainder of the walk.

A fine portrait of Roger by Jeff Stultiens in 1987 hangs in the Upper Bursary. It captures him in characteristic interrogative pose in his ideal setting, the old library in Mob. Roger has been a generous benefactor to the College, but all who have known him will count the warmth of his personality and luminosity of his intelligence as his greatest gifts. Philip Waller4 Emeritus Fellow

1. Letter, 13 July 1946, in Gerald Harriss (ed.), K.B. McFarlane: Letters to Friends, 1940-1966 (Magdalen College, Oxford, 1997). Roger was one of McFarlane’s most prolific wartime correspondents. None of McFarlane’s letters to him are reproduced in this volume; but Roger’s fluctuating moods, as McFarlane interpreted them, can be traced in letters to others, chiefly to Karl Leyser. 2. Prince Naruhito, Crown Prince of Japan (trans., Sir Hugh Cortazzi), The Thames and I: A Memoir of Two Years at Oxford (Folkestone, 2006), 115-23, and plate 10 for a photo of Roger with the Prince. 3. Letter, 4 Dec. 1996, in Beth Chatto and Christopher Lloyd, Dear Friend and Gardener: Letters on Life and Gardening (1998). 4. I’m grateful to Robert Gildea, Steve Gunn and Henry Mayr-Harting, and to Peter Ghosh and John Nightingale, for suggestions in writing this. An abbreviated version was published in The Times, 22 May 2017.

FEATURES | HIGHFIELD REMEMBERED

Crown Prince of Japan, matriculated at Merton in 1983; and he represented the College at the Prince’s wedding in 1993. In his memoir the Prince described Roger’s ‘incalculable’ influence and the ‘intellectual excitement’ he generated; also Roger’s still brisk soldier’s walking speed.2 At the thanksgiving service for Roger’s life, held in chapel on 9 May 2017, Minister Hideki Uyama (from the Japanese Embassy) and Dame Jessica Rawson (Honorary Fellow; Warden 19942010) laid wreaths at the altar on behalf of the Crown Prince and of Princess Akiko (Merton, 2001-02, 2004-10).

Join us for a Memorial Service honouring

DR ROGER HIGHFIELD 3:30pm Saturday 21 October 2017 Merton College Chapel Followed by tea in Hall To indicate you would like to attend the service, please contact the Chapel Administrator, Deborah Thimbleby [email protected]

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By Dr J. R. L. Highfield My thanks are due to the executors of the estate of the late Sir Max Beerbohm for permission to reproduce two of his drawings and to make numerous quotations from his writings. Max came to Merton from Charterhouse in the beautiful autumn of 1890. He was not yet 18 when he had been accepted on 6 June. ‘I was a year younger than most of the other freshmen, and was young even for my age.’ On 15 October he was matriculated and assigned to GR Scott as his tutor. Scott was the Mods don and it was in Mods that Max took his only University examination. He got a third. ‘I have, however, a fragmentary recollection of Artistotle’s fragment on the drama, which I read for Mods. The examiners, if I remember rightly, marked my paper “gamma-minus-query”, a clear proof that even in my adolescence I was not stage struck.’ He did once consider reading for the Bar, which might have meant a switch after Mods to Law. But his meeting with HB Irving was to put an end to that idea. ‘I had, up to that moment, vaguely destined myself for the Bar. But in expressing to Irving this ambition, I saw the full absurdity of it and for good and all dropped it before he had time to say (as he did with more than his usual gravity) “Ha!”’ Thus after Mods Max began to read Greats with WW How and W Wallace. But he never finished the course. Though he later became a DLitt, he never took a BA.

Max at Merton

He had already caricatured the masters at Charterhouse. Naturally the Merton dons did not escape. The aristocratic Warden, the Honourable George Brodrick, had a wispy beard and jutting-out teeth. He was a favourite target. Max drew him at table. He drew him on the back of a wooden horse surveying the playing fields of Eton. Altogether at least six Brodrick caricatures survive. The College Officers fell ready victims. The Senior Tutor, WW How, was revealed as the Fat Boy in Pickwick, attending the Merton Fancy Dress Ball. The Principal of the Postmasters, Thomas Bowman, came out as a policeman, pointing with a podgy and accusing finger. A drawing of Professor Sir Ray Lankester probably belongs to a later period than 1890–94, though Lankester was a Fellow for three of those years. It is to be found in A Book of Caricatures,

into a copy of which Max wrote later in the margin: ‘Dear Ray was rather hurt by this. And, good heavens – I don’t wonder. I only wonder that he quickly forgave me. I wish he were alive. One of the most delightful men I ever knew.’ Andrew Lang, a former Fellow, returned to his old college from time to time. Max drew him posting a letter into a pillar-box under the title, ‘Letters to dead authors’. So much for the scholar of English Letters and Scottish History. Max did go to lectures. ‘I remember’, he writes, ‘how my tutor asked me what lectures I wished to attend, and how he laughed when I said that I wished to attend the lectures of Walter Pater.’ The idol proved a disappointment. Indeed, the only University lectures which Max recalls enjoying were those of William Walter Merry, the Rector of Lincoln. They were on Aristophanes. But he soon fell to drawing the lecturers on Classical Studies. Such were Robinson Ellis of Trinity, the University Reader in Latin Literature, and Ingram Bywater of Exeter, his opposite number in Greek. Haigh of Corpus and Wadham was drawn holding up the Mask of Tragedy, while Sidgwick dances on the topmost point of Parnassus.

FEATURES | MAX AT MERTON

Roger Highfield was a regular contributor to Postmaster and we reproduce here one of his articles from 1960 in his memory.

His earliest friend at Merton was AB Birnbaum, to whom he devoted ‘A sight that gladdened me’. But his best friend among the 90-odd undergraduates, who made up the junior members of the College, was undoubtedly Reginald Turner. ‘Reggie’ was older than Max, having come up in 1888. He took a third in History in 1892. When he went down in that year Max kept him posted with the latest Merton gossip. Long afterwards, when Turner had died in Florence about 1943, these letters were found in Turner’s bureau. Frank Walbrand-Evans, another friend, was, like Turner, an older man. It was for him that Max drew one of his pictures of Brodrick on the day Evans took his degree in 1891. Of Max’s drawings of Merton undergraduates, I have only been able to identify that of JK Fotheringham, exhibitioner and later Fellow of Magdalen. But it is known that Leonard Messel went canoeing on the Cherwell with Max and that Viscount St Cyres introduced him to William Rothenstein – a lifelong friend. And so, through Rothenstein, Max met John Lane and Aubrey Beardsley. Harold Ellis, a freshman of 1892, gave him a copy of Wilde’s Salome, inscribed ‘To my friend Max Beerbohm. Merton: Oxon: 1894.’ It stayed in Max’s library throughout his life. Of acquaintances outside College little is

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FEATURES | MAX AT MERTON

June 1893 he wrote for The Spirit Lamp (which was edited by Lord Alfred Douglas), ‘The incomparable beauty of modern dress’. Was Merton the ‘certain minor Oxford college’ where the trial of the fop was held? Was Max the fop? Someone gave him a copy of three volumes of The Recreations of the Rabelais Club. The Rabelais was a literary and dining club in London, which published the occasional writings of its members. Walter Besant and WH Pollock were, for a time, its secretaries. Both Lang and George Saintsbury were members. Onto the flyleaf of one of the volumes Max wrote the lines beginning ‘Virginibus puerisque…’ and then added a series of drawings to illustrate the Recreations. Soon he began to reach well beyond the confines of Merton. Wilde revisited Oxford in 1893–94 and Max drew him under the title ‘The House of Pomegranates’. The end of Max’s undergraduate career is a little strange. Rather ominously on 17 June 1893 the Warden and Tutors’ Committee resolved, ‘That Mr Beerbohm be told that he is expected to do good Collections in October’. But when October came, rather mysteriously, he was allowed to stay down for the whole Michaelmas Term. One of his drawings is marked ‘Café Royal, 1893’. There is no doubt that it was in this period that he began to frequent The Crown in Charing Cross Road, the Café Royal and the music-halls with the attention of a devotee.

known. But as he tells us himself, they included Bancroft of BNC and, of course, Irving of New. His scout was H Stone. It is thanks to him that many of Max’s Merton drawings survive. For Stone rescued them from the wastepaper basket. Later he gave them to his son, who was until recently the silver butler at Queen’s. Max’s rooms were on the ground floor in Mob in part of what is now the Library. The same set had been occupied in the sixties by another personality. ‘Lord Randolph Churchill, idol of all schoolboys in the eighties, had occupied the rooms in the late sixties and had carved his name on a small sidetable. Deeply was my young heart thrilled when my scout, ushering me in, displayed to me that signature.’ Mob is the

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scene of ‘The Theft, 1894’ and ‘The Restitution, 1920’. It was to Mob that Max returned in the company of Yeats-Brown in 1934 to seek out his old rooms. He found them internally altered beyond recognition. He has recorded his feelings on this occasion and his first impressions on seeing the New (now Grove) Buildings, after Harold Hughes had removed Butterfield’s top storey. Of course Max was a Myrmidon. He devoted a special essay to that College Dining Club. He was also a member of the now defunct Debating Society. On 25 May 1891 he proposed, ‘That in the opinion of this House the judicial system of England is in need of reform.’ Next year on 31 October 1892 he moved, ‘That this House views with pleasure the increasing

That he came back to Merton in Hilary 1894 is proved, both by the date of inscription in Ellis’ book and by the date which Max himself attached to ‘The Theft’. But in April appeared in the first number of The Yellow Book his first public success – ‘The Defence of Cosmetics’. Max was launched. By Michaelmas 1894 he was an undergraduate no more. unpopularity of the Drama.’ Both motions were lost. He may have belonged to a third club, for he says himself, ‘There was in my college at Oxford a little “Essay Society” to which I found myself belonging. We used to meet every Thursday evening in the room of this or that member; and, when coffee had been handed round, one of us read an essay – a calm little mild essay on one of those vast themes that no undergraduate can resist.’ Naturally Max contributed to undergraduate magazines. He wrote for The Clown and for Isis and his drawings were sometimes to be seen in the windows of Shrimptons. In

For the end of this brief survey, please turn back to Max himself. The self-caricatures, which he drew with an unsparing hand, are fairly well known. Forgotten (or halfforgotten perhaps) are these sentences from a written selfcaricature: ‘I was a modest good-humoured boy. It is Oxford that has made me insufferable.’ Page 86: The Theft, 1894 Page 88: The Restitution, 1920. Above, left: Drawn by Max during an examination in Hall. Hon G Brodrick (Warden), Canon Freeling, G Scott and (facing) W Hour.

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Michael was born on 21 December 1930 in Shropshire, into a family dedicated to education. His father, a schoolmaster, died when Michael was only 14, leaving his mother with the challenge of bringing up him and his seven-yearold brother. Michael, who was educated at Wellington Grammar School, had just got distinctions in mathematics, chemistry, and physics School Certificate, and his mother encouraged him to continue into the sixth form (rather than working to support the family) with a view to going to Cambridge. Michael continued to excel but was awarded a state scholarship tenable only at Oxford, and was advised by a former Wellington pupil already at Oxford to apply to St John’s. Here Michael met a brilliant new physics tutor, Brebis Bleaney, who had perhaps the greatest influence on his life. Michael enjoyed the undergraduate life, and was St John’s Captain of Boats 1950-51. He of course excelled in physics and was awarded First Class Honours, qualifying him for a funded studentship to do research on paramagnetic resonance in Bleaney’s group.

Baker Remembered

During the Second World War Bleaney had helped develop radar (microwave) technology in the Clarendon Laboratory, and in 1945 co-invented electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), exploiting the new microwave technologies for fundamental research. The field of EPR spread rapidly worldwide and remains an important technique not only in physics but also in chemistry, life sciences and quantum technology. Michael’s doctoral research, at St John’s and St Antony’s colleges (DPhil awarded 1954), concentrated on EPR of hydrated salts of rare earths, then a relatively unknown group of the periodic table. Michael recalled Bleaney sitting on his desk, writing their first joint paper, as he was still measuring the data, which showed that Vanadium 50 has a nuclear spin of 6, the largest then discovered. After a laboratory explosion that embedded fragments of glass into Michael’s thigh, Bleaney took his student to the Radcliffe Infirmary; the operation to remove the glass was interrupted halfway through because the surgeon had to go and play rugby – this was most definitely Oxford. During the same

Hilary Term in 1953 Michael met Gabrielle (Gay) Perfect, who had come to the Clarendon as secretary and librarian. They were married in July 1954. Michael, with Gay, visited Harvard as a Fulbright Scholar, 1955-56, where he worked with the Nobel Prize winner Norman Ramsey. On return from Harvard, Michael gained an ICI fellowship at the Clarendon. He became a University lecturer in the Physics Department and the first Tutorial Fellow in Physics at Merton on 1 January 1957. Along with the Clarendon, Merton remained the centre of his professional life for the rest of his career.

FEATURES | BAKER REMEMBERED

Professor John Michael Baker, who died on 10 August 2017, aged 86, was an inspirational and patient teacher and a world recognised physicist, who spent a lifetime in Oxford nurturing students, solving research problems and helping colleagues.

When Michael arrived, Merton had only one physics undergraduate. He quickly built up numbers, initially with six freshmen per year, later increasing to about eight. During Michael’s time, Merton recruited as additional Physics Fellows Michael Bowler (1966) and James Binney FRS (1981). As a tutor, Michael aimed to instil the excitement of physics, physical understanding as well as mathematical rigour, and the links between the different parts of the subject. His pupils remembered him in particular for always being prepared to make time to discuss a problem. His quiet helpfulness also extended well beyond the physics community. He was proud of his pupils’ achievements in their subsequent careers, which included a Nobel Prize, several FRSs, and professorships and scientific enterprises around the world. He enjoyed keeping in touch or catching up with them at gaudies and other reunions. Michael was Tutor for Admissions, 1966-68; Sub-Warden, 1978-80, and Senior Tutor, 1986-87. He became an Emeritus Fellow on his retirement in 1998, and continued to participate in College life, regularly attending the Ockham Lectures. Michael recalled his ‘big-miss’ in 1954-55, when he was slow to take up Bleaney’s suggestion that they should try exciting both EPR and nuclear magnetic resonance in the same sample. Because of other work, Michael delayed following up Bleaney’s insight until after his visit to Harvard, by which time George Feher got to electron nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) first. From 1957 Michael, now inheriting Bleaney’s research group, was, however, the pioneer in Britain of ENDOR, which provides finer resolution of the hyperfine interaction than EPR, and better information about the identity and properties of the nucleus. Michael

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FEATURES | BAKER REMEMBERED

continued to be actively involved in research on defects in diamond up to his death. Michael is survived by his three children, Christopher, Timothy and Claire, who were brought up on Merton Street, and hundreds of students who hold him in great affection and are eternally grateful for his patience in teaching them the things they never thought they would understand. I will always remember Michael’s great determination, whether in the laboratory or cycling up the Woodstock Road into driving rain into his eighties, but mostly his razor-sharp mind and his ability always to make time to help others. Professor Mark Newton (1986) University of Warwick, Department of Physics

Page 90: Professor Michael Baker with wife Gabrielle Perfect. Page 92: Physics lab colleagues at a reunion in 1991. Professor Bleaney seated, second from right; Professor Baker in back row, two places to the right of Bleaney. Right: Photograph used with permission of The Clarendon Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Oxford

continued to apply EPR and ENDOR to a range of problems through to the 1980s. In 1987 Bleaney’s successor as Dr Lee’s Professor, Sir William (Bill) Mitchell, suggested that Michael with his graduate students begin what turned into an extensive programme of research to use these techniques to study the characteristics and properties of ‘point defects’ in natural and lab-grown diamonds. These studies allowed the identification of defects and impurities which can for instance alter the colour of diamond (greatly changing the value of gems) and today the properties of such point defects are being exploited in nanoscale magnetic sensors and even in prototype quantum computers. Thirty years on this research programme continues, at Warwick and elsewhere, and in no small part led to the foundation of the

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multi-university, government- and industry-funded Centre for Doctoral Training in Diamond Science and Technology. Michael, an internationally renowned researcher who travelled the world with his work – to the US, Australia, France, South Africa, Poland, and Russia – did not shirk his teaching and administrative duties in the Clarendon: he lectured, demonstrated and examined. He was Chairman of the SubFaculty of Physics and Member of the Physical Sciences Board, 1972-75; a Member of the Departmental Committee of the Clarendon, 1978-80; and Head of Condensed Matter Physics there, 1993-97. Michael was elected a Fellow of the International EPR/ ESR Society in 2011, and despite ill-health in recent years

Join us for a Memorial Service honouring

PROFESSOR MICHAEL BAKER 3pm Saturday 10 February 2018 Merton College Chapel Followed by tea in Hall To indicate you would like to attend the service, please contact the Chapel Administrator, Deborah Thimbleby [email protected]

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Suez Demonstration in 1956: a Mertonian’s Tale

People in novels who go to Oxford tend to have a wonderful, dreamy time, lounging around in punts, falling in love, acting in plays, getting drunk, attending the odd lecture, and occasionally doing some work at the behest of a wonderfully sympathetic tutor who becomes a friend for life, before acquiring a degree and drifting off into the real world of careers, families and so on. Much of this did, in fact, happen to me, though certainly not the tutor bit. I went up to Merton College in October 1956. Merton is by most standards – Teaching Fellowships, a royal charter and so on – Oxbridge’s oldest college, having been founded in 1264. Some of its fabric dates from soon after the foundation, including Mob Quad and its famous medieval library, and parts of the enormous, only half-completed,

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But any thoughts of a life of reclusive scholarly calm were swept aside when the term was barely three weeks old. Britain and France had invaded Egypt in a collusive pretence of halting an Israeli attack, a last gasp exercise in aggressive imperialism and duplicity which outraged progressive minded students of the sort that I sometimes reckoned I was, and dismayed our closest allies, headed by President Eisenhower. At the same time, the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact clients were busy putting down an insurrection in Budapest, a cruel and bloody activity that outraged the slightly less progressive minded, among whom I was numbered whenever I forgot how progressive I now was. Already activists in the latter faction were preparing to drop everything and head for Hungary, equipped with medical supplies and a determination to help man the barricades, while the more progressive faction had the rather easier, and far cheaper, option of simply taking the train to Paddington and joining in a demo or two.

chapel. My rooms were in Mob, backing on to the chapel. Every quarter of an hour the clock in the tower which loomed above boomed out its mournful, minor key, medieval-sounding ditty, known now to the millions who have watched the television series Morse and Lewis, and spine-tingling in a way that the even better known Westminster chimes are not. I was impressed, but at the same time almost overwhelmed, by the atmosphere of antiquity and scholarly gloom that seemed to pervade my new surroundings, including my 13th-century cell. Fortunately, Merton was one of the richer colleges, able to afford post-medieval amenities such as a washbasin with hot and cold in every bedroom. It is perhaps unsurprising that, immersed in so much history, I opted for

I was torn, but simple economics won the day, and I soon found myself in Conrad Russell's (1955) rooms, with a bunch of eager activists busily planning Merton’s, or maybe Oxford’s, part in the next day’s demo. Conrad was Bertrand Russell’s son, a circumstance that we reckoned lent our activities a philosophical respectability and gravitas that they might otherwise have lacked. One of our number said he was a member of the Communist Party, but the rest of us were just a politically heterogeneous bunch of liberal minded young people who were deeply unhappy with what Eden and his government were up to, as were probably half or more of the population. I was probably the youngest, having gone straight from school to Oxford, whereas all the others had done their National Service and were therefore two or three years older than me, and much more worldly and sophisticated. So I had to work doubly hard, to appear as mature as the rest of them.

We made some placards and banners, which had to be concealable in bags and briefcases so as not to draw attention in and around the station, and someone said that he had acquired a supply of ball bearings to throw under the police horses’ hooves so that they would slip and fall over. This proposed tactic did not meet with general approval (cruelty to animals) and, though plenty of ball bearings were indeed thrown, I doubt whether any of them emanated from our gang. The next day we went to the station in dribs and drabs, as we reckoned that a large party would arouse any prowling Bulldogs’ suspicion, and managed to get to Trafalgar Square undetected. There we joined what soon became an enormous crowd, urged on by fiery speakers before setting off down Whitehall, chanting a number of slogans including one based on the voting figures in the UN General Assembly resolution, proposed by the Americans and carried 64 - 5, with a few abstentions. The five opposers were the UK, France, Israel, Australia and New Zealand. The centre of the crowd halted in front of Downing Street, in those days a public right of way but closed off by the police that day, and roared out its disapproval of Anthony Eden and all his government.

FEATURES | SUEZ DEMONSTRATION IN 1956

a decidedly medieval form of degree in English, with Chaucer as the sole, not over-convincing, concession to modernity, and lashings of Old and Middle English, garnished with Old Norse and Mediaeval Welsh. My sole extracurricular activity was music, in the form of membership of the College choral society and rather inaccurate participation in the second row of the violas in one of the lesser University orchestras.

I do not recall whether we joined any of the follow-up demos, but my taste in extra-mural activities had certainly been affected. Politics seemed far more fun than trying to play the viola, an activity that was put in cold storage for the next 25 years. Events in Hungary, however, had a contrary, more positive effect on my music-making. Many Hungarian students fled the country once the uprising had been crushed, and found refuge in universities throughout the West. Merton welcomed a scientist, George (now Sir George) Radda (Emeritus Fellow; 1956), and a musician, László Heltay (Honorary Fellow; 1957). László had been studying under Zoltan Kodály, and he immediately took our slightly lacklustre College choral society in hand. It was soon renamed the Kodály Choir, and I was proud to be a founder member (and in due course one of its bit-part soloists, as a baritone). The Kodály Choir still flourishes, I kept up my singing in choirs for many years, and Laszlo went on to forge a distinguished career all over the world as a choral and orchestral conductor. Richard Thomas (1956)

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The site for Merton Priory was probably chosen for its proximity to the River Wandle and to Stane Street, the Roman road between London and Chichester. The earliest church had a relatively short existence and was replaced in the 13th century. The second church was one of the largest in England with a length just over one hundred metres. The adjacent buildings included cloisters, a chapter house, and an infirmary with its own kitchen and chapel. Nearby there were fishponds, vineyards, a watermill and a cemetery. During the 12th and 13th centuries, Merton Priory often featured in national politics and had many royal visitors. Archaeological evidence suggests that such guests were not restricted to the traditional monastic diet. When King Henry I died in Normandy in 1135, his body was conveyed to Merton Priory to lie in state before the funeral. King John made a visit in 1202. King Henry III was accommodated at Merton Priory for an Anglo-French peace conference in 1217. A series of documented legal codes, known as the Statutes of Merton, was devised in 1236. King Henry VI was in his infancy when his father died in 1422. While still a child he was crowned, both in Westminster and in Paris. Nevertheless in 1437 when he was deemed old enough to fulfil his role as monarch, another coronation ceremony was performed in Merton Priory.

Nine Centuries of Merton History

A century later, King Henry VIII ordered the destruction of Merton Priory and the confiscation of its wealth. Most buildings were dismantled and thousands of tons of stones were carted away (at eight pence per ton) for reuse in Nonsuch Palace. Though that edifice no longer exists, some bits of the masonry from Merton Priory have survived and are displayed today in the Museum of London.

From the middle of the 16th century, the riverside site was developed as an industrial area, particularly for weaving and printing. William Morris (a prominent member of the 19thcentury Arts and Crafts movement) had a workshop near the river. The name of the area was transformed to Merton Abbey, though without any ecclesiastical justification. In the Victorian era a railway line between Wimbledon and Tooting was constructed across the site. A station named Merton Abbey opened in 1868 with its centre over the foundations of the infirmary chapel. The number of passengers using this station declined drastically when the Northern Line of the underground system was extended southward to Colliers Wood and Morden. Consequently in 1929 the passenger services at Merton Abbey ceased, though freight traffic between the main line at Wimbledon and the industrial area continued until 1975. From the start of the 20th century there were several archaeological investigations, in which the foundations of many medieval buildings were identified. The map shows their positions relative to structures visible today. The area previously occupied by the church is now a vast car park with shops above. However, an elevated section of Merantun Way (now part of the A24 road to Sussex) has a small exhibition area below, which includes the exposed foundations of the chapter house. It is open to visitors during a few weekends each year.

FEATURES | NINE CENTURIES OF MERTON HISTORY

Merton had an important role in religion, education and politics for almost a century and a half before the foundation of Merton College in 1264. Merton Priory was consecrated in 1117 as an Augustinian religious community. It was located at Merton in Surrey, currently known as London SW19. In the 12th century Merton Priory provided education for some prominent churchmen including Thomas Becket and Nicholas Breakspear, who later became the only English pope, adopting the name Adrian IV. Walter de Merton was a 13th-century alumnus.

On the south side of Merantun Way are now restaurants, blocks of flats, a car park and a weekend market. The market is known as Merton Abbey Mills, a name formerly used by a cloth factory. There is a working Victorian waterwheel and a pleasant riverside walk to Morden Hall Park. A more extensive account of the history can be found in the booklet by David Saxby entitled Merton Priory (Museum of London). David Greene (1958) Left: Plan of the Merton site showing both ancient and modern structures. The water features today are shown in light blue. Medieval ponds and streams are shown in dark blue. Areas studied by archaeologists are outlined in red. Photograph: MOLA

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The Garden (1) Spring

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The whole site of the College was suddenly truncated by about one fifth in the 16th century. Six tenements to the west of the Chapel up to Christ Church (Plots 24-31) had been acquired by Merton in the previous centuries. These were disgracefully alienated by Warden Richard Rawlins in 1515, when he leased the properties for an annual rent of £4.6.8 to Bishop Richard Foxe, for the foundation of Corpus Christi College. Rawlins was removed by the Visitor, Archbishop Warham of Canterbury, from the Wardenship like ‘a mortified limb’ (putridum membrum). But the land where Merton might have built the nave of the Chapel, and much else, was irrevocably lost.

Plate 1: The Site of the College: 1-4 (1265-68); 5, 6 (1266, 1318); 7, 9-17 (c.1300-1400); 8 (1881); 18 (1730); 24-31 (1340; lost 1515). Plate 2: Letters patent of Henry III (1266) granting access to the placia subtus murum. Plate 3: The College in 1643, Wenceslas Hollar; the area under the south-east of the City wall is well cultivated with eight flower beds, by the College. Plate 4: Crocuses outside Grove Building. Plate 5: The Tower in the spring. Below are cowslips, anemones, acer and prunus trees.

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The present unity of the Garden, stretching as it does from the Grove in the west, then eastwards and northwards, following the City wall up to Merton Street, disguises that, until 1904, there were here three separate, private gardens. Their history over seven centuries will be the subject of following articles. The next four articles in this series will be devoted to the Garden. They will chart its history and Lucille Savin, the College Head Gardener, will contribute descriptions of the work to be done in each season of the year. The five plots which were to form the nucleus of the site of the College were acquired by Walter de Merton between 1265 and 1268 (Plate 1). They are now occupied by the Chapel, Front and Fellows’ Quadrangles. Letters patent of Henry III (1266) permitted the occupation of the land to the south of the five tenements up to the City wall (placia subtus murum) (Plate 2). A similar grant by Edward II in 1318 extended the permission up to the north-east corner of the wall. The grants were made subject to access by the King in time of war (tempore hostilitatis). These concessions were to prove of singular importance in allowing the creation of the Garden, up to the City wall. Its considerable exploitation, at least by 1643, is clear (Plate 3). With the exception of St Alban Hall (Plot 8, which was not acquired by Merton until 1881), all the ten halls and tenements lying to the east of the College, up to the City wall, had been obtained by the College, either by purchase or lease, by the

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2

3

Alan Bott (1953) Bodley Fellow

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FEATURES | LOST, LITTLE KNOWN AND UNBUILT MERTON (14)

Lost, Little Known and Unbuilt Merton (14)

year 1500. The large area to the east of the wall (now Rose Lane) was not to form part of the College until 1730.

Spring is a time for bulbs. Planted below deciduous trees, dry and shady, daffodils, snowdrops, crocuses, scillas, and anemones naturalise and multiply (Plate 4). Blossom is well exhibited by the fine prunus and acer trees in the Grove (Plate 5). Lawns are scarified of moss and a slow-release fertiliser and spot-treat weed killer, only affecting broad leaves, not the grass, are applied before the first mowing. The greenhouses, with under-heating, promote the propagation of seedlings and cuttings for the herbaceous borders of the following summer. Lucille Savin Head Gardener

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FEATURES | FAREWELL TO DAVE

Any advice for the new bar manager, Neal? Try and be as helpful and positive as possible. Try to become part of the students’ lives. If they’re having girlfriend or boyfriend, or family, problems, listen to them, learn, and be helpful, but not interfering. Be their parent while they are here, someone they can trust. I’ve had people telling me that I helped make their lives – you are important to the students. What have been your favourite times in the year? My two favourite times in College life are Freshers' Week and Degree Day. Freshers' Week to see the new students arrive shy and worried and not sure what College life is all about; then to see over three or four years the amazing transformation from a lost soul into a responsible adult.

Farewell to Dave

Dave Hedges has been a shoulder to cry on, a smiling face with plenty of jokes and stories to tell, a father figure (quite literally in the College Christmas videos), and a staple behind the bar for 30 years. Before he retired in August, Postmaster asked him about his time at Merton. So, Dave how did you end up at Merton College? My stepfather couldn’t find work in the north, but my mum saw an advert looking for civil servants in Oxford. He applied and moved down to be a scout. I came down three months later, saw the place, said ‘If there’s any jobs going let me know’, and three weeks later got a job with a free house so came down. I went from £400 to £94 a week earnings, as I used to work in a training school in a factory. It was a deadend job and the same routine day-in, day-out, so I needed a change. I’ve never regretted coming to Oxford. When I saw the place I thought, ‘I could do with something like this’. Why working in a bar? In the north I used to work in factories and in a bar in a working men’s club, since I was 15. David Grainger who used to work here left, so I asked Bursar Barney Henderson if I could do his job instead of working as head butler in the SCR.

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Degree Day is by far my favourite day. To see the proud look on their parents’ faces as they walk to the Sheldonian is a proud day for us all, as all the College staff in some small way contributed to help them get their degree. What were your first impressions of the College and students? What a beautiful place! The 290 students were mostly public schoolboys from Eton and Winchester, and were incredibly friendly. It was part of their schooling to be polite. There was a great family atmosphere, it’s changed a little over the years, but the students, the staff and everyone got along. I remember being told ‘You’ll be a parent to the students’ when I started in the bar and that’s right – this place is my life, an extension of my house. I don’t feel like I’m going to work every day, I feel like I’m going into another part of the house. I’m going to find it hard on Saturday when I’m not here. What’s surprised you most about working here? The friendliness – everyone saying ‘Hi’ in passing and acknowledging each other across the College. The food was amazing. Families would come here especially because the food was so incredible. And the lifestyle in Oxford – how lavish it was, the people, the accents! What’s your favourite tipple? Carlsberg or a G&T. No wine!

Barmen always have great stories about the folk they serve – what’s been your favourite tale? The Princess Akiko (2001) was in the bar with Jill Davies (1997), and Jill’s mum and dad. The Princess asked for a cup of tea in the bar. I said to her ‘I don’t think it will suit you. Our tea is floor sweepings in a bag and dipped in hot water; I don’t think you’ll like it’. She said, ‘I will try it’, tried it, and a few weeks later came back saying ‘I’ll have a cup of your Tetley, please, Dave.' What are you going to do now that you’re retiring? I have an offer of a part-time job at an indoor bowls club, but I’m not sure if I’ll take it. Travel will be an issue as the area is so spread out – it’s two buses away! I would like to ease into retirement like the Germans do – gradual retirement, when you decrease the days worked over time rather than just stopping. In the UK retirement is a bit abrupt, I don’t want to just stop. I might go on some holidays. I’ve fallen in love with Poland – Krakow is amazing: the food, the locals. I might take my mum, who is 90. My brother is also retiring to Holland so some holidays there too. I’ll avoid Jeremy Kyle and try to keep busy, helping my other brother Chris (Hedges, who also retired from Merton this year) to fix up his house, take care of Mum. I might bomb about in Durham on my electric bike.

Do you have any words of advice or a message for all those students and staff you’ve served over the years? Keep the bar going! Thanks for making me so welcome. I’ve enjoyed every second of it, and I’ll miss it all. It’s been the best 30 years of my life, without a doubt. And if I could rewind the video, I would do it all exactly the same.

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Dr Matthew Jenkinson (2003) (John Catt Educational, 2016)

Here are three popular Shakespeare plays gathered into one colourful, eyecatching tome, specially conceived, adapted and abridged by Matthew Jenkinson (2003) so as to appeal primarily to younger readers and actors. This is the third in the series of Hour-Long Shakespeares and combines Jenkinson’s extensive classroom experience with his learned enthusiasm for the Bard to produce a vital and accessible volume. Each play includes a lively introduction where the editor gives a flavour of what is to come and the themes that arise: ‘longing and unrequited love… deceit and trickery’. Then follows an extremely useful synopsis, a cast list and the abridged play with essential stage directions. Clarity of layout and uncluttered pages make the text straightforward for a group to work with and follow, while also ensuring the book is as appropriate for simply teaching the play in the classroom as indeed deriving a whole dramatic production. Throughout the plays, Jenkinson uses the Chorus to great effect, reassigning a considerable proportion of speeches to this one voice. This approach gives directors the flexibility to assign any number of actors a speaking part, depending on cast size and ability, which ensures that no single cast member is overburdened with lines to learn and there is a part for everyone in the school production, from the most confident to the least confident actor. Jenkinson has

changed Shakespeare’s original lineation to achieve this but, as he writes in the introduction to the plays, this serves ‘to provide more natural line breaks, should the production include more than one Chorus member’.

FEATURES | BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviews

Hour-Long Shakespeare, Volume III: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night and The Tempest

Without compromising on meaning or mood, Jenkinson employs a dextrous editing technique, to convey the work of Shakespeare to a younger audience. As Professor Michael Dobson points out in his preface, this places Jenkinson’s work within a venerable tradition of adapting Shakespeare’s plays for wider appeal. While substantial portions of dialogue have been abridged, changes to Shakespeare’s vocabulary are reassuringly rare. This allows 11–13-yearolds (and older ensembles of course) to work with a manageable script without losing the richness and strangeness of Shakespeare’s language. As Jenkinson writes, ‘one of the best ways to learn about Shakespeare is to perform one of his plays’. This series opens up the possibility to a new generation. And on a practical note, one senses the plays’ directors will be able to incorporate any combination of schoolroom mischief and talent into a production that has kept at its core the humour and total delight essential to these three plays. Lucy Norman Library Assistant

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Seahorses: A Life-Size Guide to Every Species

War and violence existed in many forms in medieval society and culture ranging from actual warfare and politics to social and judicial spheres. Bellis and Slater’s edition of collected essays on the theme of medieval fictional and historical representations of war and violence brings together approaches across different disciplines, contrasting assumptions and expectations from historians, art historians and literary critics. Rather than focusing on disciplines or types of record, the essays are set against thematic strands of ethics and aesthetics, of debating and narrating, and the experience and remembrance of violence.

Seahorses are quite fascinating. Originating some 28 million years ago, with at least 40 known species, they can range from 1.1 to 31 cm in height, and are known for their beauty, unusual upright posture, prehensile tails and the fact that the males bear their young. Male pregnancy is limited to the Syngnathidae family to which seahorses belong, along with pipefishes and seadragons – some of which are also categorised here.

Edited by Dr Joanna Bellis (Fitzjames Research Fellow in Old and Medieval English) and Laura Slater (Boydell Press, 2016)

Beginning with the introductory discussion, the volume treads a fine balance of imposing post-modern judgement on medieval practices and representations of violence and suspending all judgement in order to explore how violence of the past may have been understood then and how we understand it now. Rather than being straightforward with a clear distinction between good and evil violence, as Anne Baden-Daintree finds in her essay on violent action in the alliterative Morte Arthure, medieval violence and its representation was complex and multilayered – the changes of tone and vocabulary in depictions of violence become a cause to question the audience’s responses and the pleasures that they might have taken in reading

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and hearing of the violent acts. With its interdisciplinary approach and wide–ranging materials covering France and England over a period of 350 years with representations of war and violence from historical records and chronicles written for royal and noble audiences, romances and narratives aimed for both education and pleasure, to diaries and memoirs written on the field turned to self-promoting records for publication, the volume successfully charts the multiplicities of recording and interpreting violence with the overarching argument that medieval writers and artists were alert and responsive to these multiplicities. Elina Cotterill Information and Research Officer

Sara Lourie (1992) (Ivy Press, 2016)

The first half of Lourie's book charts mythological depictions, evolutionary history, morphology, behaviour, courtship and reproduction, distribution, conservation and trade. These chapters are a useful introduction to the species for any lay person, although some of the terminology was a little technical. The latter half of the book acts as something of an encyclopedia, with useful ‘at a glance’ classification of each species, their scientific names, specific traits and physiology, habitats, notable anatomic features and conservation status. These are beautifully illustrated with geographical maps of known distributions of each species and photographs highlighting the differences in colour patterns and physiology. Lifesized illustrations of each seahorse species are carefully annotated with their particular anatomical characteristics which can aid in identification – such as coronet and snout details, spine features, tail lengths and markings.

Lourie's passion for seahorses is evident throughout the text, most notably in her concern of the status of these marine creatures. Seahorses are a threatened species and were among the first to be listed by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). While advocating for conservation efforts and projects such as SOS (Save our Seahorses), and Project Seahorse, Lourie is careful to articulate the various spiritual, cultural, religious and economic connections with seahorses that exist in different regions globally. She cautions that in order to secure the sustainability and preservation of the species, there must be respect and understanding of these different viewpoints, particularly of those whose livelihoods depend upon these marine animals. This concern extends to marine biodiversity and conservation as a whole, with some tips about ethical consumption and citizen projects.

FEATURES | BOOK REVIEWS

Representing War and Violence 1250-1600

A most enjoyable read, which highlights the exceptional diversity and beauty of these incredible creatures. Claire Spence-Parsons Alumni Communications Officer

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Vijay Joshi (Emeritus Fellow) (OUP, 2017)

India’s Long Road: The Search for Prosperity is Vijay Joshi’s third book on India’s political economy in what can now be definitively described as his India trilogy. The first (India: Macroeconomics and Political Economy, 1964-1991) was a masterful analysis of India’s political economy and macroeconomic stabilisation efforts post-independence. Joshi’s next book (India’s Economic Reforms, 1991-2001) addressed the issue du jour of the post1991 period: which economic reforms were necessary for India to make the most of a globalising world that offered significant opportunities to emerging nations? India is now one of the fastestgrowing emerging economies, and macro policy-making has come a long way since Joshi’s first book.

Apart from covering economic growth, productivity and social security, the book tackles the social issues of education and healthcare, reform of land acquisition and the environment. Furthermore, far from shying away from tough philosophical questions, Joshi leads off with a chapter on the role of the state and the market, where he defines the objective of India’s economic development as ‘rapid, inclusive, stable and sustainable growth of national income within a political framework of liberal democracy’. From this guiding mantra flow numerous policy prescriptions, none more ambitious than the proposal to eliminate poverty in India once and for all by means of a universal basic income (UBI).

India weathered the global financial crisis of 2007-08 pretty well, and while the ‘taper tantrum’ of 2013 provided a sterner test, even that was navigated with a mix of confident policy responses – higher real rates, currency depreciation and a degree of fiscal rectitude – that resulted in economic resilience through a turbulent period in the global economy. The challenge from here is more formidable: beyond the objective of prudent macroeconomic management, the aim is to achieve an inclusive broadbased prosperity for more than one billion Indians. In attempting to address this challenge head-on, India’s Long Road is the most ambitious book in Joshi’s India trilogy.

While proposals for a UBI are currently in vogue, a UBI in a low-income country has always been seen as too expensive given the more restricted fiscal space, competing state priorities (such as ensuring basic health, sanitation and infrastructure) and the sheer technical difficulties involved in administering it in a country where formal banking penetration is very low. Joshi argues for a major restructuring of the Indian state and the way it spends money. He proposes to institute a cash grant large enough to raise every citizen just above the poverty line (costing about 3.5% of GDP), paid for by eliminating dysfunctional subsidies provided by the Indian state (such as those on fuel, food,

fertilisers, iron ore, water, electricity, and rail fares) and other leaky anti-poverty programmes, which would liberate resources of up to 10% of GDP.

FEATURES | BOOK REVIEWS

India’s Long Road: The Search for Prosperity

More than the fiscal arithmetic it is the deep-vested interests and politics attached to each of these subsidies and anti-poverty programmes that have been, and will continue to be, the most significant obstacles to the kind of restructuring of the state envisaged in the book. Even in the case of the recent legislation of the uniform goods and services tax (GST), which aims to make the country a single market, the messy politics of compromise risk squandering a huge opportunity so that, as Joshi comments, the GST could ‘become just a name-changer, not a game-changer’. If the politics in favour of a fiscal restructuring were to fall into place, the recent successful large-scale roll-out of bank accounts throughout India means that a UBI appears more technologically feasible than ever before. Joshi’s book is as comprehensive as it is ambitious, written with his customary lucidity and acerbic wit. It should be read by all serious scholars who care about India’s long-term potential. Dr Kamakshya Trivedi (1996)

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The Visitor

The Most Reverend and Right Honourable the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury

Warden

Sir Martin Taylor, MA, (PhD Lond), FRS

Fellows

James Jeffrey Binney, MA, DPhil (MA Camb) FRS Professor of Physics Steven John Gunn, MA, DPhil, FRHistS Professor of Early Modern History & Tutor in History Ulrike Luise Tillmann, MA (BA Brandeis, PhD Stanford, Habil Bonn) FRS Professor of Mathematics Richard Anthony McCabe, MA, (MA Dublin; MA, PhD Camb) FBA Professor of English Language & Literature & Tutor in English, Steward of Common Room Chih-Hao Luke Ong, MA (MA Camb; PhD Lond) Professor of Computer Science & Tutor in Computer Science David James Paterson, MA, DPhil (MSc, DSc Western Australia) FRSB, FPhysiol, Hon FRSNZ Professor of Cardiovascular Physiology & Tutor in Pre-clinical Medicine Mindy Chen-Wishart, MA (BA (Hons), LLB, LLM, Otago) Professor of the Law of Contract & Tutor in Law Timothy Charles Guilford, MA, DPhil Professor of Animal Behaviour & Tutor in Zoology, Garden Master Judith Patricia Armitage, MA (BSc, PhD Lond) FRS Professor of Biochemistry, Sub-Warden Véronique Gouverneur, MA (Licence en Sciences Chimiques, PhD Louvain) Professor of Chemistry & Tutor in Organic Chemistry

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Merton College 2016-17

Jennifer Payne, MA (MA Camb) Professor of Corporate Finance Law & Tutor in Law Artur Konrad Ekert, MA, DPhil (MSc Cracow) FRS Professor of Physics Alan David Morrison, MA, DPhil (MSc Lond) Professor of Law & Finance John Stuart Gjers Gloag, MA, MRICS Land Agent & Estates Bursar Julia Caroline Walworth, MA (BA Swarthmore; MA, PhD Yale) FSA Fellow Librarian Jonathan William Thacker, MA (BA Lond; PhD Camb) Professor of Spanish & Tutor in Spanish, Principal of the Postmasters The Revd Canon Simon Matthew Jones, MA, DPhil (BA, MA Durh; PhD Camb) Chaplain Peter William Harold Holland, MA (PhD Lond; DSc Rdg) FRS Linacre Professor of Zoology Kathryn Lee Blackmon, MA (BS Clemson; MBA, PhD North Carolina) Associate Professor of Operations Management & Tutor in Management Studies, Prevent Officer Simon Martin Hooker, MA, DPhil Professor of Atomic & Laser Physics & Tutor in Physics, Senior Treasurer of the JCR Irene Stavros Lemos, MA, DPhil, FSA Professor of Classical Archaeology Alexander David Scott, (BA, PhD Camb) Professor of Mathematics & Tutor in Mathematics Jonathan Ralph Warburg Prag, MA (PhD Lond) Associate Professor of Ancient History & Tutor in Ancient History Michael Hilton Whitworth, MA, DPhil Associate Professor of English & Tutor in English,Secretary of the Harmsworth Trust James Peter Neary, MA, DPhil (MA NUI) FBA Professor of Economics

Ian Maclachlan, MA, DPhil Professor of French Literature & Tutor in French, Equality Adviser Béla Novák, MA (MSc, PhD, Dr Habil, TU Budapest; CSc DSc Hungarian Academy of Science) Professor of Integrative Systems Biology Alan James Barr, MA, DPhil (BA, MSci, PhD Camb) Professor of Particle Physics & Tutor in Physics Rhiannon Ash, MA, DPhil, (MA Toronto) Professor of Roman Historiography & Christine Blackwell Fellow & Tutor in Classics Gail Fine, MA, (BA Michigan; MA, PhD Harvard) Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy Patricia Thornton, (BA Swarthmore; MA Washington; PhD Berkeley) Associate Professor of Chinese Politics & Tutor in Politics Matthew Grimley, MA, DPhil Associate Professor of Modern History, Mark Reynolds Fellow & Tutor in History, Dean of Graduates Rachel Buxton, MA, MSt, DPhil (BA Hons Adelaide; MBA Oxford Brookes) Senior Tutor/Senior Academic Registrar Alexander Schekochihin, MA (BSci MIPT; MA, PhD Princeton) Professor of Theoretical Physics & Tutor in Physics Daniel Grimley, MA, DPhil (BA, MPhil, PhD Camb) Professor of Music & Douglas Algar Tutorial Fellow in Music Sir Andrew Wiles, MA, DSc (PhD Camb) FRS Royal Society Research Professor of Mathematics Minhyong Kim, MA (BS Seoul; PhD Yale) Professor of Number Theory & Tutor in Mathematics

Charles Alan Heathcote Alexander, BA (MBA Harvard) Finance Bursar, Computer Officer, Wine Steward Ralf Bader, BA Hons, MA (MLitt, PhD St And) Associate Professor of Philosophy & Tutor in Philosophy Nicole Zitzmann, MA (MSc, PhD Dundee) FSB Research Fellow in Biochemistry Andrew Mackie, MA Official Fellow, Director of Legal Services & General Counsel, University of Oxford Simon Saunders, BA, MA (M Math Camb; PhD Lond) Professor of the Philosophy of Science & Tutor in Philosophy Julian Charles Knight, MA, MBChB, DPhil, FRCP, Professor of Genomic Medicine & Tutor in Medicine Sergi Pardos-Prado, MA (PhD EUI) Associate Professor in Politics Bassel Tarbush, MPhil, DPhil Tutor in Economics Guy Westwood, MA, MSt, DPhil Leventis Research Fellow in Ancient Greek Craig MacLean, MA (BSc, PhD McGill) Research Fellow in Biology Erban Radek, MA (Mgr RNDr Prague, PhD Minnesota) Professor of Mathematics & Tutor in Mathematics Miguel Walsh, (DPhil Buenos Aires) Special Fellow in Mathematics Micah Muscolino, MA (AM PhD Harvard) Jessica Rawson Fellow in Modern Asian History, Professor of Modern Chinese History & Tutor in History Carina Venter, MA, MSt (BMus Pretoria; MA Stellenbosch) Junior Research Fellow in Music Michael Booth, MA (MChem S’ton; PhD Camb) Junior Research Fellow in Chemistry

Eleanor-Jane Milner-Gulland, BA, MA (PhD ICL) Tassos Leventis Professor of Biodiversity Joanna Bellis, (BA (Hons), MPhil, PhD Camb) Fitzjames Research Fellow in Medieval English Susannah Katherine Orkin, MA, MPhil, DPhil (BSocSc Cape Town) Peter J Braam Junior Research Fellow in Global Wellbeing William Bowers, MA, MSt (BA, PhD UCL) Junior Research Fellow in English Helen Barron, (MA Camb) Junior Research Fellow in Psychology Martin Richard Rabone, BA, MSt Junior Research Fellow in Spanish John Samuel Christopher Eidinow, MA (Dip Law City Univ; Barrister Middle Temple) Dean & Keeper of the Statutes & Bylaws Hugh Watkins, MD, PhD, FRP, FMedSci, FRS Radcliffe Professor of Medicine Timothy John Lightfoot, MA (BSc Hons Brunel) Domestic Bursar Lorna Hutson, MA, DPhil Merton Professor of English Literature Ehud Hrushovski, (BA, PhD Berkeley) Merton Professor of Mathematical Logic Matthew Kenneth Higgins, (BA (Hons), PhD Camb) Associate Professor of Biochemistry Microorganisms & Tutor in Biochemistry, Research Convener Yegor Grebnev, DPhil (Masters Moscow State) Junior Research Fellow in Oriental Studies Matthew Hosty, BA, MSt, DPhil Junior Research Fellow in Classics Anthony Ashmore, MA, MPhys, PhD Junior Research Fellow in Physics Duncan James Barker, MA, (PhD Durh) Development Director

The following Fellow retired

Jane Christine Holmes Taylor, MA (BA Hons Bris) Development Director

Emeritus Fellows

Courtenay Stanley Goss Phillips, MA, DSc Robert Basil Champneys Hodgson, MA Michael Simpson Dunnill, MA (MD Bris) FRCP, FRCPath John Randolph Lucas, MA, FBA Michael Graham Gelder, MA, DM, FRCP, FRCPsych, FMedSci David Charles Witt, MA Christopher John Hamilton Watson, MA, DPhil John Carey, MA, DPhil, FBA, FRSL Sir Robert McCredie May, Lord May of Oxford, OM, AC, MA (BSc, PhD Sydney) FRS The Revd Mark Everitt, MA Sir Gyorgy Karoly Radda, CBE, MA, DPhil, FRS Dame Olwen Hufton, DBE, MA (BA, MA Harvard; PhD Lond) DLitt, FRHistS, FBA David Bostock, BPhil, MA Nicholas James Richardson, BPhil, MA, DPhil, FSA John James Coulton, MA (MA, PhD Camb) James Anthony Dominic Welsh, MA, DPhil Michael George Bowler, MA (BSc, PhD Bris) Henry Shue, (AB Davidson College; MA, PhD Princeton) Vijay Ramchandra Joshi, MA Philip John Waller, MA

RECORDS | MERTON COLLEGE 2016-17

Records

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Paul Francis John Chamberlain, MA (BA, MD Dublin) FRCS(C) FACOG Guy Manning Goodwin, BM, BCh, MA, DPhil, FRCPsych, FMedSci David Gordon Ellis Norbrook, MA, DPhil (MA Aberd) Simon Wren-Lewis, (MA Camb; MSc Lond) Robert Nigel Gildea, MA, DPhil, FRHistS, FBA Boris Zilber, MA, (MSc, CandSc Novosibirsk; DSc Leningrad) Douglas John Bamber, MA, MIH Jane Christine Holmes Taylor, MA (BA Hons Bris)

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Honorary Fellows

Sir John Boardman, MA (MA Camb) FBA, Hon RA, FSA Sir Rex Edward Richards, MA, DPhil, DSc, FRS, FBA, FRSC, FRIC Sir Christopher John Ball, MA, Hon DLitt (CNAA) Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister, CBE, MA, MSc, DM, FRCP Lord Wright of Richmond, Patrick Richard Henry Wright, GCMG, MA Sir Peter Hannay Bailey Tapsell, MA, MP HIH Crown Prince Naruhito of Japan, Hon DCL Sir Alec John Jeffreys, MA, DPhil (DUniv Open) FRC Path, FLS, FRS Vassos Karageorghis, DLitt (PhD Lond) FSA, FBA

The Rt Hon Sir Jack Beatson, DCL (LLD Camb) FBA Richard Charles Levin, LittB, Hon DCL (BA Stanford; PhD Yale) William Peter Cooke, CBE, MA Laszlo Istvan Heltay, MLitt (MA Budapest) David Robert Holmes, BA Hons, MA, Hon DCL Robert Owen Paxton, MA (PhD Harvard) Sir Howard Stringer, MA David Francis Kerr Finlay, OBE, CFA, CMG Jonathan Alan Hodgkin, MA (MA, PhD Camb), FRS The Rt Hon Sir Brian Henry Leveson, MA (LLD Liv) Sir Howard John Davies, MA (MS Stanford) Sir Charles Antony Richard Hoare, MA, FRS

Bodley Fellows

Richard Bellerby Allan, MA, FCA Alan John Bott, OBE, MA, FSA Prosser Gifford, MA (BA, PhD Yale; LLB Harvard) David Harvey, MA, DPhil Robert MacLaren, MB, ChB, DPhil, DipLATHE, FRCOphth, FRCS Robert Gould McKelvey, MA (BA Wesleyan) Peter Phillips Christopher Ramsey, MA, DPhil Reed Rubin, BA David Ure, MA Adrian Vickers, MA

Supernumerary Fellows

Vincenzo Cerundolo, MA, MD, PhD, FRCPath, FMedSci Andrew John King, MA Status (BSc, PhD Lond) FMedSci Francis Platt, MA Status (BSc Lond; PhD Bath) FMedSci Simon Draper, MBioch, DPhil Kieran Clarke MA, (BSc Flinders, PhD Queensland) Christopher Thomas Rodgers, MChem, DPhil Katherine Willis, MA (BSc S’ton; PhD Camb) Michael Keith, BA, DPhil Sunetra Gupta, MA (AB Princeton; PhD Lond) Thomas Phillips, BA, MSt, DPhil Anant Parekh, MA, DPhil, FMedSci Nicholas Ryder, MA, DPhil (MSc Bris)

Wyliot Fellows

Charles Manby, MA (MBA Insead) John Booth, MA Peter Braam, MA, DPhil (BSc, MSc Utrecht) John Moussouris, MSc, DPhil (AB Harvard)

Visiting Research Fellows

Professor Steven Ellis, NUI Galway, Michaelmas Term 2016 Professor Graham Bell, McGill University, Michaelmas Term 2016 Professor Junhyong Kim, University of Pennsylvania, Hilary Term 2017 Professor John Tyson, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Hilary & Trinity Terms 2017 Professor Francisco Pina Polo, University de Zaragoza, Trinity Term 2017

Elections

RECORDS | MERTON COLLEGE 2016-17

Sir Anthony James Leggett, MA, DPhil, FRS Sir Richard Hughes Trainor, MA, DPhil, FRHistS The Rt Revd Nicholas Thomas Wright, MA, DPhil, DD Sir Robert Andrew, MA, FRSA Sir Jeremy Isaacs, MA, FRSA Sir Ian Kershaw, DPhil, Hon DLitt, FRHistS, FBA Martin Peter Read, CBE, DPhil Mark John Thompson, BA, FRTS, FRSA Adam John Hart-Davis, BA (DPhil York) FRSA James Wyndham John Hughes-Hallett, BA, FCA Sir Callum McCarthy, BA (PhD Stir; MS Stanford) Guy Howard Weston, BA Peter Warry, MA, (LLB Lond; PhD Rdg) FREng, FSA Martha Piper, (BSc Michigan; MA Connecticut; PhD McGill) DSc (Hons), LLD (Hons) Timothy Dewe Phillips, CBE, MA (AMP Harvard) Christopher Martin Dobson, MA, DPhil, ScD, Hon DSc, FRS, FRSC, FMedSci Julian Blackwell Anastasios Leventis, CBE, OFR Dame Jessica Mary Rawson, DBE, MA, DLitt, (MA, LittD, Camb) FBA Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, QPM Lyndal Roper, (PhD Lond) FBA Dana Scott, (PhD Princeton) FBA Lord Williams of Oystermouth, PC, FBA, FRSL, FLSW Erich Gruen, (BA Columbia; PhD Harvard) The Rt Hon Dame Philippa Whipple, MA, DBE Sir Gerry Grimstone, MA, MSc

To Junior Research Fellowships with effect from 1 October 2017 Dr Joshua Firth, DPhil (BSc Shef) Dr Emma Loftus, MPhil, DPhil (BSc Cape Town) Mr Carlas Smith, (BSc MSc Delf; PhD Mass) Ms Hatice Yildiz, (BA Yildiz; MA Koc) To a Leventis Research Fellowship in Ancient Greek with effect from 1 October 2017 Dr Evert van Edme Boas, MSt, DPhil (BA, MA Amsterdam) To a Fitzjames Research Fellowship in Music with effect from 1 October 2017 Dr Matthew Thomson, BA, MSt, DPhil To a Fitzjames Research Fellowship in Medieval English Literature with effect from 1 October 2017 Dr Mark Williams, MA, MPhil, DPhil To an Associate Professorship in Physical & Theoretical Chemistry and Tutor in Chemistry with effect from 1 June 2018 Dr Madhavi Krishnan, (BTech Madras, MS PhD Michigan)

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Professor Judith Armitage will deliver the Roger Stanier Lectures at the University of California, Berkeley in 2017. Professor Rhiannon Ash was appointed as the R. D. Milns Visiting Lecturer at the University of Queensland, Australia for July 2017. Professor Ash also gave the keynote lecture at the international conference, The once and future kings: Roman emperors and Western political culture from antiquity to the present. Dr Helen Barron was a Thomas Willis 2017 Early Career Research prize runner-up. Professor Simon Draper co-founded the University of Oxford Spin-out company SpyBiotech. Frater John Eidinow was reappointed Visiting Scholar in the Faculty of Arts (Research Institute for Historical, Literary and Cultural Studies), Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, Netherlands. Professor Robert Gildea was made an Orwell Fellow in 2017. Professor Gildea was also appointed conseil scientifique, Ordre de la Libération. Professor Sunetra Gupta received the Lord Leonard and Lady Estelle Wolfson Foundation Translation Award, the Royal Society, UK. Professor Peter Holland presented the Yen Kwo Yung Lecture series at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Professor Simon Hooker was elected Chair of the UK Plasma Wakefield Accelerator Steering Committee. Professor Lorna Hutson was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in October 2016. Professor Hutson was also made an Honorary Fellow of Somerville College in March 2017. Professor Andrew King was elected a Fellow of the Physiological Society. Professor King was appointed Director of the Centre for Integrative Neuroscience in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of

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Oxford, and to the Scientific Advisory Board, Institut de l’Audition, Paris. Professor Julian Knight was given the Investigator Award in Science from the Wellcome Trust. Professor Peter Neary was elected President of the Royal Economic Society for 2016-17. Professor Luke Ong has been awarded the Alonzo Church Award for Outstanding Contributions to Logic and Computation. Professor David Paterson was elected to Head of Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics at the University of Oxford. Professor Paterson was also awarded the 2018 Carl Ludwig Distinguished Lecturer of the American Physiological Society. Professor Jennifer Payne was elected a member of the International Insolvency Institute, and was appointed a member of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) Stakeholder Group. Professor Dame Jessica Rawson will be awarded the Charles Lang Freer Medal in Washington DC in October 2017. Professor Dame Rawson was appointed a Fellowship at the Peking University Global Fellowship Programme from May to June 2017. Professor Simon Saunders received a Leverhulme Research Fellowship to commence in January 2018. Professor Saunders was also made president-elect of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science, for 2017-18. Sir Howard Stringer received a Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa from American University, Washington DC in May 2017. Sir Martin Taylor was given the Freedom of the City of London in December 2016. Professor Jonathan Thacker was appointed to the King Alfonso XIII Professorship of Spanish Studies at the University of Oxford with a Fellowship at Exeter College and will be leaving Merton in December 2017.

Professor Ulrike Tillmann was elected a member of the German Academy of Sciences. Dr Miguel Walsh has been invited to speak at the 2018 International Congress of Mathematicians. Dr Julia Walworth was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Professor Hugh Watkins was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Professor Sir Andrew Wiles has been awarded the Royal Society’s Copley Medal for his proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.

New Students 2016 Undergraduates Biological Sciences

Mr H M J Grub, Ms P E Jaggers, Mr T Miller, Mr J Morford

Chemistry

Mr R A Avadanutei, Mr W Gruchot, Mr V Nicod, Ms O A Shiels, Ms Y Wei

Classics

History & Modern Languages Ms A S L Desquiens

History & Politics

Mr A Ige, Mr S S A Shah, Mr J H Woods

Law (Jurisprudence)

Ms E R Chafer, Ms V R M Chee, Mr A Dixon, Ms N Herrett, Mr M A B Ismail

Modern Languages

Ms E Borsi, Ms F Des Forges, Ms H R Phelan, Ms M L W Schaefer, Ms R I Vasiu

Modern Languages & Linguistics

Mr S H Dows-Miller, Ms E A Le Maistre, Ms L L Tarkanyi

Music

Mr M Reynolds, Mr R Taylor, Ms O M G Tomlin, Mr J C Wolstenholme

Law with French Law Ms A Clelland

Economics & Management

Mr T M Fetherstonhaugh, Ms A Hawksley-Walker, Mr D C Price

Mathematics

Physics

Mathematics & Computer Science

PPE

Ms A C Bibby, Ms V S P Karppinen, Mr A Prabaker, Ms J Zlotkowska

English

Ms C J Green, Ms A Jaiswal, Ms M Khalil, Ms H Middleton, Mr S D B Moriarty, Mr P Naylor, Ms S G S Townsend

History

Mr J Allsopp, Ms M K Gleaves, Ms E K Grant, Mr A Lalouschek, Mr T F Murphy, Ms J E Routledge, Mr J Travers, Ms M H Watson, Ms O C Webster

History & English

Ms L J Buckingham, Mr C J McGarry, Ms J Stadlmann

Mr A Ovsianas, Mr D T Sherlock

Mathematics & Philosophy Ms Z Qureshi

Medicine

Mr D Adeyoju, Mr A N Carter, Mr F J Dernie, Mr I El-Gaby, Mr J A Navarajasegaran, Ms L S W Pullen

RECORDS | MERTON COLLEGE 2016-17 & NEW STUDENTS 2016

Fellows’ Honours and Appointments

Ms L E Biddle, Mr J Desai, Mr R Dodhia, Mr A C Doyle, Ms C E Felce, Mr J McIntyre, Mr J Robertson, Ms L P Woodland Mr J Chalaby, Mr T H Chau, Mr M V Cuibus, Mr P B de Jong, Mr D T Foster Davies, Ms P Jha, Mr J P L Shailer, Ms Y Zhang

Visiting Student (French & English Literature) Ms J M Sauvage

Ms C C Oakes

113

BCL

Mr T Cummings, Merton College, Oxford, Miss J W S Fan, Harvard, Miss E L H Hughes, Selwyn College, Cambridge

2nd BM

Miss O K Bell, Merton College, Oxford, Mr O Blanshard, Merton College, Oxford, Mr A O Fadipe, Merton College, Oxford, Mr H A Fagan, Merton College, Oxford, Mr L E Freeman-Mills, Merton College, Oxford, Mr J M Sheridan, Merton College, Oxford

BPhil

Mr M Brucker, Vienna

Diploma in Legal Studies

Ms M Garces de Marcilla Muste, Pompeu Fabra, Ms C M Schmelzer, Konstanz

DPhil

Mr A A Almet, Melbourne, Mr T F A Bastianello, Imperial College, London/ Merton College, Oxford, Miss L A Beccerra Valdivia, UCLA/Hertford College, Oxford, B Casaba-Somashekar, Bangalore/ Jawaharlal Nehru, Mr V H Chen, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Miss L J Clark, Merton College, Oxford, Mr D P Cooke, Imperial College, London, Mr C J Cooper, Manchester, Mr M J Day, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge/ St Hilda’s College, Oxford, Mr B Evans, Bristol/Imperial College, London, Mr A I Frampton, Australian Catholic/Melbourne, Mr H R D Frost, Canterbury, NZ/ Merton College, Oxford, Dr M J Gilhooley, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, Ms N E Gillies, Merton College, Oxford, Mr J C Golec, Lincoln College, Oxford, Mr I Gruev, Humboldt/Balliol College, Oxford/Merton College, Oxford, Miss L E Hankins, Magdalen College, Oxford, Mr J Jonnerby, Uppsala/Ecole Polytechnique, Mr K Kawakami, Tokyo/Carnegie Mellon, Mr A Kulanthaivelu, University College,

114

Oxford, Ms M Oikonomou, Athens/Merton College, Oxford, Mr M N K Oliver, Toronto/ Jesus College, Oxford, Mr J Parisi, Yale, Mr M Parlasca, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge/St Cross College, Oxford, Dr R Parolin Schnekenberg, Universidade Positivo, Miss J A Phillips, Toronto, Miss G A Porter, Queensland/Corpus Christi College, Oxford, Mr J Sap, Imperial, London, Mr B Saward, St Catherine’s College, Oxford, Mr I-K Sir, Corpus Christi College, Oxford/ Merton College, Oxford, Ms D Sridhar, Bangalore/Jain, Ms A Steinepreis, Western Australia/Merton College, Oxford, Mr C A Surface, Maryland/Johns Hopkins, Mr Y D Van Nieuwkerk, Amsterdam, Miss L Veerus, Imperial College, London, Miss S Wang, Peking/Merton College, Oxford, Ms K A Watroba, Magdalen College, Oxord, Mrs J A White, Auburn/Merton College, Oxford, Mr A F C L Wiegandt, Goethe, Frankfurt, Mr C Willmes, Ruprecht-Karls

Doering, McGill, Mr J Gallagher, University College, Dublin,/Harvard, Miss G E G Huckins, Harvard, Mr L B Krone, Freiburg, Mr T Kwek, Merton College, Oxford, Mr K P Larsson, Uppsala/Said Business School, Oxford, Mr E H P Lock, Oriel College, Oxford/Fern Universitat in Hagen, Ms L McElwee, Stanford, MR D P M Ranasinghe, Sydney/Australian Graduate School of Management/Said Business School, Oxford, Mr J N Tot, Waterloo, Miss E Zahradnikova, Queen Mary, London

EMBA

Visiting Student

Mr M J Brooke, Tokyo/Said Business School, Oxford, Mr J G Tabarani, UCL

MSt

Miss A Cinquatti, Turin/UCL, Miss H R Craske, Merton College, Oxford, P M Croak, Dartmouth College, Mr T A Dobbs, Harvard, Miss A L R Ellis, Merton College, Oxford, Miss K Gurnos-Davies, Leicester, Mr A S Peplow, Merton College, Oxford, Miss M T Sante Delgado, Salamanca, Miss A L Southgate, Hillsdale College Mr P Robin, Ecole Normale Superieure

Undergraduate Leavers 2017 Ancient & Modern History Mr E Thomas

Biological Sciences

Mr A Adamoulas, Ms G Kildisiute, Ms S Marshall, Ms E Scopes, Mr E Wrigley

Chemistry

History

Mr I Dawes, Ms N Gardom, Mr H George, Mr D Jackson, Ms A Love-Twelves, Mr E O’Keeffe, Mr H Spillane, Ms G Woodbridge

History & Economics Mr S Lalanne

Mr C Brogan, Mr H Bush, Ms Z Chen, Ms S Lovell-Read, Ms H Wilson, Ms Y Yang

History & Modern Languages (4)

Mr A Bekker, Pretoria, Mr J E Cushnie, Columbia, Mr S H Lee, Korea

Classical Archaeology & Ancient History

History & Politics

MJur

Classics & Modern Languages (4)

MBA

Miss T J Van Benthem, Sofia St Kliment Ohridsky, Bulgaria, Mr B Zhao, Shandong/ Penn State

MPhil

Mr T H M Liau, NUS/St Peter’s College, Oxford, Miss J L Maly-Preuss, North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Mr J W W Ngia, St Hugh’s College, Oxford

MSc

Mr D Berdeja Suarez, Iberoamericana, Mr K A Beyer, Heinrich Heine, Dusseldorf, Miss S Bourdi, National and Kapodistrian, Mr W W Bumpas, Mississippi, Ms SD I

Ms J Ellis, Mr C Graham, Mr O Pateman Mr H Hodson (French)

Economics & Management

Mr A Ali, Mr P De Souza, Ms A Schnupp, Mr A Way

English

Ms E Baron, Mr B Beor-Roberts, Ms Y Canter, Ms A Chard, Ms M Clark, Ms I Morris, Mr D Whittle

French & English Literature Ms J Sauvage

Mr C Atkins (German) Ms S Bosworth

Law

Ms B Begum, Mr M Gordon, Ms K Ratcliffe

Mathematics & Theoretical Physics (4)

Mr M Abazorius, Mr D Felce, Mr C Hamilton, Mr D Kennedy, Mr G Wagner

Medical Sciences

Mr R Bendix-Hickman, Mr T Fordwoh, Mr A Mafi, Mr E McNelis, Mr T Whitehead

Modern Languages

Ms S Bolton (Spanish and Portuguese), Mr B Kjellberg-Motton (German), Ms E Ormerod (French and Spanish), Ms A Pyregov (French and Italian)

Modern Languages & Linguistics

Literae Humaniores I

Ms C O’Leary (French)

Mathematics (3)

Ms L Chrisp, Ms R McNaught, Mr P Thickett

Ms R Sykes, Mr W Tilston, Ms L Valsamidis Ms M Gupta

Mathematics (4)

Mr L Koch, Mr J Townhill, Mr A Turner

Mathematics & Computer Science (4)

Mr T Cathcart Burn, Mr J Valdemoros Gomez

RECORDS | NEW STUDENTS 2016 & UNDERGRADUATE LEAVERS 2017

Graduates

Music PPE

Mr H Gosling, Ms R Hardy, Mr B Holden, Mr S Marjanovic, Mr J Parikh, Ms A Powers, Mr T Prins

Physics (3) Mr I Lapan

Physics (4)

Mr T Hornigold, Ms I Naylor, Mr A Stanway

115

Postmaster for a second year: Mr M Abazorius (Mathematics & Theoretical Physics) Mr H Bush (Chemistry) Mr T Cathcart Burn (Mathematics & Computer Science)

Ms Z Chen (Chemistry) Ms M Clark (English) Mr D Felce (Mathematics & Theoretical Physics) Mr C Hamilton (Mathematics & Theoretical Physics) Mr T Hornigold (Physics) Mr L Koch (Mathematics)

Mr S Lalanne (History & Economics) Mr A Turner (Mathematics) Mr J Valdemoros Gomez (Mathematics & Computer Science) Mr G Wagner (Mathematics & Theoretical Physics) Ms H Wilson (Chemistry) Ms Y Yang (Chemistry)

The following promotions were approved during the year:

Undergraduate Results, Awards and Prizes 2016-17 All academic results, awards and prizes are correct as of 31 August 2017.

Final Honours School

First Public Exam

Entry

1st

2.1

2.2

3rd

Pass

79

38

40

1

0

0

Entry

Distinction/1st

Pass/2nd

78

27

45

Awards and Promotions

The following award-holders had their awards renewed at the beginning of the academic year: Exhibitioner for a third year: Ms B Begum (Law) Ms B Roberts (Modern Languages) Exhibitioner for a second year: Mr N Chekshin (Chemistry) Mr H George (History)

116

Ms N Gibbs (Modern Languages) Mr H Gosling (Philosophy, Politics, & Economics) Mr B Holden (Philosophy, Politics, & Economics) Mr H Hristov (Computer Science) Mr A Mafi (Medicine) Ms I Morris (English) Mr K Nizinski (Mathematics & Computer Science)

Mr E O’Keeffe (History) Mr O Pateman (Classical Archaeology & Ancient History) Mr P Thickett (Music) Mr N Trapp (European & Middle Eastern Languages) Ms S Vaz Pinto Simoes Coelho (History & Modern Languages) Mr G Walker (History) Mr A Way (Economics & Management)

To Exhibitioner: Ms G Acton (Physics) Mr R Adair (Chemistry) Mr V Ajuwon (Biological Sciences) Mr S Banks (Mathematics) Mr M Bannatyne (Modern Languages) Mr J Beckwith (Biological Sciences) Mr R Bendix-Hickman (Medicine) Mr H Brewer (History) Ms E Chafer (Law) from TT17 Mr C Collins Rice (Chemistry) Mr F Crowley (Music) Mr H Daginawalla (Mathematics) Ms J Dingwall (Mathematics) Mr A Dixon (Law) from TT17 Ms A-A Ganciulescu (Computer Science) Ms V Gladkova (Mathematics) Mr T Goodey (Mathematics) Ms R Hardy (Philosophy, Politics, & Economics) Ms N Herrett (Law) from TT17 Mr M Ismail (Law) from TT17 Mr K Jaroszewicz (Modern Languages) Mr D Kennedy (Mathematics & Theoretical Physics) Mr A Kenyon-Roberts (Mathematics & Computer Science) Ms G Kildisiute (Biological Sciences) Mr M Kovacs-Deak (Mathematics & Computer Science) Mr M Lawson (Economics & Management) Mr Z Li (Physics) Mr Z Lim (Chemistry) Mr A Little (Music)

Ms G Loncarevic Whitaker (Medicine) Mr T Lousada (Economics & Management) Ms F Lovell-Read (Mathematics) Ms M Mackay (Classics) from TT17 Ms T Morton (Classics) from TT17 Mr M Naylor (Philosophy, Politics, & Economics) Ms N Nguyen (Ancient & Modern History) Mr A Piggot (History) Mr M Plummer (Physics) Mr J Pruchyathamkorn (Chemistry) Mr X Qiu (Philosophy, Politics, & Economics) Mr N Ridpath (Philosophy, Politics, & Economics) Mr U Ristivojevic (Physics) Mr K Sasin (Physics) Ms A Schnupp (Economics & Management) Mr P Sears (Economics & Management) Mr D Snow (Philosophy, Politics, & Economics) Ms R Sykes (Classics) Mr C Tang (Philosophy, Politics, & Economics) Mr G Wang (Mathematics & Computer Science) Mr C Worthington (History) Mr E Wrigley (Biological Sciences)

To Postmaster Mr T Adkins (Physics) Mr C Atkins (History & Modern Languages) Ms E Atkinson (Chemistry) Ms S Bolton (Modern Languages) Ms S Bosworth (History & Politics) Ms L Chrisp (Music) Mr T Fordwoh (Medicine) Ms N Gardom (History) Mr D Hosking (Physics) Mr B Kjellberg-Motton (Modern Languages) Mr A Liew (Chemistry) Mr E McCulloch (Physics) Ms R McNaught (Music) Mr G Prescott (Chemistry) Mr T Prins (Philosophy, Politics, & Economics) Ms A Pyregov (Modern Languages) Ms K Ratcliffe (Law) Mr C Rich (Physics) Ms E Scopes (Biological Sciences) Mr H Spillane (History) Mr A Stanway (Physics) Mr W Tilston (Classics) Mr T. Thorne (History) Mr J Townhill (Mathematics) Ms L Valsamidis (Classics) Mr T Whitehead (Medicine) Ms A Williams (Law with Law Studies in Europe) Ms G Woodbridge (History)

RECORDS | UNDERGRADUATE RESULTS, AWARDS AND PRIZES 2016-17

Mr E White (Law) Ms O Williams (Modern Languages)

There were in all 43 Postmasters & 71 Exhibitioners at the end of the year.

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Members of the College who had achieved First Class in Schools or Mods, or Distinctions in Prelims, Law Moderations or the First BM, were given College book prizes in accordance with College Bylaw 87. Members of the College who had been awarded University prizes were given College book prizes in accordance with the same Bylaw. The number of prizes awarded is given in brackets. Fowler Prizes for good work in Collections were awarded to: Rory Adair (1) Toby Adkins (2) Victor Ajuwon (1) Jack Allsopp (2) Eleanor Atkinson (1) Richard Avadanutei (1) Matthew Bannatyne (1) John Beckwith (1) Alexandra Bibby (1) Lydia Buckingham (1) Ioana Burtea (1) James Chalaby (1) Tak Huen Chau (2) Lila Chrisp (1) Theo Clifford (1) Frederick Crowley (1) Mihnea Cuibus (2) Hussein Daginawalla (1) Paul de Jong (1) Phillip De Souza (1) Jennifer Dingwall (2) Roshan Dodhia (1) Sebastian Dows-Miller (2) Ibrahim El-Gaby (1) Jessica Ellis (1) Catherine Felce (1) Thomas Fetherstonhaugh (2) Dafydd Foster Davies (1) Andreea-Alexandra Ganciulescu (2) Mireia Garces de Marcilla Muste (1) Naomi Gardom (1) Valeriia Gladkova (1) Thomas Goodey (2) Henry Gosling (2) Charles Graham (1) Henry Grub (1) Wojciech Gruchot (1)

Rebecca Hardy (1) Henry Hodson (1) David Hosking (2) Oliver Hull (1) Daoud Jackson (1) Paris Jaggers (2) Venla Karppinen (2) Andrew Kenyon-Roberts (1) Malak Khalil (2) Brendan Kjellberg-Motton (1) Apollinaire Lalouschek (1) Matthew Lawson (2) Elisabeth Le Maistre (1) Wen Liew (2) Zhong Lim (2) Alexander Little (1) Georgina Loncarevic Whitaker (2) Thomas Lousada (1) Alice Love Twelves (1) Francesca Lovell-Read (1) Stefan Marjanovic (1) Ewan McCulloch (2) Christopher McGarry (1) Jack McIntyre (2) Rebecca McNaught (2) Hope Middleton (1) Thomas Miller (2) Joe Morford (2) Samuel Moriarty (1) Tamsin Morton (2) Patrick Naylor (2) Natalie Nguyen (2) Eamonn O’Keeffe (1) Oliver Pateman (1) Phoebe Pexton (1) Max Plummer (1) Ashvin Prabaker (1) Dylan Price (2) Taco Prins (3)

Jiratheep Pruchyathamkorn (1) Anna Pyregov (3) Zershaaneh Qureshi (1) Katie Ratcliffe (2) Caleb Rich (1) Uros Ristivojevic (1) Jacob Robertson (2) Julia Routledge (1) Jeanne Sauvage (2) Madison Schaefer (1) Anna Schnupp (3) Philip Sears (2) Joseph Shailer (1) Conor Short (1) Daniel Snow (1) Harry Spillane (2) Julia Stadlmann (2) Kai Lin Sun (1) Rose Sykes (2) Darryl Tang (1) Peter Thickett (1) Thomas Thorne (1) Will Tilston (3) Susannah Townsend (1) Nick Trapp (1) Josh Travers (2) Lucy Valsamidis (3) Maryam Watson (1) Adam Way (2) Yujing Wei (2) Gemma Woodbridge (2) Leonie Woodland (2) Charlie Worthington (1) Yuchen Zhang (1) Julia Zlotkowska (1)

Other College prizes were awarded as follows: Miss E Atkinson, Phillips Prize for best performance in Chemistry Parts 1A and 1B (joint) Miss E Chafer, F.E. Smith Memorial Mooting Prize (runner-up) Mr T H Chau, Sam McNaughton Prize in Philosophy in PPE Prelims Miss M Clark, Undergraduate Essay Competition (winner) Mr A Dixon, Norton Rose Prize for best Moderations marks of a Merton Law student Miss V Gladkova, Dominic Welsh Essay Prize Mr W Gruchot, Phillips Prize for best performance in Chemistry Prelims Miss Z Harrison, Allen & Overy Prize for most promising second-year Law student Miss N Herrett, F.E. Smith Memorial Mooting Prize (winner) Mr A Ige, Undergraduate Essay Competition (proxime) Mr A Ismail, F.E. Smith Memorial Mooting Prize (runner-up) Miss N Kelly, Herbert Smith Freehills Second Year Moot Competition (winner) Mr W X A Liew, Phillips Prize for best performance in Chemistry Parts 1A and 1B (joint) Mr P Naylor, Undergraduate Essay Competition (winner) Mr E O’Keefe, Conrad Russell Prize in History Miss E Scopes, Wilder Penfield Prize in Medicine and Biology Miss R Sykes, Professor W.M. Edwards Prize in Classics (joint) Mr W Tilston, Professor W.M. Edwards Prize in Classics (joint) Mr T Whitehead, William Harvey Prize for Clinical Anatomy

University Prizes were awarded as follows: Mr T Adkins, Commendation for Practical Work in Physics Part B Mr T Clifford, Highest Mark in Q-Step module Mr C Graham, Thomas Whitcombe Greene Prize Mr W Gruchot, Bruker UK Prelim Prize Mr C Hamilton, Highly Commended Dissertation (Mathematics and Theoretical Physics) Mr D Hosking, Physics Prize for Practical Work in Part B Miss V Karppinen, Gibbs Prize for Financial Management paper Mr B Kjellberg-Motton, David McLintock Prize in Germanic Philology Mr E McCulloch, Physics Prize for Practical Work in Physics Part B Mr M Plummer, Commendation for Practical Work in Physics Part A Mr C Rich, Commendation for Practical Work in Physics Part B Mr G Wagner, University Prize in Mathematics and Theoretical Physics

RECORDS | UNDERGRADUATE RESULTS, AWARDS AND PRIZES 2016-17

College Prizes

119

RECORDS | GRADUATE LEAVERS 2016-17 & GRADUATE RESULTS, AWARDS AND PRIZES 2016-17

Graduate Leavers 2016-17 DPhil 2016-17 Ms M S F Almeida, Mr H T Andrianandrasana, Mr M A Bentley, Dr N Bart, Mr A S Boulgakov, Mr D W Bowles, Mr B Chen, Ms S Chng, Mr A W Dahl, Mr D L Dauletbekov, Mr A De Capua, Mr V Fedyashov, Mr M F J Fox, Ms E S M Francois, Ms A-K Gill, Ms S E Green, Mr R Grinis, Ms R L Hesse, Ms S Hickmott, Mr D A Holdsworth, Ms A G E Hood, Mr R M Jeffrey, Mr A Karlberg, Mr T Khotavivattana, Ms Y-C Kim, Ms H L Kirk, Mr F Lang, Mr A W Learoyd, Ms E J Loftus, Mr O C Lomas, Mr K J Martin, Ms I Marusic, Ms J L Meinecke, Mr J Neuhaus, Mr J P Newbury, Mr H A Omar, Ms A Prohaska, Mr M R K Rabone, Ms E A Sandis, Ms V Schenzinger, Mr C J H Seddon, Ms B Small, Ms H-H Tao, Mr A Volanakis, Mr S Wedler, Mr G Zamore

In addition, two further DPhil students are leaving Merton, but have not completed: Miss N M E Barber – moving to Brasenose to take up a Junior Deanship Mr R Sciuto – moving to Hertford to take up a funding award 2015-16 Mr D Hickey, Ms M J Jansen van Rensburg, Mr M Kalla, Ms J Lam, Ms Y N Liu, Ms Y A Richardson, Mr T Scaffidi, Ms K A SierraDavidson, Ms A S Vellore BPhil 2016-17 Mr J P Liotta 2015-16 Ms T Goodchild MBA 2015-16 Mr M El Dahshan, Mr C H Nguyen, Mr P J Prendiville, Mr M Sharma

MPhil Ms S Chowdhry, Mr T J Foot, Ms G Khuri, Mr A J Payne, Mr U Rambla-Eguilaz, Mr C S Ruckteschler, Ms K J Thomson MSc 2016-17 Mr D Berdeja Suarez, Mr K A Beyer, Ms S Bourdi, Mr J Gallagher, Mr T Kwek, Mr J N Tot, Ms E Zahradnikova 2015-16 Mr K M Corroon, Mr R J Doornenbal, Ms S D Heaven, Mr C J Ohman, Mr S A M Picard, Mr W J Rathje, Mr A R Von Klemperer, Ms J A White MSt 2016-17 Ms A Cinquatti, Ms H R Craske, Mr P M Croak, Mr T A Dobbs, Ms A L R Ellis, Ms K Gurnos-Davies, Mr A S Peplow, Ms M T Sante Delgado, Ms A L Southgate 2015-16 Mr J C Hackett 2nd BM Mr T Buckley, Mr J Hutchinson, Mr H-Y Tang

Graduate Results, Awards and Prizes 2016-17 All academic results, awards and prizes are correct as of 31 August 2017

Taught Course Results

Entry

Distinction Pass

42

22

20

BCL Mr T Cummings, Ms J W S Fan, Ms E L H Hughes MJur Ms T J Van Benthem, Mr B Zhaao Diploma in Legal Studies Ms Mireia Garces de Marcilla Muste, Ms C M Schmelzer Visiting Student Mr P Robin

College Prizes were awarded as follows: Mr J Domanksy, Eric Newsholme Prize for DPhil Biochemistry

University Prizes were awarded as follows:

Miss E Hughes, Peter Birks Prize in Restitution of Unjust Enrichment

Mr L Halewood, Dacre Trust Award for graduate research in History

Mr T Cummings, Vinerian Scholarship for the Best BCL performance; Law Faculty Prize in Children, Families and the State; Law Faculty Prize in Comparative Equality Law

Mr J O’Sullivan, Sir John Stallworth Prize in clinical obstetrics and gynaecology

Ms G Porter, Rajiv Kapur Prize for graduate research in History Mr A Sohal, Dacre Trust Award for graduate research in History

Miss T Van Benthem, Planethood Foundation Prize in International Criminal Law

Mr T Foot, Gaisford Dissertation Prize

121

Name Appointment Mr MD Jeffs Surveyor Miss JM Durkin Housekeeper Mr RJ Wiggins Decorator Mrs LS Walsh Sub Warden’s Secretary Mr JS Lisle Groundsman Mr JP McVeigh Quadman/Storeman Mrs J Gerhardi Graduate Officer Mrs C Hume Chef de Partie Mrs NK Lisle Pavilion Catering Assistant Mr JE Tomkins Assistant Groundsman Mrs SA Allen Hall Assistant Mrs LJ Pullen Scout Mr M Wender Head Chef Mrs CL Turner Cleaner Mr S Williams IT Manager Mrs L Rankin Assistant Warden’s Secretary Mrs NS Mahmood Cleaner Mrs MN Harris Bursary Clerk Mr DN Haines Kitchen Porter Miss SL Bird Chef de Partie Miss L Reveley Fees and Bursary Clerk Mrs C Lewis Project Librarian Mr CD Joyce Kitchen Porter Miss L Savin Head Gardener Mr JA Reid Archivist Mr CE Shackell Accountant Miss L Lawrence Warden’s Secretary Mr C Bridgman Third Chef Miss J Baker Cleaner Mrs H D’Arcy Cleaner Mrs M Skalik Steward

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First Appointed 12/2/1979 2/6/1986 16/3/1987 16/11/1987 17/10/1988 15/10/1990 2/1/1991 1/8/1996 1/10/1996 11/8/1997 7/7/1998 19/10/1998 20/9/1999 27/3/2000 17/7/2000 3/10/2000 23/4/2001 16/5/2001 20/8/2001 8/10/2001 11/2/2002 7/5/2002 29/7/2002 7/10/2002 2/12/2002 20/1/2003 1/9/2003 29/9/2003 2/1/2004 13/4/2004 10/8/2005

Mr J Pawlowski

Lodge Porter

24/10/2005

Mr E Hamdi

Hall Supervisor

27/1/2006

Mr D Brown

Second Chef

2/1/2007

Mr M Furse

Senior Gardener

2/1/2007

Mrs G Norridge Payroll/Personnel Administrator

25/6/2007

Miss N Harrison

Estates Administrator

23/7/2007

Mr P Macallister

Chef de Partie

22/10/2007

Mrs K Adamczyk Housekeeping Supervisor

1/11/2007

Ms ST Hague

Head of Conference & Accommodation

2/2/2009

Mr I Knight

Accommodation & Conference Porter

13/7/2009

Mrs I Ochylska

Cleaner

1/12/2009

Mr IR Walker

Lodge Porter

19/7/2010

Mrs C Haines

College Nurse

27/9/2010

Miss H Bednarczyk Team Lead Lodge Porter

4/1/2011

Mrs R da Silva

Cleaner

11/1/2011

Dr P Hofmann

Assistant Librarian

14/1/2011

Miss G Hanson

Gardener

28/3/2011

Mr S Bowdery

Deputy IT Manager

1/4/2011

Mr M Weavers

Lodge Porter

9/8/2011

Mr T Cortes Rodrigues

Cleaner

31/10/2011

Mrs S Rai

Cleaner

31/10/2011

Mrs E Westphal

Cleaner

31/10/2011

Mrs J Rusaitiene

Cleaner

16/1/2012

Miss M Kowalska

Cleaner

30/1/2012

Mr D Sadzewicz

Chef de Partie

20/2/2012

Mr P O’Connor

Senior Development Executive 3/9/2012

Mr G Staudinger Head Butler

3/9/2012

Mr S Cope Web & Media Officer 3/12/2012 Mrs C Gerum SCR & Hall Assistant 20/4/2013 Elkadhi Mr J Constable Head Porter 3/6/2013 Mr BJ Lodge Porter 23/9/2013 Wolstenholme Ms LE Stead Verger 23/9/2013 Miss JI Dziadosz SCR & Hall Assistant 27/1/2014 Mrs S Simmons Cleaner 10/3/2014 Miss M Cleaner 10/3/2014 Zakuszewska Mr SP Henry Team Lead Lodge Porter 11/3/2014 Miss CL Hanney Estates Secretary 22/4/2014 Mr W Wahid Accounts Assistant 22/4/2014 Mrs E Cotterill Information & Research Officer 24/6/2014 Miss M Lasota SCR & Hall Assistant 1/10/2014 Mrs G Pal Cleaner 3/11/2014 Mrs F Lawrence HR Manager 2/12/2014 Mr F Tajuelo SCR & Hall Assistant 4/5/2015 Santiago Mrs S Hoverd Chef de Partie 23/5/2015 Ms B Pedder Development Coordinator 8/6/2015 Miss K Stewart Academic Administrator 4/8/2015 Miss S Hagger Admissions Officer 11/8/2015 Miss N Lane Lodge Porter 19/8/2015 Ms S Jones Development Officer 14/9/2015 Mr N Hall Assistant Bar Manager 21/9/2015 Miss I Siwczak SCR & Hall Supervisor 27/10/2015 Mrs D Thimbleby Chapel Administrator 9/11/2015 Mr J Bewick Plumber/Maintenance 11/4/2016 Assistant Mr D Ganaui Lodge Porter 25/4/2016 Mrs I Housekeeper to the Warden 1/6/2016 Naruseviciute

Mr R Jachtoma Cleaner Ms M Krupova Cleaner Mrs M Serhej Cleaner Miss A Zarnowska Demi Chef de Partie Mr K Watts Maintenance Manager Miss H Smedley Bursary Clerk Miss B Robinson Academic Office Assistant Mrs E Sillett Senior Library Assistant Ms L Norman Library Assistant Mrs C Administrative Assistant Toietti-Cassidy Ms J Bahola SCR & Hall Assistant Mr T Guiste Lodge Porter Mrs S Camino Cleaner Carrera Ms A Gal Cleaner Miss K Piechowska Cleaner Miss T Cooper Lodge Porter Miss C Chisholm Alumni Relations Officer Dr K Fifield Academic Registrar Miss S Boal HR Assistant Ms M Clarke Housekeeping Supervisor Mrs C Alumni Communications Spence-Parsons Officer Miss R Raftery Conference & Events Coordinator Mr J Hensel SCR & Hall Supervisor Mrs S Moor Conference & Events Manager Ms M Mas Conference & Events Coordinator Mr A Miller Schools Liaison & Access Officer

1/6/2016 1/6/2016 6/6/2016 22/6/2016 3/7/2016 4/7/2016 5/9/2016 20/9/2016 7/11/2016 7/11/2016

RECORDS | COLLEGE STAFF

College Staff

7/11/2016 21/11/2016 1/12/2016 1/12/2016 1/12/2016 19/12/2016 9/1/2017 1/3/2017 13/3/2017 20/3/2017 22/3/2017 27/3/2017 29/3/2017 19/4/2017 24/4/2017 17/7/2017

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Fellows’ Publications 2016-17

Diepold, A, et al. and JP Armitage (2017) ‘A dynamic and adaptive network of cytosolic interactions governs protein export by the T3SS injectisome’, Nat Commun 8: 15490 Morgan, J, et al. and JP Armitage (2017) ‘Piericidin A1 blocks Yersinia Ysc Type III secretion system needle assembly’, mSphere doi: 10.1128/mSphere.00030-17 Folliard, T, et al. and JP Armitage (2017) ‘Ribo-attenuators: novel elements for reliable and modular riboswitch engineering’, Sci Rep 4(7) 4599 Brenzinger, S, et al. and JP Armitage (2016) ‘Mutations targeting the plugdomain of the Shewanella oneidensis proton-driven stator allow swimming at increased viscosity and under anaerobic conditions’, Mol Microbiol 102(5): 925-38 Di Paolo, D, O Afanzar, JP Armitage and RM Berry (2016) ‘Single-molecule imaging of electroporated dye-labelled CheY in live Escherichia coli’, Phil Trans R Soc B 371: 20150492 Ash, R (2016) ‘Tacitus and the Poets: In Nemora et Lvcos … Secedendum est (Dialogus 9.6)?’, in P Mitsis and I Ziogas (eds) Wordplay and Powerplay in Latin Poetry (De Gruyter: Berlin), pp 13-36 Ash, R (2016) ‘Never say die! Assassinating emperors in Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars’, in K de Temmerman and K Demoen (eds) Writing Biography in Greece and Rome: Narrative Technique and Fictionalization (CUP), pp 200-216 ATLAS Collaboration (AJ Barr, author) (2017) ‘Performance of the ATLAS trigger system in 2015’, Eur Phys J C 77: 317

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ATLAS Collaboration ed. AJ Barr (2017) ‘Search for direct top squark pair production in final states with two leptons in √(s) = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector’, Phys Rev D 94: 052009 ATLAS Collaboration ed. AJ Barr (2016) ‘Dark matter interpretations of ATLAS searches for the electroweak production of supersymmetric particles in √s = 8 TeV proton-proton collisions’, JHEP09 175 Barr, AJ, and J Liu (2017) ‘Complementarity of recent 13 TeV supersymmetry searches and dark matter interplay in the pMSSM’, Eur Phys J C 77: 202 Barron, HC, et al. (2017) ‘Inhibitory engrams in perception and memory’, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 114(26): 6666-74 Barron, HC, et al. (2016) ‘Repetition suppression: a means to index neural representations using BOLD?’, Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 371(1705): 20150355 Holdsworth, DA, et al. and K Clarke (2017) ‘A ketone ester drink increases postexercise muscle glycogen synthesis in humans’, Med Sci Sports Exerc 49(9): 1789-95 Veech, RL, et al. and K Clarke (2017) ‘Ketone bodies mimic the life span extending properties of caloric restriction’, IUBMB Life 69(5): 305-14 Cole, MA, et al. and K Clarke (2016) ‘On the pivotal role of PPARα in adaptation of the heart to hypoxia and why fat in the diet increases hypoxic injury’, FASEB J 30(8): 2684-97 Cox, PJ, et al. and K Clarke (2016) ‘Nutritional ketosis alters fuel performance

and thereby endurance performance in athletes’, Cell Metab 24(2): 256-68 Murray, AJ, et al. and K Clarke (2016) ‘Novel ketone diet enhances physical and cognitive performance’, FASEB J 30(12): 4021-32 Hart-Davis, A (2017) Very Heath Robinson: Stories of his Absurdly Ingenious World (Sheldrake Press: London) Campeotto, I, et al. and SJ Draper (2017) ‘One-step design of a stable variant of the malaria invasion protein RH5 for use as a vaccine immunogen’, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 114(5): 998-1002 Jin, J, et al. and SJ Draper (2017) ‘Accelerating the clinical development of protein-based vaccines for malaria by efficient purification using a four amino acid C-terminal ‘C-tag’’, Int J Parasitol 47(7): 435-46 Payne, RO, et al. and SJ Draper (2017) ‘Plasmodium vivax controlled human malaria infection – progress and prospects’, Trends Parasitol 33(2): 141-50 Hjerrild, KA, et al. and SJ Draper (2016) ‘Production of full-length soluble Plasmodium falciparum RH5 protein vaccine using a Drosophila melanogaster Schneider 2 stable cell line system’, Sci Rep 6: 30357 Hodgson, SH, et al. and SJ Draper (2016) ‘Changes in serological immunology measures in UK and Kenyan adults postcontrolled human malaria infection’, Front Microbiol 7: 1604 Cucuringu, M, and R Erban (2017) ‘ADMCLE approach for detecting slow variables in continuous time Markov chains and

potential niches unfilled’, Nature Eco Evo (in press) Penman, BS and S Gupta (2017) ‘Detecting signatures of past pathogen selection on human HLA loci: are there needles in the haystack?’, Parasitology 15: 1-12 Vasylyeva, TI, et al. and S Gupta (2016) ‘Reducing HIV infection in people who inject drugs is impossible without targeting recently-infected subjects’, AIDS 30(18): 2885-90 Watkins, ER, MC Maiden and S Gupta (2016) ‘Metabolic competition as a driver of bacterial population structure’, Future Microbiol 11: 1339-57 Penman, BS, S Gupta and GD Shanks (2016) ‘Rapid mortality transition of Pacific Islands in the 19th century’, Epidemiol Infect 145(1): 1-11 Penman, BS, et al., S Gupta and P Parham (2016) ‘Reproduction, infection and killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptor haplotype evolution’, Immunogenetics 68(10): 755-64 Cherif, A, et al. and S Gupta (2016) ‘An age-structured multi-strain epidemic model for antigenically diverse infectious diseases: a multi-locus framework’, Nonlinear Anal-Real 34: 275-315 Gupta, S (2016) ‘How has publishing changed in the last twenty years?’, Roy Soc Notes Rec 70: 391-2 Gupta, S (2016) ‘Immune driven pathogen evolution’ in MJH Ratcliffe (ed) Encyclopedia of Immunobiology (Elsevier: Oxford), pp 16–25 Dunwell, TD, and PWH Holland (2017) ‘A sister of NANOG regulates genes expressed in pre-implantation human development’, Open Biol 7(4): 170027 Martin, KJ, and PWH Holland (2017) ‘Diversification of Hox gene clusters in Osteoglossomorph fish in comparison to other teleosts and the spotted gar outgroup’, J Exp Zool B Mol Dev Evol 10.1002/jez.b.22726 Holland, PWH, et al. (2016) ‘New genes from old: asymmetric divergence of gene duplicates and the evolution of

development’, Phil Trans Roy Soc B 372: 2015.0480 Braasch, I, et al. and PWH Holland (2016) ‘The spotted gar genome illuminates vertebrate evolution and facilitates human-teleost comparisons’, Nat Genet 48(4): 427-37 Dunwell, TD, and PWH Holland (2016) ‘Diversity of human and mouse homeobox gene expression in development and adult tissues’, BMC Dev Biol 16: 40 Cheung, G, and SM Hooker (2016) ‘X-ray characterization by energy-resolved powder diffraction’, Phys Rev Accel Beams 19: 082801 Lloyd, PT, et al. and SM Hooker (2016) ‘Gaussian-Schell analysis of the transverse spatial properties of highharmonic beams’, Sci Rep 6: 30504 Dyson, AE, C Thornton and SM Hooker (2016) ‘A compact, low cost Marx bank for generating capillary discharge plasmas’, Rev Sci Instrum 87: 093302 Shalloo, RJ, et al. and SM Hooker (2016) ‘Generation of laser pulse trains for tests of multi-pulse laser wakefield acceleration’, Nucl Instrum Meth A 829: 383–5 Hutson, L (ed) (2017) The Oxford Handbook of English Law and Literature (OUP) Hutson, L (2016) ‘The Shakespearean unscene: sexual phantasies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, J Brit Acad 4: 169-95 Hutson, L (2016) ‘Law, imagination and the form of things unknown’, in ES Anker and B Meyler (eds) New Directions in Law and Literature (OUP) 144-159 Joshi, V (2017) India’s Long Road: The Search for Prosperity (OUP) Hammond-Kenny, A, VM Bajo, AJ King and FR Nodal (2017) ‘Behavioural benefits of multisensory processing in ferrets’, Eur J Neurosci 45: 278-89 Harper, NS, et al. and AJ King (2016) ‘Network receptive field modeling reveals extensive integration and multi-feature selectivity in auditory cortical neurons’, PLOS Comput Biol 12: e1005113

RECORDS | FELLOWS’ PUBLICATIONS 2016-17

Publications

dynamic data’, SIAM J Sci Comput 39(1): B76-B101 Dobramysl, U, S Rudiger and R Erban (2016) ‘Particle-based multiscale modeling of calcium puff dynamics’, Multiscale Model Sim 14(3): 997-1016 Franz, B, et al. and R Erban (2016) ‘Hardsphere interactions in velocity jump models’, Phys Rev E 94(1): 012129 Erban, R, et al. (2016) ‘On Cucker-Smale model with noise and delay’, SIAM J Appl Math 76(4): 1535-57 Duncan, A, R Erban and K Zygalakis (2016) ‘Hybrid framework for the simulation of stochastic chemical kinetics’, J Comput Phys 326: 398-419 Gildea, R (2017) Comment Sont-ils Devenus Résistants? Une Nouvelle Histoire de la Résistance, 1940-1945 (Les Arènes: Paris) – French edition of Fighters in the Shadows: A New History of the French Resistance (2015) (Faber & Faber: London) Gildea, R (2017) ‘Les inconnus de la Résistance: letters to l’humanité, 1984’, in Special Issue: Hidden Words, Hidden Worlds: Everyday Life and Narrative Sources, Essays in French Literature and Culture (France, 1939-1945) 54: 117-40 Gildea, R (2017) ‘1968, Traînée de poudre’, in É François (ed) Europa Notre Histoire (Les Arènes: Paris), pp 275-80 Gildea, R (2017) ‘The global 1968 and international communism’, in J Furst et al. (eds) The Cambridge History of Communism III (CUP), pp 23-49 Grebnev, Y (2017) ‘The Yi Zhou Shu and the Shang Shu: the case of texts with speeches’, in D Meyer and M Kern (eds) The Classic of Documents and the Origins of Chinese Political Philosophy (Brill: Leiden) 249-280 Grimley, M (2017), ‘The state, nationalism, and Anglican identities’, in J Morris (ed) The Oxford History of Anglicanism vol. IV, Global Western Anglicanism, c. 1910-present (OUP), pp. 117-136 Ashby, B, et al., S Gupta and K Foster (2017) ‘Competing species leave many

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and ventricular arrhythmia’, Auton Neurosci 199: 29-37 Shanks, J, et al. and DJ Paterson (2017) ‘Overexpression of sarcoendoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPase 2a promotes cardiac sympathetic neurotransmission via abnormal endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria Ca2+ regulation’, Hypertension 69(4): 625-32 Wang, Y, et al. and DJ Paterson (2017) ‘Optogenetic control of heart rhythm by selective stimulation of cardiomyocytes derived from Pnmt+ cells in murine heart’, Sci Rep 7: 40687 Neary, JP (2016) ‘International trade in general oligopolistic equilibrium’, Rev Int Econ 24(4): 669-98 Eckel, C, et al. and JP Neary (2016) ‘Testing the core-competency model of multi-product exporters’, Rev Int Econ 24(4): 699-716 Payne, J, and E Howell (2017) ‘The creation of a European capital market’, in P Koutrakos and J Snell (eds) Research Handbook on the Law of the EU’s Internal Market (Edward Elgar Publishing: Cheltenham), pp 241-62 Payne, J (2017) ‘Contractual aspects of shareholders’ duties’, in H Birkmose (ed), Shareholders’ Duties (Kluwer Law International: Netherlands) Payne, J (2017) ‘The future of UK debt restructuring’, in Ciyun Zhu et al. (eds), Corporate Restructuring: Law and Practice (Law Press China: Beijing) Phillips, T (2016) Pindar’s Library: Performance Poetry and Material Texts (OUP) Rawson, J (2017) ‘China and the Steppe: reception and resistance’, Antiquity 91(356): 375-88 Rawson, J (2017) ‘Jade and the jade terrapin’, Orientations 48(2): 148-19. Rawson, J (2017) ‘Shimao and Erlitou: new perspectives on the origins of the bronze industry in China’, Antiquity 91(355), e5: 1-5. Pollard, AM, et al. and J Rawson ‘利用牛 津研究体系深化对中国青铜器的认识 : Applying the Oxford System to further

understand bronzes in China. 考古 Kaogu 2017(1): 95-106 Pollard, AM, et al. and J Rawson (2017) ‘Bronze Age metal circulation in China’, Antiquity 91(357): 674-87 Richardson, NJ (2016) ‘“Those miraculous effusions of genius”: the Homeric Hymns seen through the eyes of English poets’, in A Faulkner, A Vergados, and A Schwab (eds), The Reception of the Homeric Hymns (OUP), pp 325-44 Clarke, WT, et al. and CT Rodgers (2017) ‘Creatine kinase rate constant in the human heart measured with 3D-localization at 7 tesla’, Magn Reson Med 78(1): 20-32 Purvis, LABP, et al. and CT Rodgers (2017) ‘Phosphodiester content measured in human liver by in vivo 31P MR spectroscopy at 7 tesla’, Magn Reson Med doi: 10.1002/mrm.26635 Keith, GA, CT Rodgers et al. (2017) ‘A look-locker acquisition scheme for quantitative myocardial perfusion imaging with FAIR arterial spin labeling in humans at 3 tesla’, Magn Reson Med 78(2): 541-9 Levelt E, et al. and CT Rodgers (2016) ‘Ectopic and visceral fat deposition in lean and obese patients with type 2 diabetes’, J Am Coll Cardiol 68(1): 53-63 Stoll, VM, et al. and CT Rodgers (2016) ‘Dilated cardiomyopathy: phosphorus 31 MR spectroscopy at 7 T’, Radiology 281(2): 409-17 Valkovič, L, et al. and CT Rodgers (2016) ‘Adiabatic excitation for 31P MR spectroscopy in the human heart at 7T: a feasibility study’, Magn Reson Med doi: 10.1002/mrm.26576 Valkovic, L, et al. and CT Rodgers (2016) ‘Dynamic 31P-MRSI using spiral spectroscopic imaging can map mitochondrial capacity in muscles of the human calf during plantar flexion exercise at 7 T’, NMR Biomed 29(12): 1825-34 Wijesurendra, RS, et al. and CT Rodgers (2016) ‘Lone atrial fibrillation is associated with impaired left ventricular energetics

that persists despite successful catheter ablation’, Circulation 134(15): 1068-81 Saunders, S (2016) ‘On the emergence of individuals in physics’, in A Guay and T Pradeu (eds) Individuals Across the Sciences (OUP) 165-192 Colyer, GJ, et al. and AA Schekochihin (2017) ‘Collisionality scaling of the electron heat flux in ETG turbulence’, Plasma Phys Control Fusion 59: 055002 Fox, MFJ, et al. and AA Schekochihin (2017) ‘Symmetry breaking in MAST plasma turbulence due to toroidal flow shear’, Plasma Phys Control Fusion 59(3): 034002 Mallet, A, and AA Schekochihin (2017) ‘A statistical model of three-dimensional anisotropy and intermittency in strong Alfvenic turbulence’, Mon Not R Astron Soc 466: 3918-27 Squire, J, E Quataert and AA Schekochihin (2016) ‘A stringent limit on the amplitude of Alfvenic perturbations in high-beta low-collisionality plasmas’, Astrophys J 830(2): L25 van Wyk, F, et al. and AA Schekochihin (2016) ‘Transition to subcritical turbulence in a tokamak plasma’, J Plasma Phys 82(6): 905820609 Shue, H (2017) ‘Complicity and torture’, J Med Ethics 43(4): 264-5 Shue, H (2017) ‘Distant strangers and the illusion of separation: climate, development, and disaster’ in T Brooks (ed.) Oxford Handbook of Global Justice (OUP)

Shue, H (2017) ‘Human rights in the Anthropocene’, Encyclopedia of the Anthropocene, online in Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences Shue, H (2016) ‘Sleep deprivation and prolonged mental harm’, Polit Psychol 37(6): 755-7 Shue, H (2016) ‘High stakes: inertia or transformation?’ in P French (ed.), Special Issue: Ethics and Global Climate Change, Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 40(1): 63-75 Thacker, J (2017) ‘“Para tiempos de veras / se ejercitan en las burlas”: some uses of rehearsal on the Golden Age Stage’, in J Muñoz-Basols et al. (eds) The Routledge Companion to Iberian Studies (Routledge: Abingdon), pp 226-37 Henry, M, and J Thacker (2016) ‘Selfconstruction and the imagination in the drama of Lope de Vega and Cervantes’, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 93(7-8): 1415-44 Walworth, J (2016) ‘The Congregatio Concilii and a Proposal for a Vatican Press in the 1570s’, in C Dondi et al. (eds) La Stampa Romana nella Città dei Papi e in Europa (Vatican City), pp 235-46 Warry, P (2017) ‘Production, distribution, use and curation: a study of stamped tile from Gloucestershire’, Britannia 1-39 Westwood, G (2017) ‘The orator and the ghosts: performing the past in fourthcentury Athens’, in S Papaioannou et al. (eds) The Theatre of Justice: Aspects of Performance in Greco-Roman Oratory and Rhetoric (Brill: Leiden), pp 57-74

Westwood, G (2017) ‘Livia’s shadow: a subtext in Tacitus, Annals 1.10.5?’, Eranos 108: 53-61 Westwood, G (2017), ‘Plutarch’s Aesion: a note on Plutarch, Demosthenes 11.4’, Mnemosyne 70: 316-24 Whitworth, MH (2017) ‘Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, Coleridge, and Jane Ellen Harrison’, Notes Queries 64(1): 164-65 Whitworth, MH (2016) ‘When was Modernism?’ in L Marcus et al. (eds) Late Victorian into Modern (OUP) Perera, N, J Miller and N Zitzmann (2017) ‘The role of the unfolded protein response in dengue virus pathogenesis’, Cell Microbiol 19(5): 12734 Tyrrell, B, et al. and N Zitzmann (2017) ‘Iminosugars: promising therapeutics for influenza infection’, Crit Rev Microbiol 43(5): 521-45 Behrens, AJ, et al. and N Zitzmann (2016) ‘Composition and antigenic effects of individual glycan sites of a trimeric HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein’, Cell Rep 14(11): 2695-706 Caputo, AT, et al. and N Zitzmann (2016) ‘Structures of mammalian ER α-glucosidase II capture the binding modes of broad-spectrum iminosugar antivirals’, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 113(32) doi: 10.10.73/pnas.1604463113 van Wilgenburg, B, et al. and N Zitzmann (2016) ‘MAIT cells are activated during human viral infections’, Nat Commun 7: 11653

RECORDS | FELLOWS’ PUBLICATIONS 2016-17

Homma, NY, et al. and AJ King (2016) ‘Mistuning detection performance of ferrets in a go/no-go task’, J Acoust Soc Am 139: EL246-251 Burnham, KL, et al. and JC Knight (2017) ‘Shared and distinct aspects of the sepsis transcriptomic response to fecal peritonitis and pneumonia’, Am J Respir Crit Care Med 196(3): 328-339 Neville, MJ, et al. and JC Knight (2017) ‘High resolution HLA haplotyping by imputation for a British population bioresource’, Hum Immunol 78(3): 242-51 Davenport, EE, et al. and JC Knight (2016) ‘Genomic landscape of the individual host response and outcomes in sepsis: a prospective cohort study’, Lancet Respir Med 4(4): 259-71 Fang, H, et al. and JC Knight, (2016) ‘XGR software for enhanced interpretation of genomic summary data, illustrated by application to immunological traits’, Genome Medicine 8: 129 Humburg, P, et al. and JC Knight, (2016) ‘Characterisation of the global transcriptional response to heat shock and the impact of individual genetic variation’ Genome Med 8(1): 87 Paterson, DJ (2016) ‘Challenges, opportunities and the future of physiological publications in the Hype Cycle’, Physiol (Bethesda) 31(6): 386-87 Paterson, DJ, et al. (2016) ‘Impaired cAMP-cGMP cross-talk during cardiac sympathetic dysautonomia’, Channels (Austin) 11(3): 178-80 Larsen, HE, K Lefkimmiatis and DJ Paterson (2016) ‘Sympathetic neurons are a powerful driver of myocyte function in cardiovascular disease’, Sci Rep 6: 38898 Larsen, HE, et al. and DJ Paterson (2016) ‘Dysregulation of neuronal Ca2+ channel linked to heightened sympathetic phenotype in prohypertensive states’, J Neurosci 36(33): 8562-73 Kalla, M, N Herring and DJ Paterson (2016) ‘Cardiac sympatho-vagal balance

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Auckland, C (2016) ‘Muddying the waters of end of life decision-making: Tracey and the encroachment of law on clinical judgment’, Elder Law Journal (LexisNexis: London), pp 264-72 Auckland, C (2017) ‘Protecting me from my directive: ensuring appropriate safeguards for advance directives in dementia’, Med Law Rev doi.org/10.1093/ medlaw/fwx037 Becerra-Valdivia, L, et al. (2017) ‘Chronometric investigations of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in the Zagros Mountains using AMS radiocarbon dating and Bayesian age modelling’, J Hum Evol 109: 57-69 Bazgir, B, et al. and L Becerra-Valdivia (2017) ‘Understanding the emergence of modern humans and the disappearance of Neanderthals: insights from Kaldar Cave (Khorramabad Valley, Western Iran)’, Sci Rep 7: 43460 Cohn-Gordon, K, et al. (2016) ‘A formal security analysis of the signal messaging protocol’, IEEE Xplore 10.1109/ EuroSP.2017.27 Chen, VH, et al. (2016) ‘Polarisation independent silicon-on-insulator slot waveguides’, Sci Rep 6: 37760 Ong, JR, et al. and VH Chen (2017) ‘Freestanding dielectric nanohole array metasurface for mid-infrared wavelength applications’, Opt Lett 42(13): 2639-42 Wu, L, et al. and VH Chen (2017) ‘Localized polaritons of multi-particle systems’, in CE Png and Y Akimov (eds) Nanophotonics and Plasmonics: An Integrated View (CRC Press: Boca Raton) Green, S (2017) ‘The problem of sex in J. M. Barrie’s fiction’, Engl Lit Transition 60(2): 185-209 Gruev, I, and D Smilov (2017) ‘Developments in Bulgarian constitutional law’, in R Albert et al. (eds) 2016 Global Review of Constitutional Law (I·CONnectClough Center) www.bc.edu/content/

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dam/files/centers/clough/constitutionallaw/ReviewofConLaw-final.pdf Halewood, L (2017) ‘“A matter of opinion”: British attempts to assess the attrition of German manpower, 19151917’, Intelligence National Security 32(3): 333-50 Vieira, JM, et al. and LE Hankins (2017) ‘BRG1-SWI/SNF-dependent regulation of the Wt1 transcriptional landscape mediates epicardial activity during heart development and disease’, Nat Commun 8, 16034. doi.org/10.1038/ncomms16034 Jordan, B (2017) ‘The consular provinciae of 44 BCE and the collapse of the Restored Republic’, Hermes-Z Klass Philo 145(2): 174-19 Kelly, A (2017) ‘Richard Holland’s Buke of the Howlat and Chaucer’, in J Martin and E Wingfield (eds) Premodern Scotland: Literature and Governance 1420-1587 (OUP) 74-84 Kelly, A (2016) ‘Book review of R Purdie (ed) Shorter Scottish Medieval Romances: Florimond of Albany, Sir Colling the Knycht, King Orphius, Roswall and Lillian’, Notes Queries 63(1): 116-17 Kikkert, S, et al. (2016) ‘Revealing the neural fingerprints of a missing hand’, eLife, doi: 10.7554/eLife.15292 Kikkert, S, et al. (2017) ‘Motor correlates of phantom limb pain’, Cortex 95: 29-36 Marshall, CA, et al. (2016) ‘Bioquality hotspots in the tropical African flora’, Curr Biol 26(23): 3214–19 Menssen, AJ, et al. (2017) ‘Distinguishability and many-particle interference’, Phys Rev Lett 118: 153603 Rajpaul, V, et al. (2017) ‘Pinning down the mass of Kepler-10c: the importance of sampling and model comparison’, Mon Not R Astron Soc, doi: 10.1093/mnrasl/ slx116, arXiv:1706.05459 Angus, R, et al. and V Rajpaul (2017) ‘Inferring probabilistic stellar rotation

periods using Gaussian processes’, Mon Not R Astron Soc arXiv:1706.05459 Mortier, A, et al. and V Rajpaul (2016) ‘The HARPS search for southern extrasolar planets. XXXIX. HD175607 b, the most metal-poor G dwarf with an orbiting sub-Neptune’, Astron Astrophys 585: A135 Dumusque, X, et al. and V Rajpaul (2017) ‘Radial-velocity fitting challenge. II. First results of the analysis of the data set’, Astron Astrophys 598: A133 Sciuto, R (2016) ‘The correspondence of André Morellet: seven unpublished letters to Luigi Lorenzi (1758-1765)’, Arch Storico Ital 174: 499-522 Sciuto, R (2017) ‘The Duc de Richelieu, Voltaire, and Mme du Barry: an unpublished letter from the Cabinet Noir (D18516a), Revue Voltaire 17: 309-14. Alday, LF, et al. and M van Loon (2017) ‘Refined 3d-3d correspondence’, J High Energy Phys 2017: 170 Border, P, and J Walker (2017) ‘New plant breeding techniques’, Parliamentary Office Sci Technol researchbriefings.parliament. uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/POSTPN-0548

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Graduate Publications 2016-17

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The Merton Society

The Merton Society provides alumni with opportunities to connect with their college and to meet Mertonians by organising a broad range of events such as formal dinners, concerts, lectures, and weekends in College as well as informal drinks. It has been another active year on this front and, as your Chairman, I have had the pleasure of meeting more Mertonians and learning from some of Merton’s leading dons. The summer Family Fayre was designed to attract alumni with younger children back to College for the day and was a great success. In glorious June sunshine and against the fabulous backdrop of Fellows’ Garden in full bloom, a range of activities took place including a Tolkien treasure hunt, a falconry display and even ferret racing, and fun was had by all. The formal London Dinner is an annual winter event and was held last December at the Law Society hosted by our President Sir Howard Stringer (1961) with a witty afterdinner speech by cartoonist and film animator Alex Williams (1986). Please try to join us at the next London Dinner on 2 February 2018. At our London lecture in May Eleanor Jane Milner-Gulland, Tasso Leventis Professor of Biodiversity, gave a fascinating talk about her conservation work, where she emphasised the importance of taking into consideration the complex impact of conservation initiatives on local people and their social networks in order to be most effective when promoting biodiversity. We would not be able to put on these events without the continuing support of the Development Office. I would particularly like to thank Christine Taylor who retired as Development Director in February for her unstinting work in developing the alumni community and supporting the Society over the years. Helen Kingsley, Alumni Relations Manager, also retired this year and I will miss her helpful and level-headed support. I am delighted to welcome Duncan Barker and Chelsea Chisholm who have stepped into the breach in these two roles respectively. My thanks also go to the Warden, the Governing Body and all the College staff for welcoming us to the College and looking after us so well.

The Society’s Committee has provided support, ideas and proposals to me during the year, which is much appreciated. Many thanks go to Peter Parsons (1958) who retired this year from the Committee after long service. We would like to welcome new Committee members, so please don’t be backward in putting your name forward. Also please do get in touch with me via the Development Office if you have ideas and suggestions for any events, or any comments you wish to raise. I look forward to seeing many of you at events in College and elsewhere in the coming year.

MERTONIANS | THE MERTON SOCIETY

Mertonians

Mark Davison (1978)

Merton Society Council 2016-17

President: Sir Howard Stringer (1961) Vice Presidents: RB Allan (1959), Professor Dame Jessica Rawson, J Roberts, AM Vickers (1958) Chairman: MPH Davison (1978) Secretary: GG Backler (1973) Past Presidents: The Rt Hon Sir Brian Leveson (1967), Sir Michael Jenkins OBE (1953), Sir Jeremy Isaacs (1951), Sir Robert Scott (1963), Lord Wright of Richmond GCMG (1951), WP Cooke CBE (1952), DW Swarbrick (1945), Sir Maurice Hodgson (1938) Elected Council Members: NW Allard (1974), JDS Booth (1976), AJ Bott (1953), Dr DE Clark (1984), AJ Haggerty (2007), LA Hurrell (2005), the Revd Canon Dr S Jones, Dr GBS Lim (2006), RG McKelvey (1959), RN Miller (2008), Dr S Pardos-Prado (Fellow), Dr RB Peberdy (1975), Dr M Pretzler (1996), AL Smith (1991), NE Sparkes (2011), SAL Tross Youle (1974), NJD Weller (1982), Dame Philippa Whipple (1984), HJ Woods (1985)

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The Merton College Charitable Corporation, MC3 to those in the know, was formed by alumni of Merton living in North America to serve as a focus for a continued relationship with the College. More than 20 years later, we are able to look back proudly and affectionately on the 21st-century College as it is and what it has accomplished. Sir Martin frequently points out that Merton has achieved, by many measures, the rank of top college in what has been recognized as the top university in the world. John Roberts, Dame Jessica, Sir Martin and hundreds of distinguished Fellows and students will certainly claim credit for Merton’s exalted status. But we are compelled to point out the correlation, if not the causation, with MC3’s status as best alumni organization. Most recently, we celebrated the College with a reunion weekend in New York. We began with an informal gathering

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at a well known theatre district restaurant, Becco, for unlimited pasta and other hearty Italian fare. Relationships were renewed and conversations from a year ago resumed. By prearrangement, 30 members and partners left to catch Laura Linney and Cynthia Nixon in the acclaimed revival of Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes.

The following day we gathered for our annual meeting. As usual, the highlights of the morning were the reports of the Warden, the Americas Scholar, Rebecca Springer (2014), recipient of an MC3 grant, and the new Development Director, Duncan Barker. Bob McKelvey (1959) and David Harvey (1957) brought the board and members up to date on our finances and our contributions to Merton. Bob had urged us to raise the funds for the renovations of the boat house and for the purchase of shells for the men and

MERTONIANS | MC3: MERTON COLLEGE CHARITABLE CORPORATION

MC3: Merton College Charitable Corporation

women. All applauded the success of those efforts. After lunch at the Yale Club, a group of 75 of us walked to the spectacular new offices of The New York Times and sat in the editors’ conference room on Saturday afternoon with the first draft of the Sunday morning paper in front of us. We were the guests of Mark Thompson (Honorary Fellow; 1976), the President of The New York Times, who was out of the country at the time. He left a video-recorded greeting for his fellow Mertonians. We learned how the paper was put together and then discussed current events and issues with planning editor Brian Fidelman. This was followed by a tour of the building including the boardroom, with signed pictures from virtually every major political figure of the past century.

Our annual dinner on Saturday night began with a reception in the robber baron marble and gold lobby of the Metropolitan Club followed by a dinner in the Club’s spectacular Great Hall. The weekend concluded with another lovely Sunday morning on the terraces of the home of Susan Cullman and John Kirby (1962) for a traditional New York brunch. Already plans are underway for a 2018 meeting in San Francisco. This will also mark our last official gathering with Sir Martin as Warden. While the Fellows are searching for his successor, we will be looking for volunteers to emulate the success of Marina McCloskey (2003) and Charles Scudder (1971) as chairs of the 2017 events described herein. John J Kirby (1962)

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Merton Lawyers’ Association Our latest Merton Lawyers’ Association meeting took place on 9 November 2016, at which we enjoyed an informative and lively discussion around the topic of public inquiries.

Moderated by The Rt Hon Sir Brian Leveson (1967) (no stranger to the subject), our panel of speakers comprised Christine Lambert QC, Andrew Green QC and The Hon Sir Neil Garnham. Christine Lambert QC served as counsel to the Dame Janet Smith BBC Review as well as the Hillsborough inquests; Andrew Green QC led the review into the enforcement actions of the FSA following the failure of HBOS. Sir Neil Garnham (prior to his appointment to the bench) played significant roles in a number of inquiries, including the Leveson Inquiry and the inquiry into the murder by radiation poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. It was fascinating to hear first-hand about the nature and variety of the legal and logistical challenges associated with the establishment and conduct of a public inquiry, the inevitable impact of close media and political scrutiny, and how the path to truth is navigated through a forest of

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Dame Philippa Whipple (1984) addresses the Merton Lawyers' Association

evidence and testimony. There were many questions from the floor and more over drinks and canapés – generously provided, along with the excellent venue, by Herbert Smith Freehills LLP, courtesy of Dan Schaffer (1986). Our November meeting also provided an opportunity for us to thank our outgoing Chairman, Dame Philippa Whipple (1984), for her wonderful leadership of the Merton Lawyers’ Association since its inception. I am pleased (and not a little relieved) to report that Philippa is continuing to serve on our committee. Our next meeting is scheduled for 7 November 2017, when we will welcome The Rt Hon Tobias Ellwood, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Defence, to speak about the rule of law in an age of terror. Further details will appear on the College website. All Mertonians are welcome to attend – please let the Development Office know if you would like to be included on the invitation list for this event. I look forward to meeting you there. Greg Campbell (1993)

The season started as usual with a meeting at Frilford Heath on the Friday prior to the Gaudy in late September. Sixteen members made it to the first tee on the Blue course after several late changes, both to the course we were playing and to the batting order, in the hours preceding the event. The day, however, was fine and warm, and the Blue course provided its usual challenge – especially over the first three holes with water in play. The golf could probably best be described as mixed but close analysis of the cards in fact showed that players managed between them to play all holes to par except for the long par 4s at the 11th and the 18th and the better ball score for the Society as a whole would have been only one over gross. Four players came in with 30 points or more, with David Holmes (1966) on 31 just beating Hume Hargreave (1959) on countback for third place. The runner-up in his first game with the Society was Fraser Dillingham (1983) playing off 12 with a fine 34 points – a warm welcome to him. The winner, however, and continuing his good form from the preceding Inter-Collegiate was Simon Constantine (1977) with a splendid 37 points. Simon made a fast start with 21 points on the opening nine holes before overcoming a few poor holes in the middle of the round to secure the winner’s engraved glass tankard. This was an excellent round, as shown by an average Stableford points score of 23 across all players on the day. There was no Merton spring meeting this year due to the change of timing of the Inter-Collegiate competition which was held on 21 April. This was the 20th Inter-Collegiate event since the move to Frilford Heath and the wider engagement of more colleges in 1998. In all, 148 players in 16 college teams participated and in principle the Merton team on paper looked

competitive with a good spread of handicaps. However, on the day, Hertford became the first college to retain the Hennessey Cup and also improved their score from 208 to 216 Stableford points – an impressive 36 points per player or, in other words, a par score. This was not a record for the event, that being 218 points achieved by St Edmund Hall and University College in 2001 and 2002 respectively, but it was nevertheless a very impressive total from a consistent team performance, albeit on a fine day with a light wind. It was also Hertford’s third win since first entering a team in 2009. St Peter’s, winners in 2015, were second, and Pembroke and University joint third. Merton scored 197 points from our best six players and were overall seventh. This was the same total as we had when coming second in 2013 and shows how much more competitive the event is becoming. The highlight for Merton was undoubtedly Nick Silk (1960) who won a mug for being the individual runner-up on the Blue course with a fine 39 points. Chris Mercer (1969) with 35 points was seventh on the Blue, and Tito Bastianello (2014) (a recent Blue) and Paul Chamberlain (Emeritus Fellow; a member at Frilford) also did well with 31 points each. Our scoring on the Red was led by Patrick Wolrige-Gordon (1985) with 33 points but unfortunately we had no further depth on that course. A number of recent Blues and Divots played in the event this year as the organising committee had made efforts to subsidise the costs to attract younger players and it was good to see this working.

MERTONIANS | MERTON LAWYERS’ ASSOCIATION & MERTON GOLF SOCIETY

Merton Golf Society

As always, we welcome new players, and if anyone is interested they can contact the Development Office to ensure that they are on the mailing list for golf events. Bill Ford (1975)

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MERTONIANS | 1966 REUNION Back row (from left): Professor John Dainton, Mr Robert Audas, Mr Anthony Holden, Mr Michael Boyce, Professor Michael Hebbert, Dr Denis MacShane, Dr David Holmes, Mr Nigel Carter, Mr Roger French, Mr John Beaumont, Mr Malcolm Warburton, Dr Melvyn Stokes, Mr Lawrence James, Dr Keith Barrett-Bee, Dr Andrew Page.

1966 Reunion

Front row (seated), from left: The late Professor Michael Baker (Emeritus Fellow), Mr David Witt (Emeritus Fellow), Professor James Welsh (Emeritus Fellow), Robert Venables, QC, Sir Martin Taylor (Warden), Mr John Lucas (Emeritus Fellow), Mr Ian Yates, Dr Courtenay Phillips (Emeritus Fellow).

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Merton in Manhattan

On 5 October 2016, at the Manhattan offices of Barclays, New York, some 30 Mertonians and guests joined Merton and MC3 for the annual meeting of Merton in Manhattan, courtesy of the hospitality of John Augustine (1984) and his team. Simon Male (1986) provided us with a fascinating and comprehensive talk on his 25 years’ experience working in the Asian equities market, from Merton to Mizuho Securities USA via the Hong Kong Legislative Council, GT Management (Asia), BNP Paribas and Auerbach Grayson. Among numerous insights, Simon offered a talk filled with excellent data and trends, as well as his first-hand experience. From descriptions of his visits to sausage factories in Vietnam, through to a discussion on the emergence of Chinese tech giants Tencent and Alibaba, Simon’s talk covered a breadth and depth of subject matter that riveted the assembled audience. After the discussion and questions, Mertonians were able to enjoy canapés and a drink, mingling above Fifth Avenue to unpick the talk further. Peter O’Connor Senior Development Executive

2017 Oxford Town and Gown

The annual Oxford Town and Gown 10km race on Sunday 14 May was a great chance to bring together the full spectrum of the Merton community – students, staff, Fellows and alumni – for a fun and active event (which doesn’t include a glass of wine, unlike many of our events!). Featuring a new route, and gorgeous (if not slightly intense) sunshine and warm weather, the run this year saw some 4,000 runners from across the city pounding the pavements and zipping through the city’s parks. As ever, the race welcomes runners of all abilities, and we were delighted to have some 15 Mertonians and friends racing for the College this year.

The annual Town and Gown is held in aid of Muscular Dystrophy UK, and the College is proud to encourage Mertonians and friends to support this excellent cause. The run is along a largely flat and quick course, which is suitable for runners of all abilities and ages. Indeed, the team this year was as varied as ever, from Mertonians who matriculated in the 1960s to our current students. And of course, as ever, a free brunch in Hall is offered to all runners following the race, to help restock those lost carbohydrates! If you are interested in running in the Town and Gown race in 2018, please do get in touch with the Development Office ([email protected]) and we will be sure to send further details regarding the 2018 run as soon as they are announced. More information about the Oxford Town and Gown race, and Muscular Dystrophy UK, can be found online at www.townandgown10k.com.

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Merton in the City

Our guest speaker at the 2017 Merton in the City event was Vijay Joshi (Emeritus Fellow; Balliol 1960), adviser to the Indian government and Indian board member of a number of internationally renowned institutions. We are very grateful to Mustafa Abbas (1990) who was kind enough to host us at Deutsche Bank. The subject matter was Vijay’s recent book on Indian economic development, India’s Long Road: The Search for Prosperity, which was published in India in 2016 and in the US and UK in 2017. The book has received plaudits from scholars and commentators across the world. We have difficulty in Europe grasping the magnitude of India; Europe has 700 million people but India will soon have three times that. In the UK we are creating 20,000 new jobs per month; India is creating one million new jobs every month. To reach southern European levels of GDP per capita India has to grow at a consistent rate of around 7% per annum for the next 25 years. In 1980 India and China were close in terms of income; now per capita income in China is twice that of India. China has lifted huge numbers of its population out of poverty over the last three decades; in India more than a quarter of the population live in extreme poverty. India could have done much better. Post-independence economic policy in India was state-driven protectionism and interventionism. These policies failed over a long period. The legacy of that still lives on in India. All international surveys give India a low rank for ease of doing business, and for the efficiency and honesty of the state. An underlying premise

India is wasting huge amounts on inefficient subsidies that end up in the hands of the better off, not the poor who are the intended target. One of the key recommendations of the book is that wasteful subsidies should be abolished and instead the savings should be used to fund a minimum basic income to all Indians which would be sufficient to lift most of the extreme poor out of poverty. Vijay is concerned that India is seeking state solutions to problems that markets can solve but not fulfilling some of the basic functions of a state. India needs therefore to get the public sector to stop doing things it does badly and start to do a more limited number of basic things well. India can put a craft into space for less than the cost of the special effects in the movie Gravity. The question is not whether that is a great achievement; the question is whether that’s the right thing for India to be investing in at this stage in its national life. Can India get its act together and deliver the growth it needs? Not many economies have performed as well as India needs to over such a long period; in fact only three have – Taiwan, South Korea and China. The state must ‘get out of the way’ to facilitate economic growth. It needs to do more in the labour market, for example, where it has caused great distortions and inefficiencies. Between 1999 and 2009, India increased its labour force by more than 60 million, of which 44 million joined the ‘unorganised sector’, 22 million became informal workers in the organised sector, and the number of formal workers in the organised sector fell by 3 million. This is a huge lost opportunity and error of planning by the Indian government. Let us allow Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator of the Financial Times, to conclude. In a review of the book, he states: ‘Joshi combines enthusiastic engagement with the detachment of a scholar who has passed much of his life abroad. No better guide to India’s contemporary economy exists.’

MERTONIANS | MERTON IN MANHATTAN, 2017 OXFORD TOWN AND GOWN & MERTON IN THE CITY

of the book is that the solution for India lies in putting greater faith in markets than in state-driven solutions.

Richard Baxter (1983)

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Up to 1948

Year Representative: Michael Millard 35 Armorial Road, Coventry, Warwickshire, CV3 6GH Tel: 02476 414776 Email: [email protected]

Michael Millard (1948) marks his 90th birthday with his family in the grounds of Merton

I have recently had a phone call from Shankar Bajpai (1946) who was visiting his son in London. I was interested to learn that several Mertonians meet each other in Delhi. Far away from Delhi, or Oxford, Alasdair Livingston (1947), in Australia, is rather sore through having his driving licence withdrawn. He thinks that any attempt by him to pass an opinion of the system which brought about this decision would outstep the bounds of decent language; those of us who remember Alasdair’s precise and arresting use of the English language (to say nothing of his forays into the language) would love to read what he might have written and his manner of putting it. He now enjoys the various compensations available to pensioners: but, as for many of us, visits to the GP, pharmacy,

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Patrick Yu (1946) closes his letter from Hong Kong by sending good wishes to any of his contemporaries who remember him. He himself has very fond memories of Merton. Although, sadly, his wife died last year, he seems well supported by his family. The daughter and son who live with their families in England return to Hong Kong at least twice a year to visit him. Another friend who mourns the death of his wife is Ian Bucklow (1943) who, though grateful for improved health, is very lonely. Trevor Fletcher (1940), whose wife died recently, has little to do: his son cares for him; he is now 96. He is bewildered by the suggestion of abolishing fees: perhaps, like many of us who treasure what independence the College now has, he wonders what tune might be called by the man who pays the piper (my expression not his). Anthony Williams (1946) appears to be one of the few who have travelled abroad recently and heartily recommends a visit to Georgia (Eastern Hemisphere). Robert Figures (1947) has travelled no further than Somerset this year in contrast to last year. His next journey will be to Worthing where he plans to meet John Crossley (1947). Courtenay Phillips (1942) who was, as he put it at the time, my moral tutor for two years, says he has nothing to report save that he is still alive (just). Peter Gravenall (1943) has very little for me to pass on but that he has a large garden to look after and enjoy, which takes up his time. James Midwood (1947) has reduced mobility following an accident but can still drive. He and Tessa appreciate the blessing of having all four children looking after them. Michael Woods (1944) is still living with his wife in Delph. Their daughter has moved from Australia to help them. He says that living in a three-storey house keeps him fit, though he has had to stop driving on medical advice. Lionel Lewis (1946) is still in touch with John Rhodes (1946) and Geoffrey Kidson (1946). He says he enjoyed the recent

Gaudy. So did I; although there were a few there who had matriculated before me, I found I was the oldest there. John Rhodes reports attending a meeting of the 1264 Society and while in Oxford he enjoyed a visit to the Ashmolean and also evensong in Chapel. He will soon be 90. Not long after, Raymond Payne (1948) will also reach that age. He reminds me that we each had a son at Merton at the same time. Frank Palmer (1948) is a little ahead of most of us and is now 95 and, although more disabled than he was, is still very interested in his garden and what grows in it. What also grows is his family: he has 12 great-grandchildren with two more known to be on the way. Harry Corben (1944) still finds life exciting and mentions dinner at the Middle Temple and the Mansion House. Rotary and Probus club meetings occupy his attention. He confesses to having driven a sheep over London Bridge some years ago. Michael Hinton (1945) writes to say that he is no longer able to visit Merton though he has many happy memories of the College; but he still has the energy to continue supporting Christian Aid and Food Bank, and he contributes a weekly column in the local newspaper. Ron Charlwood (1944) also finds it difficult to get to Oxford. He tells me of his sorrow at the death of Ken Poole (1948); and kindly sent me a photograph of his 90th birthday celebrations. Some of us continue to be busy. Manek Kirpalani (1947) has published another book and was recently a key speaker at a conference at Warsaw University. Rudolph Klein (1948) says that he decays undramatically. Nevertheless he confesses to giving the odd seminar and reviewing papers for journals. Martin Reynolds (1948) is in frequent contact with Lionel Stephens (1948) and exchanges Christmas cards with Stan Richardson (1949). He visits England about twice a year. In the course of a very interesting letter he makes comments on our politics as seen from Portugal including, of course, Brexit. Claver Toalster (1948) also writes a most interesting letter. Among all his other pastimes (if that is the correct word) he is currently brushing up his Chinese: Arabic he can read only slowly. Claver now has three German sons: a change of nationality not unconnected with Brexit. He has interesting views on how the Germans see Brexit. Christopher RoseInnes (1943) tells me that he and his wife celebrated their 90th birthdays last year. Their holiday last year was a visit to South America: he thinks that that will be their last long-distance

holiday; Southport in future. He is currently President of the Stockport Art Guild and spends a lot of his time doing sculpture and drawing. What he does not (naturally) tell us that in the University’s Department of Physics Newsletter, Spring 2017, is a two-page spread headed ‘Christopher Rose-Innes, Merton College, 1944-54’: biographically most interesting. And so we grow older. If one of my friends tells me that his memory is failing I will suggest to him that one of the things he cannot remember is how bad his memory used to be.

MERTONIANS | UP TO 1954

News of Old Members

dentists and other specialists seem to take more and more time. Almost by contrast Guy Harris (1948), if he were the boasting sort, which his friends will remember that he is not, would tell us that he takes no pills at all. Elizabeth and I met Guy and Mary for lunch on the banks of the Avon and, as usual, had an interesting and stimulating time. We also met Brian Chapple (1944) and Brenda for lunch some weeks ago. Brian no longer drives and says he does very little, but he does attend a few functions as a former Mayor of Solihull.

1949

Year Representative: Alastair Porter 4 Savill Road, Lindfield, West Sussex, RH16 2NX Alastair is stepping down as a Year Representative for 1949, Postmaster would like to thank him for his years of service and wish him all the best.

1952, 1953 & 1954

Year Representative: Dick Lloyd 2 Brook Cottages, Sherford, Kingsbridge, Devon, TQ7 2AX Tel: 01548 531068 Email: [email protected]

David Gilchrist (1954), Dick Lloyd (1954), and Tony Hammond (1954)

Having started last year’s report with some personal comments about the Referendum, I think that I am now entitled to state that clearly Parliament is going to have a say on what sort of Brexit we will have!

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David Gilchrist (1954), Dick Lloyd (1954), Connie Gilchrist, and Henry Mayr-Harting (1954)

Tony Bailey (1952) tells me that he passed on his copy of Three Glorious Years to his old friend, Cy Fox (1952), now living in retirement in Newfoundland after an eventful life as a journalist and arts scholar. My exploits with my 1933 Morris Minor reminded him that at Merton they jointly owned a rare car, a 1931 AJS, which they purchased from his scout, Bellcourt, for the princely sum of £35. He says that that was the only year in which the vehicle was manufactured, after which ‘AJS wisely went back to making motor-cycles’, and that another fellow Rhodes scholar, Jack Justice (1952), also participated in the joint ownership and helped to push on frequent occasions to get it started. What a lovely clip from the past! Alan Bott (1953), a copy of whose magnificent tome on the College history I purchased at the Gaudy last September and have perused with great enjoyment, is not resting on his laurels but planning articles for Postmaster on the gardens

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in partnership with the current gardener Lucille Savin. He has recently made an exhaustive tour with his wife, Caroline, of 28 monasteries in Serbia, where they admired wonderful paintings and frescoes. Peter Cooke (1952) reports that he is still working a little but has mobility problems. He recently lunched with John Young (1952), now retired from doctoring and indulging his hobby of painting. He also heard from Michael Glover (1952), now sadly a widower. Peter Dalton (1953), whom I caught up with at the Gaudy, has been remembering his nine years as a teacher at St Bede’s Grammar School in Bradford. John Rogers Edwards (1953), whom I also met at the Gaudy, has remedied his being ‘out of touch’ with a long account of his post-Merton career. He became a schoolmaster teaching history, producing plays, running CCFs and organising Outward Bound type activities. After four years as a deputy head, he got fed up with the way LEAs mucked schools about, and decided to do something about it by joining them after 16 years of teaching. This led him to three LEAs in turn, ending up as Director of Education for one of the London boroughs. He took early retirement to carry out a variety of education-related activities such as organising conferences, advising on headship appointments, clerking governing bodies and appeal committees. He worked on until he was 80, ending up with 13 years of unpaid work with the Historic Houses Association. To cap this busy life he served as a magistrate for 20 years, worked with TA and cadet forces, counted beagling and sailing among his hobbies and travelled, particularly to Australia where his daughter lives, and now is simply Chairman of the Windsor Conservatives. Sadly he lost his wife after a long illness in January, but he tells me that he is in good fettle and still cycles long distances. (I still do in Oxford, but the hills near my Devon home have induced me to exchange my road bike for a static exercise version, known in French as un velo d’appartement.) Adrian Esdaile (1954) writes that, in addition to continuing with parochial duties every weekend, he helps in the chapel at Epsom College, where he has made the interesting comment that he had ‘retired’ (which he clearly has not) before the youngest pupils were born and that preaching

to about 750 teenagers on a Saturday morning, who are probably attending not voluntarily but compulsorily, is one of the hardest tasks he has ever undertaken. He lives close to John Mitchell (1955), my co-Year Rep for 1955, who resides in a house opposite the vicarage where Adrian was brought up during the Second World War, and where his father was both vicar and air raid warden. John Garrard (1954) has recovered well from a mild heart attack in November 2016, by exercising more and avoiding alcohol. (Sorry, John, I have always exercised well and am still drinking!) Harvard University’s Library is archiving thousands of his photos taken in three trips to Israel under the collection name ‘Rabin’s Israel’. Already at Harvard’s Houghton Rare Book and Manuscript Library are archives on Vassily Grossman and the Holocaust in the Occupied Soviet Union, which can be accessed by googling ‘John and Carol Garrard/Harvard’. Gerard Green (1954), who also attended the Gaudy, has communicated but has nothing to add to his interesting contribution last year. Reg Hall (1954) seems to spend as much time in Europe as he does in the USA where he resides, with several weeks last summer in Italy, followed by a river cruise from Budapest to Cologne, interspersed with visits to the UK. He does not believe that the election of Trump nor Brexit will prove as disastrous as many think, but he wrote before the recent UK General Election, which has altered the political scene to a degree! David Hurst (1954) wrote to say how sorry he was to hear of the death of David Gilchrist, whom he clearly much admired. John Ingledew (1954) was another who liked David Gilchrist very much, particularly for his sharp sense of humour. John also recalls Roger Highfield’s kindness and courtesy when he gently suggested that he leave Merton at the end of his first year because of his disastrous showing in Prelims. Of course, he continues, he was only accepted by Merton because Molly Muir had been his Uncle Tom’s mistress in the 1920s, perhaps hardly an academic reason! Coincidentally, this uncle’s son lives near me in Kingsbridge, and claims to be the last surviving ‘Chindit’ – Wingate’s force behind the Japanese

lines in Burma in the Second World War. John claims to have led a very boring life, having qualified as a chartered accountant in London after leaving Merton, then to Cardiff where he took over the rump of his mother’s shipping business. This did not survive long, and he then bought ‘an old pile of mediaeval stone’ in Monmouthshire where he kept a dairy herd for over 50 years. He passed this over to his son and family and now resides in a cottage on the farm. This seems to me to be anything but a boring tale – I got on very well with John at Merton, and I admire his honesty in making no secret of being sent down without a degree.

MERTONIANS | 1954

It has been a sad year for me personally with the number of deaths of friends and family members, including three Mertonians, Roger Highfield (1948), David Parry-Jones (1952) and my very close friend, David Gilchrist (1954), but at our time of life this is only to be expected, and it makes it more important, in my view, to keep in touch with those who are still living. Obituaries for all three feature in this edition of Postmaster. I have had a good postbag and many thanks to all of you who have taken the trouble to communicate, and to the new team in the Development Office, who have been so welcoming of my efforts.

David Jarman (1954) sadly lost his wife in January, but is still very much involved in the local archaeological and historical societies in Romsey, and is a volunteer at the local heritage centre, reputed to date back to the time of King John. Mike Jordan (1954) has finally given up the freelance consultancy work on economic development that he has pursued for over 15 years after reaching retirement age, which has enabled him to make a fascinating trip to Cuba with a group of former World Bank staff members. It seems that they learned a great deal from their two tour guides as they travelled between Havana and the south coast, who were questioned by several members of the group. Cubans enjoy free schooling and medical care which provide higher levels of education and health than in the poorer states of the USA, but the weaknesses of the centrally controlled economy result in low disposable incomes and limited employment opportunities. Housing shortages mean that many young couples live in one bedroom in their parents’ houses or flats, leading to a decline in birth rates in the cities. Some of the magnificent colonial villas in the Miramar quarter of Havana have been beautifully renovated to cater for tourists, but many adjacent houses are crumbling for want of maintenance. These mobile seminars also illustrated the devastating effect of the US embargo on foreign companies doing business with Cuba, and the limited prospects for further liberalisation while Raúl Castro and the remaining old guard of revolutionaries remain in power. Mike deplores the retrograde steps by President Trump to rescind Obama’s policies of relaxing trade and travel restrictions with Cuba, with which opinion I heartily concur. He concludes by saying that although the accommodation and the monotonous

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Ted Mullins (1954), despite his almost total lack of sight, has published yet another book, entitled The Four Roads to Heaven, in which he undertakes a series of journeys that were first described nearly one thousand years ago in the world’s earliest travel guide, compiled for the benefit of a growing number of Christian travellers making their way across France and Spain to Santiago de Compostela. In this book, he explores what has survived of the mediaeval towns, villages, abbeys, churches and other landmarks that sprang up along the four roads for the support and well-being of those pilgrims. The book is handsomely illustrated with photographs taken by Adam Woolfitt who accompanied him in his travels. Ted is known in the literary world as Edwin Mullins, but to me he will always ‘Ted’. Roy Peacock (1953) expresses his great appreciation to Roger Highfield for his encouragement in his own ventures into writing and publishing books on local West Midlands history. His latest historical venture has been creating a website for the Black Country Society on the Great War illustrating ‘Dudley Men and Memorials’. There were many characters from the Worcesters and he chose to feature one of their officers, Roland Leighton, a famous figure also on the Merton College War Memorial. Roy recalls that he was a member of the Salcombe Reading Party of 1956 featured in the photo in the obituary in The Times for Roger Highfield, and he celebrated his 21st birthday on that trip, with a splendid cake provided by Roger. Roy returned the compliment on Roger’s 90th birthday with an equally magnificent cake iced with the College motto: Stet fortuna domus. Roy keeps up with Peter Dalton (1953) and Colin Battell (1953), who both live nearby. Ray Quinlan (1952) recounts wryly that, although acknowledging that Roger Highfield was a very sympathetic, perceptive and instructive tutor, he is still trying to decide precisely what he had in mind when, writing to tell him after Finals that he had been given a Third, he added that, however disappointing the outcome, he had always thought of him as a ‘second class man’. It seems to me that Roger was trying to imply that he should have got a Second, but chose a

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somewhat unfortunate way to convey this opinion! Ray is still very active in organising old Mertonian lunches at the RAC Club in Pall Mall, and recently entertained Gordon Whittle (1952), Tony Marland (1952), Cedric Andrews (1952) and Phil Rock (1951), with their respective spouses. Frank Bough (1952) would have been of the party had he not recently broken his hip. I well remember the late David Parry-Jones (1952) as a talented rugby player and a delightful bloke, but I learned much more about his distinguished career from the excellent obituary in The Daily Telegraph published on 16 May. John Turvey (1952), who resides in France, describes himself as ‘crumbling, but still surviving at 85’. He is teaching himself to play the piano (so am I), swimming daily in the sea (here I regret that, despite living near the sea, osteoarthritis dictates that I confine my swimming to the indoor pool, having had to be pulled out of the sea by a lifeguard a couple of years ago), reading Le Monde (passed on by a kindly neighbour), and wrestling with a recalcitrant garden. At his age, it seems to me that he is doing pretty well. I have contrived to insert one or two bits of information about my own life already, and I have a fairly static existence compared to a number of you – all my years as an export salesman travelling the globe do not endear me to further exploits of that nature. I held a memorial lunch in London on 24 May for David Gilchrist, to which I invited just a few of his old friends, including Dolores O’Reilly-Parr, who made the huge effort to come over especially from Ireland. She had never met David, but came because of the strong link with her late husband John, and there were three other ladies present: David’s widow Connie, his sister Susan, and my wife, Audrey. Gerard Green (1954), Henry MayrHarting (1954), Peter Westwood (1954) and Peter White (1954) made up the small gathering which was very convivial and much enjoyed by all. That apart, our year to date has been dominated by getting rid of a huge rat infestation in our ancient cottage garden and sheds. The pests had even penetrated the very narrow roof space in the modern leanto extension at the rear of the old building, by climbing up the interior of one of the exterior cavity walls, which had to be remedied by taking the whole ceiling down. We are now engaging in a rat prevention scheme to avoid a reoccurrence, and on this cheerful note I will conclude.

1955

Year Representative: John Mitchell OBE The Hedges, Church Road, Fernhurst, Surrey, GU27 3HZ Tel: 01428 652113 Email: [email protected] This year there were fewer replies to my solicitation for news, but quality prevailed. Lionel Jebb still much rues that he had to give up shooting last year, as his balance had become dodgy and potentially dangerous to fellow guns, but others may be grateful for his self-sacrifice! He does quite a bit of desk work especially with spread-sheets for the farm, which serves to free up his son Richard’s time somewhat. Richard’s wife is Professor of Diet and Population Health at Oxford. In fact, Corinna and their wider family all appear to be very active and either doing interesting jobs or attending university. Corinna and Lionel plan a cruise again this year. John Adams’ wife Jo had a catalogue of mishaps, mainly falls and an eye problem, throughout 2016, which year John describes as ‘busy’, verging on the horribilis end of the scale, though he was hopeful that Jo would recover this year. I will see them both, all being well, in early January 2018, when I visit Sydney to watch the fifth Test between Australia and England. Among other delights, John has invited me to the Primary Club breakfast before play on the first day. Dermot Killingley continues as Chair of the S.Y. Killingley Memorial Trust in which capacity he has enjoyed interviewing, for a grant, diverse people seeking further education. He is an editor of Religions of South Asia, gives a weekly class in Sanskrit and had completed nine chapters in contribution to a large multi-author book on the Upanishads. He also holidayed in Lisbon, where he gave a lecture at the university’s newly formed Centre for Indian Studies. Rex Jamison, who retired from Stanford University as Professor of Medicine, lives with his wife near the university. In 2014, he retired from his retirement job as academic secretary to the university, an office that serves the university faculty senate. He is now writing about that experience as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the founding of the faculty senate. Rex also tells that,

after a tour of Ireland he visited London, where he saw Ted Mullins (1954), President of the JCR when I was Steward. He observed that Ted has had a distinguished career as creator of television shows and as a prolific author on art and more recently French monasteries. Martin Redfern writes that Jan Holder visited from Barbados and despite recent widower-hood was in good form. He also met up with Ron Tamplin at a Spaghetti House restaurant – ‘though not the one we had planned…plus ca change’, but I guess we all know about that these days.

MERTONIANS | 1954-56

diet of rice and beans in the state-owned restaurants were disappointing, most of the visitors thoroughly enjoyed the visit and intend to return.

Mike Thornton’s missive was introduced by his splendid rant on Brexit. He went on to regret that The Times obituary of Roger Highfield (1940) had been much too slight in relation to the many extraordinary kindnesses Roger had shown to Merton historians, at least, and to him in particular. He then reminded me that his son Jonathan and my daughter Virginia had both been taught by Roger at about the same time. The man is fondly remembered through the generations. Which leaves me. A major preoccupation of mine is that I have volunteered to raise a seven-figure sum to build a new multisports clubhouse in my village recreation ground, following investment five years ago of £250,000 into better sports facilities. The 80 or so who used to play sports there has now risen to 800, of whom 300 are juniors, with obvious pressures on a pavilion built for around 80. I manage to golf regularly, though from a buggy (knees), support and go to a dozen or so performances at the wonderful Chichester Festival Theatre and enjoy bridge, family, travel and our house in Dornoch. My very best wishes to all.

1956

Year Representative: Richard Kenyon Oakwood House, 65 Randall Road, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, CV8 1JX Tel: 01926 859620 Email: [email protected] The last year was a ‘lost and found’ year. It opened with the sad news of Ian Butler’s death (see In Memoriam) but closed with the tracing of John Pritchard in Devon thanks to Mike Renton recalling some jazz sessions in the summerhouse

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To Diamonds and World Events written for and presented to the occasion ran as follows: In October of nineteen fifty-six, We entered Merton to matriculate. With Mure and Levens, Coghill we did mix, In our safe world behind the College gate. As we sat down to dinner in the hall No lady’s name would pass our lips, nor shop. Let’s not forget the cycle by the wall, So that with ease we might surmount the top.

1956 Matriculation photograph

Brian Roberts-Wray is still living in retirement in Wells, Somerset. He keeps himself busy by leading two local birdwatching groups, by acting as a guide at the Bishop’s Palace, Wells, and by membership of various charity trustee boards (a reflection of the fact that when employed he worked for a national charity). He is also attempting to learn to play the clarinet, but finds this much more challenging than he expected. His contact with the College is principally through membership of the Merton Golf Society. He attended the funeral in November 2016 of Ian Butler, a close personal friend. Across the Atlantic Ocean, Jay Keyser continues to defy the medics by ever increasing his mobility. His article, which is essentially an excerpt from his book Memoir of a Man Who Would 'Never Walk Again', was scheduled to appear in the June 2017 issue of the Washington Monthly, an influential DC publication that he believes is read by a lot of Washington policy ‘wonks’. He praises the VA healthcare system through his personal story, telling us that it is as close as America has ever got to socialised medicine. Last September one quarter of those able to be invited attended our Diamond Gaudy, a commendable proportion after 60 years. Tony Wynn-Evans spoke for many of us when he commented that taking our seats on the benches was not as straightforward as it had been in undergraduate days! He was also sad that we heard a sung grace rather than the spoken words of Oculi omnium, which we still knew by heart after hearing them perhaps 500 times. A sonnet

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Outside the walls the world we little saw, Save of events like Suez, Budapest. The former made us think but not much more, The latter’s imprints yet in College rest. Now fourteen here, who once were seventy-eight, Our Diamond Jubilee we celebrate.

1957

Year Representative: Graham Byrne Hill 26 Lawn Crescent, Kew Gardens, Richmond, Surrey, TZ9 3NS Tel: 01428 724699 Email: [email protected] Our reflections on the past year are poised over a balance between fitness and ricketiness. Graham Rolfe is active, but no longer plays football since a double leg fracture – in 1960 against Christ Church. He sends greetings to fellow team members. David Harvey continues his huge commitment of time and resources to the work of the Development Office. Michael Leach scuba-dived this year, as last year, in the southern Maldives. He is worried by the increasing warmth of the water, which is bleaching the coral and depleting the marine life. Then it was Christmas in San Francisco with his daughter and, finally, back to the constituency database that he maintains for Grant Shapps, the Conservative MP for Welwyn Hatfield. Referred to previously as work, this is now his ‘daytime hobby’. Not such an unfamiliar sequence: work, on retirement, becoming hobby. Even an ideal. His ‘hobby

hobby’ is the regular use of two season tickets for Spurs. Speaking for myself, as a historian of contemporary Europe, I am absorbed by the creative cauldron of the EU negotiations. I am close, living in London, to a chastened Westminster, where power now rests and debate is for real. Its think tanks are lively, like 18th-century coffee houses. Ian McMillan’s hobby has become hard physical work. This year he finally completed a big walk from Lake Geneva to Nice, one of the French Alpine traverses known as the GR5 [Grand Randonnée Cinq]. He began it with his late wife in 2005. After four days, she slipped and broke her wrist. At the next attempt, in 2009, she fell devastatingly ill. In 2015 Ian returned to GR5 and completed the middle stage of the walk to Modane, with a teenage grandson over 14 days. His attempt at the third and final stage of the walk, in 2016, ended early when a six-hour walk strained his back. This year, after training with a heavy pack, and accompanied by his daughter and a brother-in law, he completed the final stage. Crossing cols at 8,000 ft, climbing 3,000 ft or more daily, and through the stunningly beautiful Mercantour National Park, he reached Menton in 17 days. Heroes’ stuff. Makes my walking Offa’s Dyke in September a nursery run.

1958

Year Representatives: Bryan Lewis 2 Bell Close, Ratby, Leicestershire, LE6 0NU Tel: 0116 239 5319 Email: [email protected] and Peter Parsons Ashton House, Downside Road, Winchester, Hampshire, SO22 5LT Tel: 01962 865069 Email: [email protected] The Merton College Register, 1891-1989 shows that 1958 was the last year when a significant number of the cohort came up having done National Service or, in a couple of cases, served as ‘regulars’. There was then a fairly wide age range who assembled to be given minatory briefing by Principal of the Postmasters, John Roberts. Even those of us who’d been given the runaround by warrant officers when doing basic training blenched.

Shortly after I sent my last entry for Postmaster, John Bradshaw wrote from Australia. He said he was spurred into action by reading John Crossley’s (1960) account. The two Johns’ paths frequently crossed when at Merton in the Library; moreover, John B received lectures (Behaviour Genetics in the Institute of Experimental Psychology) from Stella Crossley who happened later to become John C’s first wife. In 1968 the two Johns and their wives quite independently took up positions in the then-fledgling Monash University in Melbourne, Australia where they are both emeritus (‘Latin for worn out and unfit for further service’ says John B ruefully) professors. They have been dining together once a week for some years.

MERTONIANS | 1956-58

and assiduously pursuing his web search for ‘John Pritchard jazz trumpeter’. So much for web research being a young man’s game!

With two of his old graduate students, John B has just published his ninth book Developmental Disorders of the Brain (Routledge/Taylor & Francis). A further coincidence is that John C’s latest book was also published by Routledge. John B’s wife and collaborator Judy is sadly now in an aged care home after a stroke during a bush-walking holiday seven years ago; he is himself in good health, bar having to undergo two knee replacements. Alan Furse reflected on life’s little ironies. ‘In my first year at Merton I lived in Mob Quad, a short distance from the Chapel Tower. Occasionally on a Sunday afternoon the bells would be rung for an hour or so. I hated and resented the assault upon the ears and the wrecking of conversation. I knew nothing of bell-ringing and had no wish to find out. Had I looked up from my place at Chapel choir practice I would have seen the sallies of the bell ropes in the gallery above. Some 40 years later I was persuaded to learn to ring church bells. Learning a new skill in my dotage was quite a challenge, but for me a profound hatred has become a near-obsession, which has brought me a great deal of pleasure. The Merton bells are noteworthy to the point of being notorious – any local ringer would be able to explain why. I do not recall any member of the College even mentioning the bells or the subject of bell-ringing. I would be interested to know why there was this reticence or whether I am quite wrong in this.’ Peter Parsons doesn’t recall bell-ringing intrusion but: ‘My main irritant in Mob 1.1 was the Mob Club who regularly invaded my room late at night during their drunken revelries. On a happier note there was somebody who in the evenings

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Richard Salked’s sailing odysseys have continued – by yacht to Mallorca, then flying to Tahiti, by freighter (Chinese built, crewed by Polynesians) to the French Polynesian Islands where the 150 passengers (great cuisine, absorbing lectures on Pacific emigration centuries ago) were invited to participate in local traditions. ‘Ashore were visits to archaeological sites, fruit farms and beaches for bathing and snorkelling.’ He also reminisced: ‘It had been said that an egg landing on grass from a height in the right attitude will not break. So a group of us including Gerald Jones, Chris Dale and, perhaps, Neil Davidson climbed the Chapel Tower armed with a dozen eggs. The first few landed on a Corpus Christi roof; we lowered our sights and the next batch landed on the Chapel. Finally some landed on the grass – but all broke, due, maybe, to fragments of stone that the builders had left behind?’ The news of Roger Highfield’s death prompted a number of replies from those who read Modern History. He was clearly held in esteem, not only for his erudition and academic rigour, but also for his care for his pupils whose subsequent careers he was always interested in. He wrote by hand to us after Schools congratulating or commiserating as appropriate. Oliver Ford Davies says: ‘We used to exchange Christmas cards and he was always interested in what I was doing (when I could decipher it). I owe him a lot, as I did the Richard II Special Subject with him and he got me a term’s tutoring with Vivian Galbraith.’ Richard Gallop said: ‘I actually met Roger the summer before coming up. I was working on a thesis for a Treveylan scholarship on Headington stone which most of the earlier colleges used, much to their later regret as it deteriorated badly with the advent of auto emissions. Merton had some early account records which Roger arranged for me to photograph. Of possible interest is that the Headington stone was dressed by stonemasons in Christ Church Meadows on Broad Walk. Because of the stone chippings covering the walk it was originally called ‘White Walk’, corrupted to ‘Wide Walk’ and finally to ‘Broad Walk’.’

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The Salcombe reading party was fondly recalled mostly for off-piste memories. Michael Parry remembers rough cider and, driving his mother’s Mini, being upstaged and highly jealous of Andrew Hyslop’s red sports car. Travelling to Salcombe evoked memories. David Waterhouse was one of those who found Roger's driving unnerving (it was alleged he seldom went above third gear) – but he too was grateful for a thoughtful and inspiring teacher. Paul Cheeseright’s recollections include riding pillion on Ricky Gallop’s scooter, losing his voice in the process to the extent of arriving at a Wells B&Q, so that ‘opening my mouth to speak, nothing came out’. He remembers ‘losing my baggage on the train going back so that two terms’ notes went into never-never land’. He too reflects on a scholar and a gentleman to whom he is in debt. John Gooding’s memories were stirred by the fine obituary in The Times, not least by the photograph of Roger and John Roberts in a dinghy. Andy Adam recalls the remarkable good-humour and equanimity of Roger when the 1958 dinghy crewed by Andy and, he thinks, Andrew Hyslop and David Waterhouse almost capsized in the harbour. Nicholas Menon, who didn’t read Modern History, says Roger ‘was one of those dons who treated non-historians kindly, supported the Church Society and Bodley Club, with which I was associated, and always was friendly (and remembered one) on later visits to the College. A very special person.’ It’s interesting to note how two contemporaneous readers of Modern History, sons of doctors, Andy Adam and David Forsyth (1959) in the end followed their fathers’ profession. Andy retired from being a pathologist and pursued another ‘career’ in retirement. He writes: ‘I did not turn to cruising until I was over 70, when I enjoyed the experience but not the cost.’ For the lucky few there is a way around that and, since 2013, Jacqui and I have enjoyed a succession of wonderful holidays around the world aboard liners of the Cunard fleet. Guest speakers on liners and cruise ships keep the passengers amused on sea days. Many are authors who plug their books. Others are celebrities like Sir David Frost who, poor fellow, died while a speaker on the Queen Mary. You may have an audience of nearly a thousand people and must be able to hold them. Your talk competes with every conceivable entertainment from aromatherapy to deck quoits and ballroom dancing.

Getting accepted is like approaching a publisher: hard work and long odds. You submit a portfolio of talks with a CV, a mug shot and proof of public speaking. If things go well you are invited to an audition. Mine brought back memories of a painful viva voce in the Examination Schools 56 years ago. As a retired pathologist I speak on medical topics but with my first degree in mind I like to add historical flavours. My talks include Queen Victoria’s chronic grief syndrome; neardeath experiences; medical murderers; humour in medicine; the Monmouth rebellion; and a study of British eccentrics. My encore is a tale of the Boxer Uprising in which my grandfather nearly perished.

1959

Year Representatives: David Shipp Higher Dale Cottage, 6 Dale Lane, Delph, Oldham, OL3 5HY Tel: 01457 875171 Email: [email protected] and Roger Gould 4 The Park, Grasscroft, Oldham, OL4 4ES Tel: 01457 876422 Email: [email protected]

MERTONIANS | 1958-59

used to play the guitar beautifully. I think it was Patrick Campbell – but it might have been Kris Kristofferson.’ (I note that the latter launched this year’s Glastonbury Festival. I wasn’t there, I hasten to add.)

Guest speaking is not for the faint-hearted and you must be able to entertain as well as inform. Doing both with PowerPoint in a large theatre is challenging in an Atlantic gale. The stage curtains billow, the screen veers from port to starboard, your breakfast rises within you – but the show must go on. You have to keep scrupulously to time and you are closely monitored. Your talks are recorded for the ship’s TV and watched by the entertainment staff. They also monitor audiences to see how many left half-way through; and use passenger satisfaction forms to decide if you are worth inviting again. But it is great fun! You can promote and sell any books you have written and get fresh ideas from other speakers and authors. Jacqui and I have met a host of interesting people as well as some epic bores. We have visited places far beyond my pocket, from the fire mountains of Iceland, the jungles of Central America, the glittering palaces of St Petersburg to the shores of Coromandel and the Western Cape. And the Cunard Queens are such a beautiful, elegant way of getting there. So, if you like travel and have time, nerve and a valid passport, why not give it a try? I herewith offer a one-to-one tutorial to any Mertonian on how to get started. Success likely but not guaranteed.

David Shipp and family at the Merton Society Family Fayre

Richard Allan reports that all is well. He is still dealing with the tail end of family business affairs in Northumberland, and charitable activities in the East End of London. His travels include a memorable visit to the Bolivian Andes and the Argentinian wetlands, and a whirlwind trip to St Peter’s in Rome to mark the Merton Choir’s special evensong performance. Antony Ellman had a couple of grandchild-minding trips to Capetown and Barcelona, and a couple of enjoyable visits to France. He has done some work with the Tropical Agriculture Association, and with Artimisia annua, the antimalarial plant he’s been involved with for a long time. He continues to keep his beehives healthy and productive. He has played in several gigs with his wind band, St Margaret’s Elastic Band, in which he plays tenor saxophone. The band performed in a special concert to mark 40 years of friendship between Richmond and Fontainebleau, its twin town.

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John Howe sadly died at the end of 2016; his obituary appears in the In Memoriam section of Postmaster. John Latham was greatly saddened by John Howe’s death. When they came up in 1959 they were in adjoining rooms in Stubbins 1. John was the nicest of blokes and they always kept in touch. On other matters, he took the family for a few days to Washington and New York, including the wondrous Trump Tower. Their 17-year-old son, George, is engaging in the first round of his A-levels, not a lot of fun for him or for them. Meanwhile the publishers keep reissuing his old books. Joe McDonald has told us that his life changed dramatically last September with the loss of his wife Anne, after a long illness. They had been married nearly 50 years. With the help of a close and loving family, good health, and a mind still functioning well, he has come through the difficulties reasonably whole and not too scathed. He is still teaching Latin to adults and learning German. Musically, he has added to choral singing, an appreciation of George Formby, and started to learn the ukulele. His coeval group does what are loosely called ‘gigs’, singing to people even older and more forgetful that most of its members. Jack MacIntosh writes from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Calgary that he’s just published The Arguments of Aquinas: A Philosophical View (Abingdon and New York Routledge, 2017), finished during a sabbatical term partly spent in New Zealand and Australia, visiting philosophical friends and family. He is now working on a book on Robert Boyle, and of course next academic year’s teaching. At the ANZAMEMS (Australia and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies) he gave a paper on mathematics and logic in the 17th century, and heard with pleasure and interest John Crossley’s (1960) paper ‘A sense of proportion: Jacobus de Ispania and the

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problem of semitones’. John is ex-Merton, mathematics. Ian McReath has written some fascinating messages on the political situation in Brazil. In view of the topicality of his account we have forwarded his messages to 1959 colleagues right away rather than await the publication of Postmaster. Suffice it to say that the past year has been a sequence of horror stories, starting with the impeachment of President Dilma, and leading to attempts to get rid of her successor President Temer on political and financial abuse charges. Ian sends his best wishes to all and will keep in touch provided his emails aren’t being monitored by the Secret Service with all the consequences. Peter Moyes says that he is more and more becoming one of life’s watchers rather than a doer. On the Sunday morning after the last Gaudy he went to see his old Politics tutor, Zbigniew Pelczynski, and spent a fascinating time with him. Zbig’s health is not too good: he gets around the village with a walking frame, but his anecdotes are amazing and his intellect as sharp as ever. Peter hopes to get to the Merton Weekend next year. Bill Woods says that the highlight of his year has been the wedding of their elder daughter Sarah, a truly happy occasion, set in Thetford Chase on a glorious early June day. The blend of formal and modern meant that at the outset he led the bride up the aisle and somewhat later read an A. A. Milne poem. Their younger daughter Amy is now working for the Government Legal Service dealing with education issues (probably rather better than Brexit, Bill says). Meanwhile they have more or less finished doing up the house and the coarse fishing season has got off to a good start. Sam Walters, John Watson and David Shipp all attended the Merton Family Fayre in June with their respective grandchildren (or in John’s case the three youngest of a total of ten). It was a well organised event, something for all ages – an ascent of the Tower, a juggler on stilts, ferret races, and falcons – and the College gardens looked wonderful. As to your faithful year reps: Roger Gould has retired from a university governorship, but a busy year as Chairman of Oldham Interfaith Forum more than replaced it. Oldham is a town with a significant ethnic

minority population and it has been rewarding to develop relationships with people of other faiths and to share with them as we all respond to recent disturbing incidents. Also, he says: ‘As our children and grandchildren are all with us this August, they have decided they should organise (and we should pay for!) a family cruise to celebrate our Golden Wedding a year early.’ David Shipp started his next long-distance path in September around the Isle of Anglesey, due for completion this year. He and Phillida had a fourth grandchild, Nelson, born in October. They are still learning German in the hope of keeping up with their two half-German grandchildren in due course. They enjoyed Ramblers’ holidays walking in the Mosel Valley in 2016 and earlier this year in Sicily.

1960

Year Representative: Keith Pickering 24 Woodfield Road, Ealing, London, W5 1SH Tel: 020 8998 2614 Email: [email protected] George Darroch, Peter Fattorini, Michael Hind, Paul Jennings, Alan Keat, Tim Phillips, David Price, Nigel Stenhouse and Christopher Taylor all report that they are in good order but with nothing especial to note for Postmaster. Keith Aspinall is alive and kicking and paid a visit to his old friend Paul Jennings and his wife Carole last December. Stuart Blume continues to be based in Amsterdam, sharing the uncertainties of so many other expatriate British in Europe. He travels to South America once or twice a year and maintains a schedule of teaching and writing. His book Immunization: How Vaccines became Controversial, will be published by Reaktion Books (London) in the autumn of 2017. Gerald Cadogan continues the endless task of trying to finish excavation reports while remaining in his post as Chair of the Anglo-Hellenic League. Geoffrey Copland remains engaged with a range of charity boards, all related to students, higher education, and quality and assessment issues. He stays determined to face the challenges of providing a responsive and accessible

progression route for people to gain qualifications to help them overcome the challenges of the 21st century.

MERTONIANS | 1959-60

Peter Hayward thinks he has finally retired – his last paid assignment was in Indonesia in 2016. He is, however, busier than ever, travelling with his wife Ann (at their own expense), and has been exploring the subcontinent encouraged by a daughter living in India. They plan Christmas in Sri Lanka. He was able to attend Roger Highfield’s funeral service in the College Chapel.

John Crossley and his wife, Margaret

John Crossley and his wife continue to see John Bradshaw (1958) each week, who is currently undergoing the usual slow recovery from knee surgery. John wrote his last mathematics paper in December 2016 but is very busy with the early Spanish Philippines and, with colleagues, music theory in Paris around 1300. Another book is scheduled to appear in 2017, along with three definite papers and five others submitted and awaiting judgment. One highlight was a completely unexpected invitation to Qatar just to give one talk in November 2016: ‘Al-Khwārizmī in Paris: Music theory around 1300 CE/700 AH’. He continues to travel and was in Wellington, New Zealand, where he met Jack Macintosh (1959) with whom he was friendly at Merton. Jack still has his puckish humour and gave a very entertaining talk in the ANZAMEMS (Australia and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies) conference. John will be back in Oxford and Poitiers in June and July, the latter for a conference on urban monasticism, something he thought he knew little about but the paper virtually wrote itself: ‘Dancing in the streets, chanting in the choir: Educating St-Denis monks in Paris around 1300’. When in Oxford he will be hosting the Warden, Sir Martin Taylor, to dinner at All Souls. John Davies has no great events to record for 2016, though there has been a steady trickle of publications, seven single-author titles this year, mostly comprising papers that were written some time back and have been stuck forever in the publication process, and an equally steady

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David Fletcher is spending more and more time on the c-HouseTM project, using structural carbon extrusion (yet to be developed from oil or gas) to build a new kind of house using construction robots. He is also looking at other forms of carbon, including graphene, to generate and store electricity. Graphene is a fascinating carbon material. It could become a global diversification for oil as vehicle electrification and climate regulation reduce demand for petrol and diesel. The materials can be produced in 700 existing refineries worldwide. David will have handled the arrival of nine grandchildren for Easter before Postmaster is published. Bruce Gilbert has nothing to add save to note that it gets harder to keep his several grandsons all aged between 8 and 13 at bay on the squash court, now that they have discovered the usefulness of drop shots and long rallies in their games with their grandfather.

John Crossley in Qatar

Ian Donaldson says he is still lucky enough to be an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne and a Fellow of Melbourne’s Trinity College, and enjoys regular contact with local students and colleagues. During 2016 he lectured at a number of Australian universities about the curiously muted response in England in 1616 to the death of Shakespeare: part of a larger study of Shakespeare’s early reputation that he is currently trying to complete. Leslie Epstein is still teaching creative writing at BU after 39 years – though he no longer directs the programme, it being now in the capable hands of Ha Jin, the great Chinese-American writer. He continues to write and hopes to find someone willing to publish his new novel. His big news is that the Cubs won the world series last year for the first time since 1908 under the guidance of his son, Theo, whom Fortune Magazine consequently named the ‘World’s greatest leader’ in March 2017 (ahead of the Pope and Angela Merkel: KWP). But Theo’s exploits, and those of Leslie’s other children, plus those of his father and uncle (Philip and Julius Epstein are now characters in a Broadway play about the making of Casablanca), mean one thing: Leslie is the only sandwich in the world where the meat is on the outside.

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Francis Glassborow has upsized to a house and is now engaged in organising substantial changes to the floor plan, converting an outbuilding and setting up a large conservatory. In the meantime his partner Gwyneth, who appeared on page 44 of the 2016 Postmaster and is one of Merton’s gold-medal-winning gardeners, is spending considerable time removing gravel and lawn to replace it with shrubs, herbs and copious flowers. They are planning to marry in 2018 and Francis says that anyone who knew him at Merton is more than welcome to visit, given sufficient notice, as they can even provide sleeping spaces, provided the builders are not ripping things apart. John Hartnett is well and still enjoying life. In February he paid a return visit to Curaçao in the West Indies, which was his first posting with Shell. He notes that the island has prospered in the intervening 50 years, and many of the places he knew well are still recognisable, among them being the golf club where he first learned to play. Needless to say, he is still learning. Philip Hawkes is alive and well and still not retired. Nothing changes chez Hawkes, although should any alumni of Merton wish to celebrate some kind of family event in Burgundy, he is happy to remind them that the fabulous Chateau de Missery is now more comfortable than ever (can sleep 16 or so) and is happy to be rented by grandparents who would like to arrange that their descendants can all spend an idyllic

holiday together in the beautiful Burgundy countryside learning about wine, architecture, France and gracious living. Stephen Hazell is leading a quieter life, not so much travelling, is hoping to buy an old sports car to replace his Mini, and will have had the great pleasure of entertaining his old pal, Bruce Walter, here in Blighty before Postmaster goes to press. Arthur Hepher continues to travel and has discovered somewhat belatedly the benefit deriving from Classical Moderations of being able to read the signs in Bulgarian shop windows. Alan Heppenstall is still alive and kicking, not yet completely retired, but gradually phasing out some of the work he has been doing. He has given up his role as UK manager for English Lakeland Ramblers, but retains some of his Blue Badge guiding, especially on Hadrian’s Wall, for which he has a particular interest, having been born pretty much on top of it. He is still a member of the Institute of Guiding’s Language Committee. Jasper Holmes has discovered Business Class so there is no stopping him and Kate travelling to Dubai to see the family, right down to Isabelle aged three. Here, they continue to enjoy their new home in Wiltshire. Roger Laughton remains grateful to Nick Woodward for helping to support their joint allotment by bringing goodies back from his (Nick’s) regular visits to his French hideaway. Chuck Lister spent the early part of the year battling an infection that kept him immobilised, but he is now back on track to reinstate his travel schedule.

particular would like to thank John Crossley for saying such kind words about his (KWP’s) mother’s novel, John Davies for his measured comments on the more arcane Geordie tribal rituals, Tim Phillips for his skilful chaperoning (of KWP) at the Merton Lecture and Nick Woodward for his marmalade. Nick Silk is playing a good deal of golf, including being on his club committee at Liphook, being made President of the Rugby International Golf Society last year for a term, and representing Merton in the inter-collegiate competition at Frilford, where he managed to score 38 points as runner-up on the blue course. He is playing bridge but not quite so actively and plans to turn his full attention shortly towards downsizing to a house in town. Glynne Stackhouse moved house – about 300 yards – and celebrated with a private recital by the brilliant young RussoAustralian guitarist Andrey Lebedev. He stepped down from regular organ-playing at Easter 2016 but still occasionally stands in for others when asked by various local churches, and has started giving fundraising piano duet recitals with a sprightly partner of 86! Five last year and four more booked for this year. He is still involved in organising professional chamber music concerts locally. Concerts, opera and theatre keep him mentally alert and culturally alive, while grandchildren add to the excitement in life. He has been on the board of Making Music for three years and has offered his name for re-election this year, work that is both valuable and enjoyable. Trips to Gran Canaria, Normandy, Tuscany, Hungary, Mallorca, Portugal and Spain last year, with Venice, Sardinia and Düsseldorf lined up this year and probably more to come. Best time of life.

Richard Mulgan is keeping reasonably busy, teaching ethics to public servants, writing for the newspaper, walking the dog and gardening, while remaining ever-grateful for his Oxford education.

Richard Thompson says the past year has seen him and Jane travelling as much as possible while they still can, hence trips to Madrid, Barcelona, New York, Nice, and a celebration of 50 years of marriage in Paris. They also managed to spend two months in their French retreat. The rest of the time, with the help of son Toby, has been spent renovating their old house in Gosport. Otherwise, he continues with his half-hearted attempts to learn Italian.

Keith Pickering continues to soldier on in skeletal disarray and would wish to express his appreciation to all those Mertonians who so patiently responded to his annual plea, and in

Michael Thorn can only report that he has survived several months of the new US Presidency and only wishes that J Swift were around to do the lunacy justice.

Joyanta Mitra and his wife Aloka are alive and well, and he would like to say how sorry he was to hear the news of Roger Highfield’s death.

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stream of references and assessments for various bodies. Add one semi-professional trip with his wife on an Andante Travels group tour to Iron Age sites in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, and a wholly amateur but most enjoyable weekend for the two of them at a conference in Newcastle on early railways, largely run by the Newcomen Society.

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John Wood is attempting to generate some enthusiasm for Early English among his fellow organisers of the Wymondham Literary Festival, drawing attention to Mother Julian of Norwich, the first woman to write in English round about the time of Chaucer. Janina Ramirez, an ex-Goth Oxford telly-don, talked about her in Norwich Cathedral last autumn, but whether a Norfolk market town is ready for Revelations of Divine Love remains to be seen.

Wallace Kaufmann has returned to teaching; environmental covenants this spring at Texas A&M University Law School, creative writing at Oregon Coast Community College and plans for a course on reading poetry aloud. Prayers are prohibited at government events in the USA, so why not poetry instead? He is also involved with an affordable housing consortium and writing a memoir on his current life in the wilderness.

Bruce Walter spent Christmas on the Dalmatian coast with Mike Hind and they were duly impressed by Split and Trogir. By the time Postmaster arrives he will have completed his planned stays with Jasper Holmes and Steve Hazell and hopes to catch Roger Green in Crickhowell before he returns to Hydra. He continues to translate, but in the chaos of local governance finds commissions are becoming fewer and further between, so his original regime of children’s books and archaeology has had to be broadened to take in subjects as disparate as graphic novels and cookery books. On the plus side it all helps to keep dementia, if not the wolf, from the door.

Nick Woodward is in fine form but possibly regretting his rash invitation to KWP to join him for a break in his French retreat.

Allan Mau continues to write about the possible extinction of mankind if we do not curb greenhouse gas emissions but fears that it is a conversation with the deaf.

Travelling has interrupted Mike Dearden’s quiet life in Cheltenham. Mary’s family has just moved to the USA so they spent Thanksgiving there and made a transit of the Panama Canal in January. April saw a holiday on Dartmoor and May a trip to Croatia (‘stunning’).

Jonathan Wright very much enjoyed catching up with old friends at the Gaudy and though now officially a retiree in University terms he still retains access to the Bodleian and is trying to write about Germany from 1949 to 1990.

Tony Ridge is proud of his election to the post of President of the York branch of the Oxford University Society; an honour which, as far as he can make out, involves no other duties than presiding at the annual dinner. Having completed the Thames Path, he is now leading the same crew along the Anglesey Coastal Path – 130 miles climbing just short of 14,000 ft. A 12-day trek spread over two seasons, which should have been completed by the time we go to press.

When he isn’t baby-sitting his four-year old grandson, Misha Donat continues to write and lecture about music. He is currently contributing the introductions to a new edition of the Beethoven piano sonatas to be issued by the German publisher Bärenreiter and visitors to the Wigmore Hall, Bath Festival, Edinburgh Festival and other venues still find themselves having to wade through his seemingly endless programme notes.

Philip Webb continues to thank the gods for his good fortune in finding his way to Canada nearly 50 years ago and to Toronto just over 40 years ago. The new fleet of trams continues to be delivered, albeit slowly, as Bombardier pursues its silly ambitions to compete with Boeing and Airbus, which is distracting its management. He has been carrying on a vigorous debate with his friend in Cambridge, who is a fervent Little Englander, about the folly of Brexit. He is encouraged that it may well result in the dissolution of the UK and the longdesired liberation of the Celtic nations from rule by London.

Year Representative: Bob Machin 125 West Bay Road, Bridport, Dorset, DT6 4EQ Email: [email protected]

Peter Steele feels that being treasurer of his local parish church is taking up too much of his time. The past year was dominated by supervising the restoration of the church roof. With that scarcely complete, there is now a project for a new parish meeting room. The discussions on this call to mind Sayre’s Law: ‘In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake.’ This year’s annual walk with Richard Woodhams will be in the Yorkshire Dales, when they hope to avoid a repetition of last year’s adventure on Rhinhog Fawr, Gwynedd – the details of which he is not prepared to make public. For local walking expeditions in Derbyshire he now has the company of his next-door neighbour who mistakenly went to Cambridge: but they seem to spend more time in the pub discussing options than actually walking. When ensconced at home, he continues to wrestle with his monograph on Volusianius, Praetorian Prefect of the Emperor Gallienus Augustus.

Richard Emeny had two publications this year: a catalogue for the Museum of Somerset exhibition A Fragile Beauty: The Camden Town Group in the Blackdown Hills, 1909-1925, and a book entitled Edward Thomas: A Life in Pictures.

Mike Williams only wishes to say that with a following wind he hopes to have reached the big eight-zero by the time Postmaster is published. Brian Winston notes that his 19th book, The Act of Documenting: Documentary Film in the 21st Century (written with Gail Vanstone and Wang Chi), appeared from Bloomsbury Academic in New York. Otherwise, 2016-17 was all much the same as usual in that he is still toiling away at the University of Lincoln, but has discovered that on the arrival of his first grandchild, Finn, he is apparently required to react in some way and is currently exploring his options in this regard.

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1961

Alan Johnston admits that living with him can be a fundamental trial but his wife Catherine now also has to contend with chronic maxillary pain (upper jawbone) that affects both of them in different ways. The reception at the end of the AGM of The American School of Classical Studies in Athens in March proved memorable. After everyone else had departed, Alan and two other scholars found themselves locked in the compound. Reversing skills learned at Oxford, he soon taught his companions how to climb out over the gates: easier than those at Merton but reminiscent of those at Corpus, into which he climbed by mistake one evening. Peter Cope reports the satisfying news that Melia will soon share his status of being ‘fully retired’. The Cope tribe flourishes; two more grandchildren, and great-granny (Peter’s mother) celebrates her 101st birthday on 9 July. Despite the claims of his large allotment, Brian Rainford has managed to complete his BA in Classical Studies with the Open University and now intends to expand his study of Greek.

Henry Shue has been invited to give the John Dewey Lecture at the Chicago Law School and the James A Moffett Lecture in Ethics at Princeton this autumn, preceded by a hip replacement so that he can stand up while running his mouth. He hopes everyone else is well, or fixable.

David Rattenbury and family in the USA have been doing some serious travelling since we last heard from him. South Africa in 2015; what sounds like a Grand Tour of Italy plus the Gaudy in 2016; and NW India and Nepal early this year. I sought clarification about the ‘fight along the Himalayas’ but it proved to be a typo for ‘flight’.

MERTONIANS | 1960-61

Jim Trefil notes that the main event of the year is the publication of a book he wrote with Michael Summers called Exoplanets (Smithsonian Press). He thinks the discovery of the incredible diversity (not to mention the sheer number) of planets around other stars is the most exciting thing going on in science today. He and Michael are currently writing about the sorts of life we might expect to find out there. Bring on the Klingons.

Gwyn Prichard continues his tranquil and uneventful life in Y Groeslon, a small village five miles south of Caernarfon – even more uneventful since he had to give up driving. Frank Kelsall has little to report but has discovered that by joining the North London U3A he has at last found an organisation in which he is one of the youngest members. He led a group to Suffolk this year and made sure that everyone climbed the 113 steps to the top of Southwold lighthouse (bet some preferred playing the antique 2d in the slot machines on the pier). Peter Lee thought that growing old was just another rite of passage and is miffed to find that it is progressive. New insights are few and far between and his students seem to be smarter than he is. He takes consolation in what his grandchild refers to as ‘too many CDs’ and by reading more widely – which is enjoyable, but there seems to have been an alarming increase in the number of things he knows nothing about.

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John Sandercock (in Switzerland) has now sold 60% of his company shares to the employees. Jenny has already sold her language school so they are almost retired. Having enjoyed the west coast of Ireland last year, they plan to drive to an internet-less cottage in northwest Scotland this August.

1962

Year Representative: Tim Archer High Chimneys, Petches Bridge, Great Bardfield, CM7 4QN Tel: 01371 8104733 Email: [email protected] I have heard from only a few of our year but David Jenkins has written to me as follows: ‘Just a word to say I am still working (I can hang on to my Canada Research Chair at the University of Toronto for another three years depending on health). Grant writing is increasingly onerous and unrewarding. So I am also turning to other projects. As Tim knows it has occurred to me that much stress on teachers and students could be prevented by a more judicious use of examinations. I was eternally grateful for an experiment that Merton together with three other colleges carried out on their commoner intakes for 1962. Instead of the usual specialised tests related to the candidate’s chosen discipline, only a general exam (common to all disciplines) and interviews were required. ‘I entered College therefore thanks to Denis Parsons, our medical tutor, acknowledged as probably the best in the University, and the interview with the Fellows presided over by the great Warden Mure. However, the outcome of this experiment does not appear to have been written up. My project, therefore, is to use the Merton College Register to ‘grade’ the subsequent careers of Merton alumni of that year versus the two years on either side to determine if this lack of additional examination made a difference in achieving notable success in later life. ‘So far, I can say that our 1962 year did not fare as well as

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hoped for on the Norrington Table (interestingly because of bad luck experienced by our Scholars and Exhibitioners, despite the fact that they had been selected by the usual specialised examinations. But the commoners performed as excellently as usual). However, in terms of subsequent careers (academic positions held and other lifelong achievements) the intake of 1962 had successes equivalent to the two years on either side, leaving me to conclude that if a successful life is the desired outcome then less examination may suit faculty and students well, allowing more time for more productive activities. I am working to conclude this project and I would be happy to hear of the experiences of others, especially from our year (1962) and the two years on either side (1960-64).’

1963

There is currently no Year Representative for 1963. Please contact [email protected] if you are interested in becoming the Year Rep for this year.

1964

Year Representative: Richard Burns 31 Saxe Coburg Place, Edinburgh, EH3 5BP Tel: 07703 439226 Email: [email protected] My request for news attracted a relatively low response rate this year. After finishing his career in the international advertising business with a four-year stint in Singapore, Mike Stepan and his wife returned to their home in southwest London and Mike retrained to become a family mediator, which he finds totally absorbing and fulfilling, even if he is now only doing it three days a week. Although unable to work professionally for anyone he knows, he is occasionally able to offer helpful tips to those in need – or, indeed, refer them to professional services. One of the features of our generation, he finds, is that one’s children encounter marital/partner complications and it can be helpful for parents to offer wise counsel, rather than simply the phone number of the best lawyer one knows.

Tony Webster continues to play music (he has recently become a student at the Brighton Jazz School, ‘a little late’ as he ruefully notes) and travel, visiting family in France, where he had the opportunity to hear Emmanuel Macron speaking in Orleans at the Fête de Jeanne d’Arc. Eric Colvin visited, having been to the Varsity Rugby Match. ‘A glass or two of wine was taken.’ Keith Thomas has finally hung up his wig and gown and retired to enjoy his horses and pedigree Shetland sheep. He had a tremendous send-off from Carlisle Crown Court – no word though as to whether his horses are running faster this year. Two of our professorial contemporaries have published books. Robert Irwin, who has this year scooped an honorary Doctorate of Literature from SOAS, published his seventh novel, Wonders Will Never Cease, and his study of the 14th-century philosopher and historian Ibn Khaldun will be published by Princeton UP next year. Peter Scott has produced the somewhat pretentiously titled (his words) New Languages and Landscapes of Higher Education, co-authored with Jim Gallaher and Gareth Parry. Ever a glutton for work, he has become the Scottish Government’s Commissioner for Fair Access (to Scottish universities), which is proving to be far less part-time than he had expected.

1965

Year Representative: Peter Robinson Vallecito, 5 Fir Tree Close, Coppenhall, Stafford, ST18 9BZ Tel: 07823 88014 Email: [email protected] David Barker writes that, like many of our cohort, he reached the appointed three score years and ten in 2016 and was able to celebrate at lunch at the Hurlingham Club with several Merton friends and wives during a visit to London in September. Although the ravages of advancing years are beginning to take their toll, their health is thankfully remarkably good and so with his wife Maggie he is about to set off on another long trip, leaving San Francisco in July and hoping to return sometime in early 2018. This time they expect to explore the south-eastern fringes of

the EC, starting in Munich and heading east, intending to reach Athens in mid-October. Once winter approaches in the Mediterranean, they plan to head for Southeast Asia, focusing on Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. Peter Robinson is pleased to say that the right knee operation went well. The left knee now seems to be getting jealous! He and Roxana celebrated Peter’s 70th with a trip to Lake Garda, and side trips to Venice, Verona and the Dolomites. They are looking forward to a family wedding in New York in September that will bring together Roxana’s family from Peru, Canada, Spain and Germany plus their UK contingent, which will include their sons Chris and Alexis, and Alexis’s wife Beth. Sophie and family will be moving to Kent at that time, so they look forward to visiting them there, and revisiting some of their favourite haunts from the times when they lived in Folkestone and West Dulwich. They are also looking forward to seeing something of Jonathan Zamet and his family when they are in New York.

MERTONIANS | 1961-66

Like Peter, I am not well pleased by the consequences of the passage of time. Ageing seems to have affected my typing skills. Several correspondents pointed out that this publication is not Potmaster or Postmatter.

Jonathan Zamet reports that they have been ultra busy with #2 son’s graduation and pottery sales. Alec’s graduation has been the main recent event as he managed to complete his degree in the prescribed time despite some real difficulties along the way. Daughter Margot had just finished her freshman year at the Fashion Institute of Technology (part of the State University of New York) and has pulled the neat trick of finding herself a paid summer internship. Eldest son Sam is making good progress as a financial advisor for the US branch of AXA. Oh, and, not least, he and Patricia just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.

1966

Year Representative: David Holmes 20, Goodby Road, Moseley, Birmingham, B13 8NJ Tel: 0121 249 9714 Email: [email protected] A happy Golden Jubilee anniversary reunion lunch for 1966 Mertonians was held in the College on 1 October 2016. Some 20 1966 Mertonians attended, together with the Warden and Emeriti Fellows Witt, Lucas, Welsh and Phillips, along with Christine Taylor and Helen Kingsley, to whom we said our fond farewells on their retirement.

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John Dainton has moved from the Physics Department at Liverpool University to take a position with Lancaster University in its Physics Department and in the Cockcroft Institute at the Daresbury Laboratory. He takes with him also his continuing research (including group members) concerned with rare kaon-decays and chromodynamics on experiments at CERN (Geneva) and at DESY (Hamburg). His work in the Cockcroft Institute continues primarily with support of young researchers who develop new technologies of sub-atomic particle acceleration and delivery for many purposes, from new experiments to application in, for example, beam oncology in medicine and non-invasive scanning for security. Despite thereby relinquishing almost all the unwelcome, unnecessary and distracting burden of frankly worthless initiatives that government seems intent on imposing on contemporary higher education, he continues with ‘worthful’ committee work in the UK and overseas concerned with scientific review.

1968

Year Representative: Ian McBrayne 44 Parkland Road, Woodford Green, Essex, IG8 9AP Tel: 07811 571048 Email: [email protected] These notes must begin with congratulations to Alec Jeffreys for the singular distinction of being made a Companion of Honour ‘for services to medical research and society’, a mark of the continuing significance of his work on DNA fingerprinting and profiling. A goodly number of us had the pleasure of attending the Gaudy in March. Several of those who wrote to me commented on how enjoyable it had been. Perhaps we value these milestone events more as we get older; as one contemporary put it, we now realise that ‘the Merton family is very special and worth hanging on to’. Stephen Powell reports that the late Professor Michael Baker (Emeritus Fellow) kindly gave pre-dinner drinks to all the physicists attending, and sent a photograph to prove it. Michael’s death only a few months later will have saddened them as it will a whole generation of Merton physicists.

Rick Gekoski reports that his first novel, Darke, was published by Canongate in February. ‘A late-flowering genius of a novelist’, said The Times review. Melvyn Stokes has won another grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to spread the news of the findings of his earlier ‘60s cinema-going project. The new one is called ‘Remembering 1960s British Cinema-going’ (www.ucl.ac.uk/cinemamemories) and the project will be travelling to 44 events round the UK in 2017.

1967

Year Representative: Rory Khilkoff-Boulding Beggars Well, Bakers Lane, Dallington, East Sussex, TN21 9JU Tel: 01435 830859 Email: [email protected]

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Physicists at the Gaudy. From left: Mike Prather (1969), Simon Orebi Gann (1968), Stephen Powell (1968), Stewart Morgan (1968), Will Barton (1969). Seated: the late Professor Michael Baker (Emeritus Fellow)

Others to be congratulated are Tom Head, who became engaged to Rebecca, and James Hughes-Hallett, who married Katrina, his yoga teacher and partner of the last few years. James reports a mixed year, having also been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and experienced the ‘mad and sad

politics’ in the UK and the USA. Happily, the cancer at least has proved susceptible to treatment, for which he rates himself extraordinarily lucky. Tom continues to see Brian Leveson (1967) and his wife Lynne on their sorties into the countryside to stay with him, but has been saddened by the loss this year of people who were very significant in his life, among them Roger Highfield (Emeritus Fellow; 1948).

and family who had funded it a multiple of their money back; for a first appearance in the historic six-hour race at the Formula One circuit at Francorchamps, where he and his team in his historic Morgan achieved a podium performance with second in class; and following an unplanned, lengthy and close encounter with several branches of the medical profession as a close relative was successfully treated.

David Allen comments that we are living in rather odd times and that our 60s are turning out differently from what we might have expected. He muses that that unpredictability may be no bad thing. He continues to enjoy work with no immediate plans to retire. Indeed, he has recently been appointed a Deputy High Court Judge: more congratulations! He says this prompted thoughts of old dogs and new tricks; in his case the Court of Appeal will be the arbiter on the adage.

Peter Warry is slowly winding down his business activities, currently retaining the chairmanships of the Royal Mint and a City investment manager. He reports that he is no less busy, as the time saved from business is reinvested in archaeology, where he continues to research the Cinderella topic of Roman tiles. Peter and his wife still enjoy regular holidays walking in the Lakes, and have also been to Italy this year. A trip to Egypt and digging at Silchester are scheduled. They had a very pleasant lunch earlier in the year with Stephen Powell and David Gadian and partners.

Alan Taylor is still living and working in Hong Kong. He has sold his main business to Mercer, the global HR consulting firm, and is in the process of handing over and considering new ventures. He has also been assisting the Thai government with the introduction of new financial products. Alan’s daughter got married last November in the UK; his nine-year-old son in Hong Kong is crazy about planes and running a virtual airline that is doing much better than Alan’s own business. Musicians, perhaps, never retire. Certainly, Nick Bicât remains busy. Last year he was invited to speak at a reading retreat on King Lear at Cumberland Lodge led by Rowan Williams and others. He described the challenges of writing music for Shakespeare, having twice worked on Lear himself. This year he was back, accompanied by Andrew Parrott (1966), to tackle Twelfth Night. Nick was also commissioned to write the music for Green Fields Beyond, a large-scale community event in the dramatic setting of Lincoln Castle 100 years after the Battle of the Somme, celebrating the women of Lincoln who built the first tanks. He is writing another festival piece for an event marking 100 years of the history of Greenham Common. A new and fascinating role has been acting as external assessor for the MA in Film Music Composition at the National Film and Television School. Simon Orebi Gann reports a year of gratitude: to the private equity business that bought most of a company on whose board he had sat for eight years, allowing the friends

MERTONIANS | 1966-68

Jonathan Clarke reports that he is happily resident in Georgetown in Washington DC, trying to make sense of ‘this most bizarre Administration’. He had the pleasure of entertaining the Warden and Lady Taylor twice over the past year in Washington and New York, and would be glad to see any 1966 Mertonians who are in the DC vicinity.

For others too, the remaining time in the ranks of the employed is limited. Danny Lawrence is still working full-time, but has decided to retire in June 2018. Alastair Northedge is obliged to retire this year from his post as Professor of Islamic Art and Archaeology at the Université de Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne). Like many academics, he says, he would like to continue a while longer. He reports a good trip to Iraq this spring, covering Najaf, Baghdad, Samarra and Basra. ‘Good’ is an interesting adjective to choose, given that he was nearly captured by Da’esh, who occupy the villages all around Samarra. Neil Loden has left full-time work in the City, where in recent years he was Chief Risk Officer of a division of a large quoted asset management company. He finds it a relief to escape torture by Blackberry, but misses the challenge and stimulus from colleagues, never dull, as most were half his age or less. Retirement is not a word he likes, preferring to think that he has just embarked on another phase of life, and probably the most challenging. He has the enormous pleasure of three young grandsons, a novelty for the father of two daughters. ‘Little boys want to explore how stuff works; little girls were always less straightforward!’ Current projects are renovating a 16th-century house on the north-east side of Dartmoor and helping a son-in-law start a sustainable aquaculture business in Dorset. They are trying to replicate a technique, long applied in Japan, of ‘ear-hanging’ scallops. Neil would love

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‘Retirement continues to be congenial and the garden is beginning to look promising,’ says Chris Simmons. He is enjoying reading some of the lesser-known classic detective writers. But mainly, it seems, he is singing. Too soon to be thinking of bucket-list ambitions, he has nevertheless been ticking items off: Monteverdi’s Vespers with Antiphon and Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius with the Hexham Orpheus Choir, both in Hexham Abbey; and Dufay’s Missa l’Homme Armé at Haltwhistle. He also sang live with Antiphon on Radio 3 from the Sage in Gateshead as part of the BBC Festival of Free Thinking; nerve-racking, says Chris, but good to have done. They never found out why they had been chosen; their preeminence was perhaps ‘Google-based and similar to that of the aardvark’. While Chris sings, Steve Drinkwater walks. Last year he went to Hamburg to visit German friends who took him on extensive tours of the city. Then a week of walking near Keswick, one of his old haunts, followed by a spell in the Scottish Highlands helping to supervise Duke of Edinburgh gold expeditions for young people from Pembrokeshire. Early in September, he set out to walk across the Pyrenees from the French side to Berga in Spain, a brilliant trip. He also led some walking holidays in the UK, notably in the Peak District and on Exmoor at Christmas. This year, at the time of writing, Steve had already walked on Exmoor, along the Mid-Wales Coast Path, on the Dorset coast and in the Cotswolds, and he was about to fly to the Dolomites. By way of busman’s holiday, he continues to chair the Friends of Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. George Daly reports from Brittany that his French/English drama group has recently performed King Lear, half in Shakespeare’s English and half in Hugo’s French, and is now working on a similarly mixed version of the Canterbury Tales. His Café Philo group recently discussed Truth, including mention of the name and stellar reputation of John Lucas (Emeritus Fellow; Balliol 1947). George and his wife see much of Peter Bibby, who is thriving and still based in Peckham.

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The African Prisons Project, with which George is involved, keeps throwing up plenty of challenges. Richard Hofton is another to mourn the passing of Roger Highfield, whose funeral he attended. Richard continues to flit between homes in Oxfordshire and the old Forest of Arden (the bit now covered by Solihull) and to cater for the needs of his spaniel; fortunately, he likes walking. After several decades of trying, he has become a reasonably competent driver of a golf ball, but pitching, once a strong suit, has been vitiated by fear of shanking. He waits for next year’s significant birthday to provide him with the excuse of an excess of anno domini. In late 2015, Stewart Morgan trained as a Samaritan, after which he manned the phones once a week at the Guildford branch. ‘The experience was a total revelation concerning the scale and depth of despair across the UK and the huge gap in formal support available to those facing challenging emotional and mental health issues. It was particularly dispiriting to hear from so many teenagers and young adults for whom the pressure of life was becoming intolerable.’ On a more upbeat note, Stewart took the chair of a small Buddhist charity, the Contemplative Consciousness Network. A rekindled interest in photography led Stewart and his wife to Cuba in January for a photo workshop and some travelling. They felt that the country was at last starting to move forward towards a deservedly much brighter future. In May, they were in Mexico, tracking down their daughter in a remote village on the north coast of the Yucatan, where she dreams of opening a kitesurfing centre. Stewart was able to fulfil a dream of his own by visiting several Mayan cities, which proved every bit as mysterious and haunting as expected. Having sold his stage lighting business, Scirard Lancelyn Green has let out the vacant space, in part to a gin distillery. Otherwise, he has done ‘a spot of skiing and some icedance in between singing with the seven choirs I regularly sing with and three or four more occasional ones, and a few visits to the opera.’ These more than fill the time not taken up by getting property up to standard to meet new energy performance regulations. Scirard is also trying to reduce the amount of leftover material from his business; a couple of theatre lights are about to star in the Channel 4 programme Find It, Fix It, Flog It.

I, Ian McBrayne, have stood down as a churchwarden, but in a dwindling and ageing congregation find myself still with plenty to do. Other interests include continuing research into family history and the Port of London. A fourth grandchild has been a joyful distraction since her appearance in the small hours of Easter Day. Next year, allegedly, it will be 50 years since a motley bunch of sports-jacketed youths was photographed in Front Quad. Can that really be true?

1969

There is currently no Year Representative for 1969. Please contact [email protected] if you are interested in becoming the Year Rep for this year.

1970

Year Representative: Nick Skinner Copthorne, The Close, Lancing, West Sussex, BN15 8EE Tel: 01903 767072 Email: [email protected] Many thanks as always to all those who supported my request for news. Some 20 of us gathered together at Merton in March for our Gaudy, an excellent weekend opened by a presentation from the Warden in the impressive TS Eliot Theatre. It was good to be able to catch up in person, albeit the event being overshadowed for us by the loss of Mick Polley due to cancer just a few weeks before. Mick was a regular contributor to Postmaster news and will be sorely missed. David Gilchrist and Joseph Egerton were able to attend his funeral in Taunton. Another sad loss is that of Wayland Smalley, who died in October 2016 and whose illness was reported last year in Postmaster. Obituaries for both appear in the In Memoriam section. On a brighter note Adrian Segar writes that he has been living with his wife Celia in beautiful rural Vermont since 1978. He is

currently hard at work on his third book on meeting design, and continues to enjoy designing and facilitating participantdriven and participation-rich conferences around the world. Les Hewitt reports that he had his second hip resurfacing in March 2015, this time on the left side (having had the right done in 2005). He took this opportunity to retire from his part-time work as a Shiatsu therapist. He has fully recovered from the operation and continues to run, mainly on trails and up hills but not as far and as fast as he did! He continues to practise Tai Chi (almost) daily. Les finally became an OAP (as people of his vintage would call it) in April 2017, and he has become a keen supporter of local non-league football team Warrington Town, missing just two games (home and away) out of 50 last season.

MERTONIANS | 1968-71

to hear from anyone interested in aquaculture, with pertinent knowledge or an interest in investing in a potentially lucrative venture. With his wife Susan still practising as a psychoanalyst in London, they are dividing their time between London, Devon and Dorset.

Roger Bootle gave the 2016 Merton in the City Association lecture entitled ‘To stay or go? – The EU and the UK’. Greetings were also received from Richard Hayward and Geoff Ellis. Your correspondent Nick Skinner continues to enjoy retirement on the south coast, attempting to keep fit by playing tennis and visiting the local gym (having finally succumbed!).

1971

Year Representative: Allin Cottrell Department of Economics, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109, USA Email: [email protected] In 2017 I heard from William Bailhache and Robert Gildea. William Bailhache (now Sir William, having been knighted this year) is enjoying life in Jersey (‘unquestionably the best place on the planet’) where he has served consecutively as attorney general, deputy bailiff, and bailiff. His marriage of 42 years (the same longevity as my own) has given him two children and three grandchildren. The only regret he registers is that there is not enough time for golf. Robert Gildea, Professor of Modern History at Oxford since

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very much a part of the music scene in Dorset, eventually settling in Bournemouth. An obituary of Christopher appears in the In Memoriam section.

Henry Curteis has updated last year’s info saying he would like to buy a Tesla S: makes a change from the bikes he used to deal in as a student.

Michael Lewis has been elected (to start in 2019) as Archbishop-Primate of the Anglican Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East. Unfortunately he reports the very sad news that his son died this year aged only 33.

Highlights of my year included a visit to Athens, to give a keynote address at an econometrics conference, and playing Cajun music with an old friend on my annual trip to my home town, Edinburgh.

We send both families our deep condolences.

Stephen Cole continues to be gamekeeper-turned-poacher in his role as interim chief inspector and subsequently interim chief executive of the Independent Schools Inspectorate. Among schools visited this year was King Edward’s School, Birmingham, although after fellow Merton fly-half John Claughton (1975) had retired as Chief Master.

Have a good year, and keep sending your news to Claire Spence-Parsons in the Development Office or to me.

1972

1973

Year Representative: Mark Signy White Oaks, 29 Furze Road, High Salvington, Worthing, BN13 3BP Tel: 07710 349949 Email: [email protected]

Year Representative: Gary Backler Tel: 07939 074462 Email: [email protected] Thanks to all who responded this year – I estimate that nearly half the entire 1973 intake have now been in touch at some time. News from the other half would be welcome too!

1972-73 Merton-Mansfield rugby team

John Davidson has re-retired having had a post-retirement sojourn on the board of a building society. He says he is now going grey and growing old gracefully. John Davidson playing for Merton in 1973 1972-73 Merton cricket team

I have (generously) put down the slight paucity of information received this year to my having moved and the change in personnel in the Development Office at Merton. Please note my new address and start sending your news straight away for next year’s report. Some sad pieces of news. Orlando Villalobos-Baillie writes sadly to inform us that his brother-in-law and our old friend Christopher Smithies died in December 2016. He had been

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John Heaton (JCR President from our intake) has remarried to Gill, and is still working in a consultancy role in share registration, including chairing the dematerialisation steering group (yes, I thought of Harry Potter as well). Having been on the Council of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators since November 2012, he is the new President of the UK, Republic of Ireland and Associated Territories Division of the Institute. When he was working, I occasionally met him for a game of golf. Now he has ‘retired’, he of course has much less time to play.

MERTONIANS | 1971-73

2006, recently celebrated 30 years of marriage to Lucy-Jean Lloyd (1982) and also the graduation of their fourth child, Adam, from teenage status. Robert’s last book, Fighters in the Shadows: A New History of the French Resistance (Faber & Faber, 2015; Harvard UP, 2015) was translated into French as Comment sont-ils devenus résistants? Une Nouvelle Histoire de la Résistance, 1940-1945 (Paris, Les Arènes, 2017). ‘So now’, he observes, ‘at least the French have to take me seriously!’

Mark Anness says he has led a ‘very ordinary’ life in teaching and then computers (which he had always sworn he would never touch). But his latest venture is as a trustee of a charity (www.myraswells.org) which was founded in memory of his friend’s late wife to dig wells in Burkina Faso – so not really ‘so’ ordinary. He recalls watching Imran in the Parks in the early 1970s beating first class counties virtually single-handedly – that is a very clear memory of mine as well, possibly associated with the amount of time it took up when we could have been working.

Azim Lakhani has taken up his role as a diplomatic representative of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) in Kenya. He writes that this is the largest and most comprehensive private development network in Kenya, and has grown to some 15,500 staff; has budgets and revenues of about $800 million a year; and interacted with over seven million Kenyans directly during 2016. And we thought Azim was just a doctor. David Lund tells us he went on a very enjoyable expedition last September to South Georgia – 16 days pulling pulks across glaciers and climbing mountains on foot and ski. He was back on skis this year attempting to ski up all 3,000m peaks in the Pyrenees. As always, all work and no play.

Graham Andrews reports that the six members of the 1973 maths and medics group continue in good form and meet up regularly, with a weekend at Bill Souster’s home in South Wales last summer and fairly regular beer and curry evenings in the City. The highlight though was a dinner held in London last September to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the death of Paul Schofield. A glass (or two) was also raised in memory of Clive Hendrie. All six members were present, plus six wives (that was one each, for the avoidance of doubt) with Jo, Paul’s widow, being the guest of honour. Rob Lewis keeps busy with his renewed interest in mathematics and is now over halfway towards a PhD. He continues to discover families of extremal circulant graphs, having recently completed the degree 10 and 11 cases, and to attend combinatorics conferences in far-flung places such as Malta, Madeira and China. David Melville continues to work as a general surgeon at St George’s Hospital in Merton where he recently endeavoured to visit the remains of Merton Priory, from which our founder took his name. But such remains as there are lie

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John Myatt is still gassing people as a consultant in anaesthetics at Royal Bournemouth General. Bill Souster has just retired from his job as syndicate actuary at Hardy, the Lloyds underwriter, but he continues to work in the City as a consultant with weekends spent at his home in South Wales. Roger Urwin is Global Head of Investment Content at Towers Watson, but also spends time on two outside director roles at MSCI and the CFA, and his four children have generated five grandchildren, one each year, which he described as a straight flush of grandchildren, showing that all those College poker sessions had some use. Graham himself is working on various projects, mainly in the oil, gas, and mining industries. His domestic life is busy, with three teenage children at home in Devon, though he has had time to take up playing both bridge and chess again after a 40-year break. John Bowers continues with the revision process on his book Tolkien’s Lost Chaucer about an unfinished, forgotten project from the 1920s that had a fruitful afterlife in Tolkien’s later writings. John has just finished re-reading The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien and found this comment about his later work Smith of Wootton Major: ‘Merton comes in. Our present admirable little chef (with a very tall hat) is, at least pictorially, the original of Alf.’ Mertonians of our generation will share this clear image of our first-rate chef who was said to have been poached by the College from the Ritz (or some such posh eatery) with the offer of tickets to the 1966 World Cup. Hence our legendary Sunday suppers of beef stroganoff and baked Alaska. Tolkien also, apparently, admired the culinary handiwork of our little chef. After retiring as bursar and clerk to the governors at Giggleswick School in August 2016, Giles Bowring was unsure how he would occupy his time. He now reports ‘So far so good!’ and refers readers to his LinkedIn profile for more information. Bob Burton retired from CSC in December 2016 and has a new grandson to occupy his spare time. He plans to do more gliding now he is free to pick and choose the best weather. Crispin Drummond hosts a drinks party in Winchester on the

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last Thursday in September for all first-year undergraduates from Hampshire going up to Oxford the following week, to wish them well and enable them to meet each other. For the 2016 matriculands, the event attracted about 25, and Crispin asks that if Old Mertonians could help spread the word, the party could attract even more in future years.

five-day ride in California’s Sierra Nevada. Stephen also provided a very useful lead in helping us transfer Roger Hewitt from the ‘List of the Lost’.

David Griffiths is now retired, following his career in banking, management consultancy and charity finance management. He moved from Surrey to the North Wales coast some ten years ago.

Gary Backler ticked another item off his bucket list with a trip to the Atacama Desert, from where he could see with the naked eye how the Earth sits on the very edge of the Milky Way, with two further galaxies also visible – very humbling. Only slightly more terrestrially, he continues to provide advisory services to the rail franchising industry. When not promoting the River Crane Environment as planning trustee, he can be found hiding at the back of his yoga classes.

For the past eleven and a half years, Simon Pallett has been Dean of Undergraduate Studies in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Newcastle University. On 31 July 2017 he stepped down from the role and moved to a 60% contract as a first step towards retirement. He has taken up the role of Special Projects Manager (Learning and Teaching) where he takes a lead on such projects as developing degree apprenticeships and reviewing the university’s virtual learning environment (web-based resource for learning materials). He has become Professor Pallett with a chair in Higher Education Leadership and Management, in recognition of his strategic contribution to learning and teaching at Newcastle. Ted Powell has retired from legal practice – which he recommends (retirement, I think, rather than legal practice) – and has already written a book on Edward VIII and America. His productivity puts some of us retirees to shame. Stephen Turk left Deloitte in 2009, after almost 33 years spent mostly in Los Angeles and mostly as a managing director in the Mergers & Acquisitions Transaction Services practice. Since then, he has teamed up with other former Deloitte colleagues to continue providing similar financial and tax services on smaller M&A transactions, and also to consult on the accounting for complex transactions. Although his son just graduated from Lehigh University, Pennsylvania, ending 17 years of private school and university fees, Stephen’s current plan is to continue working for as long as he finds the work interesting and challenging. He continues to play the cello, in a local orchestra and with friends, and is still an enthusiastic cyclist. In 2015, he completed the Deloitte Ride across Britain, from Land’s End to John O’Groats. This year he did a rather more modest

It was also good to hear from Peter Ghosh, although he felt he had no particular news to share this year.

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Year Representative: Mike Hawkins 909, Corn Tassel Trail, Martinsville, VA 24112, USA Tel: 001 276 252 4318 Email: [email protected] Last year, as I penned this news round-up, neither the Brexit referendum nor the US Presidential election had taken place. What an incredible 12 months it has been. Whatever your own politics, it cannot be said that the results of these events have gone unnoticed: they have, seemingly, sparked an unprecedented interest, in my lifetime, in politics and government in the West. No bad thing methinks, when compared with the general apathy of recent times. Nick Allard writes: ‘I have just begun my sixth year as President and Dean of Brooklyn Law School and I am still called the new Dean! One wag explained that I would always be the new Dean until I leave and then I will be the old Dean. I also keep a hand in private practice but have changed firms and now I am senior counsel at Dentons, the largest law firm in the world. Accordingly Marla and I have dual citizenship in both New York for the law school and Washington DC for both the firm and her continuing television show, not to mention six grandchildren under five in both cities. Between Marla’s angry fixation with President Trump’s daily antics and her passion for our grandchildren she is less able to focus on my shortcomings. Highlights of the year included

a wonderful Rhodes class reunion in Aspen that brought us together with Mertonians Kyle, Hamer, MacIver and Mitchell and their spouses, the November tour and dinner at Lords in London, several visits to Merton, which seems to get more beautiful and welcoming each time, and getting to know a new Mertonian friend, the brilliant London attorney Daniel Schaffer (1986), his wife Marianne, and three boys.’ It is good to hear from David Brock, a first, I think, since I became your Year Representative. He tells me that he ‘has been working with historic buildings since quitting his doctoral research in 1981. This meant joining the Department of the Environment, to list buildings, which became English Heritage, and is now Historic England.’ This year he took on a new role, perhaps temporarily, as Principal Inspector responsible for the Government Historic Estates Unit, which deals with Whitehall and Westminster chiefly. He continues: ‘So, with apologies to those for whom this is not true, I have the continuing enormous luck to be paid for what I like doing.’

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buried beneath Colliers Wood Savacentre – the triumph of materialism over religion!

The last 12 months have seen changes in Neil Downie’s household. ‘My wife Diane and I are now both retired so we have lots more time to do science and engineering educational stuff working with teenagers. As ever we have been busy devising practical projects and demonstrations that show scientific principles in a novel way. We are now incorporating the new little credit card computer, the BBC Microbit, into many projects. Microbits are really, really simple, much simpler than other tiny computers, like the lovely-butcomplex Raspberry Pi. The Microbit’s sheer simplicity means that truly anyone can use one. You can concentrate on what you are working on and not on the arcane matters of information technology. We have also been adapting the many projects in my Saturday Science books to make use of these ingenious little beasts. We are having a lot of fun with their teachers too, showing how it is not that hard to do practical science and that it has lots of beneficial effects for understanding and even, in the long run, for careers. We are even extending our talks and demonstrations to other retired people via the University of the Third Age (U3A). The thought occurs to us that we and our grandchildren’s generation could usefully work on practical projects together, with the enthusiasm and IT skills of the youngsters allied to the oldies’ practical skills and experience.’

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Graham Kemp managed to anticipate my call for news this year and wrote, before my letter was sent, that ‘Last September I was delighted to come back as a graduand one last time to receive the degree of Doctor of Science. The ceremony was, I am glad to say, exactly as I remembered it, but now plus live streaming and souvenir DVD. At the University of Liverpool I now have three roles: as Professor of Metabolic and Physiological Imaging in the Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease, as the Director of what we are just about to rename the Liverpool Magnetic Resonance Imaging Centre, and as the Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Postgraduate Research.’ Continuing the retirement theme, Peter Lutzeier tells me that he ‘retired at the end of last year as Vice-Chancellor of Newman University, Birmingham. Since then my wife and I did not downsize; instead we moved into a Grade II* listed house from 1703 with 12 acres around us. The house cried out for rescue and we felt that was an exciting project for the next ten years, including lots of fruit picking, juicing and cider making. I am also in the final stages of my third volume of the dictionary of words with opposite meanings. It will be published next year by de Gruyter/Mouton (Berlin/New York).’ Finally, I have heard from Jeremy Pemberton after a gap of several years. He writes: ‘I have lived for the last ten years in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, where I am senior lay clerk – a professional singer at the cathedral. For eight years I was an NHS chaplain as well. In 2014 I was the first Anglican priest to marry his same-sex partner and this brought me into conflict with some church authorities. I have an ongoing court case, which will reach the Court of Appeal next year. I now work as a civil celebrant until the day when I can function as a priest once more. My husband, Laurence Cunnington, and I enjoy life in Southwell, seeing our many children and, now, my grandson. Life is good!’

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1975

Year Representative: Robert Peberdy 38 Randolph Street, Oxford, OX4 1XZ Tel: 01865 798107 Email: [email protected] It would be a fascinating exercise if each year-group of Mertonians were to enumerate its distinctive aspects. In the case of 1975, two spring to mind. Our year includes one of Britain’s leading businessmen. From his training in the knocks of the Merton JCR, and in dealing with the College authorities, he has progressed to the leadership of a company with truly breath-taking characteristics. Primarily a trader in oil and gas, it was recently the world’s ninth-largest corporation by revenue (larger, e.g., than Sony), with a turnover of $270 billion; it has 40 offices worldwide and employs 7,500 people; it deploys around 200 ships and owns terminals, refineries, petrol stations and gas fields. Despite the company’s international importance, its Global Chief Executive is hardly known to the general public. This seems typical of the man: Merton contemporaries have often commented with pleasure on how spectacular success has not essentially changed the person we first knew over 40 years ago. 1975 Mertonians are also distinctive for including three ‘higher doctors’ of Ye Ancient University of Oxenford, representing a considerable contribution to learning. Bishop Tom Wright (JRF 1975–78) became a Doctor of Divinity (DD) in 2000; Professor Stephen Oppenheimer became a Doctor of Science (DSc) in 2010; and Dorian Gerhold has now become a Doctor of Letters (DLitt). So-called ‘higher doctorates’ (ranking above the DPhil) are awarded in recognition of publications of distinction, following examination by the relevant faculty. In Dorian Gerhold’s case the degree acknowledges his stream of important historical works, which he somehow found time to research and write while employed (until 2012) in the administration of the House of Commons. On 22 July 2016 he returned to Oxford, with his wife Lis, to be admitted. At the degree ceremony he headed the list of candidates, and was presented to the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors by the Deputy for the Regius Professor of Greek. This illustrious personage turned out to be none other than Merton’s own Sam Eidinow (1986).

Fittingly, the doctorate was later celebrated back in Merton. Other 1975 Mertonians also continue to make valuable contributions to a wide range of concerns. In 2016 Simon Babbs and his wife Sue (née Stanley, St Hilda’s) undertook their third expedition to Madagascar. Notable features included: helping to create an enterprise to produce feminine hygiene products; the conversion of a local shaman to Christianity; and seeing several galaxies with the naked eye on the same night. They also visited a remote town stricken by famine. (The Babbs’ Madagascar blog is at: www.babbsandbaobabs.blogspot.com.) Based in Illinois, Simon Babbs also continues to enjoy his MA studies in philosophy. Down in south-west Trumpland, at Scottsdale, Arizona, the law firm run by Glenn Bacal (now called Bacal and Garrison) continues to flourish, with marquee clients providing ‘an endless series of challenging assignments’ in intellectual property law. Likewise his family are also doing well – including the dog ‘Oxford’.

recently completed the transcription into braille of music for all of the 2017–18 piano grades of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. He has also given another concert of improvisations in Brighton. He marked his 60th birthday by using gifts from friends to plant two quarter-acres of woodland, one in East Sussex, the other in Kent – this would doubtless have pleased Dr Olleson.

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Guy Johnson took the time to contact me to say he had no particular news this time, as did Rob Mitchell. Thank you both.

On Friday 25 November 2016, at a glitzy celebrity event at Grosvenor House on Park Lane, London, John Claughton, former Chief Master of King Edward’s School, Birmingham, was presented with the ‘Lifetime Achievement’ prize of the ‘Times Educational Supplement Independent Schools Awards’. It recognised in particular his raising of £10 million to fund 100 assisted places at the school, and local outreach work involving 200 junior schools and 11,000 pupils. A few weeks earlier, in October, Alan Dolton descended on Western Australia to compete in the World Masters Cross-Country Championships. He appreciated Perth as ‘a very attractive and very green city with some picturesque beaches’, but dismissed the Indian Ocean as too cold for his liking. Ian Doolittle reports that he has nearly finished the first part of his calendar of the decrees of the so-called ‘Fire Court’ which imposed or endorsed terms for rebuilding houses after the Great Fire of London (1666). He is preparing two volumes as a continuation of two earlier volumes, and is also using the decrees with other material to study the property market. William (Bill) Ford‘s retirement activities continue to expand in new directions: on the international front, he toured Cambodia and Vietnam in November 2016; locally he has become more involved in parish affairs (business); and in golfing he helps to organise the London Iron and Steel Exchange Golfing Society alongside the Merton Golf Society. Musician Stephen Gardiner

Dorian and Lis Gerhold by the Bodleian Quadrangle after Dorian’s admission as a Doctor of Letters, July 2016

In May 2017 Dorian Gerhold appeared on a Channel 5 television programme about the Great Fire of London, demonstrating the location of its outbreak. Fellow historian John Harrison reports that at Eton College the History

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On 18 February 2017 Chris Lewis gave the ‘Keynote’ opening address at a day conference in Oxford on ‘Lords in the Landscape 800–1300’, sponsored by the Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities. By good fortune one of his former tutors from 40 years ago was on hand to hear his essay: Professor Paul Hyams (Pembroke), who also addressed the audience with ‘Closing Remarks’. Mathematician Chris Mann underwent a knee operation in late 2016, but this did not prevent him from starring as Dick’s Mother in the 2017 Congleton Pantomime production of Dick Whittington, though the lady brandished a precautionary walking stick. In April 2017 he also played the curmudgeon Stephen Feeble in Michael Palin’s The Weekend. Chris Mann retired from his lectureship at Staffordshire University in March 2017 and now wonders how he found time for Work. He has also brought great lustre to Merton and its mathematicians with a victorious appearance on the television quiz Tipping Point, winning £3,650. Ed Martley has been working since early 2016 as accountant for a young company in Banbury that produces ‘cloud workforce management and HR software for the hospitality industry’. With some fellow members of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants he has also helped to organise an Executive Leaders Forum, and arranged for Alan Giles (1972) to speak (about mergers and acquisitions in the retail sector) at its launch event in London in June 2017. The latest major study by Professor Nicholas Mays of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, aimed at generating improvements in health services (predominantly in England), focuses on local innovative schemes to overcome the longstanding vexed relationships between the National Health

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Service and local authority social services. The problem dates back to the pragmatic settlement made by Clement Attlee’s government in 1946–48. Ed Myers remains busy with his research at Florida State University into ‘precision atomic mass measurements’, and in 2017 also spent more time over in Europe at CERN. Visits to conferences enabled him and his wife Lisa to see Corsica and Warsaw. He has been dismayed by recent political developments in the USA, particularly by how some politicians have moved ‘beyond “spin” to a total lack of interest in truth’. In November 2016 Professor Stephen Oppenheimer flew from Baltimore to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to speak at a major conference on Interoception (sensitivity to stimuli originating inside the body). Unfortunately his luggage failed to arrive – the postgraduate students who collected him from the airport had to rush him to a store so he could re-equip himself with pyjamas, toothpaste, etc. Eventually he addressed an audience of about a hundred, consisting mainly of psychologists and psychiatrists. He is also writing a major review of ‘Cerebrogenic Cardiopathy’, and snatches some relaxation by reading mystery novels of the 1920s-30s (as recently reissued by the British Library). Returning to Britain, on 1 February 2017 Crispin Poyser, a clerk of the House of Commons, enjoyed 20 seconds of worldwide fame when he appeared on television, begowned and wigged at the centre of the Commons, after the historic second-reading vote in favour of the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union. He was seen solemnly carrying the results from the tellers to the Speaker. It was also a poignant moment in another regard: in the following months the Commons abandoned dignified dress for both officers and members, reducing its authority. David Salter, who in 2013 became involved in publicising violence in Egypt against minority Coptic Orthodox Christians, made further visits to the country in 2014 and 2016. An update on his work, which has been encouraged by Prince Charles and Merton’s Visitor, is published in this issue. On 6 May 2017 he helped to welcome Pope Tawadros II back to England after a service in Stevenage. Professor Chris Wickham, FBA (Lecturer in Medieval History 1975–76), has added Medieval Europe, a concise survey, to his list of distinguished publications. In February 2017 he gave the first Annual Lecture of the Birmingham Research Institute for

History and Cultures. Back in summer 2016, while visiting Munich, Peter Wickstead saw various places associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, including the Dachau concentration camp. He finds it sobering that the Nazi era in European history is still relatively recent. Like some other 1975 Mertonians, he has appreciated the scholarship, lucidity and insights of the Hitler biography by Professor Sir Ian Kershaw (1966). On 3 November 2016 Bishop Tom Wright reappeared in Oxford to conduct a memorial service at the University Church for the Anglo-Saxon historian and former Fellow of Merton Professor James Campbell. When 1975 Mertonians were undergraduates, the modest and shy Mr Campbell (Worcester) was one of the Modern History Faculty’s most stimulating minds and best lecturers: he made a powerful and lasting impression on young historians.

certain age will be disappointed to learn that builder’s bum is unlikely with a cassock. Two others learning fast about building are Tony Brown, who last November joined Pinnacle, the social housing regeneration group, to manage its IT development and information security, and Robert Hannah, now building a new house in Dunedin, having retired from Waikato University. When the roof is on he will still be busy, having been awarded an Emeritus Fellowship at Waikato and becoming Chairman of the Humanities Panel of the Royal Society of NZ Marsden Grants (the NZ equivalent of the UK Leverhulme awards).

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Previously riding two horses as Assistant General Secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales and also Chief Executive of Blueprint for Better Business, Charles Wookey has now gone full-time running Blueprint. Not exactly leaving God for mammon, BfBB has the more modest role of reforming capitalism.

If you were in Rose Lane in 1976 you will 100% have banged on the door of Geoff Lee while he was playing the cello. And when he finally opened up you’ll have likely seen his Europhile credentials on early display, as he bought and sold wine while studying French. So although it is sad, it’s no great surprise that following the Brexit decision Geoff, who is determined to remain a committed European citizen, voted with his feet and emigrated to Albi this July.

Congrats are due to Richard Dendy – who as Professor and Co-Director at Warwick University’s Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics spends much of his time supervising PhD students, leading research as a professor at the UK Atomic Energy Authority and being editor of Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion – who has been elected Chair of the European Physical Society’s Plasma Physics Division. Hats off also to Tim Matthews in Nova Scotia who, in addition to juggling a string of pro bono appointments alongside his day job as a QC, has been honoured with the Founder’s Award by the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners in London.

Year Representative: John Gardner The Orchard House, Witherslack, Cumbria, LA11 6RS Tel: 07817 619083 Email: [email protected]

In the same month The Spectator (not Geoff’s weekly of choice) ran an article describing how the Church ‘built in Albi the world’s most magnificently ugly cathedral’. Bob Cotton, Rector at Holy Trinity and St Mary’s, Guildford, might have another contender for that title locally, but restricts himself to noticing the signs of age (‘Raindrops keep falling on my baldness. Half marathons have replaced marathons’) while keeping active doing voluntary work in Johannesburg and leading choir groups, most recently a tour of 80 (including camp followers) to sing in Southwell Minster for a week. His building expertise continues to deepen, having recently fixed one heritage church, and now about to mend the roof of another Grade 1 listed Saxon church. Lady parishioners of a

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Department has just replaced A levels with the Cambridge ‘Pre-University Examination’, which he describes as similar to the A levels provided in the 1970s. He remains Head of Eton’s Art History Department for which his main teaching is of the High Renaissance in Florence, Milan and Rome. He is described on a well-known website as an ‘awesome teacher’. The Revd Gordon Jeanes remains immersed in his ministry as vicar of St Anne’s parish, Wandsworth. Sadly, the demands are so great that he has been unable to work up various academic papers for publication, which have now accumulated into a considerable stockpile. In recent times his church has commemorated parishioners who died in the Great War.

As a sensible HR consultant, John Bland has planned his retirement at 60 later this year. His flock of Whitefaced Woodland Sheep now numbers 20. Peter Bernie, however, a baby of the 1976 cohort who is only now hitting 59, firmly rejects any suggestion of retirement. Many years now into his role as a director in the Charles Taylor marine insurance group he continues to ponder whether the fact that it insured the Titanic and the Costa Concordia is something to promote or to hide in the marketing literature. Dan Rickman, a data architect at BAE systems, is Chairman of the British Computer Society Location Information Specialist Group. His wife, Professor of Psychiatry of Older People at

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Runners-up for this year’s award of ‘sending an email while moving about’ are Charles Manby, somewhere in the Pacific as he sails with wife Nicky from Antigua to New Zealand, and Laurence Ormerod and wife Gill, also skippering a boat, but this one in the North Sea heading for Sweden. They were pipped at the post by Dan Raff writing at midnight via an iPad astride an exercise bike in Philadelphia. Still teaching, with several appointments at the University of Pennsylvania, and active at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge MA, he has also been lecturing in Paris and Pisa. Robin Barraclough, a district judge in Huddersfield for the last 13 years, in what seems like an annual event looks forward to seeing what initiatives the latest Lord Chancellor has. More unusually, his team Huddersfield Town finds itself in the Premier League, a source of wonder and glory but, he hopes, not disappointment. Northeast sport also features with Ralph Ashton who, surprisingly for a lifelong Yorkshire cricket fan, waited until this year to see his first Roses championship at Headingley. As a Lancastrian, I forget the result. He also flags a series of six super league rugby matches in Newcastle and riding behind the Flying Scotsman on the Keighley and Worth Valley railway as highlights of his 60th. Also retiring at 60 this year, David Humphrey returns to the UK from Johannesburg, where he has been Head of Power and Infrastructure Finance at Standard Bank for several years. One of the 1976 history intake of 13, eight of them met at Fortnums for a ‘40 years on’ gathering in October. Inconsolable that he couldn’t make it, all attending confessed to only turning up to see his knees after his promise to crawl over broken glass to get there. But drink was involved, so they soon cheered up.

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Year Representative: Edmund Wright Herries, Winter Hill Road, Cookham Dean, Berkshire, SL6 6PJ Tel: 01628 488065 Email: [email protected] For this report on the 40th anniversary of our arrival at Merton, I am indebted (I think) to Matthew Lonsdale for pointing out that we are now as far from our matriculation day as, in 1977, we all were from somebody who had matriculated before the Second World War. That put paid to any comments from me along the lines of ‘It all feels like yesterday.’ Anyway, on with the news. David Seipp is Professor of Law at Boston University. He delivered the annual Youard Lecture in Legal History to the Oxford Law Faculty in March 2015. He has compiled a database indexing and translating the Year Books, which are the reports of arguments and judgments in England’s commonlaw courts from 1268 to 1535. In addition to numerous articles and scholarly papers, he has written introductions to 20 volumes that reprint the Year Books and the abridgments and finding aids used by lawyers since the 15th century to locate points of law in these early sources. He is currently at work on volume five of the Oxford History of the Laws of England, surveying the period 1399–1483. He is a life member of the American Law Institute and a life fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and is married to Carol Lee (Wadham 1976). Richard Humes is enjoying an active retirement and last summer completed a long-standing goal to climb all 4,000-metre Swiss mountain summits: 48 in total, a feat that took 32 years. He has not hung up his boots and ice axe, but suspects he will take life easier in the years ahead. Richard and Lynda still live in Switzerland, near Geneva, and continue to enjoying plenty of travelling, including regular visits to the UK. Simon Saville has moved on from corporate life after 31 years with Shell, which, he says, is long enough for anyone. He is still based in London and is focusing his time on supporting the environment, especially butterflies, moths and bees. Tim Reading spends his retirement keeping an eye on his aged parents-in-law in Düsseldorf, and visiting his sons in Berlin and Montreux, with the odd holiday for himself in between.

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And finally, Edmund Wright and his long-term better half Kathryn Jones (King’s College London) have surprised themselves by getting married, a step neither had previously contemplated. Kathryn currently works three days a week in a back-office part of the NHS that manages education and training in London, and one day in a research team at Imperial College. Edmund meanwhile continues to potter around in the undergrowth of the dictionary-publishing world. He is doing his bit for the ‘retirement’ theme of this report by only working four days a week now, a trend he hopes will continue.

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Year Representative: Paul L. Mills Flat 1, St John's Flats, St John's Street, Kenilworth, Warwickshire CV8 1FT Tel: 01926 857737 Email: [email protected]

1979

Year Representative: Noel Privett Email: [email protected]

Academy, he now teaches part time at Colorado College and is working on a research contract on the future of strategic stability in Europe. He has a new company, CGST Solutions, for teaching and research. He says that this defines him as ‘semi-retired’, a euphemism for ‘I don’t know what I am doing, but I only do what I want.’ Armand D’Angour has continued with his project of reconstructing ancient Greek music, and presented concerts (with replicas of original pipes) in the British Academy and at the Ashmolean Museum, from newly reconstituted scores of the Delphic Paean of Athenaios (127 BC) and a chorus of Euripides’ Orestes (408 BC). The performances have shed new light on the musical idioms of ancient Greece: ‘Excitingly, the music presents clear correspondences with later Western music, something that most musicologists have hitherto failed to observe’, he says. The project was awarded a ViceChancellor’s Award for Public Engagement with Research 2017.

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UCL, finds him constantly interesting. Activity is apparently good for us oldies, who should take a leaf from the book of Jeremy Horton, recently returned from a campervan road trip to Corsica, following lots of skiing earlier in the year, and now to be seen yomping at the head of elderly crocodiles as a walk leader for Age UK.

Jeremy Black continues to hold the Established Chair in History at Exeter University. He has published several books over the last year, including Naval Warfare: A Global History since 1860; The World of James Bond; Maps of War; A History of Britain: 1945 to Brexit; Plotting Power: Strategy in the Eighteenth Century; and the third edition of A History of the British Isles.

This year’s is the thinnest contribution for 1979 since records began in 2010. We have almost lost our collective voice as we spiral towards old age and oblivion. Just four hoarse men of the apocalypse have responded to my plea for news this year. And I am their Timmy (I think I have the right story), with my own barking contribution. So here we are. David Bowen is still working for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations but has now moved from Accra to be based in the Regional Office in Bangkok, Thailand. After the last three years travelling in Africa he is looking forward to getting to know the Asia region. Sky Foerster spent five months this year as the Fulbright Commission’s Distinguished Chair in Social Studies, teaching political science and strategic studies at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. Formerly the Brent Scowcroft Professor of National Security Studies at the US Air Force

Hugh and Romola, Noel Privett’s grandchildren

Noel Privett, meanwhile, has become two granddads having been none a year ago. Hugh Lupton will be one year old at the end of July (I am writing this a week before his birthday), and Romola Privett-Main joins him in November.

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You can stop me. The power is in your hands. Simply update me with your news by emailing me: noelprivett@yahoo. co.uk. Thank you.

vinyl collection to come out of storage and his inner librarian to be unleashed – the records have been catalogued and found to be gratifyingly valuable, putting an end to years of pressure to throw them away. And some disappointing news for those of you who have been following David’s driving exploits (Postmaster, passim): his driving career stalled (his pun, not mine) ‘after some spectacularly inept parking left me with a burst tyre, but I am back on the insurance, so may yet get on to a motorway’. Meanwhile, Mark Fiddes has been working since January in Dubai as Creative Director for Havas in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. Last year he had a collection of poetry published by Templar entitled The Rainbow Factory, which rather fabulously won the Ruskin Poetry Prize among others.

Atop the Chapel Tower, July 2017

Stop press. Having read my draft 1979 news on Facebook, Roger Pearse immediately sent me his update, imploring me to ‘never attribute to senility what we used to call laziness’. A fair challenge. And then Mark Fiddes, David King and Edward Paine sent me theirs, so here are all four, in reverse order. Edward Paine is very pleased that his travel company, Last Frontiers, has been asked to produce three tours as part of the Oxford Journeys’ offering for alumni. In 2018 a trip to Peru leaves in April and another, exploring Colombia’s cultural history, departs in November. The final trip, to Brazil in April 2018, has a theme of forest conservation and includes a cruise up the Amazon. Edward is particularly pleased that it is led by one of his former lecturers, Professor Martin Speight. See www.lastfrontiers.com/alumni for more details. A contribution from every booking goes to the University Development Office. David King is now the proud father of an Oxford English graduate, as his daughter Alice has just graduated from Mansfield College. He continues to try to improve the health and wealth of the nation by working for the National Institute of Health Research (the research arm of the NHS). A recent bout of home improvement has enabled his semi-legendary

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And, finally, here is Roger Pearse’s contribution. ‘Not much news from me. I continue to work as an IT contractor. I have earned a living from Java programming for the last ten years; suddenly that’s a dead skill, and knowledge of Javascript is now the new passport to earning. So I am trying to reshape my CV again. In my spare time, I am translating the 10thcentury Christian Arabic author Eutychius into English, blogging about vanished 16th-century Roman monuments in Rome, and starting to wonder whether I can afford to retire. Oh, and answering emails from strangers on topics from the manuscripts of Chrysostom to places to stay in Khartoum.’ So, as they say in the finest Khartoums - 'That's all, folks!'

1980

There is currently no Year Representative for 1980. Please contact [email protected] if you are interested in becoming the Year Rep for this year. In the meantime, we did hear from some 1980-ers in 2017 with the following news. Alison Blake writes: ‘I left Islamabad in November 2014 and after a spell in the UK catching up with family and Mertonian friends, I have since January 2016 been in Bangladesh as British High Commissioner in Dhaka. It is a real privilege and a great and challenging job in a fast developing and beautiful country. For British diplomats, Dhaka is an 11 kilo

posting – phenomenal food and hospitality and hours in the car. Discovering that it is indeed true has forced me off the sofa and onto the tennis court and golf course. (Yes, I do worry at turning into a caricature of a British ambassador in the tropics....).’ Paul Dauncey writes: ‘I know you’d like something for Postmaster but middle-aged life seems not to have too many exciting episodes; I have been doing the same job for 20 years now and have nothing recent of interest to report! I have also lost touch with almost all the others in our year.’ Christopher Tanfield has produced two editions for Bloomsbury, one of Aeneid X and the other of Cicero Philippics II, covering the A-level exam prescription.

1981

Year Representative: Graham Dwyer c/o Asian Development Bank, 6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City, Manila, 1550 Philippines Tel: +63 999 999 4961 Email: [email protected] Many thanks to all those who contacted me this year to give updates and to express appreciation for my efforts as Year Representative. It is always a pleasure to hear from you and to learn about the sometimes amazing paths that you have been taking. For example, Susanna Ramsey (née Sheppard) relayed that she is creating a natural history museum for British wildlife, which she uses to run science workshops in local primary schools. Meanwhile, her daughter went up to Brasenose College in October to study history: ‘She is having a fabulous time. I have taken up rowing again, so we can compare blisters!’ In Catherine Rendon’s case, she is living and teaching on the Norwegian tall ship, Sørlandet, for the coming year, the world’s oldest fully rigged ship in operation. She writes: ‘Should anyone spot Sørlandet in any port, or find themselves in Havana in early March 2018, please come aboard.’ On a sad note, she adds: ‘I had just written to Dr Highfield to give him this news when I learned of his death. This brings our unlikely 30-year-long correspondence to an end. I will miss his advice and stories as well as receiving his letters, postmarked with the distinctive red-inked Merton crest on the white envelopes. Dr Highfield’s death

marks the end of an era and, like the bicycle messengers of our time at Oxford, the constancy of those letters will be missed.’ I felt the same way when my tutor Dr Olleson passed a few years back.

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If the decline in contributions continues at the current rate, it’ll just be me next time. If that happens, I promise I’ll do it through the medium of limerick in 2018. ‘There was an old man sometime of Merton…’

Graham Tebb poses against the spectacular rice terraces on Mount Polis, Philippines

Vienna-based Graham Tebb was in my neck of the woods (Philippines) in March for a spot of bird-watching with a friend amid the natural wonders of Palawan and Mindanao, among other places. But unfortunately I was not able to connect since his schedule required flying some extremely unsociable hours and he was subject to often painful delays. He tells me that he eventually found the Luzon Scops Owl after two days in the rain at Mount Polis but left enough gaps in his list to make a repeat visit worthwhile. I hope I can catch him on a visit next year.

Valya Dufau-Joel enjoying the breathtaking landscapes of Flamingo Lake, Bolivia

Also getting some serious airmiles under her belt has been Valya Dufau-Joel (née Hopewell), still going strong at the ESRF/Synchrotron in Grenoble after 29 years. She reports on

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On the move professionally during the last year was David Clapp, who reports that he has moved from Rome to run a start-up school in Budapest. He looks forward to continuing with future Mertonian meetings in either city. Ivan Viehoff is now Chief Economist at Cambridge Economic Policy Associates (based in London), mainly working in the transport and energy sectors. His ten-year-old daughter is singing to gain a place on musical aptitude to a local academy. ‘So she seems to be set on well surpassing her father in his own continuing very amateurish efforts in these activities.’ Good luck to her! Congratulations to Jesse Norman, who was re-elected as MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire in June and appointed Roads Minister at the Department for Transport. Previously, he had been appointed Minister of Energy and Industry in the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy in July 2016. He has also been a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College 2016–17, working on Adam Smith, and on early 17thcentury English common lawyers. I also heard from Ben Summerskill who is to be congratulated on his appointment as Board Member of the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service this year.

harpsichord continuo with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra during its 34th concert series, accompanying internationally renowned Uruguayan guitarist Eduardo Fernández in Vivaldi. Hopefully, despite declining fingers, I have more performances left in me in 2017 and beyond.

through replacing all its IT systems. John is also considering how the Home Office will be able to implement some of the more challenging possible Brexit scenarios.

1982

Congratulations to Charles Powell who was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for his services to British–Spanish relations. Charles is currently Director of the Elcano Royal Institute, Spain’s leading international relations think tank.

Thank you very much to everyone who has kept in touch. Change in various ways seems to be a theme this year, but retirement is not yet beckoning, although it is coming up more in conversation. Professional careers continue to keep us busy and cricket careers are also not yet all over.

Ben Slocock is proud to have become a French citizen. His daughter will be completing her schooling by doing the IB.

Year Representative: Nick Weller Flat 12 North Ash, Hawthorn Close, Horsham, West Sussex, RH12 2BW Tel: 01403 269883 Email: [email protected]

David Brown has been looking at how new technology might change the accounting profession and its teaching. David has also just completed delivery of his first fully online postgraduate course. His two children are about to graduate and leave school respectively. David hopes to be spending time in the UK during his sabbatical year in 2018. He remembers well breakfasting with Roger Highfield, when he, David, was teaching law at Merton at the weekends in the late 1980s, and telling Roger about life working in London. Paul Collier has decided to go by his middle name and will be known as Edward Collier from now on.

Graham Dwyer performing with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra in November 2016

Since penning my entry last year, I am now permanently based back in the Philippine capital of Manila, where I have lived on and off since 1996. I continue to perform in concerts, making a second appearance in November 2016 as guest performer on

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Peter Kessler has changed career and is now teaching English at Finchley Catholic High School in London.

James Thickett saw his son Peter graduate from Merton this summer and had an enjoyable day at Merton and the Sheldonian Theatre for the graduation ceremony. It feels like the end of another era, and James will miss the regular visits back to Merton. Laura Thompson is publishing a crowd-funded memoir of her publican grandmother, The Last Landlady (unbound), and will follow this with a re-examination of the 1922 Thompson-Bywaters murder case. Andrew Wickens has become Rector of Stoke Minster. I am still writing on accountancy and business-related issues, dealing with new exams and changing methods of testing. I am trying, as always, to maintain a freelance-life balance. I hope to attend Roger Highfield’s memorial service and share memories of Roger – memories that remain strong.

Susanna Curtis has been busy with a Tanztheater version of Alice Through the Looking Glass in the spring for adults, and a project with disadvantaged schoolchildren/refugees, Mirrorworld, in the summer. Her new production Geburtstag – a piece about Hikikomori – comes out in October. Susanna was chosen to represent the city of Nuremberg in an advertising campaign for the Metropolitan Region. Her son, Oscar, is looking forward to studying law in Leipzig from October.

1983

John Holland has completed his sixth degree (MSc in Data Science with distinction), and is now building a visiting lecturer relationship with City University. He is still tackling the modernisation of the Home Office’s IT estate as it works

Andrew Baker wrote to update me on the eventful year for their family. ‘I left the Bar after 28 years to take up an appointment to the High Court Bench on 1 Nov 2016 – so I am now ‘Mr Justice Andrew Baker’ and was knighted by

Year Representative: Meriel Cowan 40 Ash Grove, Headington, Oxford, OX3 9JL Tel: 01865 762458 Email: [email protected]

the Queen, with an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace on 7 December. It is an amazing job and a great privilege to be allowed to do it. More recently, though, my life has been dominated by the aftermath of being hit by a car while cycling on Easter Wednesday (19 April). I have no memory of the crash and woke up three weeks later in the Intensive Care Unit at St George’s, Tooting. After eight weeks in hospital in total, I am now at home making slow but steady progress on the road to a full recovery from my injuries, which were many and various!’ He also told me that Philippa has been working at a local nursery school but will be returning to infant school teaching in September. She has borne the major brunt of worry and responsibility created by Andrew’s accident. ‘Our 31st wedding anniversary on 12 July will be very special for my being back at home and recovering – we have been very blessed.’

MERTONIANS | 1981-83

a recent trip to Bolivia and Peru, loving the culture, landscapes and people of the former, in particular. ‘This was in spite of the altitude (4,000 metres or so), which caused some difficulties among the group (and in particular among me!).’

Fraser Dillingham reports that he is absolutely loving retirement two years in. His daughter Lara is now at Cambridge. ‘Helen and I have spent a month in Burma (a most enchanting place) and also in South Africa. And I am writing this in Orvieto as the three of us finish a week’s cycle tour of Umbria. Back to London in time for five days at Lords for the Test Match before spending the summer in Cumbria. Tough life.’ I am sure I am not the only one who is very envious, Fraser! Also returning from Umbria is Paul Chavasse, who has recently driven his parents out to their house there, and driven back. He and Sonia celebrated their silver wedding last year in Oxford. I was delighted to have a chance to catch up with Paul in Oxford recently while he was visiting for an open day with their son Lachlan. Paul has recently retired from Rathbones, and in September is starting an MSc in Environmental Science at Liverpool University. Their son Aidan is working in London and daughter Naomi is studying at Leeds University. Simon and I attended Neil Caulfield’s memorial service in the Chapel on Saturday 13 May. It was a beautiful service on a poignant occasion. James Hayles spoke most movingly about Neil, and I was pleased to see Frances Harris (née Mortimer), Toby Seth and Simon Burton again. It was particularly nice to meet members of Neil’s family and to hear how important Merton had been to him. An obituary of Neil appears in this issue.

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Mike and Bridget Jager (1982) are still in sunny San Diego where Mike works at Qualcomm, enjoying living near the beach but missing their grown-up children. ‘Evie is finishing a Master’s degree in Medicine, Health and Public Policy at King’s College London, and Martin has just graduated from Manchester with a degree in Business Management with American Studies.’ Bridget and Mike have recently celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary with a trip to Maui. ‘I am still in Sydney, doing my thing’ writes Matthew Law, who is a Professor of Biostatistics at University of New South Wales. Clive Marsland updated me from Abu Dhabi. ‘It is very hot…. I am doing a review for the Emirates government and trying to avoid the sun. I had lunch in the Indonesian Embassy yesterday – you can have anything as long as it is with peanut.’ Back closer to home Susan and Michael Roller have excuses to visit us in Oxford because their son Matthew is studying here, and their daughter Sarah has finished her second year at Bristol. Diana and Jonathan Thornton (1982) are now living in Oxshott, Surrey, having moved several times in the last decade with Diana’s job as a parish priest and a school chaplain. She is no longer working in the church but has trained to teach mindfulness and is working in schools and running public groups while also training as a human givens therapist. Jonathan is managing partner at Russell-Cooke solicitors (where he has been since leaving Merton). Rupert Vessey continues as President of Research and Early Development at Celgene Corporation, a New Jersey biotech company that is a leader in the field of treatments for myeloma and other haematological disorders. His wife Laura is Director of Early Development Operations and Merck Research Laboratories. Daughter Katelyn now lives in Kalamazoo and works for a human resources company called Sykes. Sarah graduated summa cum laude in human resources and communications from Rutgers University and is now studying for her Master’s degree. Jonathan is working on an application to join the US Marines, and Daniel was accepted to the Hun School in Princeton where he will be

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combining studies with basketball and baseball. Simon and I continue to enjoy living in Oxford. I remain in my GP partnership and Simon is on sabbatical from September from his job as Economics Fellow at Worcester College, during which he will continue his research here. (They do get sabbaticals every seven years so this will be his third, I think.) We still have one son at home, Charlie, who is in the Upper Sixth; our eldest, Alex, is at Imperial College, and Richard studies at Bristol.

1984

Year Representative: David Clark 19 Willowdene Court, Brentwood, Essex, CM14 5ET Email: [email protected] As always, it has been a great pleasure to hear from a number of you this year. Thanks for getting in contact. John Newton is now in his third year running Scotch College Adelaide. The college is preparing for its centenary celebrations in 2019, and that always makes life busy for school leaders. When John points out that his Oxford college was 750 years old in 2014, Australians drop their jaws, but the indigenous students think that was merely yesterday, claiming more than 7,000 years of continuous culture! Harking back to his Merton days, he recently gave a lecture on 19th-century Russian literature, which was well received. John’s third child, a daughter, will start university in the UK in September, leaving only one son at home. His elder son is a management consultant and his other daughter is studying history at Belfast. John has vowed to remain loyal to England’s cricket team whatever the result of this summer’s Ashes in Australia! Andrew Phillips is back studying – but at ‘the other place’! He is doing a Master’s in Sustainability Leadership at the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership, and has become a proud member of Robinson College. He writes that it is a bit odd going from Oxford’s oldest college to Cambridge’s newest! He continues to work full-time, still at the Duchy of Cornwall. Andrew’s eldest daughter has stayed on at Durham to do a Master’s in Defence, Diplomacy and Development, and plans to become a social worker in London.

His second daughter graduated from Sheffield this summer, in English and Philosophy, and his youngest daughter is off to art college to study performance costume. Andrew’s wife (Amanda, neé Braddock, 1985) is still teaching Classics. News from another Andrew next: Andrew Davis, one of my chemistry contemporaries. He is now working as commercial director for Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland, which involves splitting his weeks between his home base of Edinburgh and London. He’s hoping he won’t need his passport anytime soon! He’s also doing his bit for Scottish exports by sending both his boys to the Far East for Maths competitions and language exchanges this year. Congratulations to Steve Babbage who got in touch to report that he has been appointed visiting professor at Royal Holloway, University of London. There is an excellent research group there in cryptography and information security, which is Steve’s specialist field. Charles Lonsdale also dropped me a line to say that he returned to the UK last autumn after four years in Vienna and has taken unpaid leave from the Foreign Office to return to Vienna as Deputy Director of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) Conflict Prevention Centre. Also on the move is Geoffrey Payne who is taking up a new magnetic resonance imaging post in Southampton after many years at the Royal Marsden Hospital and Institute of Cancer Research. Philippe de Gentile-Williams emailed to say that he moved back to the UK at the end of 2016 as Group Staff Director for John Swire & Sons. This means that he has been with the same company for nearly 30 years. He and his wife Frieda will have been married for 25 years in 2018. They have a son, Charlie, who is currently looking into university choices. Phillippe writes that he enjoyed the Merton Gaudy enormously last year and is looking forward to renewing his ties with the College. On a personal note, I have enjoyed several trips back to Oxford and Merton over the last year. In the summer, I fulfilled a long-term ambition to take my wife and son to see the culmination of Eights Week, which we watched on a beautiful summer afternoon from Donnington Bridge. My son has since started at the University of Exeter where he is studying Classics. Later in the year, my 50th birthday

celebrations were also based in the city and included a memorable Advent service in the College Chapel. Most recently, I returned for a meeting of the Merton Society Council, which I joined this year. Philippa Whipple (neé Edwards) is also a Council member, so you can be sure that the interests of the 1984 year group are well represented. Finally, Michael Chapman and I decided to inaugurate the Old Mertonians’ Progressive Rock Society (assuming of course, that one doesn’t already exist) back in March, undertaking crazy post-work road trips from Cheltenham and Harlow respectively to Bournemouth to see former ‘Yes’ members Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman in concert. The event was deemed a great success and further outings are likely.

MERTONIANS | 1983-85

Frances told me that she is now separated, but continues to work at Addenbrookes Hospital. Her elder son heads off to university in October, and her younger son, Jesse, will finish his sixth form in summer 2018.

1985

Year Representative: Ben Prynn 21 Kingsley Road, London, NW6 7RH Email: [email protected] Madeleine Barrows (née Fontana) is enjoying her 11th year at the Academy of Social Sciences, which she describes as a wonderful organisation, and continues to sing with the Portsmouth Baroque Choir. In April she and her husband went to the USA to visit their eldest daughter who is au pairing on the east coast and spent the summer in The Hamptons. While there they visited Diana Altegoer in Philadelphia. Their eldest two daughters both go to higher education this autumn – Tess to train as a Norland nanny, and Felicity (A-levels permitting) to Durham to study anthropology. In May Madeleine took Rebecca to a Merton open day as she’s just starting to apply to university. After next summer she will just have Susie left at home, so life at home is rapidly becoming quieter. Chris Green continues to work for IBM, near Winchester, and his spare time is partly taken up with musical activities in Romsey Abbey or further afield. In recent years he has been singing with a small Cambridge-originated choir, Ishirini, whose aim is to explore music in other cultures on tours to interesting destinations such as Jordan, Palestine and Nepal. He is looking forward to their upcoming tour to Georgia, which follows a week’s singing of the services at

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1986

Year Representatives: Simon Male (undergraduates) Tel: 001 845 548 7825 Email: [email protected] and and Julee Kaye (graduates) Tel: 001 604 224 8852 Email: [email protected] We are happy to have heard this year from eleven members of the 1986 graduate cohort, ten of whom provided updates. After undergoing a divorce in 1989, Antoine Lebel completed his DPhil in Classical Archaeology in 1990. Since then, he has established and operated his own antiques business, first in the south of France, then in Paris and later in Brussels (Belgium) with a speciality in Chinese export porcelain from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Now he is considering retiring to enjoy his favourite activities: travelling and diving. Antoine remarried in 1995 and he and his new wife raised four children in a blended family. Benjamin Alpers is an Associate Professor in the Honors College at the University of Oklahoma, where he teaches US intellectual and cultural history and is in the final stages of writing a book on 1970s visions of the American past. His wife, Karin Schutjer, is a Professor of German language and literature there. They have been settled in Norman, Oklahoma, since 1998. Their son Noah (18), has just graduated from Norman High School and is taking a gap year before starting at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY, in the fall of 2018. At the time of writing, their daughter Mira (16) is away studying Tajik Persian in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

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She will be starting her third year of high school at Chatham Hall in Virginia in the fall. Christine Biggs is currently on three years’ leave from working as a librarian with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. While on leave, she is accompanying her diplomat husband Ian on his posting as Australian Ambassador to Iran, where Christine is assisting the United Nations Information Centre with editing a pictorial history book about Iran’s relations with the United Nations. Prior to this, Christine and Ian have enjoyed varied postings in Damascus, Vienna, Riyadh and Ankara. Their son Joshua (25) graduated from the University of Tasmania with a degree in marine science and now has his dream job working for the University of Queensland’s Coral Reef Ecosystems Laboratory, spending three weeks out of every six on a tropical island on the Great Barrier Reef taking water samples. Their daughter Alexandra (22) holds an arts degree from the Australian National University, currently works as a consultant for Oliver Wyman in Sydney, and is contemplating graduate studies in the UK next year. Dan Schaffer, having collected his honorary doctorate of laws from Bristol University in July 2016, has in 2017 become the first lateral partner hire into the leading law firm Slaughter and May in its 130-year history. Dan also does some Trusts teaching in Merton and has given a BCL seminar this year. He judged Merton’s second-year moot again this year and was the guest speaker at the College’s Halsbury Society annual dinner. Dan chairs the Bristol University Law School Advisory Board and has recently become a member of the Merton Society Council. Dan and his wife Marianne have three boys: Antoine (21) is focused on a career in the business side of fashion, is in his third (internship) year at Birmingham University, and is currently working in Paris for Acne Studios; Vincent (18) is awaiting A-level results but will take a year off before university; and Louis (16) is waiting for his GCSE results. Dan attended the excellent Merton@ Home event in 2016 and had the great fortune of meeting Nick (1974) and Marla Allard. He and Vincent met up with them in New York for dinner, a day at Princeton (where Nick had chaired the alumni committee) and sailing in New York harbour in August 2016. Dan reciprocated this extraordinarily generous hospitality when Nick and Marla were over this

summer (2017) in London. Dan met up with David Wright in New York last August where David is a journalist for ABC News. Dan follows the prodigious output from Ben Alpers on Facebook. Ben is a Professor at Oklahoma University. Dan also corresponds with Lionel Hogg who is a Senior Partner at Gadens in Brisbane.

work on his own writing but this summer finds him working flat-out on his own book manuscript.

Daniel Promislow and his wife Leslie moved to Seattle in 2013. Although they miss their friends and colleagues in Georgia, Daniel is glad to be back near his home in the Pacific Northwest and they manage to meet up regularly with Carly and Joey in Boston and New York. Daniel reports having ‘a happy lab full of fruit flies and students’ and wonderful colleagues at the University of Washington. He is enjoying the challenges of setting up a nationwide study of ageing in pet dogs, and was pleased to meet up with Andrew Read (1985) during a visit to Penn State this year.

Andrew Jenkins is still enjoying flying with British Airways, and looking forward to reading these updates from his classmates.

David Wright is a correspondent at ABC News, spending a lot of time these days covering the Trump White House. He’s based in New York, but shuttles weekly to DC, Palm Beach, or New Jersey. David’s stories appear on Nightline, Good Morning America and other ABC News broadcasts. He and his wife Victoria have three lovely daughters, ages 6, 9, and 10. The girls are having a wonderful summer, escaping the city heat and learning to swim, ride bikes, and make 'Smores'. In San Francisco, Eric Olson is happy in his 12th year at BSR (Business for Social Responsibility). He is currently focused on working with large corporates, cities and states to keep building the momentum for action on clean energy and climate change. His wife Susan Freiwald has her hands full as Associate Dean of USF Law School and their two girls are thriving – one at Oberlin College and the other in high school. Eric’s personal highlight of 2017 so far is attending a U2 concert in Dublin, where he got to meet Bono and his lovely family as well as The Edge. Lawrence Stanley has been teaching in the English department at Brown University for 25 years. He created and runs the non-fiction writing programme, and enjoys great variety – teaching subjects ranging from the academic essay and creative non-fiction, to the history of English literature and cognitive poetics. Except for a one-year sabbatical at Stanford, this has usually left him little uninterrupted time to

Mark Newton is leading the Centre for Doctoral Training in Diamond Science and Technology at the University of Warwick.

MERTONIANS | 1985-88

Chester Cathedral with another itinerant choir in August. Mark Medish is based in Washington, DC, where he heads the international division of The Messina Group, a strategic and data analytics consultancy. He and his wife Sue Edwards have four children. Their eldest son, Vadim, attended Harvard College but was stricken with a rare and incapacitating neurological disorder. Another son, Nikolai, attends the University of Chicago and a daughter, Kira, will matriculate at Harvard this fall as a US Presidential Scholar, following in Vadim’s footsteps. Their youngest son, Max, is at St Albans School.

1987

There is currently no Year Representative for 1987. Please contact [email protected] if you are interested in becoming the Year Rep for this year. Sally Keating writes: ‘I don’t have anything that needs to be included in Postmaster this year – status quo is not terribly interesting, I fear!’ Peter Wilson writes with news that he is ‘moving closer to the UK in September when I become the next British Ambassador to the Netherlands’. Congratulations, Peter.

1988

Year Representative: Tim Gardener 7 Carlyn Drive, Chandlers Ford, Hampshire, SO53 2DJ Tel: 02380 275831 Email: [email protected] Rich Waterman reports that he has been playing county croquet for Essex and this year he will be representing Wales in the European Association Croquet Championships. Toby Nicholson continues to treat leukemia in Cheshire. Alexandra Hewitt has news, but that is embargoed until next year. Peter Howe is very sorry to report the death of his father, John Howe (1959), whose obituary appears in this issue. David McDowell writes: ‘I continue to teach History and Politics, and am currently (among other things) Head of the Politics Department, upper sixth tutor, and editor of the school magazine at Fettes. The First World War centenary has given me ample opportunity to keep up my interest in

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and to work (mostly from home in Spain) for a Jersey law firm, mainly on commercial and trust litigation. Stephen Walton is the chaplain at Christ Church Dusseldorf, which is part of the Anglican diocese of Europe. It is an English-speaking church, with people of about 25 different nationalities, including refugees. Stephen is married to Gunilla (who is GermanSwedish), and they have three children.

1989

Kerry Purnell (formerly Jones) writes that ‘after 15 successful years I left Sussex Police as a Chief Inspector in 2007 to run my own restaurant in a mountain village in rural Spain. I did that for four years then had to return to the UK for family reasons. I worked in neighbourhood management and community development in Wolverhampton and then in 2014 I relocated to Greater Manchester where I am Head of Partnerships and Communities for Trafford Council. I love working in Greater Manchester at the cutting edge of devolution and public service reform. Both my kids are grown up now and are at or about to start university. Life is good.’

Year Representative: Matthew Grimley Merton College, Merton Street, Oxford, OX1 4JD Tel: 01865 273343 Email: [email protected] After a couple of years’ hiatus – mea culpa, and for which my profuse apologies – it has been wonderful to receive several updates from members of the 1989 year group. Nici Audhlam-Gardiner reports that since her last update, she has been MD Products and Marketing for the challenger bank Williams & Glyn, and headed up the Money division at Saga, which she describes as ‘an interesting insight into consumer thoughts and behaviours as they approach and enter retirement’. She adds: ‘As well as juggling the exam, sports and drama exploits of our two children, Luca and Lily, I have found time for myself to take up triathlon this year – completing Blenheim, and now fairly addicted! Trying to keep adept at three sports at same time takes hours that could have usefully been spent sleeping, but oh well!’ Stefanie Driskell writes from Victoria, Australia, where she is now heavily engaged in corralling, mustering and attempting to improve her three lively boys aged 4, 6 and 8. On her days off she attends as a lawyer at the Department of Premier and Cabinet where she tweaks and reforms Victorian legislation. She dreams of having her own private garden studio or, even better, residence where she could be still for a while, and pursue a growing interest in personal writing and textiles. As a family, Stefanie, Jolyon and the boys now head for the rocky beaches of Gippsland (eastern Victoria) as often as possible to enjoy the icy surf and look for dinosaur bones. Matthew Shorter is running a digital agency, Unthinkable, which he co-founded in 2010, as well as occasionally continuing to compose and perform music. William Redgrave continues to live in La Coruna with Marta and their two boys,

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Jayne Joyce is still living in Oxford with her husband Dominic (1986) and three daughters. As a family they recently enjoyed the Merton Family Fayre, including the opportunity of revisiting the Chapel Tower, which must be one of the best vantage points in town. She is currently trying to salvage some breastfeeding support from the wreckage of Oxford’s Children’s Centre service, in the aftermath of savage local authority service cuts. Martyn Dyson has recently started a new role at the RAC after many years at Nationwide.

1991

Year Representative: Anna Smith c/o The Development Office, Merton College, Merton Street, Oxford, OX1 4JD Email: [email protected]

1990

1992

Year Representatives: Christine Barrie 15 Badminton Close, Cambridge, CB4 3NW Tel: 01223 501598 Email: [email protected] and Claire Webster 9 Kingsgate Street, Winchester, Hampshire, SO23 9PD Tel: 01962 863237 Email: [email protected] Claire Webster (née Farrow) is delighted to be back teaching Classics at Winchester College. Simon Hawke is a consultant neurologist in regional NSW and a professor in Sydney, Australia, focused on developing blood-based biomarkers for neurological diseases. Tom Elliott recently went back to Merton to receive his MA, accompanied by his wife and daughter. Colleagues at radio station 3AW in Australia think he’s been studying online, and he has yet to admit how it works in Oxford!

MERTONIANS | 1988-92

local history and in 2014 I published a monograph, Brave, Vigorous Life, a contribution to the Imperial War Museum’s commemoration programme, which looks at how the culture of pre-1914 Fettes prepared young men for combat. More importantly, in October that year I married Margaret Ann Loney; we live near the centre of Edinburgh.’

Year Representatives: Steve Maxwell 654 Creek Drive, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA Tel: 001 510 520 4425 Email: [email protected] Tom and Elise Elliott return to Merton for Tom to receive his MA

Lisa Curran is now a consultant in occupational medicine at King’s College Hospital and Chair of the London Consortium of Occupational Health Practitioners. Ralph Parfect is now School Business Manager for the School of Global Affairs at King’s College London, where he has been working for 20 years in various roles. Having sold his previous business at the end of 2015, Azeem Azhar has spent time on two major projects. The first is helping a large internet company work with start-ups and young tech companies. The second is his newsletter, Exponential View, which covers the impact of the convergence of exponential technologies in our lives. Exponential View has grown to more than 20,000 readers and counts some of the world’s top investors and entrepreneurs in its readership. He has also joined the editorial board at the Harvard Business Review.

and Andrew Davison Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, CB2 1RH Tel: 07971 597998 Email: [email protected] Rebecca Eastmond (née Shaw) still lives in south London but, excitingly the Eastmonds bought the patch of land at the end of their (previously miniscule) garden that they’d been asking their neighbours to sell for the past nine years, so barbecues are now a real option when the sun shines. Arthur and Isabel keep growing and generally are great kids. Rebecca left JP Morgan earlier this year to set up a social enterprise that supports better philanthropy. Visit her in the rafters of Somerset House if you are passing. Mark Freeman still lives in St Albans, and still works at University College London. He has caught up with a number of 1992 Mertonians recently, including Andrew Peaple in Hong Kong this year.

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Jagessar remembers his PhD days at the University of Oxford and has been grateful for the scholarship he received. He also remembers many of his friends at Merton College during the years of studies, 1992–95, and extends greetings to all. He can be contacted at [email protected]

Simon Thomas sends greetings from Lyon in France! He had the pleasure of being form tutor for five of his oldest son’s friends this year, and is still teaching maths in French in a zone prioritaire secondary school near his three kids’ primary school. He also teaches first-year maths (in English) in the new International Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering at a good engineering school near home. In the summer, you are likely to find all five of the family on a beach somewhere in the south of France. Brexit may damage his career prospects, so he’s applying for French citizenship, which requires a French diploma. Although his French teaching exams don’t count, he is doing a one-day first aid course which apparently does.

Robin Stevens is still in Oxford, now working in the University’s IT Services under the title of Information Security Architect. In plain English, this means he helps ensure the University’s computer systems are designed to keep the bad guys out.

Paul Whitney is kept busy partly developing his career as a neuroanaesthetist and perioperative physician but mainly by family life with wife Diana and son Torsten. He is living out his passion for cricket, coaching and watching Torsten play for Ditchling U9 – he is a demon bowler. Paul has started rowing again, for Ardingley Rowing Club. Andrew Davison spent the 2016–17 academic year in Princeton, thinking about the implications of life elsewhere in the universe for Christian theology. Among other people, he was glad to spend some time with another 1992 Mertonian: Bill Barry, the chief historian of NASA. Liz Tollfree (née Heaton) reports the following highlights from the last year: bought a new oven, saw a circus in a cemetery, got some home-grown dried oregano in the post from her dad with a message not to smoke it. So, life pootles along in a happily dull fashion in The People’s Republic of Brighton. She promises to up her game for next year’s Postmaster, but this may involve just making stuff up. Raymond C Jagessar, is now Professor of Chemistry at the University of Guyana. He is also a member, Chartered Chemist and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, FRSC. He is actively involved in multidisciplinary research. Professor

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Tom Reusch had a near-death experience at work last September as Deutsche Bank faced massive fines, eventually settled late in 2016. This was offset by the excellent Merton in the City event. Being a school governor continues to mix the fun (opening a fantastic new foundation block) with the challenging (having a teacher sentenced to several years in jail for child-related offences). Following a decade of tiredness he has recently been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea and so is learning to live with a mask on his face all night. But best of all, the girls Melanie (9), and Annabelle (7) are loving making the most of school and non-school life! This year also brings up ten years of married life with Sara with celebratory holidays in Seychelles and Barcelona. Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington is Deputy ViceChancellor Academic at the Australian National University and Australian Secretary for the Rhodes Scholarships. In 2013 she led the design of the Tuckwell Scholarship programme at ANU which has generated a gift of AU$106 million, and which will welcome its 120th scholar in 2018. After a decade of genteel underachievement since moving back from Tokyo, Vic James finally pulled her finger out. In the past year she’s produced and directed three BBC One specials with Jeremy Paxman on the EU referendum (to which the pupils of James Handscombe’s school made a magnificent contribution), the US presidential election, and Trump’s first 100 days. And her debut novel Gilded Cage, a political fantasy, was published in the US, the UK, and in numerous translations. The Guardian called it ‘impressive’, The Daily Mail called it ‘dazzling’ – and her Mum said it took her long enough, with which she has to agree. Anna Watts is now a senior associate professor at the

University of Amsterdam, working on neutron star explosions and the next generation of X-ray space telescopes. She lives in Utrecht with her husband Jason and their two daughters, and hopes by next year to have achieved Dutch citizenship.

ago) is ‘off the payroll’ and living in Hawaii. The younger one is heading into his senior year at St Mary’s College of Maryland. Bill is still serving as the Chief Historian for NASA, and finding a bit of time to indulge in some glider flying.

After 25 years, Robert MacLaren is still at Merton! He rowed in the unbeaten Fellows’ boat in the 750th Anniversary Eights Week. He is still teaching first- and second-year medical students, but he now has more graduate students at the College. Robert is currently Professor of Ophthalmology (eye surgery) at the University of Oxford. He is leading clinical trials into gene therapy treatments, the bionic eye and more recently developing the use of a robot to operate inside the eye. The first robotic eye operation took place in 2016 at the Oxford Eye Hospital and was a huge success. There are now 12 Merton alumni who are practising eye surgeons, four of whom are professors – probably more eye specialists from Merton than all the other Oxford colleges combined.

Steve Maxwell is ready to be healthy again after a series of (non-serious) illnesses for the past 18 months, which are keeping the Stanford medical community entertained, but are not so much fun for him. His family has started an annual tradition of going to a Formula One Grand Prix event, and after Canada (2015) and Austria (2016), they are headed to Texas later this year.

The third edition of Kelyn Bacon Darwin’s book European Union Law of State Aid was published in January. Given recent events, it will likely be the last edition. She is still at Brick Court Chambers but in May was appointed as a Deputy High Court Judge. So for up to six weeks a year, she will be the other side of the bench, sitting in the Chancery Division, and is very much looking forward to the new challenge. Husband Pete is still freelancing for Google; daughter Lily starred in the short film The Nest Egg which came out last year; and son Zachary is enjoying playing the violin, jazz piano, and entertaining the family with magic tricks. They have a new addition to the family in the shape of Norbert the dragon. OK, so (s)he’s a gecko. They are still working on the fire-breathing bit. Mark Denning doesn’t have a lot of news to report, apart from being in the process of planning to build himself a new house. Hector Macdonald has secured a publishing deal with Transworld in the UK and Little, Brown in the USA for his first non-fiction book, Truth: A User’s Guide. The book examines the many ways truth is used and abused in public discourse, and will hit the shelves in spring 2018. Bill Barry and Monica are still living in Maryland. Their oldest son (aged four when he arrived at Merton all those years

MERTONIANS | 1992-93

Andrew Peaple is indeed living in Hong Kong, working with The Wall Street Journal. Life is good, and the family is having lots of fun with their little boy, Alex, who was born in March 2016. He invites people to get in touch if they are ever heading east to escape Brexit Britain.

1993

Year Representative: Joanna Cooke Email: [email protected] We may be yet another year older but there is still happiness to be found in the updates. Richard Barlow gets top billing as his update mentions me. He says: ‘A genuine highlight of the year for me was travelling on the Thameslink in February when all of a sudden Jo Cooke and her family stepped on board, giving us a quality 40 minutes together to catch up over the last 20 years (and eight children between us!)’. I can report that Richard has not changed one bit. His real news is that he returns to the UK in November for ten months of learning Hindi fulltime before taking up a new position as Head of Political and Bilateral Affairs at the British High Commission in New Delhi. Elaine Ewart has ‘broken a habit of a lifetime’ by replying to my email – others take note, you can do this. Elaine was initially a lawyer and in 2011 turned her back on that and is now going into her third year of a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Essex. She says: ‘I am living with Colin Batchelor (1994) in Ely. We have no children but we do have three apple trees. I am currently exploring the Frisian North Sea coast for my thesis.’ It’s a career change too for Anna Jones (née Rees) who, after several years of being a librarian in Cambridge, is going to train for ordination in the Church of England, courtesy of Westcott House. She calls it ‘a big change, but a privilege to

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Sarah Boon is still married to Richard Smith (Mansfield: 1993) – I don’t think we are meant to be surprised by this – and now has her horses at home. This, she says ‘has been my ultimate goal for a long time’. Sarah still works for Travers Smith and splits her time between the office in London and her own little office on the farm. This all sounds pretty idyllic to me. Melanie Morris sent in a great, succinct update: ‘Paddy and I had a baby girl on 25 August 2016 – she’s called Eva and is just fabulous.’ At the time of going to print Jamshid Derakhshan reported ‘We are expecting a baby girl called Delsa in about two weeks!’ Jamshid is currently a lecturer in maths and the Deputy Dean of Degrees at St Hilda’s. Charley Smith (née Haines) says ‘being the Deputy Head for a year has nearly killed me. Family have borne it well – they remain my best work’. Meanwhile Naomi Drewitt is upbeat because she has ‘survived the latest round of reorganisation and redundancies at the Department of Health. Same job, same children, same husband...’ Jim Freeman is struggling with how old we have all become. ‘I am still trying to get my head round the fact that one of the boys is no longer a boy and is off to university. And I have become a trustee of a small peacebuilding charity, which goes some way to soothe my conscience.’ Personally, I think it should take a lot more than that. Jonathan Young moved to the Ministry of Defence from the Department for Education, working as a statistician in the Civil Service. He is still married to Debbie and is father of Martha (2). And this year’s plea comes from Martin Miller: ‘Why don’t Merton alumni, past and present, catch me on tour as Jeff in “The Band” by Tim Firth with the songs of Take That?’ See www.thebandmusical.com/tour

1994

There is currently no Year Representative for 1994. Please contact [email protected] if you are interested in becoming the Year Rep for this year.

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1995

Year Representative: Irasema Sarmiento Via Adolfo Consolini 42, 00142 Rome, Italy Tel: +39 3313936352 Email: [email protected]

in the Guinness World Records for the highest number of people dressed in national outfits – the peacock crest hat. The event was attended by 10,000 people.

John has decided to step down as a Year Representative for 1999. Postmaster would like to thank him for his years of service and wish him all the best for his new adventure.

Year Representative: Maria Pretzler 78 Sketty Road, Swansea, SA2 0JZ Tel: 07910 747115 Email: [email protected]

This year we have three births to report. Heenal Rajani and his wife Kara Rijnen had a baby girl on American Independence Day.

Katie Preiskel’s daughter, Charlotte Isabella (Lottie), was born last July (she was in fact due on Brexit day but decided to remain). Her older brother Theo has adapted well to having a little sister and is very attentive to her.

Anna Wetherell reports that Sophie Grave Wetherell Mayes was born on 28 January, a little sister for Thomas. All is well in the Wetherell house. Leonie Sadler (née Hough) and her husband James welcomed their second child, Arthur Alexander Sadler, a brother for Peter, on 15 May. Leonie has had a busy year, being made redundant from BOC after 14 years (almost to the day) before the next week discovering her pregnancy! Now she has a good role at the contact lens manufacturer CooperVision, based in Fareham.

1997

Year Representatives: Jill Davies 33 The Paddock Newcastle upon Tyne Tyne & Wear NE15 8JG Email: [email protected] and Catherine Sangster OUP, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP Email: [email protected]

Year Representative: Alex Edmans Email: [email protected] Alex Edmans gave his second TEDx talk, ‘From post-truth to pro-truth’ (www.bit.ly/protruth) on the dangers of confirmation bias, the distrust of experts, and the misuse of evidence. Cristian Gazdac joined the project ‘Coins of the Roman Empire’ run by the University of Oxford as a consultant so he will be in Oxford at least once a year. As a Citizen of Honour of his town, Cristian and his daughter Flora-Antonia (7) were involved in the successful attempt to enter his town

Year Representatives: Andrew Tustian 51 Hidden Hollow Lane, Millwood, NY 10546, USA Email: [email protected] and John Corcoran

1996

1998

1999

MERTONIANS | 1993-2000

have the opportunity/exciting and daunting in equal measure.’

Andrew Tustian, who became a US citizen in August 2016, is still in New York, and now in his ninth year at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Cristian and Flora-Antonia Gazdac at the Guinness World Records event

Jonathan Home and his wife Yuki had a second son, Richard, in March 2017. They are happily ensconced in Zurich along with older brother Edward. Jonathan has been awarded tenure at ETH Zurich, meaning they’ll probably be there for a while. Claire Jolly and her husband Steve had a second son, Thomas, in June 2016. Edwin Northover was made a partner at New York law firm Debevoise & Plimpton, where he has worked for the last nine years (in various offices: Hong Kong, London, Paris and New York).

Nathaniel Coleman has been working on a variety of projects last year in the Birmingham area. Recently part of this work, the Black Studies Research Cluster and Beatfreeks, were announced a ‘Kick the Dust’ award winner from the Heritage Lottery Fund. This grant supports young people having a say in how heritage organisations work and aims to increase inclusion for all communities who live in the Black Country. John Corcoran and his wife Emily (née Jenkins, 2004) are (finally) leaving Oxford and moving to Devon with their two daughters in order to enjoy better weather, cream teas and off-street parking. John will be starting work as a consultant respiratory physician at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth; Emily will be working as a GP in the area. John is also stepping

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2000

Year Representative: Alex Perry 10 Pagoda Grove, London, SE27 9BA Email: [email protected] This year sees a relatively brief update from six of the matriculands of 2000. Paul Wainman and wife Hannah celebrated the arrival of Rose Beatrice in July 2017, a sister to Iris (4) and Martha (2). Paul is a partner in a GP practice in Tewkesbury. Oliver Clark and wife Jennifer share news of the birth of their second child, in March 2017: George, a brother to Felicity. Gøril Havro announces her engagement to Aleksander Askeland (Balliol, 1997). Elizabeth Hunter is a Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Queen Mary University of London and is currently writing a book on early modern sleep disorders. Duncan Butler-Wheelhouse is returning to Oxford in September 2017 with his wife Helen and their two sons. Duncan will be studying for a Master’s in Education (with a view to continuing on to a PhD). They are sad to be leaving family and friends in Johannesburg, but excited at the prospect of seeing many friends in the UK and Europe again. Peter Cousins continues to live and work in Colombia, where he is now executive director of a small NGO, the Fellowship of Reconciliation Peace Presence Colombia, which aims to provide physical safety, political visibility and solidarity by accompanying communities and organisations that embrace nonviolence to defend life, land and dignity. Many thanks to all those who responded to my desperate entreaties for news – perhaps only modesty prevents others from doing so? If so, I would heartily encourage my classmates to blow their own trumpets a little harder next year!

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2001

There is currently no Year Representative for 2001. Please contact [email protected] if you are interested in becoming the Year Rep for this year.

2002

Year Representative: Ben Zurawel Chambers of Andrew Ritchie QC, 9 Gough Square, London, EC4A 3DG Email: [email protected] As your Facebook feed has probably told you, it has been babies, babies, babies for 2002 Mertonians lately. Anne-Marie Follows (née Willison) and David had their first child Elizabeth Rose in August 2016. Dan Botting and Sarah were delighted that Alice Minna Helen arrived on 12 September 2016. She was welcomed with great excitement by big brother Edward. Dan is now Deputy Head, Academic at Royal Russell School, Croydon. The Reverend Samuel Carter and Angela had their fourth child, Henry Nicholas James, in January 2017. Sam went on to finish an MPhil in the Divinity faculty of ‘the other place’. He was ordained a deacon in the Church of England at Chichester Cathedral on 1 July 2017 and will now serve as curate of All Souls, Eastbourne. David Bird and Emma (2001) had their second son, Oliver, in March, whilst Paul Hollands and Gemma had their second child, Finlay (a brother for Harry) on 4 April 2017. In July 2017 Stephanie Niven and Robert welcomed their second child, Iona, a sister for Aaron. Steph is still working as a portfolio manager in investment management but is very much looking forward to another year of maternity leave. Dan and Rachael Rees had their first child, Rosalind, in June 2016; Mark Brighouse and Lucy welcomed the arrival of Daphne in January 2017; and Christian Johnson and Valeria said willkommen and bienvenido to Lara in June 2017. Kathryn Leeke (née Burningham) and others went to Ed Brightman’s wedding to Shirley Viggars held at Merton on 17 September 2016. Joseph Noss will be marrying Roxna

Kapadia at Islington Town Hall on 13 October 2017. Carlos Lasta-Anadon is organising Joe’s stag in San Sebastian in September: what could possibly go wrong?! TengTeng Xu married Eric J. Gapud at the Baltimore Museum of Art on 8 July 2017. Claire Chee was maid of honour. Eric is a doctor at Johns Hopkins University and TengTeng continues to work at the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC. Tom Richards, at the time of writing, was appearing in cinemas in his first feature film, Mad to be Normal, a biopic of controversial 1960s psychiatrist RD Laing (played by David Tennant). Tom plays Raymond, a schizophrenic patient of Laing’s who thinks he is Jesus. Presumably finding life in London, post-teaching in Angola, just too safe, Oscar Scafidi and Steph have gone to teach in Madagascar. Madeline Brook ‘finally left Oxford’ in 2016 to take up a post lecturing German literature at the University of Stuttgart. On the other hand, Akira Wiberg is in his 8th year as a Merton student, having put the latter stages of training to become a consultant plastic surgeon on hold to read for a DPhil. He will, by time of publication, have appeared on BBC Two in Merton’s team on University Challenge; coincidentally, Ed Waddingham will have appeared as a member of the Imperial College team in the same series. Elena Piskounova has her own lab! She finally escaped the Wild West and left Texas for New York City and Weill Cornell Medical College where she has been appointed Assistant Professor. She researches cancer, specialising in understanding the biology of metastasis. Apparently. Google tells me that is ‘the development of secondary malignant growths at a distance from a primary site of cancer.’ Elena reports that she embraces Peter Pan syndrome with all her heart. Hopefully she won’t find a cure for that! It was one 2002 Mertonian in, one out in Texas, as Kate Pickard, having married Tammer in summer 2016, has moved to Houston. He is originally from the USA. Kate works in environmental management at BP (which has previously taken her to deserts in North Africa and the Middle East and chillier climes in Scotland and Canada). Kate reports that they plan to stay in Texas for a few years for a bit of an adventure: she is embracing rodeo, barbeque and (most worryingly) country and western.

Krizia Li has joined Marriott International in Hong Kong following stints at McKinsey Greater China, LVMH and Genting Group. She is Chief of Staff to the Chief Sales & Marketing Officer for the Asia-Pacific region. Krizia extends a warm welcome to any Mertonians visiting Hong Kong. As for me, Ben Zurawel, I will be marrying Joanna Kacorzyk at Dwór Sieraków near Kraków on 25 August 2018. We met at the annual dinner of Furnivall Sculling Club, our rowing club in Hammersmith, in 2014. Jo is from a mountainous national park in the south-west of Poland, near Bielsko-Biała, and lately we have been embracing all kinds of outdoor activities (we got engaged on the summit of Snowdon), from climbing Mount Toubkal in Morocco to, recently, rock climbing in the Peak District.

MERTONIANS | 2000-03

down as Year Representative for the 1999 cohort; he would like to thank everyone who has contributed for giving him the inside track on their lives over the past decade, and apologise to Andrew who has been left to soldier on alone.

Sadly, the last word this year must go to the death in February 2017 of Nick Coyle. Nick, Head of Classics at St John’s School, Leatherhead, had been suffering from cancer. He will be missed. A fuller obituary by journalist Nicola Davis (2004) follows in the In Memoriam section.

2003

Year Representative: Simon Beard 70 Chipstead Lane, Sevenoaks, Kent, TN13 2AG It has been several years since we last had a proper update on the 2003 Mertonians in Postmaster and I am delighted to be able to report on our eventful lives and many achievements, both large and small. A number of us returned to Merton this summer for the marriage of Rami Chowdhury to Kathleen Burnett. This truly multicultural event included not just a formal blessing in Merton Chapel (with chaplain Simon Jones performing the honours in very fine form) but also an Islamic Nikkah, a traditional Bengali Gaye Holud (or Gayest Holiday as autocomplete prefers to put it) and a reception in the Ashmolean that was not unreminiscent of bops of old – except for the part where my delightful children decided to run off with the groom’s shoes (apparently, it is a genuine Bengali tradition, who knew?). Other 2003 Mertonians in attendance included Andrew Godfrey, Nik Alatortsev, Camen Lee and

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Rami, Simon, Nik and Andy and also Aidan Randle Conde (a Trinitarian rather than a Mertonian but known to many in our year) from Rami's wedding.

Hugh Doulton currently works to support the development of African environmental NGOs and divides his time between the Comoro Islands (where he founded Dahari, a local NGO working with Comorian communities to build sustainable and productive landscapes), East Africa and the UK. Olivia Roche is now back home in Ireland after 12 years in the UK and working in the renewable energy sector. She is an asset manager for Infram Energy, looking after their solar assets, primarily in France. Helen Nicholas has spent the last year settling back into work as a pensions actuary after having her daughter (now 2). She continues to enjoy Scottish country dancing, which she started while at Merton. Hannah (née Dolman) and Andrew Beacham (2002) have just had a baby, Connor Isaac; 2016 saw Ani Setchi give birth to Emily, and Nicky Kielty and Raf Halpin had baby Evelyn. Steve Buckley and Emily Fildes should also be getting married very shortly after this goes to press. Congratulations to you all! Since leaving Oxford, Brian Melican has been working as a translator, journalist and author. He is now based in Hamburg, having moved to Germany in 2008 and obtained British-German dual nationality in 2015 (just ahead of a certain referendum – lucky thing!). 2015 also saw him publish

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his third and most recent book, An Introduction to the History and Culture of Frankfurt for British and American General Readers. His second book, An Anthology of English-language Writing about Germany, brought him back to Merton in 2013 to give a talk in the History of the Book series, while his written and broadcast journalism has appeared in a variety of English, French and German-language outlets. Brian reports taking on projects from a wide range of industries, sometimes working with fellow Mertonian linguists Andrew Godfrey, who now lives in Cardiff with his partner Jerry, and Emma Bullimore (2005). Other year mates who are now colleagues include Nat Merry and Kirsten Claiden-Yardley, who have established a heritage consultancy and research company (Oxford Heritage Partnership) specialising in assessing the significance of historic buildings and the impact of building projects on heritage sites. They also carry out historical research for authors and television companies. Nat has been selected to represent England at the 2017 archery home nations tournament (Hazzah!) and is a highly sought after archery coach. Kirsten and Andy Jarvis (2004) continue to live near Oxford and have been joined by a son, Alex. Tom Jeffries has just finished two years in Helsinki and is now living in Paris. He works as a freelance writer, primarily covering art for the likes of Apollo, Frieze and Monocle. He also had his first book published in April by Influx Press, Signal Failure, which charts an aborted attempt to walk from London to Birmingham along the proposed route of HS2 and represents, according to the publisher, ‘a wide-ranging critique of humanity’s most urgent failures’. I think there could still be a promising career as a tutorial fellow if you wanted it, Tom. Speaking of humanity’s most urgent failures… Despite a campaign that even my strongest opponents credited as ‘energetic’ and ‘compelling’, my attempt to be elected as the first Liberal MP for Dartford since 1920 fared almost exactly as badly as in 2015, with 2.6% of the vote. Thankfully I have had the consolation of having my research recently featured in WIRED, BBC History Magazine and on Radio 3, where I am a 2017 ‘New Generation Thinker’. The indignity of being a Tab is slowly starting to fade I am glad to say, although that of being the postdoc for an economist (Partha Dasgupta) is still hard to bear.

2004

works at Chatham House focused on Middle East politics, especially Iraq. ‘We also got a gorgeous labradoodle this year, called Mish Mish, which means apricot in Arabic!’ she adds.

It’s been a busy year for Mertonians of 2004. Among the news...

Nicola Davis is still a science, environment and health reporter for The Guardian and is also involved in investigative work and projects with the virtual reality team. She also presents The Guardian’s Science Weekly podcast and writes features and reviews for The Observer, so there is never a dull moment! Having bought her first home, she is enjoying country walks, painting, and crafting all manner of things.

Year Representatives: Nicola Davis, Gavin Freeguard and Natasha Zitcer Email: [email protected]

After a period working on the Junior Doctor Contract (‘perhaps the less said about that, the better,’ he notes), Aaron Borbora has decided to take a break from radiology training to pursue a full-time Master’s in Medical Law at Liverpool University. ‘In a supreme irony, given my preference for all things sedentary, I also appear to have developed a sports medicine practice working with boxing clubs, MMA fights, and even an amateur football club.’ Aaron lives with Lottie (an A&E doctor) in the blissful suburbia of West Kirby on the Wirral. Tash Zitcer is busy preparing for her upcoming wedding to fiancé Ian, while at the same time redoing their newly bought house. She’s relying on her bridesmaids Steph Grant (née Taylor) and Gaby Hulme (née Norrish) to keep her sane - it remains to be seen whether they’ll be successful! Max Bruce and Sarah Naisby welcomed their daughter Edith Cecily Bruce into the world on 26 September 2016. In January 2017 Steph and Alex Grant celebrated the arrival of Edward, and in June 2017 Elizabeth Marjorie, the daughter of Victoria Cooper and her husband, entered the world. Laura Sochas is living in London, doing a PhD at the London School of Economics on maternal health inequalities in Zambia for the next two to three years. Although not on the marriage market herself, she adds, she enjoys catching up with Mertonians at their own weddings, and says she is generally impressed at the quality of partners her friends have attracted. Martin Ash has moved to southwest London, abandoned the office altogether and is following a self-employed portfolio lifestyle incorporating music and editorial work. After four years in the US, Nussaibah Younis and her husband Alex moved back to Oxford. Alex is lecturing at Pembroke College in Theology with a focus on Islam, and Nussaibah

MERTONIANS | 2003-05

Robert Bradley. Rami and Kathleen are now back home in Washington DC with their dog Winston, where Rami is a code wrangler for Continuum IO.

Finally, Igor Sill says that following his business school days he is well into his winemaking career at the Sill Family Vineyards, and adds that he is launching a revolutionary new wine – a Chardonnay-based rosé.

2005

Year Representatives: Emma Bullimore Email: [email protected] and Krishna Omkar Email: [email protected] Kat Price has moved to Boston for a new job with the asset management firm Wellington Management Company. Victoria Young moved to Sydney with her husband David in April and they are both settling into new jobs – in marketing consulting for Victoria (Iris Concise) and teaching for him (Newington College) – and enjoying exploring the city. They’d love to hear from other alumni who are in Australia, and learn about their experiences! Sara Edris is teaching at a Montessori school in Oxford, training to be a Forest School leader and has started up her own cake decorating company, The Cakery Co. Lawrence Simpson reports that his wife Maria recently gave birth to their firstborn, Henry. Mum and baby both doing well. Paul Lulham has got engaged to his girlfriend, Lisa, and completed an epic road trip across the US for his 30th birthday. Keiren Buchanan is still working at Bloomberg. In addition

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Chris O’Neill began a PhD in sociology at Cambridge University in 2008. All the work is done, and he just needs to write it up! He has also published a series of articles. Chris works as a translator and book editor, and for the past three years has been working as a lobster fisherman (sternman) off the coast of Maine for the fall season.

Christian and Angela got engaged. And so it is that, even though they left Zimbabwe 12 months ago, a bit of Zimbabwe is still keeping them entranced – night and day!

Helen Qian reports she’s moved from Dubai to Hong Kong. Meg He and her pup, Forrest, have moved to the Lower East Side in New York, where her business ADAY continues to thrive: the brand has opened a pop-up store in NYC and completed a pop-up tour during the summer, visiting London and Stockholm. Meg has also dyed her hair platinum blonde and learned to climb.

2006

Year Representatives: Gregory Lim (graduates) Email: [email protected] and James Dobias (undergraduates) Email: [email protected] This year’s report begins with the tragic news of James Upcher’s death in May 2017. A full obituary is included in Postmaster. James is remembered with great affection and admiration by his contemporaries. Mertonians gathered with many of James’ other friends and colleagues for a memorial service at the British Library on 26 June 2017, and paid tribute to a hugely talented lawyer, scholar and writer; and a loyal, entertaining and considerate friend. He will be much missed, and our deepest condolences go to James’ family and his partner, Helena. Andrew Stephenson has accepted a permanent lectureship in philosophy at Southampton University. He starts there in October 2017, having spent the past two years as a visiting researcher at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, on a Leverhulme Trust award. Anna McConnell has started as a junior professor in the Otto Diels Institute of Organic Chemistry at ChristianAlbrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany.

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a little about what you have been doing over the last few years since leaving Merton. Although it does not seem that long ago (at least not to me), it is ten years since we first arrived at Merton. This milestone was marked by some new arrivals. Emma Murrant and her husband Sam (2008), Imogen and Justin Choi, and Ellen Feingold (2006) and her husband Alex Dewar, all celebrated becoming parents in the past year. Emma and Sam recently had a little girl called Genevieve, who has the much sought after distinction of being an exclusively Merton baby.

MERTONIANS | 2006-09

to running flagship programme Bloomberg Surveillance, he now co-hosts a daily 20-minute Facebook Live show. It focuses on the markets and takes questions from viewers in real time. It racks up several hundred thousand views. Walter Ladwig recently published a book with CUP, entitled The Forgotten Front: Patron-Client Relationships in Counterinsurgency.

Imogen’s daughter Mary Inhae was born on 20 November, and will no doubt be keeping Imogen busy as she begins her stint at Exeter College as Associate Professor of Spanish and Portugese. Ellen gave birth to Hannah Pearl Feingold Dewar on 9 June. Ellen says that Hannah is wonderful and looks a lot like her dad. Ellen and Alex look forward to taking her to visit Oxford someday to see where her parents met and got married.

Christian Westerlind Wigstrom and his wife, Angela

Christian Westerlind Wigstrom reports that his life today is very different from his life 12 months ago. June 2016 marked the end of a three-year adventure living in Zimbabwe working for an agriculture, forestry and renewable-energy company with operations across southern and eastern Africa. Christian and his wife, Angela (New College, 2007), met a spectacular array of people and enjoyed beautiful landscapes in a fascinating part of the world. Their happiness there notwithstanding, they wanted to move closer to Angela’s family as they were thinking of starting their own. After the European summer mostly based with Christian’s parents in Sweden (July to September) during which Angela launched her book Sovereign Wealth Funds (Yale University Press, 2016), they moved to Sydney, Australia. Predictably, the first months in their new home town were devoted to finding a home, a job, and a version of the city which was ‘theirs’. By the start of 2017, finally, they knew where they were living, Christian had started a position in a fintech start-up, and – importantly – they were a few months into expecting their first child. Clara Eleanor Imbeza Westerlind was born on 11 April 2017 – a few weeks early, but with the appetite of a teenager. Weight gain has not been an issue. Her second middle name is that of the forested valley of the Eastern Highlands in Zimbabwe on the Mozambican border where

Christian Jorgensen is currently based at King’s College London. He has recently been involved in a number of publications among the leading chemistry journals. Clara Eleanor Imbeza Westerlind

Last and very possibly least, Gregory Lim is still the chief editor of Nature Reviews Cardiology based at King’s Cross, and lives in north London. He is a churchwarden in the parish of St Luke’s & Christ Church, Chelsea, and encourages Mertonians to attend the Merton Society Christmas Carol Service that will be sung by the College Choir at Christ Church, Chelsea on Friday 8 December 2017.

2007

Year Representative: Alistair Haggerty Flat 8, Belgrave House, Pembroke Grove, Bristol, BS8 3DB Tel: 07809357351 Email: [email protected]

Also pursuing a career in academia is Kambez Benam who, after a successful Fellowship at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, has recently moved to the University of Colorado. He started his new role as Assistant Professor of Medicine in June 2017. He is the founder of Lung Microengineering Lab, which brings together researchers from the engineering, biology, clinical and business communities with the aim of developing new technologies that recreate complex human organ pathophysiology in vitro, and translating them to discover novel therapeutics (www.benamlab.net). His wife Cigdem and three-yearold son Arman enjoy the spectacular Rocky Mountains and the wonderful outdoor activities of Colorado. Kambez would encourage Merton students who would like to obtain experience in translational and innovative biomedical research to contact him directly (kambez.benam@ucdenver) as he is always looking for bright and talented people to join his team!

Thank you to all of you who responded to my request for updates; it was fantastic to hear from you and to find out

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Adam Caines married Alice Hopkinson (now Caines!) in Tuscany on 24 June 2017.

This is our first entry for the 2009 matriculation group in Postmaster. Unsurprisingly I have news of marriages, births (of perhaps future Mertonians) and an academic paper or two.

MERTONIANS | 2009-10

Postgraduate News

Charlotte Robinson has been working since April 2016 as a Ministry of Defence Approvals Manager to secure ministerial approval to place a contract for an early stage of a complex weapons project. As for me, James Dobias, I've returned to Slaughter and May where I am a solicitor in the Dispute Resolution department, currently focusing on corporate crime (with my key case in the last year being working on the Rolls-Royce Deferred Prosecution Agreement).

2008

There is currently no Year Representative for 2008. Please contact [email protected] if you are interested in becoming the Year Rep for this year. Brandon Leong reports: ‘There is nothing largely dramatic to publish on my part since returning to my home in Brisbane, Australia after coming down in 2010. A young family, corporate career and local club rowing keep me fairly grounded. My time in Merton and Oxford will always be treasured as it has opened doors that have changed my life. For this and the simple reason of sentimentality, I always pay the College a visit every time I pass through the UK. I hope to be in touch with the Development Office before I do on my next trip.’ Leen Van Broeck writes that she ‘was awarded the £3,000 George Grote Prize in Ancient History for 2017 by the University of London. It was for a chapter of my PhD thesis ‘People, place and power in Tacitus’ Germany’ (to be submitted this autumn via Royal Holloway, supervised by Richard Alston).’

2009

Year Representative: Stephanie Jones 101 Plater Drive, Oxford, OX2 6QU Tel: 07814 951309 Email: [email protected]

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Cat and Tom Bucknall

Merton-medic Catrin Bucknall (née Lloyd) and fellow Mertonian Tom Bucknall were married in Wales earlier this year – they are living in Southampton.

Engagement of Jason Borbora (2006) and Dani Sheen (2009)

By the time you read this, Georgie Johnson and Thomas Barrett (2007) will have celebrated their marriage on 18 August in Merton Chapel. Dani Sheen and Jason Borbora (2006) are engaged to be married on 6 July 2018, after what sounds like an extremely romantic proposal in May down in Dartmouth. Your Year Rep, Stephanie Jones, was seen breaking the mould, by accepting the proposal of a non-Mertonian earlier this year outside the RadCam. Alexander Cadoux-Hudson and I shall be wed on 12 May 2018 in Merton College Chapel. Dr Martin Mariusz Lester and his wife, Dr Cressida Teresa Lester, are delighted to announce the birth of their daughter, Fiammetta Elizabeth Lester, who was welcomed into this world on 11 July 2016. In academic news, Max Kleiman-Weiner is finishing his PhD in cognitive science and AI at MIT. He has been working on understanding the cognitive foundations of cooperation in humans and how to build machines that can collaborate with people. He also cofounded Diffeo, a start-up based in Cambridge, MA, building AI-powered research assistants. Dr Ryan Samaroo has accepted a one-year lectureship at Somerville from October. Michael Uy has this year accepted the position of Allston Burr Assistant Dean of Harvard College, Dunster House and Lecturer in Music. He has had articles published in American Music and the Journal for the Society of American Music.

Engagement of Stephanie Jones to Alexander Cadoux-Hudson

Dr Claire Higgins, currently based at the Kaldor Centre (UNSW Sydney), has this year received a Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholarship to fund historical research into safe pathways for refugees, based at Georgetown in 2018. She also has a forthcoming book, based on her DPhil research, Asylum by Boat: Origins of Australia’s Refugee Policy (NewSouth, 2017). Congratulations all on your many and wonderful achievements this year. I am sure this is only but scratching the surface of what our year group is getting up to!

2010

Laura and Sam Burnett

Laura Burnett (née Simmons) also celebrated her wedding in July this year. Aside from getting married, Laura has also helped to launch a ‘Women in Sustainability’ network in London, for those interested in building relationships in the environment and sustainability sectors. Hannah Polonsky and her partner Tom also celebrated their wedding in the summer.

Year Representative: Martin Schmidbaur 28 Salisbury Close, London, SE17 1BY Email: [email protected]

Wesley Wilson was proud to announce his engagement to fellow Mertonian Elizabeth Traynor (2012). They are currently living in Nashville, Tennessee and plan to get married in Gloucestershire next year.

Starting off with plenty of news in the ‘Match made in Merton’ category: Dan and Emma Crowe (née Arkell) got married earlier this year.

Currently serving on a posting in the Middle East for the Ministry of Defence, Luke Hughes shared news of his engagement to his fiancée Anna earlier this year.

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In Magic-Circle-law-firm-news, Sam Love – along with fellow 2010 matriculation Mertonians Jonny Carver and Wesley Tan – recently qualified as a lawyer at Freshfields. She’s specialising in employment and pensions, and lives in Bermondsey in South London.

fellow scientists’ – growing the first-ever artificial embryo from stem cells. After two years as a trader in Canary Wharf, Will Bennett decided it is time to go back to university for another undergraduate degree in philosophy, because (in his own words) he likes to ‘party’. He will be at the UCL Freshers’ Fair.

In international news, Nicola Dockray is working at the UN in Geneva as a freelance conference interpreter.

Ania Dulnik completed a Master’s at Sciences Po in Paris and is currently working as an independent strategy consultant in London, while setting up her own business. Several people pointed out Richard Hill’s rising star. Graduating with a distinction, Richard completed his MA in Music Theatre from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama last year and has since in been in performances and concerts too numerous to recount. He’s worked with the producers of West End highlights including Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, and The Book of Mormon and was last seen performing Giacomo Meyerbeer’s opera L’Etoile du Nord in Kokkola, Finland. Back in the UK, Ruth Mitchell and Nick Black are sharing a house in Manchester and working as junior doctors. In fact, Merton medics can be found all over the UK, from Cornwall and the south coast all the way to Leeds. Alex Bajjon is living near Brighton and working as a trainee patent attorney. Too modest to say, Sarah Harrison made headlines earlier this year while completing her PhD in biology at Cambridge, with a scientific breakthrough ‘hailed as a masterpiece by

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Patricio Lahsen lives and works in Santiago, Chile, after completing his MSc in Major Programme Management at the Saïd Business School. Nuno Oliveira has crossed to the other side and is now a senior research fellow at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge. He insists he travels back to Oxford regularly.

Catriona Hull spent a year in China teaching English – and learning Mandarin while she was at it. She’s now back in London working in educational consultancy. Sara Wehlin sent word to say she’s been up to ‘nothing special’ except moving to Los Angeles and working at Caltech before starting to pursue a PhD in inorganic chemistry at Chapel Hill in North Carolina.

Congratulations to Emanuele D’Osualdo, whose PhD thesis won the 2016 Distinguished Dissertation Award from the BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT. After a postdoc in Germany, he is now working as a researcher in computer science at Imperial College London.

Jonny Carver, Luke Hughes and Laurie McClymont have all taken on major 26-mile challenges and raised money for charity at marathon events in Uganda (!), London and Edinburgh. Then there were those who only offered clues as to what they were up to: Charlotte Robinson replied from a music and dance festival in France; Andrew O’Flaherty is working in finance and, importantly, enjoying it. Postgraduate News Right at the heart of political action in Whitehall, Chris Gray is working as a private secretary to the Prime Minister in No. 10 Downing Street. Bryan Reece received his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Toronto in November 2016 and took on a role as a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy. He married Sharon in May 2015, and they are living in Orangeville, Ontario. Newly-minted defence-studies PhD Anne Miles is living in Pasadena, California, after graduating from King’s College London, where she wrote her dissertation titled ‘The conventional myth: A conceptual history of conventional warfare in United States security discourse’.

Ines Marušić completed her DPhil in Computer Science in early 2017 and has since moved to London where she now works as a data scientist at QuantumBlack, a data science and machine learning company owned by McKinsey.

It’s been an honour to collect and compile news from the 2010 matriculation cohort of Mertonians. Thank you to everyone who got back to me with their updates and apologies for anything and anyone I may have missed – with your help there is more to come next year. It would be great to hear from you!

Nana Liu is now a postdoctoral research fellow in quantum computing and quantum technologies, having finished her DPhil in Atomic and Laser Physics while at Merton. She’s based at two institutions: the Centre for Quantum Technologies at the National University of Singapore, and the Singapore University of Technology and Design. Her recent work ‘Quantum-enhanced multi-parameter estimation for unitary photonic systems’ was published in the journal Quantum Science and Technology. On the personal side, she’s a chorus member of the Singapore Lyric Opera and is performing in opera productions in Singapore.

2011

Work has taken many more of you to places far from Oxford. Chris McCabe is ‘living the sunny life’ in Spain.

Year Representative: Nicole E. Sparkes 166 Manor Park, Lewisham, London, SE13 5RH Email: [email protected]

John Dean is moving to the Far East with the Swire Group and will initially be based in Singapore, working for the China Navigation Company.

The class of 2011 have had a busy year, and is sharing news in Postmaster for the first time! Thank you to all those who responded; if you have any news for next year’s Postmaster, please do get in touch on the email above. We’d love to hear from you.

2012

Tony Chappel sent word from Sydney, Australia. Jonathan Carver and Laurie McClymont

as a postgraduate research fellow at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, where she researched how best to regulate the issue of research misconduct and fraud. Cressida is currently a Lecturer in Law at Merton; however, she is taking up a lectureship at Corpus Christi College in the coming year, teaching Contract and Constitutional Law.

Lots of you wrote in to say that you are pursuing and enjoying further studies since leaving Merton. Ryan Ng is now pursuing a PhD in Economics in Cambridge. Ayesha Mehta is pursuing a DPhil part-time. Cressida Auckland is currently undertaking a DPhil in Medical Law at Merton entitled ‘The cusp of capacity’, which considers the appropriate legal treatment of people, such as those with dementia, who lack capacity. This year she enjoyed a sabbatical

MERTONIANS | 2010-12

Danielle King also celebrated her engagement this year. Congratulations to all the newlyweds and those with wedding plans!

Year Representative: Stephanie Jones 101 Plater Drive, Oxford, OX2 6QU Tel: 07814 951309 Email: [email protected] Dr Shuyun Chng is back in Singapore and is currently working on functional coatings and materials as a scientist in the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), a research institute under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore. He has had two publications this year: ‘A study of diazonium couplings with aromatic nucleophiles both in solution and on a polymer surface’ and ‘Antibacterial drug releasing materials by post-polymerization surface modification’.

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Emeritus Fellows

Professor John Michael Baker died on 10 August 2017, aged 86. A full obituary can be found on page 90.

Dr Roger Highfield died on 13 April 2017, aged 95. A full obituary and a reproduction of one of his many contributions to Postmaster can be found on page 80.

Former Fellows

Professor James Campbell FBA died on 31 May 2016. James was one of the most distinguished and influential historians of his generation. A polymath, with an astonishing knowledge of an extraordinary range of subjects and a taste for the recondite and the bizarre, he started research on the Anglo-Scottish border in the 14th century, but his most abiding love was the history of Anglo-Saxon England, its economy, institutions, and its great historian, Bede. James had a very distinctive cast of mind. In some ways, he was highly conservative. Indeed, he had such a penchant for discerning enduring patterns and for questioning change that he had been heard to wonder how, if pressed, he could explain the emergence of such new-fangled things as railways or the water-closet. On the other hand he had an equally strong instinct to ask the subversive question, often with irony and wit, generally without cynicism, and never with malice. Essentially a shy man, he was nevertheless a great talker and controversialist, who dearly loved an argument. Ready to espouse a position on almost any subject and

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Born on 26 January 1935 in Cheltenham, James was brought up by his maternal grandparents who came from Norwich but later settled in Lowestoft. Having been evacuated to the mining village of Clowne in Derbyshire during the Second World War, he returned in 1945 to continue his education at what was then Lowestoft Municipal Secondary School but was shortly to become Lowestoft Grammar School. This East Anglian background meant much to him throughout his life and he made distinguished contributions to the region’s history, focused especially on the early Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the east-coast herring trade, and medieval Norwich; the award of an Honorary DLitt by the University of East Anglia in 2006 gave him especial pleasure. James’s poor eye-sight rendered him ineligible for military service, so from Lowestoft in 1952 he went up to Oxford, to Magdalen College, where he was an Exhibitioner from 1952 to 1955, taught by Bruce McFarlane, Karl Leyser, and Alan Taylor, and where in 1954 he was co-winner, with Keith Thomas, of the Gibbs Scholarship in History (then awarded by examination at the beginning of the final year). As a postgraduate at Magdalen he embarked upon research into the Scottish borders in the late 14th century, supervised initially by Vivian Galbraith, then Regius Professor, and later (more satisfactorily) by May McKisack. In 1956 he became a Junior Research Fellow at Merton, and in 1957, a tutorial Fellow of Worcester, at the remarkably youthful age of 22. He remained thereafter at Worcester for his entire professional career, serving as Fellow Librarian (1977-2002), Senior Tutor (1989-93), and professorial Reader (1990-6). Much to his surprise and delight, he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1984 and he delivered London’s Creighton Lecture in 1995 and Oxford’s Ford Lectures in 1996. He also served as Senior Proctor in 1973-74, a year notable for student unrest at the University which James and his colleague Gary Bennett handled with firmness, considerable adroitness, and even at times a certain relish. James’s publications were substantial and would have been much more so had not his perfectionism in crafting his always

lucid and highly individualised style of writing ensured that much finished work remained, alas, in manuscript. His most characteristic vehicle was the article, often of deceptively modest titling, but nevertheless proving more influential than many a book. James’s first major publication was in 1965 on England, Scotland and the Hundred Years' War, based on research for his never-completed doctoral thesis. But his appointment to Worcester ensured that he started to teach the preliminary paper on Bede and diverted him to what was to become one of his most enduring scholarly interests initially expressed in two deservedly famous papers of the 1960s which remain fundamental to our understanding of the subject to this day. They established once and for all that Bede, so often seen as dispassionate and objective, was a man of his time with a complex agenda in his historical writing. Both pieces were marked with James’s characteristic penetrating intelligence and by a certain understated irony. While James undoubtedly had immense respect for Bede’s intellect, he was never unduly reverential in his attitude to the monk-scholar of Jarrow. James went on to publish two highly innovative and influential articles in the Ampleforth Journal, both offering a highly innovative reassessment of the nature of early English Christianity, stressing its complex interaction with churches on the continent and with the Roman past. Thereafter he co-edited and co-wrote with Patrick Wormald and Eric John, The Anglo-Saxons (published in 1982), a volume which was intended by the publisher for the general reader but which in fact became – and has remained – the standard work on the subject for undergraduates and scholars alike. By 1980 the early English state had become a major focus of his interests, and his views on the complexity, sophistication, and exceptional longevity of its institutions made a major impact, continuing to dominate discussion to this day. They reached a definitive expression in his remarkable Ford Lectures, ‘The Origin of the English State’, most regrettably as yet unpublished. Alongside and linked with this was an abiding interest in the English shires and in English topography. Indeed, he had a lecture on the history of the English shires that in the 1990s he delivered, with appropriate adaptations, in a number of counties, at least two versions of which were published by the relevant local authorities.

James was a great and inspiring teacher, though perhaps (understandably) at his best with the most committed. In the days when undergraduates read out their essays at tutorials, he had the knack of listening while appearing not to – disappearing from the room, fiddling with his pipe and smoking paraphernalia – and then disconcertingly offering a summing up which did far more than justice to what had been offered. As so many grateful pupils have wondered, could one really have been as clever as that? The great affection and loyalty that he elicited from his pupils was apparent in the appreciations offered in the Festschrift with which he was presented in 2000 and which was focused, most appropriately, on the medieval state. James retired from full-time teaching in 1996 but remained active in the College continuing to serve as Fellow Librarian until 2002. His later years were greatly enriched by his relationship with Bärbel Brodt, who came to Worcester in 1987 as a young postgraduate from Münster to research medieval East Anglia, and whom he married in 2006. James’ and Bärbel’s many friends enjoyed lavish hospitality and the attention of two very characterful cats in their bookcrowded house in Witney. Latterly, James was dogged by serious ill-health, which with Bärbel’s devoted help he faced with enormous courage, spirit, and determination. His great powers of conversation and of argument remained unimpaired and vigorous discussions continued to entertain all who came; he also continued to research and write, contributing to the history of the college published in 2014 and at the time of his death having almost completed a book on Edward the Confessor. Despite by then having to use a wheelchair, in 2015 he came to the celebrations for his 80th birthday and, much moved, made a spirited speech. Bärbel’s sudden and wholly unexpected death in October of that year came as great blow but was faced with immense fortitude, sustained by his increasingly strong links with his local Anglican church at Cogges, whose soberly Protestant and Prayer Book early Communion was much to his taste.

IN MEMORIAM | EMERITUS FELLOWS & FORMER FELLOWS

In Memoriam

unfettered by any desire for overarching consistency, he summoned his formidable learning to the aid of the most unlikely causes. To be in his company was to be constantly surprised and stimulated.

Dr Alan Thacker (Worcester 1967) This obituary was first published on the Worcester College website on 7 June 2016. It has been reproduced with the permission of the author and the college.

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Professor Anthony Bryer, who has died aged 78, was an exuberant, charismatic historian and lecturer who did more than anybody in his generation to stimulate the study of Byzantium in Britain and beyond. A field once dominated by earnest French and Germans became popular and, above all, enjoyable thanks to his enthusiasm and mischievous humour. One fruit of his work was a congress in 2006, when 1,000 Byzantinologists from every corner of the world, including Brazil and Japan, visited London for a week of spectacular cultural, social and academic events. His publications included The Byzantine Monuments and Topography of the Pontos (co-written with David Winfield, 1985) and a volume of papers, co-edited with Heath Lowry, Continuity and Change in Late Byzantine and Early Ottoman Society (1986). Instead of writing endless tomes, however, he was at heart a traveller and pedagogue who delighted pupils with recondite, well-distilled knowledge. Two cities loomed in his life, his home town, Birmingham, and his favourite place: the Black Sea port of Trebizond, once the epicentre of a miniByzantine realm, a little Constantinople. He moved to Birmingham as a lecturer in the mid-1960s, creating an expanding nucleus of knowledge about Byzantium and its aftermath. Colleagues in Oxford and London looked askance, but he cared little. From 1976 to 1994, he ran Birmingham University’s Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies. He turned students from many places into temporary 'Brummies': he made them think creatively, and without nationalist prejudice, about the interplay of Greek, Turkish and other cultures on Europe’s southeastern edge.

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This penchant for liminal places reflected his background. Anthony Applemore Mornington Bryer was born on 31 October 1927 in Portsmouth to Gerald Mornington 'Peter' Bryer, a founder of the Royal Air Force, and Joan (née Grigsby), a journalist who worked for the Special Operations Executive. One of the family’s war-time postings was to Jerusalem where young Anthony encountered a future mentor, Steven Runciman. After schooling at Canford, Anthony won a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, where his hospitality, and intellect, shined. His mentor was Sir Dimitri Obolensky, who saw the Byzantine world as a multi-national commonwealth united by Orthodox Christianity. From 1971 Bryer hosted an annual spring symposium for Byzantinologists, which combined fun and stage shows with papers. He once tried to reconstruct on stage 'Greek fire', a kind of napalm, used by Byzantium’s navy. He was appointed OBE in 2009. After his passing, friends imagined not silence but a crescendo: the chords of the Pontic lyra which send dancers leaping into misty mountain air. In 1961, he married Elizabeth Lipscomb and they had three daughters. She died in 1995; three years later, he married Jenny Banks, who survives him with his children. This obituary was first published in The Daily Telegraph on 2 December, 2016. It has been reproduced with the permission of the Editors.

Professor David Chandler, pillar of the physical chemistry scientific community and Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley, died on 18 April 2017, aged 72 after a valiant 20-year battle with cancer. Spanning a career that changed the course of the field of physical chemistry, not just once but several times, he is credited with crafting the modern language and concepts for describing structure and dynamics of condensed matter, especially complex systems with disorder and heterogeneity, such as liquids, glasses and biological assemblies. He also developed the methods by which rare but important events can be simulated with computers, techniques that culminated in David’s development of a statistical physics of trajectory space. This work enabled his studies of systems far from equilibrium, including processes of self-assembly and the glass transition. Importantly, he founded and/or took active roles in several regular scientific symposia that gave space to creative thinking in these fields and spawned a new generation of scientific discovery. David was a member of both the National Academy of Sciences of the United States and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and felt honoured to be chosen a foreign member of the Royal Society. His other honours included awards and lectureships from the European Physical Society, the Royal Society, Tel Aviv University, the American Physical Society, and the American Chemical Society. He was a Christianson Fellow of St. Catherine’s College, University of Oxford, and he received the Bourke Medal from the Royal Society of Chemistry. Ongoing communication in science was of great importance, he believed. To that end, he was also an active participant in 50 years of the Chemistry & Physics of Liquids Gordon Research Conferences in the US and the founder of the annual Berkeley Statistical Mechanics Meeting.

David enjoyed teaching, and was committed to teaching the next generation of physical chemists. He didn’t minimize the difficulty of learning new ideas. As a child he had persevered to overcome challenging learning disabilities and, to the surprise of his parents, he got into college. He attended Stevens Institute of Technology, MIT, and Harvard University. He taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign and at the University of Pennsylvania, before moving to the University of California, Berkeley in 1986. In 2001 he went to Merton College as a Visiting Research Fellow. He pushed himself, his students, and, sometimes, his peers to take on new challenges. David is survived by his wife, Elaine Chandler, a physicist whom he met and married while they were MIT students; their two daughters and their families; and his loving sister, Elsie Chandler, a renowned New York attorney.

IN MEMORIAM | FORMER FELLOWS & 1939

He loved everything about Trebizond, founded as a Greek colony 3,000 years ago, and its hinterland. At 20 he began exploring the verdant mountains nearby and documenting the remains of rich Greek monasteries which survived until 1923. His doctorate described Trebizond’s emergence in the 13th century as a bastion of Orthodoxy after Crusaders seized Constantinople.

Elaine Chandler

1939

Brigadier Mervyn (Christopher) Thursby-Pelham OBE who died aged 95 on 24 April 2016 was an immensely respected and much-loved Welsh Guardsman, whose service to and love of the Regiment continued long into his retirement. He was an inspiration to young and old alike. Christopher was born on 23 March 1921, in London. His father, Captain Nevill Thursby-Pelham served in the Regiment in the First World War and his cousin, Walter, whose father, the Reverend A H Thursby-Pelham had been Padre to the 1st Battalion in 1917, also served in the Regiment in the Second World War. Christopher spent much of his childhood at the family home in Carmarthenshire where he learnt to fish on the Towy, and later on the Usk where he was much involved in the Casting Club. He was also a highly skilled sailor and kept a house on the Isle of Wight, where he took part in many yachting events and was a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron. After education at Wellington and Merton College, Oxford, Christopher was commissioned into the Welsh Guards in March 1941 and in January 1942 he was posted to the newly formed 3rd Battalion. In March 1943 the Battalion disembarked

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After the war Christopher remained in the Regiment attending the Staff College in 1950. Numerous Staff and Regimental postings followed before he became Regimental Adjutant in 1956. In 1961 he was appointed Commandant of the Guards Depot at Pirbright, a job he loved and where he made many friends throughout the Household Division. This was followed by a posting to the Allied Staff Headquarters in Berlin and then in 1964 he became the Regimental Lieutenant Colonel. On promotion to Brigadier he became the Chief of Staff Headquarters London District. His final job in the Army was Deputy Fortress Commander Gibraltar. On leaving the Army in 1976, Christopher worked for the British Heart Foundation, first as Appeals Director and then later as Director General. When he joined the charity, its annual income was only about £1m. After he became the DG he co-opted another very popular Welsh Guardsman, James Malcolm, and together they built up the charity to become one of the biggest medical charities in the UK. Christopher was immensely popular, both with the employed staff, and with the many volunteers – virtually all of whom had some direct link with heart disease. By the time he retired in 1988 the charity’s annual income was in excess of £50 million and when he left he was awarded a much-deserved OBE. However, it was his continuing involvement with the Regiment which gave him great pleasure and satisfaction in his retirement. He was always devoted to and tremendously proud of the 3rd Battalion. He was instrumental in setting up the annual dinner, which latterly became a lunch, at Boodles, but his particular work was the exceptionally popular battlefield tours to North Africa and Italy which he organised and led. These tours followed the path of the 3rd Battalion through Fondouk and Hammam Lif in Tunisia, followed by the terrible battles up Italy to Florence and then across the River Po to Austria, and they were enjoyed by many former members of the Regiment and many younger Welsh Guardsmen. His unrivalled knowledge, his inspirational leadership and his love of Italy made these

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tours so memorable. Christopher’s strong Christian faith opened the door to reconciliation with his former enemies and few will forget the church services with representatives of the German Army which were held at Monte Battaglia and other battlefields in Italy. Christopher’s knowledge and love of Wales and Welshmen had been an underlying thread of his career in the Regiment and had been so important to him when he was Regimental Lieutenant Colonel. It gave him great pleasure to be President of the Monmouthshire Branch of the Welsh Guards Association from 1985 to 1998 where he was much loved and respected, and he was never happier than with his old friends. He married Rachel Willson, whose two brothers were Grenadiers, in the Guards Chapel in January 1943 when he was aged 21, thus incurring the wrath of the Regimental Lieutenant Colonel. It was an enduring marriage and in 2000 Christopher and Ray moved to Suffolk to be close to their daughter, Philippa. Ray died in 2011 after a long illness and Christopher’s devoted care for her is an example to us all. After Ray’s death Philippa, with her husband Tim, looked after Christopher so wonderfully well in the evening of his life. Christopher Thursby-Pelham was an exceptionally kind and thoughtful person. He is survived by his daughter Philippa and son David. His death brings to a close the history of the 3rd Battalion Welsh Guards and the ever smaller number of Second World War soldiers. He was a soldier who throughout his service sought nothing for himself but simply gave his all to the Regiment, the Regimental family, his friends and his own family. Lieutenant Colonel C F B Stephens This obituary was first published in The Guards Magazine: Journal of the Household Division. It has been reproduced with the permission of the Editors.

1940

Ralph George Feltham MBE MA died on 8 August 2016, aged 94. Ralph was born in Reading in 1922. His father had fought in the First World War, and his mother had been a wartime nurse. Sadly, when Ralph was eight years old, his father died. Ralph got a scholarship to The Royal Masonic School in Bushey where he excelled at all sports: he regularly helped the school win relay races, he fenced, played fives, hockey, cricket and was particularly good at rugby. In 1939 Ralph was awarded a teacher training grant by Oxford University, and he was over the moon when he was accepted by Merton College. He loved every minute of his stay at Merton, and even some 70 years later, on a visit to the College, he told his wife how ‘he had been captivated and awe-struck living in such historic surroundings’. However, during his first year in Oxford the war broke out, and he decided to give up on the life he had learnt to love. In June 1940 he signed up, and later that year joined the Royal Artillery, where he became one of the youngest lieutenants of the 11th British Armoured Division. He went over to the front line a few days after D-Day, survived the fierce fighting round the Falaise Gap, and embarked on what became known as the North West Europe Campaign. When his division reached the island of Sylt, where many refugees from East Prussia had found shelter, Ralph – who had taught himself German – was given the impressive title of ‘Burgomaster of Sylt’. When one of the refugees asked him, ‘When can we go back to our farms?’, the 23-year-old captain showed greater political insight than some of his superiors when he firmly replied, ‘Never’.

In August 1945, with Victory in Europe achieved, Ralph found himself on a troop ship on the way to the Far East to fight the Japanese; but the dropping of the atomic bomb abruptly put a stop to the journey and he was sent to Gibraltar, where he greatly enjoyed his final military appointment as sports master of the troops stationed there. When the war was finally over Ralph did not go back to Oxford, but went to Southern Rhodesia. He first worked for the Ministry of Agriculture, but was soon head-hunted and became the Private Secretary of the then Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia, Godfrey Huggins. Ralph’s ability to write concise and precise reports made him very useful to this PM, who was seriously deaf.

IN MEMORIAM | 1939-40

in Tunisia as part of the 1st Guards Brigade. Christopher served throughout the North African and Italian Campaigns, becoming Adjutant in 1944. This outstanding fighting Battalion ended the war in Austria and was then disbanded in 1946.

A few years later Ralph, who always loved foreign languages, had learned Portuguese and applied for the job of head of the Rhodesian vice-consulate in Beira (in what was then Portuguese Mozambique) so he could put his knowledge of the language into practice. He was delighted with his first independent command in the one and only port that served the Rhodesian hinterland. His next career move took him to Lisbon, where he was appointed jointly by the British Foreign Office and the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland as Councillor in the British Embassy with special responsibilities for reporting on Portuguese views on political developments in Southern Africa. He adored Lisbon of the mid-1950s: he worked hard, gained experience in day-to-day diplomacy, greatly enjoyed his contacts with the Portuguese (by then he was fluent in their language), and played for the Lisbon Cricket Club. However, after five very happy years in Lisbon Ralph felt the pull of Oxford again, and in 1960 became Bursar of Rhodes House, where he was in daily contact with the Rhodes Scholars. As chance had it, the 1960s and ‘70s witnessed the ending of empires and the creation of new states that not only had to create their own administrative staff to run their own countries, but also had to create their own diplomatic service to represent them all over the world and in the various international organisations. At the request of many English speaking, newly independent

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The FSP accepted up to 30 young diplomats from all corners of the world and for one academic year taught International Politics and History, International Law, International Economics, and a whole range of diplomatic skills including conference practice and procedure, television interviews, etc. However, Ralph always maintained that the fundamental purpose of the FSP was to bring together men and women of different backgrounds and values so that they could learn to communicate and resolve issues peacefully. Ralph ran the FSP for 17 years, and it is still alive and well, having gone through several metamorphoses. One of the enduring proofs of his insight in what diplomatic relations are all about is his Diplomatic Handbook, which first appeared in 1971, ran to eight constantly updated editions, and was translated into eight languages, Arabic and Russian among them. He retired from the FSP in 1986, moved to The Hague where he married a Dutch diplomat, and for another 20 years Ralph continued his career as a visiting professor of diplomatic relations at some 40 different institutes of diplomatic training. He spent the last years of his life very happily with his Dutch wife on the south coast of England. Ralph was a man of irrepressible charm; he never gave up, he was wonderful fun. Henriette Feltham

years in the early sixties he was general manager of Magadi Soda Company in Kenya and subsequently a director, a role he also undertook for other subsidiary companies of ICI. Ben played club rugby for Sale and for Fylde. He was a keen tennis player and, despite an accident that badly damaged an ankle, remained an effective doubles partner with a powerful serve and volleying game. Dudley (Ben) Garton-Sprenger died on 9 September 2016, aged 95. Ben came up to Merton in 1940 to read Chemistry under Bertrand Lambert. Born in South Africa, he was brought up in Essex and Bedfordshire and attended Bedford School, where rugby was something of a religion. At Merton, Ben played rugby for the University and captained the side in his final two years. He was also secretary of Vincent’s. The captain’s job was a busy one, arranging teams for the many representative matches which were maintained during wartime. A number of these featured a joint Oxford and Cambridge side. A move from rooms in the Garden Buildings (Rose Lane) to 1.1 Front Quad meant he was near a phone! He also served on the committees of the OU Alembic Club and the Junior Scientific Club, and was a JCR steward. In common with other undergraduates during the war, his studies were reviewed annually with the result that as a scientist he remained at Merton for the full four years. He had firewatching duties both at the College and the chemistry laboratories, and underwent training with the OU Air Squadron. Ben, like other Mertonians, enjoyed the generous hospitality of Professor Garrod, even though he was not his tutor. Ben’s diaries regularly recorded ‘Tea with the Prof’ or ‘Chess with the Prof after dinner’ and they remained in regular contact after Ben left Oxford. He also recalled sherry parties hosted by Edmund Blunden. After Oxford Ben joined ICI Mond Division in Cheshire and soon moved into production management. He travelled widely as a plant manager and also in search of new production locations, in Pakistan, South Australia and Mexico. For five

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In his retirement he attended many Varsity Matches, and also many Gaudies. Merton continued to mean a great deal to him. He was happily married to Pam, to whom he was engaged while still at the College, for more than 60 years, and they had two children and three grandchildren. She predeceased him in 2007. Curiously, the family have Postmaster to thank for an obituary in the 2011 edition for Jack Phipps (1945). Although first cousins, Ben remained unaware that Jack, who had been at school in South Africa during the war, had come up to Merton, and the chance reading in Postmaster has enabled contact to be made with his side of the family. Michael Garton-Sprenger (1969)

1944

George E McLelland CB died on 7 January 2015. Postmaster has not been able to trace any family members or friends. If you knew George, and would be willing to write some words for next year’s edition please contact Claire Spence-Parsons in the Development Office.

1947

Gerald Winzer died on 28 February 2017, aged 90.

later his native Bristol, returning to his old school, Bristol Grammar School, as the Head of Classics. I was fortunate to meet Gerald several times in his final years, for tea at his house, to catch up with him and thank him as a loyal supporter of the College. Gerald never married, and was a fiercely bright intellectual man, even in retirement. With keen flair for languages, he was on one occasion I met him reading The Divine Comedy in Italian, and picking up on obscure Latin roots for Italian words that provided him with etymological fascination; he showed me his CD collection of the entire works of Beethoven that he had been listening to in sequence; he tested me on my ability to parse (my feeble knowledge of) New Testament Greek. It is safe to say that I failed abjectly; I would not have been up to scratch as his pupil.

IN MEMORIAM | 1940-47

countries, the British Foreign Office decided to ask Oxford University to look into possibilities of setting up a training programme for foreign diplomats. The University, looking for someone who had experience with foreign postgraduates, asked the Bursar to the Rhodes Scholars to take on the job. Ralph formulated a proposal, and the Oxford Foreign Service Programme (FSP) was born, with Ralph as the FounderDirector. The first course members arrived in 1969 at Queen Elizabeth House.

Gerald had a great fondness for both Merton and Bristol Grammar School. Indeed, in 2007 when he could no longer look after his flat in Glasgow, he gifted it to Merton – and he has left a substantial provision in his estate for both the College and Bristol Grammar School. When I last saw Gerald in 2016, he was fondly looking forward to reaching 90 in May, just as the Queen had done so, and was thrilled to receive a birthday card and a CD of the College Choir in return. Gerald was one of the last of his generation at Merton, and knew increasingly few people over the years, and had become too physically frail to return to the College. However, he was staunchly independent, intellectually exuberant, and a passionate believer of the importance and value of education, and the transformation that an excellent education can have on one’s life. He will be sorely missed, and the College is grateful for his generous support, which we will use to honour Gerald’s own commitment to excellent education. Peter O’Connor (Senior Development Executive)

Like so many men of his generation, Gerald came up to his studies in Oxford after having his education interrupted by the Second World War. Gerald studied Greats in Oxford, having served in the Royal Intelligence Corps in Asia during the war. At Merton, Gerald was a keen dramatist and musician (continuing on from his experience in light entertainment during the war) and went on to qualify as a teacher before teaching generations of Classicists in both Glasgow, and

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Dr John (Christopher) Middleton died on 29 November 2015. Christopher was born in Truro, Cornwall in 1926, and from there went on to prep school, public school and, following four years in the RAF (1944-48), came up to Merton in 1948. As a boy of 14 he was already, he recalled, reading ‘widely and erratically’. Even before that tender age he had already committed to memory a considerable number of stanzas from Edward Fitzgerald’s Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. At public school in rural Herefordshire, he ranged around the centuries, devouring the Greek and Latin poets, Auden, MacNeice and Co, and Tennyson’s Idylls of the King. He made his first trip to the Mediterranean in 1948, thrilled to be escaping the greyness of English skies. The greater part of the second half of his life, from the middle 1960s onwards, was spent in the US, where he served as Professor of Germanic Languages at the University of Texas, Austin. Middleton, whose verse is generally spoken of as ‘experimental’, was a restless spirit among poets, which went hand in hand with a lifelong compulsion to travel. His poetry, which was rooted in a scholarship very lightly worn, drew its sources from whatever happened to be preoccupying him at the moment of its creation, be it Roman numismatics, a Cretan deity or the proud grace of a passing feline. He could be very fastidious about small things. He wrote well, and with a good-humoured, impassioned eloquence, about the animals and birds with which we are fortunate to share this planet. The word ‘creation’ was one that he loved. The first book of poems whose existence he chose to

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acknowledge (earlier collections, published during the 1940s, were dismissed by him as disastrous and derivative) was Torse 3 (1962), which already possesses the qualities for which he would come to be admired: that ability to transfigure experience in a language which feels both urgent and vivid. He wrote steadily until the end of his life, and some of his critics consider his very last books – which included Poems 2006-2009 – to be among his best. In addition to his own poetry, he translated a good deal from other tongues – French, Swedish, Spanish, Arabic, Turkish – but most often from German, including works by Gottfried Benn, von Hofmannsthal, Goethe, Holderlin and others, and works by the supremely odd Swiss prose writer Robert Walser, whose cause he championed for more than half a century. In 1962 he and Michael Hamburger edited Modern German Poetry, an important, bilingual anthology of German poetry from 1910-1960. Towards the end of his life he spent time in a care home in Texas, in the company of his precious library of several thousand books, all categorised exactly as they had been in his apartment, so that he would always be able to reach for – or ask others to do so on his behalf - the exact one he needed. Michael Glover A full version of this obituary is available online. This obituary was originally published in The Independent on 1 December 2015. It has been reproduced with the permission of its Editors.

Kenneth Poole was born in Muswell Hill, North London, on 10 June 1926 to Charles, a Customs and Excise officer, and Winifred. He attended Holmewood School in Finchley, and then from 1940 to 1944 University College School in Hampstead.

He had fond memories of his time at UCS, notwithstanding the challenges of the time which included Higher School Certificate exams taken underground. There he became an accomplished tennis player; and he maintained a strong interest in the school right to the end of his life. Ken did his army service in the Intelligence Corps, serving at one of the Y stations supporting Bletchley Park, at Forest Moor Harrogate. Ken came up to Merton in 1948. There he continued his interest in tennis, playing for the College, and graduated in 1950 with a degree in PPE. He then trained and qualified as a solicitor in London, and worked in the town clerk’s office in Oxford before moving to London to take up a job with the Association of Metropolitan Councils. In London he met Anthea at a cookery class, and they were married in 1961. In 1968 his long involvement in the world of local government led to an offer to join the politics department at the University of Kent at Canterbury to start a course in local government; and the family moved to Canterbury. Ken enjoyed many contented years teaching local government and politics at the University - a role for which he was well suited; and he was much appreciated by his students. He also started writing, including co-authoring with Bryan Keith-Lucas a definitive history of parish councils to mark their centenary in 1994. Following his retirement in the 1980s he kept up a strong interest in current affairs and the law, contributing for many years to books on education law for Sweet & Maxwell and Butterworths, and corresponding with former colleagues and friends across the globe. Ken kept in regular contact with Merton and with some of his contemporaries, in particular Michael Ryle, Ron Charlwood, Lionel Lewis and Brian Campbell.

and grandfather and cherished a wide network of friends from all periods of his life. Sadly Ken’s last two years were blighted by progressing Alzheimer’s disease – a cruel disease, especially for someone with a sharp and organised mind who realised only too clearly what was happening to him. Ken died on 30 March 2017, aged 90, and is survived by his wife Anthea, and son Colin. Colin Poole

IN MEMORIAM | 1948-49

1948

1949

Ken was a modest man, but direct, tenacious, with an eye for detail and a strong sense of justice. He had no qualms about challenging authority at whatever level, and expressing an opinion – including providing the Warden with a lengthy critique of the 2005 Oxford University Green Paper on Academic Strategy.

Dr Jack Dixon died after a long illness at the age of 93. He is survived by his loving wife Rika, his only daughter Jacqueline Dixon and her husband Randy Moore, and by his niece Beth Shorten and her husband Roy. Jack grew up in Broadstairs, Kent. He joined the Royal Air Force in 1940 as an apprentice and was awarded his wings just as the war ended. The air force became a lifelong love for Jack, who continued flying with the Oxford University Air Squadron at the same time as studying for his Master’s in French Literature. After immigrating to Canada in 1953, Jack joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, serving as a security officer with NATO in France. On returning home to Canada he met and married Rika in Vancouver. Jack and Rika moved to Winnipeg where Jack had a long and fulfilling 31 years at the University of Winnipeg until his retirement in 1990. In the early years of his teaching career, Jack furthered his education by completing a PhD at Stanford University.

Ken and Anthea were lucky to share many interests, but most of all music. As well as singing, he took up the cello in later life, which – with my mother on violin – enabled them to play together with friends. He also took a keen interest in art, his family history, and poetry. Ken was a loving father

Jack and Rika moved to Victoria where they enjoyed life with a wide circle of friends and were able to travel widely. Jack founded and was active with the Vancouver Island Aircrew Association and was involved with the Canadian Forces Cadets. Jack loved writing and spent his time right till his last

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Jacqueline Dixon

1950

Having gained his Doctor of Philosophy degree, he was appointed Lecturer in Physics at the University of Nottingham in 1959. Throughout the 1960s he played a key role in developing Nottingham’s international reputation for research in experimental condensed matter physics; in recognition of this and his outstanding qualities as a lecturer and teacher he was appointed to an established Chair in Low Temperature Physics in 1979 and then to the LancasterSpencer Professorship in 1994.

1951

Lawrie Challis’s profound insights into the way in which heat is conducted in metals and insulators led him to the idea of harnessing the quanta of thermal vibrations in solids to probe the electronic states of transition metal impurities in technologically important semiconductors and insulators. Much of his work was done in a fruitful collaboration with colleagues in Grenoble, France and led him to establish a series of annual ‘Gren-Nott’ research meetings.

Postmaster was sad to learn of the death of Daniel McNicol on 4 August 2017. He came up to Merton in 1949 but decided to return to his hometown of Glasgow to take up a law degree. A full obituary will be published in next year’s edition.

Dr David G Thomas died on 9 May 2017. Postmaster has not been able to trace any family members or friends. If you knew David, and would be willing to write some words for next year’s edition please contact Claire Spence-Parsons in the Development Office.

Professor Lawrie Challis OBE, who died on 24 March 2017, was an experimental physicist who did distinguished work at the University of Nottingham as a research scientist, administrator, and inspirational teacher and lecturer over a period of more than 40 years. Lawrence John Challis was born in 1933 in Ramsgate, Kent. Following evacuation to Somerset during the Second World War, he studied at Chatham House Grammar School, Ramsgate where he excelled in science. He gained a place at Merton College, Oxford in 1951, taking a First in Honours Physics in 1954. He then commenced his doctoral research work on lowtemperature physics at the Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford

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under the supervision of Dr John Wilks and supported by a Merton Senior Scholarship. The focus of this work was the so-called Kapitza resistance effect, which determines the way in which heat is transferred between superfluid liquid helium and the surface of a solid at very low temperatures.

His appreciation of the importance of international research collaborations led to many other collaborations between Nottingham and researchers in Western Europe, Russia and Japan. In the mid-1980s, Nottingham physicists had the exciting opportunity to enter a new field of research on the electronic, optical and thermal properties of low-dimensional semiconductors, which was attracting worldwide interest. Lawrie Challis played a leading role in winning a major Research Council award to purchase a state-of-the-art system for growing these new semiconducting materials by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) at Nottingham. The physics and technology of MBE-grown magnetic semiconductors and graphene remains a major research activity at Nottingham. During his distinguished career at Nottingham, Lawrie Challis took on major administrative responsibilities, serving as Head of the Department of Physics from 1978 to 1981, Dean of the Science Faculty in the late 1980s and Pro-ViceChancellor responsible for teaching quality, student services and international matters from 1995 to his retirement.

Using his characteristic diplomacy and patience while head of department, he was instrumental in ensuring that the department and university provided all necessary support in the early days of magnetic resonance imaging research in Nottingham, thus facilitating a clear path for the pioneering work that led the late Sir Peter Mansfield to share the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Outside the university, he served on many committees, including as chairman of the Royal Society Government Grant Board for Mathematics and Physics, chairman of the Institute of Physics Low Temperature Physics Group, chairman of the physics committees of the Science and Engineering Research Council, and board member of the European Physical Society. Following his retirement in 1998, Lawrie Challis was appointed emeritus professor at Nottingham. He remained scientifically active, contributing to, and editing a book, Electron-phonon Interactions in Low-dimensional Structures, and collaborating with younger colleagues on several research projects. In retirement, he also served as Vice-Chairman of the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones and Health, Chair of the management committee of the UK Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme, and published a well-regarded technical review on the way electromagnetic radiation interacts with biological material. In recognition of his many research achievements Lawrie Challis was awarded the Holweck Medal and Prize of the UK Institute of Physics and the French Physical Society in 1994 and the Klemens Award of the International Phonon Physics Conference series in 1998. He was awarded an honorary degree from Liverpool John Moores University in 2005. In the 1996 New Year’s Honours List, he was appointed Officer of the British Empire for services to scientific research. Despite his many commitments at the University of Nottingham, Lawrie Challis championed the recognition of the Nottingham-based 19th-century mathematical physicist and miller, George Green FRS. The work of Lawrie and his supporters helped to raise funds for the renovation of Green’s Windmill, which now dominates the skyline of east Nottingham, and for the establishment nearby of a science activity centre regularly visited by schoolchildren, aspiring

young scientists and the general public. He also campaigned successfully for the installation of a plaque in Westminster Abbey commemorating the achievements of George Green. Throughout his busy career, Lawrie Challis was a hospitable friend and advisor to his many students, research colleagues and foreign visitors. He and his wife Jennifer would regularly invite colleagues to parties at their home; Lawrie would frequently drive to Heathrow to collect overseas colleagues embarking on their first period of research in Nottingham.

IN MEMORIAM | 1949-51

days researching and publishing several books as well as many personal projects and unpublished works.

During retirement Lawrie Challis found more time to enjoy walking in Devon and sailing his 19-foot Cornish crabber with his family and friends as crew. He is survived by his wife, Jennifer, and by their two children: Michael, who works in the oil industry, and Sue, who is a chemistry teacher. Professor Laurence Eaves and Professor Tony Kent School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham

Richard Hamilton died in May 2016, aged 97. My father made an extraordinary contribution to education over his lifetime as a teacher. His upbringing in an impoverished Scottish mining community forged his lifelong principles of socialism and pacifism. At the outbreak of the Second World War, his pacifism resulted in exemption from military service and a wholehearted endorsement from the tribunal to carry on his chosen profession of teaching. He was born in Leith and brought up in Musselburgh. His father, also called Richard, was a miner and his mother, Isabella (née Taylor), was a cook in domestic service. At the local village school Richard’s headteacher recognised his academic potential; a transfer to grammar school followed, then Edinburgh University where, with financial aid from a Miners’ Welfare scholarship, he gained a first in English. At school Richard was introduced to Socrates and the classics, both of which forever permeated his ideals and his unfaltering belief in the value of education to society at large. Literature was Richard’s life, something that manifested itself in his ability to find an apt quotation for any occasion. His mind was a library, and the places he seemed most at ease

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did National Service, after which, following in his father’s footsteps, he studied at Imperial College although he read botany, whereas his father had been at the School of Mines. Joe also played hockey and rode horses in Hyde Park.

Richard passed on his ideals to his students, fellow colleagues and family. He taught first at George Heriot’s School, Edinburgh, where he met Elspeth Greig, who was teaching there. They married in 1946, and that year he became a Tutor in English and education at the College of St Mark and St John, Chelsea. In 1952 he moved to Birmingham University as a Senior Lecturer in education and then in 1957 to Edinburgh University, where he taught in both the education and philosophy departments until his retirement in 1988.

In 1951 he went on to study forestry at Merton, joining the Colonial Forest Service, Malaya (now Malaysia) in 1952. As forest officer, he was to establish forest plans for virgin territory in Pahang state. He spent two years surveying and recording 50,000 acres near Rompin – data that he hoped would be of use for generations to come. He continued to play hockey in the Pahang state team and learnt Malay.

Elspeth died in 2009. Richard is survived by my brother Lewis, and me, and by his granddaughters, Laura, Rachel, Emily and Isobel, and his great-grandsons, Oscar and Elliot. Bea McDonald This obituary was originally published in The Guardian in May 2016. It has been reproduced with the permission of its Editors.

Alan Malcomson died in 2015. Postmaster has not been able to trace any family members or friends. If you knew Alan, and would be willing to write some words for next year’s edition please contact Claire Spence-Parsons in the Development Office.

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Joe met his future wife Sally at Oxford and, despite a twoyear separation while Joe continued his work in Malaya and Sally finished her course in Zoology at St Anne’s College, they married in 1957 and returned to Malaya for another two years. After his return to Britain, Joe joined Woodland Management Association as a forestry consultant in charge of Gloucestershire. After five years he left to set up his own business, Cotswold Estate Services Ltd, which carried out landscaping, forestry and farming. He was responsible for planting many woodlands and went on to devise the Temperate Tangya method based on his experiences in Malaya. This involved establishing woodlands by under-sowing arable crops with tree seeds. The results of his 1980s trial plots can be seen as far afield as Somerset and Sussex. He was also a founder member of the British Association of Landscape Industries, BALI. During the 1980s and ‘90s he became increasingly concerned about the direction that forestry was taking. Many universities and colleges stopped running forestry courses and he saw this as a huge danger for the industry and the environment. He started on a long campaign to re-educate people about the need for good quality sustainable timber which he believed could only be achieved by high stocking levels and working with nature. His letters and articles never stopped coming. Thankfully he lived long enough to see some of what he advocated return as best practice.

became a Gloucestershire county councillor. His four years there gave him a huge insight into the workings of local government. He remained on the town council for 29 years and was mayor in 1992 and 1993, setting up and chairing for eight years the Cirencester Music and Arts Festival. Joe was so thrilled when his daughter Jennifer was awarded the MBE for community engagement in environmental protection; it summed up the driving force of his life. He was so proud of his son Joe, taking Cotswold Estates and Gardens Ltd to the RHS Malvern Show to celebrate 50 years of the firm where its show garden, The Cotswold Way, won a silver gilt medal and was voted the people’s choice; and he loved that his eldest daughter Jane was involved in so many organisations within the town. Joe never stopped observing nature. He could spot the swirl of bee orchid leaves or a lime tree seedling at ten paces and his garden became punctuated with bamboo stakes marking out specimens of interest. Most recently he allowed his front lawn to become a study of the effects of ash dieback on seedlings. He is much missed and is survived by three children and eight grandchildren. Jane Gunner

1952

David Parry-Jones died on 10 April 2017, at the age of 83.

Joseph (Joe) Wormwell Watson died suddenly on 1 February 2017 after a short illness, aged 88.

Besides his forestry activities Joe also bred pedigree Herefords cattle, the herd reaching more than 100 calving cows.

As an older brother, David was a very hard act to follow. He’d done it all. When I went to Cardiff High School, I soon realised that he was coming to the end of a distinguished passage through the school. As I made my way into the 1st XV and the 1st XI, or into the Classical Sixth Form, or on to the stage to perform in a school play or concert, I was constantly reminded by staff – with the best of intentions, I have no doubt – how brilliantly David had performed in those various spheres. Their remarks may or may not have had an inspiring effect on my performances; but they certainly helped to make me seriously proud of my older brother’s achievements.

Joe Watson was born on 11 July 1928 in Birkenshaw, West Yorkshire and educated at Batley Grammar School. He

Having been set an excellent example by his father who had been a JP, Joe joined the Cirencester Town Council and in 1977

I continued to be proud long after we had both left the high school. I was proud when David won his place to read

Classics in Oxford at Merton College and when I heard of his successes there, especially in the rugby and cricket arenas. A back row forward with a conclusive tackle and remarkable ball skills, he played many games for the OU Greyhounds and became their captain in his final year. He and his many College friends were greatly disappointed when he narrowly failed to gain his Blue. In the Trinity terms, batting at number 5 or 6 in the Merton XI, he played many memorable innings on the Mansfield Road ground. His bright red cap (a treasure from his time as Welsh Schools’ captain) and his unusual back foot drive stay in people’s minds. As well as being Captain of Merton, he was an OU Authentic. Mertonian memories of David inevitably include his sense of humour, which seemed to underpin his entire life – and he knew how to tell, and sometimes to act, a funny story.

IN MEMORIAM | 1951-52

in were libraries, too: his tutorial room, his wonderful study at home. Equal to these were the secondhand bookshops of Edinburgh, where his lifelong enthusiasm for collecting books was fostered.

I continued to bask in reflected glory when he embarked on his career in the media, starting locally in Cardiff on the staff of the Western Mail and progressing to The Sunday Times, before concentrating, back in Cardiff, on the relatively young medium of television. This was the sphere in which he was to become most prominent. The Daily Telegraph’s opening sentence of its obituary described David as ‘one of the most accomplished and versatile broadcasters ever produced by the BBC in Wales, or for that matter anywhere in the United Kingdom.’ More pride! The fact that his entire career was in the communication business and that he was so articulate, competent and confident, whether it was behind a radio microphone or in front of a TV camera, served to make all the more cruel the Alzheimer’s disease that plagued his last five or six years. During that time his attempts at communication became incomprehensible, frustrating for anyone trying to have a conversation with him but far more so, surely, for him. His partner, who is also a prominent media ‘personality’, made a documentary for BBC Wales, subsequently given nationwide coverage, which pulled no punches in describing the contrast between the ‘accomplished and versatile broadcaster’ and the shadow of his former self to which he had been reduced. Strange, perhaps, to relate, the programme only served to add to my pride in my older brother. Alun Parry-Jones (1961) with additional information from Tony Marland (1952)

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Kenneth John McLaughlin died on 29 May 2016 aged 76. Kenneth arrived at Merton in 1953 to study for a BA in PPE. He was involved in the College rugby team and the Boat Club, as well as serving as President of the College Music Society from 1954 to 1955. Ken was a good friend: I remember him helping me to move digs and belongings from North Oxford to St John’s Street, in his car, through the floor of which one could view the road passing below. He had a fine tenor voice and often sang to us. I met him again in the Isle of Man when we were both doing our National Service. He retired to Brighton early from his legal work for the Customs and Excise and helped many disabled people there – taking them to Lourdes, for example, until he himself became housebound during the last few years where I saw him from time to time. Dr John Race (1952)

1954

David Gilchrist, who died suddenly at the age of 84 on 21 February 2017, was not only my closest Merton friend, but more like the brother whom I never had. We were very different. I have always considered myself to be outgoing, but David tended to keep himself to himself, except when he chose to join in. He had a delicious, sharp sense of humour. During our time at Merton, David was once hauled up to face the Principal of the Postmasters, at the time Dr John Roberts (later a distinguished Warden of the College), for some misdemeanour. Having duly reported to the latter’s rooms at 9am on a particular morning, he found Roberts engaged in playing the piano, and, without pausing from that activity, he uttered the words: ‘That will be £2.00, Mr

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Gilchrist’. David’s dry comment was that he had been fined between two bars of Bach. He was brought up in Birkenhead and educated at the school there of the same name, with a break during the war years when he was evacuated. His father practised as a local doctor. He did not get on well with him, even though his dad had suffered greatly as a teenage soldier in the trenches in the First World War, been badly wounded, and continued his military career in charge of medical services in the Second World War. His mother suffered from cancer while David was doing his National Service in the early 1950s, and David, despite the fact that he became a Senior Under Officer at the Officer Cadet School at Eaton Hall and could have had the best choice for a plum posting overseas, opted to stay in the UK to be near his mother in her last days. She died shortly before he arrived at Merton. He often stayed at my family home and established a much better rapport with my father (who loved his sense of humour) than with his own. My father had been shot down in 1917 as a fighter pilot, rescued by the Germans, hospitalised and treated very well as a PoW, a contrast to the fate of David’s parent. Our Merton days together were encapsulated in my memoir Three Glorious Years, so no need to repeat them here, except to say that I have very happy memories of those times, often reminisced about when I made my annual visit to David’s home. After Oxford, he joined Unilever, and spent 12 years in Lagos as Marketing Director for Nigerian Breweries. He returned to the UK in 1972 and joined Showerings, based at Shepton Mallett, where he and his wife Connie, to whom he had a long and happy marriage lasting nearly 60 years, bought an old farmhouse nearby in a small village. He came to Showerings because his boss in Lagos, Peter Edwards, had moved there as Marketing Director, and David became his aide-de-camp. Between them they were responsible, among other creative activities, for a series of Babycham advertisements, which helped to turn a whole generation of women into feeling comfortable in bars and pubs. David took over Mr Edwards’ position after he retired in 1982, until his own retirement about ten years later, during which he largely contributed to changing the perception of champagne from being an exclusive drink to one that anyone could enjoy. David was very devoted to his three daughters, Lou, Claire

and Susan (Gigi), who all spent their early childhoods in Lagos. Most of his infrequent ventures away from the Hermit’s Lair (my own description for his remote country residence) were made to visit them, especially Claire who lived for several years in California. Lou married and presented him with his only grandchild, Tom, and Susan is married to the celebrated historian, Andrew Roberts. All three have highly successful business careers in their own right, a source of great interest and pride to David of just what women can achieve in a modern, global world. David devoted his long retirement to cultivating his large garden, keeping goats, and walking his succession of beloved German Shepherd dogs in the locality, running marathons and occasionally travelling back to Liverpool by bus to watch football, all his activities being a complete contrast to his business life. Dick Lloyd (1954)

Professor Ian Simpson Ross died peacefully in his home in Vancouver, Canada, on 21 May 2015, a week after being discharged from a lengthy stay in hospital. Ian was born in Dundee, Scotland, on 9 August 1930, to Agnes and John Ross. He grew up during the Depression and the Second World War in a working class family. One of his early memories was watching unemployed men lining up to collect dole money. His own family’s material circumstances were often challenging, but his parents were determined that Ian and his brother Angus, later a founding English faculty member at the University of Sussex, would get an education. After National Service in the RAF (1948-50), he proceeded on scholarships to the University of St Andrews (MA, First Class Honours in English, 1954). Ian was then offered the

Tindal-Bruce Scholarship at Merton College Oxford. There he researched what happened to James VI’s court poets when James moved the Scottish court to London. His supervisor was David Nichol Smith. After graduating from Oxford, he applied for the Fulbright Scholarship and was accepted into the PhD programme at the University of Texas. He researched several figures of the Scottish Enlightenment under the supervision of Professor Ernest Mossner, an expert on Adam Smith and David Hume (Austin: PhD, 1960).

IN MEMORIAM | 1953-54

1953

Ian began teaching at the University of British Columbia in 1960 and was Head of the English Department (198287). He was a member of the UBC Senate (1969-75), and President of the Faculty Association (1974-75). In 1988 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Ian was also instrumental in the creation of the successful Arts One programme at UBC (1965). Ian was the author of many books. His PhD thesis, Lord Kames and the Scotland of his Day, was published in 1972 by Oxford University Press. He was internationally renowned for The Life of Adam Smith (Oxford: 1995, 2010), a definitive biography praised for revealing the depth and humanity of the great Scottish philosopher’s work. He also co-edited, with EC Mossner, Adam Smith’s Correspondence (1987, 2nd edition), and published many articles on aspects of the Scottish Enlightenment, 18thcentury English literature, and American literature. In 1986, he was founding President of the Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society. He was Visiting Professor in Canada (Simon Fraser University), Germany and Japan. While pursuing a distinguished academic career, Ian wrote poetry, composed and sang songs, enjoyed travelling, and participated in Scottish cultural events. In his writing hideaway on Gambier Island, British Columbia, Ian spent almost 30 productive and happy years, always cheerfully welcoming family, friends and visitors. Ian was kind and gentle, tolerant and generous, with concern for others. He never forgot his childhood in Dundee, the struggles of the working class and the poor. His love, loyalty and wisdom will be greatly missed by his family (wife Ingrid, children Isla, Bettina, Andrew, David (Stacy) and Marion (Mark), brother Angus, nieces Stephanie, Vicky and Anthea and their families, cousin Jim and Helen Ross and family, and his many friends and colleagues. Ian was a true son of the Enlightenment and citizen of the world, who had many

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Ingrid Ross & Family A version of this obituary was originally published in the Herald Scotland.

The Reverend Professor William Young died on 7 June 2015. Postmaster has not been able to trace any family members or friends. If you knew Revd Professor Young, and would be willing to write some words for next year’s edition please contact Claire Spence-Parsons in the Development Office.

1955

David Leon Hall died on 29 May 2016, aged 81. David was born in London in 1934, the first and only child of Jack Solomons and Winnie Poole. Winnie was a talented artist and Jack the son of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania who had established a thriving shoe business in the East End of London. On leaving school David had the privilege of doing his National Service in the Fleet Air arm. He loved his time on the ships and often reminisced about the excellent hot chocolate he drank while waiting for the planes to come in. After National Service he wavered between taking up his place at Merton or continuing with flying, but wisely chose the former. David’s time at Oxford was exciting and he often talked fondly of the place and the friends he made there. He, David Ricks, Ed Taylor, and Stuart Lynn were a distinguishable quartet at Merton, almost a band of brothers. The four friends were active in the Labour Club and would spend hours in David’s rooms, debating the politics and divisions of the time well into the night. Stuart was the member of the quartet fortunate enough to own a car and that became their carriage of choice for roaming the Oxfordshire countryside (and its pubs) and driving to London for weekends: definitely against College rules at the time! After university David went to work for International Computers and Tabulators and after that sold encyclopedias to the forces in Germany, before he finally returned to his first love, flying.

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He lived in Lebanon for some time and worked as a pilot to the Kuwaiti royal family. At one point he was asked to fly troops belonging to the United Arab Republic during the SixDay War but he told his boss that as the son of a Jew he couldn’t be a part of it.

1956

David eventually returned to England with enough money to buy his dream home where he would spend the rest of his life – Bolebroke West. He soon joined Dan Air and was one of the youngest pilots ever to make Captain. It was in Dan Air that Dad met his wife Ann. David and Ann were married in 1972 and had many happy times together. Nadia was born the following year and Tanya arrived in 1980. David was a wonderful father and later a wonderful grandfather to Bruno and Harry. David’s passion for politics continued through his life. He eventually moved from the ardent Labour politics of his undergraduate youth to the centrist Liberal Democrats. He spent many afternoons distributing leaflets among the Tory heartland of Wealden and was threatened with having the dogs set on him on more than one occasion! None of this deterred him and he decided to stand for election to East Sussex country council although the chances of a non-Tory win were slim. His surprise victory in 1993 caused quite an upset. During his retirement, David discovered South Africa. He and Ann first went to Cape Town in 2003 and after that decided it was a place where they’d definitely like to spend more time. They bought an apartment opposite the city’s botanical gardens in 2004 and have spent their winters there ever since. Very sadly, David fell unwell with COPD. He was gradually forced to lead a very different life from the active one that he loved. But he did so as he had lived his whole life, with grace and calm, complaining very rarely and always more concerned about how others were doing. For all those who knew him, David was a generous, deeply kind and forgiving man with an eviscerating dry wit and an intense love for cats. He is greatly missed by all those that knew and loved him. Tanya Hall

Ian Butler died on 4 November 2016, aged 81. Ian and I were more or less thrown together on arrival at Merton in October 1956. Not only were we the only Mertonians reading French and German to matriculate that year, but we were two of a handful of freshmen who started rowing at Merton as novices in 1956. Fortunately a firm, lifelong friendship resulted from these coincidences. Ian Butler was born in June 1935, and did his National Service before coming up to Merton. His fluency in German led him to become an interpreter in the RAF in Germany for most of his two years. He used to regale his colleagues at College with hilarious stories of courts martial held in Germany at this time. While at Merton, Ian flourished academically, socially and on the river, where he adopted rowing as his only sport – principally because he was good at it. He rowed in both Torpids and Eights Week in both 1957 and 1958. In those days Merton crews were very much in the ascendancy, and the first VIII was competing fiercely for Head of the River status – without ever quite making it. Ian married Jenny in 1960, shortly after going down from Merton. Before this he had joined Gillette in 1959 and quickly established his international credentials, due in part to his fluency in languages. In 1961 he was appointed as Gillette’s Marketing Manager for Austria, and his two sons Mark and David were born in Vienna in 1962 and 1965. Ian was appointed Director of Marketing for Gillette in the Middle East in 1965 and lived in Beirut, thus theoretically exchanging German for French. In fact Arabic was the native language in most of the countries for which he held

responsibility, and he became quite fluent in this language. But civil war was brewing in Lebanon, and in 1970 Ian decided to leave both Gillette and the Middle East. He joined Nestlé and was initially much involved in North Africa, but then, crucially he became highly involved in Nestlé’s acquisition of the Carnation business. This involved frequent travel to the USA and Ian became a familiar face on Concorde as a result. Also in 1970, Ian resumed his rowing career, joining the London Rowing Club, where he continued rowing until well into his 70s, even meriting an article in The Oldie magazine on the subject. Later he became involved in the administration of the club.

IN MEMORIAM | 1954-58

friends from Germany to Japan. He is greatly missed.

Always interested in sport, both as spectator and participant, Ian spent much of his retirement supporting the Harlequins Rugby team; also as part of the Barmy Army he travelled the world supporting England’s cricketers. Ian’s interests were not restricted to sport. His intellect was such that he enjoyed very wide reading, the theatre and fine art. He was a member of the Globe Theatre and the Royal Academy. He is survived by his widow Jenny, his two sons and five grandchildren. Brian Roberts-Wray (1956)

1957

Major Ian J Spurr died on 26 July 2016. Postmaster has not been able to trace any family members or friends. If you knew Ian, and would be willing to write some words for next year’s edition please contact Claire Spence-Parsons in the Development Office.

Michael Dale was born in 1938 and grew up principally in the Sheffield suburb of Millhouses. He was the penultimate offspring of seven children and the first of his family to go to university. He was awarded a Postmastership in 1957 to read Physics, the year Dr Michael Baker was elected to Merton College. As

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Social life was shared with a close group of College friends, and countless hours were spent over cups of Nescafe, sorting out the world’s problems. In the summer term, Mike and friends made use of the College punt. Sunday morning was spent reading The Observer and the afternoon discussing its contents on walks on Port Meadow. Mike was not particularly sporting, but he played tennis for Merton’s social team, whose opponents included ladies' colleges, which invariably won. Outside the College, Mike joined the political clubs as they had top speakers. For the same reason he attended debates at the Union. Mike made his contribution as President of the University Humanist Group where healthy debate took place. Mike’s desire to challenge and debate almost any subject with anybody at any time was part of his DNA. Friends, colleagues and family will remember this most about him. Upon leaving Oxford in 1960, Mike joined the Wiggins Teape Group with a starting salary of £730 per annum in its technical development group. Over the next 34 years, Mike had a successful career in the international paper manufacturing business that took him to various corners of the world where development and manufacturing of carbonless and thermal papers took place. His career began in the UK in research and development followed by an assignment at the Tribeni Tissues Private Company in Calcutta, India in 1964. He then moved to Nivelles, Belgium in 1965 and for the next four years was Development Director. During this time, he was lucky to meet and subsequently marry Claire. Within a few years, their two daughters Brigitte and Caroline were born, both of whom inherited his qualities of independence of thought, scientific skills and personal development. In 1969, he moved to Ely Paper Works in Wales; until 1970 when he then was posted back to Belgium in various leadership roles for the next 14 years spanning Belgium and European operations until another return to the UK in 1984. He was

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able to retire in 1994 from Argo Wiggins as Managing Director of the Thermal Papers Ltd and channelled his energy into the usual pursuits of ongoing hobbies - gardening, home improvements and Probus, as always taking a lead role when requested. After a few years however he discovered a hobby that appealed to his desires for personal interaction, handson problem solving and skill and this was the challenge offered by owning a sail boat. He joined the Lymington Sailing Club and was soon sailing around the Solent and exploring far beyond the Solent with his friends until health issues got in the way; close to his death in July 2015. His enthusiasm and dour Yorkshire humour are fondly remembered by his friends and family. Brigitte Dale

1958

Howard Preece died in South Africa in September 2016, aged 76. The College has not been able to trace any family members so what follows is gleaned from the recollections of his contemporaries. He was not what one might call a ‘College man’. His main interests were in the University as a whole, notably as a member of the Conservative party. Indeed he was seen by many as one who had ambitions to ‘climb the greasy pole’. He stayed on after graduation to become President of the Union in Michaelmas Term 1961. Thus, there was some surprise when it was learnt that he had gone to South Africa. There he cut out a career as a highly talented and respected financial journalist. Indeed, one obituary reference in a trade journal says ‘he was hugely over-qualified for his role’. It continues ‘those of us who had the privilege of knowing Preece often wondered how he ended up coming to SA. He never said but there is little doubt that the country was much the better for it.’ Bryan Lewis (1958)

1959

John Howe died on 21 December 2016. John came up to Merton to read history in 1959 but had joined the Historical Association while still at Welwyn Garden City Grammar School and continued his commitment to the subject to the day he died – he was then engaged in a local history project. He had missed National Service by a very narrow margin, but was older than his peers, having taken what would now be called a year out. This seniority perhaps gave him the self-confidence to pursue his idiosyncratic way in many little things; his taste in dress, for example, and penchant for green ink, which he deployed with memorable illegibility. John was serious about his subject and the teaching of it, and his lifelong commitment to Liberalism, but in all else he had a lively impish sense of humour and an eye for the ridiculous. He had a sunny disposition and took an engaging delight in the minutiae of everyday life, which made him – despite his denial of any skill in matters nautical – a splendid shipmate in a small boat. On coming down, he initially worked as a Liberal Party agent in Cumberland, where he met Hilary, his first wife. He then returned to Oxford to complete a Diploma of Education and went into teaching at Carlisle Grammar School before moving to Gloucestershire in 1969 as Lecturer in History at what was then the teacher training College of St Mary’s. He remained in the same field while the institution went through a long and, to an outsider, bewildering series of transmogrifications before finishing as part of the University of Gloucestershire. When a separate History Department was created, John became Head and oversaw the development of higher degrees in history. Appropriately, his own MPhil thesis was on Cheltenham politics in the 19th century. John was a passionate internationalist, coordinating student exchanges with American universities and, later, the

University’s ERASMUS programme. He took a dim view of some of the twists and turns of institutional change but remained throughout, as colleagues have attested, warmly supportive of newer staff. Outside college, he was busy politically as a Liberal and later Lib Dem. In the 1960s, he stood twice for parliament (once against Willie Whitelaw). He served as a Gloucestershire county councillor from 1993 to 1997, chaired the county’s Local Education Committee and chaired his local parish council. He was Chairman of the governors of Archway School from 1988 to 2006, reflecting his commitment to comprehensive education, and was involved in many organisations in the cause of history; he received an Honorary Fellowship of the Historical Association in 2014 in recognition of his contribution and was sometime chair of the Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society. It was through the Historical Association that John met his second wife, Milner.

IN MEMORIAM | 1958-62

normal for undergraduates in that era, Mike’s academic and social activities were centred on the College; the weekly tutorial being the focus of studies. Dr Baker would assign reading for the following week and discuss problems from the previous week’s work. Lectures by the Physics Department were rarely attended, but attendance at practical sessions was essential.

It is a testimony to John’s character that even after both he and Milner became ill, he stayed positive and active. He would tell you, when asked, about the symptoms and the treatments they both underwent, but would never dwell on these and would rapidly turn to a parish council problem concerning primary school class sizes or the need to edit a current local history project. He died the day before he was due to go, once again, to the Isles of Scilly which had long been a favourite holiday destination (ever since, I think, he and two of his sons sailed there with me in 1988). A good friend, and a good shipmate. John is survived by three sons, two stepsons, one stepdaughter and 11 grandchildren. David Marler (1959)

1962

Professor John J. Simpson FRSC died on 23 August 2016. John was born in North Bay, Ontario in 1939. He left his wife Marianne, his son James and daughter Sarah and their families, and his sister Donna and her family. John came to Merton in 1962 on a prestigious 1851 Exhibition Scholarship to study for a DPhil in Nuclear Physics, awarded

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John moved to the physics of the elusive elementary particles known as neutrinos, drawing international attention for experimental design. He received the Rutherford Medal for Physics of the Royal Society of Canada in 1985 and was elected a Fellow in 1987. He then became one of the founders of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO). This unique laboratory in a very deep mine in Ontario aimed to solve the problem of why the measured flux of solar neutrinos was only one third of what was expected. John was an influential figure in what became a large international collaboration. SNO eventually succeeded in proving that neutrinos did in fact have mass and oscillated between different physical states, explaining the missing solar neutrinos. SNO’s achievement was recognised by the award of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics to the project director Professor Arthur MacDonald, and by the award of the 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics to each of its members. Ever the engineer John in his late career adapted his fundamental physics work to the dating of ancient fossils and stalagmites, importantly of one of the earliest Australian human fossils, overturning the history of humans in Australia. His colleagues at Guelph commemorating his many years there until his retirement in 2002 wrote that John was much more than an inspiring colleague and a hugely creative scientist. He was a devoted family man, a voracious reader of literature, a lover of music and especially of opera, a talented chef, a connoisseur of food and wine, a traveller, and a raconteur par excellence. From his time at Merton I can vouch for much of that. Together with fellow Merton postgraduate alumni, X-ray crystallographer Clive Nockolds (1962) and historian Malcom Kitch (1959) we rented a house in Sunningwell village for a year or more. It was a lively household augmented by visitors, parties and occasional all-night poker sessions. Chief occasion of the week often was Sunday dinner which

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John would invariably take delight in preparing. Wine, arguments and cards were the accompaniments. John was forthright with a sharp mind but there was always a chuckle in his manner of speaking. Never overheated he was pleasant to argue against and a formidable ally if on the same side. He was also the owner of a somewhat temperamental Austin Healey 100 Le Mans which he would generously let me borrow to impress the girlfriend of the occasion. Although only occasionally meeting during those years John was nailing down neutrinos in Canada we corresponded from time to time when his sharp wit would deal good naturedly with frivolous comments about life down a pit shaft with little but a bucket of heavy water. We saw more of him and Marianne when they moved to the Netherlands on retirement. Sometimes recommending books he was also excellent to swap problems with. We exchanged notes on diverse topics, occasionally mathematical problems. John was easing his way through Stillwell’s Elements of Number Theory when he gave up somewhere deep in quadratic reciprocity declaring that it seemed the deeper you got the less interesting it was, somewhat the opposite of physics. It was a brilliant moment for him towards the close of his life when the Sudbury neutrino project was so recognised but it was immensely sad that he was unable to attend the Award Ceremony in Stockholm in December 2015. Four days before he was due to go his hip was found to be broken. He replied to my commiserations drily acknowledging, as if it were just a scratch, that his prostate cancer had weakened the bone. He died the following August after a very short terminal phase. Dr Martin Hawkins (1959)

1965

Professor Derek Roe, the renowned British Palaeolithic scholar, died on 24 September 2014 after a short illness. He was educated at St Edward’s School in Oxford. He undertook his National Service with the Royal Sussex Regiment and the Intelligence Corps in Berlin. He went on to study Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge University, where he was a member of Peterhouse College, graduating with a First Class Honours degree in 1961. His PhD thesis and subsequent A Gazetteer of British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Sites, published in 1968, were landmark studies on the metrical analysis of Acheulean handaxe industries, and remain invaluable reference works for scholars of the British Palaeolithic. Before he had completed his postgraduate studies at Cambridge he was appointed University Lecturer at Oxford University in 1963, where he remained until his retirement in 2003. Early in his tenure at Oxford, he conceived the idea of setting up a Quaternary research facility for teaching and research of Palaeolithic archaeology and related quaternary sciences. He raised the funding by approaching Francis Baden-Powell for a generous benefaction in the memory of his father, the geologist Donald Baden-Powell. The Donald Baden-Powell Quaternary Research Centre was opened in 1975, and until his retirement he held the position as its Honorary Director. At Oxford he was also a founding Fellow of St Cross College, where he served as Vice-Master of the college between 1988 and 1990. He maintained strong links with the college and used his considerable knowledge of antiques and fine art to the great benefit of the college; he was Chairman of the College Arts Committee until illness intervened. In addition to his early work on British handaxes, Derek Roe’s major interests were in the older Palaeolithic of Africa.

He was a frequent visitor to Olduvai Gorge, where an early friendship with Mary Leakey and mutual interest in its rich archaeological record resulted in the co-editing with M.D. Leakey of an important volume: Olduvai Gorge: Excavations in Beds III, IV, and the Masek Beds 1968-1971 (Cambridge University Press, 1994). He also played a key role in the autobiography of Mary Leakey and, though there was later to be a parting of the ways, Derek was able to write about some of these experiences with great wit and personal affection in an amusing volume entitled The Year of the Ghost: an Olduvai Diary (Beagle, 2002). Roe also went on to apply his methods of morphometric description and analysis of handaxes and cleavers to other sites in sub-Saharan Africa, including Kalambo Falls. He was instrumental in getting a third major volume of this site to publication in 2001, despite the failing health of its editor, Desmond Clark.

IN MEMORIAM | 1965-70

in 1966. He had a degree in Engineering Physics and an MA in Physics from the University of Toronto. After leaving Merton he spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Weizmann Institute in Israel, staying put in the tense buildup to the Six-Day War. He returned to the University of Toronto in 1968 before taking up his position at Guelph.

Apart from his teaching and research activities, and the supervision of numerous doctoral and Master’s degree students, Derek Roe was also a member of various external committees, including the Archaeology Committee of the National Museum of Wales from 1982 to 1999. He also served on the Scientific Advisory Panel of the Irene Levi-Sala CARE Foundation for Prehistoric Research in or related to Israel, as well as on the editorial advisory boards of Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, World Archaeology, L’Anthropologie, Geoarchaeology and The Review of Archaeology. In recognition of these many roles, Derek Roe was awarded a DLitt by Oxford University in 1983, and other honours included his election as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1978, and the award of the Henry Stopes Medal by the Geologists’ Association of London in 1985. In 1997 he was conferred the title of Professor of Palaeolithic Archaeology at Oxford University. In addition to his many deserved honours and outstanding scholarship, Derek Roe will probably also best be remembered for his achievements as an exceptional teacher and for his generosity to all of his students, colleagues and the many visitors who came to the Donald Baden-Powell Quaternary Research Centre at 60 Banbury Road. To all, he was extraordinarily kind and welcoming, and found the time in his busy schedule to help those who sought his advice. The more-or-less constant flow of visitors,

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Derek Roe wore his scholarship lightly, he was one of the pre-eminent Palaeolithic specialists of the 20th and early 21st centuries, he was a dedicated teacher and prolific writer and had a great influence on scholars working throughout the world.

Michael Andrew Polley died on 20 February 2017, aged 66. Mick and I met in October 1970, when we both arrived at Merton to read Classics under the care of Nicholas Richardson. Mick was the one with the moustache and slightly big hair (it was the early seventies!). He was also the one with a serious girlfriend!

This obituary was first published in Antiquity: A Review of World Archaeology in 2014. It has been reproduced with the permission of the Editors.

He was born on 13 January 1951 at Redhill, and the family moved to Horsham the following year. Mick grew up there with his older brother and his younger sister, and went to Collyer’s Grammar School in Horsham.

1967

In his first term at Oxford Mick was kicked in the head, playing as goalie for the Merton football team. He thus acquired a metal plate in his face. His son Alex (also a Mertonian, 1998) says that almost every family holiday was briefly interrupted before it properly began, as matters had to be explained to quizzical airport security staff. ‘If the metal plate didn’t set off the scanners, it would be the pack of screwdrivers and other tools which Dad carried everywhere 'just in case', and which – occasionally – proved invaluable in resolving some minor crisis.’

Dr Paul S Gregory died in February 2015. Postmaster has not been able to trace any family members or friends. If you knew Paul, and would be willing to write some words for next year’s edition please contact Claire Spence-Parsons in the Development Office.

Postmaster was sad to learn of the death of Colin McGill earlier this year. Colin came up to Merton in 1967 taking Engineering Science and Economics. A full obituary will be published in next year’s edition.

Postmaster was sad to learn of the death of Nicholas-James O. Blair. Postmaster has not been able to trace any family members or friends. If you knew Nicholas-James, and would be willing to write some words for next year’s edition please contact Claire Spence-Parsons in the Development Office.

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1970

Mick left Oxford after Greats in 1974 and immediately did two things. First, he became a trainee accountant at Peat Marwick, one of the firms later swallowed into what is now KPMG. Second, he married Di, on 7 September 1974. Two years later Mick decided to leave accounting. The moment of decision came when he realised the bit of each working day he most looked forward to was the commute, when he would read Horace on the train! He studied for his PGCE at King’s London, and went on to teach Classics at Sevenoaks for four years. Then in 1981 he became Head of

Classics at King’s College in Taunton. Mick and Di also ran a girls’ boarding house for 12 years.

Adapted by the Revd David Gilchrist (1970), using material from the funeral tribute by Alex Polley (1998).

Alex says that his father was famously organised and efficient. Those qualities were much in evidence in the many years he spent as admin master at King’s. Much of his organisation was carried on in his head, and some on carefully annotated sheets or scraps of paper. But there was little classical fustiness – he was willing to embrace aspects of the digital age. In later years he could even be persuaded to look at his mobile phone ‘once every couple of months’!

Postmaster was sad to learn of the death of Wayland Smalley who died in December 2016. Wayland came up to Merton in 1970 for a BA in Jurisprudence. A full obituary will be published in next year’s edition.

As a schoolmaster he was calm and generally patient and quiet. There could be exceptions, such as when students walked on the lawns around King’s rather than the paths provided. Keeping off the grass may be a practical, mundane lesson: but for some it persists after any more sublime memory of optatives or ablative absolutes has faded almost completely. In his retirement he and Di were very involved with St Mary’s Church in Taunton, and for three years he served as churchwarden. Mick also loved crosswords, compiling them and publishing them in specialist journals, but also as a regular setter for the New Statesman. He had been greatly enjoying trips up and down the country to gatherings of setters, in what amounted to his final Common Room. He was delighted that earlier this year one of his crosswords was published in the ‘Listener’ series, in The Times. When he died he left six months of future puzzles, already compiled, for the New Statesman. Mick’s knowledge and his wit are traits that were recognised by those who came into contact with him in all his various roles. He was a kind, warm, devoted husband, and father to Alex and Charis – and in his last years also grandfather to Andrew and Corinna. Mick was diagnosed with mesothelioma early last year, and faced his illness with stoicism and bravery. He will be remembered as a fine Christian gentleman, erudite, witty and cultured. Our thoughts and prayers are with Di and the family.

IN MEMORIAM | 1970-72

including international scholars from abroad, often meant that there was little time for his own work, though he read very widely and kept himself well informed of the latest ideas and discoveries in archaeology. Above all, it gave him great pleasure to bring together students and scholars to discuss the latest ideas in the congenial atmosphere of No. 60. Though Derek Roe was a very private person, he was able to share his outside interests in fly-fishing and cricket and had well-practised baking skills which he was able to show off in the form of beautifully constructed cakes, adorned with exquisitely shaped replicas of handaxes in icing sugar.

Daniel J Townsend died in October 2016. Postmaster has not been able to trace any family members or friends. If you knew Daniel, and would be willing to write some words for next year’s edition please contact Claire Spence-Parsons in the Development Office.

1972

Christopher Smithies died on 30 December 2016. Christopher was born in London, in 1954. He moved with his parents to Southampton while still a small child. He had two younger sisters, Clare and Julia. His father was a barrister and later a circuit judge. Christopher went to a local primary school till the age of ten, where his great friend was Russell Baker. He then transferred to Oakmount, a day prep school, prior to being awarded a music scholarship to Downside. He met another lifelong friend, David Hammond, at Oakmount. Christopher’s love of music was evident from an early age. He remembered lying on the floor next to his grandparents’ gramophone, listening to old 78 records, and writing letters to his grandparents asking after its welfare. He was given a violin at the age of eight, but was very disappointed when the first group violin lesson at school only covered how to hold the instrument and did not include playing anything. His father helped him to master Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and after the next lesson his parents were advised that he would benefit from private lessons. He loved his first teacher, Edgar Mountcher, who was a great inspiration and guide. Christopher’s experience of Downside School was mixed. He

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Christopher was awarded an exhibition to Merton to read Philosophy and Theology in 1972. His three years at Oxford were among the happiest in his life, both intellectually and socially. He made many good friends, including Charles Stiller, Michael Wale, Peter Davies, Orlando VillalobosBaillie, and Jane Finigan. Orlando and Jane married soon after finals. I am not sure whether Christopher noticed Jane’s twin sister Joan at the wedding, but she noticed him. Christopher was set on a career in academic philosophy, and was accordingly very disappointed with his 2:1 degree. Uncertain what to do, he left Oxford, read for the Bar and hated it (although enjoyed and contributed to the Bar Theatrical Society). Joan engineered a meeting with Christopher with the help of her sister. Joan was a medical student at Charing Cross at the time. They married in February 1978, while Joan was working as a house surgeon in Croydon. After leaving his Bar studies, Christopher had a number of temporary secretarial jobs, having taught himself shorthand and typing. He and Joan moved to Somerset where Joan started her training in Psychiatry and Christopher worked as teacher of religious studies at Downside. One of Christopher's friends during his short teaching career was Mark Daniels, the head physics technician, who was building a computer. Christopher loved gadgets and machines all his life, and was fascinated by computers. He taught himself to code, bought his first computer and rewrote its operating system so that it took ten per cent

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less of the computer’s memory, leaving more for the end user. He made a useful amount of money selling his rewrite, and left teaching to take up a successful freelance career as a computer software engineer. Christopher and Joan bought their first house, a tiny end terrace 18th-century weaver’s cottage, in Frome. As well as David, Joan’s son, they had two more children there, Declan and Rebekah. They made many good friends in Frome but moved to Southampton in 1983 for Joan to take up a higher training post. They sold their cottage in Frome to Jeremy Newman, who was working in a similar field to Christopher. He and Jeremy worked together in a company that Jeremy set up and Christopher commuted back to Frome for many years, working for Peripheral Vision and then Penop, on signature verification. Austin was born to Christopher and Joan in 1984, and two years later the family moved to East Dorset, where Joan was appointed as a consultant psychiatrist. The years up until 1999 were happy ones. Christopher continued his work with Penop, and enjoyed playing in orchestras and string quartets in his spare time. He also pursued his love affair with Bristol cars. He owned a Bristol 411 and then a 603, and made many good friends in the Bristol Owners Club, and took the family on many enjoyable, if at times hair-raising, road trips including a memorable one to Morocco. Towards the end of the century problems at Penop led to Christopher and Jeremy parting company from it to pursue business interests of their own. These were not as successful as Christopher had hoped and the early years of the 21st century were marked for him by severe depression. Three things helped him to slowly climb out of the pit. One was the Bristol Owners Club, and particularly the good friendship of the Chairman Geoffrey Herdman and his wife Hilary. Encouraged by Geoffrey, Christopher created a modern BOC website which gave him back a sense of purpose. The second thing was music, and his great friends in the Grainger String Quartet. The third thing was Joan deciding to take up the hobby of bell-ringing. Seeing that his left-handed and somewhat dyspraxic wife was able to master plain hunt, he realised that bell-ringing was not the unattainable skill he had thought it was in his teenage years. The Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Bournemouth has a ring of six bells, and that is

where Christopher and Joan learnt to ring and made many good friends, including Patrick Matthews, the tower captain and his wife Kim. Patrick coincidentally was a fellow alumnus of the Downside Archaeological Society. Christopher expanded his ringing repertoire by going to practices in other towers, making many ringing friends. He was always very encouraging towards learners, and very appreciative of help with his own learning. He particularly loved ringing with the Alphabet band. Two members of that band, Mike and Angie Jasper, organised a wonderful trip to Rome a few months before he died, which has left Joan with some lasting happy memories. With his returning optimism and confidence, Christopher and Jeremy were able to develop their business ideas and to attract investment in their company New Model Identity. It was a bitter irony therefore, when in 2012 he was diagnosed with an oropharyngeal carcinoma. He was successfully treated for this, but in 2014 had a massive haemorrhage and was found to have another, unrelated, cancer of the kidney. He received treatment for this which appeared to be successful, but then developed a third cancer, this time of the tongue, and was told in March 2016 that he had only six to twelve months to live. Chris coped with pain, increasing swallowing difficulty and breathlessness from lung secondaries with great courage and fortitude. He kept going right up until the end, playing his viola with Gill Tolliday two days before he died. He was sustained by his strong Catholic faith and the love of his family and friends. He is survived by his wife Joan, his stepson David whom he has always loved as his own, his sons Declan and Austin and his daughter Rebekah. He was immensely proud of all his four children and six grandchildren, and delighted that Declan was able to pursue the successful career in academic philosophy that he would himself have loved. His wife Joan will miss his love, intelligence, wit and music more than she can say. She is gratified and consoled by the many wonderful letters and messages she has had from his wide circle of family and friends.

1981

We were shocked and saddened to hear that our colleague, Ian Price, from the 1981 Biochemistry intake had passed away. Ian was an exceptionally bright person and a very active participant in the many tutorials we shared. Although a relatively quiet person, he had an incongruous liking for the late electronic musician Tomita and discordant outpourings formed a frequent backdrop to his many latenight work sessions. Despite his self-effacing nature he had a very sharp mind and a ready wit, which he never turned on others. He was very popular with many groups of students, at home equally in the JCR and in lectures and tutorials.

IN MEMORIAM | 1972-83

hated team sports and being away from home, but made some lasting friendships, not least with the Bevan family. One of the Bevans, Joseph, went on to marry Christopher’s sister Clare. He also developed what was to be a lifelong interest in Philosophy, under the influence of Dom Illtyd Trethowan. A side interest was the Archaeology Society, whose meetings usefully clashed with sporting activities. In the days before health and safety, there were opportunities to use explosives to shift large boulders concealing industrial archaeological remains, and Christopher also took part in a survey of church bells. He told me he would have liked to learn to ring, but when he saw a book of ringing method diagrams, he thought it would be much too difficult to learn.

Unfortunately, his reserved nature made him reluctant to open up fully to any of his fellows. In the course of his first Hilary Term it became clear that Ian was unsure whether he was in the right place. He continued to attend lectures and took the all-important practical studies that biochemistry students have to endure but his interest in the subject, or at least in how it was taught at Oxford, was waning. Our tutor, the late Eric Newsholme, was highly supportive and did all he could to ensure that Ian remained on the course but ultimately Ian decided to leave, and regrettably he disappeared from our radar. We will remember Ian with great fondness. Although not very outgoing, he was charmingly communicative in small groups and was happy to socialise one-on-one, often until the early hours. We profited greatly from his unfailing sense of humour and his ability to see the funny and the ridiculous in any situation. He will be sorely missed by us, by all the others in our year at Merton and by the biochemists at the other colleges. Graham Tebb (1981), Andrew Corrie (1982) and Jon Cooper (1981)

Joan Smithies

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George Kent Williams was born on 30 March 1944 in Lamar, Colorado, a small town on the eastern plains of that state. Known as Kent by his family, he was the eldest of six children, and his father was a local doctor. From his earliest years he was interested in all things military, particularly aviation. His father had served as a medical officer in the Army Air Corps in Italy during the Second World War. From childhood, George was an avid reader. After a couple years at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and at the University of Colorado, he arrived at West Point in the class of 1968. With his prior college experience, natural curiosity, reading habits, and varied interests, he was well ahead of most of his classmates, who came directly from high school. This did not change over the course of his time at West Point. George had a wicked sense of humour. One of his favourite books was Ambrose Bierce’s The Devil’s Dictionary. He was also sensitive and a stabilising influence on his classmates by helping them keep the seeming craziness of day-to-day Academy life in perspective. Needless to say, George was incredibly intelligent and ended up as a star man in his First Class year. Upon graduation George was commissioned Armor, and, following Ranger, Airborne and Jumpmaster Schools and a brief stint with the 82nd Airborne, he deployed to Vietnam with the 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry, Americal Division in I Corps. Atypically, George spent almost his entire tour in the field as a platoon leader and then company commander and engaged in numerous firefights, for which he was awarded two Silver Stars, two Bronze Stars, and two Purple Hearts. After Vietnam he earned a Master’s degree at Cornell University prior to teaching English at West Point, as well as spending a year as an exchange officer at the Air Force Academy. In 1977, George transferred to the Air Force. Following training, George served in numerous AWACS-

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This straightforward recitation of his assignments does not begin to capture the man. Beyond his service to his country, his interests and abilities ranged broadly from repairing and refurbishing Volkswagen Beetles to writing haiku. George’s Vietnam experience stayed with him throughout his life, a struggle that has become more widely recognised, if not understood, over the past few years. He had just completed a draft of his Vietnam memoir when he passed away on 14 January 2015, following a debilitating illness. George leaves behind his wife Becky, a fellow historian, and his children, Andy and Kim, and two grandchildren. George Kent Williams – courageous leader, heroic warrior, accomplished historian and teacher, inspired mentor, loyal friend and classmate, and above all man of honour – ‘Be Thou at Peace.’ This obituary was originally published as a testimonial on the website West Point Association of Graduates. It is reproduced with the permissions of its Editors.

1983

waiting anxiously to be interviewed for a place to read chemistry at Merton. The next year, we had neighbouring first year rooms in 21 Merton Street, and were tutorial and laboratory practical partners for most of our undergraduate years. It was during his time at Merton that Neil’s strong sense of fairness and commitment to do the right thing really came to the fore. Like many socially aware students, Neil made forays into aspects of politics, religion and culture. Neil was a successful leader of the College Christian Union during his second year, where his warm and caring personality drew in many new members. But it was intellectual property (IP) law that really gave Neil the platform to exploit his interest in science whilst also being able to promote that most important of his values – fairness. Following a successful (and at times challenging) career as an IP lawyer, Neil’s delight and pride at joining the House of Commons initially as a junior Hansard editor were enormous. Here he found the professional family he had been seeking and the type of work that satisfied him both intellectually and morally. His swift rise to Clerk to the Commons resulted in him taking on the serious responsibility of managing the HS2 Hybrid Bill. In this role, he was in the difficult position of needing to give a voice to people who were adversely impacted, yet at the same time steer a bill with integrity and determination to achieve a successful outcome. More recently, Neil’s personal life was completed when he met Pablo, who went on to become his partner, and share his home in London. The contentment and happiness this brought to Neil were very clear to see.

Neil Caulfield died on 6 June 2016, aged 51. At 11 years old, Neil won a free scholarship to Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Blackburn, where his natural ability to learn and acquire skills was allowed to flourish. Exceeding particularly in chemistry and languages, he finally chose chemistry to be the subject he would study at university. So it was that I came to meet Neil in November 1982, while

The news of Neil’s death in June 2016 therefore came as an appalling shock. His funeral took place the following month, when it still felt difficult to accept that he was no longer with us. A memorial service was held for Neil on 13 May 2017 in Merton Chapel, when family were joined by friends including fellow students and even a former tutor, to hear tributes to Neil’s love of life, family, friends and partner. I am very grateful to the Chaplain, Simon Jones, for helping put together such a moving and inclusive tribute to Neil, and to the Chapel choir for providing such resonant and uplifting music. Although

Neil will always be missed, I know that for many people, the memorial service catalysed the healing process. Neil was a caring and compassionate friend to me for 33 unbroken years. Looking back, his empathy and care were crucial in pulling me through my own brush with depression in 2015, when he generously shared his experiences with me, to help me make sense of my own. I would like to thank Pablo Escobar and Jo Faulkner, Neil’s cousin, for helping put together this obituary.

IN MEMORIAM | 1983-2006

related and senior staff assignments in the United States and overseas. From 1981 to 1984, George studied at Oxford University, earning a doctorate in history. He later served as an Air Force historian, retiring from this position in 1998.

James Hayles (1983)

2004

Nicholas Coyle was born in 1984 and died in February 2017. When Nick was diagnosed with terminal cancer in early 2016, the first question he asked his friends was ‘How do you feel about this?’ It was a hugely compassionate gesture that distils Nick’s strength, courage and grace throughout a devastating journey that lasted just a year before he passed away in February 2017. But Nick would have bristled at being defined by his last 12 months – and quite rightly too. Because to focus on that time is to skip over much that made for his extraordinary impact on the lives of his family, friends and pupils. Born in Kingston upon Thames in 1984 to Brian and Ingrid, Nick went to King’s College School in Wimbledon. There, he and his friends survived myriad escapades, miraculously avoiding broken limbs, before he followed in his father’s footsteps and went up to Oxford, where he read Classics. At Merton Nick made another circle of chums and, donning his famous black leather jacket, was no stranger to a pub

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After graduation, Nick completed his PGCE and became a Classics teacher at Hampton School, where he taught from 2007 until 2015, completing a Master’s in Education and Professional Studies along the way, as well as becoming a marking team leader for OCR. Shortly before his diagnosis, Nick moved to St John’s School in Leatherhead to take up the position of Head of Classics. It’s a potted life story: 32 years in three paragraphs. But such details fail to do justice to the man whose death has left such a cavity in the lives of so many. The master of one-on-one catch-ups, be it sunny days roaming around National Trust houses or evenings watching dubious action movies and sharing pizza in his flat, he made each of his friends feel personally valued and loved. In recent months the scale of his commitment to his friends has been thrown into focus. Stories have piled up, revealing a deep caring that failed to be hidden by a sometimes prickly exterior. From proofreading what turns out to have been a stack of CVs from job-searching friends, to supporting each of us through the triumphs and tribulations of flat-buying, relationships and career confusion, Nick was a confidant, partner in crime and voice of reason to many.He also loved a good laugh, always quick to smile at the absurdities of life and at the foibles both he and his friends harboured. A scholar in scrutinising the human condition – his penchant for the Myers-Briggs test is legendary – he was uncannily perceptive in understanding the motivations and struggles of those around him. That said, views that he felt were lazy, illformed or downright wrong would be robustly challenged! But, always, Nick’s opinion was sought, and valued, for its integrity.They were qualities that also shone through in his career. Always striving to improve teaching, he wrote a series of course books for his classes, threw himself into upgrading the standard of lessons and fought tirelessly to make sure his pupils achieved the best results. Besides being a keen squash player and swimmer, Nick was also a talented writer, and throughout his life penned numerous works of fiction. In his last year he achieved a long-held ambition and published a collection of short stories, and raised funds for

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Macmillan Cancer Support in the process. Titled Another Normal, and available on Amazon and online, the book encompasses tales ranging from the darkly humorous to visions of chilling dystopias. No obituary of Nick would be complete without paying tribute to his parents, Brian and Ingrid, his brother Tim and sisterin-law Emma who so kindly let his friends into their family at such a terrible time, and who remain in the hearts and minds of all who knew Nick. Writing in the introduction to his book, Nick, with typical clarity, sets out his views on what is to follow: ‘A story should leave the reader with the sense that something was said, but what, exactly, should exist in an imaginary dialogue between reader and writer that continues beyond the end of the story. ’Nick’s life is, in many ways, just such a story – its impact and meaning a complex mesh of personal moments that each of us continues to explore. I can’t help thinking he’d be rather chuffed about that. Dr Nicola Davis (2004)

2006

Dr James Upcher died on 18 May 2017, aged 37, following a tragic fall. James grew up in Hobart, Tasmania, the first-born child of John and Janet, and my older brother by six years. He graduated from the University of Tasmania with the university medal in Law, amongst many other distinctions. He worked in private practice for a short while in Melbourne, and it was here that he met his partner, Helena. Having developed a particular interest in international and humanitarian law, he was awarded a scholarship to work in The Hague for nine months at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. James was always one to take his interests further

than most; this applied to leisure and academic pursuits alike, and having been awarded both Commonwealth and Menzies scholarships, in 2006 he went on to undertake his DPhil at Oxford University on the concept of neutrality in international law. He chose Merton as his college. Shortly after starting at Oxford, James encouraged me to join him there and also at Merton. As the younger brother, I always looked up to James with respect and admiration. I was so proud to be able to graduate alongside him in a ceremony in July 2014. James returned to the practice of law thereafter at Volterra Fietta in London, working mainly in advising states and private clients on border disputes and commercial arbitration. While there he was recognised for the excellence of his work and the conscientiousness with which he supported his colleagues. He also employed his talents in pro bono work and assisted in the formulation of the Arms Trade Treaty. He worked hard to make important contributions to the humanitarian concerns he considered important and in the process earned the respect of his many international law colleagues.

professional life. He will also be remembered as a warm and affectionate uncle to my son. Whilst we admired all he had achieved professionally at only the start of his career, we will remember him most of all for the love and care he showed us. Dr Will Upcher (2008)

2010

Ying Tao died on 22 June 2015. Originally from Nanjing, China, Ying attended the Perse School for Girls in Cambridge before reading Economics at Robinson College, Cambridge. During her time at the college she was Vice-President of the Economics Society and was a member of the Aspire project, which aims to help juvenile asylum seekers in the city. Ying came to Merton for an MPhil in Economics in 2010. She worked as a strategy consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in London. Ying met her husband Jin Chan Zhou in Oxford, and they were married in 2014. Friends remember Ying as a lovely person with a bubbly personality, who was almost unwaveringly upbeat.

In 2015, he decided to impart his love of law to a new generation of students by joining the legal faculty at Newcastle University, where he lectured and tutored. At the time of his death, James was preparing a book for publication by OUP based on his doctoral thesis. We are hopeful this work will still be published within the next two years.

College Staff

He and Helena shared a supportive and loving relationship over the years. She chose to accompany him to the UK and worked there while he completed his DPhil from their home in east London. They travelled widely, for work and for pleasure, and explored much of the world together.

Former Staff

Throughout his life, and across the many places he visited and explored, James formed unique and enduring friendships – a fact attested to by the moving and memorable tributes, spoken and written, shared at his memorial services held in Hobart and at the British Library in London. He was a wonderful son to our parents and they will forever hold dear the memories of his caring nature, his generosity, and his humour. To me, he was a best friend and role model for my academic and

IN MEMORIAM | 2006-10, COLLEGE STAFF & FORMER STAFF

crawl. But he could equally well be found chatting late into the night with friends, chain-drinking tea while Van Halen played in the background.

Royston Maxwell, the College’s Fire and Health & Safety Officer, passed away on 5 July 2017. A full obituary will appear in next year’s edition.

Shortly before going to print, Postmaster learnt that Mrs Maureen (Mo) Ponting had passed away. Mo started as a scout and worked for ten more years in Hall until her retirement this summer. A full obituary will appear in next year’s edition.

Postmaster was saddened to hear the news that Wilfred Collett (husband of Elizabeth Collett whose death we reported in 2015) passed away in December 2016. Mr Collett worked in the Kitchen in College until his retirement in 1998. Our condolences go out to their family.

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EVENTS | FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Forthcoming Events

Further details of forthcoming events are available from Chelsea Chisholm, Alumni Relations Officer, Development Office. We add events to the schedule throughout the year and regularly update the Merton website with information as it becomes available: www.merton.ox.ac.uk/events

2017

December 8

Merton Society London Christmas Carol Service Venue: Christ Church, Christchurch St, Chelsea

March 16-18

University of Oxford European Alumni Weekend Location: Rome

MC3 Merton in Manhattan Association Meeting Speaker: Matthew Rycroft CBE (1986), on his work with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) Venue: Sotheby's 1334 York Avenue, Manhattan, New York

12

Choir Concert – Temple Winter Festival Venue: The Temple Church, Temple, London

17

Gaudy for the years 2006, 2007 and 2008

21

1967 Golden Anniversary Lunch

21

Memorial Service for Dr Roger Highfield Venue: Merton College Chapel

January

October 3

25

Merton Society London Drinks Party Venue: Upstairs at the Yorkshire Grey, 2 Theobalds Rd, London

November 5

7

All Souls’ Service Requiem Eucharist for All Souls. The College Choir will sing the Mozart Requiem Venue: Merton College Chapel Merton Lawyers’ Association Annual Meeting Speaker: The Rt Hon Tobias Ellwood MP, Member of Parliament for Bournemouth East and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defence Venue: Clifford Chance, Canary Wharf, London

2018 5 - 19

Merton events in Asia

14

Epiphany Carol Service Sung by the College Choir and the Girls’ Choir Preceded by a tea party for Friends of the Choir Venue: Merton College Chapel

February 2

Merton Society London Dinner Venue: Stationers’ Hall, Ave Maria Lane, London

10

Memorial Service for Professor Michael Baker Venue: Merton College Chapel

June 1

The Founder’s Society Lunch

15

Concert: Elgar’s The Apostles Choir of Merton College and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to mark the 10th Anniversary of the Choral Foundation Venue: Sheldonian Theatre

23 - 25 Passiontide at Merton Venue: Merton College Chapel

April

6 - 8 13

May

22 - 24 Merton Weekend

MC3 and University of Oxford North America Reunion Weekend Location: San Francisco

September

Inter-Collegiate Alumni Golf Tournament Followed by prize-giving and dinner at Corpus Christi College

14

Autumn Golf Meeting Followed by dinner in College Venue: Frilford Heath Golf Club

15

Gaudy for the years 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1976

tbc

Merton Society London Lecture

5

Choral Foundation 10th Anniversary: Evensong and Dinner

13

Merton Team at the Muscular Dystrophy UK Town and Gown 10K Run Followed by brunch in College

26

Merton College Boat Club Dinner

14 - 16 University of Oxford Alumni Weekend: Meeting Minds Location: Oxford

25 & 26 Advent Carol Services Venue: Merton College Chapel

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