The Queen's College Record 2020

THE QUEEN’S COLLEGE 

COLLEGE 

RECORD 2020

THE QUEEN’S COLLEGE 

Visitor 

The Archbishop of York 

Provost 

Craig, Claire Harvey, CBE, MA PhD Camb 

Fellows 

Blair, William John, MA DPhil Oxf, FBA, FSA 

Robbins, Peter Alistair, BM BCh MA DPhil Oxf 

Hyman, John, BPhil MA DPhil Oxf 

Nickerson, Richard Bruce, BSc Edin, MA 

DPhil Oxf 

Davis, John Harry, MA DPhil Oxf 

Taylor, Robert Anthony, MA DPhil Oxf 

Langdale, Jane Alison, CBE, BSc Bath, MA 

Oxf, PhD Lond, FRS 

Mellor, Elizabeth Jane Claire, BSc Manc, MA 

Oxf, PhD R’dg 

Owen, Nicholas James, MA DPhil Oxf 

Rees, Owen Lewis, MA PhD Camb, MA Oxf, 

ARCO 

Bamforth, Nicholas Charles, BCL MA Oxf 

O’Reilly, Keyna Anne Quenby, MA DPhil Oxf 

Louth, Charles Bede, BA PhD Camb, MA 

DPhil Oxf 

Kringelbach, Morten Lindtner, BSc MSc 

Copenhagen, DPhil Oxf 

Norbury, Christopher John, MA Oxf, PhD Lond 

Sarooshi, Dan, LLB NSW, LLM PhD Lond, 

MA Oxf 

Doye, Jonathan Peter Kelway, BA PhD Camb 

Buckley, Mark James, MA DPhil Oxf 

Aldridge, Simon, MA DPhil Oxf 

Timms, Andrew, MA Camb, MPhil PhD Brist 

Meyer, Dirk, MA PhD Leiden 

Papazoglou, Panagiotis, BS Crete, MA PhD 

Columbia, MA Oxf, habil Paris-Sud 

Lonsdale, Laura Rosemary, MA Oxf, PhD Birm 

Beasley, Rebecca Lucy, MA PhD Camb, MA 

DPhil Oxf, MA Berkeley 

Crowther, Charles Vollgraff, MA Camb, MA 

Cincinnati, MA Oxf, PhD Lond 

O’Callaghan, Christopher Anthony, BM BCh 

MA DPhil DM Oxf, FRCP 

Robertson, Ritchie Neil Ninian, MA Edin, MA 

DPhil Oxf, PhD Camb, FBA 

Phalippou, Ludovic Laurent André, BA 

Toulouse School of Economics, MA Southern 

California, PhD INSEAD 

Yassin, Ghassan, BSc MSc PhD Keele 

Gardner, Anthony Marshall, BA LLB MA 

Melbourne, PhD NSW 

Tammaro, Paolo, Laurea Genoa, PhD Bath 

Guest, Jennifer Lindsay, BA Yale, MA MPhil 

PhD Columbia, MA Waseda 

Turnbull, Lindsay Ann, BA Camb, PhD Lond 

Parkinson, Richard Bruce, BA DPhil Oxf 

Hunt, Katherine Emily, MA Oxf, MRes PhD 

Birkbeck 

Hollings, Christopher David, MMath PhD York 

Kelly, Steven, BSc Dub, DPhil Oxf, ARIAM 

Gault, Joseph Frederick, MSc Imp, PhD 

Institut Pasteur & École Polytechnique 

Metcalf, Christopher Michael Simon, MA Edin, 

MPhil DPhil Oxf 

Whidden, Seth Adam, BA Union College, AM 

PhD Brown, MA Ohio State 

Wisnom, Laura Selena, BA DPhil Oxf 

Müller, Carolin Anne, Dip Ulm, PhD Nott 

2 The Queen’s College | College Record 2020

Kets, Willemien, BSc MSc Nijmegen, PhD 

Tilburg 

Stacey, Jessica Anne, BA MA PhD KCL 

Chomicki, Gullaume, BSc Manc, PhD Munich 

Prout, David, MA Oxf, PhD Lond 

Kasberger, Bernhard, BSc Vienna University of 

Economics and Business, PhD Vienna 

Robertson, Alexander William, MPhys Durh, 

DPhil Oxf 

Smith, Michael Ambrose Crawford, BA College 

of William and Mary, MA PhD Princeton 

Turner, Jonathan, BA MSt BCL MPhil DPhil 

Oxf, LLB Birkbeck 

Seigal, Anna, BA MMath Camb 

Keating, Jonathan Peter, MPhys Oxf, PhD 

Bristol 

Abell, Catharine Emma Jenvey, BA Adelaide, 

PhD Flinders 

Mancall, Peter Cooper, BA Oberlin, PhD 

Harvard 

Weatherup, Robert Stewart, MEng PhD Camb 

Walden, Daniel Kitt Schelly, BA Oberlin, MPhil 

Camb, PhD Harvard 

Kiener, Maximilian, BA Regensburg, BPhil 

DPhil Oxf 

Ariga, Rina, MBBS Imperial, DPhil Oxf 

Muhammed, Kinan, MBBS Imperial, DPhil Oxf 

Marinkov, Viktor Vidinov, BSc Utrecht, MSc 

Barcelona 

Carrillo de la Plata, José Antonio, BA PhD 

Grenada 

Honorary Fellows 

Hoffmann, Leonard Hubert, the Rt Hon Lord 

Hoffmann of Chedworth, Kt, PC, BA Cape 

Town, BCL MA Oxf 

Tucker, Sir Richard Howard, MA Oxf 

Morgan, Kenneth Owen, Lord Morgan of 

Aberdyfi, MA DPhil DLitt Oxf, FBA, FRHistS 

McColl, Sir Colin Hugh Verel, KCMG, MA Oxf 

Berners-Lee, Sir Timothy John, OM, KBE, MA 

Oxf, FRS 

Kelly, the Rt Hon Ruth Maria, PC, BA Oxf, 

MSc Lond 

Atkinson, Rowan Sebastian, BSc Newc, MSc 

Oxf 

Bowman, Alan Keir, MA Oxf, MA PhD Toronto, 

FBA 

Gillen, the Hon Sir John de Winter, BA Oxf 

Lever, Sir Paul, KCMG, MA Oxf, Hon LLD Birm 

Phillips, Caryl, BA Oxf, FRSL 

Stern, Nicholas Herbert, Lord Stern of 

Brentford, Kt, CH, MA Camb, DPhil Oxf, FBA, 

FRS 

Hill, Hugh Allen Oliver, BSc PhD Belf, MA DSc 

Oxf, FRS 

Reed, Terence James, MA Oxf, FBA 

Low, Colin MacKenzie, Lord Low of Dalston, 

CBE, BA Oxf 

Beecroft, Paul Adrian Barlow, MA Oxf, FinstP 

Budd, Sir Alan Peter, GBE, BSc Lond, MA 

DPhil Oxf, PhD Camb 

Bogdanor, Vernon Bernard, CBE, MA Oxf, FBA 

Morris, Colin, MA Oxf, FBA, FRHistS 

Eisenberg, David Samuel, AB Harvard, DPhil 

Oxf 

Carwardine, Richard John, MA DPhil Oxf, 

FBA, FLSW, FRHistS 

Hacker, Peter Michael Stephan, MA DPhil Oxf 

Margalit, Avishai, BA MA PhD Hebrew 

Laskey, Ronald Alfred, CBE, MA DPhil Oxf, 

FMedSci, FRS 

Frankland, Alfred William, MBE, BM BCh DM 

Oxf, FRCP 

Christensen, Clayton Magleby, BA Brigham 

Young, MBA DBA Harvard, MPhil Oxf 

Barrons, Sir Richard Lawson, KCB, CBE, MA 

Oxf 

College Record 2020 | The Queen’s College 3

Abbott, Anthony John, MA Oxf 

Griffith Williams, the Hon Sir John, MA Oxf 

Turner, the Hon Sir Mark George, MA Oxf 

Donnelly, Sir Joseph Brian, CMG, KBE, MA 

Oxf 

Watt, James Chi Yau, MA Oxf 

Booker, Cory, BA Oxf, BA MA Stanford, JD 

Yale 

Garcetti, Eric, BA MA Columbia, MA Oxf, PhD 

LSE 

James, Ioan Mackenzie, MA DPhil Oxf, FRS 

Sloboda, John Anthony, OBE, MA Oxf, PhD 

Lond, FBA, FBPsS 

Wills, Clair, MA DPhil Oxf 

Madden, Paul Anthony, MA Oxf, DPhil Sus, 

FRS, FRSE 

Emeritus Fellows 

McGuinness, Bernard Francis, BPhil MA Oxf 

Kaye, John Marsh, BCL MA Oxf 

Acheson, Richard Morrin, BSc MA DPhil Oxf 

Dimsdale, Nicholas Hampden, MA Camb, MA 

Oxf 

Foster, Michael Antony, MA DPhil Oxf 

Neumann, Peter Michael, OBE, MA DPhil DSc 

Oxf 

Edwards, Christopher Martin, MA DPhil Oxf 

Rutherford, John David, MA DPhil Oxf 

Baines, John Robert, MA DPhil Oxf, FBA 

Pearson, Roger Anthony George, MA DPhil 

Oxf, FBA 

Bowie, Angus Morton, MA PhD Camb, MA 

DPhil Oxf 

McLeod, Peter Duncan, MA PhD Camb, MA 

DPhil Oxf 

Gautrey, Michael Sidney, MA Oxf 

Salmon, Graeme Laurence, BSc Tasmania, 

MA DPhil Oxf 

Harries, Phillip Tudor, MA DPhil Oxf 

Rowland, The Revd Christopher, MA PhD 

Camb, MA DPhil Oxf 

Ball, Sir John Macleod, MA Camb, MA Oxf, 

DPhil Sus, FRS, FRSE 

Dobson, Peter James, OBE, BSc PhD S’ton, 

MA Oxf 

Supernumerary Fellows 

Maclean, Ian Walter Fitzroy, MA DPhil Oxf, 

FBA, FRHistS 

Constantine, David John, MA DPhil Oxf 

Irving-Bell, Linda, MA DPhil Oxf 

Jacobs, Justin Baine, BA Tulsa, MPhil PhD 

Camb 

Browne Research Fellow 

Fayet, Annette, MSc ESPCI Paris, MSC DPhil 

Oxf 

Beecroft Junior Research Fellow (in 

Astrophysics) 

Bellini, Emilio, BA MSc Trento, PhD Padova 

Laming Junior Fellows 

Bardazzi, Adele, BA RHUL, DPhil Oxf 

Arnaldi, Marta, BA Turin, MA Pavia, MSt DPhil 

Oxf 

Full-time Lecturers 

Peters, Christine, MA DPhil Oxf 

Sorgiovanni, Benjamin, BA Curtin, MA 

Melbourne 

Katsampouka, Eleni, BA Athens, DPhil Oxf 

Woodbury, Beau, BA DPhil Oxf 

Chaplain 

Price, The Revd Katherine Magdalene, MA 

MSt Oxf, BA Sheff 


CONTENTS 

From the Provost 6 

Reports and College Activities 9 

Senior Tutor’s Report 9 

News from the Fellowship 12 

Academic Distinctions 29 

From the Bursar 36 

Outreach 38 

Admissions 41 

A Year in the Library 42 

A Year in the Archive 44 

A Year in the Chapel 46 

A Year in the Chapel Choir 50 

Chapel Roof Project 52 

Centre for Manuscript and 

Text Cultures 56 

The Queen’s Translation Exchange 60 

A Year in the MCR 63 

A Year in the JCR 65 

Student Clubs and Societies 66 

Athletic Distinctions 83 

Old Members’ Activities 84 

Development and Old Member 

Relations Report 84 

From the President of The 

Queen’s College Association 86 

Gaudies 88 

40 Years of Co-Education at 

Queen’s 89 

Appointments and Awards 96 

Publications 99 

Articles 102 

From Translating Illness to 

Translating COVID-19: a 

Humanities Response to 

the Pandemic 102 

Bridging the gap between science 

and the arts: Clifford Norton 

Fellows and Students at Queen’s 105 

College Servants and Vacation 

Employment: Insights from 

Oxford’s Archives 109 

Obituaries 114 

Morrin Acheson 115 

James Adams 117 

Clayton Christensen 118 

Albert Cox 120 

Bill Frankland 121 

Michael Gautrey 124 

John Gray 125 

Martin Green 126 

Barry Hoffbrand 127 

Keith Maslin 129 

Brian McGuinness 130 

John Pearson 132 

John Simson 133 

Dick Stewart 135 

Richard Tucker 136 

Pieter Zwart 137 

Benefactions 138 

Information 148 


FROM THE PROVOST 

From the Provost 

I am writing this article in September 2020 knowing 

that, by the time you will be reading it, the College will 

have completed a Michaelmas term like no other. As 

I write, staff and Fellows are beginning to reopen the 

College buildings after their six-month closure due to 

the pandemic. We are all greatly looking forward to 

welcoming students back and to doing everything we 

can to make their experiences rich and to keep them 

and the rest of our community safe. 

Dr Claire Craig CBE My first year at Queen’s began, like that of other 

freshers, with the excitement of meeting all the 

remarkable people connected with the College: 

students, Old Members, staff and Fellows. Michaelmas term included learning 

how to handle the Loving Cup and welcoming the Visitor, the outgoing Archbishop 

of York, John Sentamu, to celebrate the 300 th anniversary of the Chapel. The 

President of the Seychelles visited, as a result of Lindsay Turnbull’s work on 

the Aldabra coral reef, researching ecosystem impacts and working with DPhil 

student April Burt who co-led a project to remove 25 tonnes of plastic waste. 

Then in March the pandemic struck. The College had one of the early positive cases 

of COVID-19. We completed Hilary term due to the incredible fortitude, good sense 

and hard work of staff and students alike. Throughout the Easter Vacation, Fellows 

worked hard to move all teaching and exams online. So, with the College buildings 

shut and most support staff on furlough, we completed Trinity term virtually. We are 

all particularly proud of our Finalists: the College had more Firsts than in any previous 

year and, as importantly, all our students worked hard to complete their studies in 

extremely difficult circumstances. 

I am grateful to my predecessor Paul Madden for leaving the College as a strong 

place, capable of dealing well with the emergencies and difficulties that beset it this 

year. It is also due to him and others of even earlier generations, including those who 

have supported the College through donations, that Queen’s remains better placed 

than many places of higher education to weather the economic hardships we all face. 

The financial impacts of the pandemic so far have included the inevitable devaluation 

of the endowment, the loss of conference income and reduced rents from commercial 

properties. Because of the College’s underlying financial strength we have, however, 

so far been able to continue to provide hardship funds for students and to maintain 

the full salaries of staff when they were on furlough. 



As well as dealing with the consequences of COVID-19 for the College, students 

and academics have also contributed in major ways to tackling the pandemic. To 

mention a few, with apologies to the many others, Jasmina Panovska-Griffiths’ 

modelling has been regularly discussed in the national media; and Queen’s 

academics have contributed to work on ventilator and vaccine technologies, and 

on the economic impacts of the pandemic. Reflecting the role of a college in being 

a place where different disciplines are in conversation with each other, Laming 

Research Fellow Marta Arnaldi organised a fascinating series of seminars on 

Translating Illness. 

While everyone in the UK was still in lockdown, the storm of events associated with 

the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movements created major 

debates across the College’s communities. The College’s statement on 9 June 

committed it to considering how to create an even more inclusive environment for the 

future. The statement stimulated much further thoughtful discussion, and Fellows, 

staff and students worked together on practical actions in areas from recruitment 

to student support. As always, what the College is and does matters, but where it 

will have the biggest long term impact is in its traditions of intellectual enquiry and 

debate, in how it educates students and in the research contributions of its Fellows. 



We were delighted, for example, together with the History Faculty to be able to 

announce the new Brittenden Fellowship in Black British History, and to welcome 

back the former Harmsworth Professor of History, Barbara Savage, to be on the 

appointment panel. 

A further storm hit in August during the final stages of admissions. Those of you in 

the UK will know that the government’s method for predicting A-level grades was 

found to be systemically biased against students from state schools and therefore 

deeply flawed. Like other colleges, Queen’s had UK offer-holders whose admission 

was conditional on their A-level grades and who initially appeared to fail to meet their 

conditions. The situation for these young people was incredibly difficult. Meanwhile 

each college’s decisions on admissions had implications for faculties, other colleges 

and the University and for fairness between student cohorts. The College considered 

each of its outstanding cases carefully and, in the light of the changed evidence, 

admitted all of them. The result is that the matriculating year of 2020 will be the largest 

ever. It also contains the highest proportion of UK admissions coming from state 

schools (and this was true before the conditional offer holders were admitted). 

In 2021, due to the generosity of a donor we will be able to recruit a coordinator to 

work full time on collaborative outreach in the North East of England, helping us to go 

further to support the brightest young people, whatever their start in life. 

Finally, as I write, the Chapel has just emerged from its year-long seclusion behind 

scaffolding and sheeting. Its roof has been repaired (a project delivered on budget and 

to time by our former Clerk of Works, David Goddard), possibly for the first time since 

it was built. The first events on the newly reopened site were weddings – the first the 

marriage of two Old Members who met when they were in the choir together, and the 

second between Emeritus Fellow Angus Bowie and College Lecturer Almut Fries. 

Throughout everything, the College’s guiding approach is to focus on its core 

purposes: teaching, learning and researching – and to be safe. We have all tried, and 

will continue to try, to do that in ways that are characteristic of the best of Queen’s 

throughout time: resilient, brave and kind. I would like to continue to pay particular 

tribute to the current generations at the College for the ways in which they have 

responded throughout. 


SENIOR TUTOR’S REPORT 

The College elected twelve new Fellows this year. 

Professor Jon Keating FRS joined us as the new 

Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy. He 

was formerly the Henry Overton Wills Professor 

of Mathematics in Bristol, and Chair of the 

Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Research. His 

research interests include random matrix theory and its 

applications to quantum chaos, number theory, and the 

Riemann zeta function. 

Reports and College Activities 

Nicholas Owen 

Our new Fellow in Philosophy, replacing Professor 

John Hyman, who moved to the Grote Professorship 

of Philosophy of Mind and Logic at University College, 

London, is Professor Catharine Abell. She comes from the University of Manchester, 

where she has worked since 2006. Her most recent book is Fiction: A Philosophical 

Analysis (Oxford, 2020), which develops a philosophical account of fiction as a social 

practice, providing original explanations of the nature of fiction, the norms governing its 

understanding and interpretation, and the nature of fictional entities. Her next research 

project will address the nature and importance of artistic style. 

Professor Steve Kelly, our Browne Research Fellow, has become our second Fellow 

in Biological Sciences, in association with a Royal Society University Fellowship at 

the Department of Plant Sciences. He works on photosynthesis, evolution, gene 

expression and bioinformatics. His research group aims to identify the molecular 

regulators and mechanisms that control the expression of photosynthesis genes in the 

world’s most important food crops, the grasses. 

We also elected a second Fellow in Materials Science. He is Professor Robert 

Weatherup and comes to us from a Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellowship at the 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the USA, and a Diamond-Manchester 

Fellowship at Diamond Light Source. His research concerns reactions occurring at 

material interfaces in batteries and catalytic reactors. He is leading a new project, 

funded by the Faraday Institution, to develop characterisation methods for probing 

buried interfaces in lithium-ion batteries. 

We were also joined this year by a new Fellow in Applied Mathematics: Professor José 

Carrillo. Professor Carrillo was Professor of Applied and Numerical Analysis at Imperial 

College London from 2012 to 2020. He has recently been awarded a European 

Research Council grant which will fund his research on non-local partial differential 

equations for complex particle dynamics. This research focuses on systems involving 

a large number of individuals showing collective behaviour, and investigates how to 



obtain averaged information from them. Applications include weakly nonlinear plasmas 

in fusion energy, zebra fish patterning formations in developmental biology, and grid 

cells for navigation in mammals. 

Our Harmsworth Visiting Professor of American History this year was Professor Peter 

Mancall. Professor Mancall is Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities, and 

Professor of History and Anthropology, at the University of Southern California. His 

research focuses on the history of early America, the early modern Atlantic world, the 

history of medicine, environmental history, and Native American history. While with 

us in Oxford, Professor Mancall published The Trials of Thomas Morton: An Anglican 

Lawyer, His Puritan Foes, and the Battle for a New England (Yale, 2019). 

Our new Junior Research Fellow in Music is Dr Daniel Walden. He comes from 

Harvard, where he studied as a Presidential Scholar and Harvard Horizons Scholar. 

His research develops his doctoral work on the politics of tuning and temperament, 

and examines the political forces that shaped the development of comparative 

musicology, psychoacoustics, and score-based analysis. Dr Walden is also a pianist 

and harpsichordist, aiming, through performance and recording, to broaden the 

keyboard repertory and blur the boundaries between historical and contemporary 

approaches. 

Dr Rina Ariga has come to the College as a Junior Research Fellow in Pathology. She 

studied Medicine at Imperial College, London, and trained at various London hospitals 

before winning a British Heart Foundation Clinical Research Training Fellowship to 

complete a doctorate in Cardiovascular Medicine at Oxford. She is interested in using 

computational approaches in cardiovascular disease to integrate multivariate data 

from diagnostic electrocardiogram, imaging, blood and genetic tests to improve our 

understanding of pathophysiology. 

Dr Kinan Muhammed is Junior Research Fellow in Clinical Sciences. He too has 

come from Imperial College, London, to a position as Clinical Lecturer in Neurology 

at Oxford. His research interests lie in cognitive neuroscience, and focus on 

exploring the mechanisms of motivation and memory within neurodegenerative 

diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. He aims to develop 

novel strategies for detection and risk stratification in dementia using behavioural 

and physiological assessments. 

Professor John Hyman’s European Research Council project on ‘The Roots of 

Responsibility: Metaphysics, Humanity, and Society’ makes provision for two 

post-doctoral Research Fellowships in Philosophy at Queen’s. The first of these 

is held by Dr Maximilian Kiener. He completed a doctoral thesis at Oxford in 2019 

on voluntariness, consent, and justification in medical procedures, and is now 

exploring parallels between consent and responsibility, examining the metaphysical 

presuppositions of liability and responsibility, and explaining voluntariness as a key 

concept in moral philosophy. 


In association with the Department of Economics, we also elected a new Career 

Development Fellow. Dr Viktor Marinkov was awarded a doctorate by the European 

University Institute in Florence. His research spans productivity growth, expectations 

in macroeconomics and monetary policy. He aims to improve understanding of 

productivity differences between countries and, more generally, the importance of 

deviations from rational expectations in explaining macroeconomic phenomena. 

Dr Marta Arnaldi is our new Laming Fellow in Modern Languages. Her research 

concentrates on modern and contemporary literature originally written in, or translated 

into, different languages and different media. At Queen’s, she will be looking at the 

interaction of translation and medicine, by exploring the therapeutic potential of 

translation in contemporary English, French and Italian poetry. Her own first collection 

of poems, Itaca (Milan, 2016) has won two international literary prizes. 


I am unable to share the College’s position in this year’s Norrington Table as the 

University decided to stop publishing an interim Table. The Table will now be available 

only at the end of Michaelmas term each year, in order to incorporate appeal 

outcomes or other result adjustments. I can, however, report that our finalists achieved 

a very impressive set of results: 51 undergraduates were awarded a First class 

degrees, with 38 gaining a 2.1. While satisfaction surveys are properly regarded with 

a certain scepticism, the College’s ‘learning experience’ also attracted very high levels 

of satisfaction from its students (94.5%). In June 2020, the College issued a statement 

in response to the ‘Black Lives Matter’ campaign and, in August, a statement on the 

application of a flawed algorithm to A-level results. 

The third term of the academic year was, inevitably, much affected by the coronavirus. 

The College site closed and tutorials and classes were conducted using videoconferencing. 

Final examinations were also held remotely, with students following an 

‘open book’ system and an honour code. Several of the College’s researchers have 

been pursuing solutions to the crisis. They include Professor Peter Robbins’ work 

on a clinical drug trial aimed at raising oxygen levels in the blood to assist patients’ 

chances of recovery; Professor Chris O’Callaghan’s work as a medical consultant at 

the John Radcliffe Hospital and his leadership of the Academic Centre for UrgenT and 

Emergency Care (ACUTECare); and Dr Jasmina Panovska-Griffiths’ research on the 

mathematical modelling of virus transmission. 

At the time of writing, Queen’s is once again open for teaching, learning and research 

in the usual way, with mitigations such as social distancing and mask-wearing to make 

the College site as safe as possible for everyone. It is my hope – and that of everyone 

at Queen’s – that my successor as Senior Tutor, Professor Seth Whidden, will be able 

to report a substantial return to normality next year. 



NEWS FROM THE FELLOWSHIP 

Catharine Abell (Philosophy) 

Since arriving at Queen’s in September 2019, most of 

my research time has been spent completing a book, 

Fiction: A Philosophical Analysis (OUP 2020). In it, 

I argue that fiction is an institutional social practice, 

and that construing it as such enables one to provide 

accounts of various aspects of fiction, including 

the determinants of fictive content and what it is to 

understand and to interpret a work of fiction. On the 

account I develop, although authors’ intentions play some role in determining the 

contents of works of fiction, this role is much more limited than many philosophers 

have taken it to be. Understanding a work of fiction deploys one’s knowledge of the 

content determining rules of fiction institutions, while interpreting it involves drawing 

inferences to the best explanation of why its author produced a work to which the 

rules assign those contents. 

Other research has concerned the evaluative role of realism in film, theatre and 

television productions. Realism is an artistic merit. We often consider such productions 

good because they are realistic. However, the view that works are better artistically the 

more realistic they are has controversial implications. Because non-traditional casting 

is often pursued at the expense of realism, it suggests that non-traditional casting is 

artistically unmotivated. I have written a paper arguing that the artistic norms of realism 

are sensitive to productions’ contents and media. Consequently, considerations of 

realism proscribe non-traditional casting far less often than is sometimes assumed 

and, in certain contexts, provide artistic motivation for it. 

Marta Arnaldi (Modern Languages) 

The first year of my Laming Research Fellowship 

at Queen’s started with a visit to the University of 

Jyväskylä, in the western part of Finland, where I 

took up the position of writer in residence. During 

this period, I delivered a course in creative writing in 

a foreign language (English) and gave a paper at the 

University’s yearly symposium on wellbeing and the 

arts. This visit marked the beginning of Translating 

Illness, the interdisciplinary research project that forms the core of my Fellowship. This 

two-year project consists of a programme of international collaborations (Columbia, 

Yale, Florence, Oslo), invited lectures (Columbia, Princeton, Central Florida), and a 


seminar series held in College. Soon after my appointment, I was awarded a double 

research grant from the Wellcome Institutional Strategic Support Fund (ISSF) and the 

John Fell Fund, Oxford, in order to undertake this multi-layered research with public 

engagement programme. 

From April 2020, when in-person activities were suspended, I launched Translating 

COVID-19, a series of video conversations activated as an emergency response 

to the pandemic. Available on the College’s YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/ 

queenscollegeox), the videos have proved to be very popular. I have also had the 

honour to be invited as a keynote speaker at several institutions (Princeton, The Open 

University, American Translators Association, to name a few) and/or as part of cuttingedge 

international projects, such as the British Academy-funded The Languages of 

COVID, Belfast. In addition, I was invited to judge the prestigious Oxford-Weidenfeld 

Translation Prize 2020. 


This range of activities led to a number of publications: an article accepted by 

Literature and Medicine, John Hopkins; a chapter to be included in the volume 

Women in Transition: Crossing Boundaries, Crossing Borders, edited by Maria-José 

Blanco and Claire Williams (Routledge, 2020); and a COVID-related article written in 

collaboration with colleagues in Liverpool and Oslo. Finally, I am thrilled to announce 

that Alibi, the first anthology of contemporary Italian poets in the UK, which was edited 

by Luca Paci and myself, will be published by Ensemble, Rome, in September 2020. 

John Baines (Egyptology – emeritus) 

For the 2019-20 academic year I have held a visiting 

professorship in the ancient world grouping in the 

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich. This position is 

specifically for older scholars, which is a delightful idea 

for those who are invited. I have led interdisciplinary 

seminars and presented a set of four public lectures on 

ancient Egyptian biography that are to be worked up 

into a book for publication. The experience has been a 

double one, on site and meeting many people in the first semester in Munich, but in 

the second semester lecturing remotely along with almost everyone else, in my case 

from Oxford. During the year there appeared a book, Historical Consciousness and 

the Use of the Past in the Ancient World, that I co-edited with Tim Rood, a former 

Junior Research Fellow in Queen’s, and two other colleagues. Its chapters range 

from ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the biblical world, through China and classical 

antiquity, to the Classic Maya. 



Rebecca Beasley (English) 

Several articles and my long-term book project were 

published this year: a chapter on visual culture in 

The New Ezra Pound Studies, ed. Byron (Cambridge 

University Press), a chapter on ‘non-translation’ and 

internationalism in Modernism and Non-Translation, ed. 

Harding and Nash (Oxford University Press), an article 

on the teaching of literature at Black Mountain College, 

the mid-twentieth century experimental institution near 

Asheville, North Carolina, in the journal Modernist Cultures, and Russomania: Russian 

Culture and the Creation of British Modernism, 1881-1922 (Oxford University Press). 

Since March, though, research has had to be put aside. As Director of Teaching and 

Deputy Chair in the Faculty of English, I was in charge of planning and executing 

the Faculty’s shift to online teaching and assessment in Trinity 2020, and I am now 

working with colleagues across the University on developing the mix of face-to-face 

and online teaching that we expect to be delivering in Michaelmas 2020. 

John Blair (History) 

Since the publication of my major book Building Anglo- 

Saxon England in 2018, I have been rounding off various 

past commitments and paving the way to new projects. 

Planning in the Early Medieval Landscape, the outcome 

of a collaborative project funded by the Leverhulme Trust, 

appeared in May 2020, and two articles on aspects of 

Roman and Anglo-Saxon settlement in the Wychwood 

region are currently in press. The big landmark for me is 

retirement, after nearly forty years as a Tutorial Fellow of Queen’s. I am deeply grateful to 

the Governing Body for electing me to an Emeritus Fellowship. This allows me to remain 

fully a part of the College community, and gives me the best possible research base to 

work towards my projected book on regional diversity in medieval England. 

Angus Bowie (Literae Humaniores – emeritus) 

After publishing my commentary on Iliad 3 for Cambridge 

University Press, I have continued my engagement with 

Homer by working on a big commentary on Iliad 21-24 

which was commissioned by the Fondazione Lorenzo 

Valla in Milan. In this, ignoring the advice that cobblers 

should stick to their last, I’m adding to the usual features 

of a commentary material that situates Homer’s poetry in 

the religious, political and cultural milieu of contemporary 


and earlier Indo-European and Mesopotamian cultures. Other works that have 

appeared, or are about to, discuss Aristophanes’ handling of obscenity in the religious 

parts of his plays, narratology and emotion in Homer and honey in ancient Egyptian, 

Hittite and Greek religion. In the midst of this, the College very kindly allowed Almut 

Fries and me to get married in the Chapel, and all involved ensured this was a very 

agreeable occasion, despite the restrictions imposed. 

José A. Carrillo de la Plata (Mathematics) 


I recently joined Queen’s in April 2020. My research 

in the 2019-20 academic year has followed my 

endeavours in the theoretical, numerical and applied 

side of Partial Differential Equations (PDE) in the 

sciences. They constitute the basic language in which 

most of the laws in physics or engineering can be 

written and one of the most important mathematical 

tools for modelling in life and socio-economical 

sciences. I have been interested in long-time asymptotics, qualitative properties and 

numerical schemes for nonlinear diffusion, hydrodynamic, and kinetic equations. I 

have also worked in the modelling of collective behaviour of many-body systems with 

application in charged particles transport in a plasma cell movement by chemotaxis 

or cell sorting by adhesion forces. 

I received an ERC (European Research Council) Advanced Grant 2019 to develop 

my research in nonlocal PDEs for complex particle dynamics: phase transitions, 

patterns and synchronization. The proposed research is centred on developing tools 

underpinning the analysis of long time asymptotics, phase transitions, stability of 

patterns, consensus and clustering, and qualitative properties of collective behaviour 

models in terms of the analysis of their PDE descriptions. I will also focus on the 

important case of the Landau equation with applications in weakly nonlinear plasmas 

by means of the gradient flow techniques. In addition, I will showcase the developed 

tools in patterns and consensus by focusing on zebra fish patterning formation, as 

an example of spontaneous self-organisation processes in developmental biology, 

and grid cells for navigation in mammals, as prototype for the synchronization of 

neural networks. 

I have been elected as the head of the Mathematics Division of the European 

Academy of Sciences for the next two years; and I am the current Program Director of 

the SIAM Activity Group on Analysis of Partial Differential Equations. I gave a plenary 

lecture at the 2 nd SIAM/CAIM Annual Meeting and a Distinguished Lecture at the INS 

of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. 



Nicholas Dimsdale (Economics – emeritus) 

I wrote a paper with James Cloyne (University of 

California, Davis) and Natacha Postel-Vinay (LSE) 

‘Interwar Tax Multipliers: New Narrative Evidence from 

Britain’, which was published as NBER Working Paper 

WP 24659. I presented the paper to the Monetary History 

Group in HM Treasury, the Seminar on Financial History 

at Darwin College, Cambridge and the CSO (Central 

Statistical Office) conference at Kings College, London. 

During the year I worked on a project on ‘UK Business and Financial Cycles since 

1660: A Narrative Overview’ with Ryland Thomas (Bank of England). This was due 

to be published by Palgrave Macmillan, but publication has been postponed and the 

project is being extended to include the current recession. 

Pete Dobson (Engineering – emeritus) 

I have been appointed to the UKRI Quantum Technology 

Advisory Board for three more years, and I have been 

heavily involved in assessing projects and defining 

strategy in this important area. My company activities 

continue, and I have helped with two new ones in 

particular: Zamna Ltd is a company set up by a Hertford 

College alumnus which uses blockchain technology 

to secure passenger information for boarding with 

airlines. I have assisted with adding medical data, especially COVID-19 data to the 

passenger details; Nanolyse Ltd is a new spin-off from Earth Sciences that measures 

the presence of toxic metals in water and soil. I continue to advise around ten other 

companies on an ad hoc basis. 

I continue to publish papers and patents, with three more this year, including one that 

is a simple, rapid, generic platform for virus detection (with colleagues at UCL). My 

collaborations with UCL, King’s and the Chemistry Department in Oxford are ongoing. In 

the latter case I am assisting with developing new methods of generating hydrogen from 

waste plastic, and in the generation of aviation fuel from carbon dioxide and hydrogen. 

Annette Fayet (Biological Sciences) 

This year was the first in over ten years where I didn’t go on a field research 

expedition, with my annual summer field trip to study Atlantic puffins on Skomer Island, 

Pembrokeshire, cancelled due to COVID-19. Similarly, a short visiting fellowship I was 

awarded by the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science to visit colleagues 


in Japan will also be postponed to next year, as is the 

World Seabird Conference at which I was invited to talk. 

Nonetheless, the 2019-2020 academic year has been 

a busy one. I had the pleasure to give guest seminars 

at Bristol and Cambridge University, where I met new 

colleagues and even started a few new collaborations, 

including with a mathematical biologist, a new field 

for me but one which I have enjoyed exploring. I also 

became secretary of The Seabird Group, a UK-based 

charity promoting seabird science and conservation. 


This was also a fruitful year for publications (details of which can be found at 

annettefayet.com), including one reporting a new tool use behaviour in puffins, 

which was a fun collaboration with a primatologist and attracted a lot of media 

interest (google ‘scratching puffin’ to find out more!). But my greatest satisfaction 

was to finish writing an important paper about a key project of my Junior Research 

Fellowship, aiming to uncover the causes of puffin population declines in the northeast 

Atlantic, which will hopefully be published next year. Finally, a proposal led by BirdLife 

International for a new Marine Protected Area for seabirds in the North Atlantic, in 

which some of my data on puffin migration were used, was accepted this spring 

(official announcement postponed to 2021), and it is a real reward to see my work 

having a real-world impact on conservation policy. 

I gave a boost to my outreach skills by attending two Science Communication 

‘Bootcamps’ organised by National Geographic in Munich and London, where I was 

taught how to improve my public speaking and received social media training at the 

London headquarters of Facebook, Twitter and Google, no less. I put the skills to 

good use by taking part in a National Geographic Explorer Classroom at the beginning 

of the lockdown, sharing my experience as a seabird scientist in a live online session 

with an audience of over 1000 children from all over the world. I’m also trying to be 

more active on social media to share results of my research and raise awareness of 

seabirds’ plight – you can find me on Twitter and Instagram @AnnetteFayet. 

Anthony Gardner (Fine Art) 

This has been my last year as Head of the Ruskin 

School of Art, the University’s fine art department, 

and what a year to end on! It began with a residency 

in Beijing in August and a keynote presentation for 

the Setouchi Asian Art Forum in Japan’s inland sea 

region, followed by a series of talks in Hungary and the 

UK and another keynote at UCL to celebrate the 30 th 

anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall (the subject of 

my 2015 book, Politically Unbecoming). I then delivered lectures at the University 



of Copenhagen and the Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art before the 

pandemic struck. 

Despite the pandemic, the year has still been surprisingly productive for publications 

as well, with new essays exploring curatorial histories appearing in the book Of(f) Our 

Times: Curatorial Anachronics (Sternberg Press, 2019) and the journal documenta 

studies (March 2020) and my artwork, I Am A Revolutionary (Apologies to Carey 

Young), exhibited at the Royal Academy Schools to celebrate the 20 th anniversary of 

the Red Mansion Trust awards. I am on sabbatical leave for the 2020-21 academic 

year, but will be working on some new projects focused on my main research areas of 

contemporary art and exhibition-making, including one on art and democracy, together 

with Dr Sarah Hegenbart (Munich), following our successful European Commission 

Horizon 2020 Grant with colleagues from Germany, Austria and elsewhere in Europe. 

Christopher Hollings (History of Mathematics) 

Much of my research this year has been linked to 

an ongoing project on the historiography of ancient 

Egyptian mathematics, pursued in collaboration with 

Richard Parkinson. This began with the discovery of 

previously overlooked letters within the pages of books 

in the College’s Peet Library, and has expanded into a 

study of how we come to know what we know about 

ancient Egyptian mathematics, with a particular focus 

on the differing approaches to the subject made by Egyptologists on the one hand 

and mathematicians on the other. An article on this subject should appear soon in the 

journal Historia Mathematica. Other work, concerning the Egyptologist and sometime 

Fellow of Queen’s, Thomas Eric Peet (1882-1934), is underway. I have spoken about 

this work at conferences and seminars (in Maynooth, Frankfurt and Oxford), and have 

also used it as the basis of an outreach lecture. 

In May 2020, I published Meeting under the Integral Sign? The Oslo Congress of 

Mathematicians on the eve of the Second World War, with Reinhard Siegmund- 

Schultze and in collaboration with Henrik Kragh Sørensen (History of Mathematics, 

volume 44, American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI). 

A long-term editorial project should also be reaching its end in 2020. In collaboration 

with Philip Beeley (History Faculty/ Linacre College), I am co-editing a volume entitled 

Beyond the Academy: The Practice of Mathematics 1600–1850, to be published 

by Oxford University Press. As the title suggests, the book is a collection of articles 

on the uses and study of mathematics outside the university context over several 

centuries. My own contribution concerns the appearance (or not) of mathematics in 

the programmes of the Literary and Philosophical Societies that sprang up throughout 

the British Isles during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. 


Bernhard Kasberger (Economics) 

This was my second year of three as a Junior Research 

Fellow in Economics at Queen’s. In this year, I published 

an article called ‘On the clock of the combinatorial clock 

auction’ in the journal Theoretical Economics (joint 

work with Maarten Janssen). The article is based 

on a chapter of my dissertation at the University of 

Vienna. It provides a thorough theoretical analysis of 

an auction mechanism that has been used in spectrum 

auctions around the world. Having an objective and scientific understanding of this 

complicated auction format is critical in designing spectrum auctions in favour of 

the wider public instead of a narrow group of rent-seekers. A lot is at stake in these 

auctions as they shape the telecommunications industry for years and typically 

generate billions of revenue. I presented other papers at conferences and seminars 

in Seattle, Leipzig, Vienna, Klagenfurt and Manchester. As a Junior Research Fellow, 

the most important aspect of my job is to develop new ideas, and this is what I have 

enjoyed most in the last academic year. I am delighted that Queen’s gives me this 

incredible opportunity for another year. 


Jon Keating (Mathematics) 

I arrived at Queen’s in September 2019 and have 

greatly enjoyed the intellectual life of the College. In 

November 2019 I took over the Presidency of the 

London Mathematical Society. In July 2020 I finished 

my five-year term as Chair of the Heilbronn Institute for 

Mathematical Research. My own research has centred 

on developing the theory of random matrices, and on 

exploring applications ranging from number theory to 

machine learning. I have published several papers on the moments of the moments of 

characteristic polynomials of random matrices. I gave a Plenary Lecture on this work 

at the Congress of Chinese Mathematicians in Guangzhou in November 2019. I would 

have given a Distinguished Lecture on the same subject at the University of Hong 

Kong, but the political unrest there prevented this from taking place. 

I recently solved a problem relating to mixed moments of characteristic polynomials 

of random unitary matrices that I have been thinking about, on and off, for twenty 

years. The solution is rather pretty and I gave a lecture on it at a conference that was 

due to take place at New York University in May 2020, but that ultimately moved 

online because of the coronavirus. I did manage to give a talk in the Queen’s College 

Symposium in February 2020. 



Max Kiener (Philosophy) 

In the last academic year, I published an article on 

‘Coercion’ in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy 

(2020) and on ‘Fictionalising Kelsen’s Pure Theory of Law’ 

in Archives for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy 

(2020). I wrote for The Conversation on ‘Infecting a 

Volunteer with coronavirus to develop a vaccine – here’s 

what consent should look like’, published in June 2020. 

I also organised a workshop on the ethics of consent, which was scheduled to take 

place at Queen’s in June. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, however, it had to be 

postponed to December 2020 and will now be an online event. 

Jane Langdale (Plant Sciences) 

Funding for the multinational C 4 

Rice project (www. 

c4rice.com) that I lead was renewed in December 2019 

for a further five years. We had our ‘phase IV’ launch 

meeting in Bangkok in December and everyone was 

fired up for a big year of research in 2020. Of course 

things ground to a halt in March in all of the consortium 

labs except for those in Germany, and even now most 

people can only work three day shifts. So it has been a 

time for everyone to catch up on thinking, reading and writing papers. 

In May 2020, I was elected a Corresponding Member of the Australian Academy of 

Science. I published four research papers, in the journals Frontiers in Plant Science, 

Communications Biology, BMC Plant Biology and Development. I taught what turns 

out to be my last face to face 16 lecture module on Plant Developmental Genetics 

and Evolution for third year undergraduates on the Biological Sciences course in 

Michaelmas term – the 2020 version will be online and then in 2021 we transition to 

teaching the new Biology course. In February I went to Japan to talk to secondary 

school students about careers in scientific research, and the week before lockdown 

I gave a research seminar at the University of Lausanne. I had a busy travel schedule 

planned from April-June but instead became an expert on Zoom. I also learnt to 

appreciate the fact that I have a great view of my garden from the kitchen table, which 

is fortunate as it is likely to continue to function as my office for some time to come. 

Charlie Louth (German) 

Most of my research time over the past year was spent on the production process of 

my book on Rilke which I finished writing a year ago thanks to a Leverhulme Fellowship 


and was published in June: Rilke: The Life of the Work. 

It turned out to be an embarrassingly long book, though 

that at least helped me understand why it had taken 

me so long to write. What time was left was largely 

swallowed up by the demands of the coronavirus, which 

has destroyed the vital division between term time and 

vacation and so made research more difficult than usual. 

But I have gone back to an old project, which is to 

translate the entirety of the letters of Friedrich Hölderlin. 

I have already done a good selection of them; they 

appeared together with his essays in 2009, but no complete edition exists in English, 

unlike in French, Italian and I expect other languages too. And translating was a good 

way to spend the early mornings of lockdown in the 250th year since Hölderlin’s 

birth. Otherwise, I published various small things on Rilke, including a piece on his 

late poems about gongs, which appeared in a book exploring Rilke’s relationship with 

music: ‘Zu Rilkes Gong-Gedichten’, in Rilkes Musikalität, ed. by Thomas Martinec 

(Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2019). This coming year, I am looking forward (a manner of 

speaking) to serving as the College’s Tutor for Undergraduates. 


Viktor Marinkov (Economics) 

In 2020 I was awarded a grant from the UK’s Money 

Macro and Finance Society (MMF) for organising and 

hosting a high-profile economics conference at the 

University of Oxford. The conference will be on the topic 

of ‘What have we learned about the macroeconomic 

effect of forward guidance?’ and will take place in 2021 

featuring international experts from both academia and 

policymaking. Forward guidance is a novel monetary 

policy tool that central banks began using since the financial crisis and one that I have 

focused on in my own research. 

Kinan Muhammed (Medicine) 

I started at Queen’s in 2019 as an Extraordinary Junior 

Research Fellow in Clinical Sciences. Since joining 

the College, I have continued with my clinical work in 

neurology and research in cognitive neurosciences. 

This academic year I contributed to publications 

in The Journal of Psychopharmacology, Cortex, 

Neuropsychologia and Brain focusing on neural 

mechanisms of motivation and memory in neurological 

diseases. Outside of my clinical and academic work, I gained a place on the first 



cohort of Future Leaders in Industry, Enterprise and Research (FLIER), a UK leadership 

programme developed by The Academy of Medical Sciences. In addition, I was elected 

as a representative for The Joint Neurosciences Council and have now also become 

a clinical lead for the education platform eBrain where I head the development of the 

neurosciences course for medical students. 

Poorna Mysoor (Law) 

The academic year 2019-20 began with two guest 

lectures I delivered. The first was at the Centre for 

Intellectual Property and Information Law (CIPIL) at the 

Law Faculty, University of Cambridge. I spoke on a 

methodology for implying copyright licences. I received 

incisive and helpful feedback from the audience. The 

second was at the LTEC Lab, School of Law, University 

of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. I spoke on the right of 

communication to the public and the internet and how implied licences can help resolve 

some of the copyright issues online. 

I was invited to be a Visiting Fellow at the EW Barker Centre for Business Law, 

Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore. I spent the whole month of February 

there, conducting my research and engaging with the academic community. I gave a 

seminar at the Centre on issues of copyright infringement on the internet. While I was 

in Singapore, I also received an invitation to present at the School of Law, Singapore 

Management University. I spoke on the influences of private law on copyright law. 

I also had an opportunity to present at the webinar organised by the Faculty of Law at 

Oxford on ‘Property Law Connections’. I presented a paper on ‘Form and Copyright – A 

Property Debate’, which was well received. This paper is part of my larger Leverhulme 

project which examines the analogies of tangible property principles in copyright law. A 

paper derived from this presentation is being published by the Journal of the Copyright 

Society of the USA in its summer 2020 issue. 

Chris O’Callaghan (Medicine) 

In early 2020 I broke several bones in a cycle accident 

coming down Headington Hill and by the time I was 

fit again the coronavirus pandemic was upon us. All 

teaching and non-COVID research were shut down in 

the clinical departments and I rapidly became immersed 

in full-time clinical duty on the ‘frontline’ in acute general 

medicine and in renal medicine. I still do general medical 

‘takes’ – seeing people with acute illness and caring for 


them if they are admitted to hospital – and even in normal times this can be very busy 

with unwell people, but the pandemic was unlike anything I have ever experienced. 

COVID-19 is a fearsome pathogen and day after day I saw young and old people 

brought to the hospital gasping for breath and terrified that they were infected. While 

some improved and recovered, sadly others did not. Soon members of staff were falling 

ill too and some did not survive. The sad consequences of the pandemic on patients 

and their loved ones are well known and seeing this at first hand and at scale was 

painful. 


In this context, I was hugely impressed with my medical, nursing and other colleagues, 

who continued to come to work and care for patients despite significant personal risk. 

People really did go out of their way to help each other and this and the positive morale 

was inspiring. To their great credit, some of our clinical students volunteered to help in 

the hospital and the sixth year students graduated early to take on a professional role. 

Let us hope that we never see anything like this again, but it has been, for me, a very 

real reminder of the great power of people to be kind and help other, even when the 

going gets tough. 

Richard Bruce Parkinson (Egyptology) 

A sabbatical year allowed me to revive a long-standing 

project to write a commentary on The Tale of Sinuhe. 

The sabbatical began in October with a trip to Cairo to 

teach at the annual Académie hiératique at the Institut 

français d’archéologie orientale (podcast: bit.ly/RBPoct19). 

I was able to examine the copies of the poem in 

the Institut’s collection and to visit locations that feature 

in the poem; some lectures for the Excellency cluster 

‘Temporal Communities’ in Berlin gave me a chance to re-visit the papyrus of the 

poem there. Progress was assisted by a three month stay in Denmark as a visiting 

researcher in the Department of Cross-cultural and Regional Studies at the University 

of Copenhagen, generously enabled by the Nordea Foundation, and a first draft of the 

commentary has been completed. A planned recording of a companion poem with 

actress Barbara Ewing was postponed while she was locked-down in New Zealand, 

but our earlier work on Sinuhe was featured in the TORCH Light Night in November 

2019: bit.ly/source-code2019. 

I’ve learnt a lot from working with Christopher Hollings on the reception of Ancient 

Egyptian mathematics, and in the next years we will develop this historiographical project 

(which has strong links to Queen’s). Research on LGBT+ history continued with two 

articles on the reception of Ancient Egypt in twentieth century queer writers, Marguerite 

Yourcenar and E.M. Forster, and the British Museum’s touring exhibition ‘Desire, Love, 



Identity’, based on earlier work, reached the last of its five venues. Over 260,000 people 

visited the exhibition during the run, making it the most successful British Museum touring 

exhibition for the last six years. During the year, two doctoral students submitted their 

theses. My publications include an article for a volume on Ancient near Eastern traditions 

of libraries (OUP) and one for the Routledge Handbook of Sensory Archaeology. 

Jim Reed (German – honorary) 

My new book, Genesis. The Making of Literary Works 

from Homer to Christa Wolf is due to be published 

in New York on 15 September. An earlier book, The 

Classical Centre. Goethe and Weimar 1775-1832 was 

re-issued this year. Last autumn I gave a Kafka lecture 

in Prague, ‘Kafka häuslich’, since published in Oxford 

German Studies. With no new project in hand, I am 

currently writing some informal memoirs. 

Owen Rees (Music) 

My research this year reflected intersections between 

historical musicology and performance, focusing on the 

period from the late fifteenth century to the seventeenth, 

with particular emphasis on music in England and the 

Iberian Peninsula. A long-term project to record – with 

my ensemble Contrapunctus – music from the most 

important manuscript source of Tudor sacred music, 

the Baldwin Partbooks, reached its final stage with the 

editing work on an album of motets with psalm texts, by such composers as White 

and Mundy. Editorial reconstruction of many of these works was required in order for 

them to be performable, and several pieces had not been recorded before. Within 

the sphere of Iberian music I completed a book chapter and musical editions for an 

international project on Spanish and Portuguese polyphonic styles c.1500, examining 

the evidence for modular and formulaic ways of creating polyphony, the traces of 

which survive in a group of works preserved in Portuguese sources. 

A busy performing schedule between the autumn and the spring included a concert 

by Contrapunctus of fifteenth-century Burgundian works as part of the Laus 

Polyphoniae Festival (Antwerp), and a concert at Queen’s as part of Contrapunctus’s 

Oxford University residency, presenting little-known sacred music from seventeenthcentury 

Italy by Giovanni Legrenzi and contemporaries. I also spoke on Radio 3 about 

Contrapunctus’s new CD Salve, salve, salve: Josquin’s Spanish Legacy (Signum 

Classics), which explores how Spanish composers such as Morales, Guerrero, and 

Victoria emulated a favourite compositional device of Josquin Desprez. 


Alex Robertson (Materials) 

I’m now in a position where I finally feel that I’ve 

secured the founding of my group. My two DPhil 

students are well on their way to finishing their projects: 

one student (Shengda Pu, of Queen’s) has already 

published his first major lead author paper in the 

high impact journal ACS Energy Letters, where he 

identifies and films in real-time the growth of calcium 

metal dendrites in an operating calcium-ion battery 

cell at nanoscale resolutions. I’ve managed to secure a few modest grants, including 

one with enough funding to hire my first post-doctoral researcher – Dr Sapna 

Sinha – albeit only for less than a year! She will be researching how the atomic level 

structure of catalysts affects their performance, how this structure changes over their 

lifetime, and how those changes lead to performance loss. This work has important 

applications in making certain crucial reactions for energy applications commercially 

viable, and is being done in collaboration with my partners at the Korea Institute of 

Energy Research. The shutdowns of the past few months have rather stymied our 

research recently unfortunately, as we are heavily laboratory based, so we are glad 

that things are opening up now in the latter half of the year – and hopefully won’t 

have the need to reverse! 


Ritchie Robertson (German) 

I translated from German into English a 600-line poem in 

classical metres about Finland written by August Thieme 

(1780-1860). Originally published in 1808, the poem 

has now been issued by the Aue-Stiftung (a foundation 

dedicated to cultural relations between Finland and 

Germany) in a scholarly edition and accompanied by 

translations into Finnish, Swedish and Russian as well 

as English. I spoke at a symposium marking the public 

presentation of this edition in Helsinki in September 2019. 

Otherwise I have published an article on seventeenth-century German drama, 

‘“Verdammte Staats-Klugheit / die Treu und Bund heist brechen!” Reason of state in 

Lohenstein’s Cleopatra’, Journal of European Studies, 50, i (Feb. 2020), 77-90. 

I was elected an Honorary Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge, and attended a 

ceremony and dinner there in November 2019. 



Peter Robbins (Physiology) 

As for many people, the COVID-19 pandemic changed 

my immediate research plans. Major therapeutic 

approaches to COVID-19 include development of 

vaccines, immunomodulation to make the disease less 

severe and antivirals. However, we have been intrigued 

by the very low blood oxygen levels that can develop 

in patients who otherwise do not appear particularly 

unwell. These low levels of oxygen have proven more 

resistant to therapy with high oxygen than perhaps is common in other diseases. This 

type of hypoxia arises from the development of ‘shunt’ blood flows in the lung, where 

the blood never gets close to the gas and so cannot pick up oxygen in the normal way. 

From my physiological interest in the lung, I was aware of an old French drug called 

almitrine that can preferentially constrict the blood vessels in the lung through which 

shunt flow occurs. Thus this drug could give us a way of increasing oxygen levels 

in the blood that higher levels of inspired oxygen are not able to treat. It could also 

provide a means of treating patients in low income countries that do not have the 

infrastructure to provide oxygen. A medical charity called LifeArc has given us a grant 

to pursue a trial of using almitrine in hospitalised patients, and at the time of writing, 

the almitrine is being manufactured. It is also true at the time of writing that the number 

of cases of COVID-19 in the UK are now too low for us to be able to undertake the 

trial. I find, for the first time in my life, that I fervently wish to continue to be unable to 

undertake a piece of research that I have planned. 

Anna Seigal (Mathematics) 

An academic highlight of the year for me was being 

awarded the Richard C. DiPrima prize from SIAM (the 

Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics) for 

contributions of an early career researcher in applied 

mathematics. 

My research in the past year has focused on some 

algebraic and statistical directions. On the algebraic 

side, my paper on ‘Ranks and Symmetric Ranks of Cubic Surfaces’ was published 

in the Journal of Symbolic Computation, and a follow-up project on ‘Ranks and 

Singularities of Cubic Surfaces’, with UC Berkeley undergraduate student Eunice 

Sukarto, was accepted for publication in Le Matematiche. I had an enjoyable visit to 

TU Münich in February to work with my collaborators Carlos Améndola, Kathlén Kohn, 

and Philipp Reichenbach on a project that connects the pure mathematical area of 

invariant theory to statistical applications in the context of parameter estimation. 


In January I gave a plenary outreach talk at the ‘It all adds up’ conference at the 

Mathematical Institute in Oxford: an event for 250 school girls, which aims to 

encourage their mathematical interests. More recently, many conferences and visits 

were cancelled but I gave virtual seminar talks at the Chennai Mathematical Institute 

and the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in Leipzig, as well as a 

colloquium talk at the University of Amsterdam. 

Macs Smith (French) 


In December I signed a contract with MIT Press for my 

first book, Paris and the Parasite: Noise, Health, and 

Politics in the Media City, which will be published in May, 

2021. That was an extremely exciting milestone. One 

of the central themes of the book is how public health 

and sanitation intersect with hospitality; I completed the 

manuscript at my partner’s family home at the height 

of the lockdown in April, and it was an uncanny feeling 

to send the book off to the editor in those circumstances. This year also saw the 

publication in Modern Language Notes of an article I wrote on the obscure French 

poet-philosopher, Jules Romains. This summer I’ll start work in earnest on a book 

chapter discussing representations of Dante Alighieri in Italian street art and graffiti. 

That will be published in an edited volume of scholarship on Dante in contemporary 

society celebrating the poet’s 700 th birthday. This was my second year as the Hamilton 

Junior Research Fellow and, it turns out, my last, as I’ve been appointed to a Career 

Development Fellowship in French at Queen’s and will be taking on new teaching 

duties in Michaelmas. I had my first opportunity to teach Queen’s students this year 

and I’m looking forward to doing much more of it. 

Robert Taylor (Physics) 

I have been working on two major projects this year. 

The first related to the way nanostructures couple to 

each other and to optical cavities based on InGaAs 

quantum dots, and GaAs coupled quantum dots. 

The second involves the emission properties of 

nanostructures based on perovskite materials, where we 

have measured lasing and stimulated emission in these 

systems. This work will continue in the coming year. I 

published seven research articles in various journals. I was also Chair of Physics Finals 

this year, which proved somewhat challenging given the coronavirus epidemic! 



Daniel Walden (Music) 

This was my first year as a Junior Research Fellow 

in Music at Queen’s. After receiving my PhD in Music 

Theory from Harvard University this past November, 

I began work on my book manuscript, focused on 

the political entanglements of European and Asian 

theories of musical tuning and temperament. I spent 

February in India, scouring archives for primary sources 

on Hindustani tuning theory and interviewing singers 

and harmonium players on the post-colonial politics of Indian musical research. 

I am scheduled to present my findings at the 2020 annual meetings of the Royal 

Musicological Association, Society for Music Theory, and the Group for Analytical 

Approaches to World Music. 

My Fellowship has also provided me with the opportunity to pursue other projects in 

research and performance. My chapter ‘Pitch vs. Timbre’ was published last October 

in the Oxford Handbook to Timbre, and my review of new publications on François- 

Joseph Fétis and the global music theories of nineteenth-century France will be 

published in the next edition of Journal of Music Theory. I also gave a lecture-recital on 

the music of Frédéric Chopin and Johanna Kinkel at the Cobbe Collection in Surrey on 

Chopin’s own Pleyel, and the world premiere of Clara Iannotta’s ‘Eclipse Plumage’ for 

harpsichord and electronics at Gaudeamus Festival. 

I greatly enjoyed the opportunity before lockdown began to meet the talented 

musicians at Queen’s and Oxford while giving tutorials and collaborating in recitals. I 

look forward to our return to campus and to making chamber music together again. 


ACADEMIC DISTINCTIONS (* denotes distinction) 

Please note that this is not a complete list of our students; some candidates have 

chosen to opt out of public results listings. 

DPhil: 

Kathryn E. Acheson (Cardiovascular Science) 

Alessandro Alcinesio (Synthetic Biology) 

Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou (Zoology) 

Michael B. De La Bedoyere (Medieval and Modern Languages) 

Jack K. Fitzsimons (Engineering Science) 

Christopher C. Fowles (Philosophy) 

Pablo Gonzalez Martin (History) 

Julia C.F. Hamilton (Oriental Studies) 

Thomas K. Hiron (Clinical Medicine) 

Henry O.C. Jordan (Experimental Psychology) 

Dimitrios Marios Kanellakis (Classical Languages and Literature) 

Joely Kellard (Ion Channels and Disease) 

Ying Kai Loh (Inorganic Chemistry) 

Irina-Elena Lupu (Cardiovascular Science) 

Haoyu Niu (Inorganic Chemistry) 

Evangelos Oikonomou (Medical Sciences) 

Edmund A. Paxton (Partial Differential Equations) 

Chiara E. Salvador (Oriental Studies) 

Segye Shin (Economics) 

Isabelle A. Taylor (Environmental Research) 

Iris Tome Valencia (Oriental Studies) 

Yixuan Wang (Partial Differential Equations) 

Zhemeng Wu (Experimental Psychology) 


BCL: 

Samuel L. Gerber* 

MFA: 

Joshua B.R. Alexander* 

MJur: 

Christoforos Tsavatopoulos* 

MPhil: 

Angela Falezza (Classical Archaeology) 

Ho Wang Fong* (Egyptology) 

Nadia F. Haworth (Egyptology) 

Jennifer J. Wang (Economics) 



MPP: 

Nousheen N. Zoarder 

MSt: 

Morgan A. Daniels (English and American Studies) 

James R. Fellows (Musicology) 

Samuel D.B Moriarty* (English and American Studies) 

Marie-Gabrielle A.M. Pélissié du Rausas* (Greek and Latin Languages and Literature) 

Samuel G. Teague (Musicology) 

Chenxi Zhang (Ancient Philosophy) 

MSc: 

Yuan Ting Janet Chan* (Law and Finance) 

Emilia C.L. Jenkins (Japanese Studies) 

Arthur A. Kosmala* (Mathematical and Theoretical Physics) 

Anthony C. Munson (Mathematics and Foundations of Computer Science) 

Yue Ren* (Pharmacology) 

Wells P. Shaw (Financial Economics) 

Yang Tao (Japanese Studies) 

Eirini A.Tsoutsou* (Law and Finance) 

Jun Xie (Financial Economics) 

Qing Yu (Mathematical and Theoretical Physics) 

BM: 

Sarah S. Ahmed 

Molly M. Nichols 

Emma M. Roberts 

John Z. Tait* 

Mark J. Zorman 

PGCE: 

Elizabeth M.B. Bevan 

Samantha J. Drewett 

Samantha Kelly 

Marco F. Narajos 

Mallika Singh 

Diploma in Legal Studies: 

Charlotte A.M. Jalenques 


FINAL PUBLIC EXAMINATIONS 

Biological Sciences 

Second Class Division One 

Louise Cooke 

Sarah E. Whelan 

Fine Art 


Olivia J.A. Allen 

Sophia Y.W. Wee 


Chemistry 

First Class 

Kibum Park 

Karandip Saini 

Classics with Oriental Studies 

First Class 

Paul Hosle 

Henry Lewis 

English and Modern Languages 

First Class 

Kanak Shah (French) 

English Language and Literature 

First Class 

Ebrubaoghene Abel-Unokan 

Isaac Troughton 

European and Middle Eastern 

Languages 


Edward J. Tolmie (French and Arabic) 

Experimental Psychology 

First Class 

Jessica Martin 

Ella F. Peake 

Miri Yasuda 

History 

First Class 

Tilly A.F. Guthrie 

Philippa Monk 


Sean T. Eke 

Laura C. Gill 

Serena K. Parekh 

History and Modern Languages 

First Class 

Susannah T. Finlay (French) 

History and Politics 


Nicolai R. Haekkerup 

Jurisprudence 

First Class 

Benjamin O. Egan 


Jacob G. Alston 

Rebecca J. Brimble 

Megan K. Howells 



Literae Humaniores 

First Class 

Annis Easton 


Wilfred Sandwell 

Materials Science 

First Class 

Dylan Murray 


Johann Perera 

Cai I. Richards 

Mathematical and Theoretical Physics 

Distinction 

William F.B. Stone 

Merit 

Mingwei Ma 

Mathematics 


Angelika Ando 

Mathematics and Statistics 

First Class 

Dominika K. Bakalarz 

Qizhao Chen 

Matthew H.M. Goh 


Xinyang Li 

Chikashi Shirakawa Rison 

Medical Sciences 

First Class 

Beinn S.S.A. Khulusi 

Esme M. Weeks 


Zahra N. Choudhury 

Sahara Pandit 

Jack M. Wilson 

Modern Languages 

First Class 

Saskia V.M. Brown (Italian and Spanish) 

Samuel F. Davis (French and German) 

Gemma C. Smale (French) 


Thalia M.C. Kent-Egan (French and 

German) 

Katie B. Lawrence (Spanish) 

Modern Languages and Lingustics 

First Class 

Ross I.R. Lawrence (French) 

Second Class, Division One 

Nicole Bussey (Russian) 

Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry 

First Class 

Alexander Haoxuan Cui 

Joshua J. Downe 

Shakira K. Mahadeva 


Malgorzata Kasprzak 

Music 

First Class 

Stephanie K.R. Franklin 

Sarah E. Mattinson 

James R. Tomlinson 

Neuroscience 


Rebecca Janska 

Sophie Templer 


Oriental Studies 

First Class 

Hugo C.A. Cook (Egyptology and 

Ancient Near Eastern Studies) 

John Grieve (Chinese) 

Edward Platts (Chinese) 

Sara E.F. Pripitu (Arabic) 

Philosophy and Modern Languages 

First Class 

Joseph A.J.M. Tulloch (Italian) 

Philosophy, Politics, and Economics 

First Class 

Alexander Chalk 

Harry Croasdale 


Sam W. Appleton 

Kaspar G.W. Klemm 

Louis Pincott 

Physics 

First Class 

Gongqi Li 

Mingyu Liu 


Luke C. Concollato 

Thomas Swift 

Second Class Division Two 

Diptarko Chowdhury 

Psychology, Philosophy, and 

Linguistics 

First Class 

Alvin W.M.M. Tan 


FIRST PUBLIC EX AMINATIONS 

First BM 

Zahra Alawoad 

Marcus D. Roberts 

Bethan L. Storey 

Emily P.B. Thompson 

Honour Moderations 

Literae Humaniores 


Flora L.S. Brown 

Katherine De Jager 

Elizabeth C.B. Whitehouse 

Eleanor Whiteside 

Eleanor A. Woods 

Moderations 

Law 

Shaurya A. Kothari* 

Ivan Myachykov* 

Kevin A. Speranza 

Afra M. Sterne-Rodgers 

Preliminary Examinations 

Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics 

Lottie R. Shipp 

Daniel E. Storey 



UNIVERSITY PRIZES 

Allen & Overy Prize in Corporate Finance Law: Yuan Ting Janet Chan 

Gibbs Prize for the best performance in Linguistics Papers in the FHS in 

Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics: Alvin W.M.M. Tan 

Gibbs Prize for the best overall performance in the FHS in Psychology, 

Philosophy and Linguistics: Alvin W.M.M. Tan 

Gibbs Prize for the best overall performance in the Honour School of 

Mathematics and Statistics Part C: Matthew H.M. Goh 

Gibbs Prize for the best overall result achieved across all aspects of the FHS in 

Fine Art: Josiah McNeil 

Gibbs Prize for the best practical portfolio in the FHS in Psychology, Philosophy 

and Linguistics: Alvin W.M.M. Tan 

Harold Lister Sunderland Prize 2020 for performance in the Greek literature 

papers in the FHS of Literae Humaniores: Henry J.A. Lewis 

Law Faculty Prize for Best Performance in FHS Advanced Criminal Law: Megan 

K. Howells 

Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Part II Thesis Prize (first place): Kibum Park 

Scott Prize for the top 1st in the BA Physics: Gongqi Li 

Turbutt Prize for performance in 2nd year Practical Organic Chemistry 

examinations: James M. McGhee 

Turbutt Prize for practical performance in 1st Year Organic Chemistry: Jaka Sivavec 

2019 Prizes (notice received after the publication of last year’s College Record): 

Craven Prize for the second highest overall average in the FHS of Literae 

Humaniores, Classics & English, Classics & Modern Languages, Classics & 

Oriental Studies, Ancient & Modern History and Classical Archaeology & Ancient 

History: Brian H.S. Theng 

Gibbs Prize (Thesis in Latin Language and Literature): Brian H.S. Theng 

2 nd De Paravicini Prize for the best performance by a Course II student in the 

FHS of Literae Humaniores: Brian H.S. Theng 


COLLEGE PRIZES 

Alan Webster Prize: William Cashmore (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) 

Cecil King Prize: Jay D. Staker (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) 

Chandrasekhar Prize: Mingwei Ma (Mathematical and Theoretical Physics) 

Chowdhury-Johnson Prize in Medicine: Mark J. Zorman (Medicine) 

Chowdhury-Johnson Prize Proxime Accessit: Beinn S.S.A. Khulusi 

Jack Wooding Prize: Bethan L. Storey (Medical Sciences) 

Many Prize: Ebrubaoghene Abel-Unokan (English Language and Literature) 

Temple Prize: Haoyu Ye (Mathematics), Xiaoyan Zhao (Mathematics) 




FROM THE BURSAR 

Andrew Timms 

It has been quite a year. In the space of a few weeks 

in March, the values of the College’s investment assets 

fell by a significant amount and many of its commercial 

tenants began to ask for deferrals or waivers of their 

obligations. At the same time, it became clear that we 

would earn relatively little student rent in Trinity term, as 

a result of the closure of the College’s main site during 

the lockdown, and also that our commercial conference 

and summer school revenues would most likely be 

wiped out in not just the Easter vacation but also the 

summer. The College thus faced simultaneous financial 

challenges from almost every conceivable angle; it 

seemed to be the wrong year to be a Bursar. 

At the time we estimated that income for the year (which ends in July for financial 

purposes) would be perhaps 11% less than the budgeted figure of £5.7 million, and 

this turned out to be nearly correct. At the end of the year, student residence income 

was more than £650k less than budgeted; conference income was around £400k 

lower. However, tuition income was not significantly affected by the crisis, and the 

College received nearly £375k from the government’s Job Retention Scheme (in 

respect of the nearly 100 staff who were furloughed). Moreover, the reduction in the 

level of College activity meant that considerable savings were made in expenditure. 

In the meantime, the College’s equity investments recovered a large proportion of 

their (unrealised) losses, and it became clear that the College’s relatively cautious 

approach to spending had protected it from the need to make redundancies or 

significant and painful cuts. So – for the College – what began as a shock did not 

turn into a disaster, but we are of course very mindful of the fact that many other 

individuals and businesses (including some other colleges in Oxford) are suffering to 

a much greater extent. 

The outlook is one of cautious confidence. The experience of Michaelmas term 2020 

suggests that demand for residential education has not been significantly impaired 

(or impaired at all, indeed), and it does not seem improbable that elite institutions 

offering good facilities and face-to-face contact with experts will continue to thrive. 

The alternative view would present a fundamental challenge to the College’s financial 

model (and indeed its existence in another sense). On the assumption that the College 

will emerge reasonably strongly from this period, we have decided to press ahead 

with various capital projects, including most notably the construction of a new porters’ 

lodge which will offer, for the first time, level-access to the College from the High 

Street, and thus significantly improve the physical accessibility of the site to those with 

disabilities. Further projects on a similar theme are expected to follow. 



The role of the Bursar is nowadays a rather broad one, and to some extent it oversees 

nearly all of the College’s activities outside of the academic sphere. It would be an 

even more challenging role were it not supported by a body of staff who, in the 

past 12 months, have demonstrated their commitment and loyalty to an extent that 

has been breath-taking. I am enormously grateful to them for their tireless efforts in 

keeping the College functioning. Oxford colleges are sometimes criticised for being 

undynamic or traditionally minded: the past year has demonstrated just how nimble 

and energetic an institution we are. The extent to which our activities continued – 

whether in lockdown or after – was impressively high; all critical systems continued 

without disruption. 

My end is in my beginning: it has been quite a year. I sincerely hope that the next few 

will be thoroughly dull in comparison. 



OUTREACH 

Katharine Wiggell 

Schools Liaison, 

Outreach and 

Recruitment Officer 

At Queen’s, we want to make sure that we are attracting 

applications from the best and brightest students, 

regardless of their social or economic background. 

The outreach work the College undertakes aims to 

help young people – typically from backgrounds not 

traditionally significantly represented at Oxford – to 

develop the confidence, skills and knowledge they need 

to make an application to highly selective universities. 

We work with schools from all over the country; however, 

through the University’s Regional Outreach Strategy, 

Queen’s provides the first point-of-contact for schools 

in regions in the North West of England (Cumbria, 

Lancashire, Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen), as 

well as the London Boroughs of Lewisham and Sutton. 

Most of our outreach work is therefore aimed at students attending state secondary 

schools in these areas. Where possible, we prioritise working with those schools 

and colleges that have not seen a large number of their students progress to highly 

selective universities in recent years. We offer visits to Queen’s, allowing students the 

chance to experience life here on day trips or residential programmes, and I also visit 

students in their local area to run talks and workshops. We also enjoy collaborating 

with others to deliver sustained contact programmes, such as the Lewisham Oxbridge 

Programme, which we run in partnership with Lewisham Council and Gonville and 

Caius College, Cambridge. 

The start of the 2019-20 academic year was busy, with the usual visits to schools 

and colleges in our link regions. We focused our provision in Michaelmas term on 

working primarily with Sixth Formers: giving ‘Demystifying Oxbridge’ talks to Year 12 

students and their supporters and advising them on ways to engage with their subject 

throughout the course of the year, and also delivering ‘Admissions Advice’ sessions 

to Year 13 students as they prepared to send off UCAS applications and prepped 

for their upcoming interviews. We were really pleased to see some familiar faces 

when it came to the December admissions round, with students who had attended 

the previous Open Days Plus and North West Science Residential being invited for 

interview. (Some of them will be starting their studies at Oxford in October 2020!) 

Hilary term began with a number of in-house visits from link schools, as well as a 

couple of trips to the North West for me, to speak at the Cumbria Student Conference 

in Workington and to visit schools in the surrounding area with my Cambridge 

counterpart from Fitzwilliam College. Throughout the year, work continued behind 


the scenes with colleagues at Corpus Christi, Pembroke and St Peter’s to develop a 

new programme of Outreach provision targeted at state schools and colleges in the 

North West. Whilst plans for a launch road-trip to the area in the summer months of 

2020 unfortunately had to be postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are 

hopeful that the Oxford for North West programme will be able to commence soon, 

and we can foster new relationships with students and educators. 

Plans for UCAS Fairs and our North West Science Residential unfortunately had to 

be cancelled as we approached the Easter vacation and the UK went into lockdown. 

As a result of the pandemic, we had to rethink our support for schools, and digital 

events and resources replaced long train rides to our link regions to deliver in-person 

workshops and talks. We added to our bank of online resources, sharing supercurricular 

suggestions with students on social media, and creating a College tour 

video which was extremely popular during the Oxford University Virtual Open Days 

on 1 and 2 July 2020. During Michaelmas and Hilary, I had worked with our Head of 

Communications, Emily Downing, on a new video with local company, Angel Sharp 

Productions, which also proved popular when released in Trinity, amassing over 2,000 

views so far. The video, entitled ‘Words to know before coming to Oxford University’ 

went through some of Oxford’s more unusual vocabulary – such as Collections, JCR, 

Porters, and many more – that may confuse some applicants. It also showed our 

students in their natural habitat, whether partying in the Beer Cellar after the Oxmas 

Formal, studying in the Library, or relaxing in the JCR. 


Katharine filming the tour of College, with undergraduate Mukahang Limbu 



Our fantastic Student Ambassadors continued to give up their time whilst studying at 

home during Trinity term, answering questions during the July Open Days, creating 

‘Meet the Students’ videos for the College’s YouTube channel, and interacting 

with prospective applicants on our ‘Ask Queen’s’ page. This initiative, set up in 

partnership with The Access Platform, allows school students to message our current 

undergraduate ambassadors with queries about life at Oxford and at Queen’s, and 

for application advice and guidance. During the UK lockdown, we saw a significant 

increase in the number of prospective applicants using the platform, with some really 

insightful and supportive conversations taking place. We also worked with The Access 

Platform to host virtual Little Open Days during June 2020. Hopefully some of these 

virtual events will be able to continue even when life returns to ‘normal’ as they have 

allowed us to support prospective applicants from all around the globe in ways that we 

had not previously explored. 

We are hopeful that we will soon be able to welcome school visits back to Queen’s. 

Whilst adapting to online provision has been an exciting challenge and has allowed us 

to develop our existing resources, we are aware that experiencing Oxford in person 

is really the best way for prospective applicants to discover if it is a place they will 

enjoy living and studying in for the next few years of their lives. Plus, nothing can quite 

beat the feeling of seeing a group of students, wide-eyed and excited as they see our 

impressive Front Quad or magnificent Library for the first time; or the look of relief on 

their faces when they meet our lovely Student Ambassadors in person and realise that 

they are, in so many respects, just like them. 


ADMISSIONS 

Jon Doye 

Tutor for Admissions 

Outreach by the colleges is one of the prime means 

by which the University seeks to reach its admissions 

objectives. The success of these outreach endeavours 

is reflected in the increasing percentages of Oxford’s 

UK intake that are from the state sector and 

disadvantaged backgrounds (these trends can be seen 

in the University’s Admissions Statistical Report that is 

published annually). Although the data at the college 

level can vary more from year to year, it is noteworthy 

that the Queen’s 2020 intake had a record proportion 

from state schools. 

This year the University’s new Access and Participation 

Plan was submitted to the Office for Students with 

particular targets to further increase the numbers of students from disadvantaged 

backgrounds at Oxford. One of the flagship programmes to help achieve this is 

Opportunity Oxford, a scheme to help better prepare offer holders from underrepresented 

backgrounds to flourish at Oxford. The first cohort on the programme 

have just started at Oxford, including two students at Queen’s. A foundation year 

programme (Foundation Oxford) is also in the advanced stages of development. 


The effects of the coronavirus pandemic have had a significant impact on admissions: 

firstly, as already mentioned by the Provost, through the challenges arising from the 

A-level grading fiasco. It will also mean that in the upcoming admissions exercise all 

interviews will take place remotely. 



A YEAR IN THE LIBRARY 

There has been an element of Alice in Wonderland 

about this year – with things getting curiouser and 

curiouser as the year has gone on. The College and 

Library went into lockdown towards the end of March 

and plans are currently underway to reopen by mid- 

September but in a carefully moderated way to ensure 

that both staff and students can work and study safely. 

Tessa Shaw 

Acting Librarian 

September 2019 saw the departure of our Librarian 

Amanda Saville, who left behind the fabulous New 

Library as one of her many legacies from the eighteen 

years she was at Queen’s. It is hoped that by the time 

you read this the new Librarian Dr Matthew Shaw will 

have joined us, from the Institute of Historical Research, 

University of London. The interregnum has seen me as Acting Librarian, combined 

with the role of Reader Services, alongside my colleagues Sarah Arkle, Technical 

Services Librarian and Dominic Hewett, the Library Assistant. We have taken a flexible 

and adaptable approach to our job roles during lockdown in order to best meet the 

varying needs of our readers. Happily, we have been rewarded with the recognition 

that we have done this well and the use of online resources has never been greater. It 

might be that the pandemic represents the crossing of the Rubicon, with less reliance 

on printed books and more sustained use of electronic resources. The cooperation 

and communication across the Oxford libraries, in addition to many publishers 

granting free e-access to their titles, have been key features in delivering resources 

and supporting academics and students throughout this period. 

September 2019 to the end of February 2020 did have some highlights on which I 

can report. Laetitia Pilgrim, a final year History student, made history by curating the 

first ever undergraduate exhibition – ‘Sensing the Sacred: the materiality and aurality 

of religious texts’ – coupled with a well-attended talk in the Shulman Auditorium. 

The linked podcast (along with the previous two in the series) can be accessed at 

podcasts.ox.ac.uk/series/libcast-queens-college. 

Professor Jon Keating, the newly arrived Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy, 

also made history by turning the handle on the Orrery in the Upper Library. It is a 

privilege reserved for the post holder and the Patroness of the College – for reasons 

that are not entirely clear. Whilst the handle has been turned, previously it has never 

been opened up as an event to everyone in College and characteristically the invitation 

was met with an enthusiastic response. In hindsight, it was an evening of comparative 

wild abandon, fettered as we now are by social distancing. A time-lapse recording can 

be viewed at bit.ly/queens-orrery. 



The Orrery in the Upper Library 

Dr Katherine Hunt, Career Development Fellow in English and Dr Christopher Hollings, 

Clifford Norton Senior Research Fellow in the History of Mathematics made use of the 

special collections for teaching purposes. Undergraduates and graduates have been 

able to learn from these unique texts with very positive feedback: ‘having the Library’s 

collection so easily accessible has been vital to developing the palaeographical skills 

required at Master’s level, as well as enabling me to further improve the quality of 

my scholarship.’ The New Library accommodation has lent itself particularly well to 

facilitating this use of the special collections. 

A number of collections were enhanced over the course of the year. The welfare 

and wellbeing collections in the Library are now better able to provide all members 

of College with access to resources to support them in their studies and College 

life. These were selected following consultation with the College welfare team and 

recommendations from the wider University, including the Disability Advisory Service. 

The general reading section has been refreshed with titles from a diverse range of 

authors – more accurately reflecting the diversity of the Queen’s community and the 

world outside Oxford. The collection of modern foreign language films has been much 

improved following a collaborative project by both MFL students and academics to 

recommend titles. 

In summary, 2020 is a year that definitely landed marmalade side down! However 

we have found ways of working to support the College community and there has 

been a coming together across College that bodes well for the future. The advent of 

Michaelmas term will be the next big step and I hope when these notes are written 

next year that there is less of ‘I don’t know’ and more certainty for us all to rely on. 



A YEAR IN THE ARCHIVE 

This report really should be titled ‘Half a Year in the 

Archive’ as the Archive closed down entirely from April 

to September 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic 

forced the main College site to close and I was put 

onto furlough. 

Michael Riordan 

Archivist 

This meant that, sadly, one of the projects I described 

in last year’s Record was unable to proceed. We 

planned to appoint an Assistant Archivist to allow 

us to re-catalogue the entire Archive. Obviously, this 

was impossible while I was furloughed, and even on 

my return the need for more flexibility in working from 

home would make it difficult to carry out a project 

where physical access to the records is essential. 

It also seems unwise to add an extra member of staff into the New Library, which 

already has five members of staff sharing office space. We hope it will be possible to 

start the project in 2021. 

We were, however, thankfully able to start our second project: the cleaning, repair 

and rehousing of the College’s medieval deeds. These had been kept since 1930 in 

the Bodleian and are now in the Historic Collections and Archive Store in the New 

Library. They have been kept in the same, rather decrepit, boxes since 1930 and are 

now being rehoused in specially designed envelopes and boxes which will ensure their 

long term preservation. So far 690 of them have been cleaned and rehoused; this 

is less than we hoped as the Oxford Conservation Consortium also had to close for 

three months due to the pandemic. However, work has begun again and a further 182 

deeds are currently in the conservation studio. 

For the first half of the year the Archive’s normal activities continued, including an 

exhibition of documents showcasing the College’s relationship with the North. I also 

gave a talk on College history to Old Members at the Jubilee Matriculation Lunch and 

a (very wet and bedraggled) tour of the College for those attending the study day on 

the Chapel’s 300 th anniversary. Before we closed the doors there were 18 researchers 

who visited to carry out research in the Archive, and I answered a further 121 enquiries 

by email which included queries about Thomas Hardy, Reginald Jacques (whose 

‘green’ book will be familiar to carol singers!) and the College’s cook in the 1820s who 

was running a hotel in Cheltenham on the side! 



A map of Wheldale, Yorkshire, 1769. The manor of Wheldale was given to the College by Lady 

Betty Hastings to fund the Hastings scholarships. 



A YEAR IN THE CHAPEL 

The Revd Katherine Price 

Chaplain 

‘Now, O Lord, who hast enabled us to build this House 

for thine honour and our own Happiness, let thy Holy 

Spirit sanctify it, and us.’ (Provost John Gibson, sermon 

on the consecration of the Chapel, 1 November 1719) 

On All Saints’ Day 1719, when the Fellows of the 

College gathered to celebrate the consecration of their 

new Chapel by the Archbishop of York, they undertook 

to keep the building in good repair and to hold regular 

services. This year, the College has certainly been 

keeping the first part of that promise. The re-roofing 

has gone to schedule and with minimal disruption to 

Chapel activities, although the shutdown put paid to 

my hopes of posing on the roof in a cassock! Many 

thanks are due to David Goddard, who has retired as Clerk of Works but stayed on 

to oversee the project. 

The gradual removal of scaffolding from the Chapel building in August (photo by Grace Finlay) 


Regular services have been a different 

matter. We started the academic year with 

a celebration of the Chapel building, and we 

could scarcely have imagined we would end 

by learning to manage without it. For me, the 

highs and lows of this past year have only 

reinforced the importance of sacred space. 

As many of us have been experiencing the 

challenges of life when ‘work’ and ‘home’ 

are the same room, we can appreciate 

anew the necessity of a place set apart, 

where we take up Jesus’ invitation to 

‘come away with me to a quiet place.’ 


At the start of the 2019-20 year, the 

Chapel welcomed a new occupant to the 

Provost’s stall. Dr Claire Craig has fully 

engaged with Chapel as an integral part 

of the College’s life, and we gave her a 

memorable first term, with a schedule of 

events to coincide with the Chapel’s threehundredth 

anniversary. On 3 November 

Archbishop Sentamu in the College Chapel 

we hosted the College Visitor, the Most 

Revd and Rt Hon. Dr John Sentamu, 

Archbishop of York, for his final visit to the College before his retirement this year. 

In his sermon, he described the Chapel as ‘a home for God to be hospitable.’ 

The following week, we were joined for a study day by historians Dr Geoffrey Tyack, 

the Revd Professor William Whyte, and the Revd Dr Andrew Braddock, alongside our 

own Professor Owen Rees and archivist Michael Riordan. I was especially amused by 

Professor Whyte’s observation that we owe the preservation of the Chapel’s unspoiled 

eighteenth century interior to the stick-in-the-mud attitude of the College’s northern 

Fellowship, who were sceptical of spending money on the latest fads! (Some might 

say this remains a proud Queen’s tradition…) The talks were followed by a sell-out 

choir concert of music by Bach and Handel. 

That was the culmination of a challenging but exciting programme for the choir. We 

also shared our tercentenary celebrations with the nation, welcoming back BBC Radio 

3’s Choral Evensong crew for a live broadcast on 30 October, as well as recording 

a second evensong for later broadcast on International Women’s Day in March. Live 

broadcast worship was a new experience for me, and rather a hair-raising one! I 

was enormously grateful to hand over the sung parts of leading the service to my 

co‐chaplain for the term, the Revd Laurence Price. (The youngest and arguably most 

musical member of the Price household remained outside in his pram, ably watched 

over by our newly-arrived Professor of Philosophy!) 



It was very strange to see the Chapel and Old Tabarders’ Room transformed into a 

recording studio, and to be writing prayers in October to be broadcast in March. For 

those in the Chapel it felt very different from our regular act of worship, but thanks to 

those who got in touch to let us know it was a prayerful experience for the listeners. 

And it proved to be good practice for what was to come! By the time the recorded 

service was broadcast on 8 March we were already living in a different world, even 

if we didn’t yet fully realise it. As at the time of writing (August), the altar table is still 

dressed for Lent and the last entry in the services register records the suspension of 

worship in the final week of Hilary term. The shutdown of the entire College site has at 

least spared me the sensitive decisions which have divided some of my colleagues in 

the wider church. 

So for Trinity term, eighteenth century architecture gave way to twenty-first century 

technology. The last couple of weeks of the Easter vacation were a crash course in 

video, audio, and website editing – not exactly the main ministry skills I’d expected to 

be exercising as Chaplain! – in time for the launch of our Virtual Chapel on YouTube 

and Facebook. Fortunately I could rely on an excellent back catalogue of choir 

recordings, and the willingness of College members to contribute, as well as their 

inexhaustible tolerance of my bloopers (with special thanks to Owen Rees on that 

score!). It was a little nerve-wracking watching the live viewing figures go up and 

down on my first ‘e-vensong’, but maybe the payoff is being able to record 1.5K 

‘views’ in the attendance register…! The services will remain available online at 

www.queens.ox.ac.uk/virtual-chapel and on the College YouTube channel 

www.youtube.com/QueensCollegeOx. 

The Virtual Chapel has certainly been a lot of fun. We have been joined by Old Members 

and other friends from across the world, who would not have been able to attend in 

person, and given current members of the College a taste of Evensong without their 

needing to leave their bedrooms! The video format allowed us to be creative. For 

instance, we celebrated Pentecost with a collage of words and music in honour of the 

College’s strengths in languages and translation. Nevertheless, a due formality was not 

lacking where appropriate. Those who tuned in for the Revd Professor Paul Fiddes’ 

University Sermon on the Trinity will have seen the Preacher properly attired as per 

University regulations, albeit with the backdrop of his filing cabinet! 

But none of that will fully make up for what’s been lost this year, not least for our 

finalists. Many of them are the year group I welcomed as freshers in my own first year, 

and it feels inadequate to say goodbye to them via video rather than our customary 

Leavers’ Service. I cannot subscribe to the glib sentiment, ‘the church is the people 

not the building’. The Chapel has never been just for a regular club of churchgoers. 

The beauty of the architecture and choral music communicates the love of God to the 

whole College community and beyond. Indeed, making the videos has given me a 

fresh appreciation of the Chapel building, seeing hidden details through David Fisher’s 

exceptional new photographs. 



A detail of one of the stained glass windows at the east end of the Chapel, above the altar, 

showing the baby Jesus on Mary’s knee (photo by David Fisher) 

The College very much is the people, of course. But people are embodied, and 

the Christian faith affirms a God who became flesh to live with his flesh and blood 

people. How do we live an incarnational faith in a virtual world? I have once again 

taken inspiration from the Ascension, the subject chosen by our eighteenth century 

predecessors in the College to preside over all our gatherings in the Chapel. In the 

Feast of the Ascension, and in the closely following feast of Corpus Christi, we are 

reminded that Christ’s physical presence does not give way to physical absence. 

Rather, free from the limitations of his pre-resurrection body, he is liberated to be 

tangibly present everywhere that his people pray or act in his name. In the words 

of St Theresa of Avila: ‘Christ has no body now on earth but ours.’ As the College 

regroups, and we begin to see the long-term impact of this year’s events on our 

community, we will only see more clearly the value of those things for which the 

Chapel has stood for three hundred years. 



A YEAR IN THE CHAPEL CHOIR 

Organist Prof. Owen Rees; Senior Organ Scholar 

Laurence John; Junior Organ Scholar Tom Dilley; 

Maurice Pearton Choral Scholar and recipient of 

the Hilde Pearton Vocal Training James Tomlinson; 

Hildburg Williams Lieder Scholar Jacob Clark; 

Librarians Sarah Mattinson, Jake Sternberg 

Owen Rees 

Organist 

A particularly busy schedule of autumn engagements 

for the choir began – bizarrely but memorably – with a 

performance of music from the Harry Potter films beside 

‘Platform 9¾’ at King’s Cross Station, as part of the 

now famous annual event to mark the departure of the 

Hogwarts Express on 1 September. A few weeks later 

members of the choir – resplendent in period costume 

– were at the Ingatestone Hall in Essex to film the Boar’s Head Carol for BBC 2’s A 

Merry Tudor Christmas with Lucy Worsley. The celebrations of the 300 th anniversary 

of the consecration of the chapel included a live broadcast of Choral Evensong on 

BBC Radio 3 featuring music by composers associated with the college (Herbert 

The choir performing Handel’s Messiah in the University Church 



Howells, Bernard Rose, Kenneth Leighton and David Bednall), and a concert of music 

contemporary with the completion of the new chapel, by Bach and Handel. For the 

performance of Handel’s coronation anthem Zadok the Priest the current choir was 

joined by a large number of previous choir members, producing an absolutely thrilling 

effect. The instrumental ensemble for this concert was the Oxford-based Instruments 

of Time and Truth, with whom the choir again collaborated for a concert performance 

of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 in Hilary term. 

In the final week of Michaelmas term the choir gave a concert of Christmas music at 

Great Milton, in the series hosted by Raymond Blanc’s hotel and restaurant Le Manoir 

aux Quat’Saisons. There followed a performance of Handel’s Messiah to a capacity 

audience in the University Church, which was also the choir’s first performance 

with the Academy of Ancient Music, one of the world’s leading period-instrument 

ensembles. A CD recording project with this ensemble, scheduled for June, was 

postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the pandemic also of course led 

to the cessation of choral services, but the choir came together during Trinity term to 

make a virtual-choir recording of Brahms’s Geistliches Lied (bit.ly/choir-brahms). 

The choir’s recording of Christmas music by Michael Praetorius and modern 

composers, and featuring Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, was issued as the cover CD 

of the December 2019 issue of BBC Music Magazine, and a BBC Radio 3 recording 

of Choral Evensong (recorded in Michaelmas term) was broadcast in March 2020 

to mark International Women’s Week. All the music on the broadcast, including the 

psalms hymn, and organ voluntary, was by women composers, including Judith 

Bingham, Roxanna Panufnik, Rebecca Clarke, Cecilia McDowall and Ethel Smyth. 

Particular thanks go to our Senior Organ Scholar, Laurence John, who has given three 

years of excellent service to the choir, chapel and College. 



CHAPEL ROOF PROJECT 

In August 2019 the College began a 54 week project 

to replace the entire lead work on both Chapel and Hall 

roofs. Due to the condition of the lead sheeting, both 

had become vulnerable to water ingress, as several of 

the large bays of lead had started to slip and many of 

the sheets and guttering had developed large splits. 

Within the College records there is no reference to the 

roof coverings previously being replaced on this building 

at any time within its 300 year history. 

David Goddard 

Project Consultant 

The programme of work comprised replacement of 

the existing lead finishes to both the north and south 

roof slopes, along with the parapet gutters around the 

perimeter of the building. Up to date methodology, along 

with newer building control regulations, stipulated that the maximum size of the new 

lead sheeting would have to be smaller in width than that of the existing. In essence 

this means that along each slope an additional eight bays had to be incorporated. 

Four additional bays have been created at the hip end west elevation of the Hall, and 

a further nine bays added to the semi-circular east end. One of the main reasons for 

the change to the regulations was to reduce the potential for excess expansion and 

contraction and to avoid the lead sheets splitting. A ventilation detail to the central 

ridge section and perimeter gutter also had to be incorporated within the new design. 

All of these changes required advance approval from the local conservation authority. 

Before and 

after shots of 

timber boards 

that sit directly 

underneath the 

leadwork 



Defective 

stonework prior 

to replacement 

and a newlyrepaired 

section 

In order to obtain safe access to the roof and building elevations, it was necessary to 

construct a comprehensive independent scaffolding, which included a temporary roof for 

weather protection and an electronic hoist for the safe transportation of heavy materials. 

In addition to replacing the lead sheeting, various other elements of refurbishment and 

upgrade were undertaken which included: 

• Extensive structural timber repairs to the base of several of the primary trusses 

which had started to decay due to water ingress. The locations were concealed 

beneath the gutter and not generally visible within the roof void. 

• Minor repairs to the copper sheeted domed roof above the clock tower. 

• Specialist cleaning and repair of the stained-glass windows. 

• Stone repairs to all three exposed facades, including the bell tower and the carved 

finials around the perimeter of the College clock. 

• An upgrade of the lightning protection system to incorporate five additional vertical 

conductors along with excavation of associated earth connection pits. 

• Installation of a new trace heating and leak detection system to alleviate the 

potential issue of water ingress associated with the freeze and thaw cycle of snow 

and ice build-up. 

• Installation of a leak detection system at the gutter outlet sumps to give early 

warning of any blockages in these locations. 



• An upgrade of the fire detection system to a more efficient aspirating air sampling 

system with new discreet detector heads concealed within the ceiling’s sculptured 

plasterwork. 

• Essential repairs to the College clock, including an adjustment to the timing motor to 

correct an ongoing issue, along with a major service and overhaul. 

• Complete replacement of the internal roof insulation in both Hall and Chapel roof void. 

• Installation of a new fall arrest anchorage system, in order to comply with current 

safety measures and facilitate future maintenance tasks. 

This was an extremely challenging project, considering that both the Chapel and 

Hall are at the heart of the College community, and that both buildings had to remain 

functional throughout the programme of work. The project was further compromised 

in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced a temporary suspension. 

When the site was reopened, the project was five weeks behind schedule. However, 

due to the expertise of the project management team and willingness of the contractors 

to work additional hours, I can report that the delay was subsequently recovered and 

the project was successfully completed on time, and ready for the College to host its 

first post-lockdown event which was a wedding on the 29 August 2020. 

The new roof (photo by Jamie Unwin) 


On behalf of the College, I would like to acknowledge our gratitude to the following 

members of the construction team: 

Sidley’s Chartered Surveyors (design, contract administration and cost control) 

Wooldridge and Simpson (main contractor) 

Vaughn Lawfull Associates (structural engineers) 

Andrew Alder Associates (safety advisors – CDM consultant) 

Scaffold Designers Ltd (scaffold design) 

N Lee and Son Ltd (lead work) 

OG Stonemasonry Contractors Ltd (stone repairs) 

Holywell Glass Ltd (stained glass restoration) 

Cliveden Conservation (ceiling modifications and localised restoration) 

Lowe and Oliver Ltd (electrical installation) 

H & H Contract Scaffolding Ltd (scaffolding contractor) 

Omega Red Group (lightning protection and fall arrest system) 

Trinity Fire and Security Systems (fire detection) 

SSH Civils Ltd (groundworks) 

ECO Environmental Services Ltd (bird control) 

Cliff Newport Carpentry Ltd (carpentry) 

Floyd Consultant (timber survey) 

Cotswold Metal Roofing Ltd (copper roofing) 

ORAC Ltd (air conditioning service and maintenance) 

Diamond Controls Ltd (leak detection and trace heating) 

Mr J. Richards (horologist) 

Martin North Services (chimney sweep) 

Chris Lewis Fire and Security (access control) 

The Queen’s College Workshop (roof access joinery) 




CENTRE FOR MANUSCRIPT AND TEXT 

CULTURES 

Dirk Meyer 

Fellow in Chinese and 

Director of CMTC 

Thanks to generous support from the College, the Centre 

for Manuscript and Text Cultures (CMTC) was launched 

in the academic year of 2018-19 as an inter- and crossdisciplinary 

research centre for the study of material text 

cultures and their written artefacts. The Centre builds 

on, and substantially expands – methodologically and 

in scope – the activities of the Workshop for Manuscript 

and Text Cultures (WMTC), which has been running 

successfully in the College since 2012. The members of 

Queen’s involved the organisation of the Centre are John 

Baines (Egyptology), Angus Bowie (Classics), Charles 

Crowther (Ancient History), Fabienne Heuzé (Sanskrit, 

John P. Clay Scholar), Christopher Metcalf (Classics), Dirk 

Meyer (Chinese Philosophy), Selena Wisnom (Sumerian 

and Akkadian); but we had much help, technical and 

otherwise, from colleagues in Oxford and elsewhere. 

‘Manuscript and Text Cultures’ describes a phenomenon that begins when written 

documents start to circulate more widely and knowledge transmission becomes 

increasingly text-centred and no longer a predominantly oral exercise. The Centre 

offers a platform for both established scholars and research students engaged in 

the recovery, decipherment and interpretation of texts from a broad range of premodern 

cultures across the globe in which this phenomenon can be observed. Our 

activities are designed to enable scholars to share their experiences and develop new, 

collaborative research topics across disciplinary boundaries. The Centre combines 

traditional approaches, such as philology, epigraphy and papyrology, with new 

methodologies inspired by communication theory, information science, philosophy, 

and other disciplines, so as to generate a common language for the study of the 

material conditions of meaning production and memory across time and space. Its 

interdisciplinary approach sets out to drive our understanding of processes underlying 

human creation of knowledge and meaning in new ways with clarity and rigour. In 

this way the Centre hopes to enable informed debate across subject boundaries 

and to contribute to shaping an emerging field of enquiry into the material factors of 

knowledge production in literate societies. 


Since we launched the Centre 

it has gained in international 

visibility, and its activities have 

expanded to include new partners. 

A Memorandum of Understanding 

was signed last year with the Jao 

Tsung-I Academy (JAS), Hong 

Kong Baptist University, to promote 

scholarly exchange and research 

collaborations between the two 

centres over the next five years. We 

also completed the international 

competitions for the designs of 

the Centre’s logo and journal, 

Manuscript and Text Cultures. 


Signing ceremony for the Memorandum of 

Understanding between CMTC and JAS in 

November 2019 

The academic year 2019-20 

was an exciting albeit sometimes 

challenging year for the Centre. 

Owing to the epidemic we had 

to cancel our activities for the 

latter half of Trinity term. 

A. Lunchtime colloquia 

As part of the Centre’s activities we hold twice-termly lunchtime colloquia (in weeks 2 

and 4) with two speakers each. The colloquia are designed to give research students 

and early career scholars working on different aspects of manuscript and text cultures in 

literate societies the opportunity to present their work at an academic event outside their 

usual department, and to receive critical yet supportive comments by specialists working 

on related questions in different fields: www.queens.ox.ac.uk/lunchtime-colloquia. 

B. Workshops 

Central to our activities are our oncetermly 

workshops. At these events 

leading local and international scholars 

present a research paper, followed by 

long and intense discussions. Speakers 

in the last academic year were Dr Stewart 

Brookes (Oxford) in MT19, who read 

‘Hebrew palaeography and iconography 

Japanese scroll from the Edo period 

from a computer-assisted perspective’; and 

Professor Peter Kornicki (Cambridge) in HT20 

who read a paper on ‘Keeping knowledge secret in Edo Japan (1600–1868)’. The TT20 

paper had to cancelled owing to the pandemic: www.queens.ox.ac.uk/workshops. 



Yuelu Academy, Hunan University, founded in 976 for the study of metaphysics 

C. International conferences 

The Centre held three international conferences in the academic year 2018-19. 

Conference activities in 2019-20 were naturally quieter. The activities of the previous 

year are now being worked up into peer-reviewed journal issues. The Centre 

organised a three-day international conference on ‘The Materiality of Knowledge in 

Chinese Thought, Past and Present’ (3-6 September 2019), held at Yuelu Academy, 

Hunan University, Changsha, one of the four ancient universities in China. Accepting 

that knowledge is shaped, sustained, and framed by socio-material factors, the 

conference explored ways in which materiality has affected, and will continue to affect, 

the perception, processing, and production of knowledge in China. To disrupt the 

usual reflex of seeing the world through a western-specific lens, the conference was 

conceived as the first of two events: the first conceptualised the field on the materiality 

of knowledge in China, while the second will reach out into cross- and inter-disciplinary 

research with an inter-cultural focus: www.materialityofknowledge.org. 

D. The Journal Manuscript and Text Cultures 

Work on Manuscript and Text Cultures continues apace. The journal will appear once 

a year digitally and in print on demand in themed issues. It is double-blind peerreviewed. 

With the journal we follow a strict open-access policy. 

The first journal issue, ‘Transposition and Monumentality of Writing in Pre-modern 

Epigraphic and Manuscript Traditions’ has now been fully peer-reviewed, and we are 

currently getting the infrastructure in place for the Open Access online platform and 

print-on-demand. 


The first issue contains eight articles covering various civilisations, from Northern 

Europe to Southern America: 

• In the Midst of Great Kings: The Monumentalization of Text in the Iron Age Levant 

• The function of wax-covered writing boards in the transposition of texts in the 

Kassite period 

• The Page as Monument: Epigraphical Transposition in the runica manuscripta 

Tradition of Early Medieval England 

• Ego sum lapis: representing Latin textuality in medieval Scandinavian runic 

inscriptions 

• Monumentalizing Metaphors: Diphrasis in the Murals of Tulum (Mayan) 

• From Royal Court to Ancestral Shrine: Transposition of Command Documents in 

Early Chinese Epigraphy 

• Monumentalizing ritual texts in ancient Egyptian pyramids 

• Manuscripts and monuments: the ten contracts of Djefai-Hapi and economies of 

knowledge (Egypt) 

The peer-review processes for volumes 2 (Navigating the Text: Textual Articulations 

and Divisions Across Cultures) and 3 (La page monumentalisée) have already begun. 


3 

3 

that 

more 

text 

focus 

and 

ssion 

cross 

TRANSPOSITION 

AND MONUMENTALITY 

in Pre-Modern Epigraphic and 

Manuscript Traditions 

is the journal of the Centre for Manuscript and 

Text Cultures at The Queen's College in the 

University of Oxford. 

‘Manuscript and Text Cultures’ describes a phenomenon that 

begins when handwritten manuscripts start to circulate more 

widely and knowledge transmission becomes increasingly text 

centred and no longer a predominantly oral exercise. The focus 

of the Centre lies on examining material aspects of writing and 

text production, including inscriptions, as well as transmission 

and the interface between the oral and the written, across 

pre-modern literate societies. 

TRANSPO 

AND MON 

in Pre-Moder 

Manuscript T 

03 2019 

Vol 3 

03 2019 

Vol 3 

SSN, e-ISSN 

The journal cover, classic yet modern 



THE QUEEN’S TRANSLATION EXCHANGE 

Charlotte Ryland 

Director of the Queen’s 

Translation Exchange 

When we founded the Queen’s Translation Exchange 

(QTE) in 2018, our focus was on establishing in-person 

interaction and exchange. We wanted to bring together 

people of all ages to discuss and share literature from 

across the globe. This kind of personal and creative 

interaction, we were sure, would foster a love of 

languages and encourage participants to engage with 

international culture, to learn new languages and – in 

the case of our youngest members – to go on to study 

languages at university. 

The pandemic posed a clear challenge to this focus 

on real-life encounters, but we were determined 

that school closures should not prevent pupils from 

engaging creatively with other languages and cultures, 

nor lockdown stop adults from reading and writing together. To this end, during spring 

and summer 2020 QTE developed a series of virtual creative encounters that have 

changed forever how we run. 

The year began with our very first residency, with Canadian poet and translator Erín 

Moure and Galician poet Chus Pato spending time at Queen’s and running a lively 

series of events for every contingency from school pupil to postgraduate and beyond. 

Their visits culminated in a stirring bilingual reading in the Shulman Auditorium, together 

with Alba Cid (poet and Director of the John Rutherford Centre for Galician Studies). 

Visa delays and the looming lockdown did not dampen the excitement of our Hilary 

term residency, with Russian poet Galina Rymbu and British translator Helena Kernan, 

which gave the pair their first opportunity to collaborate and perform in person. 

The Book Club choice for 

May, with its translator 

Jenny McPhee who joined 

the online discussion from 

New York 


Our International Book Club gathered momentum as we welcomed celebrated 

translators Marilyn Booth (Fellow at Magdalen) and Antonia Lloyd-Jones to Queen’s for 

discussions of authors Jokha Alharthi (Oman) and Olga Tokarczuk (Poland), winners 

of the International Booker Prize and Nobel Prize respectively. The Club’s efforts to 

engage local readers who otherwise do not attend University events began to bear 

fruit, with over 80 attendees across the two sessions, including many non-members of 

the University. 

In Michaelmas and Hilary, fifteen students from across the University were trained by 

Old Member Gitanjali Patel (Portuguese & Spanish, 2008) and literary translator Rahul 

Bery to become ‘Creative Translation Ambassadors’. Working in groups to design 

workshops for primary and secondary pupils, the ambassadors were primed for action 

just as school closures struck. Six of them managed to transfer their workshops 

into virtual sessions hosted on the Queen’s YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/ 

queenscollegeox), and the chair of our student committee even produced a series of 

video talks on studying languages at Oxford. 


That swift change to virtual programmes set the tone for Translation Exchange events 

throughout the summer. Our Book Club became more ‘international’ than we had ever 

expected, with participants and guest translators joining online meetings from across 

the globe. The potential to recreate the warmth and vitality of an in-person discussion 

– through plenary sessions as well as smaller ‘breakout rooms’ – was a welcome 

surprise to us all, and led us to add an additional Book Club: one for UK Sixth Form 

students. In July, 50 sixth-formers joined us online from across the country to discuss 

The Island by Ana María Matute (Penguin Classics), translated into English by Queen’s 

Spanish Fellow Laura Lonsdale. This initiative is one that we are now developing into a 

regular fixture, in partnership with the college’s Outreach department. 

During the summer term, sixthformers 

were also busy entering 

our brand new translation 

competition for schools, named 

in honour of the great translator 

Anthea Bell OBE. We brought 

forward the launch of the 

Anthea Bell Prize for Young 

Translators to June 2020, in 

order to provide young linguists 

with a creative outlet during 

school closures. The 295 

entries that we received from 

teenagers across the UK were 

testament to the excitement 

and creativity that translation 

can bring to language-learners. 

Undergraduate Charlotte Murphy taking part in a short 

film that formed part of the teaching packs for the 

Anthea Bell Prize 



As the academic year drew to a close we found one more outlet for that excitement 

and creativity, by re-imagining our in-person translation workshops as virtual 

collaborative projects. With support from Queen’s French Fellow Seth Whidden, we 

gained permission to publish the first-ever English translations of an extraordinary 

blog that began to appear in Le Monde during the pandemic. Fiamma Luzzati’s 

comics-style blog depicts the pandemic from multiple perspectives, portraying the 

experiences and reactions of ordinary people as their lives are suddenly changed. It 

is deeply moving and thought-provoking, with plenty of humour, and presents a real 

translation challenge. Led by QTE, in June a total of 122 participants from across 

the world began to translate sections of the blog in small groups, with the resulting 

translation published on the QTE website in October 2020. You can read some of the 

participants’ responses in the QTE blog, along with accounts of our other activities. 

Translation enables vital connections, even in the virtual sphere, and we look forward 

to developing these in the years to come. 

www.queens.ox.ac.uk/translation-exchange 

A panel from Fiamma Luzzati’s blog, translated into English 


A YEAR IN THE MCR 

President Nadia Haworth; Vice-Presidents Emilia 

Jenkins, Tristan Johnston-Wood and Sean Telford; 

Victualler David Kaufman 

Having come to the end of what has undoubtedly been 

one of the most eventful academic years in recent 

history, it has been inspiring to see how both the MCR 

and Queen’s as a whole have pulled together to tackle 

the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic head-on. 


Nadia Haworth 

MCR President 

The MCR and I would like to thank the Provost, for 

assembling a COVID-19 taskforce to lead the College’s 

response to the pandemic, and the wonderful Library 

team, who have worked tirelessly to help students 

access vital reading material. We also deeply grateful to the College Porters, the 

Domestic Bursary, the Steward, and in particular the Scout team for their brave work 

in maintaining a clean and safe environment within the College, and looking after 

students during this difficult time. 

Throughout the year, the MCR Committee has worked tirelessly to support MCR 

members, and to promote postgraduate life at Queen’s. Following Freshers’ Week, the 

success of which was due in great part to the efforts of our Social Secretary, Tristan 

Johnston-Wood, and our Treasurer, Dominic Spencer Jolly, other highlights this year 

have included regular academic symposia organised by Alberto Corrado, the QCS 

and SCR Liaison Officer, and the continuation of the tutoring scheme by Christopher 

Magazzeni, the JCR Liaison Officer, through which doctoral students have the 

opportunity to hold tutorials for undergraduate students. 

Credit should also be given to our Victualler, David Kaufman, in his unrelenting struggles 

with the somewhat notorious MCR coffee machine, and his tireless efforts to help 

keep the MCR space clean and tidy for all members, though this at one point even 

involved him wrestling against a collapsed tap in the kitchen area with an umbrella. 

The challenges of lockdown also brought out the best in our MCR community. Emilia 

Jenkins, our Welfare Officer, sent regular ‘Good News’ newsletters to postgraduates 

at Queen’s to boost morale, and many MCR members also actively participated 

in Oxford COVID-19 Mutual Aid, a city-wide community support group formed to 

mitigate the effects of the pandemic on those most vulnerable. The Environment and 

Charities Secretaries, Marie-Gabrielle Pélissié du Rausas and Hannah Willis, further 

organised a scheme through which MCR members could write letters to isolated 

elderly or vulnerable people within Oxford, particularly those living in care homes. 



Some students were also involved in projects such as the development of vaccines 

against SARS-CoV-2. One student, Andrew Orr, was even part of the University 

OxVent project, which developed rapidly deployable ventilators to be used by the NHS 

during the crisis. 

This Trinity term, in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, our BME Officer, Tegar 

Ramadan, led the MCR’s response in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, 

helping draft an open letter to the College and reaching out to BME postgraduate 

students. Sean Ketteringham has also been particularly active in promoting the 

cause, helping to represent the MCR alongside me in a College-wide Working Group 

organised by the Provost, and aimed at promoting the interests of BME students 

and staff. The MCR hopes that the College will continue to channel the momentum 

generated in response to this movement to enact positive change. 

I would like to thank the rest of the Committee, the College staff, and the MCR as a 

whole for their continued support and engagement in postgraduate life at Queen’s 

College. 


A YEAR IN THE JCR 

Hattie Bates 

JCR President 

President Hattie Bates; Vice Presidents Isabelle 

Gibbons and Aqsa Lone 

This year in the history of The Queen’s College JCR 

has been a remarkable one. Its beginning, however, 

was rather the same as ever. We welcomed a new year 

group with a fairly smooth Freshers’ Week, and I’ve 

been particularly impressed with their contribution to the 

vivacity of the JCR this year, for which we are all grateful. 

I consider it a mark of a strong and kind community 

when newcomers quickly become active within it, and 

I’ve been really lucky to witness this. Minor behavioural 

hiccups throughout the year included drinking in the 

library at the Michaelmas end of term event, and a very 

dirty beer cellar at rather too regular intervals. We thank the College staff for bearing 

our antics with good grace and patience! 


The year moved on through Hilary, and then came March. Our term finished officially 

on 15 March, only a week before the imposition of a national lockdown. We witnessed 

College change dramatically in the last few weeks of term: mass deliveries of 

microwaves for the students who were self-isolating in their rooms; cancellation of 

evensong; and a general growing sense of anxiety that we were facing a very different 

life than that we had been used to. We held our end of term event nevertheless 

(government advice at the time was to hold events as usual). Perhaps with the gift of 

hindsight I would have called this off, but, with this same hindsight, I’m very fond of the 

last memories of significant normality with the community in which I feel at home. 

Throughout the Easter vacation and the beginning of Trinity term, it became clearer 

that residence would not be resumed for the remainder of the academic year. 

Speaking on my behalf alone, I held out hope for as long as possible that I would get 

to see my friends again, and was really devastated to lose this precious time in such 

an amazing place. The JCR continued its meetings via Zoom, but I couldn’t help but 

feel our community had suffered a little. Reflecting back, it is clear that initial frustration 

had evolved into quiet resignation as we settled into many months of changing 

government guidelines, which affected almost all parts of normal life. It is odd living as 

a young person currently: the feeling of the world stalling around us just as we enter 

independent adulthood will, I believe, leave a lasting impression on our memories 

of university, and our collective psyches. As a historian, I’m curious to see what the 

legacy of this pandemic will be, whilst at the same time honoured to be a part of the 

College through an important part of its history. 



STUDENT CLUBS AND SOCIETIES 

1341 SOCIETY 

President: Theodora Beadle 

Over the academic year, the 1341 Society was delighted to host two Hall Luncheons 

for the friends and family of current Queen’s students. Sadly, we were unable to host 

a Garden Party in Trinity term this year. The Society exists to raise money to fund 

students’ extracurricular activities, and this year the committee has worked hard to 

support a broader range of College events. For the first time, we were able to provide 

subsidised tickets for the Queen’s Burns Night event. We also worked alongside the 

Addison Society (Queen’s political discussion society) to provide more subsidised 

places to its dinners for those for whom the cost may have prevented them attending. 

Both of this year’s events began with drinks in the beautiful Upper Library, followed by 

a luncheon in the Hall. The Oxford Gargoyles, an a cappella group with many Queen’s 

students, gave spectacular performances at both luncheons which were thoroughly 

enjoyed by all the guests. 

Of course, neither of this year’s luncheons would have been possible without the hard 

work and support of many members of College staff. We would like to thank Dawn 

and the catering team for providing delicious meals, as always, and the library staff 

for allowing us to use the Upper Library for both events. We are also very grateful to 

the Provost for attending our luncheons and supporting our endeavours across the 

year. Finally, I would like to thank this year’s committee for their work – Joseph Botman 

(Secretary) and Jonathan Sheinman (Treasurer). My role has been handed over to 

James McGhee, who I know is working hard to find ways to continue to support the 

1341 Society’s endeavours in the year ahead. 

THE ADDISON SOCIETY 

Co-Presidents: Laetitia Pilgrim and Serena Parekh, Treasurer: Harry Croasdale 

The Addison Society has hosted three successful sell-out events, attended by a 

wide range of JCR members. In Michaelmas we welcomed Secretary of State for 

Education, Gavin Williamson MP, to speak on the British education system. He arrived 

a little late: understandable, given that Parliament were in the throes of the historic 

vote on the October 2019 Queen’s Speech. Unflustered despite the day’s events, 

Williamson delivered a brilliant talk, met with plenty of pointed questions from Queen’s 

students. The comments in our guest book (now full, ready for the archives) describe a 

‘thought-provoking evening’ where it was ‘great to see a variety of strong views come 

face to face’. 


Later that term, Dr Jennifer Cassidy, UN consultant and academic, gave an insightful 

talk on women and diplomacy. She captivated the audience, covering Brexit and 

the future of the Irish border. Cassidy relayed via Twitter how much she enjoyed the 

evening, attaching a wonderful photo in the style of Ellen’s Oscar selfie. 


The selfie taken by Dr Jennifer Cassidy 

Not knowing this would be our last event, in Hilary term we invited Jonathan Liew, 

sports writer for the Guardian and winner of the Sports Columnist of the Year award in 

2019. Liew is a ‘Raise Your Game’ mentor for the Kick it Out campaign which strives 

for racial equality within football. He provided anecdotes from the frontlines of elite 

sport, proving that his sharp wit is not just limited to the page. Liew gave us plenty to 

discuss afterwards, not least over the politics of VAR. 

The Addison Society is grateful to the 1341 Society for facilitating a subsidised ticket 

system which has continued to expand the Society’s accessibility. This year we 

particularly encouraged freshers to attend; approximately 30% of attendees at the 

Society’s first event were in their first year. The Society thanks Dr John Davis for his 

support and lively contribution to the dinners. We had a record number of applications 

to lead the team in the upcoming academic year and consider this to be a testament 

to the Society’s increased visibility within the JCR. We are pleased to announce that 

Mary Oboh, Myla Sayyed and Afra Sterne-Rogers will take over for 2020-21. 



BADMINTON 

Men’s Captain: Cameron Brooks, Women’s Captain: Sarah Gruitt 

The Queen’s College Badminton Club enjoyed a year of social training sessions at 

the East Oxford Games Hall. Boasting the highest number of sign-ups of any sport 

at the Queen’s Freshers’ Fair, enthusiasm for badminton was reflected in high turnout 

at weekly Wednesday night sessions, with 12-20 players attending consistently 

throughout Michaelmas and Hilary terms to enjoy a well-earned break from the 

stresses of work. A variety of different playstyles were observed in these sessions, with 

a range of techniques being employed to gain the upper hand from skilful feints and 

tricks, to friendly jests! 

In a historic first for the club, both a Men’s and a Women’s team were entered into 

the Hilary term Cuppers tournament. Competing with one of the strongest men’s 

sides I have seen in my three years playing badminton at Queen’s (Matthew Goh, 

Len Ma, Eric Ruiting, Kevin Speranza, Nicolai Hækkerup and Cameron Brooks), we 

were unfortunate to draw last year’s champions Exeter College in the first round. 

Notwithstanding some inspired displays against quality Blues-level opposition, Queen’s 

succumbed to a 5-1 defeat. It was brilliant to see such a great turnout for Women’s 

Cuppers this year, and we were ecstatic to be able to field such a strong team 

(Jessica Wen, Griselda Revia, Lisa Erlmann, Qizhao Chen and Sarah Gruitt). Thanks to 

some exceptional individual and team performances, Queen’s celebrated a 5-1 victory 

over our first-round opponents, Exeter. Both teams were incredibly supportive, making 

for a fantastic and wonderfully friendly match atmosphere. Unfortunately thereafter, the 

global pandemic intervened and the tournament was cut short. 

From total beginner to seasoned veteran, every Queen’s badminton player has 

improved their game over the course of the year, and this is testament to the friendly 

and social environment of the society that has enabled many players’ talents to 

flourish. Badminton is such an accessible and enjoyable sport, and we hope that the 

new captains Kho Wen Hao and Jessica Wen will succeed in bringing their experience 

and love of the game to next year’s sessions. 

Despite the pandemic cutting short our tenure as captains, it was a great privilege to 

have held this role, and we wish each of our players good health in these times. 

BOAT CLUB – MEN’S ROWING 

Captain: David Vahey 

I think it is fair to say this has been a punishing year for the entire boat club with 

consistently fast river flow, storms, flooding and finally COVID-19 all conspiring against 

us. However, a tight knit group have remained resilient throughout a year driven by 

land training with water time available on the Isis at a bare minimum. 


During Michaelmas, due to high water levels, time on the water was severely limited for 

both novices and seniors alike. That being said the novices remained enthusiastic on 

the ergs – most notably showing a strong performance at the newly christened ‘Christ 

Church Ergatta’. 

We opened Hilary with a four-day training camp at Eton Dorney – commuting from 

Oxford daily. This was hugely beneficial for the entire men’s side in restoring and building 

technique on the water that we were unable to strongly develop in Michaelmas. Although 

poor weather is a reality for most years, it was the consistency of these poor conditions 

that meant that this year was widely regarded to be the worst seen on the Isis in the last 

40 years. As a result we returned to Dorney for some weekend training within term. The 

eventual cancellation of Torpids was painful and the global pandemic wiped out Trinity 

term activities, meaning that Summer Eights was cancelled for the first time since 1943. 


Despite this, a lot of progress was made as evidenced by some brilliant 2k scores at 

the end of Hilary term – proving the ‘erg-athon’ that was Oxford rowing in 2019-20 

paid its dividends. It is with the resilience and motivation shown this year that we will 

build for the 2020-21 campaign. 

BOAT CLUB – WOMEN’S ROWING 

Captains: Vicki Patel, Zuzanna Borawska and Kwok Cheung 

With the river unfortunately at red flag for the majority of Michaelmas and Hilary terms, 

there were very few outings for any of our crews, particularly novices. Both Christ 

Church Regatta in Michaelmas and Torpids in Hilary were cancelled, and then the 

pandemic meant the suspension of all rowing during Trinity. 

Nevertheless, we continued to train on land and we did manage to compete as a boat 

club – in Michaelmas there was ‘Christ Church Ergatta’, in place of the usual Regatta. 

This was a relay of 500m on rowing machines with four people rowing and a cox in 

each team. Our teams included both novices and seniors and, while we did not come 

close to winning, it was still a memorable experience and good team effort. In Hilary 

term, many members of QCBC took part in ‘Tug of Warpids’ organised by Pembroke 

College Boat Club in place of Torpids. Of course, it wasn’t completely serious and 

included no rowing whatsoever but one of the QCBC teams (teams were mixed, 

including both men and women) reached the quarter-finals. 

Moreover, this year QCBC has been working on measures aiming to develop a more 

cohesive and inclusive environment in the club. The work is still in progress and was 

largely interrupted by the pandemic outbreak in Trinity, but by and large we are the first 

sports club in College to start a discussion on welfare issues within a college sport 

community. We hope that the measures once implemented will benefit not only the 

boat club but our College as a whole. 



THE EDGAR LOBEL SOCIETY 

President: Joseph Botman 

The Queen’s College Edgar Lobel Society, named after one of our famous former 

Classics dons, is devoted to composing verse in Latin and Greek. Every week, we 

meet in a small group and discuss our translations of English verse into either one of 

the classical languages over a glass of wine. There is also frequently room for original 

compositions, for example small epigrams in Latin about something that happened 

that week. Each meeting, one member of the group gives a presentation about a 

piece of classical verse or about a technical aspect of the composition of Latin or 

Greek verse. Over the past terms, we’ve had students talk about the best order in 

which to fit words into a line of verse, about different kinds of metre in Greek, and 

about selections of Vergil, among other subjects. The Society was founded with the 

idea that additional practice in using these classical languages can significantly help 

one’s understanding and feel for the original text, leading to greater enjoyment and 

swifter reading. While we still learn to write Latin and Greek prose over the course of a 

Classics degree, verse is no longer common. We welcome more individuals than just 

classicists, but obviously some background in Latin or Greek would be ideal! 

THE EGLESFIELD MUSICAL SOCIETY 

President: Rachel Howe 

It is a pleasure to report that The Eglesfield Musical Society (EMS) remains one of 

the University’s most vibrant college music societies. Whilst famously the oldest 

music society in Oxford, EMS has sprung into 2020 with renewed enthusiasm and 

technological innovation to combat the year’s unexpected challenges. Furthermore, 

the society continues to foster a welcoming, inclusive atmosphere and is proud to 

provide exciting opportunities for musicians within Queen’s and throughout the wider 

Oxfordshire community. 

Our largest ensembles, The EMS Orchestra and The EMS Singers, have both 

performed to an exceptionally high standard this year under the able direction of 

Queen’s music students, Tom Dilley and Tamsin Sandford Smith. The Michaelmas 

term concert was a particular highlight and also featured several stunning solo and 

small ensemble performances by members of the Queen’s JCR. The EMS Singers 

concluded the term singing Christmas carols in the Broad Street Christmas Market, 

raising a fantastic £305 for local charity, Homelessness Oxfordshire. The EMS Jazz 

Band made an equally triumphant return this year thanks to the leadership of Hugo Till 

and Will Cashmore, and the popular ‘5 th -week blues’ nights in Michaelmas and Hilary 

will be sure to continue in years to come. 

Throughout the academic year, EMS has continued its two popular recital series: 

the Wednesday organ recitals and the Saturday lunchtime recitals. These weekly 


concerts are free, open to the public and provide valuable performance opportunities 

for musicians from Oxfordshire and from further afield. Publicity for the recitals has also 

improved this year and we have seen an encouraging increase in audience sizes and 

the number of recital ‘regulars’. 

Perhaps the society’s most momentous achievement this year was the Hilary Term 

Music Festival. The week featured a different musical event each day, including a 

special launch collaboration with the Queen’s Arts Representatives, consisting of 

a drinks reception, Australia-themed art exhibition, and finally a chamber concert. 

Altogether the event raised over £150 for WWF Australia, supporting their admirable 

work in the wake of the 2020 bushfire crisis. 


The Festival launch concert in the Shulman Auditorium, with Bethy Reeves (piano), Max Cheung 

(cello) and Sarah Mattinson (flute) 

Having concluded Hilary term on such a positive note, we were disappointed at the 

prospect of a remote Trinity. However, despite the unfortunate cancellation of the 

annual outdoor musical, we initiated an exciting new project: the EMS Virtual Recital 

Series. This series was delivered entirely online via Facebook and YouTube and 

consisted of recorded recital videos aired each Saturday throughout the term. The 

popularity of the series was thoroughly gratifying and inspired two virtual summer 

concerts (‘EMS Summer Concert: A Double Bill!’). All performances are still available to 

watch on our Facebook page and through our YouTube channel: www.bit.ly/Eglesfield. 

As President, I would like to express my gratitude towards this year’s committee 

for their tremendous hard work and commitment: Zachary Walker (Vice-President), 

Tamsin Sandford Smith (Secretary), Jake Sternberg (Events and Recitals Manager), 

Hugo Till (Treasurer), Tom Dilley (Webmaster and Publicity Officer), Charlotte Jefferies 



(JCR Representative), and Sean Telford (MCR Representative). Thank you also to 

Senior Treasurer, Owen Rees, for his guidance and encouragement, and to the 

Queen’s porters, catering staff, and to all those in the Conference Office. It is with 

great confidence that I hand over to next year’s leadership team, directed by Charlotte 

Jefferies, and I wish them all the very best of luck. 

For more information about the society and to keep up to date with future events, 

please visit our website (www.eglesfieldmusic.org), Facebook page, or Instagram 

(@Eglesfieldmusic). 

FILMS FOR EUROPE SOCIETY 

Presidents: Jack Franco and Sam Lachmann 

Films for Europe has now come to the end of its second year as a Queen’s society 

and we continued from the first, with weekly screenings throughout Michaelmas and 

Hilary terms. Whether projected, flickering and wonky, even on one occasion in slow 

motion, onto the wall of Lecture Room B or in the luxury of the Shulman Auditorium, 

the films we showed attracted a varied and interesting crowd into College. 

In Michaelmas we showed a variety of European films including a four film run under 

the heading ‘How Italy Changed Cinema’. We could have picked four films from 

almost any European country and shown them under such a heading given the 

continent’s – and our Society’s – rich heritage, but Italy prevailed and it was nice to 

enjoy these films, from a Dino Risi comedy film to a Fellini masterpiece, alongside a 

mix of students and staff, and lots of Italian speakers. 

In Hilary term we alternated showing European films with films made outside of 

Europe: the USA, the Caribbean and Hong Kong among others. For some reason the 

winter months of Hilary coincided with a slump in attendance of the screenings but we 

never charge entry on principle – uniquely for an Oxford film society – and it’s a nice 

mystery from week to week to see how many people and who will show up. 

With coronavirus it may be difficult but we hope to resume screenings next year as 

with such a large and varied film library at our disposal in Oxford we have a great 

opportunity: to watch them on a big screen and with others interested in doing so. 

Having branched out of Europe this year, perhaps we will make a leap into the twentyfirst 

century this coming one but some of the highlights of our year’s screenings were: 

Federico Fellini’s 8 ½ , Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, Chaplin’s City Lights, 

Hitchcock’s Vertigo and Godard’s Vivre Sa Vie. 


QCAFC 

Captain: Matt Suter 

Following several player departures, 2019-20 was something of a transitional season for 

QCAFC’s men’s teams. Things began promisingly with a hard-fought away victory over 

rivals Teddy Hall on the opening day, as Queen’s mixed an attractive brand of football 

with a steely desire to win, running out 3-1 victors to go top of the First Division. 


However, this early season optimism evaporated as QCAFC struggled to maintain 

their form. A Cuppers exit at the hands of Hertford proved a key turning point, as 

early promise gave way to defensive frailty and an inability to create goal scoring 

opportunities. The scars of this defeat were lasting, and QCAFC suffered a long 

winless run to find themselves at the wrong end of the table and facing a relegation 

battle going into Hilary term. 

The new year brought little change in fortune, and while every game saw sustained 

periods of Queen’s dominance, lapses of concentration at the back and inefficiency 

going forward meant this was not converted into points. QCAFC were unable to 

repeat their late season heroics of 2019, ending the season four points adrift of safety 

and having to look forward to life in the Second Division next year. 

Despite this, cause for optimism remains. A talented group of freshers will be looking 

to become major players next season, while a strong end to the season from the 2nds 



secured a respectable mid-table finish, suggesting Queen’s have a solid platform from 

which to build. Thanks to outgoing players Eddie Tolmie, Henry Lewis, Ross Lawrence 

and Cai Richards for their years of service to the club; all will be missed. Thanks also 

to Martin Cross, Pete Southwell and Martin Edwards for their continued support. It’s 

been an honour to captain this club and I wish incoming captain Findlay Thompson all 

the best. 

QCWAFC 

Captain: Emily Jones 

This year, the women’s team a.k.a. ‘Eagles’ cemented their record as the most 

successful of The Queen’s College football clubs in recent years. The means may have 

been murky and the match-play lacking in elegance, but a season of determination, 

grit, and fun culminated in the Cuppers quarter-finals against arch rivals, Teddy Hall, 

in University Parks in February. In well-worn Eagles style a meticulous, neck-and-neck 

first half gave way to a second half trouncing that was hard to take after early glimmers 

of a semi-finals appearance. For a team who never quite managed to find time for 

training, by the season’s end a promising format had emerged consisting of our 

defensive trio – Flora Brown, Katherine de Jager and Lizzy Whitehouse – and midfield 

stars, Afra Sterne-Rodgers (incoming captain) and Louise James. 

Next year will therefore be a hugely exciting one for QCWAFC. We look forward to 

the much needed return of goalkeeper Marte van der Graaf and all-rounder Greta 

Thompson to the team. 


It is difficult not to wonder what Trinity term might have held in store for the Eagles, 

given that the quality of play was at its best at the very end of the Cuppers season 

at the close of Hilary. Nonetheless, this cutting short meant that Queen’s women’s 

football of 2019-20 went out on a high note with the Cambridge tour in 8 th week where 

we played excellently against some of Cambridge’s finest teams, including their own 

league winners, Queens’, and where we achieved as many wins in a weekend as we 

had all year! 

A special thank you must go to Jess Martin, our social secretary this year, who 

organised all the football calendar highlights such as the Santa dinner, football dinner, 

and tour. 


MCR FOOTBALL 

Captain: Simon Nadal 

This 2019-20 year, Queen’s MCR football team joined forces with Pembroke 

and Somerville MCRs to field a joint team competing in the MCR’s 2nd division. 

Strengthened by this new alliance and a new kit, the team started well equipped in 

what turned out a good season, obtaining an honourable fourth place in the MCR 

league and bringing Queen’s MCR to the Cuppers quarter-finals for the first time in its 

history. With the next season comes a change of captaincy, Lewis Wales – 2nd year 

DPhil in Inorganic Chemistry – taking over from Simon Nadal. 



QUEEN’S HOMELESS SUPPORT 

President: Ying Ying Teo 

Walking through the streets of Oxford as freshers who had just matriculated into the 

University, we were met with sights of people sleeping right outside our College walls. 

Queen’s Homeless Support is born out of an acute awareness of the city’s jarring 

disparity that coexists with our privileged institution. 

Homelessness has always been part of Oxford’s landscape and there are already 

pre-existing student organisations that provide food and other necessities to those 

sleeping rough. However, while on our rounds, we realised that the rough sleepers in 

East Oxford, a disproportionately disadvantaged community, have been underserved. 

And so, we set out with the goal to fill this gap – with three evening shifts a week to 

provide help to the homeless in East Oxford. 

Founded on the eve of the outbreak of COVID-19, the society had to put its activities 

on hold as we were sent home to complete Trinity term. The pandemic has put into 

perspective how the homelessness crisis in Oxford is a ticking time bomb. Once 

emergency legislation runs out and when the economic impact of the outbreak bites, 

we anticipate that homelessness will worsen in Oxford. There is a long way to go in 

battling homelessness structurally and as a Queen’s community, we should do more to 

help the homeless who are the most vulnerable in times of crises. 

Over the past few months, we have also been in talks with the College kitchen 

for donation of excess food to the society, so that food access for the homeless 

and reduction of food waste can be achieved simultaneously. We look forward to 

implementing these goals in the coming year! 

KORFBALL 

Captain: Hamish Smeaton 

Although the annual Trinity Korfball Cuppers did not go ahead due to the pandemic, 

Queen’s students have been influential in the success of the sport this year. As a 

relatively niche sport, the majority of University players begin from scratch, so it was 

great to see several Queen’s students signing up at Freshers’ Fair and attending the 

Michaelmas beginner-oriented taster sessions run by the Oxford University Korfball 

Club. 

At a more experienced level, three Queen’s members represented the University during 

the year, with Ellie Woods making several strong league appearances for the second 

team, while Gemma Smale and Hamish Smeaton enjoyed successful seasons in their 

final year with the club. 


Gemma quickly established herself as a first team starter, helping her team secure 

safety in the Oxfordshire Korfball League’s 1 st division as the club’s top female goalscorer. 

The first team also qualified for the BUCS Championships, making them one of 

the best 16 university teams in the country, but the tournament was cancelled due to 

COVID-19. Gemma started the 33 rd annual Varsity match against Cambridge, earning 

her half-blue in a tightly contested 16-15 victory, and completing a clean 4-0 sweep 

for the Dark Blues. 

Hamish primarily played for the seconds, performing well in a standout season for the 

team, including a comfortable 17-4 win over Cambridge 2s in the Varsity match and 

a silver medal at BUCS Plate after winning the Southern qualifier event. In the league, 

the team narrowly missed out on promotion to the 2 nd division, finishing as runners up 

with Hamish as the team’s top goal-scorer. 


Cuppers would have been an excellent finale to an incredible year for Oxford 

Korfball, with Queen’s well placed to improve upon their second-place finish in 2018. 

Unfortunately, the cherry on top wasn’t to be, but this doesn’t take away from a 

fantastic season for OUKC with impressive Queen’s individual performances. 

THE LAW SOCIETY 

President: Kwok Cheung 

The Law Society began the year by hosting two Law Firm Dinners with Freshfields and 

Debevoise. In Trinity, we invited Lord Hoffmann to be Guest of Honour at our Annual 

Law Dinner (now postponed to next Trinity). 

The Society would like to thank its leavers: Becca Brimble, Jake Alston, Meg Howells 

and Ben Egan. You’ve been the absolute best role models to us, and we can’t wait to 

see what your futures hold. 

QUEEN’S COLLEGE MEDICAL SOCIETY 

President: Sahara Pandit 

The purpose of the Queen’s College Medical Society (QCMS) is to bring together 

medical students, bio-medical students, medical graduates and tutors of The Queen’s 

College to share their interest and passion in the subject. For our annual dinner in 

Michaelmas term, we welcomed special guests Professor Mike Tipton, a Professor of 

Human and Applied Physiology at the University of Portsmouth and Professor Stephen 

Powis, the National Medical Director of NHS England. Professor Mike Tipton, the UK’s 

leading cold water expert, shared his knowledge and experience of working with the 

human body in extreme environments. An Oxford alumnus, Professor Stephen Powis 

shared his experiences of studying and practicing medicine and what he believes to 



be the weaknesses and strengths of the 

NHS and its long-term plan. We thank our 

speakers for making the evening that much 

more enjoyable and interesting. During the 

dinner, we were also able to announce the 

winners of the first Chowdhury-Johnson 

Prize in Medicine, an essay competition for 

medical students which will be held again 

next Michaelmas term. Overall, the QCMS 

dinner was a great success. 

The QCMS dinner in Michaelmas 

In Hilary, we held the first ever QCMS Medical Innovation Conference, hosting 

speakers Justin Hean, a Principal Scientist at Evox Therapeutics, Dr Krishan Ramdoo, 

an NHS England Clinical Entrepreneur and CEO of TympaHealth, and medical 

students Iain Broadley and Ally Jaffee who are co-founders of Nutritank. We also heard 

from Professor Shafi Ahmed, a laparoscopic cancer surgeon and renowned healthcare 

innovator and Professor Elizabeth Molyneux, a paediatrician and founding member 

of the WHO course on Emergency Triage, Assessment and Treatment. We thank all 

those who attended the conference and our speakers for delivering such fascinating 

and inspiring talks. We hope the QCMS conference will become an annual event. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed my year as President of QCMS and would like to wholeheartedly 

thank Esme Weeks and Zahra Choudhury for their support as Vice-President 

and Treasurer of the Society. I am very proud of what we have been able to deliver and 

achieve as a team. We look forward to next year with the newly elected committee: 

Yedidiah Tilahun, Elfie Baker and Becky Howitt who will be taking over as President, 

Vice-President and Treasurer respectively. 2020 has so far been a very significant year 

in Medicine and we believe that now, more than ever, is the time for us to keep up to 

date with happenings in the field and so it is important for QCMS to continue to come 

together with our shared interests in Medical and Biomedical Sciences. 

NETBALL 

Captains: Angharad Kellet and Jessica Martin 

QCNC started off the year optimistically after recruiting many new members, 

including males as we could now field a mixed team – one positive to come out of the 

disappointment of being relegated to division two the previous year. With many fresh 

faces to the game and the regularity of being able to take seven players plus subs 

(many thanks to next year’s captain, Pandora Mackenzie, who roped freshers in at 

the last minute), we thought we were on to top the leader board. However, within the 

rapid eight-minute halves, it turns out sporting a team where half of you haven’t ever 

stepped foot on a netball court before isn’t always a success! Despite this, we always 

showed up with enthusiasm after cycling ten minutes to Lady Margaret Hall to play 


netball for only 20 minutes, typically in the rain. Although a couple of matches were 

played in a downpour after spending a morning convincing the other team it wasn’t 

meant to rain and we should play, we had a whole lot of fun and with some very 

talented players it resulted in some great wins for QCNC. 


In Michaelmas, we saw only one win, over Oriel (12-7), placing us seventh in our 

division. However, in Hilary we crept up a place in the table to sixth with two huge wins 

– one over Lincoln (9-1) and the other LMH (8-2) – and another closer victory against 

Christ Church (12-8). These wins never went unacknowledged by Harri Kellett, who 

would always rush to write them on the chalkboard outside the Porters’ Lodge. Our 

Hilary fixtures saw an improvement on the Michaelmas record, consolidating QCNC’s 

new recruits and playing some great netball. We finished in a very respectable midleague 

position, retaining our division 2 status. It’s been a great year and we both look 

forward to seeing what QCNC gets up to in 2020-21. 

The club would also like to pay homage to outgoing members Jessica Martin, 

Elizabeth Whitney and Pip Monk for their dedication. 

QCRFC 

Captain: Wilf Sandwell 

I would call the QCRFC season of 2019-20 a success in all the most important ways, 

meaning in anything but results. A large fresher intake was a very welcome bonus 

at the beginning of the season, but it didn’t translate into results with a first score of 

81-7 to the Brookes 4 th XV, our only try being scored by a player they lent us. It was a 

laughable and fitting introduction to our new players that Queen’s rugby is thankfully 



never about the result, and much more about those you play with. And with that 

realisation, things changed. The rest of Michaelmas term ended with two victories, one 

loss and a draw. The highlight was a 50-0 destruction of Merton Mansfield, admittedly 

with some help from a team made of many visiting guest stars but with an excellent 

Man of the Match performance from our incoming VC, Max Higdon. 

The second term followed in a similar vein, but the highlight occurred in the two 

rematches against Merton Mansfield who had strengthened their team. The return 

league game resulted in a close loss, notably including an unheard of hat trick from 

outgoing VC, the stalwart Tom Swift. The next week was the real deal though, as we 

came up against the same foe in the Cuppers quarter-final. In short, we lost. But it 

was perhaps my most memorable game and proudest moment in a QCRFC shirt. 

Despite unfortunately missing our Blues of Louis Pincott and Dan Stoller to injuries 

and Under 20s commitments, and club talisman ‘The Hammer’ Hamish Smeaton to 

korfball, the old core pulled together, even managed a training session, and delivered 

one of the grittiest performances I have witnessed. Max Higdon was again excellent 

alongside a powerful Ebruba Ayovunefe in the row, but physicality came from all over, 

especially in Maurice Gedney and Alex Chalk, despite waiting three years to join the 

club. Henry Gray was dynamic in centre and Diptarko Chowdhury a frightening tackler 

alongside him. In the forwards, old timers like Tom Swift, Beinn Khulusi and Louis 

Makower combined with the young and quite aggressive newcomers of Levi Fraser 

and Ebube Anyanechi to form a very effective pack. And this was complemented by 

Findlay Thompson’s impressive command of a trio of club legends in Sam Caygill, 

Jack Wilson and Cai Richards. A few bounces of the ball a different way could have 

changed the result entirely, and the likes of Luke McGrath, Luke Geoghegan and Harry 

Turner on the bench promises much for the future. 


But I am far more excited about the future off the pitch. Despite the large intake, 

the incoming members took in the spirit of a very close club: an odd assortment 

of individuals who when together looked after each other and tried to make the 

environment around them better. Our official sponsorship by Movember was an 

honour and I hope will ensure a legacy of the positive use of team spirit within the 

club. The questionable team barbeque with faulty barbeques in November, for me, will 

be remembered forever. And despite of course the curtailing of the season by COVID, 

one of my favourite memories of the 2020 lockdown will be the frequent and ridiculous 

club Zoom calls organised by Jack Wilson. This is the end of my stint at QCRFC, and 

of my second captaincy. It has been an honour and a pleasure to associate with such 

a group of men who I would cherish meeting for a drink at any time. That to me is the 

essence of the club, that an unusual group all became bonded to every individual, 

despite admittedly little rugby skill, even with an old 4 th year like me. I pass on to a very 

capable new Captain Jack Wilson, VC Max Higdon, and Social Secs of Harry Turner 

and James Hawke. I hope the club carries on like this, never taking itself too seriously, 

and built on a core of simply good people, for a long time to come. 


QUEEN’S COLLEGE SYMPOSIA (QCS) 

Alberto Corrado 

This year the QCS has seen lively discussion of topics as wide-ranging as Japanese 

literature and quantum mechanics, and has been a great nexus for sharing ideas 

across disciplines between the Middle and Senior Common Rooms. Participation 

increased significantly since last year, with attendees from across the College. We’ve 

been delighted to have speakers from both the common rooms. From the SCR we 

invited both junior members (namely, two Junior Research Fellows and a Laming 

Fellow) and were also pleased to welcome the new Sedleian Professor of Natural 

Philosophy, Jon Keating, who gave an extremely well-attended talk on his research. 

From the MCR we invited both doctoral and Master’s students, and the symposium 

is seen as a fantastic opportunity for newer members of the College to present their 

research to an audience of mixed MCR and SCR. Unfortunately the Trinity term 

sessions were not able to go ahead due to the COVID outbreak, but we look forward 

to continuing next year and possibly trialling holding events at lunchtime to increase 

participation even more. 

SWIMMING 

Ada Taggart 

Oxford University Swimming Club (OUSC) is the University’s competitive swimming 

team, and this year the team members from Queen’s included Declan Pang, Janet 

Chan, Maarten Swart and Ada Taggart. 



In Michaelmas, Janet and Declan competed at the annual BUCS competition in 

Sheffield. Entering 100m breaststroke, 50m breaststroke and 50m freestyle, Janet 

achieved the times of 1’20.53, 36.91, and 29.64 respectively. Meanwhile Declan 

entered 100m butterfly, finishing in 1’01.80. Both of their performances were 

impressive, and overall Oxford ranked 19 th – an improvement on last year by six places. 

The most important gala for OUSC, Varsity, took place in Hilary at Oxford’s Rosenblatt 

Pool. In the Seconds’ match, Janet and Ada both raced the 50m breaststroke. Janet 

swam incredibly, achieving a comfortable first with 37.85, while Ada attained a PB 

and third place with 39.94. Janet also competed in the women’s 4x50m medley relay, 

which the team completed in 1’59.33. Maarten swam the 200 m freestyle, coming 

in fourth place. On the whole, the match was tense and exciting, concluding with a 

narrow victory for Oxford of 95-81. The Blues’ match was just as close: a mere six 

points separated the two teams at the end of the individual races and the final score 

was 97-83 to Oxford. Unfortunately, Declan was unable to compete. Nevertheless, his 

coaching of the Seconds certainly contributed to their success against Cambridge. 

Both the third season of swimming and annual college cuppers gala were unable 

to take place this year. Still, OUSC participated in weekly land training sessions via 

Zoom, as well as several virtual socials, throughout Trinity. Overall it has been a very 

successful year for the club and I am immensely proud of all its achievements. 

TENNIS 

Captains: Hannah Brock and Rohan Rao 

We had a huge sign-up from this year’s freshers which was really fantastic – of more 

than 35 people, from the JCR and MCR. Although we weren’t able to play any official 

matches this year, Queen’s students are welcome to go down to the court and play 

any time they want and quite a few members did take the time to do so. We hope this 

level of interest in the club will continue and that competitive matches resume in 2021. 

AMALGAMATED SPORTS CLUBS COMMITTEE 

President: Henry Lewis 

Secretary: Jessica Martin 

IT Representative: Findlay Thompson 

Senior Treasurer: Dr Martin Edwards 


ATHLETIC DISTINCTIONS 

Blues 

Fred Newbold 

Hockey 

Henry Patteson 

Hockey 

Johann Perera 

Hockey 

Agamemnon Crumpton Lightweight rowing 

Daniel Stoller 

Rugby 


Half-Blues 

Joseph Tulloch 

Xiongfei Zheng 

Gemma Smale 

Jinlin Chen 

Louise James 

Baseball 

Baseball 

Korfball 

Volleyball 

Volleyball 


Old Members’ Activities 

DEVELOPMENT AND OLD MEMBER 

RELATIONS REPORT 

To echo the remarks of others, the 2019-20 academic 

year was obviously not quite the year we were expecting 

in the Old Members’ Office. Indeed, it was very much 

a year that moved from excitement, to uncertainty and 

then to disappointment as we were forced to cancel Old 

Member events as the year progressed. 

Yet while the Old Members’ events programme divided 

into two very distinct halves, the disruption caused by 

COVID-19 was surprisingly not mirrored in the year’s 

Justin B. Jacobs 

overall fundraising totals. Fundraising at Queen’s during 

Director of Development 2019-20 was some of the strongest the College has 

seen with 659 donors contributing to a New Funds 

Raised figure of £5,413,600 – only the third time 

Queen’s has ever surpassed the £5M New Funds Raised total in a financial year. 

This figure is a clear reflection of the continued goodwill, willingness to support and 

generosity of Queen’s Old Members and friends, and their collective desire to ensure 

the College is as well-positioned financially as it can be to meet the challenges 

its students and the tutorial system will likely face in the years to come. In the 

Development Office, we tend to see this support as also having something of a 

historical and enduring quality to it, as it is due in large part to the support of previous 

years (to which this year’s donations will be gratefully added) that Queen’s finds itself in 

a position to ride out some potentially very turbulent seas. 


One of the highlights of the College’s stewardship of its donors is being able to 

recognise their support and generosity. Here in the College Record we have listed all 

of those Old Members and friends who chose to support Queen’s in 2019-20, and 

in the annual Development Report we detail the impact their support has had on the 

College community. 

Of particular note for the 2019-20 year were the following gifts received by Queen’s: 

• A permanent endowment gift from the Carlsberg and Pettit Foundations to 

create the Erel Shalit Carlsberg Foundation Research Fellowship in Behavioural 

Neuroscience. 


• A permanent legacy endowment gift from F.H. Brittenden (Modern History, 1946) to 

support History teaching at Queen’s, which will create the fully endowed Brittenden 

Fellowship in Black British History. 

• An anonymous non-endowment gift to create an Access and Outreach Officer 

post to focus on building up links between Oxford, Queen’s and the Northwest 

of England over the next two years. This creates a second access and outreach 

position for Queen’s and doubles our investment in this important area. 

• An anonymous non-endowment gift to support the early-stage growth of the 

Queen’s College Translation Exchange, an access and outreach initiative built 

around introducing local school students to the world of languages, literature and 

translation (www.queens.ox.ac.uk/translation-exchange). 

Governing Body was also able to recognise key milestones in the amount of lifetime 

support received from certain Old Members and friends. In 2019-20 Governing Body 

elected three new Eglesfield Benefactors (in recognition of lifetime giving in excess 

of £100,000) and two new Philippa Benefactors (in recognition of lifetime giving in 

excess of £10,000). The College always takes a special pride in being able to bestow 

these Benefactorships on those whose lifetime support of Queen’s has merited special 

recognition. 

On behalf of Queen’s I would like to say thank you again to all of those who have 

chosen to support the College this year. We look forward to seeing you back in Oxford 

just as soon as we can. 



FROM THE PRESIDENT 

Paul Newton 

President of The Queen’s 

College Association 

It is an obvious understatement to say that it has 

been an unusual year. Reflecting my optimistic nature, 

however, I refuse to believe that things will never be 

the same again. Medical scientists (doubtless Oxford 

ones!) will find a solution to the current pandemic. They 

are a special breed as epitomised by Old Member 

and Honorary Fellow Dr A.W. ‘Bill’ Frankland MBE, 

DM, FRCP. Bill, who died earlier this year at the age 

of 108, was the College’s and the University’s oldest 

Old Member. His dedicated work on allergies spanned 

nearly ninety years. He popularised the pollen count to 

help clinicians and patients understand what triggers 

their seasonal allergies and amazingly completed his last 

paper in March of this year, only a few weeks before he 

died. This paper can be accessed through the College’s 

website (bit.ly/bill-frankland). A tribute to him and his life can also be found there, and 

his obituary appears later in this year’s Record. Bill led an incredible life which included 

a period spent in a Japanese prisoner of war camp following the fall of Singapore in 

1942. He was, unsurprisingly, the camp doctor treating fellow prisoners in conditions 

we can only imagine. 

The current COVID-19 pandemic meant that this year’s Old Members’ programme 

disappointingly divided into two very distinctive halves. Events during the first half 

continued as normal, culminating in the Queen’s Women’s Network Dinner: In 

Conversation with the Provost. This event took place in early March at the University 

Women’s Club in London as a continuation of the celebration of the 40th Anniversary 

of Co-Education at the College. If anyone missed this event, it is possible to watch 

the Conversation online at the College’s YouTube Channel (www.youtube.com/ 

queenscollegeox). 

Other events during the first half that offered Old Members opportunities to eat heartily, 

drink copiously and reminisce unashamedly, lest we forget what these occasions entail, 

included the Jubilee Matriculation Gaudy Lunch (1949 / 1959 / 1969); the Ten Years’ 

later Lunch (2009); the MA Reunion Lunch (for undergraduates who matriculated in 

2012 and who are now eligible to take their MA); the Boar’s Head Gaudy (1996 / 1997) 

and the Needle and Thread Gaudy (2004 / 2005). They were enjoyed by nearly 500 

people, representing a significant proportion of the Old Members’ community. 

The second half of the year’s Old Members’ programme unfortunately saw the 

cancellation of a reunion dinner in Berlin and a US trip which would have included 

dinners in New York and Washington, DC. Summer in-College events were also 



cancelled: the Benefactors’ Dinner and the Garden Party, which would have been the 

closing event for the year-long activities for the 40th Anniversary of Co-Education. 

Sadly, it has been announced recently that all face-to-face Old Members’ events 

have been cancelled until January 2021. The College plans to introduce some virtual 

events this year. Over time these will be incorporated as welcomed additions or 

natural accoutrements to the Old Members’ programme. For example, and particularly 

benefitting overseas Old Members who do not find it easy to return to College on a 

regular basis, topical lectures and talks can be streamed to an online global audience. 

I am sure that other Old Members join me in hoping that this virtual style of attendance 

is not a harbinger for the future and that it will soon also be possible to enjoy Old 

Members’ events with the same level of exuberance and closeness as we have done 

in non-plague/pandemic times. The College incontrovertibly continues to exist today 

as a highly respected and very much alive institution which will survive this pandemic 

as it has survived many plagues and pandemics over hundreds of years, even though 

– and as an open plea to our Provost to stay safe – our Founder and Provost, Robert 

de Eglesfield, reputedly died from the plague in 1349. 

On behalf of all Old Members I wish to thank Jen Stedman and her team, as well as 

Justin Jacobs for his oversight as the Director of Development, for the excellent work 

that has been done in organising events and encouraging the excellent relations with 

the Old Members’ community in very trying circumstances. 



GAUDIES – FUTURE INVITATIONS 

Due to cancellations caused by COVID-19, invitations for the Boar’s Head Gaudy and 

the Needle and Thread Gaudy have been rescheduled as follows: 

Boar’s Head 

Needle and Thread 

Year Matriculation years 

2020 cancelled 

2021 1986/1987 

2022 1998/1999 

2023 1988/1989 

2024 2000/2001 

2025 1990/1991 

Year Matriculation years 

2021 cancelled 

2022 1976/1977 

2023 2006/2007 

2024 1978/1979 

2025 2008/2009 

2026 1980/1981 

650 TH ANNIVERSARY TRUST FUND 

AWARD REPORTS 

Due to the pandemic, no awards were made this year. 


40 YEARS OF CO-EDUCATION AT QUEEN’S 

In 1979 the first cohort of women students joined Queen’s. 40 years later, and with 

over 1000 female students having passed through Front Quad, the College community 

set out to celebrate this important and historic milestone. 

To mark the anniversary, a group of Queen’s women from all four decades joined with 

the College to plan a series of events and initiatives to forge connections across the 

generations and build an ongoing network and legacy for all women at Queen’s. 


Our thanks go in particular to the then Director of Development Anna Thorne, who was 

responsible for driving the anniversary plans forward; to the Head of Communications, 

Emily Downing, for her fantastic work on the ‘Shining a Light’ Exhibition that remains 

on view around the College; and to Jen Stedman and Henry Cosh in the Old Members’ 

Office for entering into the spirit of the celebration, for their hard work and support, and 

for keeping us on track. 

Working groups focussed on four main strands of activity: Archive, Celebrate, Lobby 

and Network. 

Archive 

Over the last 18 months Alison Sanders (née Spargo; PPE, 1979) and Christine Smith 

(Modern Languages, 1979) built an online archive to commemorate the 40 years of 

coeducation at Queen’s. 

In the ‘Back to the Future’ section, there are memories from Fellows, staff and 

students about the momentous decision to admit women to the College and the 

experiences of everyone involved with the College following their arrival. In addition 

to the fascinating written memories there are also video interviews with Professor 

Kenneth Morgan and with a group of the female 79ers conducted by Guto Harri 

(PPE, 1984). Michael Riordan, the College Archivist, also researched the College’s 

relationship with women before 1979. 

The second section, ‘Women of Queen’s’, celebrates the women who attended or 

worked at the College over the last 40 years and includes the ‘Shining a light’ series 

of photographic portraits. There is also a wealth of memories from Queen’s women on 

the theme of ‘What Queen’s means to me’. 

‘40 years in 40 Objects’ is an eclectic visual collection of pictures and 3D objects 

(making best use of new technology) which are of significance to the spirit and the 

journey of the women who have been and are part of College life. The items included 

range from the statue of Queen Philippa, in whose name the College was founded, 



through to sports teams, memorable food, fabulous clothing, Queenie magazine and 

the notorious Izal hard toilet paper which was very much in evidence in Queen’s in the 

1970s. Its removal was one of the first tangible changes made to daily life in College 

upon the arrival of women! 

The first Women’s Eight, 1982 

The final section of the archive looks to ‘The Future’ with items about Reginae, 

our undergraduate female network, and a pen portrait of one the current female 

undergraduates. This section also marks the establishment of the Queen’s Women’s 

Network. 

A great debt of thanks is owed to so many people who helped to make the archive: 

Emily Downing (Head of Communications) for her support in the publication of items 

and the Cabinet project; Michael Riordan, the College Archivist, for uncovering so 

many amazing treasures of the College, as well as all the contributors. In addition to 

those already mentioned, we thank the late Professor Brian McGuinness (Philosophy, 

1953), Ivor Timmis (Modern Languages, 1977), Phil Tellwright (Geography, 1977), Sue 

Williams, and Ken and Val Wyatt. Thanks also to all the Queen’s women who shared 

their memories so openly and generously. 


Celebrate 

40 years of women at Queen’s, in a College whose history dates back to 1341, felt 

like a milestone to be celebrated with a party – what better way to mark the start of a 

legacy for future generations! 

On 16 March 2019, we held our ‘40 Years of Co-Education Celebration Dinner’, 

arranged by our team of Elizabeth Pilkington (Mathematics, 2000), Lauriane Anderson 

Mair (Modern Languages, 2007) and Wendy Burt (née Hayes; Modern History, 1979), 

in partnership with the Old Members’ Office. Former students from all four decades 

– including mother and daughter, Jane (née Chapman; PPE, 1979) and Katy Welsh 

(Physics, 2015) – current students, Fellows and College staff came together for this 

historic, first all-female (with a few welcome exceptions!) gathering in Hall. 


The event began with a chance for friends and new acquaintances to catch up over 

afternoon tea in the Shulman Auditorium. A charm bracelet exclusively designed 

by designer Sibylle de Baynast, whose son studied at Queen’s, was available to 

attendees to mark the occasion and, following informal presentations, a group photo 

was taken to capture the moment. Highlights of our Archive were on display in the 

Magrath Room, with thanks to Michael Riordan for curating this. 

The group photo in the Shulman Auditorium 

One touching highlight of the day was the Chapel Service conducted by Revd 

Katherine Price, with an all-women choir made up of current and former choristers, 

led by Professor Owen Rees and featuring a specially composed piece by Eleanor 

Graff-Baker (Music, 1980). Drinks in the Upper Library provided a further opportunity 

to speak with peers and connect with Queen’s women from across the generations, 

sharing our common experiences and memories. We convened for dinner with a 



nostalgic menu that featured several 

College classics, rounded off with the 

showcase dessert of Bombe Alaska. 

Our gratitude goes to former Head 

Chef Andy Field, Dawn Grimshaw, 

and the catering staff for obliging our 

specific requests. Speeches from Old 

Members and Mrs Alison Madden 

were warmly toasted, as was the 

commemorative sterling silver bowl 

by Graham Stewart, which was 

presented to the Provost by the 1979 

first cohort of women. 

Merriment continued in the Beer Cellar, with bop-style entertainment, sound-tracked 

by tunes that had been nominated from decades past and present. A beautiful 

celebratory cake was served, which helped to sustain energy on the dancefloor! 

Thanks to Sue Tutty and Sean Meade for keeping the G&Ts flowing. 

The dinner proved extremely popular and with numbers limited to 140, was 

oversubscribed. By agreement with the Old Members’ Office, we therefore planned to 

theme July 2020’s College Garden Party around Queen’s women through the ages, to 

round off the extended year of celebration. Due to the COVID-19 situation, unfortunately 

this event was cancelled. However, we look forward to future Network events to 

continue to build on the spirit of celebration and community generated together! 

Lobby: Equality and Diversity in Recruitment for Senior Roles 

Diversity has received a great deal of attention in the news recently, notably because 

of the Black Lives Matter movement, and with the realisation that COVID-19 has been 

affecting certain groups of people disproportionately. But how can organisations take 

concrete steps to increase the diversity of their leadership and populations? Often, 

they start with the largest under-represented population – women – on the basis that, 

although each under-represented group faces different challenges and has different 

experiences, some of the changes made to increase the representation of women can 

act as a contribution towards the systemic changes that will also lead to increases in 

representation of other groups. 

This was the founding principle on which the Lobby working group – Jackie Rolf 

(Modern Languages, 1981), Claire Taylor MBE (Mathematics, 1994) and Sarah 

McMahon (Literae Humaniores, 1982) – wanted to build. We looked at the governance 

of the College and whether there was an opportunity to make the College’s policies 

and procedures more inclusive of diversity. We believe that this work, largely carried 

out in 2018-19, will also benefit the College’s current and future work on increasing 

diversity in other areas, such as race and socio-economic disadvantage. 


The first priority was to look at the College’s student gender balance. Sarah carried 

out an extensive gender audit of all Oxford colleges and, much to our delight, we 

discovered that we could be really proud of Queen’s. After Hertford College it has led 

the way in consistent, balanced gender undergraduate intakes over the last decade. 

This excellent record provided another good reason to celebrate our 40 Years of 

Women anniversary in 2019. 

Next, we turned our attention to the Governing Body. Quite quickly, we realised there 

was an important event coming up – the appointment of a new Provost, to follow Paul 

Madden – and that the process for recruiting his successor would be an opportunity 

to consider how senior appointments in College were made. We discussed with 

Professor Jane Mellor, Professor of Biochemistry and Equalities Fellow, whether 

workshops on diversity in the recruitment process might be welcomed. Jackie has 

extensive experience as Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion at two multinational 

organisations. She had designed a range of leadership interventions focussing 

on minimising subjectivity and unconscious bias in recruitment, which can lead to 

organisations excluding well-qualified diverse candidates, particularly at senior levels, 

and hence not always focussing on who is the best person for the role. It was agreed 

that she would run two diversity workshops with members of the Electoral Body 

(which consisted of all Fellows who were members of Governing Body). 


The workshops began by understanding the neuroscience behind implicit, or 

unconscious, bias – which we all have – and raising awareness of how it can affect 

decision-making, particularly regarding under-represented groups. One of the key 

messages in the presentations was an encouragement to think differently about 

diversity – the end goal was not to recruit a specific type of ‘diverse’ candidate 

(e.g. a woman or a person from the BAME community), but rather to ensure that 

any potential biases were removed from an assessment of the capabilities of all 

candidates, whatever their characteristics or background, which would then give all 

qualified candidates a level playing-field on which to compete for the role, instead of 

the unequal one which is often the case. 

We then looked at research showing the benefits of increasing diversity, and discussed 

a range of concrete actions that could be taken in order to ensure a fair and inclusive 

recruitment process. The Electoral Body fully engaged with the discussions, and we 

welcomed their decision to choose an executive search firm with specialist experience 

in diversity to assist with the appointment. 

At the end of a rigorous selection process, the Electoral Body offered the role to Dr 

Claire Craig, and she became the first female Provost in the College’s 679-year history. 

We were delighted to be able to contribute to the process. 


Network 


The Queen’s Women’s Network has been set up to provide professional and social 

networking opportunities for current and Old Members, especially women. The aim is 

to help everyone, within and across the generations, to celebrate success, promote 

equality and inclusion and champion change. The Network also aims to provide career 

support and, in the future, to establish two-way mentoring. 

The events and activities have been designed and organised by Janet Hayes (née 

Dyson; Modern Languages, 1981), Judith Bufton (née Leeming; Classics and Modern 

Languages, 1979), Jane Welsh (née Chapman; PPE, 1979), Catherine Palmer 

(Jurisprudence, 1993) and Anna Howard (née Parks; Modern Languages, 1995). Our 

thanks also go to the other Old Members who have provided speakers and venues 

and facilitated events, including Catherine Palmer at Joseph, Mark Evans (Modern 

Languages, 1977) at RSM and Kate Cooper (née Sheen; English and Modern 

Languages, 1999) and Holly Pirnie (née Insley; Jurisprudence, 2000) at Freshfields. 

We have been delighted with the response to the network which has been very 

successful in its overall aims, particularly in providing networking opportunities for Old 

Members in London and the South East. Attendees at the four in-person events have 

come from all generations of Queen’s women as well as a handful of Queen’s men. 

Between 40 and 70 people have attended each event. Topics have included: 

• the Network launch, when executive coach Mia Forbes Pirie spoke of finding and 

appreciating our unique talent and then fitting out (not in); 

• Nicola Waterworth (Modern History, 1998) leading a discussion on the challenges 

and opportunities for women in politics from her study of Women, Power, Politics: 

what’s changed in 100 years for the British Council; 

• Janet Hayes speaking on her MSc research into women’s journeys to leadership 

and the concept of ‘having it all’, followed by a panel discussion with Nishi Grose 

(née Somaiya; PPE, 1998), April Burt (DPhil in Environmental Research, 2017) and 

Freshfields Partner, Caroline Stroud. 

The two-year anniversary of the 

launch of the Network was marked 

by a conversation (pictured) with the 

College’s first female Provost, Dr Claire 

Craig, and a dinner at the University 

Women’s Club where views were 

sought on the future of the Network. 

See the Queen’s YouTube channel 

(www.youtube.com/queenscollegeox) for 

a video of the conversation with Claire. 


The Network’s first online event will be held in September 2020. By hosting this on 

Zoom, we will enable many more people to attend, irrespective of location. The event 

will focus on how volunteering can support career progression, illustrated by Alison 

Sanders (née Spargo; PPE, 1979) speaking on her experience as a Magistrate with 

her colleague, Jane Macaulay. 

Building on the experience to date, we plan to have at least one formal meeting a 

year in London, plus one informal get-together. However, we are also very keen to run 

events outside London and so, where possible, will host our own event when the Old 

Members’ Office starts to travel again around the UK and possibly more widely. If you 

would like to run your own event locally, please contact the Old Members’ Office. 


We also hope to draw on the wealth of career and life experience of our Old Members 

by setting up a two-way mentoring scheme both between Old Members and with 

current students. There is plenty of enthusiasm amongst Network members; we just 

need the means to make it easy to organise and run. Again, please contact the Old 

Members’ Office if you have any ideas on how to help with this or on the Network 

more generally. 

We look forward to seeing you at one of our events! 

In summary, it has been a fun and busy year of celebration and commemoration: 

recording memories of 1979 and looking at what the decision to admit women has 

meant for College life; finding out what 40 years of women at Queen’s looks like and 

meeting lots of them; and creating a legacy to sustain and develop those connections. 

Thanks to the many Queen’s women who have helped to make the 40 th Anniversary 

such an enjoyable and successful occasion and contributed to the establishment of the 

Network. Final thanks must go to Lord Blake and the Governing Body for inviting women 

into the Queen’s family 40 years ago and to Paul and Alison Madden and Claire Craig for 

recognising the importance of this milestone in College history and celebrating it with us. 

Thank you to Judith 

Bufton, Wendy 

Burt, Janet Hayes, 

Lauriane Anderson 

Mair, Elizabeth 

Pilkington, Jackie 

Rolf and Alison 

Sanders for writing 

this article. 



APPOINTMENTS AND AWARDS 

1953 

Victor Hoffbrand 

Elected as a Public Governor to the council of governors of The Royal Free Hospital, 

London. 

1963 

Tariq Hyder 

Chosen to represent Pakistan at the Moscow Non-proliferation Conference and at the 

EU Conference on Non-proliferation and Disarmament. 

1967 

Philip Schlesinger 

Reappointed in September 2019 until March 2022, as a Visiting Professor in Media 

and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. 

1968 

Tim Connell 

Appointed as an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, having 

stepped down as Vice-President after 17 years. 

1973 

Martin Riley 

Awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Business Administration (DBA) by the 

University of Greenwich for his contribution to their business school teaching. 

1975 

John Barker 

Inducted as Vicar of All Saints’, Harrow Weald, Diocese of London. 

Daniel Moylan 

Nominated for a peerage by the Prime Minister, in July 2020. 

1976 

Peter Clarkson 

Awarded the Senior Anne Bennett Prize 2020, by the London Mathematical Society, 

in recognition of his work to support gender equality in UK mathematics and his 

leadership in developing good practice among departments of mathematical sciences. 


1977 

Giles Orton 

Appointed Priest-in-Charge, Derby St Anne’s, in July 2020. 

1984 

Jonathan Woolfson 

Appointed Director of Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London, in October 2019. 


1986 

Andrew Mitchell 

Appointed Director General, Markets and Supply Chains, at the Department for 

International Trade, July 2020. 

1987 

Gary Meggitt 

Appointed Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). 

1988 

Mark Beards 

Appointed Chief Executive Officer of Sutura Therapeutics Limited, Birkenhead. He 

assumed this role in April 2020, from his prior role as Non-Executive Director of the 

Company. 

1990 

Keith Hatton 

Is a Senior Software Engineer at Sainsbury’s Digital. 

1991 

John Attwater 

Appointed Principal of King’s Ely independent school in August 2019. 

1992 

Phillip Miller 

Is now a Principal Security Advisor with Amazon Web Services. Previously he served 

as the Chief Information Security Officer for Brooks Brothers. He is also a member of 

the board of directors for Hoof, Paw, and Claw, a U.S. based non-profit corporation. 


1996 


Helen Munn 

Awarded a CBE in the 2020 New Year Honours, for services to the advancement of 

medical sciences. Helen was previously Executive Director at the Academy of Medical 

Sciences. 

2002 

Sanjib Bhakta 

Has received an ASEM-DUO 2020 Professorial Fellowship. This ASEM-DUO 

international programme was created to facilitate educational exchanges between 

Asia and Europe and encourage academic research collaborations on a balanced and 

permanent basis. 

2004 

Robert Lepenies 

Was elected to the executive committee of the Global Young Academy (GYA). The 

GYA was founded in 2010 to provide a voice for young scientists around the world 

and empower early-career researchers to lead international, interdisciplinary, and 

intergenerational dialogue by developing and mobilising talent from six continents. 

Its purpose is to promote reason and inclusiveness in global decision-making. 

Members are chosen for their demonstrated excellence in scientific achievement and 

commitment to service. 

2011 

Abda Mahmood 

Completed a PhD in Epidemiology and Population Health at the London School of 

Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 

Emily Motto 

Awarded the Gilbert Bayes Award, for early career sculptors, awarded annually by The 

Royal Society of Sculptors to a small group of outstandingly talented sculptors. 

2016 

Jake Davies 

Awarded the Governor Phillip Scholarship to pursue a full-time Research Master’s at 

the University of Sydney. This scholarship was established after the bicentenary of 

Governor Arthur Phillip’s death and its purpose is to promote the bilateral exchange 

of outstanding students from Australia and the UK to study at postgraduate level at 

leading universities in both countries. Jake is the first Governor Phillip Scholar to be 

going from the UK to Australia. 


PUBLICATIONS 

Bettison, Norman (1983) 

Hillsborough Untold: aftermath of a disaster (Biteback Publishing, 2016) 

Blacklock, Mark (1991) 

Hinton (Granta Publications, 2020) 


Camp, Gregory (2007) 

Howard Hawks: Music as Communication in Film (Routledge, 2020) 

Ellis, Harold (1943) 

Tales of the Operating Theatre and other essays (The Association for Perioperative 

Practice, 2019) 

Fenn, Michael (1978) 

Consulting Skills for 2030 by Fenn, MGP and Sutton, CMB (Centre for Management 

Consulting Excellence, 2019) 

Frankland, Bill (1930) 

‘Fungal Threats Good and Bad’, published on The Queen’s College website 

(bit.ly/bill-frankland), 2020 

George, Richard (1987) 

‘Fulgentius: the hazard of laurels’, HQ: The Haiku Quarterly 50 (2019); ‘Clerihew in the 

accent of Jacob Rees-Mogg’, Orbis Quarterly International 186 (2019); ‘The roll-off 

factor’, Fortean Times 394.57 (2020) 

Hacker, Andrew (1951) 

Downfall: The Demise of a President and His Party (Skyhorse Publishing, 2020) 

Hoganson, Kristin (2015) 

Editor of Crossing Empires: Taking US History into Transimperial Terrain 

(Duke University Press, 2020) 

Johnson, Alex (1988) 

Shelf Life: Writers on Books and Reading (British Library Publishing, 2018); Book 

Towns: Forty-Five Paradises of the Printed Word (Francis Lincoln, 2018); A Book 

of Book Lists (British Library Publishing, 2017) 

Olabarria, Leire (2010) 

Kinship and Family in Ancient Egypt (Cambridge University Press, 2020) 



Lewis, Claire (1983) 

She’s Mine (Aria, 2019) 

Mawson, Timothy (1996) 

The Divine Attributes (Cambridge University Press, 2019) 

Pasternak Slater, Nicolas (1958) 

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, translated by Nicolas Pasternak Slater (Folio 

Society, 2019) 

Rikhof, Herwi (1976) 

Een schatkamer voor pelgrims. De Cenakelkerk van de Heilig Landstichting (Valkhor 

Press, 2018) – translates as ‘A Treasure Trove for Pilgrims. The Cenacle Church of 

the Holy Land Foundation’. Wij geloven. Rooms-katholiek en protestant: één geloof. 

De geloofsbelijdenis van Nicea/ Constantinopel, uitgelegd door Bram van de Beek en 

Herwi Rikhof (KokBoekencentrum, 2019) – translates as ‘We believe Roman Catholic 

and Protestant: one faith. The Creed of Nicaea/ Constantinople, explained by Bram 

van de Beek and Herwi Rikhof’. 

Rowley, Sarah (2003) 

Latin Rocks On (Unicorn Publishing Group, 2020) 

Sagar, David (1965) 

A Strange Fire – Spirituality for the 21st Century, new edition (Lulu.com, 2019) 

Singh-Lal, Vandana (1999) 

So all is Peace (Penguin, 2019) 

Smyth, Gareth (1976) 

‘Killeen Group Water Scheme’ and ‘The Name on the Lake: Hounds and the Booley’, 

AnChoinneal magazine (2019); ‘Wine and Islam’ in Tears of Bacchus: A History of 

Wine in the Arab World, edited by Michael Karam (Gilgamesh, 2019) 

Stehly, Ralph (1971) 

Introduction à l’islam – Fondements et Croyances (Éditions Érick Bonnier, 2019) 

Sutton, Christopher (1982) 

Consulting Skills for 2030 by Fenn, MGP and Sutton, CMB (Centre for Management 

Consulting Excellence, 2019) 

Tam, Henry (1978) 

Editor of Whose Government is it? – The Renewal of State-Citizen Cooperation 

(Bristol University Press, 2019); The Evolution of Communitarian Ideas (Palgrave 

Macmillan, 2019) 


Teague, Anthony known as Brother Anthony of Taizé (1960) 

Translator, Living in silence (White Pine Press, 2019); Rabbit’s Tale (Homa and Sekey 

Books, 2019) 

Timmis, Ivor (1977) 

The Discourse of Desperation: Late 18 th and Early 19 th Century Letters by Paupers, 

Prisoners and Rogues (Routledge, 2020) 

Williams, Matt (2005) 

‘Adventure on Puffin Island’, Creative Countryside magazine, August (2019) 


Wright, Hugh (1957) 

The Webbs of Odstock (Downside Abbey Press, 2019) 


ARTICLES 

Articles 

From Translating Illness to Translating COVID-19: a 

Humanities Response to the Pandemic 

Dr Marta Arnaldi, Laming Research Fellow 

The 1998 film Sliding Doors, directed by Peter Howitt 

and starring American actress Gwyneth Paltrow, follows 

two parallel storylines, showing the divergent paths the 

protagonist’s life could take depending on whether or 

not she catches a train. In the past months, I have been 

haunted by the realisation that we are, just like this character, continuously asked to 

make a choice between the real and the virtual, the vigilant and the impulsive, the 

rational and the absurd. The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has certainly 

diverted our journey; but is there a right train? 

Translating Illness: Imagined Design 

As a former student of medicine and a 

scholar of comparative literature, I have 

always been fascinated by the ways 

in which the psychical and the mental 

worlds interact with, and shape, one 

another. Translation is a vital vector of this 

exchange; we translate to replicate our Logo designed by Eoin Kelleher 

cells, protect our life, and communicate 

to people who could not otherwise 

understand or being understood. Sometimes, through the invisible paths of contagion 

and trauma, translation can even make us ill. This is how and why I have asked myself 

what different concepts and practices of translation have to do with one another, and 

to what extent translation in the scientific sense (translational medicine, knowledge 

translation) is different to the way in which we relate to a foreign language. 

I created Translating Illness (www.queens.ox.ac.uk/translating-illness) to explore these 

ideas. Supported by a Laming Research Fellowship at Queen’s, this interdisciplinary 

project was awarded a double grant from the Wellcome Institutional Strategic Support 

Fund and the John Fell Fund, Oxford, in order to promote, alongside primary research 

on modern poet-translators, a series of research and public engagement activities. In 

October 2019, I was writer in residence at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, where I 

delivered a masterclass in creative writing in a foreign language, i.e. English. In January 

2020, I inaugurated a College-based seminar series which was turned into podcast 

episodes (podcasts.ox.ac.uk/people/marta-arnaldi). On 1 March 2020, I took a plane 

to New York in order to start a visiting fellowship at the Department of English and 


Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Other planned visits included archival 

work at the Yale Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, a translation workshop 

to be delivered at the University of Central Florida, and an invited lecture at Princeton. 

As alarming news was coming from China and my home country, Italy, I came to 

terms with the fact that my project was no longer a theoretical matter; it was, in fact, 

an articulation of the global crisis we were living through. Coronavirus disease had 

become the illness we were asked to translate. 

Articles 

Marta giving the introduction at the Translating Illness Inaugural Lecture 

Translating COVID-19: Emergency Response 

I activated Translating COVID-19 (www.queens.ox.ac.uk/translating-covid-19) as an 

emergency response to the pandemic. I designed and hosted a series of five video 

conversations with world-leading experts in translation studies and epidemiology, 

with the aim of discussing the translational implications of coronavirus disease. 

The episodes – which attracted almost 3,000 views in five months – touched upon 

questions of race, conspiracy and (lack of) medical evidence connected with the 

current health, ethnic, and environmental crises. In the first episode, Nicola Gardini, 

Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature at Oxford, invited us to reflect on the 

language we use and the metaphors we resort to in order to capture the ineffability 

of illness. The second episode in the series featured Charles Forsdick, James Barrow 

Professor of French at the University of Liverpool and AHRC Theme Leadership Fellow 

for Translating Cultures. Professor Forsdick highlighted the ways in which translation 

creates connections that can protect us from isolation both on public and private 

levels. He explored the many meanings which the experience of confinement has 


Articles 

taken across different linguistic, societal and ethnic contexts, thus tackling issues of 

mental illness, class, and race. A similar attention towards non-dominant languages 

and cultures characterised Professor Karen Thornber’s contribution, which disclosed 

the role literature in translation plays in retrieving examples of non-Anglo-Euro- 

American medical practices. Karen Thornber, who is Harry Tuchman Levin Professor 

in Literature and Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard 

University, proposed a solution to the health, environmental and racial issues gripping 

our society by tracing the model of a world policy of care (see her newly-published 

book Global Healing: Literature, Advocacy, Care, published by Brill in 2020). 

In the fourth episode, I spoke with Eivind Engebretsen, Professor of Interdisciplinary 

Health Sciences at the Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo. Professor 

Engebretsen offered the perspective of a scientist invested in humanities research 

that is not secondary, but fundamental to clinical advancements. He pointed out 

that medical discoveries, policy and practices are culturally determined; despite 

our common perceptions, science does not provide universal truth, and this is 

particularly evident in the case of face masks. The final episode was dedicated to 

the transnational paths of contagion seen through the lens of twentieth-century 

cinema. Kirsten Ostherr, the founder and director of the Medical Humanities Program 

and the Medical Futures Lab at Rice University, Texas, drew on her expertise as a 

media scholar, health researcher and technology analyst to discuss visual culture’s 

paradoxical power to represent the invisibility of infection. 

As emerges from this overview, Translating COVID-19 has been a profoundly 

collaborative endeavour, one that proved to be both challenging and enriching. It 

led me to unspecified destinations on a train I did not plan to catch, but on which 

I was not alone. I would not thank the virus or months of social distancing for this 

serendipitous diversion; rather, I would like to acknowledge the support of colleagues 

and mentors who make academia a place of renewal and transformation, and whose 

work shows us the many ways in which we, as humanists, are not just humanitarians 

but also medics in the face of the unknown. 

Sometimes we have no control over which train to take. Yet, we can decide how and 

why to wander. 


Bridging the gap between science and the arts: 

Clifford Norton Fellows and Students at Queen’s 

Dr Christopher D. Hollings, Clifford Norton Senior 

Research Fellow 

Over the last half century, Queen’s has hosted more 

than a dozen researchers working on topics in the 

History of Science, with the History of Medicine and the 

History of Mathematics being the two major themes. This 

association between the College and the History of Science grew, at least in part, from a 

bequest made to the College in 1964 by an Old Member, the diplomat Sir Clifford Norton 

(1891-1990), who sought to forge a new link between the sciences and the humanities. 

Articles 

Clifford John Norton was born in Greenwich in 1891. He studied at Rugby School, 

before entering Queen’s as a Foundation Scholar in 1910. His tutor was the classicist, 

and future Provost of the College, E. M. Walker; Norton took a First in Classics 

Moderations in 1912 and then a Third in Literae Humaniores in 1914. He served at 

Gallipoli and in Palestine with the Suffolk Regiment during the First World War, and 

eventually entered the Foreign Office in 1921; throughout much of the 1930s, he 

served as private secretary to the permanent under-secretary Sir Robert Vansittart, 

before being posted to Warsaw in 1937. After a further foreign posting to Bern, he 

was appointed British Ambassador to Athens in 1946, a position that he held until his 

retirement in 1951. Upon returning to the UK, 

he sought to re-establish his connection with 

Queen’s, and was for a time President of the 

Queen’s Association; in 1963, he was elected 

an Honorary Fellow of the College. Norton 

died in London in 1990, seven months short 

of his one-hundredth birthday. 

As early as 1952, Norton had written to 

the Bursar to signal his intention of leaving 

a bequest of £2,000 to the College, and 

was already wondering whether to earmark 

it for a specific purpose. Discussions 

appear to have taken place between 

Norton and members of the College, and 

by 1960 he had accepted the suggestion 

that his bequest (now having risen to 

£10,000) be used to fund a ‘Clifford Norton 

Research Fellowship’. By 1964, Norton 

had decided to turn his proposed bequest 

into an immediate gift, and was musing 

on possible subjects for the Fellowship: 

Sir Clifford John Norton, by Walter 

Stoneman. Bromide print, 26 August 

1948, NPG x186891 (© National Portrait 

Gallery, London) 


‘The subject is still vague in my mind. Is there anything that might be a bridge 

between Science & the Arts?’ 

Articles 

Norton’s suggestion may have been motivated by the recently aired views of C. P. 

Snow, concerning the ‛Two Cultures’ of the sciences and the humanities. 

Having initially asked for his bequest to be kept confidential, Norton then permitted the 

following announcement to appear in the College Record for 1964: 

‘Sir Clifford Norton (1910), Honorary Fellow, has endowed a new Junior Research 

Fellowship, which will be known by his name. This generous gift substantially 

increases the provision for opportunities of research, the promotion of which has 

long been a cardinal feature of College policy, and is especially welcome at a time 

when the need for qualified academic teachers is become increasingly pressing. It 

is hoped to make the first election to the new Fellowship for October 1965.’ 

A committee was formed within the College to consider appropriate subjects for 

the new Fellowship, and returned the recommendation in January 1965 that it be 

advertised in the History of Science or Medicine – but that if no suitable candidate 

were found, it should be re-advertised in Ancient History, Classics and Modern History. 

Although these latter subjects would not have met Norton’s interdisciplinary intentions, 

they would at least have mirrored his own studies in Oxford and subsequent career. 

The position was duly advertised, and a suitable History of Science candidate was 

found in the form of Robert Fox from Oriel, a historian of physics who was then 

completing a DPhil dissertation entitled ‘The Study of the Thermal Properties of 

Gases in Relation to Physical Theory from Montgolfier to Regnault’. Fox was elected 

to the Fellowship in October 1965, and when he left Oxford a year later to take up 

a lectureship at the University of Lancaster (he would subsequently return to Oxford 

in 1988 as Professor of the History of Science, and Fellow of Linacre), the subject of 

the Fellowship was changed to Linguistics or Psycholinguistics. Over the next thirty 

years, the post cycled through several subjects, all of which fulfilled Norton’s tentative 

suggestion of something ‘that might be a bridge between Science & the Arts’: History 

of Science, Linguistics, Economics and Psychology (see Table 1). The research 

topics of Fellows ranged from the social history of twentieth-century British medicine 

(Bryder) to schema theory (Bowers) and conversation analysis (Geluykens). Amongst 

the historians of science, History of Medicine was a particularly prominent theme 

(represented by Lindsay Sharp, Linda Bryder and Harriet Deacon). 

The finances underpinning the Fellowship, however, were never entirely robust. 

From the start, it had been acknowledged that it might be necessary for the College 

to supplement the salary of the Clifford Norton Fellow in order to bring it to a level 

appropriate for a Junior Research Fellowship. Indeed, financial considerations seem to 

have been behind at least some of the gaps in Table 1: the Fellowship was funded by 

the income from a ‘Clifford Norton Trust’, established on the basis of Norton’s original 

bequest, but in 1975-1981, for example, the income simply wasn’t sufficient. In 1983, 


Years Name Subject 

1965-1966 Robert Fox History of Science 

1966-1969 Philip Twitchell Smith Psycholinguistics 

1969-1972 Geoffrey Richard Sampson Linguistics 

1972-1975 Lindsay Gerard Sharp History of Science 

1975-1981 Vacant 

1981-1983 Stephen Noel Broadberry Economics 

1983-1984 Vacant 

1984-1988 Linda Bryder History of Science 

1987-1988 John Maxwell Bowers Psychology 

1988-1989 Vacant 

1989-1992 Ronald Geluykens Linguistics 

1992-1993 Vacant 

1993-1997 Harriet Jane Deacon History of Science 

Articles 

Table 1: Clifford Norton Junior Research Fellows 

the then-Provost, Lord Blake, wrote to Norton, seeking permission (which was duly 

granted) to use the capital from the Trust as well as the income to provide for future 

Fellowships. It was intended gradually to run the fund down, though on at least one 

occasion money from an outside source was used to subsidise the Fellowship: during 

her final year at Queen’s, the bulk of Linda Bryder’s salary was supplied by a British 

Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship. 

By the mid-1990s, however, the money had run particularly low, and it was decided 

to demote the Clifford Norton Fellowship to a Studentship (i.e. a junior research 

post ranked below a Junior Research Fellowship), and to make it a non-stipendiary 

position. Hereafter, the post was to be intended for, but not restricted to, postgraduate 

students completing their DPhils. At the same time, the post was fixed permanently 

to the History of Science, and ceased to cycle through different disciplines. But 

even within this narrower focus, the incumbents of the Studentship (see Table 2) 

still covered a broad range of topics. The History of Medicine remained a prominent 

theme: for example, the first Clifford Norton Student, Viviane Quirke, used the post to 

complete a DPhil dissertation entitled ‘Experiments in Collaboration: The Changing 

Relationship between Scientists and Pharmaceutical Companies in Britain and France, 

1935–1965’; whilst at Queen’s, she also wrote for the College Record (1998) on the 

work of the Nobel-Prize-winning former Provost, Lord Florey. Two of the subsequent 

Students (namely, Catherine Kelly and Harry Wu) also worked in the History of 


Articles 

Medicine. But the History of Mathematics has also featured – in the work of the 

present author, but most notably following the appointment of the late Jackie Stedall, 

a specialist in early modern English mathematics, as Clifford Norton Student in 2000. 

Stedall came to Queen’s having just completed a PhD at The Open University on the 

1685 Treatise of Algebra of the Oxford mathematician John Wallis; her own copy of 

Wallis’ text now resides in the College library. Stedall subsequently became a Junior, 

and then a Senior, Research Fellow of the College. 

Years 

Name 

1997-2000 Viviane Quirke 

2000-2003 Jacqueline Anne Stedall 

2003-2005 Alexander John Marr 

2005-2008 Catherine Jane Kelly 

2008-2011 Harry Yi-Jui Wu 

2011-2013 Christopher David Hollings 

Table 2: Clifford Norton Students in the History of Science 

Sadly, the current financial situation 

does not allow for a Clifford Norton 

Student, but when the present author 

returned to Queen’s in 2015 to take 

up a Senior Research Fellowship, the 

Governing Body chose to name this 

the ‘Clifford Norton Senior Research 

Fellowship’ – so, although the College 

no longer has a junior research post 

in the History of Science, a visible 

link to Sir Clifford Norton’s original 

bequest remains. 


College Servants and Vacation Employment: Insights from Oxford’s Archives 

Dr Kathryne Crossley, Kellogg College 

‘Diary (Butler’s) 1854-1898’ is a slim, nineteenth-century volume, its binding only 

loosely holding the foxed pages together. I encountered it on a visit to the Queen’s 

College Archive while researching my DPhil on the history of Oxford college servants. 

My thesis is a comparative study of nineteen Oxford colleges, and I have spent many 

hours with a fantastic variety of sources, including this diary, which provides a glimpse 

into college life from the perspective of a long-serving member of staff. 

Articles 

The second page of the diary records the appointment of the college butler, William 

Owen in 1857. I hoped the diary would offer some insight into an important tradition: 

college servants’ employment at resorts in the Long Vacation. Several college histories 

mention that servants often worked at resorts in England, Scotland and Wales in the 

Long Vacations, but existing accounts provided very few details. Preliminary research 

suggested that Owen was a key figure in the organisation of resort employment for 

servants in the Long Vacations. 

Butler’s diary, showing William Owen’s appointment in 1857 


Articles 

Owen kept the diary for many decades; most entries are only a line or two, and 

in some years, he wrote nothing. He recorded a variety of events, particularly the 

appointments, promotions and deaths of Queen’s servants. In some cases, this 

diary provides the only surviving evidence of the employment of these men and 

women. However, Owen offers no comment on his own work. He does not describe 

his responsibilities, nor those of his colleagues; there are no details of his working 

conditions, nor his satisfaction or dissatisfaction with those arrangements. 

Not surprisingly, the most detailed entries usually concern good food. Owen wrote 

appreciatively of dinners given by Fellows for the servants. On 29 December 1864 

he wrote, ‘All the servants, 26 in number, dined and supped in College at Dr. 

Farrar’s expense – on the occasion of his leaving Coll. for his new appointment of 

Professorship of Eccl. Hist. to Durham University.’ In 1878 Owen noted that, to mark 

the event of his election as Provost, Rev. Magrath ‘kindly presented to every servant of 

the College (33 in number) a fine Turkey for their Christmas-day dinners.’ 

Unfortunately, William Owen’s diary is silent on the subject of vacation employment. 

The highly seasonal nature of Oxford’s economy and the problem of precarious 

employment were well known at the time. Most servants could expect a significantly 

reduced income for approximately half the year; the effects of this were compounded 

by servants’ dependence on perquisites and gratuities – which typically comprised 

a third to one-half of their remuneration. Year-round employment was guaranteed 

only for senior servants; it was not until after the Second World War that conferences 

began to provide enough work to keep most servants employed during the vacations. 

An article in Jackson’s Oxford Journal provided a clue to the origins of the scheme. 

Mayor Thomas Randall described how three years earlier, in 1856, he was struck 

by the length of that year’s Vacation, which began in early June, and the difficulties 

faced by junior servants particularly, who ‘had to rely only on the little resources they 

made during term’. If a young servant was able to save anything, Randall explained, 

‘he oftentimes found that at the end of Long Vacation that it was not only gone, but 

that he was in debt’. Junior servants did not typically receive a cash wage from the 

colleges, relying only on customary tips. 

Randall recalled that while travelling in the summers, he was struck by the difficulties 

hotels had hiring seasonal waiters, during precisely the same months that many 

college servants needed work. Randall approached senior members of the University 

in January 1856 to discuss his idea for the scheme, but without much success. He 

was disappointed to find a general belief prevailed among those men that ‘it would be 

impossible to induce the junior college servants to leave Oxford to obtain employment 

until all their money was spent’. 

There were few local opportunities for employment in the summers; some servants 

looked for agricultural work, hay-making and bringing in the corn. Some colleges 


paid a small retaining wage, some offered odd jobs. The summers were largely taken 

up with maintenance and decorating, but there was not enough work, and in some 

colleges, not enough money to afford to keep a full staff on year-round. 

Randall persevered and on 29 December 1859, the mayor, together with Vice 

Chancellor Francis Jeune, presided over a meeting of college servants to discuss 

the problem of unemployment in the Long Vacation. The meeting concluded with 

a resolution to form a committee to provide organisational support, acting as an 

employment agency matching resort jobs with college servants. Randall estimated 

that 75-100 junior servants might be expected to find resort employment during the 

summers. William Owen led the committee for more than twenty years, coordinating 

the employers and servants, matching offers and recommendations. 

Articles 

Colleges immediately acknowledged the benefits of resort employment. Chief among 

these was keeping servants productively occupied. Idleness, especially among the 

younger male servants, led to mischief. ‘“What”, exclaimed Rector Tatham [of Lincoln 

College], after hearing from [Subrector] Radford of thefts in the College, “have the idle 

bedmakers been about? Through the whole of the Long Vacation they have nothing to 

do and the thieves take advantage of their indolence and negligence!”’ 1 

In its first summer, the College Servants’ Summer Employment Society received 34 

applications from servants looking for a summer position; jobs were found for only 

12 of them. 2 Actual figures for the numbers of men who found summer employment 

through the committee were later reported in the minutes of the College Servants’ 

Society (CSS), a working men’s club for college servants founded in 1872, with 

premises on King Edward Street. These range from 40-60 positions filled annually. 

By 1881, the CSS had completely taken over the work of the summer employment 

committee from William Owen. Advertisements placed after 1881 suggest that 

the CSS tried to find work for a larger group of servants with a broader array of 

businesses. One such advertisement appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette and offered 

that the CSS could supply ‘proprietors of hotels and other places of business cooks, 

waiters, clerks, and porters from the present time until October’. 3 Despite this, in 

1885, the Society’s minutes note that there were still not enough summer positions 

for servants who wanted them. The CSS dissolved around the time of the First World 

War, and although the organisation of summer employment was lost with it, individual 

servants continued to make arrangements for this work. 

1 

LC/B/C/4 Letter from E. Tatham to Subrector Radford, 9 September, no year is given. Also quoted in 

Vivian Green, The Commonwealth of Lincoln College 1427-1977 (Oxford, 1979), p.417. 

2 

JOJ 16 June 1860; Two servants from Wadham, two from New and one from Magdalen Hall went to 

the Castle Mona Hotel in Douglas; one from University went to the Royal Victoria in Swanage; one from 

Magdalen, and two from Exeter went to the Station Hotel in Hull; and three from Exeter went to the 

Burdon Hotel in Weymouth. 

3 

Pall Mall Gazette 28 June 1882. The same advertisement appeared in the North Wales Chronicle on 

1 July 1882. 


Not all servants could work away from Oxford, even when these positions were 

available. Married servants with families likely found the prospect of months away from 

home after the long working hours of the terms to be burdensome. 

Articles 

One particularly sad case concerns Daniel Styles, a young college servant at All Souls, 

who worked as a butler’s assistant in the late nineteenth century. He was a keen 

cricketer with the college servants’ team, an active member of the College Servants’ 

Society and appeared assured of a successful career in college service. In the summer 

of 1892, Daniel fell ill and died of kidney failure while working as a waiter at the Granby 

Hotel in Harrogate during the Long Vacation. Styles left behind his pregnant widow 

Kate and several young children. The CSS held a fundraiser to raise money for Kate 

Styles to set up in business as a licensed lodging-house keeper, work she continued 

until her retirement. 

Most female college servants similarly suffered a loss of income in the vacations, but 

resort employment was only available for men. Outside of terms, there was little work 

for college laundresses and only a few senior women were employed year-round in 

other positions, typically as cleaners on the staircases and in the kitchens. Many of 

these women looked for work in private households as charwomen. 

During the terms Eliza Haynes, a scout’s assistant at Oriel College in the late 

nineteenth century, worked on the staircases in the mornings. She took on other 

domestic work in the afternoons, including working as a cleaner for Rev. Walter 

Lock, the Warden of Keble College. It was through Lock that Haynes found summer 

employment, traveling with Lock’s family each summer to their home on the Isle of 

Wight where she worked as their cook. Her daughter Alma went along as well, to 

provide help in the nursery with the family’s younger children. 4 

Resort work paid relatively well and many servants recalled enjoying the experience. 

In his 1953 autobiography, Fred Bickerton, the long-serving head porter at University 

College wrote: 

‘The under-scout had no salary from the College; he depended on what his 

undergraduates gave him, and the Term’s emoluments rarely came to more than 

ten pounds. Moreover, there were only three Terms, and they left six months in the 

year during which we had to find alternative employment. It was the custom for us 

to take jobs as waiters in seaside hotels where there was a seasonal demand. I 

must say the experience was useful, as well as the money, and it certainly helped 

us to serve more efficiently in College. I went one year to Llandrindod Wells and 

two years to Lowestoft and busy as it was, I always enjoyed the change of place 

and the crowds of new faces. …After those three years the College always found 

some work for me to do during the Vacations, and so I remained in Oxford.’ 5 

Bob Dickens and his father, then both servants at New College, worked as waiters in 

the Lake District during the Long Vacations. Dickens recalled that in 1919, the lack of 


year-round employment alongside frustration with low wages motivated some college 

servants to join a trade union. Dickens felt that junior servants wanted unions because 

‘times were “really bad”, [there was] discontent when they had to find other work in 

the vacations, when the College gave them only 10 s. a week retaining fee; and they 

found out that if people could get away in the summer… you could make half a year’s 

wages in 3 months. It was hard work, but it paid them to do it.’ 6 

Articles 

Of course, to work away from Oxford in the Long Vacation was to forego the pleasures 

of summer sports. From at least the mid-nineteenth century, college servants were 

enthusiastic participants in athletics, bowls, football, tennis, cricket and rowing. There 

was little time for leisure during the terms, however during the vacations, servants had 

the use of the playing fields and the college barges. 

One of Queen’s beloved members of staff, Albert Piper, was celebrated for his 

achievements in football, rowing and cricket. An article in The Isis from 1920 describes 

Piper with great admiration, listing his considerable personal and professional 

accomplishments. A few months earlier, Piper hosted a dinner at Worcester College, 

part of the festivities held for the biennial Oxford and Cambridge College Servants’ 

Cricket Match and Boat Race, which began in 1850 and continued for a century. The 

competitions were usually extended into a weekends, held alternately in Oxford and 

Cambridge during the Long Vacations, and recalled 

with great fondness by many college servants. Both 

the article and the dinner programme were pasted 

into the Bursarial Diary held in the Queen’s archive, 

kept by the Senior Bursar Rev. George Cronshaw, 

who was a guest at the dinner. 

College life was transformed after the Second World 

War, and resort employment in the Long Vacations 

largely disappeared. The Butler’s Diary and the 

Bursarial Diary are just two of the sources that 

highlight the fascinating history of these workers; 

there are many more in the Queen’s Archive and 

in other colleges as well. In this strange summer 

when archives are closed, it is a particular pleasure 

to revisit them, along with William Owen and Albert 

Piper and to look forward to visiting again soon. 

Albert Piper, College Messenger 

4 

Phyl Surman, Eliza of Otmoor (Oxford, 1976). In 1904 when she was fourteen, Alma Haynes’s first 

permanent position in domestic service was as a housemaid to J.R. Magrath, the Provost of Queen’s 

College. 

5 

Fred Bickerton, Fred of Oxford: Being the Memoirs of Fred Bickerton, Until Recently Head Porter of 

University College, Oxford (London, 1953). 

6 

G.A. Jonge and A.J. Purkis, ‘Interview with Bob Dickens’ 20 June 1969. 


OBITUARIES 

Obituaries 

We record with regret the deaths of the following Old Members: 

1930 Dr A W Frankland MBE, DM, 

FRCP (Honorary Fellow) 

1939 Mr L A Bullwinkle 

1940 Cmdr M S Richards 

1942 Mr J S Ross 

Mr G B Thompson 

1943 Prof T G Griffith 

Mr T E Lowther 

Mr J S Rees 

1944 Mr F R Ogden 

1945 Mr K W Carter 

Mr G A Corkill 

Air Vice Marshal M M J 

Robinson CB 

Mr R D Weeks 

1947 Mr R M Browning 

1948 Dr W R Heslop 

Mr J E Pearson 

1949 Mr J M Collins 

Mr M A Johnston 

Mr C P Lynam 

1950 Mr A W Cox OBE 

Mr D H Karp 

Sir Richard Tucker 

(Honorary Fellow) 

1951 Sir James Adams 

Mr P W Batty 

Mr S N P Marks 

Mr J H F Simson 

Mr R N Smith 

1952 Mr R Best 

Dr B I Hoffbrand FRCP 

Mr G L Kinter 

1953 Mr A E R Beesley 

Dr V S Butt 

Mr A Daniels 

Dr B F McGuinness 

(Emeritus Fellow) 

Mr W G Methven 

Prof P D Robinson 

Mr P Wade 

The Right Reverend C A Warren 

Mr T C Whitehead 

1954 Ambassador I Jazairy 

The Revd G F Wharton 

1955 Mr P Hamilton 

Mr K Holding 

The Revd K M Lintern 

Dr R G H Metzner 

Mr R E Stewart 

Mr M V Ward 

1956 Mr P E Krebs 

Mr J S Mor 

1957 Mr J W Robinson 

1958 Mr D J Barnes 

1959 Dr D S Andrew 

Prof W G O Carson 

Prof A S Fogg 

Mr P H Zwart 

1961 Mr J M Cummins 

Mr A M Kay 

1962 Mr S J N Barker 

Mr J F Wadsworth 

1963 Mr J W Bryant 

Prof R A Burchell 

1964 Mr I C Sallis 


1967 Dr B P Gardner 

1968 Dr D M Littlewood 

1969 Dr K T Maslin 

1970 Dr J E M Clarke 

1972 Dr N J Walton 

1973 Dr M R Green 

1975 Prof C M Christensen 

(Honorary Fellow) 

1976 Dr J R Moxey 

1979 Mr A N Smith 

1984 Dr J M C Gray 

Ms H J Sowerby 

Emeritus Fellow 

Emeritus Fellow 

Dr R M Acheson 

Mr M S Gautrey 

The news of the deaths of Old Members 

comes to the notice of the College 

through a variety of channels. The 

College is unable to verify all these 

reports and there may be some 

omissions and occasional inaccuracies. 

Obituaries 

MORRIN ACHESON 

‘…when the time comes I hope that I will remain in 

your memories for a short while like Lewis Carol’s Alice 

in Wonderland’s Cheshire Cat. The Cat disappeared 

but the grin remained.’ – Morrin Acheson, at his 90th 

birthday celebration in Basel, 25 February 2015. 

Emeritus Fellow Dr R. Morrin Acheson died on 4 July 

2020, at the age of 95. Morrin was associated with 

the College and its community for nearly 70 years. He 

tutored over 200 chemistry undergraduates at Queen’s 

from 1953, when he was appointed to a College lectureship, and subsequently a 

teaching Fellowship in 1958, until his retirement in 1986. 

Morrin also ran an active research laboratory in the Biochemistry Department. His main 

interest was heterocylic chemistry, whose structures are at the heart of many natural 

products as well as many pharmaceuticals. In addition to over 100 Part II and DPhil 

students from throughout the University, he attracted visiting scientists from around 

the world. 

He was held in great regard by his former students and researchers for his kindness, 

encouragement and infectious enthusiasm. Morrin was punctilious in keeping in 

contact with them after they left Oxford and was indefatigable in sending letters, and 

later emails, congratulating them on new appointments and milestones in their careers 

and personal lives. They have gone on to pursue careers in accountancy, banking, the 


church, journalism, films and tourism, as well as paths with a more direct chemical 

connection. What united them was an affection for Morrin, his sense of humour and 

his zest for life. 

Obituaries 

Before coming to Queen’s, Morrin was an undergraduate and graduate at Magdalen, 

gaining a First in Natural Sciences (Chemistry) in 1946, then a BSc by research in 

1947 and DPhil in 1948. He was a Medical Research Council fellow at the University 

of Nottingham from 1948-49 and held a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of 

Chicago from 1949-1950. 

Morrin had very broad research interests. Although based in the Biochemstry 

Department, his work, by and large, was firmly rooted in organic chemistry. The main 

body of his work was investigating the chemistry of a highly reactive substance, 

dimethyl acetylene dicarboxylate, known affectionately as ‘the ester’ with a vast 

miscellany of heterocyclic compounds, starting with pyridine. His early work sought 

to identify the structure of the products first seen by the great German chemist, Diels. 

Morrin was pioneering in his use of then new spectroscopic methods particularly NMR 

to solve the structures. It was this work that led to the H A Iddles award for 1966/67, 

from the University of New Hampshire. He held the distinction of being the first 

recipient from outside the USA. In all he published over 220 scientific papers, of which 

over a third were related to addition reaction of heterocylic compounds with ‘the ester’. 

The reaction of ‘the ester’ with heterocycles often produced previously unknown 

ring structures, which were of great interest to the pharmaceutical industry as novel 

drug templates. He consulted for several pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer, 

where one of his former pupils invented the block buster cardiovascular substance 

amlodipine/Norvasc®. He was also named as an inventor on several patents. 

Morrin wrote two significant books. The first was a monograph on acridines, a class 

of heterocycles with a wide range of biological properties, from a bitter taste to use 

as dyes and the basis of various antimalarial drugs (1st Edn 1956, 2nd Edn 1973). 

The second was his text book, An Introduction to the Chemistry of Heterocyclic 

Compounds, (1st Edn 1960, 2nd Edn 1967, 3rd Edn, 1976; also Japanese and 

Spanish editions) which systematically described this rather disparate group of 

substances in a clear, concise and palatable form. 

This latter book was dedicated ‘To My BT and 3 LT’s’ - a reference to his wife, Greti, 

and his three children, Corina, Marita and Michael. Morrin’s family was extremely 

important to him and he was careful to strike a balance between work and home 

life. He was devoted to Greti, whom he had met during his post-doctoral studies in 

Chicago and married in 1953. They shared a passion for dancing, which led to the 

establishment of the Oxford University Ballroom Dancing Club (now OU Dancesport) in 

1968. He was also senior member of the OU Company of Archers. 

From an early age, Morrin was an active mountaineer of some distinction. He was 

a member of the OU Expedition to Tehri-Garhwal in the Himalayas in the summer 


of 1952. On retirement to the Engadin in Switzerland he continued to climb, ski and 

dance. Many of his friends, including former students and researchers, gathered in 

Basle in February 2015 to celebrate his 90th birthday. 

Sadly, Greti predeceased him over 30 years ago, but Morrin remained active until 

a few days before his death and in active email communication with many former 

students. His enthusiasm and vitality will continue to be an inspiration to many. 

Obituaries 

Gordon Wright (Chemistry, 1970) 

JAMES ADAMS 

Sir William James Adams died peacefully on 24 April 

2020, aged 87. Born in Wolverhampton, he was 

educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School and 

Shrewsbury School. He studied Modern History at The 

Queen’s College, under John Prestwich. 

He worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office 

and trained as an Arabist, learning the language 

at Shemlan Arabic school in Lebanon, which was 

famous for spies such as Kim Philby who worked for 

Russia. One of Sir James’s earliest jobs was with the British Residency in Dubai, and 

he later worked for the British Embassies in Paris and in Rome and for a member of 

the House of Lords in London. His diplomatic posts included British Ambassador to 

Tunisia (1984-1987) and British Ambassador to Egypt (1987-1992). He was made a 

Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George. 

Due to his fluency in Arabic (and French and Italian), he was sometimes asked by the 

Queen to assist as interpreter to her Arabic-speaking visitors and he was once asked 

with his wife Donatella to spend a weekend at a house in Cambridge as hosts to the 

Shar of Iran and his wife. 

He is survived by Donatella, his three children, Andrew, Charles and Julia, and nine 

grandchildren. 

Robert Adams 


Obituaries 

Credit: Evgenia Eliseeva 

CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN 

Clayton M. Christensen, Harvard Business School’s 

(HBS) Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration, 

acclaimed author and teacher, and the world’s foremost 

authority on disruptive innovation, died on January 23, 

2020, surrounded by his loving family. Christensen was 

67 years old. 

Christensen joined the HBS faculty in 1992. He earned 

a BA with highest honors in Economics from Brigham 

Young University (1975); an MPhil in Applied Econometrics 

from Oxford University, where he studied at Queen’s as a Rhodes Scholar (1977); and an 

MBA with High Distinction (1979) and a DBA (1992) from Harvard Business School. He 

was granted tenure at the School in 1998 and named to a chaired professorship in 2001. 

‘Clayton Christensen was one of the world’s greatest scholars on innovation and a 

remarkable person who had a profound influence on his students and colleagues,’ 

says Dean Nitin Nohria. ‘His research and writings transformed the way aspiring 

MBAs, industries, and companies look at management. He was a beloved professor 

and role model whose brilliant teaching and wisdom inspired generations of students 

and young academics. Most importantly, Clayton had a passion for helping others be 

their best selves that permeated every aspect of his life. His loss will be felt deeply by 

many in our community and his legacy will be long-lasting.’ 

A gifted teacher across all of Harvard Business School’s educational programs, 

Christensen developed and taught for many years the MBA elective curriculum 

offering, Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise, which uses a general 

manager’s lens to evaluate theories about strategy, innovation, and management 

to predict which tools, strategies, and methods will be most effective. His Online 

course, Disruptive Strategy, has engaged more than 5,000 learners – more than 10% 

of Online’s cumulative learners to date. He also led doctoral seminars, served on a 

number of doctoral thesis committees, and was a member of the Doctoral Policy 

Committee. And he was a (highly sought-after) regular in a number of the School’s 

comprehensive leadership and focused Executive Education program offerings. In 

everything he did, Christensen sought to help his students understand the powerful 

way they could be a force for good in society and in the lives of others as managers — 

managers who energised and uplifted those around them. 

A distinguished scholar, Christensen was one of the most influential business 

theorists of the last 50 years, according to Forbes, and was twice ranked at the top 

of the Thinkers 50 list among many other awards and accolades. His research and 

ideas focus on identifying and managing factors that shape the way firms introduce 

advanced technologies to existing and prospective markets, and the process by 

which innovation transforms – or displaces – companies or entire industries. He first 


introduced the notion of ‘disruptive innovation’ in his seminal book, The Innovator’s 

Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. It became a New York 

Times bestseller and received the Global Business Book Award for the best business 

book published in 1997. More than two decades later, business leaders from around 

the world continue to credit Christensen’s work on disruptive innovation for their ability 

to innovate, grow, and compete in today’s global economy. 

Obituaries 

In Christensen’s 2003 book, The Innovator’s Solution: Creating and Sustaining 

Successful Growth, Christensen summarises a set of theories that can guide 

managers trying to grow new businesses with predictable success. Drawing on years 

of in-depth research, the book shows that innovation is not as unpredictable as most 

managers have come to believe, and teaches managers how to think about the issues 

that limit – and provide – growth in organisations. 

In Seeing What’s Next: Using the Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change, 

published in 2004, Christensen presents a framework for predicting outcomes 

in the evolution of any industry. Based on theories outlined in The Innovator’s 

Dilemma and The Innovator’s Solution, he offers a practical model that helps decisionmakers 

spot the signals of industry change, determine the outcome of competitive 

battles, and assess whether a firm’s actions will ensure or threaten future success. 

More recently, Christensen focused his innovation lens on two of the country’s most 

vexing social issues: education and health care. Disrupting Class: How Disruptive 

Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns (2008), named one of the best 

books on innovation that year by Businessweek, looks at the root causes of why US 

public schools struggle, and offers a blueprint for how technology can be effectively 

applied to the classroom. The Innovator’s Prescription (2009) examines how to fix our 

healthcare system, a personal topic for Christensen, who had long had diabetes, but 

then in his fifties suffered a heart attack, cancer and stroke. 

In 2011, Christensen published two books: The Innovative University: Changing the 

DNA of Higher Education from the Inside Out and The Innovator’s DNA: Mastering the 

Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators. 

Throughout his life, Clayton was candid about the health struggles he faced, and the 

talk he gave to the MBA Class of 2010 – later captured as a wildly popular article in 

Harvard Business Review and in book form as How Will You Measure Your Life?— 

epitomised the thought with which he approached every challenge and his innate love 

of teaching. The Harvard Business Review article of the same name won the McKinsey 

Award for best article of year. 

Although Christensen’s legacy will live on through his ground-breaking theories, bestselling 

books, and the countless generations of students, scholars, and executives he 

taught and mentored, he will also be remembered for his generosity, kindness, and the 

individual people whose lives he has touched, most especially his family. 


Obituaries 

Christensen was committed to both community and church. In addition to a stint as 

a White House Fellow, he was an elected member of the Belmont Town Council for 

eight years, and served the Boy Scouts of America for 25 years as a scoutmaster, 

cub master, den leader, and troop and pack committee chairman. He also served as a 

missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Republic of Korea 

from 1971 to 1973, spoke fluent Korean, and was a leader in his church. 

He is survived by his loving wife Christine; five children – Matthew, Ann, Michael, 

Spencer and Catherine (Kate); and nine grandchildren. 

This is an abridged version of the obituary published by Harvard Business School on 

their website, on 26 January 2020. 

ALBERT COX 

Albert William Cox OBE was considered by all those 

who knew him as ‘a real British gentleman’ of great 

intellectual curiosity. His daughters most particularly 

remember his encyclopaedic knowledge and interest in 

history, only surpassed by his general love of books and 

his typical response to questions: ‘let’s look it up’, as he 

had a book for everything. 

The elder of two sons, Albert was born in Cheshunt 

(Herts) in 1930 and died at the age of 90 in April 2020. He 

was educated at the Enfield County Grammar School and was known as a fun-loving 

and hardworking student. As a child, even during the war, he devised all sorts of moneymaking 

schemes (such as making clothes pegs and mending clocks and watches) so 

that he could start investing in his collection of Penguin paperbacks. He then did his 

national service in the army where he also taught English, before attending The Queen’s 

College where he studied modern languages and thereby found his vocation. 

Albert very much enjoyed his time at Oxford, investing in books and good sherry and 

often spoke of those years with great pride. After graduating, he left England to move to 

Strasbourg for work and this was where he met the love of his life, Sonia, who became 

his wife some years later. He often remembered their carefree moments cruising around 

on his Lambretta, as well as their holidays in the south of France. They then moved to 

Paris where he commenced his lifelong career as an international civil servant, using 

his superlative talent and passion for languages, in particular French. He was valued 

for his absolute discretion in the workplace, especially given the particularly interesting 

and challenging context of post-war Europe and the Cold War. In the 1960s they 

moved to Brussels, where he remained until his retirement. Later in this period, Albert’s 

keen interest in modern technology led him to introduce the use of computers in his 

department, thoroughly revolutionising his workplace. He was awarded an OBE in 1993. 


The dedication he showed to his wife and two daughters was extraordinary, returning 

from Brussels to England, where they had settled, every single weekend for almost 

20 years. He took an active interest in his daughters’ education and careers – 

supporting them until his very last days – and in his two grandsons’ wellbeing. Indeed, 

in retirement, albeit not in great health, Albert committed his time to his family and 

to reading, always wanting to increase his knowledge. He was a voracious reader 

on a vast array of subjects from law to Roman history, medieval English history and 

philosophy, from Trollope novels to Montaigne and other French literature. His love of 

history, politics, languages and the importance of the English language and its correct 

usage were always at the forefront of his thoughts. His jokes, made with a twinkle in 

his eye, often involved a clever pun on the English language and revealed the delightfully 

fun side of his character. He was a very wise person who only ever offered a considered 

opinion and if he didn’t know the answer, he would always have a book that would be 

able to help! His ability to see ‘the bigger picture’ led him to be a quiet campaigner for 

the ‘Remainers’ during the Brexit period, writing to politicians and national and local 

newspapers in recent years to try to persuade them of the folly of leaving the EU. 

Obituaries 

His natural curiosity and his optimism for future generations was manifested in his 

interest in scientific discoveries in the field of medicine and in his last weeks, he 

recounted how he was so very pleased and proud that it was Oxford University that 

was leading pioneering work on a vaccine for the COVID-19 virus. Hope was so 

important to Albert and right up to the end he always saw brighter times ahead. 

Our father’s vast knowledge, his wisdom and his quiet yet clever sense of humour 

will be missed by all who knew him. He is survived by his two daughters and two 

grandsons. 

Lara Cox and Tanya Cox 

BILL FRANKLAND 

Alfred William Frankland, always known as Bill, died on 

2 April 2020. Recognised throughout the world as the 

‘Grandfather of allergy’, he matriculated at Queen’s in 

October 1930, and maintained an association with his 

‘beloved Queen’s’ for almost 90 years. On his death he 

was the University’s oldest alumnus. 

Born in March 1912 in Sussex, the smaller of twin 

boys, weighing just 3lb 1oz; his chances of survival 

were slight. But such predictions were very wrong. 

Aged two, his family moved to Dacre in Cumberland, when his father was appointed 

Vicar. During childhood Bill was strongly influenced by two Oxford alumni: his father, 

Henry Frankland (Wadham, 1897), who taught of the importance of Christian living, 


Obituaries 

and George Hasell (Queen’s, 1867) who provided financial support for Bill’s schooling. 

Attending St Bees School from 1926, he came up to Queen’s in 1930, receiving a 

Thomas Exhibition. On arrival he noted that the Provost had not been seen for over 

ten years, but the College did brew its own beer. Taught by such luminaries as Charles 

Sherrington and John Eccles, Bill also listened to Gandhi speaking at a small public 

meeting in the town. 

Graduating BA in 1934, Bill moved to St Mary’s Hospital for clinical training. Here his 

teachers included Sir Almroth Wright, Alexander Fleming (who warned students of the 

likely development of antibiotic resistance) and Leonard Colebrook (who demonstrated 

the life-saving effects of ‘Prontosil rubrum’ in puerperal sepsis). An accomplished 

middle-distance runner, Bill always found it amusing that he returned to Iffley Road to 

‘compete for a University (London) of which I am not a member, against my own.’ 

Qualifying BM, BCh in 1938, Bill’s first appointment was House Physician to Sir 

Charles Wilson (later Lord Moran). The winds of war were blowing through Europe 

and on 1 September 1939 Bill volunteered for the Royal Army Medical Corps, aware 

that there would be a great demand for doctors. After two years of service at home, 

he sailed from Liverpool in September 1941, destination unknown. His ship berthed 

in Singapore one week before the tumultuous events of Pearl Harbor. Over the next 

three months he witnessed the Japanese attacks, and only avoided being bayonetted 

to death by ‘the toss of coin.’ Just two days before capitulation he ensured the safe 

passage of 35 nurses to Singapore Harbour where they boarded a ship requisitioned 

for evacuation. 

Taken prisoner on 15 February 1942, Bill spent the next 18 months in Changi Camp 

where he witnessed the effects of starvation, deprivation and wanton cruelty on his 

fellow prisoners, whilst at the same time practising medicine with few, if any, basic 

medical supplies. In November 1943 he was sent as medical officer for 300 men on 

the island of Blakang Mati (invariably called ‘Hell Island’) where his skilled medical 

care, despite a lack of medical supplies, ensured that not one man died whilst captive 

on the island. The two years of incarceration were marked by hardship and suffering 

during which Bill came close to death on more than one occasion. 

With the dropping of the atom bomb in August 1945 Bill was freed, although 

continued to look after many sick prisoners in Singapore. Finally returning home in 

late 1945, he was asked if he wished to see a psychiatrist. ‘No’, he replied, ‘I wish 

to see my wife.’ Returning to London he decided to put his war-time experiences 

behind him and pursue his medical career. Back at St Mary’s he soon developed an 

interest in clinical allergy, and over the next 70 years made outstanding contributions 

in this area. In 1954, whilst working as Clinical Assistant to Sir Alexander Fleming, 

he published the first ever double-blind controlled trial in seasonal asthma, a paper 

which continues to be quoted throughout the world. He developed and popularised 

the daily pollen count to inform those suffering from seasonal hayfever. His drive to 

learn more about allergic responses led him to self-experiment with a blood sucking 


insect, a study which resulted in an anaphylactic response, causing him to collapse, 

feeling a sense of ‘impending doom.’ Fortunately, nursing staff were able to inject 

adrenaline and he recovered. 

Bill’s workload, be it clinical or academic, was prodigious. In the mid-1960s he saw 

some 6000 patients with seasonal asthma in one year but was asked by managers 

to ‘see fewer patients’, a suggestion that was not greeted warmly. He was a prolific 

author and was known throughout the field of clinical allergy as a great supporter 

of younger colleagues. His attitude towards patients remained unchanged, treating 

them as best he could, ‘be they a pauper or a head of state.’ His opinion was sought 

throughout the world, not least in the late 1970s when he was summoned to treat 

President Saddam Hussein. Bill advised his patient to stop smoking but had little 

belief he would. He was wrong and the man whom he described as ‘my most grateful 

patient’ later invited him and his family back. 

Obituaries 

Official retirement meant little for Bill; for over 20 years he worked as an honorary 

consultant at Guy’s Hospital. He continued to travel and lecture, giving his last lecture 

when aged 105, and his last interview on his 108 th birthday. He acted as an expert 

witness aged 100, and his publication record stretched from 1941 until 2019. 

Queen’s always had a special place in Bill’s life, and he was thrilled to be elected an 

Honorary Fellow in 2012. He described this as ‘the nicest thing that’s ever happened 

to me – aside from the day my late wife accepted my marriage proposal.’ Bill greatly 

enjoyed attending the Boar’s Head Gaudy, especially listening to the choir. When the 

College re-introduced its own beer, he was tremendously proud that it was called 

‘Frankland Ale.’ Bill was a generous benefactor 

to the College, in recent years supporting 

a doctoral student researching factors 

influencing the development of atherosclerosis. 

Bill was particularly pleased to hear that the 

thesis had been successfully defended and 

was looking forward to reading it himself. 

Bill was a remarkable man, who accomplished 

so much during his long and varied life. Guided 

by an unwavering Christian faith he set and 

expected high standards, but was always keen 

to help his fellow man, regardless of their race, 

religion or creed. Not only was he a very caring 

person, he was also great fun to be with; the 

University, and especially the College, are 

poorer places following his death. 

Paul Watkins 


MICHAEL GAUTREY 

Obituaries 

Michael Sidney Gautrey, Emeritus Fellow, died on 20 

December 2019 at the age of 86. He was Domestic 

Bursar at Queen’s from 1985 until his retirement in 1999. 

Born in 1933, he spent 26 years in the flying branch of 

the Air Force as a fighter pilot and he was promoted to 

the rank of Wing Commander. He was then Bursar at a 

school before coming to Oxford as Administrator in the 

Department of Nuclear Physics in 1980. 

John Moffatt, Physics Fellow at Queen’s was appointed 

Provost in 1987 and, in anticipation of this, encouraged Michael to apply for the post 

of Domestic Bursar which he took up in 1985. 

Like many twentieth-century bursars, Michael brought the training and experience 

of a services career to the very different society of an Oxford college. That was not 

necessarily an entirely easy mix, and some bursars found it hard to reconcile their 

expectations of authority, and of clear chains of command, with our non-hierarchical 

culture. But it was a transition that Michael made remarkably well. He sought clarity, 

which could occasionally rub up against long-entrenched practices and expectations, 

but he always acted sensitively and with conspicuous fair-mindedness. He ran the 

domestic side of the College compassionately as well as fairly, and showed patience 

and forbearance in the face of occasional personnel difficulties. Fellows who were 

College officers in his time will remember him with affection. 

Michael was also a skilled organist. His musical life started as a chorister at St John’s 

College, Cambridge. At Oxford he played the organ at St Nicholas Church, Old 

Marston, across the road from his home. He was organist there until he could no 

longer manage the steep stairs up to the organ loft. When James Dalton, Music Fellow 

and Organist at Queen’s retired in 1993, Michael stepped in to hold the fort until the 

appointment of a new Music Fellow in 1997. 

Michael is survived by his wife Patricia, a son, daughter and five grandchildren. 

John Blair and Graeme Salmon (Emeritus Fellows) 


JOHN GRAY 

John Michael Campbell Gray grew up in north Belfast 

during the Troubles and attended his local grammar 

school, Belfast Royal Academy. In keeping with a family 

tradition, he did his first degree at The Queen’s College, 

where he studied biochemistry. He received an open 

entrance scholarship awarded for excellence in the 

entrance examination and interview. 

Obituaries 

Although John was from a family of doctors, he was 

initially reluctant to follow this well-worn path. On 

completing his studies at Oxford, he returned home to Northern Ireland and became 

a full time residential worker at the Corrymeela Christian Community, promoting 

reconciliation and peace building. John loved connecting with people in every walk of life 

and later spent time working in the NI probation service, counselling juvenile offenders. 

Ultimately John decided he could best serve others by applying to Queen’s University 

Belfast to study medicine. After qualifying he undertook a surgical training path, initially 

giving him invaluable experience in managing both blunt and penetrating trauma. 

After gaining a training post on the very competitive NI general surgery rotation, 

John realised that he enjoyed more varied patient contact, and elected to retrain in 

emergency medicine. He found his niche as a caring, patient centred, hands-on, shop 

floor consultant in the emergency department. 

John first joined the Ulster Hospital’s emergency department in 2002 as a trainee, 

where he met his future wife, Sarah, who worked there as a nurse. His career as a 

consultant began in the Mater Hospital, Belfast Trust, in 2008, close to where he 

grew up. He later returned to the Ulster Hospital, South Eastern Trust, as consultant 

in 2016. He was committed to providing the highest standard of care for patients 

attending the emergency department and was passionate about education. While 

responsible for delivering formal training to medical staff, trainees, and students in 

the department, he always ensured that the nursing team and other allied health 

professionals were also welcome. John’s quiet, approachable, friendly, unassuming 

manner meant that any member of the team knew they could ask for advice, and he 

would always remind them ‘that’s why I am here!’ 

Cruelly unexpected and sudden, John’s death from a cerebral haemorrhage occurred 

while he was enjoying time with his wife and their children on the north Antrim coast. 

It is a marker of his gentle, loving and generous nature that over a thousand friends, 

grateful patients, and members of staff from every discipline imaginable, throughout 

Northern Ireland, joined John’s family for a service of thanksgiving at St Andrew’s 

Presbyterian Church, east Belfast, on 2 August 2019. Because of the large numbers, 

many had to stand outside, where the service was relayed on loudspeakers. The 

recurrent eulogies from his colleagues referred to a good humoured and highly skilled 


team player, recognised for his humility and generosity. John served others even in his 

last breath as it was always his wish to donate his organs, an act that has undoubtedly 

transformed many lives. 

Obituaries 

John leaves Sarah and their three children: Thomas (8), Anna (7), and Matthew (5). 

His elder siblings, Peter and Helen, have lost a dear brother. Few of us, medics or not, 

could ever live up to his very high standards and kind work ethic. His motto – ‘Be kind 

to one another’ – will be remembered as we continue to treat patients in some very 

challenging times. We are all devastated at the loss of this gentle giant. 

D J Unsworth (originally published in BMJ 2019;367:l5869, and reprinted with their 

permission) 

MARTIN GREEN 

Dr Martin Green FRSC, who spent six years at Queen’s 

from 1973, reading Chemistry as an undergraduate, 

then staying on for his DPhil, died suddenly from a brain 

haemorrhage on 16 September 2019. 

He was born in Belfast in 1953, and lived there until 

his mid-teens, attending Royal Belfast Academical 

Institution, until his family moved to Lincolnshire at the 

onset of the Troubles. 

At Queen’s he was a notable sportsman, representing the College in rugby and rowing, 

with an enthusiasm that led one of his tutors to remind him that, ‘You’re here to read 

Chemistry, not Rowing.’ He obviously listened, progressing to do a doctorate, but still 

prone to distractions: he met Monika, another chemist who was to become his wife 

and companion for 40 years, as they both worked in the labs on South Parks Road. 

Martin was a rare one-company man, working at Unilever from his first job until his 

retirement in 2015 as Head of Human Biology in the Life Sciences Group. Being 

a research chemist was his forte, turning leading-edge science into products of 

practical value. He specialised in skin repair and rejuvenation treatments, reversing 

brittle bone disease, stimulating hair condition and growth, gum health, vascular 

health and wound healing. 

He was an early proponent of gene technology. A notable success was when he led 

the Unilever team which identified plant lipids that could activate a regulatory gene 

called PPAR that is present in skin cells and can slow down the ageing process. He 

and his research teams were granted an unusually large number of patents – more 

than 40. 


Martin was unusual in his sense of consideration, kindness and practical care for 

others. At work this meant he could bring out the best in the teams he led. After his 

father Richard’s death he took responsibility for ensuring that his mother Mary and 

sisters Debbie and Lucy always had the practical help and support they needed. His 

sense of service meant that he was the ideal person, after he retired, to be secretary of 

the X-press Boat Club in Cambridge. ‘He has been the cement that has held this club 

together,’ said one colleague at the funeral. 

Obituaries 

Sport, most of all rowing, remained his passion. He was particularly proud that his 

two children not only followed in their parents’ footsteps to Oxford, but also became 

accomplished rowers – James in a successful Pembroke First VIII, and Joanna 

winning a Blue with the Lightweight Women’s Boat in 2015. 

Martin had rowed regularly for ‘old boys’ boats after the family moved to Cambridge in 

the early 1990s. He was due to row, early on the morning after his death, in a training 

outing on the Cam with the X-press VIII. His daughter Joanna took his seat in the boat; 

she and the rest of the crew silently rowing through their shock and grief. It was a 

fitting tribute to a great team player. 

Martin Green is survived by his wife Monika, children James and Joanna, and sisters 

Debbie and Lucy. 

Rob MacLachlan (PPE, 1973) 

BARRY HOFFBRAND 

We were probably unique for Queen’s: two brothers 

from the same school who arrived at the College only 

one year apart, to read the same subject, Medicine. 

Although Barry, who matriculated in 1952, was only 

one year ahead of me he seemed a lot wiser. He was a 

bright undergraduate who took an active role in many 

of the College’s activities. He played for the Queen’s 

College cricket team and remained a keen follower of 

cricket. Despite his Yorkshire origins he later became 

a Member of the MCC. His name is engraved on the 

Quondam’s Cup, the silver trophy kept behind the bar in the College’s sports pavilion. 

He achieved this distinction by drinking two pints of ale in the remarkable time of 

13.6 seconds. 

After Oxford, Barry continued medical studies at University College Hospital, London. 

He was appointed Consultant Physician to the Whittington Hospital in 1970 and 

rapidly built up a reputation as a brilliant diagnostician and for his wise medical 

opinion. Over his nearly thirty-year tenure of this post, he was regarded as the 


Obituaries 

physician other doctors would consult about medical problems suffered by themselves 

or members of their families. He became a national leader in postgraduate medical 

education. From 1980 to 1994, he was Editor of the Postgraduate Medical Journal 

which he transformed into a viable and successful clinical educational journal to rival 

the best. Barry was Director of the Academic Centre for Postgraduate Medicine at 

the Whittington Hospital from 1975 to 1981. In this capacity he helped countless 

junior doctors succeed in passing challenging postgraduate medical examination. He 

published numerous scientific papers, reviews and chapters in textbooks based on his 

research into hypertension and renal diseases. 

Barry was also an Honorary Physician to the Royal Northern Hospital, St John and 

St Elizabeth Hospital and the Italian Hospital. This last appointment led him to learn 

Italian so that he could converse with his patients there. He held a number of other key 

positions in the medical world. He was Honorary Secretary, Honorary Librarian and 

Vice-President of the Royal Society of Medicine and President of its Clinical Section, 

on the Council and an Examiner for the Royal College of Physicians, and Editor of the 

Journal of the Apothecary Society. He served as President of the Harveian Society of 

London and of the London Jewish Medical Society. 

After his retirement in 1999, Barry became a Governor of the Whittington Hospital. 

He also developed the talent he had already shown at Bradford Grammar School, 

becoming an accomplished artist. He showed at exhibitions and sold many of his 

paintings, the proceeds going to one of his favourite charities. Barry also took a 

serious interest in art history and developed an ability to spot previously unnoticed 

medical features in well-known works of art. He contributed a number of articles and 

gave invited lectures about his findings. 

Barry was an unusually kind, compassionate doctor with reassuring reliability not 

only for his patients but also for family and friends. He combined his wide range of 

interests and achievements with an infectious and irreverent sense of humour. He was 

wonderful company. My greatest honour has been to be known throughout my life, 

as at Queen’s, as Barry’s brother. In 1960, Barry married Marina, a fellow student at 

University College Hospital, London, who became a psychiatrist. He was devoted to 

his wife and their three children, Sara, Julia and Rachel. Barry is survived by Marina, 

his children and seven grandchildren. 

Victor Hoffbrand (Physiological Sciences, 1953) 


KEITH MASLIN 

Dr Keith Thomas Maslin (1946-2020) benefitted from 

the nurturing love and devotion of his parents, and he 

and his friends were lucky to have as their headmaster 

the late Joseph Cross, who fought the Inner London 

Education Authority to set up a science sixth form at 

Canterbury Road Secondary Modern in South London, 

allowing pupils to cultivate their individual interests, from 

music to physics to poetry. 

Obituaries 

‘A gentle, patient, illuminating teacher – I always looked 

forward to his tutorials,’ a former Lampeter student said of Maslin. He was able to 

present complex ideas in accessible forms, using, for example, episodes of Star Trek, 

and with a liberal sense of humour. This came across whether he was teaching A-level 

philosophy students at Esher Sixth Form College or mature students at adult education 

colleges, philosophy summer schools run by the University of Oxford’s Department of 

Continuing Education, or The Open University. Another of his lasting contributions is 

his Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind (2007), written when he was Head of the 

Philosophy Department at Esher Sixth Form College. A Farmington Fellowship (1996) 

at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford, and a fellowship at Selwyn College 

(2007), University of Cambridge, were instrumental in its completion, and it has been 

praised for its clarity, breadth and depth. Whilst primarily aimed at A-level students, it is 

used by various universities and has been translated into Brazilian. 

His friends found him lively and inspirational, for he possessed wide interests and an 

intense appetite for learning – literature, poetry, music, art, cinema, politics, butterflies, 

foreign cultures and languages. His undergraduate study at Keele University was 

where he discovered philosophy, and he developed his passion for arguing logically 

at The Queen’s College where he obtained his BPhil (1971). His postgraduate studies 

culminated in a DPhil (1986) from Birkbeck College, University of London – his thesis 

exploring whether self-deception is possible. He embarked upon this after four years 

of teaching philosophy at De La Salle, a Roman Catholic University in Manila, where 

he was appointed Associate Professor and paid a local salary as he went to the 

Philippines under his own steam. 

Whilst in the Philippines, he was a keen learner of Philippine culture and Tagalog, one 

of the major languages in the Philippines. In retirement, he took up Mandarin Chinese 

and German – the latter, one suspects, driven by his passion for Schubert’s Lieder. 

Indeed, he loved listening to and sharing his enthusiasm for music – from Bach, 

Beethoven, Mozart and Wagner, to Sidney Bechet, Cole Porter, Nina Simone and 

Kurt Weill – and he enjoyed playing the piano. He was a member of the West London 

Gastronomico-Philosophical Society, where he continued to explore his philosophical 

interest in self-deception. Apart from his enthusiastic philosophical contributions, the 

group remembers him for his fantastic Indonesian satay barbecues, on the banks of 


Obituaries 

the River Cherwell, and his Peking duck with Mandarin pancakes, which he always 

prepared meticulously. His Philippine-born wife, Dr Zielfa B. Maslin, and his daughter, 

Dr Philippa Z. Maslin, have these (and many more!) fond and vibrant memories of him 

to counter the debilitating pain that he suffered towards the end of his life. They feel 

extremely fortunate to have been part of his life. 

Zielfa B. Maslin and Philippa Z. Maslin 

BRIAN MCGUINNESS 

Brian McGuinness, who died aged 92, was a 

distinguished philosopher who held academic posts in 

four different countries and was internationally recognised 

as one of the world authorities on Ludwig Wittgenstein. 

The son of a Nottingham civil servant, he was born 

at Wrexham on 22 October 1927. He was christened 

Bernard Francis, but changed his forenames to ‘Brian’ in 

youth. Brian was educated at Mount St Mary’s College 

in Chesterfield and won an exhibition to Balliol College, 

Oxford, in 1945. There he was tutored in Philosophy by the renowned ethicist Richard 

Hare, and quickly displayed a great talent for the subject. Having obtained a First in 

Classical Moderations he went on to win a First in Literae Humaniores in 1949. 

McGuinness’s philosophical studies were interrupted at this point by the need to 

do National Service. From 1949-51 he served in the Royal Artillery. On returning 

to Balliol he enrolled for the BPhil, a graduate degree in philosophy, supported by 

a War Memorial Studentship. In 1959 he was the prize-winner of the John Locke 

scholarship. No sooner had he obtained his BPhil than he was elected a tutorial fellow 

of The Queen’s College. 

A year after joining Queen’s McGuinness took leave to spend a year as a junior fellow 

in the Council of the Humanities at Princeton. While in the United States he met a 

Vassar graduate, Rosamond Ziegler (known to all her friends as ‘Corky’). They were 

married in 1957, and went on to have a son and three daughters. 

In 1964-65 McGuinness served Oxford University as Junior Proctor. It was a difficult 

time. Indeed, it was the very year in which student radicalism got underway in Oxford. 

The main issues were connected with apartheid: some students were disciplined by 

the proctors for an insult to the South African ambassador. The official history of the 

University states: ‘In the summer, angry undergraduates pioneered an unsavoury 

tactic by telephoning proctors in their homes.’ Worse than that, the McGuinnesses’ 

telephone number was posted up in a nearby US Air Force base as the contact 

number for a brothel. 


As a tutor at Queen’s, McGuinness was responsible for teaching ancient philosophy to 

the classical students, and in conjunction with Lorenzo Minio-Paluello he conducted a 

University seminar on the legacy of Aristotle. This was much appreciated by the more 

erudite connoisseurs. But his own research interests came to focus more and more 

on Ludwig Wittgenstein and the circles to which he belonged. In 1959 he published, 

jointly with David Pears, a translation of Wittgenstein’s early work Tractatus Logico- 

Philosophicus. This was designed to replace the 1921 translation by C K Ogden, though 

some readers continued to prefer the earlier, less accurate but more florid version. 

Obituaries 

McGuinness was a fluent linguist, and the next major publication he edited was 

published in German, Wittgenstein und der Wiener Kreis (1967). This appeared 

in English two years later as Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle. Later he was 

responsible for the publication of an extensive series of volumes of writings of the 

major figures of the Vienna Circle. 

Wittgenstein’s own major writings appeared posthumously in the decades after his 

death in 1951: they were edited, and sometimes translated, by the literary executors 

he had named in his will, Elizabeth Anscombe, Georg Henrik von Wright and Rush 

Rhees. But the executors gave McGuinness permission to publish minor elements from 

the Nachlass, in particular items of correspondence. Thus, in 1968 there appeared an 

edition of Paul Engelmann’s correspondence with Wittgenstein, along with a memoir. 

This was followed in 1971 by Prototractatus, an edition and translation of an earlier 

version of the Tractatus that McGuinness had previously translated with Pears. 

By this time McGuinness’s first marriage had broken up. In 1970 he was married a 

second time, to Elizabeth Groag of Brno in Czechoslovakia. By her he had a second 

son. However, the marriage did not last until the end of the decade, and finally ended 

in divorce in 2008. 

Throughout his life McGuinness collected material for a biography of Wittgenstein. The 

first volume of this appeared in 1988 under the title Wittgenstein, a Life: Vol. 1. Young 

Ludwig. This was widely admired; it was reissued as a Penguin and translated into 

French and German, but no further volumes ever appeared. Perhaps McGuinness felt 

that he had been upstaged by the less philosophical but more popular biography of 

Wittgenstein published by Ray Monk in 1990. 

None the less, McGuinness continued to publish volumes of Wittgensteinian 

correspondence. In 1995 he produced a volume of Cambridge Letters, including 

some of great philosophical interest from Russell, Keynes, Moore and Ramsey. This 

appeared in a much amplified fourth edition in 2012, under the title Wittgenstein in 

Cambridge: Letters and Documents 1911-1951. 

While an Oxford tutor McGuinness held visiting professorships in Seattle, Beijing, 

Leyden, Rome, Graz and Stanford. In 1988 he left Queen’s and Oxford, and for 

the next two years held a post at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study. In 


1990 he found his final home as a Professor (ordinario – a full tenured position) at 

the University of Siena, where for three years he was director of the faculty of social 

sciences and philosophy. 

Obituaries 

In the last decades of his life he wrote many essays and vignettes on Wittgensteinian 

themes which, it is to be hoped, will be collected in a posthumous edition. His final 

contribution to Wittgenstein studies was his edition of the philosopher’s family letters 

(translated by Peter Winslow) in 2018. Some reviewers were disappointed by the fact 

that only a quarter of the volume was written by Wittgenstein himself rather than by 

other members of his family. But some other reviewers found it the warmest of the 

publications of the philosopher’s letters. 

McGuinness’s third marriage, in 2008, was to the Italian Giovanna Corsi, eventually 

Professor of Logic at the University of Siena. She took care of him during his final 

illness before his death in Florence. 

Though a most meticulous scholar, McGuinness in person was far from a desiccated 

pedant. He had a great sense of humour, and could lead one up a preposterous 

garden path while keeping a perfectly straight face. He will be long remembered by all 

those who knew him. 

Originally published in The Telegraph (© Telegraph Media Group Limited 2020) 

JOHN PEARSON 

The quintessential 1960s jetsetter, my father spent a 

large part of his life travelling to a multitude of countries, 

working for the steel company, Richard Thomas and 

Baldwin (RTB), which later was absorbed into the British 

Steel Corporation. In his capacity as a sales executive 

for tinplate he was able to spend time enjoying the 

cultures and the languages of the places he visited 

whilst surviving a military coup in South America, engine 

failure over Vietnam and witnessing first hand some of 

the events that shaped modern Europe, such as the 

building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 and the Paris riots of 1968. 

He was born in Mumbles, Swansea in 1928, an only child who quickly showed talent 

both academically and on the sports field, particularly in hockey. After attending Dean 

Close School he completed his National Service, just as the war ended, and in 1948 

was accepted at Queen’s to study history, his favourite era being the Georgians. For a 

man who appreciated elegance, wit and national pride this isn’t, perhaps, surprising. 

In fact, it was his own sense of loss of national pride that ushered his departure from 

Britain later in his life. 


Not one for a small town existence, he moved to London after he graduated, working 

first at the department store, Simpsons, in Piccadilly, where he met his first wife, Meryl, 

before accepting a position with RTB. Here his travels took him to Europe, North and 

South America, and the Far East. He became particularly fond of Japan where some 

of his clients and colleagues became lifelong friends. Similarly, in Europe he made 

many friends and, inspired by his love for the Mediterranean, he learnt to speak both 

Spanish and Italian. 

Obituaries 

However, frustrated by the direction of economic and political travel in Britain in 

the late 1970s, especially the demise of the steel industry under nationalisation, he 

moved to Paris where, given his market experience, he was chosen for a new role 

pursuing strategy in the tinplate sector. Sadly, Meryl died shortly after their move, but 

through a friend he met his second wife, Marlene, a German fashion designer, also 

recently widowed, from Koblenz. They lived very happily in St Germain-en-Laye until 

his retirement when they moved for a few years to Normandy before returning to 

London in 2004. In later life they travelled extensively, enjoying fine wine and food and 

exercising their linguistic skills. 

He died of heart problems in a care home in February, and is survived by Marlene who 

also lives there due to severe dementia. He leaves two children, Sian and Mark, and 

four grandchildren. 

Mark Pearson 

JOHN SIMSON 

John Simson, who has died aged 88, was a successful 

businessman, notably as Chairman of Constantine in 

which capacity he managed the acquisition, flotation 

and de-merger of Connell plc. 

He was born in London on 12 October 1931, when his 

parents Gerry and Virginia had returned from Iraq where 

his father, a squadron commander of the Poona Horse, 

was serving as Inspector of Cavalry for the Iraq army. 

Virginia was the daughter of Vicente Echeverria Larrain, 

Consul General of Chile in London. John was educated at Wellington College where 

the tuition of the Master, Wilfrid House DSO, prepared him to win an open scholarship 

at The Queen’s College in 1951. 

He joined The Royal Scots as a national service recruit and later trained at Eaton Hall 

where he was appointed Senior Under Officer and awarded the Best Cadet Cup. He 

was employed as Weapon Training Officer for the Lowland Brigade and completed his 

service in the 15th Scottish Battalion of The Parachute Regiment, at that time under 


the Command of Colonel Alistair Pearson DSO MC. John remembered standing in the 

door of a C119 under close mock attack by Sabre jets preparing to drop in a training 

assault on a US Air Station. 

Obituaries 

At Oxford, where he obtained a First Class Honours Degree, he had been tutored 

by Peter Russell, Professor of Spanish. He became a member of the Bullingdon and 

represented the Club at the cricket match played on the Worcester College ground in 

1954 against the Oxford City Police (a victory for the Club). 

In December 1956 he married Anne, daughter of R. A. Constantine. Their first home 

was in Rio de Janeiro where John was employed by Shell International, later moving to 

Cape Town. After which, they settled in London where John worked as a management 

consultant with Urwick Orr & Partners. Later he was invited by his brother-in-law, Joe 

Constantine, to join the family business where he was responsible for the Group’s 

diversified property interests, subsequently becoming Chairman. 

Property services proved to be the most rewarding of these activities and included the 

acquisition of estate agents, Connell, in 1969 for £1.3 million. In 1990, having earned 

agency income from annual sales of over 20,000 houses, in addition to professional 

fees of £18m, the shareholders accepted an offer valuing the company at £48.3 million. 

After that event, and conforming with a strategy to achieve diversification by the 

acquisition of a new sizeable core business, Elddis Caravans (later Explorer Group), a 

caravan and motor home manufacturing company, was acquired for £8.7m in 1994. 

John retired in 2001. Constantine announced the sale of the caravan business for 

£26.9m in May 2017. 

John died at Gallery, a property on the bank of the North Esk River which he and Anne 

had bought in 1998 on leaving London. Together they organised the renovation of this 

classic laird’s house originally built in 1680. Anne died in 2006 and John is survived by 

his son James; his daughters Louise, Teresa and Alexandra; and grandchildren Sophia 

and Charles. 

Written by John himself 


DICK STEWART 

Richard E. Stewart died at age 85 on 13 October 

2019. After graduating summa cum laude from West 

Virginia University, he came to Queen’s in 1955 to study 

Jurisprudence as a Rhodes Scholar. 

Obituaries 

Following Oxford, he served in the US Army providing 

legal assistance to soldiers of the 43rd brigade of Hawaii 

which had been distinguished for its bravery during 

World War II. He then earned his jurisprudence degree 

with honors from Harvard Law School in 1959. He was 

the Superintendent of the New York State Insurance Department from 1967 to 1971, 

and became a leader in insurance in the United States and recognised internationally. 

He initiated legislation that transformed insurance regulation in New York State and 

nationwide. Among his innovations were an exploration of the potential of no fault auto 

insurance; establishing an insurance pool to make essential fire insurance available 

to residents of urban ghettos; and a program to make auto insurance more widely 

available, to protect consumers against insurance cancellation and against loss due 

to insurer insolvency. Governor Nelson Rockefeller described Stewart as ‘the best 

Superintendent of Insurance in the history of the State’. 

Dick went on to be Senior Vice President and General Counsel of First National City 

Bank, now Citibank and Citigroup. In 1973, he became Senior Vice President and 

Chief Financial Officer of Chubb & Son. In 1981, he left to start his own firm, Stewart 

Economics, Inc., a consulting firm that specialised in insurance and insurance 

regulation. His major work became consulting for legal teams involved in major 

controversies such as water pollution and the national breast implant cases. 

He was a member of the Special Panel for the US Senate Committee on Presidential 

Campaign Practices (1974) and the United Nations Panel of Experts on Transnational 

Bank Failure. He was a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and 

of the National Academy of Social Insurance. He was a member of the Phi Beta 

Kappa Associates, The Century Association in New York City and the Cosmos Club in 

Washington, D.C. 

In 2006, when he reduced his work load, Dick began a new life in San Francisco 

where he became involved with the effort to protect the city’s waterfront from overdevelopment. 

He played a major role in a pair of ballot measure campaigns in 2013 and 

2014 known as the ‘No Wall on the Waterfront’ where voters overwhelmingly rejected 

excessive waterfront height increases and approved permanent waterfront preservation 

rules. He now leaves a beautiful and protected waterfront for all to use and enjoy. 

Besides his varied and consequential achievements, positions and accomplishments 

were his extraordinary memory of past events and people; keen, sharp intellect; and 


Obituaries 

a wide-ranging, broad comprehension of current issues and ability to place them into 

historical and even philosophical context. Despite his increasing health problems, 

Dick remained upbeat, acknowledging his frailties but never complaining about 

them or letting them interfere with his life, continuing to have a very positive outlook 

on life and a confidence in the people around him including his doctors and their 

medical interventions. He was always interested in trying new things and embraced 

technological innovations with an almost child-like fascination and pleasure. 

The College is very grateful for his support and generosity over the years. He was an 

Eglesfield Benefactor and member of the Taberdars’ Society. Dick is survived by his 

two cats, Kitzmiller (named after his childhood cat) and Lionel, and his wife and scuba 

diving companion, Barbara Dickson Stewart. 

RICHARD TUCKER 

Sir Richard Tucker was educated at Shrewsbury School, 

and following National Service read Jurisprudence at 

Queen’s from 1950 to 1953. He joined Lincoln’s Inn and 

was called to the Bar in 1954, became a Bencher in 

1979 and subsequently Treasurer in 2002. As a junior 

barrister he practised in Birmingham, then on taking silk 

in 1972 moved to London chambers where he built up 

his extensive practice covering crime and civil work. He 

was appointed a Recorder in 1972 until 1985 when he 

was appointed to the High Court Bench. 

He was also appointed Presiding Judge of the then Midland & Oxford Circuit (1986- 

90). After his official retirement, he carried on sitting as a deputy High Court Judge, 

was a member of the Employment Appeal Tribunal (1986-2000) and of the Parole 

Board (1996-2003). He also worked as a Commissioner at the Jersey Royal Court 

(2003-2010) and The Cayman Islands. 

Sir Richard’s lifelong passion at Queen’s was for rowing, and he became Captain 

of Boats in 1952 when he also rowed for Isis at Henley. Other recreations included 

sailing, shooting and gardening, and later in retirement he built a fine model railway. 

He married three times and is succeeded by his wife Jacqueline, three children and 

four grandchildren. His fondness for Queen’s was rewarded when he was made an 

Honorary Fellow in 1992. 

Lady Jacqueline Tucker 


PIETER ZWART 

Pieter loved his time at The Queen’s College. He was 

born in Cape Town of Dutch parents and after a first 

degree at Natal University, he was thrilled to be offered 

a place at Oxford to read Law in 1959. I met him on 

Cherwell, the University’s student newspaper, of which 

he became deputy editor. We became engaged in the 

Nun’s Garden at a Summer Ball and we were married 

for 57 years. 

Obituaries 

From Oxford, Pieter went on to become The Daily 

Mirror’s first graduate trainee. He eventually joined The Times in the obituary 

department. Despite his brilliant start, his life was dogged by mental illness and he 

had to take early retirement. However, after our move to Woodstock, he was much 

involved in voluntary work especially for Art in Woodstock Week and the Stroke Club. 

He also delighted in spending time with his four children and ten grandchildren. 

One of the highlights of Pieter’s later years was the acceptance by the Provost of 

Queen’s of his gift of a picture of the Queen’s College from the High Street. He was so 

thrilled when we were invited to lunch to see it hanging in the MCR. 

Christine Zwart 


BENEFACTIONS 

Benefactions 

The College is grateful to the following Old Members and Friends who made 

donations to Queen’s during the financial year 2019-20 (1 Aug – 31 July). 

For a full list of Eglesfield and Philippa Benefactors please visit: 

www.queens.ox.ac.uk/recognising-your-support. 

Eglesfield Benefactors 

Anonymous x2 

Dr Bill Frankland (1930) 

Mr Michael Boyd (1958) 

Mr Rick Haythornthwaite (1975) 

Mr Paul Newton (1975) 

Mrs Julia Eskdale (1987) 

Mr Chris Eskdale (1987) 

Pettit Foundation 

Carlsberg Foundation 

Philippa Benefactors 

Anonymous x2 

Dr John Long (1942) 

Mr Mike Woodhouse (1948) 

Prof Roger Pain (1949) 

Mr John Palmer (1949) 

Dr Brian Savory (1951) 

Lord Lennie Hoffmann (1954) 

Revd Canon Hugh Wybrew (1955) 

Mr Barrie Craythorn (1956) 

Mr Tim Evans (1956) 

Mr Walter Gilges (1956) 

Mr Barry Saunders (1956) 

Mr Martin Bowley (1957) 

Mr Charles Frieze (1957) 

Dr John Hopton (1957) 

Mr David Wilkinson (1957) 

Mr John Parsloe (1959) 

Dr Ray Bowden (1960) 

Mr Gordon Dilworth (1960) 

Mr Ron Glaister (1961) 

Prof Stephen Scott (1961) 

Mr Dave Brownlee (1962) 

Mr Philip Hetherington (1962) 

Mr Andrew Parsons (1962) 

Prof Peter Bell (1963) 

Mr Raymond Kelly (1963) 

Mr Clive Landa (1963) 

Dr Ken Morallee (1963) 

Em Prof Rod Levick (1964) 

Mr John Clement (1965) 

Dr Juan Mason (1967) 

Mr Paul Clark (1968) 

Mr Alan Mitchell (1968) 

Dr Howard Rosenberg (1968) 

Mr David Seymour (1969) 

Mr Richard Geldard (1972) 

Mr Tom Ward (1973) 

Mr Robin Wilkinson (1973) 

Mr Philip Middleton (1974) 

Mr Richard Sommers (1975) 

Mr Stuart White (1975) 

Mr Fred Arnold (1976) 

Mr Gerry Hackett (1977) 

Mr Tom Pütter (1977) 

Mr John Ford (1980) 

Mr John Smith (1980) 

Mrs Diana Webster (1980) 

Mr Jonathan Webster (1981) 

Mr Joseph Archie (1982) 

Mr Mark Williamson (1982) 

Mrs Sia Marshall (1990) 

Mr Cameron Marshall (1991) 

Mr John Hull (1994) 

Mrs Anna Hull (1995) 

Mr Chris Woolf (1995) 

Mr John Startin (1997) 


Old Members 

Anonymous x23 

Prof Geoffrey Wilson (1942) 

Maj George Brown (1943) 

Mr Ray Ogden (1944) 

Mr Mike Absalom (1945) 

Mr Charles Sutherland (1945) 

Mr Jack Cadogan (1947) 

Mr Graham Lewis (1948) 

Mr David Thornber (1948) 

Mr Peter Lynam (1949) 

Revd Bill Mason (1949) 

Dr Duncan Thomas (1949) 

Mr Harold Searle (1950) 

Mr Michael Bradford (1951) 

Dr John Cuthbert (1951) 

Mr John Hazel (1951) 

Mr Allan Preston (1951) 

Dr Keith Jacques (1952) 

Prof Keith Jennings (1952) 

Dr Tony Lee (1952) 

Mr John Percy (1952) 

Mr Geoff Peters (1952) 

Mr Jim Ranger (1952) 

Revd Aylward Shorter (1952) 

Revd Mike Atkinson (1953) 

Mr Michael Atkinson (1953) 

Mr Bill Burkinshaw (1953) 

Mr Jim Glasspool (1953) 

Prof Victor Hoffbrand (1953) 

Mr Robin Kent (1953) 

Mr David Bryan (1954) 

Mr Donald Clarke (1954) 

Revd Keith Denerley (1954) 

Mr Mike Drake (1954) 

Mr Robin Ellison (1954) 

Dr Edwin Gobbett (1954) 

Mr Gerry Hunting (1954) 

Revd George Wharton (1954) 

Mr Strachan Heppell (1955) 

Dr David Myers (1955) 

Dr Bill Parry (1955) 

Mr Howard Shaw (1955) 

Mr Philip Thompson (1955) 

Dr Adrian Weston (1955) 

Mr Bob Cristin (1956) 

Dr John Place (1956) 

Dr Bill Roberts (1956) 

Mr Brian Sproat (1956) 

Mr Christopher Stephenson (1956) 

Mr Graham Sutton (1956) 

Revd Canon Michael Arundel (1957) 

Prof David Catchpole (1957) 

Mr Ian Chisholm (1957) 

Mr Keith Dawson (1957) 

Mr Ted Hartley (1957) 

Mr Colin Hughes (1957) 

Mr Roger Owen (1957) 

Dr Brian Salter-Duke (1957) 

Mr Martin Sayer (1957) 

Mr Russell Sunderland (1957) 

Mr Peter Thomson (1957) 

Dr Dick Williamson (1957) 

Mr Malcolm Dougal (1958) 

Mr Gerald Evans (1958) 

Dr Michael Gagan (1958) 

Mr Nigel Hughes (1958) 

Mr Graham Thornton (1958) 

Mr Frank Venables (1958) 

Mr Barrie Wiggham (1958) 

Mr Michael Allen (1959) 

Mr John Bainbridge (1959) 

Mr David Beaton (1959) 

Mr Michael Brunson (1959) 

Mr Philip Burton (1959) 

Mr David Dawson (1959) 

Mr John Foley (1959) 

Prof David Goodall (1959) 

Dr Roger Lowman (1959) 

Prof John Matthews (1959) 

Mr Ian Parker (1959) 

Mr Peter Prynn (1959) 

Mr John Rix (1959) 

Mr John Seely (1959) 

Prof Peter Williams (1959) 

Mr Robin Bell (1960) 

Right Revd Graham Dow (1960) 

Mr David Foster (1960) 

Mr Jim Gilpin (1960) 

Benefactions 


Benefactions 

Mr Michael Lodge (1960) 

Mr John Price (1960) 

Mr James Robertson (1960) 

Mr Bill Wheeler (1960) 

Dr David Williamson (1960) 

Mr Chris Bearne (1961) 

Mr Philip Bowers (1961) 

Dr Norman Diffey (1961) 

Prof David Eisenberg (1961) 

Lord Colin Low (1961) 

Prof Andrew McPherson (1961) 

Mr Richard Nosowski (1961) 

Mr Godfrey Talford (1961) 

Revd Graham Wilcox (1961) 

Prof Nicholas Young (1961) 

Mr Neil Barker (1962) 

Prof John Coggins (1962) 

Mr Martin Colman (1962) 

Dr Steve Higgins (1962) 

Sir Paul Lever (1962) 

Mr Adrian Milner (1962) 

Mr Richard Mole (1962) 

Mr Donald Rutherford (1962) 

Prof Peter Tasker (1962) 

Mr George Trevelyan (1962) 

Prof Brad Amos (1963) 

Mr Richard Batstone (1963) 

Mr Jonathan Cundy (1963) 

Sir Brian Donnelly (1963) 

Mr Rod Hague (1963) 

Mr Patrick Hastings (1963) 

Mr Charles Lamond (1963) 

Prof Ron Laskey (1963) 

Prof Alan Lloyd (1963) 

Dr Dennis Luck (1963) 

Dr Jeffrey Russell (1963) 

Mr Alan Wilson (1963) 

Mr Philip Beaven (1964) 

Mr John Gregory (1964) 

Mr David Jeffery (1964) 

Mr Paul Legon (1964) 

Dr John Lewis (1964) 

Dr Graham Robinson (1964) 

Mr Ian Sallis (1964) 

Prof Lee Saperstein (1964) 

Mr Tony Turton (1964) 

Mr Philip Wood (1964) 

Mr John Wordsworth (1964) 

Mr Andy Connell (1965) 

Mr Peter Cramb (1965) 

Mr Rodger Digilio (1965) 

Prof John Feather (1965) 

Prof Christopher Green (1965) 

Mr Peter Hickson (1965) 

Lord Roger Liddle (1965) 

Mr David Matthews (1965) 

Mr Ian Swanson (1965) 

Mr David Syrus (1965) 

Sir Stephen Wright (1965) 

Mr Alan Beatson (1966) 

Dr George Biddlecombe (1966) 

Mr Roger Blanshard (1966) 

Mr Richard Coleman (1966) 

Prof Peter Coleman (1966) 

Dr Michael Collop (1966) 

Mr Peter de Moncey-Conegliano (1966) 

Mr Andrew Horsler (1966) 

Mr John Kitteridge (1966) 

Dr Paul Schur (1966) 

Mr Gregory Stone (1966) 

Prof Peter Sugden (1966) 

Mr Derek Swift (1966) 

Mr Richard Atkinson (1967) 

Dr Tony Battilana (1967) 

Dr Mike Minchin (1967) 

Mr David Roberts (1967) 

Prof Philip Schlesinger (1967) 

Mr Mike Thompson (1967) 

Mr Rob Bollington (1968) 

Dr Mottram Couper (1968) 

Mr John Crowther (1968) 

Mr David Hudson (1968) 

Mr Andrew King (1968) 

Mr Steve Robinson (1968) 

Prof Andrew Sancton (1968) 

Mr Richard Shaw (1968) 

Mr Jon Watts (1968) 

Dr John Windass (1968) 

Mr Neil Boulton (1969) 

Prof Mark Janis (1969) 


Mr Anthony Prosser (1969) 

His Honour Judge Erik Salomonsen (1969) 

Mr Chris Shepperd (1969) 

Revd Dr Brian Sheret (1969) 

Mr Alan Sherwell (1969) 

Mr Nigel Tranah (1969) 

Mr Frederik van Bolhuis (1969) 

Mr Ian Walton-George (1969) 

Prof Hugh Arnold (1970) 

Dr Martin Cooper (1970) 

Revd Dr Richard Crocker (1970) 

Dr Richard Heaton (1970) 

Mr Benedict Kolczynski (1970) 

Mr Jamie Macdonald (1970) 

Mr David Marsh (1970) 

Mr David Stubbins (1970) 

Mr Andy Sutton (1970) 

Mr Eric Thompson (1970) 

Canon Peter Wadsworth (1970) 

Mr Christopher West (1970) 

Mr John Clare (1971) 

Mr Chris Counsell (1971) 

Mr Anthony Denny (1971) 

Mr Winston Gooden (1971) 

Mr Francois Gordon (1971) 

Dr Ulrich Grevsmühl (1971) 

Dr Christopher Huang (1971) 

Dr Michael Hurst (1971) 

Mr John Peat (1971) 

Mr Anthony Rowlands (1971) 

Mr Derek Townsend (1971) 

Dr Stephen Wilson (1971) 

Mr Alaric Wyatt (1971) 

Mr Nigel Allsop (1972) 

Mr David Bowen (1972) 

Mr Lou Fantin (1972) 

Mr Peter Farrar (1972) 

Mr Stephen Gilbey (1972) 

Mr Peter Haigh (1972) 

Mr Will Jackson-Houlston (1972) 

Mr Matthew Kangas (1972) 

Mr John McLeod (1972) 

Mr David Palfreyman (1972) 

Dr Keith Pringle (1972) 

Mr Andrew Seager (1972) 

Dr John Wellings (1972) 

Mr Andrew Barlow (1973) 

Mr Phil Beveridge (1973) 

Dr Mark Eddowes (1973) 

Dr Klaus Jaitner (1973) 

Mr Tony Middleton (1973) 

Mr Robert Perry (1973) 

Mr Peter Richardson (1973) 

Mr Dick Richmond (1973) 

Mr Martin Riley (1973) 

Mr David Sims (1973) 

Dr Alan Turner (1973) 

Mr Simon English (1974) 

Mr Tim Finton (1974) 

Mr Havilland Hart (1974) 

Mr Henning Niederhoff (1974) 

Mr Tim Shaw (1974) 

Mr Oliver Burns (1975) 

Mr Chris Corrin (1975) 

Dr Rhodri Davies (1975) 

Mr Chris Finch (1975) 

Mr Simon Fraser (1975) 

Dr Chris Hutchinson (1975) 

Mr Andrew Jones (1975) 

Mr Martin Moore (1975) 

Mr Nevill Rogers (1975) 

Mr Jamie Sykes (1975) 

Prof Peter Clarkson (1976) 

Dr Nick Hazel (1976) 

Mr Raymond Holdsworth (1976) 

Mr Paul Marsh (1976) 

Mr Mark Neale (1976) 

Dr Martin Osborne (1976) 

Mr Brian Stubley (1976) 

Dr Christopher Tibbs (1976) 

General Sir Richard Barrons (1977) 

Mr Paul Bennett (1977) 

Dr Michael Cadier (1977) 

Dr Paul Cartwright (1977) 

Mr Mark Evans (1977) 

Mr Paul Godsland (1977) 

Mr Francis Grew (1977) 

Dr Gregor Jason (1977) 

Mr Martin Kelly (1977) 

Mr Terence Keyes (1977) 

Benefactions 


Benefactions 

Mr John Morewood (1977) 

Mr Michael Penrice (1977) 

Mr Philip Tellwright (1977) 

Mr Mike Thompson (1977) 

Mr Nicholas Train (1977) 

Mr Graham Aldridge (1978) 

Mr Steve Anderson (1978) 

Mr Charlie Anderson (1978) 

Mr Paul Dawson (1978) 

Dr Mike Fenn (1978) 

Mr John Gibbons (1978) 

Mr Peter Hamilton (1978) 

Mr Jeremy Jackson (1978) 

Mr John Keeble (1978) 

Dr Simon Loughe (1978) 

Dr Howard Simmons (1978) 

Mr Jervis Smith (1978) 

Dr Trevor Barker (1979) 

Mr Chris Bertram (1979) 

Dr Nicholas Edwards (1979) 

Mr Philip Epstein (1979) 

Dr Tamas Hickish (1979) 

Dr Ron Kelly (1979) 

Dr Cath Rees (1979) 

Dr Christopher Ringrose (1979) 

Mrs Alison Sanders (1979) 

Mr Gary Simmons (1979) 

Mr Simon Whitaker (1979) 

Mr Phillip Bennett (1980) 

Mr James Clarke (1980) 

Dr Louise Goward (1980) 

Mrs Carrie Kelly (1980) 

Dr Tim Shaw (1980) 

Dr Peter Wyatt (1980) 

Dr Mark Byfield (1981) 

Mr Maurice Donnelly (1981) 

Dr Paul Driscoll (1981) 

Mr Michael Hall (1981) 

Ms Janet Hayes (1981) 

Mr John Kampfner (1981) 

Ms Catherine Palmer (1981) 

Mr Donald Pepper (1981) 

Mr Michael Porter (1981) 

Ms Jacqueline Rolf (1981) 

Mrs Linda Sapsford (1981) 

Mr David Strachan (1981) 

Prof Marcela Votruba (1981) 

Mrs Cathy Driscoll (1982) 

Mr Ian English (1982) 

Mr Richard Lewis (1982) 

Mrs Janet Lewis (1982) 

Mr Alec Osbaldiston (1982) 

Mr Mark Pearce (1982) 

Mr David Price (1982) 

Mr Tom Webber (1982) 

Mr Andy Bird (1983) 

Mr Andrew Campbell (1983) 

Mrs Rose Craston (1983) 

Mr Edmund Craston (1983) 

Dr Robert Hughes (1983) 

Mr Alun James (1983) 

Mr Adrian Robinson (1983) 

Mrs Antonia Adams (1984) 

Mr Miles Benson (1984) 

Mr Mike Cronshaw (1984) 

Prof Phil Evans (1984) 

Mr Simon Gotelee (1984) 

Dr Nigel Greer (1984) 

Mr Richard Hopkins (1984) 

Dr Katherine Irving (1984) 

Mr Robert Lawson (1984) 

Mrs Rachel Lawson (1984) 

Mrs Liz Patel (1984) 

Mr Tiku Patel (1984) 

Dr Jan Pullen (1984) 

Mr Steve Thomas (1984) 

Mr John Turner (1984) 

Miss Ching-Yin Watt (1984) 

Dr Udayan Chakrabarti (1985) 

Mrs Claudia Coles Gallagher (1985) 

Mr Steve Evans (1985) 

Mr Ed Kemp-Luck (1985) 

Dr Philippa Moore (1985) 

Revd Matthew Pollard (1985) 

Mr Adrian Ratcliffe (1985) 

Mr Martin Riley (1985) 

Mr Juan Sepulveda (1985) 

Mrs Julie Smyth (1985) 

Dr Daniel Strauch (1985) 

Mr Michael Tsang (1985) 


Major (Retd) Matthew Christmas (1986) 

Ms Jude Dobbyn (1986) 

Dr Genevieve Fairbrother (1986) 

Mr Steve Jones (1986) 

Mr Simon Miller (1986) 

Mr Gerald Rix (1986) 

Dr Susan Schamp (1986) 

Mr Rob Tims (1986) 

Mr Charles Adams (1987) 

Mr Robert Burgess (1987) 

Dr Richard Fynes (1987) 

Mrs Vikki Hall (1987) 

Mrs Sarah Kucera (1987) 

Mr John Morgan (1987) 

Ms Susan Sack (1987) 

Mrs Rachel Thorn (1987) 

Mr John Bigham (1988) 

Dr Andrew Carpenter (1988) 

Miss Celestine Eaton (1988) 

Mr Tim Grayson (1988) 

Dr Jules Hargreaves (1988) 

Mr Alastair Kennis (1988) 

Dr Adrian Tang (1988) 

Mrs Ann Marie Dickinson (1989) 

Dr Susan Ferraro (1989) 

Mr Ben Green (1989) 

Prof Blair Hoxby (1989) 

Ms Hetty Hughes (1989) 

Mr Jim Kaye (1989) 

Mr Matthew Perret (1989) 

Dr Peter Backé (1990) 

Ms Anna Burles (1990) 

Mrs Penny Crouzet (1990) 

Mr Jason Hargreaves (1990) 

Mr Keith Hatton (1990) 

Mrs Morag Mylne (1990) 

Mr Nik Everatt (1991) 

Mr Paul Gannon (1991) 

Mrs Kay Goddard (1991) 

Mr David Holme (1991) 

Dr Christopher Meaden (1991) 

Dr Kausikh Nandi (1991) 

Mr Stephen Robinson (1991) 

Dr Christoph Rojahn (1991) 

Dr Vicki Saward (1991) 

Dr John Sorabji (1991) 

Mr Dev Tanna (1991) 

Miss Sarah Witt (1991) 

Mr Jonathan Woolf (1991) 

Mr Jonathan Buckley (1992) 

Dr Rebecca Emerson (1992) 

Mr James Holdsworth (1992) 

Mrs Claire O’Shaughnessy (1992) 

Dr Nia Taylor (1992) 

Mr Ian Brown (1993) 

Mr Matt Keen (1993) 

Mrs Jenny Kelly (1993) 

Mr Matt Lawrence (1993) 

Mr Said Mohamed (1993) 

Mr Neil Pabari (1993) 

Mr Peter Sidwell (1993) 

Mr Christian Stahl (1993) 

Mrs Helen von der Osten (1993) 

Dr Anna Bayman (1994) 

Ms Christine Cairns (1994) 

Dr Jo Nettleship (1994) 

Prof Tim Riley (1994) 

Mrs Clare Stebbing (1994) 

Mr Nick Stebbing (1994) 

Dr Francis Tang (1994) 

Ms Claire Taylor (1994) 

Mrs Emma Widnall (1994) 

Mr Alistair Willey (1994) 

Mr Tim Claremont (1995) 

Mr Tim Horrocks (1995) 

Mr Torsten Reil (1995) 

Dr Nick Seymour (1995) 

Mr Adam Silver (1995) 

Mrs Georgina Simmons (1995) 

Mr Jeremy Steele (1995) 

Mr Michael Barker (1996) 

Dr Gavin Beard (1996) 

Mr Olly Bonavero (1996) 

Miss Catherine Carr (1996) 

Mrs Helen Geary (1996) 

Mr Alex Grant (1996) 

Mr Richard Gray (1996) 

Mr Nicholas Haworth (1996) 

Miss Nadia Kershaw (1996) 

Mr Alexander Menden (1996) 

Benefactions 


Benefactions 

Dr Helen Munn (1996) 

Mr David Smallbone (1996) 

Dr Jonathan Smith (1996) 

Mrs Rachel Taylor (1996) 

Ms Bianca Watts (1996) 

Mrs Nathalie Allen Prince (1997) 

Ms Sara Atkins (1997) 

Dr Konstanze Baron (1997) 

Dr Tyler Bell (1997) 

Dr Ruth Bonavero (1997) 

Mr James Bowling (1997) 

Mr Ed Cox (1997) 

Dr William Goundry (1997) 

Mr Endaf Kerfoot (1997) 

Mr Andrew Kojima (1997) 

Mr Rob Lawton (1997) 

Ms Alison McKenna (1997) 

Mr Gareth Powell (1997) 

Mr Stuart Prince (1997) 

Dr Robin Schlinkert (1997) 

Mr James Taylor (1997) 

Ms Jennifer Armson (1998) 

Dr Martin Birch (1998) 

Miss Marie Farrow (1998) 

Mrs Nishi Grose (1998) 

Dr Owen Hodkinson (1998) 

Miss Jacqueline Perez (1998) 

Mr Charlie Sutters (1998) 

Mr David Traynor (1998) 

Dr Premila Webster (1998) 

Dr John Ealing (1999) 

Miss Kelly Furber (1999) 

Mr Douglas Gordon (1999) 

Mr Jim Hancock (1999) 

Mr James Levett (1999) 

Mr Jim Luke (1999) 

Mr Gareth Marsh (1999) 

Ms Kat Stephens (1999) 

Mr James Walton (1999) 

Mr Mark Bowman (2000) 

Ms Sam Burns (2000) 

Dr Cecily Burrill (2000) 

Mr Rory Clarke (2000) 

Mrs Louisa Cox (2000) 

Miss Cécile Défossé (2000) 

Ms Nicky Ellis (2000) 

Mr John Ferreira (2000) 

Dr Claire Hodgskiss (2000) 

Mrs Holly Pirnie (2000) 

Mr David Ainsworth (2001) 

Mrs Laura Ainsworth (2001) 

Mrs Chrissy Findlay (2001) 

Miss Zecki Gerloff (2001) 

Mr Mike Hallard (2001) 

Mr James Klempster (2001) 

Mr Nick Kroepfl (2001) 

Mr Oliver Leyland (2001) 

Ms Alex Mayson (2001) 

Dr Matthew Osborne (2001) 

Mrs Cassie Smith (2001) 

Miss Elinor Taylor (2001) 

Mrs Zoe Wright (2001) 

Mr Nikhil Aggarwal (2002) 

Mr Matt Allen (2002) 

Mrs Fran Baker (2002) 

Miss Sarah Berman (2002) 

Mrs Anushka Herath (2002) 

Mr Tom Pearson (2002) 

Mrs Karishma Redman (2002) 

Mr David Richardson (2002) 

Mr James Salter-Duke (2002) 

Mrs Rhian Screen (2002) 

Mr James Screen (2002) 

Dr Abigail Stevenson (2002) 

Mrs Iris Tinius (2002) 

Dr Ian Warren (2002) 

Mr Christopher Wright (2002) 

Dr Jessica Blair (2003) 

Ms Sarah Buckley (2003) 

Mr Ahmet Feridun (2003) 

Mrs Olivia Haslam (2003) 

Dr Jon Hazlehurst (2003) 

Ms Rebecca Patton (2003) 

Dr Enrique Sacau (2003) 

Mr Dane Satterthwaite (2003) 

Dr Guy Williams (2003) 

Mr Hervé Hansen (2004) 

Dr Harriet Hansen-Stone (2004) 

Ms Claire Harrop (2004) 

Dr Jen Jardine (2004) 


Dr Robert Lepenies (2004) 

Mr Paul O’Donovan (2004) 

Dr Philippa Roberts (2004) 

Dr Tony Thompson-Starkey (2004) 

Dr Marc Williams (2004) 

Mr Omry Apelblat (2005) 

Mr Andy Bottomley (2005) 

Dr Marco Egawhary (2005) 

Miss Katelin Fuller (2005) 

Dr Robert Gaunt (2005) 

Miss Eloise Newnham (2005) 

Mr Daniel Shepherd (2005) 

Dr Peter Sloman (2005) 

Mr Charles Taylor (2005) 

Miss Emma Whitehouse (2005) 

Mr Ho Yi Wong (2005) 

Mr James Berridge (2006) 

Ms Katie Berridge (2006) 

Dr Matthew Hart (2006) 

Corporal Tom Whyte (2006) 

Miss Lauriane Anderson Mair (2007) 

Dr Caitlin Hartigan (2007) 

Mr Tony Hu (2007) 

Dr Bernhard Langwallner (2007) 

Mr Matthew Watson (2007) 

Dr Emma Adlard (2008) 

Dr Shaoyan Liang (2009) 

Mr Andrew Robertson (2009) 

Mrs Maude Tham (2009) 

Mr James Dinsdale (2010) 

Ms Bethany Pedder (2010) 

Miss Emily Shercliff (2010) 

Miss Amy Down (2011) 

Mr Alexej Gornizki (2011) 

Mrs Ana Gaunt (2014) 

Mr Robert Jaeckle (2016) 

Mr Kenichi Oka (2017) 

Benefactions 

We are grateful to receive support from the following people within the College: 

Anonymous x2 

Prof Sir John Ball 

Prof John Baines 

Dr Claire Craig 

Dr Charles Crowther 

Mr Chris Diacopoulos 

Dr Phillip Harries 

Dr Justin Jacobs 

Mr John Kaye 

Dr Ludovic Phalippou 

Queen’s College Senior 

College Fellows (SCF) 

The College thanks the following friends for their support: 

Ms Janine Barber 

Mrs Susie Barker 

Mr David Beamish 

Dr Douglas Burrill 

Mr Andrew Dickinson 

Mr David French 

Ms Jane Hart 

Mrs Lynam 

Mrs Christine Mason 

Mrs Sue Morrow 

Mr Abul Rahman 

Most Revd Peter Riola 

Mrs Jill Sutherland 

Mr Simon Thorn 

Dr Philippa Tudor 

Mrs Margy Wooding 

Mr Eric Wooding 


The following organisations have supported the College directly, or through 

matched giving schemes with Old Members: 

Benefactions 

Amazon UK 

British Centre for Literary Translation 

Chevron Humankind 

Coca-Cola Foundation 

DJANDCO Limited 

Google 

Independent Schools Modern Languages Association (ISMLA) 

Rolfe Charitable Trust 

Sannox Trust 

St Hugh’s College, Oxford 

Sundry 

Swire Education Trust 

Ward Family Fund 

The College is also grateful to the following Old Members and Friends who 

made bequests to Queen’s: 

Mr Fred Brittenden (1946) 

Prof John Merrills (1960) 

Mr Anthony Petty (1948) 

Prof Philip Smith (1964) 

Mr Timothy Shaw (1950) & Mrs Anne Shaw 


INFOR MATION 

Information 

College Record 2021 

Please submit your news, such as details of any awards or publications, for inclusion 

in the 2021 College Record here: www.queens.ox.ac.uk/college-record-2021. 

Alternatively, you can send this information by post to the Old Members’ Office in 

College. The deadline for entries is 1 September 2021. 

You are also invited to submit obituaries of Old Members. Please send these to the 

Old Members’ Office. 

Visiting the College 

Old Members are usually welcome to visit at any time, except during the Christmas 

closure period, although we have had to close the College to all visitors during the 

coronavirus pandemic. Please contact the Lodge ahead of your visit to ensure that we 

are open (01865 279120 or lodge@queens.ox.ac.uk). 

Once the College is able to open once more, please present yourself at the Lodge 

with an item of ID (preferably your University alumni card) so that the Porter on duty 

can check your name against the list of Old Members. Advance notice, particularly 

if you would like to visit the Library, is preferable although not essential. If you are 

intending to bring a group (other than your immediate family) you will need to arrange 

this in advance. The Upper Library is accessible during Library staffed hours and we 

encourage Old Members not to visit the Library during Trinity term as this is a critical 

time for our students. 

The Old Members’ Office can assist you with your visit: call 01865 279214 or email 

oldmembers@queens.ox.ac.uk. If you require level access, please telephone the 

Lodge on 01865 279120. 

Degree ceremonies 

MAs can be taken by BA and BFA graduates 21 terms after their matriculation 

date. Usually, Old Members can choose to attend a University degree ceremony or 

receive an MA in absentia, but in-person conferrals are currently not possible. To take 

your MA in absentia, or to enquire about dates for future ceremonies, please email 

college.office@queens.ox.ac.uk. 


Transcripts and certificates 

If you require proof of your exam results, or a transcript of your qualifications for a 

job application or continuing education purposes, a transcript or degree confirmation 

letter can be ordered through the University’s online store: www.oxforduniversitystores. 

co.uk/product-catalogue/degree-conferrals. 

Information 

If you need a copy of your degree certificate, then information can be found at the 

University’s Student Records and Degree Conferrals Office: www.ox.ac.uk/students/ 

graduation/certificates. 

Updating your details 

If you have moved or changed your contact details, please complete the online update 

form: www.queens.ox.ac.uk/update-my-details or email oldmembers@queens.ox.ac.uk. 

Overnight stays and guest rooms 

We are pleased to be able to offer overnight stays in College for Old Members and 

accompanying guests. Rooms are en suite and are clean, comfortable and serviced 

daily. While not equipped to a four-star hotel standard, they are provided with towels, 

toiletries, tea and coffee making facilities, and free internet access. Breakfast in Hall 

is included. 

We have two rooms specifically designated for use by Old Members, which can be 

booked all year round, when the College is open: one twin room in Back Quad and 

a single room in Drawda. Please note that the single room can only be accessed 

via a steep staircase and is not en suite – bathroom facilities are available along the 

corridor. These rooms can be booked by contacting the Old Members’ Office directly 

(oldmembers@queens.ox.ac.uk or 01865 279217). Payment will be made by invoice 

on departure and the Old Members’ Office can advise you on current rates. 

In addition, we can also offer en suite student bedrooms over the Easter and summer 

vacations, when rooms are not in use by conference guests. These can be booked 

directly via the Conference Office website www.queens.ox.ac.uk/bed-breakfast. 

Payment for these rooms is taken up front. We do offer a discounted rate for Old 

Members. Please contact the Old Members’ Office for the discount code prior to 

booking. 


The Queen’s College 

High Street 

Oxford 

OX1 4AW 

www.queens.ox.ac.uk 

news@queens.ox.ac.uk 

Edited by Claire Hooper and Michael Riordan 

Designed by Ciconi 

Cover image and College photography by John Cairns

The Queen's College Record 2020

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?