EXONThe Exeter College MagazineIssue 3 Summer 2000www.exeter.ox.ac.uk

Time, time it was

And how was it for you?

EXVAC

If undelivered please return to:The Development OfficeExeter CollegeOxford, OX1 3DPEngland

nated as a discussion on a gen-eral issue, as important foryoung men as women. Wethink it speaks eloquentlyabout the lives of profession-als today, through pooling ex-periences first of the Collegeyears, then of the world ofwork. Listening to the tapesfully nine months later, I wasstruck by how open and rea-sonable the different voices

sound, and how cordially theyrespond to one another. Thereis no backbiting or personal re-sentment, and only one anec-dote in which an individualmale might be identified to hisdisadvantage. (In keeping withthe general spirit of fair play, Ihave a pseudonym for thespeaker.) One after another thevoices try to make sense of theshared experiences at the Col-lege; they move towards con-sensus, that they were of value.The first woman President ofthe JCR, Jean Kitson, speaksfor others when she observesthat there is now a history ofwomen and of a mixed com-munity at Exeter, on which thepioneers’ successors draw. Wehope that you will enjoy thesevery different self-portraits. Ifanyone from either group hasanything to correct or add,such as a point not covered, asuccinct letter to the Editorwould be most welcome. If

Inside EXON2 The Rector’s letter

The Rector provides an overview of thepast year at Exeter

4 Time, time it was...Excerpts from renowned film criticPhilip French’s Gaudy speech.Reprinted with the kind permission of theauthor

8 And how was it for you?Transcript from the Exeter Women’sSymposium

13 FidelioThe Gatenby family report from the goodship Fidelio

14 EXVAC

JCR president Jane Anderson presentsthe moving story of EXvac

17 Goodbye to all thatBrock Holden reflects upon leaving hisalma mater

18 Alumni athletics...A special anniversary wascommemorated last May

19 ... and musicGenerations of college musicians cometogether. The outcome is assessed byMarguerite Harrington

20 Times pastThanks to David Serpell the College hasa wonderful set of old postcards

21 OM offers: Medieval manuscriptsYour coffee table never looked better...

22 Limited edition prints...and as for your living room wall...

23 Exeter College clothing...now its your turn

23 Court and socialWell social anyway

24 Donation formPerhaps you have been looking for oneof these?

25 The Boat ClubA good year on the river

27 EXinfo28 Calendar

The final episode of Morse was filmed at ExeterCollege earlier this year. From left: Colin Dexter,

John Thaw and colleague

Editor: Jonathan Snicker

Assistant editor: David Whitaker

Printed by: OxuniprintOxford University PressPrinted on ECS paper

Frontispiece: Portrait of the Rectorby David Cobley

The opinions expressed in EXON are those of thecontributors, and are not necessarily shared byExeter College

The Rector’sThe Rector casts her eye back on the previous year

This is an enlargedSpecial Issue ofExon , to mark a

promise kept. We are round-ing off our three-year pro-gramme of getting in touchwith all old members on ournew enlarged database. Wehave of course kept up the tra-ditional Gaudies that every fewyears bring each generation to-gether. But we have also helda variety of other social events- lunches or dinners outsideOxford (and Britain), summergarden parties linked to sport-ing events, and the opening upat least once a year of the Rec-tor’s Musical Evenings to OldMembers as both performersand audience. So it seems ap-propriate to centre this issue ontwo notable social gatheringsof the year just ending.

Our summer Gaudy in theyear 2000 was for the yearsfrom 1950. Near the start ofthe academic year we held aone-off event, a Symposiumfor the pioneer generations ofwomen at the College. Wehope you will enjoy two ex-tended pieces which bring theexperience of these genera-tions vividly to life. PhilipFrench has long been Britain’smost admired film critic notjust for his wit but as a socialobserver in his own right, whoexpertly uses character andanecdote in film to identify amoment or a locality. Hisspeech proposing the Collegetoast is an essay on this gen-eration which bears compari-son with the remarkable Fiftiesseries of Suggestions Books.

The Symposium origi-

Our Schools resultsare good; we are fifth

in the NorringtonTable...

collectively you create an on-going discussion, there will beroom for it in a later number.If one of the unidentifiedvoices in the Symposium isyours, please let us know sothat the record can be putstraight before the tape goesinto the archive.

By tradition, the Rector’sletter gives College news inThe Register, which shouldreach you in the later part ofMichaelmas Term. Becausewe are going a little late topress, I can give you importantrecent news in brief. OurSchools results are good; weare fifth in the Norrington Ta-ble, back to the high standardsof the mid-1990s. We havetwenty-two firsts, three out ofthe three candidates in Math-ematics Part II, four modernhistorians out of eight candi-dates, three in Chemistry PartII and three in English. KateBaker (Physiological Sci-ences) and Roger Dodd (Bio-chemistry) both won the Prizefor the best first in their Uni-versity generation. In sportnothing truly heroic happened.But the first men’s eight is stillthird on the river, behind Orieland Pembroke, the 2nd men’sEight won blades, and thewomen’s first Eight went up adivision.

There is sad news to reportof two Fellows. Richard Bar-row, Emeritus Fellow in Chem-istry, died on 2 June aged 84after more then 50 years as amember of the College. A me-morial service has been ar-ranged in the Chapel for Sat-urday 21 October at 2.30 pm.WJH Butterfield (Medicine,1939) died on 22 July, aged 80.His career took him from a pro-fessor in Medicine at Londonto Master of Downing CollegeCambridge and Vice-Chancel-lor of Cambridge University(1983-5). As Lord Butterfieldhe was an Honorary Fellow ofthe College, and though latterlyin ill health took an interest inus, for example by writing along, thoughtful letter in re-sponse to my article about thegovernment’s dealings withOxford and Cambridge in thefirst number of Exon.

This is the third of our annualmagazines and it is my privilege topresent it to you. The articles thatfollow provide an interesting snapshotof what Exeter College has been aboutin this and in previous generations.We have received a surfeit of materialfor publication and some excellentarticles have necessarily been omittedfor reasons of space. At this rate abumper issue will have to be publishedagain next year. Producing this issuehas had its ups and downs especiallysince I know next to nothing aboutDTP; so the thought of next year’sundertaking brings a wry andsomewhat nervous smile to my lips.

I am grateful to mypredecessors, Matthew Preston andMarguerite Harrington, for theiradvice and support during my firstfive months as development officer.Exeter is not a new institution for me;I was politics lecturer here for twoyears. On the other hand in comingto this new role I have seen anotherintriguing side of College life.

May I take this opportunity tointroduce David Whitaker, the newdevelopment assistant, who began atthe development office in June and isalso the assistant editor of EXON. Wehave received a great deal of supportfrom Fellows, staff and currentstudents. Thanks too must beextended to the excellent network ofvolunteers, the development boardand our generous donors for theirloyalty and commitment to thisinstitution. Without them ExeterCollege would be much the poorer inevery sense.

If you have access to theinternet, please take a look at the newwebsite:

http://www.exeter.ox.ac.uk

It is now possible to download an oldmembers’ questionnaire and see on-line versions of various forms youmight find useful. You will also finda donation form on page 24 of thismagazine. Whether you are in aposition to give or not, I hope you wishyour College well as it strives tomaintain and develop academicexcellence and to support the nextgeneration of Exonians.

Jonathan Snicker

From the editor ...

3

Richard BarrowBorn 29 April 1916, died 2 June 2000

Fellow of Exeter (Chemistry) 1948 to 1983Reader in Physical Chemistry 1966 to 1983

Emeritus Fellow 1983 to 2000

A memorial service will be held in the Chapel onSaturday 21 October 2000 at 2.30 pm.

Tea in Hall afterwards

Letter

4

We have all, I’m sure,in anticipation ofthis evening, been

casting our minds back some 40to 50 years.

Looking at my own past,I find for better or worse, that it’sdivided into two parts - thetwenty one years before I cameup to Exeter and the 43 yearssince I left, leaving three yearsin-between in which something,I’m not sure exactly what, hap-pened to me. You’ve probablywondered what difference itwould have made to your liveshad you spent those years in amonastery or a Prisoner-of-Warcamp, both of them availablecareer options in the early 50s.So have I. In fact Exeter at thattime had something in commonwith both those institutions. Itwas like a monastery whosemonks had taken a vow of non-chastity which they desperatelyattempted to live up to - the ma-jority of us in vain. It resembled

a prison camp but of a ratherunusual sort, one into whichevery night most of the prison-ers - with a cunning worthy ofthe heroes of The Great Escape- conspired to get back undiscov-ered. As it happened the accom-modating commandant of thisparticular Stalag placed a ladderon the inside wall of the FellowsGarden so that returning inmatesmight not come to any harm.

The other famous en-trance, the worst kept secret inOxford, was through a groundfloor window facing onto theBroad. In my first year its occu-pant Jonathan Stockland becameas celebrated as Jack Lemmon inBilly Wilder’s The Apartmentfor facilitating the nocturnal en-tries and exits of those involvedin unseemly activities. Duringinclement weather Jonathanwould lay down a pathway ofnewspapers from his bedroomwindow through his study to thedoor.

Time, time it was...The College played host to the early 50s matriculants on July 7. In his address Philip French gave a

strong evocation of the character of that generation.

The other famousentrance, the worst

kept secret in Oxford

My notion of what con-stitutes being old changes yearby year, but my central image ofwhat ‘old’ means has alwaysbeen associated with ExeterCollege and an event that oc-curred most evenings a few min-utes before dinner during myfirst two years here. This was theritual appearance of R. M.Dawkins, emeritus Professor ofGreek and a Fellow of Exeter,being led from the foot of his

staircase around the quad to dinein hall. Stooped and white-whiskered he moved at a snail’space with the help of a cane anda scout. He was well into hiseighties and looked as old asMethuselah. But what made himspecial, almost awesome, wasnot that he was one of the uni-versity’s legendary scholars,which he was, but that he was alink to another age - and to col-ourful Edwardian scandals.Nearly 50 years earlier, this frailold man had been a friend andbenefactor of the outrageousFrederick Rolfe, the self-styledBaron Corvo. Their sojourn to-gether in Venice in 1907 was dis-creetly dealt with in a book we’dall read, A.J.A. Symons’ TheQuest for Corvo, where Rolfeobscurely complains thatDawkins was insufficiently gen-erous to gondoliers.

Dawkins was one of theOxford figures whom the fastidi-

5

... a lawyer calledRoper, who for someHispanic connectionwas always addressed

as ‘Señor’ Roper

ous Cyril Connolly revered whenhe was up at Balliol in the early1920s, and Connolly was think-ing of the idea of being old in apoem he wrote five years aftergoing down. The poem, whichhe never published, was called‘Oxford’-

When days are long and sunny

The flower of youth is blown

We waste our parents’ money

And time that is our own

The days grow dark and colder

Beyond the summer’s prime

We, before time is older

Are old before our time.

A contemporary ofConnolly’s, Stephen Spender,has a paragraph about Oxford inthe 20s in his autobiographyWorld within World:

“(S)ome colleges wereconsidered by most undergradu-ates as superior and more char-acteristic of ‘being at Oxford’...We thought of the University asconsisting pre-eminently of NewCollege, Balliol, Magdalen,Christ Church, and a few re-spected smaller colleges such asWadham, Corpus Christi andOriel. Then there were the mid-dling colleges, such as Worces-ter, Hertford, Queen’s, St. John’sand Univ.-, and, last, the collegeswhich did not count’.

The sort of attitude ex-pressed in Spender’s book wasthe kind of red rag that the no-bullshit people of our generationthrived on. Around 1950, I sup-pose, the favoured Oxford fic-tional text was Waugh’sBrideshead Revisited and therewas an attempt briefly to re-cre-ate that romantic world of the1920s. Everyone wanted to be ayearning Charles Ryder, adoomed Sebastian Flyte or adecadent Anthony Blanche. Butin the Spring before I went up in

1954, Kingsley Amis’s LuckyJim was published and two yearslater John Osborne’s Look Backin Anger was staged, expressingthe mood of ill-defined discon-tent we shared, and Jim Dixonand Jimmy Porter became whatpeople today might call our ‘rolemodels’, though that term didn’texist then outside of sociologi-cal textbooks and doesn’t reallyfit in with the feeling of thattime. It’s appropriate thatKingsley Amis’s son, Martin,didn’t go up to his father’s col-lege, St John’s, but came here toExeter.

The first thing probablythat struck me about Exeterwhen I arrived was its geo-

graphic centrality. It was right inthe middle of the college map.As I’d spent my first year out-side college in lodgings, I had thechoice of rooms and immedi-ately opted for Exeter 1:1, the setimmediately above the porter’slodge, which seemed to me thevery epi-centre of the University.

From the bow windowsI could look both ways down theTurl and the study had the origi-nal 18th Century panelling. Ithought it, still think it, one ofthe most beautiful rooms I’veever occupied. The previous in-cumbent, a lawyer called Roper,who for some Hispanic connec-tion was always addressed as‘Señor’ Roper and who rowedfor the college, asked if he couldleave his elegantly painted oarabove the fireplace. I readilyagreed, and for a year this ob-ject greatly impressed girls andvisiting relatives. There weredisadvantages to the room, how-

ever. One was that the nearestlavatory was down the street inOxford market. The other wasthe cold. The room was exposedto the elements on two sides andbeneath. In winter the hot waterthat my scout brought up at 7.30in the morning would often havea thin coating of ice by the timeI got up to shave.

My first act on arrivingin Oxford was to leave my casein the Junior Common Room andgo to the movies, a pattern thatwas to persist for the next threeyears. I discovered that therewere passionate fellowcinephiles in the college (amongthem John Houlton, who di-rected a movie in 1955 of whichI was a co-author). And I wasdelighted to find out that JoelSayre, co-screenwriter on one ofmy favourite Hollywood mov-ies, Gunga Din, had been aRhodes Scholar at Exeter in the1920s, and that the son of thegreat French director, JulienDuvivier, had occupied Exeter1:1 ten years before I moved in.

My first truly memora-ble encounter with my contem-poraries came at the first JCRmeeting. The Exeter JCR wassomething special, somethingquite extraordinary. I can see theplace in my mind’s eye now.There were paintings in the neo-romantic style over the mantel-pieces at either end - one wasMichael Ayrton’s apocalypticOn the Beach, the other was JohnMinton’s The Herring Fisher-men, known in the college as‘Kippers’ for the way it was dis-coloured by smoke from thegrate underneath. There was alsoan exquisite if slightly sentimen-tal drawing of his son byAugustus John and a newly ac-quired still-life by Duncan Grantthat was said to be a good invest-ment.

There were, still are,some remarkable pictures in thishall where we’re now gathered,

6

two of them associated with ourgeneration. The highly fashion-able Pietro Annigoni was com-missioned (shortly before hisbest-selling portrait of theQueen) to paint our Rector, E.A.Barber, a cool, laid-back figureas we’d say now, who tactfullyobserved that it was a very finelikeness - ‘of the way I shall lookin 30 years time’ (he was 60when it was painted). A secondpicture there was the portrait ofthe Most Reverend and RightHonourable Geoffrey Fisher,Archbishop of Canterbury, whocame up to Exeter in 1906. TheArchbishop had intervened in themid-50s to stop the love-match

between Princess Margaret andher divorcé swain Group-Cap-tain Peter Townsend. One of mycontemporaries slipped into theHall and turned Fisher’s face tothe wall as an act of protest, thenrushed off to sell the story to theDaily Mail.

But to get back to theJCR. For all the talk of pictures,it was nothing like a Gentle-men’s club in the West End. Itwas more like an officers’ messcomposed entirely of unruly sub-alterns, which indeed most of uswere, still itching after two yearsof wearing battle-dress. To pre-serve a certain appearance ofdignity Brian Brindley presidedover the place like a combina-tion of Doctor Johnson, OscarWilde and the Reverend SydneySmith. He stayed on two yearsafter graduation to dabble in law,and was unanimously electedPresident of the JCR. The Sug-

had that morning. Taking a shortcut through Balliol, she’d beenstopped by a porter and askedwhere she’d been. ‘So I lookedhim straight in the face and I said- “I’ve been giving my mansex”’. That was my first, andindeed my only, encounter withthe future Dame Maggie Smith.

It’s also true that youwouldn’t have gone into the JCRwith the certain assurance offinding someone to discussWittgenstein’s Tractatus or toaccompany you to a meeting ofAlcoholics Anonymous. But ifyou wanted a companion to gowith you to the cinema or to havea drink in the Turl Tavern or ifyou wanted a tip for the 2.30 at

Goodwood, you’d be unlikely toemerge from the JCR disap-pointed.

But what of academicwork? Well, a lot of it went on,more than you’d have guessed,though there was a certain - howshall I put it? - enlightened atti-tude to such matters. The bestscholars among Exeter’s fellowsdidn’t exactly exert themselvesin producing vast tomes. Theebullient Nevill Coghill, a mar-vellously Chaucerian figure, wasbest known for, and best pleasedwith, his modernised version ofThe Canterbury Tales, and de-voted much time to holding courtin his rooms (well supplied withliquor) and to directing under-graduate plays. The acerbic,witty Dacre Balsdon, who wasmy moral tutor and had the bear-ing of a Roman senator in a Hol-lywood movie, preferred to pro-duce elegant editions of some-what obscure, and generally

gestions Book, several pages ofwhich were filled every day in avariety of hands, was like a col-laboration between P.G.Wodehouse, Virginia Woolf ather most waspish, and BernardLevin, and in memory seemsfunnier, better written and bet-ter illustrated than Private Eye.

And the JCR meetingswere ‘a riot’, a word of approvalin those days. They were con-ducted in a spirit of calculatedlewdness that Aristophanes andMax Miller would have envied,and I’ve often thought that af-fronted theology students in at-tendance could have justifiedtheir continuing presence byconvincing themselves that itwould be good preparation fortheir serving as chaplains in thearmed forces or Her Majesty’sprisons. We then lacked the civi-lising presence of woman andconducted ourselves in the spiritof sex-starved miners in the Cali-fornian goldfields or U.S. ma-rines on a World War Two Pa-cific atoll.

You may recall thatwomen at the time were not al-lowed into most colleges beforenoon, and had to leave before 7pm unless their hosts got specialpermission for them to stay un-til 10. My first encounter with awoman at Oxford occurred dur-ing a visit I made to a friend atanother college the summer be-fore I came up and a couple ofdays after returning from armyservice in the Canal Zone, whereI’d scarcely spoken to a womanfor 14 months. My friend wasmuch involved in universitytheatre and suddenly there sweptinto his room a thin, extremelyattractive woman with close-cutred hair, a short jacket and tight-fitting velvet trousers, bright lip-stick and oddly painted finger-nails. She looked as if she wasauditioning for the role of SallyBowles, and began to regale myfriend with an experience she’d

... turned Fisher’s faceto the wall as an act ofprotest, then rushed offto sell the story to the

Daily Mail

... had the bearing of aRoman senator in aHollywood movie

7

brief, Latin texts, to write satiri-cal novels and produce bookswith titles like Roman Women:Their History and Habits. Dacrelives on, I believe, through theinfluence his style of speech, hu-mour and general demeanourhad on Ned Sherrin, AlanBennett, Russell Harty and theirvarious imitators.

My tutor, the muchmissed Derek Hall, who went onto be Master of Corpus Christi,took an amused and occasionallyexasperated attitude towards mylegal studies. I’d worked ex-tremely hard throughout my sec-ond year, but largely on journal-ism and cinematic matters. Atthe end of my second summervacation I sought Derek’s help

recess I found hanging in an oth-erwise empty wardrobe a schol-ar’s gown. Tempted to try it on,I removed the gown from thehanger only to discover a notepinned inside. It read, ‘I didn’tthink you’d be able to resist try-ing it on! But I hope it brings youluck. Best wishes, Giles Rooke’.

The other example oc-curred in 1956 when I was edit-ing The Isis and was invited toprovide advice on current Uni-versity life for an ABC televisionprogramme called Paper Talkthat was presented by DouglasWarth and produced by NedSherrin, who’d gone down fromExeter two years before. I gavethem a glass of sherry in myroom and a few tips and contacts,and they went their way. Threedays later I received a kind let-ter from Ned and a cheque forfive guineas. I was delighted bythis, and astonished when threeyears later I became a BBC pro-ducer and was instructed by cer-tain colleagues that one shouldtake advantage of the easily flat-tered and pay them little or noth-ing. This has more-or-less be-come standard in the BBC postBirt. But during my 30 years asa producer with the CorporationI tried to live up to Ned Sherrin’spractice in 1956 - to reward thosewho work for you irrespective oftheir station or clout.

As an under-graduate I became agreat fan of the cartoon-ist Charles Addams,and I’ve still got a cou-ple of vintage 1950seditions of The NewYorker containing hiswork that I nostalgi-cally treasure for thestamp they bear, ‘Ex-eter College JCR - DoNot Remove’. In the1970s Addams drew aclassic cartoon that de-picts a collection of ageingwinos, tramps and assorted der-

in getting a small grant from mycounty authorities to return earlyto use the Oxford law libraries,and I happened to mention thatI’d been having some eye trou-ble, which my optician attributedto ‘overwork’. Derek got me thegrant, and he dropped me a notethat I cherish. ‘I was sorry to hearabout the trouble with your eye-sight’, he wrote, ‘but if there is acommensurate strain from theamount of work you will needto do to obtain any degree what-soever, I can see you going upthe steps of the Schools with awhite stick’.

Friendly, I think, is theword for Exeter. I don’t want toget sentimental at this late stage,but let me give you two exam-ples of the friendliness to whichI refer. First, in March 1952, Icame to Exeter to sit the collegeentrance examination and waslodged in a Spartan first-floorroom overlooking the Broad.Nervously examining its every

elicts, standing and sittingaround the steps of a classicalbuilding on an idyllic collegecampus. Each of them is wear-ing a badge with ‘54’ on it andsuspended from the pillars is abanner bearing the words “WEL-COME BACK CLASS OF ’54".One of these sorry social outcastsis saying to another, ‘I thoughtit was me, but maybe theschool’s no damn good’. Mywife tried to buy the original ofthe cartoon for me throughAddams’ dealer but it had al-ready been sold. There had ap-parently been an unprecedenteddemand for it. Which goes toshow - and this is really my point- that a lot of people like us who

graduated in the 1950s can af-ford to subscribe to the NewYorker and to collect cartoons.

So now I’d like you tojoin me in the toast that it is myhonour to propose tonight. La-dies and gentlemen, the toast is‘Floreat Exon’.

Copyright Philip French

Friendly, I think is theword for Exeter.

I didn’t think youwould be able to resist

trying it on!

Drinks in the Rector’s Garden

8

our loo and put it in the FrontQuad, and a particularly sillyinstitution, the MillenarianProfessor. He went through allthe gossip, and women weresingled out. We felt more ma-ture than a lot of the boys, andfounded our own MillenarianSociety. A lot of the men wereintrigued, and felt it was right,it was a bit different. In male-dominated professions sincethen, we felt we hadn’t been di-rectly discriminated againsthere.

Group C 1985 (reporterSarah Colvin): Somethingstrange happened at Exeterabout the autumn of ‘86. Therewas a complete division ofopinion about what Collegewas like from those coming upbefore and after that time. Andalso about whether there was aproblem of discrimination.There were other divisions, be-tween those who had been atgirls’ schools, and those whohad been at mixed schools, andyour subject made a differencetoo. We have tried to followinstructions: we were asked toagree on a representative epi-sode or quotation – one of uswas so uncomfortable in theJCR that she ate her sand-

Exeter, like all bar one of the Oxford colleges, is a mixed institution. On 30 October 1999 the pioneering

women of 1979 interacted with more recent graduates and Fellows.

AND HOW WAS

IT FOR YOU?ing a woman in a male Collegereally was an issue. We haveall thought about it. We hadno sense anyone was lookingout for us women. It was fan-tastic to be here, but we just hadto get on with it. We had norole-model in the Faculty. Wewere confronted with a phalanxof maleness. One of the wayswe coped – we rowed: I hatedit. It’s very different now,there’s a different culture. Itwasn’t so much men v. women

In 1999 we held an all-daySymposium for one of theold century’s greatest inno-

vations, the opening of Exeter’sdoors to women. Invitationswent out to every formerwoman undergraduate forwhom we had an address andevery woman tutorial Fellow orformer Fellow. Sixty Exeterwomen gathered to celebratetwenty years of women studentsand Fellows. There were nooutside speakers, and thosewho came spoke, in smallgroups or in full session, mostlyfrom the floor.

We began in the morningwith two very different per-sonal reminiscences, fromSarah Adams (89) and KatyTaylor (93), before dividinginto workshops. What followsis a near-complete transcript ofthe experiences womenExonians exchanged when theyreturned to the SaskatchewanLecture Theatre (pictured op-posite). The groups reportedin the order they had come up,giving an outline history intheir own words through fivesets of shared memories.

Group A 1979 (reporterKaren Ward): Even if wedidn’t realise it at the time, be-

as state schools v. publicschools. I came from a north-ern girls’ grammar school - I’dnever seen so many publicschoolboys. That was my maincriticism then and still – thenumber of state school pupilswas much too low.

Group B 1982 (reporterSanchia Berg): A lot of thatsounds very familiar. But itwas changing by the time wecame up. I still remember theRugby Club, which took out

We had no senseanyone was lookingout for us women

9

cussed academic matters andwelfare matters as well. Ourgeneration produced a womanPresident of the JCR [HelenTurnbull] and the first BoatClub President [ElizabethElmhirst, Biochemistry, 1995].This felt good. Male seniormembers couldn’t believe it.Sometimes Helen found in theJCR that it was difficult for awoman President to commandrespect. Academically it mightbe difficult, depending on yoursubject. There was no dis-crimination in Law tutes – wewere lucky to be taught bySandy [Sandra] Fredman. Wewere encouraged to speak up.But I remember one discussionin a Law class about freedomof expression and pornography,that led to a great divisionwithin the group, never asmuch before or after. Thoughnot necessarily discriminatingagainst you, men feel more athome, and some of the male tu-tors felt uncomfortable withwomen, much more at homewith boys. There was a packmentality in many of the menat Exeter that was intimidating.I thought my first year wasbaddish, in the second thingscalmed down and you saw yourown friends, but in the thirdyear the tension rose again be-

cause the men were competi-tive and the women concen-trated on supporting each other.Lots of our group mentionedthe great speech in Freshers’week from the SCR – JeriJohnson – that there was a rulethat certain kinds of behaviourwere not acceptable and wouldnot be tolerated. It made agreat deal of difference to ourexperience here. We summedup that though gender was anissue here, it was certainly a lotless than in the real world.

The discussion

A symposium with some under-graduate observers, chaired byProfessor Watanabe-O’Kelly:Are there points that didn’temerge in your group, that youwant to add?Helen Turnbull: Ceri said therewas a pack mentality; whatdidn’t come out is that therewere friendships with men aswell. There was a real mental-ity of looking after the girls.Certainly away from the Col-lege there was male protective-ness.Sarah Colvin: I couldn’t agreemore strongly that havingwomen Fellows makes an enor-mous difference.

wiches outside in the rain.Group D 1989 (reporter

Farrhat Arshad): We found adifference within our group,between those who came up in89 and those in 93. It changedfor women. But on the aca-demic side your view was stillaffected by which sort ofschool you came from. Thosefrom all women’s schools hadoften worked hard, and theystopped, wound down whenthey got here. This might ex-plain why in Schools womendon’t do as well as men. Thosefrom mixed schools didn’t seemen v. women, they saw indi-viduals. It matters that Exeteris a certain kind of College inthe University: it doesn’t have

a colour – a strength in Exeter– we all do our own thing. Thetrouble was, when a real issuecame in, you couldn’t alwaysdeal with it. Lawyers were setan exercise, whetherallowance should bemade in law forPMT, and the mensaid they couldn’tpossibly write onthis. There’s norecord what womensaid. An attitudeneeded to filterdown from the SCR– what was and whatwasn’t acceptable,more particularlyfrom men.

Group E 1994(reporter Ceri Law-rence): We dis-

In male-dominatedprofessions since then,we felt we hadn’t beendirectly discriminated

against here

10

had no comprehension of thesophisticated multi-layered is-sues that face women cominginto an all-male environment.As long as they could do allright academically and get intoan Eight, they were doing allright. In reality, there wereprobably lots of women facingissues that were appalling, andthere were no older women totalk to.Another voice: One thing I nowappreciate is that it wasn’t justan issue for us, to be 1 in 14 orwhatever, which some of usliked. It was an issue for men.Many of them came up to aplace with far too few women– unobtainable, inaccessible

to be careful. What men dobest is network. We should bea bit bigger to each other, lookout for other women.Clare Spring[?]: I don’t believein women for the sake of it. Ibelieve in choosing people whoare best for the job.Helen Watanabe: It has beeninteresting historically that weare the first [men’s] OxbridgeCollege to have a woman Headof House. She does it differ-ently.Unidentified voice: Lots ofpeople stood up and said theydidn’t think they were dis-criminated against. But onceyou have women Fellows youhave a chance of talking to anolder woman or being taught byone.‘Viola Nash’, 1986: Some peo-ple have said they weren’t dis-criminated against in tutorials.But I did think I had to com-pete against male expectations.I had a very nice tutor, a cleverperson. But he called the oth-ers by their first name. Me hecalled Petal, [laughter] and letme off essays because I seemeddelicate. I wanted an academicjob - had I continuedpetalesque, I wouldn’t havestood a chance.[Another voice from floor]:Men made endless commentsabout women, their appearanceand relationships. Their prob-lem was being men in an insti-tution with too few women.Rector: In the 1970s, as a Fel-low of St Hugh’s, I dined in dif-ferent men’s colleges, and wasrepeatedly told by my hosts‘they’re fine, we don’t knowthey’re here’.Reeta Chakrabarti (1984, pic-tured page 12): I wonderwhether this isn’t just what anice liberal man thinks it’sright to say. Of course it’sdeeply insulting. But it’s a niceuncomplicated thing to say.Voice from floor: Yes. They

Jean Kitson [first woman Presi-dent of JCR]: It’s something todo with the way this discussionis being constructed that is giv-ing me an idea of laying downa history. When women firstcame into the College the struc-tures weren’t there. From whatHelen was saying, in recentyears a pattern was being laiddown, of women learning fromthe time women had been here.The first President of this andthat, it’s exciting. But it’s evenbetter when the pattern is there,you’re not unusual.Elizabeth Elmhirst: I didn’tknow there’d been no woman(ECBC President) before; Iwanted to do the job. But eve-

ryone who comes to Boat Clubmeetings is male-orientated, aman, the present students andthe Old Members, and they talkabout the men’s eights.Farrhat Arshad: Once you’vetaken up a role, you need topass it on to another woman. Itdoes encourage women, ifyou’ve done it, to say ‘Youcould too’. I knew a womanwho was Law Society Presi-dent, I thought ‘Hmm. I’d liketo do that’. I spoke to her, sheencouraged me, I was the nextPresident. Then I talked toCeri. She said, ‘Hmm, I’d liketo do that’. She was next.[Laughter]Rachel Griffin (President ofOxford University Student Un-ion, ML, 1995): What came upin our discussion was that youhad to be careful what issuesto take up. When I came up Iwas militant, and shouted ateverybody. I learnt at Exeter

for some, while others had thepick of the bunch.At this point the discussion wasadjourned, to be continued in-formally over lunch. We recon-vened for a short session withmost of Exeter’s senior womenin teaching posts. The first, DrClare Stanford (Medicine,1979-82) could not make it.Helen Spencer (English, 1992)sent her apologies. The othersbriefly described their impres-sions of the College, again inorder of their arrival:Christine Gerrard, English lec-turer 1982, Jane Mellor,Staines Research Fellow, Bio-chemistry 1986, SandraFredman, Law 1988, HelenWatanabe-O’Kelly, German1989, Jeri Johnson, English1991, the Rector, 1994,Maureen Taylor, Biochemistry1995, Nuria CapdevilaArguelles, Junior ResearchFellow in Spanish 1999. This

Certainly away fromthe College there wasmale protectiveness

...having womenFellows makes an

enormous difference

11

the men. You feel you’re fight-ing a battle every day. I don’tknow how the Bar is going tochange. It isn’t recruiting morewomen.Farrhat Arshad (Law, 93):More women are applying, butnot getting there. In somebranches of the law there arewomen coming in. Thenyou’re winnowed out in theearly 30s, when you have towork like Hell.Another voice: The Corporatesector and Acquisitions arenearly all men. The Propertydepartment is actually quitestrong, but they’re nearly allwomen, who can leave at 5.30.

Property is seen as second-rate,less prestigious; the money isbeing brought in by men.Another voice: I take it you

session is omitted for reasonsof space.

Women in the real world

The main afternoon sessionwas a discussion based onwomen Exonians’ professionalexperience, led by a short re-view of the current scene bySandra Fredman (pictured be-low).Sandra Fredman: How dowomen stand at the moment inthe working world? There is astriking pay gap: worldwide, awoman gets only 80% of aman’s wage. The gap widensgreatly in part-time work.Why? Employment is highlysegregated, horizontally andvertically. ‘Women’s jobs’ areby definition low paid; andwomen cluster in the bottomgrades of men’s jobs. TheCivil Service and other profes-sions show the same pattern, ofwomen worse-paid andunderpromoted; women man-agers in catering are paid be-low the national average.In their twenties, men andwomen are paid thesame. It’s in the thir-ties that men moveahead. This turns intoan enduring disadvan-tage, since a pensiondepends on earnings.The poorest section ofthe population is thatof pensioned women.But this doesn’t makesense. We hear talk ofa part-time restruc-tured workforce, ofthe shift towards serv-ice-industries, and of awoman-friendly Gov-ernment. But the twothings don’t coincide,they jar. Employerswant women to bethere when they want

them. Their hours don’t coin-cide with the kids’ day: theyaren’t family-friendly. We stillneed to look at the structure ofthe workforce from both thesupply side and the family side.There needs to be change onthe other side – recognition ofwhat kind of work childcare is.And it will be important forboth men and women to par-ticipate.Voice 1: I’m a partner in oneof the largest city law-firms.Of the 3000 people in my firm,10% of the partners are women.At lunch I see mostly men, andhear sexist jokes. I have notime to be bothered. I get onwith it. I earn four times morethan my husband, but am bring-ing up small children. I worked101 hours last week. The cli-ents are men: they expectwomen to be there.Ceri Lawrence (Law, 1994):Farrhat and I have spent the lastyear at the Bar. It has been ashock. The highest percentageanywhere of aggressive malesmust be at the Bar. My cham-bers have 45 people, of whomfour are women. We’re auto-matically less comfortable than

In their twenties, menand women are paidthe same. It’s in the

thirties that men moveahead.

12

stable profession if morewomen went into it. So I hadto do more research into why

women don’t go into in-vestment banking. Theanswer: too much sense.On the other hand, Buzz(Elizabeth Bury, Eco-nomics and Manage-ment, 1994) is inMcKinsey.Unidentified: We shoulddemand shorter hours.It’s stupid... we continueto judge success by malestandards. I haveworked in teaching...look at alternative ca-reers, I want to urgewomen into higher edu-cation.Another voice: I work inthe NHS. As an obser-vation, nursing is a fe-

don’t mean to say you’d do thisrather than have children. Theproblem is that you don’t wantto work those hours.Jeri J: Yes, and that they payless for the women’s work. Ifwomen take time out, you’lllose in the long term, with yourliving capacity reduced.Sarah Ibbotson (Modern His-tory, 1990): I think what peo-ple are saying about the sec-ond-rate is interesting. Womenin the police gravitate towardswork in the control room orborough services where they’reglorified telephonists. It’s veryobvious within the professionthat these jobs are seen as sec-ond-rate compared with careerdetectives … I’m in the child

women are it’s the same. Thereare four women in my depart-ment at Edinburgh University.All four are being paid lessthan men colleagues. Womenare just starting to take overwhen there isn’t the money topay them. You can’t earn muchin a profession where womenare taking over.‘I’m a patent agent, workinglong hours. I don’t believethere’s a glass ceiling, it’s anexcuse.’Farrhat Arshad: Of coursethere’s a glass ceiling, statisticsshow it.Unidentified: I did work expe-rience in a human resources de-partment. It looked as if invest-ment banking would be a more

protection unit … that’s seenas women’s work. Despite thefact we see horrific cases, it’snot seen as seriouswork.Another voice, of thelaw: My case is pre-dictable. I started atthe Bar, then went in-House. Then you findyou’re having tomarginalise yourselfeven more. You can’tbe there at 6.30 whenthey start meetings.[A series of interven-tions, unidentified]:‘I’m a full-timemother, i t’s mychoice. I wanted tobe at home with myvery young children.Women do want this.Maternity leave in

most companies is disastrous:three months. We need sensi-ble career-breaks, of 2-3 years.But the loss of status when notworking is terrible’.‘I am doing a very good flexijob, it really is enjoyable, easyfor the family, 25 hours a week– perfect, but not earning muchmoney.’‘Not earning very much part-time is the key. Why not gofor a participatory partnership?Get the men in to say, “I’m notgoing to hack twelve grand.Let’s push it up”.’‘Yes, there’s always an as-sumption there’s a well-paidman in the background.’‘I work in local government. Iand my husband are planningto go three days a week. We’llbe role-models for the rest ofyou.’‘Everything is set up againstthe parent. Even a nannycomes out of taxed income.The government should ad-dress this.’‘It’s an issue not just aboutchildren, but about anyone whowants to have relationships.Days are lost through stress,tiredness, illness …’Sarah Colvin: Wherever

...we are the first[men’s] OxbridgeCollege to have a

woman Head of House

It’s a man’s problemas well... and one thatthis generation has to

address

13

FidelioAnne and Ian Gatenby(Law, 1961) are doingsomething many of usdream about - sailing

around the world. Here istheir latest report from the

ocean...

My wife and I set sailon St George’s day1998 for a voyage

provisionally timed for nineyears. The idea, subject tohealth lasting and disasters be-ing avoided, is to circumnavi-gate the globe, keeping to thetropics as much as is practi-cal. Why nine years? Like theroute for the voyage, thetimescale grew naturally fromlooking at reference works oncruising routes and selectingthe easiest route from one area

male-dominated profession.But, despite this fact... thereisn’t the flexibility even in theirshift pattern... If a female-dominated profession such asnursing can’t get it right, whyare we expecting male profes-sions to get it right? NHScreche facilities are appalling.The people who get to the topof the nursing profession aresingle women and men. Veryfew married women get intothe managerial grade.Unidentified: Someone saidshe wasn’t sure it mattered thatpeople can’t tell the differencebetween a woman doctor and anurse. Well it does matter. Ifpeople can’t tell the difference,they don’t bring up their

to another and the best time ofyear for it. Add the naturalrhythm which requires one toleave the tropics in hurricane/cyclone months, and you havethe broad scheme for the voy-age.

We have a 37 footSwedish built yacht, 12 yearsold, called “Fidelio”. Ourcruising pattern is typical: forevery one day at sea, we spendat least five at anchor. Some-

Our supply is principallysolar panels and a wind

generator

daughters to be doctors.Rector: We have to call a halt.I’m struck by the way Sandy’sinitial point has been con-firmed – the thirties are the cru-cial time when the gap opens.But they must be as bad forthirty-something men, thosewho care about being fathers.It’s a man’s problem as well asa woman’s, and one that thisgeneration has to address.Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly: Be-fore we stop, I want to look onthe optimistic side. I used tolook at my male colleagues,stoned out of their minds withoverwork. I loved cominghome and reading PostmanPat. Several of us Fellowshave done both things andloved having children. Neverutter the word guilt. Enjoy it.[Applause]Respondent: Reeta Chakrabarti

To have been in thisCollege was great

fun... We were sassy

(English, 1984). I think I havethe hardest part of the day. I’mglad that Helen has struck apositive note at the end. Tohave been in this College wasgreat fun. I did English andFrench, mostly with women. Itwas fun. We were sassy.Someone talked of men inherds, we were in herds too. Iremember it as a wonderful lib-eration – we were women whenwe came here, they were boys.I enjoyed that... We were veryidealistic, political, not partypolitical. It was exciting to lis-ten to the Fellows’ session – itwas the other side, part of itwas troubling. Why does theUniversity have so few womenin permanent teaching jobs,why only 18%? I rang up BBCPersonnel, to find out what ourfigures are like. 30% of thosein senior management arewomen; 40% overall. Why isthe Oxford figure so muchlower? The discussion aboutwork and children affects mostof us. It’s my impression thatmen colleagues and bosses inthe BBC aren’t unfriendly. Allthey care about is output - theywant us to deliver our stories.For what’s beyond that we haveto make our case to them, askfor part-time work. I’ve got an-other on the way, I’ll have todo it. They’ll have to attend.*The last thing I have to say is –how enjoyable it has all beenand what a great idea it was.

*Reeta Chakrabarti and herhusband Paul Hamilton (Fel-low in English 1981-1991) hadtwins on 6 April. She has beenon leave. He is a Professor atQueen Mary College, London,and has temporarily given upthe departmental chairman-ship.

Continued on page 16

13

14

EXVACLast Easter some Exonians and other student volunteersgave a group of under-privileged local children a decentholiday. JCR president Jane Anderson (Lit. Hum. 1998)

sent us this account

put in touch with the projectthrough a recommendationfrom Social Services as thosewho would benefit from a weekaway. In many cases the holi-day provides a break for boththe children and the parents.Many of the children come fromlarge families with a number ofsiblings where time and fundsto spend with the children are

got to try on fire-fighting kitsand sit in the fire-engine!), a tripto a pottery where we glazed ourown tiles to take home, as wellas other trips to adventure play-grounds and the like. Theschedule is extremely busy tomake the week as fun as possi-ble and leaves us with tiredchildren (and exhausted lead-ers) at the end of the day. Our base-camp this year wasa vicarage/hostel near Windsorcalled the Eton-Dorney Centre,a purpose-equipped, grade twolisted house which caters forgroups of children like ours.The couple in charge of the cen-tre, Jed and Sue, ensure beauti-fully kept bedrooms and spot-less bathrooms. Eton-Dorney isno ordinary youth centre - nolong dormitories and dripping

limited. Some evencome as a break awayfrom an unpleasantneighbourhood, someto take time awayfrom family circum-stances, both emo-tional and financial,some to meet childrenof their own age andsome to experiencetheir first ever holi-day away from home. The age range ofthe children is usually

8-12 and the popularity of theholiday has meant that we nowrun two separate weeks whichsit end-to-end, with around 15children on each week. Wewere very lucky to have a largenumber of student volunteersfrom various colleges (not justExeter these days although thename still remains EXVAC) sothat we were able to provide 6leaders on each week. It is ex-tremely important for a holidaywith very energetic childrenwith a huge demand for adultattention that we have a goodratio of children to leaders. The aim of the holiday is togive the children the chance todo all the things that time andmeans might not necessarily al-low at home. The trips are de-signed specifically with thechildren’s tastes in mind - nodusty museums and noworksheets to fill in. This yearEXVAC included trips toThorpe Park, Lego Land, 2water parks, an ice-rink,Slough Fire Station (where we

During the last EasterVacation a group ofvolunteers from the

university set out on EXVAC,a week-long holiday for localOxford children from under-privileged backgrounds orthose with difficult family cir-cumstances. The children are

One of the girls this yearasked me as we arrived“This big house just for

us?”

14

15

showers. It has the feeling of ahouse rather than a youth cen-tre which the children really ap-preciated. One of the girls thisyear asked me as we arrived“This big house just for us?”.Sue keeps us fed and wateredwith breakfast, a packed-lunchto take on our trips and eveningdinner. After dinner, we prayfor calm with the help of avideo, then bedtime. It waspoignant for the leaders whowere in charge of getting thechildren to sleep that some hadnever been read a bedtime storyand thought it was wonderful.Even the boys who insisted theydidn’t need our help in anythingand were old enough to look af-ter themselves loved to be readto. On the week I went one ofthe girls’ rooms insisted on astory every night and the otherroom of girls wanted to be sungto (and were rather bemused bysongs in French and Welshwhich they’d never heard be-fore!). It is essential that we havea mixed group of leaders. Thechildren can be very sensitiveto particular situations. Thebedtime routine is a perfect ex-ample, where both boys andgirls preferred female leaders totuck them in. On the other hand,the boys preferred playing foot-ball in the garden with the maleleaders and some would onlytake advice seriously if it camefrom the male leaders. Some ofthe boys were extremely suspi-cious of the male leaders at thebeginning of the week but bythe end they were totally com-fortable. The sad fact is thatmany of the children are under-confident (though this mani-fested itself as both shyness andattention-seeking) and verywary of adults. Being studentsplaced us in a slightly unusualbracket where the childrendidn’t see us as “grown-ups”(because we rolled around and

their share of episodes. Someof the children have very lim-ited attention spans, some haveno concept of what is danger-ous, some are destructive, someviolent, some prone to tantrumsand nearly all have an astonish-ingly fruity vocabulary fortheir age. One of the biggestsurprises for the leaders wasthe age at which a few of thechildren were familiar withcertain “adult” matters. Themixture of precociousness andnaivety is a worrying combina-tion. One of the results of theholiday is that the leaders areable to write a report on the in-dividual children, having spenta whole week with them andhaving seen them in a varietyof situations. This informationwe pass on to the Social Serv-ices. This kind of informationwhich would be difficult togather from an hour’s visitfrom a social worker could beindispensable in indicating theneeds of the child. One of the most difficultthings to come to terms with asa leader is that at the end of theweek things will go back tohow they were before. At timeslike this we had to tell eachother that we are not socialworkers. What useful informa-tion we have we pass on. Ouraim in EXVAC is to give thechildren a great holiday and ifone child leaves with onehappy memory of the things wedid then the whole holiday wasworth it.

The demand for places on EXVAC

grows every year. If you are inter-ested in learning more about EXVAC

please contact:

Jane Anderson, EXVAC Fund Rais-ing Director, c/o The DevelopmentOffice, Exeter College, Oxford, OX13DP. Email:Jane.Anderson@exeter.ox.ac.uk

cause we were always going tobe there to give the attentionthey were after. All of us no-ticed that you couldn’t be in theroom long before a little handbegan to hold yours. If you satdown, someone would comeand sit with you. If you werecarrying something, theywould ask if they could take it. All this sounds ideal. Thetruth is that the two weeks had

got just as muddy as they did)but we were old enough forthem to feel that we were ableto look after them and be incharge. The leaders are notthere to order the childrenaround but to keep an eye onthem and be interested in whatthey are doing. Before goingaway on the trip, Social Serv-ices told us that some childrenwould become very clingy be-

All of us noticed that youcouldn’t be in the roomlong before a little hand

began to hold yours

15

16

without putting labels onthem, and to take each situa-tion for what it is. Cruisingextends the spectrum of life:the low points are indescrib-ably awful and the high pointsare sublime. One has to bevery aware of the forces ofchanges all around becauseone can only work with them.The art of making the best ofa situation is rapidly learned.

I hope that this may en-courage others to try cruisingon a timescale of months oryears rather than weeks. Iwould be pleased to hear fromExonians, my email addressis:

gatenby@easynet.fr

Panama after a Summer andearly Autumn on the east coastof USA.

Long term cruising cer-tainly changes priorities. Lifeis pared down to essentials:safety, shelter and a source offresh water. This is closelyfollowed by monitoring powerconsumption to match it tosupply. Our supply is princi-pally solar panels and a windgenerator, which is enough inmost conditions, if necessarywe use the engine to charge thebatteries. While we have a seaview all round and a constantlychanging vista, we cannotcount on our bed being still forthe night; nor can we be sureof our home being in the morn-ing where it was on the previ-ous evening - we hope that ouranchor has held so that ourhome has moved no furtherthan the scope of the anchorchain, one can never be sure.

It is often said, and it isabsolutely right, that the bestthing about cruising is the peo-ple that you meet. You leavethe land community (althoughwith email and a mobile phoneit is easy to keep in touch), butyou are a full member of theseagoing community. This ismulti-national, generous, andin most cases very hospitable.Any request for advice or helpis met with a generous re-sponse and, indeed, help willbe offered if there is the slight-est suspicion that it might beneeded. There is never anysense of isolation. As men-tioned, the seagoing commu-nity is sociable and very sup-portive. Short wave radio pro-vides a ready means of com-munication. There are manynetworks, including for exam-

ple the UK Maritime MobileNetwork, the TransatlanticNet based in Barbados, manyless formal nets, and the won-derful Herb, based in Canada,who will on request provide apersonal weather forecast foreach boat on his net. If youneed to contact another yacht,it is amazing how quicklyword spread on one or twonets will provide information.

So, one does not need tojoin a formal relay for support,since the extent to which sea-farers can and do help eachother is very impressive - anda great comfort. All in all,long term cruising teaches theneed to see things as they are,

It is profoundly impres-sive to be thrown in quick suc-cession from one culture to an-other. You learn the impor-tance of an open mind whichcan observe things as they are.We began with Brittany andthe Atlantic coast of France,and then spent a good while innorthern Spain. A relativelyquick move from there enabledus to spend a month in the Bal-earics before moving to Tuni-sia where we cruised for someweeks before over-wintering.The second year has taken usanti-clockwise around theWestern Mediterranean andthen to Madeira and the Canar-ies in preparation for crossingto the Caribbean. We aim tocontinue westwards via

Life is pared down toessentials...

the low points areindescribably awful and the

high points are sublime.

times, this involves a long tripand then a week or so some-where, and sometimes half aday’s sailing followed by aday or two somewhere. Onlong trips we reckon on 100miles per day, and oftenachieve more. In the Mediter-ranean, because of the awfulwinds, the daily range is 15 -45 miles. Wind-vane self-steering does much of the hardwork, but it has to be adjustedfrom time to time as the windchanges in strength and direc-tion. At sea, we take alternatewatches: three four hourwatches in daytime and fourthree hour watches at night.Reading becomes a major ac-tivity on long voyages.

Continued from page 13

16

17

Goodbye to all thatBrock Holden (D.Phil. History, 1996) offers his thoughts on leaving

his alma mater

Common Room has becomeless English/British, somewhatmore American (both in num-bers and in that it has come in-creasingly to remind me of HighSchool). In time, one’s world

of us able to feel a part of theplace.

Over time, the Middle

pear down our little holes. It issuspected that much more funis being had over in the JCR.

I am suppos-ing that the ideaof an MCR isthat peoplefrom differentd i s c i p l i n e smix. None ofus, of course,really care todiscuss work.So what do weshare? Drink-ing, whichsome do with afair amount oftalent, and afew with flair.Love? It’s cu-rious that i trarely happens.

A lot of us come here with bur-geoning but fragile egos and arevery defensive. I have learntthat true friendships are few andfar between. A hard lesson onlylearnt in losing a few of themen route.

There comes a pointwhen it is time to move on, apoint that I have now reached.What do I take away from theMCR? A few good friendships;some grey hair; a modicummore wit than I came with, Ihope; an understanding of courtintrigue and politics and aD.Phil. We always tend to turnthe past into a Golden Age,eventually.

Brock was recently awardedhis D.Phil.

The JCR having what appears to be fun

Preparing to leave Oxfordafter four long years, it’snatural to look back on

my time here.Specifically, Ihave beenasked to write ashort pieceabout ExeterMCR. Bytraining I am ah i s t o r i a n ,taught to pur-sue the truth, soI shall not tellyou a story ofhoney-colouredstone, Pimmsand jeunessedoré. The real-ity is moremundane.

I was in-formed before I came to Oxfordthat it would help if one were abit of a romantic, and I supposethat was true of me in my firstyear. Mostly the architecture, Ithink, and a sense of possibilitybrought this about. For that rea-son, it could be said that thosehere on one year courses haveit best – there’s not enough timefor the long hard slog of post-graduate work to blow thescales from their eyes.

Despite living in ExeterHouse - a trying experience -that romantic feeling stayedwith me a while. The MCRseemed a much more formida-ble place back then; it was moreEnglish, there was greatersharpness and wit (though I wasnot aware of any Celts). It wasintimidating. Only towards theend of that first year were most

“It is suspected thatmuch more fun is

being had over in theJCR”

shrinks. The smart ones estab-lish a life outside the confinesof the MCR; those that do noteventually pay a price. Histo-rians are of course a specialcase, as we are forced to disap-

17

18

ALUMNIAthleticsExeter College Athletics Club celebrates its 150th Anniversary this year. In

commemoration of this an event was held on May 19th to coincide with the Varsity Match.Sir Roger Bannister was the guest of honour

Pictured clockwise from top left: Sir Roger andthe Rector; SJQ Robinson and guests; JT Stubbs

and GM Welch; JD Rhodes and friends

On Saturday, 20th May, 2000, wemarked the 150th Anniversary of theExeter College Athletics Club with a

champagne reception at the Athletics VarsityMatch at the Iffley Road sports ground. Sir RogerBannister was the guest of honour. Every gen-eration of Exeter athletics was represented. Fromthe most recent generation, Simon Hollingsworth,PPE finalist, Rhodes Scholar and double Olym-

pian ran in the 400m and 400mrelay. At the reception he ful-filled a lifetime ambition bymeeting Sir Roger and gettinghis autograph.

That evening a specialAchilles dinner was held at Trin-ity. One of our volunteers,

Roger Thorn (1958, Modern Languages), co-chaired (with the President of Trinity) the din-ner. A number of other Exonians were in attend-ance including Martin Starkie (1945), JerryRhodes (1950), John Powell (1954), Ian Potts(1962), and David Jeacock (1964). Roger gave amarvellous speech capturing the spirit of athlet-ics at Exeter and at the university in his era.

19

& MusicThe second Old Members’

Rector’s Musical Eveningwas held this year in both the

Chapel and the Lodgings – a sceneonly vaguely reminiscent of a rockfestival with two stages, one venueperfect for exquisite musicianship(the Chapel), the other better for lessformal performances with a drink inhand (the Lodgings). But there theresemblance ends.

As in the previous MusicalEvening, the programme was a min-gling of Old Members’ and currentstudents’ performances and a greatvariety was heard. At the highbrowend of the programme we were luckyenough to have Peter Walls (Music,1971), visiting from New Zealandwhere he is a Music Professor, withhis baroque violin. His accompanistfor the evening, and a soloist in hisown right, was Julian Larkin, (Mu-sic, 1965) now a professional harp-sichordist. You would never haveguessed they had only just met, astheir innate musicianship shonethrough and provided the listenerswith a sparkling performance ofPandolfi Mealli’s “Sonata: LaBernabea”.

One visitor for the eveningwho deserves special praise wasAlison Wilson (1979, Mathematics)

who was brave enough to carryalong her concert harp and then be-gin the mammoth task of tuning it!Looking towards the altar, with thegrand piano on one side, harpsichordon the other and harp in the centre, itfelt like entering a visual as well asmusical feast.

Music in Chapel was not letdown by performances from currentstudents either, with songs by Handeland Dvorak and jazz on clarinet andpiano (Nick Mumby 1999, Lit.Hum., pictured above). I mustered aquartet, myself, Katie Steel (1993,English), Giles Hutchinson (1991,Lit Hum) and Giles Lewin (I mustown up to breaking my own rulesand bringing along a Tab to sing withus - shame on me) to add to the vari-ety. First a medieval madrigal, thena Scottish folksong, and finishingwith a Thomas Hardy-esque psalmsetting from the West gallery musictradition of the 18th Century.

Not to be outdone, yet morevariety was provided by the irre-pressible Ben Merrick (1993, Frenchand Latin), once the audience andperformers had wine glasses safelyin hand in the Lodgings. He beganwith Flanders and Swann’s “I’m aGnu”, closely followed by a Victo-ria Wood number and ending withTom Lehrer’s “Periodic Table”.

Once again the tone wasraised by a duo of Old Members,John Alpass (pictured below withMichael just visible in the back-ground) and Michael Preston (both1964, Lit Hum). They had requestedthe comedy slot in the Lodgings,thinking that their piano duet ofBeethoven’s Seventh Symphonymight go awry, as their 1965 per-formance of it in the same place had

done. They needn’t have worried, asthey performed without a slip. Theyears must have matured their mu-sical instincts more than they had an-ticipated.

My personal favourite of theevening however featured the cur-rent College Organ Scholar, Rich-ard Hills (1999, Music). He was of-fered, Cilla Black style, a selectionof envelopes containing musicalthemes. He chose Abba’s “Lay allyour love on me” (the musicalequivalent of a weekend in Black-pool on Blind Date). He managed toturn it into a set of variations draw-ing on influences from Bach rightthrough to ‘70s Disco.

The evening was rounded offwith a buffet in Hall, with everyoneretiring safe in the knowledge thatmusic in College is in safe, if eso-teric, hands.

The Music Society would like to de-velop contacts with old members.For details, and news of forthcom-ing concerts, please contact: Rich-ard Hills or Nicholas Mumby, Ex-eter College, Oxford, OX1 3DPNicholas.Mumby@exeter.ox.ac.uk

Former development officer Marguerite Harrington (1993, English) organised the Rector’smusical evening on 5 February. She assesses the state of play amongst those with rhythm

20

Times PastA REVIEW

IN PICTURES

One of our old members, David Serpell (1931, ModernHistory), collects old postcards. For many years he has been

sending the fruit of his labour in antiquarian bookshops to theFellow Librarian and the sub-Librarian (the recently retired

Lorise Topliffe).

The post cardat the bottomof the page

refers to a visit in1942 by a very eld-erly David Lloyd-

The old Gatehouse on Broad Street in1809

George to the Oxford University LiberalClub. It appears that he gave exactly thesame speech at a previous meeting in theother place. The correspondent notes thathe mistakenly expressed his gratitude to theCambridge University Liberal Club ratherthan to its Oxford counterpart.

21

he Oxford University Presshas recently published, on theCollege’s behalf, A Cata-logue of the Medieval Manu-scripts of Exeter College,

Oxford. The catalogue has been prepared by Pro-fessor Andrew Watson, one of the world’s leadingmanuscript specialists, and is a handsome volume,150 pages in length and with five colour plates andfour black- and-white plates. It is prefaced by ahistory of the College’s manuscript collection andcontains full descriptions of the collection’s twomost famous items, the Bohun Psalter, formerly inthe possession of the Tudor family, and Petrarch’scopy of Suetonius’s Twelve Caesars, as well as theseventy or so other medieval manuscripts housedin the College vaults. The catalogue is priced at£60 but old members may obtain copies at the spe-cial price of £40 (+£2.50 p&p) by application tothe Fellow-Librarian, Dr John Maddicott. (Chequespayable to the Bursar, Exeter College)

Professor Watson has kindly offered to give a lec-ture on the medieval manuscripts to a small groupof old members. This may be offered as the inau-gural meeting of a new society of Exonians wish-ing to leave a legacy to the College.

SPECIAL OFFERS...

...two most famousitems, the Bohun Psalter,formerly in the posses-sion of the Tudor Fam-ily, and Petrarch’s copyof Suetonius’s TwelveCaesars

The Medieval Manuscripts ofExeter College

22

23

Social etc. Exeter College

Clothing

Left: Milling around in Front QuadRight: Richard Hills, Organ ScholarOverleaf: An Economics class in the

Morris Room

Top: Christopher Kirwan accepts a retirementgift

Middle: A dread momentBottom: From left Richard Fine, unknown

interloper, Kate Treleaven and Dr. Michael Hartat the Greats and PPE Schools Dinner

Official Exeter College clothing is available via mail orderfrom College Clothing Supplies. The College receives 25%of all profits from the sale of these items.

* All items carry a 100% money back guarantee* 24 hour information line 01222 279 129

QTYSweatshirt (Navy with embroidered College Crest) £16S (36) M (38) L (40) XL (42/44) XXL (46/48)

T-Shirt (White with printed College Crest) £9M (38) L (40) XL (42/44) XXL (46/48)

College Ties (100% silk) Striped £16 Crested (Keys) £19

P&P per item: UK: Sweatshirts £1.50; T’s £1; ties 50pEurope: Sweatshirts £2.50; T’s £1.50; ties £1World: Sweatshirts £4; T’s £2; ties £1.50

Total: £_____

Name:__________________________________________

Address:________________________________________

_______________________________________________

Postcode: Daytime Telephone:Payment: Please circle your size and indicate quantity. Send completedorder form and payment to College Clothing, 12 Harrismith Road, CardiffCF23 5DG. Please make cheques payable to COLLEGE CLOTHING SUPPLIES.VISA/MASTERCARD (please delete as appropriate):Card number: Expiry date:Signature: Date:

24

Donation form..

want The Rector and Scholars of Exeter College in the University of Oxford (commonly known as

Exeter College) to treat

* all donations I make from the date of this declaration until further notice

as Gift Aid donations.

Date ......../......../........ *delete as appropriate

To the Manager,

Account Number Branch Number

Please pay from the above account to: Barclays Bank plc, Oxford Corporate Centre, PO Box 858,

Oxford (sort code 20 65 18), account number 90375799

until a total of payments have been made, commencing on

Signed Date

the monthly/quarterly/annual sum of £ for a period of years,

Name (in CAPITALS)

Address

BANKER’S ORDER

Name and fulladdress of your

Bank inCAPITALS

Delete as appropriate

Total number ofpayments !

Signature of accountholder !

!

!

Please return this form to The Development Office,Exeter College, FREEPOST SCE5094, Oxford

OX1 3YZ. You may send a photocopy of this formif you wish. The form is also available on the

alumni section of the website atwww.exeter.ox.ac.uk. North American donorsshould not use this form. A North American

donation form is available on the website or byapplication to the Development Office.

Please complete Banker’sOrder OR Cheque Declaration

CHEQUE DECLARATION

I enclose a cheque (payable to The Bursar, Exeter College), for £

I,

of

Full name in CAPITALS!

Address in CAPITALS!

GIFT AID DECLARATIONPlease complete Gift AidDeclaration.

Please complete this GiftAid form if you are a UKtaxpayer. This enables theCollege to reclaim tax onyour donation

25

THE BOAT CLUBBlades for the Second Eight, the Women’s Boat went up a division, the First Eight rowed over, aSummer party and a very pleasant ECBCA Summer Eights dinner. More on this last from Jackson

Collins (1988, PPE)

On the Saturday ofEights (3rd June forthose of us now liv-

ing away from the hurly-burly of the Oxford socialcalendar), the Exeter Col-lege Boat Club AssociationDinner was held in Hall.The dinner marked twomemorable events in thehistory of the Boat Club.The Men’s First VIII which

has risen continually forover a decade from the 3rd

Division to being 3rd on theRiver, was now within strik-ing distance of the Head-ship. Although this ultimateprize was not to be (thisyear), the crew rowed over3rd on the river – a feat notachieved in living memory,and testimony to the contin-ued high standard at whichthe Boat Club now races.The dinner also marked theretirement of J.R.R Tolkein,which had been the men’sfirst boat between 1992 and1998. Tolkein’s record hasbeen exceptional and per-

haps unprec-edented for anyCollege first boat:she began at 27thplace in bothTorpids and Eightsin 1992, and retiredas the College’sfirst boat at 7thplace in both com-petitions in 1998.In her long career, Tolkein was never bumped, and she bumpedin 40 of her 51 races. She accumulated 5 sets of blades andappeared at Henley five times.

The evening was judged by all to be a great success, andwas a vibrant testimony to the level of interest in rowing atExeter. Every decade was represented from the 1930s onwards.It was interesting to see how the style and colour of Boat Clubblazers has changed over the years, and how somehow the tai-lors seemed to cut the cloth a little more tightly in years goneby. In all, nearly 100 members of the current Boat Club, par-ents, ‘Old Boaties’, and their friends attended the dinner. Many

Tolkein’s record hasbeen exceptional

25

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26

thanks must go to the kitchen, who were able to deal with more than one last minute plea: ‘Canyou fit another two people in ?’ - Plus ça change.

One other fact that has also changed over the years is the financial burden placed on today’srowers. The current men’s First VIII has been paying over£350 per year per rower, and the women over £250. Thesefigures include coaching, training, and racing costs, but donot include individual training (university gym membership),training kit, nor of course Boat Club Dinners. The cost wouldbe even higher were it not for the generous sponsorship fromKenan Systems, theSoftware ProductsGroup of Lucent

Technologies / Bell Labs Innovations. Also, over thelast year, there has been increasing support from OldMembers, and with this support it is the Boat Club Asso-ciation’s express aim to reduce the termly rowing fees,whilst increasing the amount of professional coaching.

Those at the Dinner were, as usual, quick to con-tribute to the Boat Club. Auctions were held for a bladeespecially illuminated to commemorate Tolkein’s retire-ment. Here, thanks must go to Bill Bentley and JohnRoper not just for their generous bids, but also their very kind act of returning the blade to theBoat Club. Thanks also to everyone else who has contributed to the Boat Club; our only regret isthat such donations are becoming more of a necessity than a benefit.The next Association event will be held in London close to Christmas. As with all ECBC

Association events all those with aninterest in rowing at Exeter areinvited. Details of this and nextyear’s Summer Eights Dinner willbe sent out at a later date. In themeantime, keep up to date on Col-lege rowing by visiting our website:

http://www.exeter.ox.ac.uk/ecbc

27

CAREERSThank you to the Old Members who have offered to give careersadvice to current students. At the moment we are registering inter-est and considering the best way of utilizing this fantastic resource.Fellows are generally happy to write references for former pupils.Please be aware, however, that other demands on Fellows’ timemay entail delays; especially at the beginning and at the end ofeach term. Your former tutor can be contacted by letter or by emailusing the address Firstname.Lastname@exeter.ox.ac.uk.

CHAPELIf you are planning to dine on a Sunday you are welcome to attendSunday evensong in the Chapel. Please be seated by 6 pm.

CONTACTING OLD MEMBERSPart of the purpose of the Development Office is to revive contactsbetween old College friends. We will happily forward letters and,if permission has been granted, pass on contact details. If you arerelocating we can inform you about Exonians living in your area.We would like to re-establish contact with a number of old mem-bers; please take a look at the list of these on the website and let usknow if you can help. If you wish your email details to appear ona password protected area of the website planned for this year pleaseemail [OM Details] <development@exeter.ox.ac.uk>. The sub-ject line should read - Please publish contact details. Do not writeany message. Your email will be used for data entry purposes only.

DATABASEThe College maintains a database of old members in accordancewith the provisions of the Data Protection Act. If you wish toupdate your record please email or write to the Development Of-fice; it would be of considerable benefit to us if you could provideyour email address.

EXON AND THE REGISTERSubmissions for either of these publications are most welcome. Ide-ally they should be sent as email attachments (in RTF or Wordformat); but we do accept printed copy.

GIFTS AND LEGACIESMore information on the various and tax-efficient opportunitiesfor giving to Exeter College is available on the website or by writ-ing to the Development Office. If you wish to make a large dona-tion or a gift in kind then please write to the Rector. Gifts in kindor gifts such as paintings and antiques can present unforeseen com-plications in relation to administration, storage, insurance arrange-ments etc. The Development Officer would be happy to discussthese matters.

GUEST ROOMSExeter is not over-supplied with guest rooms. In order to avoiddisappointment please book early by sending a letter or an emailto: David.Whitaker@exeter.ox.ac.uk. A list of local hotels is avail-able upon request.

HIGH TABLEOld Members of the College who at least three years previouslyhave passed all the examinations for any degree of the Universityare entitled to dine at High Table once a term free of charge (winesmust be paid for, however). Guest nights are Wednesdays (loungesuit) and Sundays (black tie). If you would like to dine with us,please email or write to the Development Office.

LECTURESAs well as beinglifelong membersof College, allOld Membersalso continue tobe members ofOxford Univer-sity. As such,they are all enti-tled and welcometo attend lecturesin Oxford. Thereis a massiverange of lecturesoffered, manygiven by world-renowned figures. The best place to findout details of lectures is in the University Gazette. The easi-est way to get hold of this is on the internet (http://info.ox.ac.uk/gazette). If you do not have internet access,please make enquiries about subscribing to Ms M.Clements, Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street,Oxford OX2 6DP.

LIBRARYOld Members are welcome to read in the Library; pleasephone the Sub-Librarian (01865 279600) to arrange to belet in. Degree holders are entitled to apply for a Bodleianreader’s card at nominal rates. Applications should be madeto the Admissions Office, Bodleian Library, Broad Street,Oxford OX1 3BG.

LIFETIME EMAIL ADDRESSESThe university is exploring the possibility of allocating life-time emails to all current and former members. If this doesnot go ahead then Exeter College may provide this service.

RECEPTIONSIf you are willing to host an Old Member event do let usknow.

VISITINGOld Members and their guests are welcome to visit theCollege - please identify yourself as such to the Porter. Ifthe Porters are not too busy, they will be happy to let youin to see the renovations that have taken place in the Hall.You are welcome to pop in for a cup of tea at the Develop-ment Office.

VOLUNTEERSThe College is extremely grateful for the commitment andgenerosity of the volunteer network. If you are interestedin learning more about the volunteer programme pleaseemail or write to Dr Snicker at the Development Office.

WEBSITEAs you might have gathered, the College has a website.The Development Office is particularly keen on using thismedium for communication with Old Members. Feedbackon this new facility would be much appreciated. Thewebsite, which has been wholly redesigned and has anumber of new features, can be found at http://www.exeter.ox.ac.uk.

EXINFO Development Office

Exeter CollegeOxford, OX1 3DP

Tel: 01865 279619Fax: 01865 279630

Email: [Subject matter]<development@exeter.ox.ac.uk>

27

28

GAUDIES

FOR MATRICULATION YEARS

1978-1980 INCLUSIVE

Saturday 30th September, 2000

FOR MATRICULATION YEARS

1955-1959 INCLUSIVE

Saturday 6th January, 2001

CHRISTOPHER KIRWAN RETIREMENT

DINNER

Saturday 14th October, 2000All former pupils invited. Tickets

£45

FOOTBALL

OLD MEMBERS V STUDENTS

Saturday 25th November, 2000If you matriculated before 1988 andwould like to play, please drop us aline. All younger ex-footballers will

be mailed separately.

CHRISTMAS CAROL SERVICE

Friday 1st December, 2000Chapel 5.30 pm

THE RECTOR’S MUSICAL EVENING

Saturday 3rd February, 20016pm - 9pm

Tickets £10 (£5 concessions), includ-ing buffet supper. Informal perform-ances by current and Old Members of

College. Performers, families andguests welcome

GARDEN PARTY AND ECBCA DINNER

Saturday 3rd June, 2001

Exeter College

Old Member Events

DINNERS

New York, Thursday 7th September,2000

Rain, Upper West Side.A chance to meet the Steamer Capital

Scholar, Ben Moxham

Response rates have varied from re-gion to region. In order to maintain

regular interest, most dinners are heldevery two years.

Some dates are provisional. Please register yourinterest by emailing Events

<development.exeter.ox.ac.uk> or writing to us atthe address on page 27. Further information will

be sent out with The Register. All cheques are

payable to The Bursar, Exeter College.

All dinners 7.30 for 8pm

A number of Exeter choir membersfeature in the final episode of Morse