London 2012 inspires Winchester - University of Winchester

Alumni News VENTA / Issue 26 / Summer 2012
Martial Rose turns 90
To today’s Winchester staff and
students Martial Rose is chiefly
commemorated on campus in the
University library building which
bears his name and in which his
portrait hangs.
Many alumni and others with long memories,
however, will bring to mind the dynamic,
creative, forceful, determined leader of the
then King Alfred’s College at a critical juncture
in its history. Appointed as Vice Principal
in 1965, Martial Rose became head of the
college within two years. In post thereafter for
almost two decades he retired in 1984. During
that period he presided at King Alfred’s over
a major period of growth in student numbers
– only around 700 when he first took office
– and the opening of many new facilities,
among them the Tom Atkinson and Stripe
buildings and the first two-storeyed phase of
the present library.
Most fundamentally, Martial Rose fought
successfully to preserve the institution at a
time of major changes in government policy
and institutional upheaval in higher education
and to give it a significantly different future
under the umbrella of the CNAA, the new
validating body in the 1970s for degree
courses in the non-university sector. From
being a college wholly bound up with teacher
training, King Alfred’s reinvented itself to
become a highly successful diversified liberal
arts college of higher education with BA as
What’s on
Sixty Years of the University of Winchester
and its Community Exhibition
31 May – 27 June 2012
16
Martial Rose
well as BEd degree courses – the beginnings
of a broad and firm enough foundation which
allowed movement in due course towards
university status in its own right. By contrast,
nearby teacher-training establishments in
Southampton and Salisbury which failed
to meet the new stern challenges simply
foundered and were taken over or closed down.
Today’s still relatively small but vibrant,
innovative, outward-looking and well respected
Winchester Writers’ Conference, Festival
and Bookfair
22 – 24 June 2012
Everybody Wins Series: Balfour Beatty – A
Collective Responsibility
27 June 2012
Winton Club Reunion
29 June to 1 July 2012
Undergraduate Open Days
6, 13, 20 October
Graduation at Winchester Cathedral
7, 8, 9 November 2012
Diamond Jubilee Concert at Winchester
Cathedral
17 November
University of Winchester owes Martial Rose
an enormous debt of gratitude. It is no
exaggeration to say that he, above all, helped
the college not merely to survive but to
change, expand and flourish.
A specialist in Drama, Martial Rose published
as long ago as 1961 the standard edition of
the medieval cycle of Wakefield Mystery Plays.
Much more recently (in 2003) he brought out a
biography of the actress Dame Gwen Frangcon
Davies, contemporary of Sir John Gielgud.
In retirement in Norfolk he has busied himself
with a steady stream of beautifully illustrated
publications on the distinctive architectural
features of Norwich cathedral, the latest of
them appearing as recently as 2006.
Old Wintonians, however, will best remember
him as the author of A History of King Alfred’s
College, Winchester 1840-1980 (1981) and of
a separately published later postscript which
brought the story up to 1990. Arguably the
pivotal figure himself in the making of the
modern institution, he was also concerned to
set the record straight about its past.
Martial Rose will be 90 in early August and
remains very active on all fronts and still keenly
interested in the progress of this University. We
salute him.
Roger Richardson,
Emeritus Professor of History
In memory of…
We have recently been notified of the death of
the following alumni and former staff. We send
our condolences to their families.
1932 to 1934 Mr Charles E Smith
1932 to 1934 Mr F Williman
1933 to 1935 Mr George Stiles
1935 to 1937 Mr Frederick A Steed
1939 to 1941 Mr Gordon M Chivers
1945 to 1947 Mr P Staniforth
1947 to 1949 Mr Ronald W Quibell
1950 to 1952 Mr R Winter
1951 to 1953 Mr M Denwood
1952 to 1954 Mr V Crouch
1953 to 1955 Mr Frank Salter
1954 to 1955 Mr Bernard Smith
1962 to 1965 Mr Peter Vear
1967 to 1970 Mr R Cassow
1968 to 1983 Mr Ian Crowe
1991 to 1995 Miss Victoria Sutton BEd
History
2005 to 2011 Mr N Maude Christian
Theology and Ministry
Mrs Sheila Silkstone
(Former Staff)