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Memories of 1979
On the 30th anniversary of women joining Exeter, Old Members look back to when those first intrepid few arrived.
The Class of 1979
his year sees the 30th anniversary of the
T first admission of women to Exeter, and to
mark the occasion, we asked Old Members –
women and men – to send in their recollections
of that first year. Thank you to everyone who
responded, and we hope you enjoy the selection
published below.
“Matriculation Dinner seems, at least in memory,
to have been heavy with historical significance,
felt even by us 18- and 19-year-olds. The Hall in
its lamp-lit shadow shrouded splendour, we in
our sub-fusc, portraits of Rectors past around and
above, and Christine A’Court stepping forward to
sign the Register – the first of the Class of ’79 and
the first woman undergraduate ever.
The climatic break can be dated precisely to
early December and the annual ‘Turl Street Riot’.
Amidst the chaos in the centre of the front quad,
Jenny Smith poured out a torrent of outraged
scorn at the ranks of men behaving extremely
badly. It was the last ever Turl Street Riot.”
Michael Coleman (1979, Geology)
“I remember being sad that my surname wasn’t
A’Court, so that as we were called alphabetically,
I could be the first girl in nearly 700 years to sign
the Register. And if Exeter was a bit bloke-ish at
times, with sconcing and rugby pox and Turl
Street Riots, it had its courtly and dashing side
too, embodied in my tutor Malcolm Godden and
Rector Greig Barr. I loved Exeter’s decidedly
masculine traits. I loved the fact it welcomed
me in. I love it still.”
Jenny Bond (née Herbert) (1979, English)
“Returning to college (as a former student) in
1979, I called on Paul Snowdon, who had
taught me moral philosophy, and asked about
the practicalities of having women in college.
‘I had hoped’, Paul started to explain, ‘that the
women would raise the standard; alas, the boys
seem to have brought them down to their
level!’ Looking back over the years, it seems to
me that the women have raised academic
standards at the College and made it a much
more pleasant environment. My only regret is
that the decision to admit them was not
made earlier.”
Chisanga Puta-Chekwe (1977, PPE)
“I loved Exeter’s decidedly
masculine traits. I loved the fact
it welcomed me in.”
“I remember the Rector (Greig Barr) saying of his
experience before women arrived: ‘I used to look
out of my window on a Sunday morning and I
couldn’t believe we hadn’t gone mixed already!’”
Roger Fink (1977, Jurisprudence)
“Clearing mud from the bath on staircase 9.
‘You’re a girl, you must have an iron.’ A breakfast
greeting from Guiseppi, ‘Toasta, Signorita’
Grouped into staircase enclaves. There were no
apparent changes to accommodate women,
and I don’t think we expected anything. I suspect
our unarticulated aim was to be accepted as one
of the boys – one of the family.”
Judith Pain (1979, Jurisprudence)
50 EXON Autumn 2009 www.exeter.ox.ac.uk/alumni