Somerville College Report 09|10 - University of Oxford

Somerville 

College Report 

09|10


College Report 

09|10

Contents 

Visitor, Principal, 

Fellows, Lecturers, 

Staff 3 

The Year in Review 

Principal’s Report 10 

Fellows’ Activities 14 

J.C.R. Report 24 

M.C.R. Report 26 

Library Report 28 

College News 

Development News: 35 

Members’ Notes 

President’s Report 40 

Somerville Association Fund 43 

Life Before Somerville 45 

1965 Year Report 48 

Members’ News and 56 

Publications 

Marriages 75 

Births 76 

Deaths 77 

Obituaries 79 

Academic Report 

Examination Results, 105 

2009-10 

Students Entering College 105 

2009 

Prizes 106 

Somerville Association 107 

Officers and Committee 

Somerville Development 110 

Board Members 

Notices 

Legacies Update 114 

Literary Luncheon, 118 

Saturday 13 November 2010 

Events : Dates for the Diary 120 

This Report is edited by Pauline Adams and Liz Cooke 

(Tel. 01865 270632; email elizabeth.cooke@some.ox.ac.uk)

Visitor, Principal, Fellows, Lecturers, Staff | 3 

Visitor, 

Principal, 

Fellows, 

Lecturers, 

Staff 

Visitor 

The Rt Hon Christopher Patten 

CH, Chancellor of the University 

Principal 

Dame Fiona Caldicott, DBE, BM, 

BCh, MA, MD (Hon), DSc (Hon), 

FRCPsych, FRCP, FRCPI, FRCGP, 

FMedSci 

Vice-Principal 

Joanna Mary Innes, MA, (MA 

Camb), Winifred Holtby Fellow, Tutor 

in Modern History 

Fellows (in order 

of seniority) 

Lesley Brown, BPhil, MA, Centenary 

Fellow, Tutor in Philosophy 

Marian Ellina Stamp Dawkins, 

MA, DPhil, Professor of Animal 

Behaviour, Tutor in Biological Sciences 

Karin Erdmann, MA, (Dr rer nat 

Giessen), Tutor in Pure Mathematics 

Almut Maria Vera Suerbaum, MA, 

(Dr Phil, Staatsexamen, Münster), 

Tutor in German 

Fiona Jane Stafford, MA, MPhil, 

DPhil, (BA Leicester), FRSE, Professor 

of English, Tutor in English 

Sarah Jane Gurr, MA, (BSc, ARCS, 

PhD Lond, DIC), Daphne Osborne 

Fellow, Professor of Plant Sciences, 

Tutor in Biological Sciences 

Richard Stone, MA, DPhil, 

FIMechE, CEng, Professor of 

Engineering Science, Tutor in 

Engineering Science 

Lois McNay, MA, (PhD Camb), 

Professor of the Theory of Politics, Tutor 

in Politics 

Roman Walczak, MA, (MSc 

Warsaw, Dr rer nat Heidelberg), 

Reader in Particle Physics; Tutor in 

Physics 

Benjamin J Thompson, MA, (MA, 

PhD Camb), FRHistS, Tutor in 

Medieval History 

Charles Spence, MA, (PhD Camb), 

Professor of Experimental Psychology, 

Tutor in Experimental Psychology 

Jennifer Welsh, MA, DPhil, 

(BA Saskatchewan), Professor of 

International Relations, Tutor in 

International Relations; Dean (from 

Hilary 2010) 

Matthew John Andrew Wood, MA, 

DPhil, (MB, ChB Cape Town), Tutor 

in Medicine, Keeper of the College 

Pictures 

Stephen Roberts, MA, DPhil, 

Professor of Engineering Science; Dean 

(Michaelmas 2009) 

Helen Morton, MA, (MSc Boston, 

MA Camb), Treasurer 

Philip West, MA, (PhD Camb), 

Times Tutor in English 

Julie Dickson, MA, DPhil, (LLB 

Glasgow), Tutor in Law 

Jeremy Donald Whiteley, MA, 

(PhD Camb), University Director of 

Personnel and Administrative Services 

Benjamin Jervis Goold, MA, DPhil, 

Tutor in Law (Michaelmas 2009) 

Manuele Gragnolati, MA, (Laurea 

in lettere Classiche, Pavia, PhD 

Columbia, DEA Paris), Reader in 

Italian Literature; Tutor in Italian 

Annie Sutherland, MA, DPhil, (MA 

Camb), Rosemary Woolf Fellow, Tutor 

in Old and Middle English 

Daniel Anthony, MA, (PhD Lond), 

Tutor in Systems Pharmacology 

Michael Hayward, MA, DPhil, 

Tutor in Inorganic Chemistry 

Norma MacManaway, MA, (MA, 

MPhil Dublin, DEA Paris), Senior 

Tutor, Tutor for Admissions, Tutor for 

Graduates 

Beate Dignas, MA, DPhil, 

(Staatsexamen Münster), Barbara 

Craig Fellow, Tutor in Ancient History 

Natalia Nowakowska, MA, DPhil, 

University Lecturer in History, Tutor in 

Early Modern History

4 | Visitor, Principal, Fellows, Lecturers, Staff 

Jonathan Burton, MA, (PhD 

Camb), University Lecturer in Organic 

Chemistry, Tutor in Chemistry 

Mason Porter, MA, (BS Caltech, 

MS, PhD Cornell), Tutor in Applied 

Mathematics 

Nicolai Meinshausen, MA, MSc, 

(PhD Zurich), Tutor in Statistics 

Victoria Prowse, MA, DPhil, Tutor 

in Economics 

Steven Herbert Simon, MA, 

(PhD Harvard),Tutor in Theoretical 

Condensed Matter Physics 

Hilary Greaves, BA, (PhD Rutgers), 

Tutor in Philosophy 

Luke Pitcher, MA, MSt, DPhil, 

(PGCert Durham), Tutor in Classics 

Professorial 

Fellows 

Stephen Weatherill, MA, (MA 

Camb, MSc Edinburgh), Jacques 

Delors Professor of European Law 

Rajesh Thakker, MA, MD, 

FRCP, FRCPath, FMedSci, May 

Professor of Medicine 

Stephen Guy Pulman, MA, (MA, 

PhD Essex), FBA, Professor of 

Computational Linguistics 

Aditi Lahiri, (DPhil Brown, DPhil 

Calcutta), Professor of Linguistics 

Senior Research 

Fellows 

Stephanie Dalley, MA, (MA Camb, 

Hon PhD Lond), FSA (retired 

Trinity 2010) 

Katherine Duncan-Jones, MA, 

BLitt, FRSL 

Muhammed Kassim Javaid, 

BMedSci, MBBS, PhD Lond, MRCP 

Boris Motik, Dr rer pol Karlsruhe 

Tessa Rajak, MA, DPhil 

Owen Rees, MA, 

(PhD Camb), ARCO 

Nicholas Shea, BA, 

(MA, PhD Lond) 

Junior Research 

Fellows 

Duncan Astle, DPhil, Fulford Junior 

Research Fellow 

Dora Biro, BA, DPhil, 

Ernest Cook Junior Research Fellow 

Bhaskar Choubey, DPhil, 

(BTech Warangal), Fulford Junior 


Erik Darpo, (MSc, PhD Uppsala), 

Fulford Junior Research Fellow 

Catherine Draycott, MPhil, DPhil, 

Katherine and Leonard Woolley Junior 


Radek Erban, (PhD University 

of Minnesota), Fulford Junior 


Emma Gatland, (BA Durham, 

MPhil Camb), Randall MacIver 

Junior Research Fellow 

Guy Kahane, DPhil, (BA Tel Aviv), 


Christopher Lintott, DPhil, Fulford 


Christopher Martin (PhD Sheffield), 


Alastair Matthews, BA, Mary Ewart 


Emanuela Paoletti, DPhil, (BSc 

Wales, MSc LSE), Fulford Junior 


Erlick Pereira, BM, BCh, (MA 

Camb, MRCS Lond.), Fulford Junior 


Sreeram Ramagopalam, MA, 

DPhil, Fulford Junior Research Fellow 

Christiane Riedinger, DPhil, 


J. Alison Rosenblitt, BA, MSt, Mary 

Ewart Junior Research Fellow 

Pablo Rychter, (PhD Barcelona), 


David Sergeant, MA, DPhil, 

Mitchell Junior Research Fellow 

Helen Stolp, BSc University of 

Tasmania, PhD Melbourne, 


Joseph Tobias, (PhD Camb), 

Ernest Cook Junior Research Fellow 

Haifang Yin, PhD China 

Agricultural University, 

Fulford Junior Research Fellow


Post-Doctoral 

Fellow 

Francesca Emily Southerden- 

Rossi, MA, MSt, DPhil 

British Academy 

Post-Doctoral 

Fellows 

Louise Mycock, MA, (PhD 

Manchester) 

George Southcombe, DPhil 

Career 

Development 

Fellow 

Michael Ashdown, BCL, 

(BA Camb) Law 

Emeritus Fellows 

Margaret Adams, MA, DPhil 

Pauline Adams, MA, BLitt, Dipl 

Lib Lond 

Rachel Jean Banister, MA, 

(BSc Edinburgh) 

Anna Morpurgo Davies, DBE, MA, 

Dott Lett Lib Doc Rome, FBA 

Miriam Tamara Griffin, MA, DPhil 

Mary Jane Hands, MA 

Barbara Fitzgerald Harvey, 

CBE, Blitt, MA, FRHistS, FBA 

Judith Heyer, MA 

Julianne Mott Jack, MA 

Carole Jordan, DBE, MA, (PhD 

Lond), FRS 

Hilary Ockendon, MA, DPhil, 

(Hon DSc Southampton) 

Josephine Peach, BSc, MA, DPhil 

Evelyn Christina Mervyn Roaf, 

MA, DPhil 

Olive Lenore Sayce, MA, DLitt 

Frances Julia Stewart, MA, DPhil 

Adrianne Tooke, MA, (BA Lond, 

PhD Camb) 

Angela Vincent, MA, MB, BS, 

(MSc Lond), FMedSci 

Foundation 

Fellows 

Lady Elliott (Margaret Whale, 

1945), MBE, MA 

Sir Geoffrey Leigh 

Mr Gavin Ralston, MA 

Lord Wolfson, FBA 

(d. 20 May 2010) 

Honorary Fellows 

Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven, 

LG, OM, PC, FRS, BSc, MA 

Baroness Williams of Crosby, PC, 

MA 

Elizabeth Millicent Chilver (Mrs), 

MA 

Anne Marion Warburton, DCVO, 

CMG, MA 

Kathleen Mary Ollerenshaw, DBE, 

DL, MA, DPhil, FIMA, FCP 

Jacqueline David dite Worms 

de Romilly, FBA, Member of the 

Académie Française, Professor of 

the Collège de France, Chevalier de la 

Légion d’Honneur 

Kiri Jeanette Te Kanawa, 

DBE, Hon DMus 

Jean Ruth Fraser Wilks, CBE, MA, 

FCP, (Hon LLD Birmingham) 

Carolyn Emma Kirkby, DBE, OBE, 

MA, Hon DMus, FGSM 

Joyce Maire Reynolds, MA, (Hon 

DLitt Newcastle-upon-Tyne), FBA 

Philippa Ruth Foot, MA, FBA 

Hazel Mary Fox (Lady Fox), 

CMG, QC, MA 

Baroness Park of Monmouth, 

CMG, OBE, MA (d. 24 March 2010) 

Louise Napier Johnson, DBE, 

(PhD Lond, Hon DSc St Andrew’s), 

FRS, MA 

Averil Millicent Cameron, DBE, 

MA, (PhD Lond), FBA, FSA 

Baroness O’Neill of Bengarve, 

CBE, MA, (PhD Harvard), Hon DCL, 

FBA, Hon FRS 

Kay Elizabeth Davies, DBE, CBE, 

MA, DPhil 

Baroness Jay of Paddington, PC, BA 

Irangani Manel Abeysekera (Mrs), 

MA 

Paula Pimlott Brownlee, MA, 

DPhil

6 | Visitor, Principal, Fellows, Lecturers, Staff 

Julia Stretton Higgins, DBE, CBE, 

DPhil, Hon DSc, FRS, CChem, 

FRSC, CEng, FIM 

Catherine Eva Hughes (Mrs), 

CMG, MA 

Christine Frances Brooke-Rose, 

MA, (PhD Lond) 

Doreen Elizabeth Boyce, MA, 

(PhD Pittsburgh) 

Ruth Hilary Finnegan, OBE, MA, 

BLitt, DPhil, FBA 

Janet Margaret Bately, CBE, MA, 

FBA 

Margaret Constance Davies- 

Mitchell (Lady Mitchell), MA, 

Docteur de l’Université de Paris 

Margaret Kenyon (Mrs), MA 

Tamsyn Love Imison, DBE, BSc, 

FRSA 

Clara Elizabeth Mary Freeman 

(Mrs), OBE, MA 

Alyson Judith Kirtley Bailes, CMG, 

MA 

Nina Mary Bawden (Mrs Kark), 

CBE, MA, FRSL 

Jenny Glusker, MA, DPhil 

Ann Rosamund Oakley, MA 

Theresa Joyce Stewart (Mrs), MA 

Lucy Jeanne Neville Rolfe (Lady 

Packer), MA 

Judith Ann Kathleen Howard, 

CBE, (BSc Bristol), DPhil, FRS 

Victoria Glendinning, CBE, MA 

Jennifer Jenkins, DBE, Hon FRIBA, 

Hon FRICS, Hon MRTPI, MA 

Nicola Ralston (Mrs), BA 

Antonia Byatt, DBE, CBE, FRSL, BA 

Anna Laura Momigliano Lepschy, 

MA, BLitt 

Rosalind Mary Marsden, DCMG, 

MA, DPhil 

Sarah Broadie, MA, BPhil, (PhD 

Edinburgh), FBA 

Harriet Maunsell, OBE, MA 

Mary Midgley, MA 

Hilary Spurling, CBE, BA 

Catherine Jane Royle de 

Camprubi, MA 

Nancy Rothwell, DBE, BSc, DS, 

PhD, FMedSci, FRS 

Baroness Shriti Vadera, BA 

Elizabeth Mary Keegan, DBE, MA 

Carole Hillenbrand, OBE, MA, 

PhD, FBA, FRSE, FRAS, FRHistS 

Angela Mclean, BA, MA Berkeley, 

PhD Lond, FRS 

Michele Moody-Adams, BA, BA 

Wellesley, PhD Harvard 

Judith Parker, DBE, QC, MA 

Esther Rantzen, CBE, MA 

Ruth Thompson, MA, DPhil, DPhil 

Buenos Aires 

Stipendiary 

Lecturers and 

Directors of 

Studies 

Richard Ashdowne, MA, DPhil 

Linguistics 

Xon De Ros, DPhil, (Fellow of 

L.M.H.) 

Spanish 

Mark Jonathan Ebden, DPhil, 

(BASc Toronto) Engineering 

Christian Hill, (PhD Camb) 

Chemistry 

Sara James, BA, (PhD Birmingham) 

French 

Peter Judge, MBiochem, DPhil 

Biochemistry 

Philip Kreager, DPhil 

Demography 

Catherine Mary MacRobert, MA, 

DPhil, (Fellow of L.M.H.) Russian 

Quentin Miller, DPhil, (BMath 

Waterloo) Computer Science 

Martin Noble, (PhD Heidelberg) 

Biochemistry 

Marie Isabel Schlinzig, MSt 

German 

David Sergeant, MA, DPhil 

English 

Graeme Smith, MPhys, DPhil 

Physics 

Martin Suckling, (MA Camb, 

MMus London, NMA Yale) 

Music


Library 

Anne Manuel, LLB (Reading), MA, 

MSc, PhD (Bristol), ACA, Librarian 

and Archivist 

Susan Elizabeth Purver, MA, 

DipLib, Assistant Librarian 

Janet Louth, (MA Camb), 

Library Assistant 

Domestic Bursar 

Carol Reynolds, (MA Oxford 

Brookes University; FCIPD) 

Elected to fellowship June 2010 

Chapel Officers 

Brian McMahon, BA, MSt., 

Chapel Director 

David Crown, (MA Camb), 

Director of Chapel Music 


Association 

Secretary 

Elizabeth Cooke, MA 

Head of 

Development 

Julie Hage, (BA, MA Roskilde, 

DEA Ecole des Hautes Etudes en 

Sciences Sociales, Paris) 

Academic 

Administrator 

Joanne Ockwell, (BA, MA, 

University of Gloucestershire) 

IT Systems 

Manager 

Christopher Bamber, 

(BTEC, BSc Leeds)

The Year in Review

10 | Principal’s Report 

Principal’s Report 

The academic year 2009-10 has had many of the characteristics of each of the years 

about which I have written a report since my first one for 1996-7, but marred by 

much sadness in March with the passing of my distinguished predecessor, Daphne 

Park. It was fitting that we were able to arrange her funeral service to take place in 

the college chapel, and her Memorial Service in Oxford in the University Church in 

May. Both were attended by very large congregations. She will be much missed by 

all who knew her, and her guiding wisdom has certainly contributed to the place 

that Somerville is today. 

Key appointments of academics and Heads of Department led to new colleagues 

coming to Somerville in Michaelmas Term 2009: Dr Hilary Greaves, Tutorial Fellow 

in Philosophy, and Dr Luke Pitcher, Tutorial Fellow in Classics, with Dr Anne 

Manuel who succeeded Pauline Adams as Librarian and Ms Julie Hage as Head of 

Development. They are already making a major contribution to the college’s work. 

An unusually large number of appointments have now been completed for 2010- 

11. Dr Matthew Higgins will succeed Dr James McDonnell as Tutorial Fellow in 

Biochemistry; Dr Alex Rogers has been appointed as Tutorial Fellow in Conservation 

Biology, and will succeed Professor Marian Dawkins when she retires in 2012. Two 

three-year Domus Fellows have been appointed: Dr Michael Ashdown as Tutor in 

Law following Dr Ben Goold’s departure in January 2010 to take up an Associate 

Professorship at the University of British Columbia, and Dr Simon Kemp, who will 

assume responsibility as Tutor in French. 

As can be seen from the individual accounts which follow, our academics continue 

to advance their research. To give four examples from many, Professor Aditi Lahiri, 

Linguistics, became a Fellow of the British Academy this month and Professor Raj 

Thakker, May Clinical Professor of Medicine, became the first non-US citizen to 

receive the Louis V Avioli Founder’s Award from the American Society for Bone 

and Mineral Research. Dr Almut Suerbaum held a visiting professorship at the 

University of Freiberg in Trinity Term, and Dr Matthew Wood received more than

Principal’s Report | 11 

Robert and Fiona Caldicott 

£3 million from the Wellcome Trust to research muscular dystrophy. 

Governing Body was delighted to elect six Somervillians to Honorary Fellowships 

this year, for distinction in their respective fields: Dr Carole Hillenbrand OBE, FBA, 

in Islamic History; Professor Angela McLean FRS, in Biology; Professor Michelle 

Moody-Adams as Dean of Columbia College, US; Dame Judith Parker QC, in Law; 

Miss Esther Rantzen CBE, for her charitable works and role in public life; and Dr Ruth 

Thompson for her services to Higher Education. I was also pleased to write recently to 

congratulate one of our existing Honorary Fellows, Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, 

on her election as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester. 

As last year, we have tried to increase support for early-career academics doing 

research in the university by giving them a college association. This usually takes 

the form of a much prized Junior Research Fellowship for two to three years, giving 

a well deserved fillip to their curriculum vitae. The reports that they write annually 

for Governing Body about their research demonstrate the value of such attachments

12 | Principal’s Report 

to the individual, and they certainly contribute in a lively and stimulating way to the 

Senior Common Room. Many progress to academic appointments. Destinations this 

year include Cambridge (Mediaeval Spanish), King’s College, London (Psychology) 

and Wellesley College in the US (Italian). There will be twenty Junior Research 

Fellows at Somerville next year. 

The number of women and men studying at Somerville, totalling almost 500, 

continues to be balanced in both Common Rooms, which I think contributes 

to the warm and friendly atmosphere that they generate. As the reports from 

the Presidents of the MCR and the JCR show, junior members have also engaged in 

many activities in the last year, and they organised a very successful May Ball with 

Jesus College at Somerville (with much assistance from the Domestic Bursar). 

The work on our new student buildings on the former Radcliffe Infirmary site 

has proceeded steadily since I last wrote. Progress is described on the college’s 

website and we look forward to the buildings appearing above ground level 

when the infrastructure, going in as I write, is completed. The purpose of the new 

accommodation is to provide our students with the opportunity to live in college 

throughout their course. This is much cheaper than living in rented accommodation 

in the city, and avoids the not infrequent hazard of irresponsible landlords. (One 

rented house this year has been infested with rats throughout.) We do not plan to 

increase the number of undergraduates at Somerville (usually around 390), but are 

thinking about a small increase in the graduate numbers, as we have fewer than most 

colleges, and that is where the university would like to see a small expansion. 

Thanks to the generosity of more than 700 alumni and friends of the college, 

fundraising for the new buildings is going well, and £1.1 million towards our target 

of £2m has been contributed since we set that target last year. The project has clearly 

captured the imagination of many of you, not least with the recent Make Your Mark 

appeal, and there is much interest in helping the current generation of students to live 

as economically as possible, in college, while they study for their degree here. 

The telethon conducted in September raised £127,000, exceeding the target of 

£114,000, and the college’s Campaign to raise £25 million has passed its half-way 

mark. Members of the Development Board have made a huge contribution to this

Principal’s Report | 13 

success. Some have now stood down and become honorary members. I should like to 

give them my personal thanks and gratitude. 

I have been very touched by the donations that have come from a number of you 

for a Bursary in Medicine in my name. As the first member of my family to come to 

university, I have always wanted to facilitate the entry to my profession of individuals 

from every background. 

So it is with the warmest possible thanks that I conclude this final report as 

Somerville’s Principal. The generosity of alumni and friends of the college, as well as 

all the volunteers, throughout my time here, has been truly heart-warming, and the 

strength of feeling that so many of you have for your college has been inspiring. 

It is difficult to express how important holding this position has been to me. From 

seeing our students flourish, being trusted to support those who struggle for whatever 

reason while they are here, learning so much about the issues that confront a range of 

academic disciplines, getting to know so many of you and working with a wonderful 

team of colleagues, it has been simply extraordinary. 

Whatever the criticisms of the university of which the college is part, and some of 

those are justified, it is worthy of our support and care. Members of the colleges, as 

well as the university, must safeguard the traditions developed over nine centuries 

that continue to serve us well, preserve the values for which the institutions stand and 

ensure that adaptation to the requirements of the twenty-first century is appropriate and 

successful. I have every confidence that Somerville will continue to be a thriving part of 

the collegiate university and I wish Alice Prochaska, my successor, as much reward and 

pleasure as I have had as its Principal. 

FIONA CALDICOTT, JULY 2010

14 | Fellows’ Activities 

Fellows’ Activities 

Ancient History 

BEATE DIGNAS returned from maternity leave in Michaelmas Term. Together 

with Guy Stroumsa, the new Professor of Abrahamic Religions at Oxford, she has 

been in charge of the Oxford-Princeton exchange. They are welcoming a group of 

Princeton students in January and are preparing to take a group of Oxford graduate 

students in Classics, Byzantine History, Theology and Oriental Studies to Princeton 

in the following year. As part of the programme, BD is organising a seminar series 

on ‘Priests and Seers in the Religious Cultures of the Roman World’, a workshop for 

and run by a joint group of graduate students as well as an international colloquium 

on the same topic. In April, Somerville welcomed the Sibylle Haynes lecturer Dr. 

Jette Christiansen after her talk on ‘The Etruscans in their Mediterranean Setting’, 

and both the Faculty of Classics and the Somerville Classics tutors are hoping to 

establish the Somerville Lecturership in Etruscan Studies soon. In May 2010 BD 

gave an invited paper at the Ancient History research seminar, ‘The Attalids and the 

Pergamene Pantheon – Why Dionysus ?’, which she is currently preparing for publication. 

Biological Sciences 

The Somerville lunch table continues to lead to fruitful collaborations between 

fellows in different subjects. 

MARIAN DAWKINS is collaborating with Mason Porter (Fellow and Tutor in Applied 

Mathematics) on how cows synchronize their behaviour and with Stephen Roberts 

(Engineering) on monitoring the welfare of broiler chickens from the movement patterns 

of their flocks. In the last year, she has published seven scientific papers on different 

aspects of animal behaviour and helped to develop the education programme at the FAI 

Farm at Wytham (the ‘Outdoor Classroom’). 

SARAH GURR gave a plenary lecture on emerging fungal diseases and global food 

security at the International “Epidemics” Conference in Athens, convened by Honorary 

Fellow Angela McLean FRS, and is poised to give two papers and a speech (in her capacity 

as President of British Society for Plant Pathology) at an International Congress on

Fellows’ Activities | 15 

Fungi in Edinburgh in August. Sarah continues to serve on the BBSRC Research 

Committee B and to give talks in schools. 

Classics 

LUKE PITCHER published his first monograph: Writing Ancient History: An Introduction 

to Classical Historiography (IB Tauris, 2009). He delivered papers at two conferences, 

one on Appian in Sydney, and one on the reception of Lucan in the works of Joseph 

Addison at Nottingham. He also delivered the 2010 University Latin Sermon, taking the 

story of Mary and Martha as his theme, and gave three talks to schools on Latin prose. 

Economics 

During the last year VICTORIA PROWSE has worked on two projects. The first of 

these is directed at determining the effect of income taxation and social security 

benefits on working behaviour. The second is in the field of behavioural economics 

and seeks to use observations of individual behaviour obtained for a controlled 

laboratory environment to understand the foundations of preferences. The latter 

project is generously supported by the Zvi Meitar / Vice-Chancellor Oxford University 

Social Sciences Research Prize. 

Engineering 

RICHARD STONE continues his research in combustion and particulate matter, 

although a different sort of particulate matter extended his visit to the SAE Congress 

in Detroit from 3 nights to 12 nights. This provided an opportunity to work on the 4th 

edition of his engine book, which otherwise has been sidelined by other work. He has 

enjoyed collaboration with Dr Martin Davy (who has been on sabbatical this year from 

the University of British Columbia) – the project has been to make basic measurements 

of OH* and CH* chemiluminescence under carefully controlled conditions. 

STEPHEN ROBERTS has continued his research in the use of mathematical models 

for engineering and life science applications. His most recent work has focused on 

developing probabilistic models for social network analysis, with applications to 

finance, multi-sensor information engineering and animal behaviour. He continues 

close collaborations with industry and Oxford researchers in the life sciences.


English 

The Somerville English Day in March was a wonderful opportunity for the English 

tutors to meet former students, discuss research and hear about the different post- 

Somerville lives of some of those who read English here. 

FIONA STAFFORD’s main research project this year has been the completion of 

Local Attachments, a book on poetry and places, and the place of poetry in society, 

which will be published by Oxford University Press in September. She has 

participated in a symposium relating to Gayle Kwan’s contemporary art project on 

the forgotten places of Scotland in Glasgow, which is leading to an exhibition next 

year. She also gave a plenary lecture at the Wordsworth Summer conference in 

Grasmere and is continuing to work on Romantic poetry. In addition to research, 

she has acted as an external examiner in Cambridge and Glasgow. 

ANNIE SUTHERLAND has continued to work on the Psalms this year. Her 

particular focus has been the seven Penitential Psalms, on the subject of which she 

contributed a chapter to the Somerville Medievalists’ essay collection Aspects of 

the Performative in Medieval Culture (De Gruyter, 2010). She has also had an essay 

published in A Companion to the Doctrine of the Hert (University of Exeter Press, 

2009). In July, she gave a paper on Wycliffite Psalter manuscripts at the University 

of Edinburgh’s Centre for the History of the Book. Annie’s graduate teaching has 

centred on early medieval women’s spirituality, an area which is providing some 

productive links with her Psalm-based research. 

History 

During the past academic year, college history tutors published two books: 

in Inferior Politics: Social Problems and Social Policies in Eighteenth-Century Britain 

JOANNA INNES pulled together three decades of her work on eighteenth-century 

British social policy; 

GEORGE SOUTHCOMBE (our British Academy postdoctoral fellow) published a 

book co-authored with Grant Tapsell under the title Restoration Politics, Religion and 

Culture: Britain and Ireland, 1660-1714. In another co-authored piece (with Anna 

Bayman), George considered the representation of early modern gender relations 

in, among other things, Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew; he has also published


on late seventeenth-century nonconformist culture and on how to read early 

modern literature historically. 

BENJAMIN THOMPSON’s contribution appeared alongside those of other 

Somervillians in a collective volume on performativity in medieval culture (another, on 

polemic, is in process). 

NATALIA NOWAKOWSKA completed an article entitled ‘From Strassburg to Trent: 

Bishops, Printing and Liturgical Reform in the Fifteenth Century’, which will appear in 

Past and Present shortly; this explores how the (Catholic) church used printing before the 

Reformation. 

In terms of on-going projects, Benjamin Thompson gave a paper to the Medieval 

History Seminar on the Alien Priories, as he completes his study of their 

transformation in the decades around 1400. Natalia used her sabbatical leave in 

Trinity 2010 to continue research for a book about the Reformation in Poland. George 

is currently editing a collection of dissenting poetry, and is engaged in a larger project 

on the uses of the past during the Restoration. Joanna Innes secured a contract for a 

successor to the volume just published, on changes in British social policy agendas 

and processes 1780-1820. She has also continued to work on a collaborative project, 

‘Re-Imagining Democracy: Europe and the Americas 1750-1850’. She attended a 

related conference in Pisa, and organised an international conference in Oxford in 

July, bringing to an end the project’s current funding cycle. 

International Relations 

Professor JENNIFER WELSH has been acting as Director of Graduate Studies for 

International Relations, and continuing in her role as co-director of the Oxford Institute 

for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict. In January 2010 she began directing a research 

project (funded by the Australian government) on the prevention of mass atrocities 

against civilians, and has recently published two articles on related topics. 

Law 

JULIE DICKSON has continued to pursue research in the methodology of legal 

philosophy, and in the theory of European Union law. She has published papers in


both these fields during the year, and is a contributor to and editor of a new book in 

the area, entitled Philosophical Foundations of European Union Law, forthcoming with 

OUP in 2011. In June 2010 she was a keynote speaker at a colloquium in honour of 

Scottish legal philosopher and MEP Professor Sir Neil MacCormick, at the University 

of Edinburgh. 

STEPHEN WEATHERILL’s work has largely been concerned with the entry into 

force of the EU’s Treaty of Lisbon, which, for all the tawdry sleight of hand that 

allowed its ratification process to circumvent the widespread popular dissatisfaction 

targeted at Europe’s political elites, represents an important though not radical 

adjustment of the structure and effect of the EU and its legal order. The 9th edition 

of his Cases and Materials on EU Law, published in June 2010 by OUP, is fully ‘Lisbon 

compliant’. He has also written on European consumer law, sport and methods and 

patterns of harmonisation. He began the academic year 2009/2010 supervising eight 

graduate research students; three successfully completed their DPhils during the year, 

the others are making good progress. 

MICHAEL ASHDOWN, Career Development Fellow in Law, has been carrying out 

research into property law and the law of trusts. The focus of this research has been 

on recent developments in the law relating to decision-making by trustees, and on the 

consequences of flaws or impropriety in the trustees’ decision-making processes. This 

has proved to be particularly relevant to the position of pension schemes now found 

to be in deficit, where the trustees are being forced to make difficult decisions based 

upon uncertain predictions of future eventualities, and where such decisions are 

likely to provoke dissent and, frequently, litigation. 

Linguistics 

Professor ADITI LAHIRI has been elected Fellow of the British Academy. 

Mathematics 

MASON PORTER published several new papers covering a wide variety of topics, 

including non-linear waves in granular crystals, community detection in networks, 

biological networks, and social networks. These papers cover both methods and 

applications, and one paper was published in the journal Science. Dr Porter’s survey article


on community structure in networks, which appears in the October 2009 issue of 

Notices of the American Mathematical Society, has already become a standard citation in 

the field, and several newly submitted papers (including one on synchronization in 

cattle, which is co-authored with Marian Dawkins from Somerville and others) are 

currently making their way through the refereeing process. 

Medicine 

RAJESH THAKKER, the May Professor of Medicine, is pursuing research aimed 

at investigating the molecular basis of endocrine and metabolic disorders that 

principally affect calcium and phosphate homeostasis. These disorders may be due 

to endocrine neoplasia, renal tubular defects, or abnormalities of bone metabolism. 

Thus, the identification of the underlying mechanisms is expected to lead to advances 

in our understanding of a number of clinical disorders that result in endocrine 

tumour development, kidney stones and bone deformities. The research is supported 

by the MRC, Wellcome Trust and EU. He has also published several times on the 

endocrinology and nephrology disciplines. MATTHEW WOOD has received 

significant funding for his work investigating new genetic therapies for muscular 

dystrophy from the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust, totalling over 

£4M. He is also part of a major initiative to establish an Oxford Parkinson’s disease 

centre, funded by £5M from Parkinson’s UK. During the past year he has published 

approximately 20 research papers in these fields, in addition to which he has given 

guest lectures and conference presentations in Cambridge, London, Paris, Amsterdam, 

Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Zurich, Hamburg, Ferrara, Cape Town, Fukuoka, 

Guanzhou, Tianjin, Seattle, San Francisco, and Boston (three times). 

Philosophy 

LESLEY BROWN ended the academic year with a visit to Japan for the congress of the 

International Plato Society, of which she is on the editorial committee. She also gave a 

paper on Aristotle’s Ethics at the University of Kyoto.


Psychology 

CHARLES SPENCE has once again been busy publishing the fruits of his research 

group’s activities (> 50 peer-reviewed articles in the last academic year). He has also 

been working more and more in the area of neurogastronomy and wine. He has 

presented together with a number of international chefs in Spain, and is currently 

working on a book tentatively entitled Grape Expectations. 

Administrative Fellows 

JEREMY WHITELEY, as the University’s Director of Personnel and Administrative 

Services, has continued to oversee the development and implementation of 

Oxford’s Human Resources Strategy; taken forward the work of the Task Force on 

Academic Employment, which has led to agreed proposals for a new system of merit 

pay and titles for academics; serviced the Personnel Committee, which oversees the 

University’s employment policies and practices; dealt with a range of issues to do 

with the recruitment, retention, and reward of senior university staff; helped foster 

a number of measures designed to help the University cope sensitively with the 

challenging financial situation; and maintained a particular interest in staff 

pension schemes. 

HELEN MORTON has had yet another busy year as Treasurer, in particular with 

the final design and start of construction of the new Somerville buildings on the 

boundary of the University’s Radcliffe Observatory Quarter site, which will provide 68 

new student rooms for the College. The Maintenance team carried out the first phase 

of work to replace the Darbishire roof with the second phase of work currently in 

progress. The Treasury team continued to provide detailed financial reports to enable 

close management of the College’s assets and the five-year financial plan was updated. 

The IT team ensured that all the IT systems and network ran smoothly throughout the 

year for all the various users and the College Gardeners were highly praised for their 

efforts, in particular in achieving the excellent displays in the main flowerbeds. 

NORMA MACMANAWAY, the Senior Tutor, is finally standing down as Deputy 

Chairman of the Senior Tutors’ Committee, and Chairman of the OxCORT 

Management Committee, although she remains a member of the University 

Education Committee’s undergraduate panel. In college, the year has been marked


by the election of four new Fellows, two Stipendiary and seven non-Stipendiary 

Junior Research Fellows. An innovative initiative has been the secondment of the 

Academic Administrator, Deb Sanders, to a post as Process and Development Officer 

in the University’s Academic Administration Division, swapping places with Jo 

Ockwell, who has come from the AAD to Somerville. This year-long experiment has 

been highly successful; Deb Sanders’s knowledge of how colleges operate is proving 

invaluable in designing the processes for examinations and admissions, whilst 

in exchange Jo Ockwell has brought important insights into the administrative 

functions of the wider University to our college procedures. 

Senior Research Fellows 

STEPHANIE DALLEY has had a busy year, teaching and lecturing in Venice and 

Malta, writing up papers from the workshops on Berossus (in Durham) and the 

Greek novel - Ninos and Semiramis (in Oxford), and on the site of Kish (in Chicago). 

Her old book Mari and Karana is about to be published in a Japanese translation, and 

her Myths from Mesopotamia in Arabic, in a revised version. She is co-curator of an 

exhibition on Syria, to be held at the Royal Academy in London in 2013. Following her 

retirement from Somerville, Wolfson College has kindly offered her Common Room 

rights, and the Oriental Institute has extended her association for the next 8 years. 

KATHERINE DUNCAN-JONES has delivered papers at University College London; 

the Shakespeare Institute, Stratford; the University of Reading; the University of Geneva; 

and elsewhere. Her Arden edition of Shakespeare’s Sonnets (1997) and her biography of 

Shakespeare (2001) have been published in revised and updated versions, the latter 

under a slightly different title, Shakespeare: An Ungentle Life. She has also published 

numerous reviews and articles, the most substantial being an article in The Review of 

English Studies on Shakespeare’s early career as an actor. 

Emeritus Fellows 

PAULINE ADAMS has returned in retirement to the subject of the BLitt thesis which 

she did for fun in her early days as Librarian; the resulting book was published in July 

under the title English Catholic Converts and the Oxford Movement in Mid Nineteenth 

Century Britain: The Cost of Conversion (Bethesda & Dublin: Academica Press, 2010).


ANNA MORPURGO DAVIES was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University 

of Nancy, France, in October 2009. 

MIRIAM GRIFFIN has published ‘Iure Plectimur: The Roman Critique of Roman 

Imperialism’, in East and West: Papers in Ancient History presented to Glen W. Bowersock, 

edd. T. Corey Brennan and H.I. Flower, Loeb Classical Monograph series (Cambridge, 

MA, 2008); and ‘Tacitus as a Historian’, in The Cambridge Companion to Tacitus, ed. A.J. 

Woodman, (Cambridge, 2009). 

JUDITH HEYER has edited with Barbara Harriss-White Comparative Political Economy 

of Development: Africa and Asia, Routledge, 2010. Her news is that having done a lot 

of the tidying up related to retirement in 2005, she is now enjoying doing new and 

writing up old research on a region in South India that is producing T-shirts and other 

knitwear for the UK and other markets. Although some of the conditions of work are 

not good, the industry does represent a considerable improvement over what was 

there before. Corporate Social Responsibility is having very mixed results. There is 

now virtually no child labour, but it is difficult to attribute this to Corporate Social 

Responsibility. It has much more to do with the long-term policies of the state. 

JOSEPHINE PEACH has published four papers which tidy up the research she 

was doing before she retired. One of these was picked out as the most interesting 

published in the journal that month and was illustrated on the front cover. At home 

in Gloucestershire, she and her husband open their garden for charity under the 

National Gardens Scheme and this year raised nearly £1,000. 

OLIVE SAYCE has published Exemplary Comparison from Homer to Petrarch 

(D S Brewer, 2008). 

ADRIANNE TOOKE’s work on the correspondence of Benjamin Constant continues; 

the final volume to which she is contributing (IX) is almost complete and will be 

published in 2011. She has found it a great pleasure to work on a joint European 

project of this kind. She contributed to a volume of essays on Flaubert et L’Art, which is 

due for publication very soon. An article on Flaubert and Greece is in progress. She is 

spending almost half the year in France now and that is a great pleasure too.


Somerville Medics’ Day 2010. The Principal with Somerville’s Medical Fellows (left to right): Daniel Anthony, 

Rajesh Thakker, Dame Fiona Caldicott, Matthew Wood and Angela Vincent.

24 | JCR Report 

JCR Report 

During the past year the JCR has seen a number of important and exciting changes 

which are symptomatic of a general increase in interest and involvement amongst 

the undergraduate population at Somerville. Over the Christmas vacation we saw 

the completion of a major renovation of the main JCR room in Park building, 

followed by the purchase of some new furniture for the Vaughan JCR in Hilary term. 

This work has led to greater use of both rooms by a wider selection of JCR members. 

I am pleased that increasingly it seems that the JCR communal areas are not for the 

few, but for all. 

The JCR Constitution has undergone its own changes, with a complete review of 

the rules upon which JCR business is conducted. Although no major changes were 

made, the minor tweaks and rectified errors will enable the JCR to function even 

more efficiently and effectively in the coming years. The process of formalising the 

amended Constitution will be completed in Michaelmas term 2010. 

The most obvious changes within the JCR during the previous year reflect a 

continuing growth in activity and engagement amongst the JCR. It was noted 

in the hustings for my successor that in the last few years the JCR has become 

unrecognisably more open, inclusive, relevant and effective. The level of interest 

in elections for committee positions certainly reflects this continuing change, 

with a noticeable increase in numbers of candidates for all positions. Over the 

year the current JCR Committee has grown increasingly active and excited about 

new challenges, and already preparations are well underway to welcome the new 

Freshers to Somerville in October. 

I am pleased that the JCR continues to be highly relevant to individual students 

seeking help, assistance, advice and support for their various undertakings. Not 

only has the JCR provided funding and other assistance to our most successful 

sporting members, actors, musicians etc., but we have also worked with both 

individual students and the JCR as a whole, on a wide range of issues which affect

JCR Report | 25 

them. We have given advice on 2nd year housing, provided an exceptional welfare 

support framework for more personal matters, and in conjunction with the College 

we introduced a system of academic feedback sessions to protect and further 

improve the already excellent teaching provision at Somerville. 

The benefits of this work and investment in the JCR are to be found not only in 

future years, but also through the achievements, both personal and corporate, of 

the last year. We are extremely proud of our women’s football team for winning 

Cuppers earlier in the year, and also of our increasingly strong rowing club, 

and indeed of the successes of other Somerville-student ventures. We have also 

provided support (both financial and practical) for a number of charities in the past 

year, raising thousands of pounds through events and donations. 

Last year in this publication, my predecessor wished me and my committee every 

success in our endeavours. As I complete the process of handing-over to my own 

successor, David Railton, I do so with even more enthusiasm about the future of the 

JCR than I had a year ago. Although we have now bid a fond farewell to a cohort of 

talented individuals who completed their undergraduate degrees this year, we also 

look forward to fresh ideas, opportunities and successes in those who remain, and 

those soon to become JCR members this October. It has been a pleasure to work 

with my Committee and the JCR as a whole. I wish David, the new JCR Committee, 

and the whole JCR, all the best for the coming year. 

JOHN MCELROY, JCR PRESIDENT

26 | MCR Report 

MCR Report 

The last year has been a particularly eventful and exciting one for the MCR. 

Not only have we completed a major refurbishment of the common room in 

Margery Fry House, but we have enjoyed a varied and stimulating social calendar 

which has guaranteed that 2009-10 will be a year to remember for us all. Highlights 

have included “Come Dine With Me,” a series of dinner parties in which MCR 

members pitted their hosting skills and culinary wizardry against each other in 

an attempt to host the best dinner party; an unforgettable trip to see the RSC in 

Stratford Upon Avon; trips to both The Netherlands and Germany; and regular 

formal hall exchanges with other MCRs across the university. 

The MCR has also been a rich and stimulating breeding ground for academic 

ideas in the past year. A number of our members have presented their research at 

MCR-SCR symposia, and these events have proven to be hugely popular with our 

members. We regularly contribute to and participate in each other’s research, and 

the new sofas in the MCR have proven themselves to be the perfect forum for many 

an after-dinner discussion on the topics central to our theses and papers. 

Looking to the future, the MCR aim to play an even more active role in college 

life during the next academic year. I am making it my top priority as President to 

facilitate both social and academic exchanges with both the JCR and the SCR, so as 

to foster closer relationships between the different groups within the Somerville 

community. We recently appointed Zoe Sullivan as our Access and Admissions 

representative, and Zoe will be working hard to plan an evening in which JCR 

members are able to personally meet members of the MCR in order to find out 

what it’s really like to be a graduate in Somerville. I hope that this evening will, 

in the future, mean that more Somerville undergraduates remain in college for 

their graduate studies, and continue to contribute to the life of the college. One 

new link between the JCR, the MCR and the alumni is provided by the Somerville

MCR Report | 27 

Association Bursary, funded by the Somerville Association, to support a Somerville 

undergraduate who is going on to graduate work in Somerville; the present holder 

is Jennifer Juillard Maniece. 

Having recently been appointed the President for the next academic year, 

I would like to express my sincerest thanks to the outgoing committee: Ian 

Robertson, Peter Zeniewski, Peter Walker, Damien Storey and Francesca 

Harrington have all worked incredibly hard in order to make last year the success 

that it was. Joining me on the committee for the coming year are Hugh Wolgamot, 

Amanda Montgomery and Hannah Field, and Ian Robertson will be making a 

welcome return (albeit in the role of Treasurer rather than President this year!). 

If next year is even half as good as the last year has been, we’re in for some very 

good times indeed. 

MARTIN GOULD, MCR PRESIDENT

28 | Library Report 

Library Report 

Staff 

This year has been one of change for staff in the 

library – having said goodbye to Librarian Pauline 

Adams last year after a remarkable forty years service 

at Somerville, we then faced the prospect of Janet 

Louth’s retirement in the Spring of 2010. Janet had 

been a library assistant at Somerville for eighteen 

years and in that time had contributed to the smooth 

running of the library in a hundred different ways. 

Quiet and efficient, she possessed an impressive knowledge of the collection and the 

students and could be relied upon to enforce library rules with tact and diplomacy. 

Having a new librarian to contend with in her last year at Somerville did not seem to 

bother her at all and in fact her ‘safe pair of hands’ was a major contribution towards 

making the transition between librarians as smooth as it turned out to be! We wish 

her a long and happy retirement in Somerset. 

Matthew Roper arrived in May 2010 to be our new Library Assistant and was plunged 

straight into the mayhem of Trinity Term, but he quickly settled in to become an 

indispensable and valued member of the team. 

After all that change I’m pleased to say that Sue Purver is continuing to provide 

us with some much needed continuity along with her usual expertise, experience and 

efficiency . The smooth running of the library on a day to day basis is largely due to her 

efforts and her support has been invaluable for this new-to-Oxford Librarian. 

Buildings and IT 

The other major change taking place this year involves the library building itself. 

Thanks to money accumulated from several legacies (principally the Barbara Craig 

Fund) it was decided to refurbish the entrance to the library. The glass front doors 

had ceased to fit properly (something very noticeable in the midst of January’s

Library Report | 29 

snowfalls) and the stone tiled floor and pillars were starting to look rather shabby. 

We decided at the same time to move the award-winning front desk away from its 

position in the middle of the loggia to create a larger area for comfortable seating and 

displays. The desk will now connect the loggia with the library offices, enabling all the 

library staff to work in the same area. Work on replacing the doors and cleaning the 

outside stonework will take place over the Long Vacation 2010 with the internal works 

happening in December 2010 and January 2011. 

Progress was made by the University in replacing the Library Management System 

with the Aleph software due to replace OLIS in July 2011. In anticipation of this move 

and with the retirement of Janet (and the electric typewriter!) we stopped adding new 

books to our card catalogue in June. The card catalogue will remain in the library 

in the medium term until all items in the collection have been transferred to the 

computer catalogue. 

Archives and Special Collections 

Work in the archives and Special Collections has been making progress as well. Jane 

Robinson (1978) completed the handlisting of the Margery Fry Collection which 

was immediately put to good use by Dr Anne Logan from the University of Kent 

who is researching a biography of our former Principal. Jane has also been working 

on listing the Vera Brittain Collection – books, papers, letters and speeches by and 

about Vera Brittain left to the College by her friend and one-time literary executor, 

Paul Berry. As a result of completing this work, the College decided to honour Vera 

Brittain by dedicating an archive reading room to her memory, which was opened 

in June by Vera Brittain’s daughter, Baroness Williams of Crosby (1948). 

Visits to the Special Collections have been received from all around the world 

including Russia, Poland, USA and the Shetland Islands. Material consulted includes 

items concerning Dorothy L Sayers, John Stuart Mill, Margery Fry, Penelope 

Fitzgerald, Maria Czaplicka, Vernon Lee, Alice Meynell and Amelia Edwards. Special 

thanks go to Clive Barham Carter, an aficionado of Amelia Edwards, for financially 

supporting the restoration of one of her more well-known watercolours, now 

hanging in the library.

30 | Library Report 

The photograph archive project which is being funded by the Pauline Adams retirement 

fund has also got off the ground. A graduate student, Vanessa Cazzato, has been 

scanning several hundred photos from the early days of Somerville and Jane Robinson 

has now taken on the task of helping to create a searchable archive from the photos. 

The aim is to create a website to display the photos, along with information about them, 

to which the public can contribute. It is anticipated that initial results will be presented 

at the Literary Lunch in November. 

Library Collection 

During the year 1459 items were added to the library collection of which 375 were 

gifts. Among the gifts to the library were a collection of historical biographies, letters 

and diaries from the library of Jane Aiken Hodge (1935) given by her daughters Joanna 

(1972) and Jessica (1968), banking and finance books from Margaret Dawes (Monk, 

1936), physics and maths books from Shirlayne Dunwoodie (Rush, 1992), Old English 

books from Dinah Jones (1980), anthropology books from Renate Barber, and a 

wonderful collection of medieval history texts from Professor Barbara Harvey, who also 

paid for the restoration of a fine 1811 edition of Fabyan’s Chronicles that had belonged 

to her tutor May McKisack before her. Other gifts of money to the library were received 

from Beryl Davies (1941) and from the bequest of Jennifer Morton (1980). The latter gift 

will be used to create and catalogue a musical score collection in the Dorothy Hodgkin 

Quad Music Room. Gifts to the archives have included a number of photos of College 

plays from the late twenties and a copy of songs from The Red’s Progress (GDP 1930) 

given by Susan Rees, niece of Judith Todd (1927), photos from college events by Susan 

Partridge and some of the papers of D J Dawson (1946). In addition to these major 

gifts to the library and archives, we have been fortunate enough to receive many other 

smaller items and our thanks go to everyone who has sent items during the year.

Library Report | 31 

Emilie Amt* 

Angelika Arend* 

Carolyn Beckingham* 

Mark Bostridge 

Lalage Bown* 

Susan Cohen* 

Judy Corstjens* 

Margaret Dawes 

Katherine Duncan-Jones* 

Shirlayne Dunwoodie 

Elizabeth Gardner* 

Penelope Gardner- 

Chloros* 

Daphne Gloag* 

Benjamin Goold 

Malcolm Graham* 

Manuele Gragnolati* 

Miriam Griffin* 

Barbara Harvey 

Edith Hall* 

Helen Hallpike* 

Marion Hebblethwaite* 

Emma Henderson* 

Judith Heyer* 

James Higginbotham* 

Jessica and Joanna Hodge 

David Hoffman* 

Mary Horbury* 

Anita Howard* 

J. Trevor Hughes* 

Joanna Innes* 

Liz Jensen* 

Dinah Jones 

Susan Karamanian 

Sean Kingsley* 

Niels Kroner* 

Gillian Mackie* 

Gerta Moray* 

Helen Morton 

Hilary Ockendon 

Rosie Oliver 

Joanna Parker 

Ann Petre* 

Luke Pitcher* 

Elizabeth Pisani* 

Maria Pavlopoulos 

Alice Prochaska 

Dani Rabinowitz 

Christina Roaf 

Olive Sayce 

Christine Shuttleworth* 

Matthew Skelton* 

Julia Smith* 

Janet Soskice* 

George Southcombe* 

Eric Southworth 

Jane Steedman 

Almut Suerbaum* 

Madhura Swaminathan* 

Ann Swinfen* 

Angiola Volpi* 

Ariel Wagner-Parker* 

Trudy Watt 

Jennifer Welsh 

Jean Wilks 

Baroness Williams of 

Crosby* 

Linda Whiteley* 

Charlotte Yeldham* 

* signifies that the gift is the donor’s own publication 

ANNE MANUEL, LIBRARIAN AND ARCHIVIST

College News

34 | Report from the Head of Development 

Architect Niall McLaughlin explaining the model of the ROQ building

Report from the Head of Development | 35 

Report from the 

Head of Development 

A Somervillian 

culture of giving 

The Somerville Campaign was launched in June 

2009 to raise the ambitious sum of £25 million 

in support of three distinct areas of the College’s 

activities: to secure the excellence of the tutorial 

system, to increase funds available for attracting and 

supporting the most able students and to transform 

our facilities with the construction of two new 

student accommodation buildings. The first Campaign year has been one of intense 

activity and has been characterised by great encouragement from donors who have 

decided to support the College generously at this early stage. Our major gifts income 

has more than doubled this year, thanks to generous Somervillians and friends. The 

percentage of alumni supporting the College has increased to the highest level in 

the College’s history. An impressive £800,000 has been raised towards our building 

appeal this year alone and we are now more than halfway towards reaching our £2 

million target. The coming year will involve intense fundraising activity to complete 

our building appeal and we also plan to increase our efforts to attract vital funding 

for deserving students and for the permanent endowment of academic posts. A 

special appeal in the name of our former Principal Daphne Park will be launched in 

the autumn to honour her wish to expand Somerville’s student support funds. 

In times of severe financial crisis, the role of philanthropy becomes increasingly 

important to the survival of educational institutions. This is true of Somerville in 

particular, as the College has a relatively modest endowment (compared with many 

other Oxford colleges) and donations received year on year provide vital funding for 

our core activities. I had the pleasure of joining the College as Head of Development

36 | Report from the Head of Development 

in September 2009, having previously worked as a fundraiser in cultural and 

educational institutions in France, Denmark and Scotland. It has been extremely 

encouraging to encounter the distinctive “Somervillian culture of giving” where 

alumni play such a vital role in securing the College’s future, and where so many 

Somervillians give at all levels and on a regular basis. In short, our community of 

donors determines how confidently we can approach our plans for the future. It is 

therefore particularly encouraging to observe that Somerville’s alumni have increased 

the donor participation rates from 13% to 18% during the past year alone. We are 

now well placed in the UK Higher Education context where participation typically 

is between 10% and 20%. It gives us great hope for further success: our long term 

strategy is to reduce the gap between ourselves and our US competitors who can 

boast of participation rates of up to 60%! It has been inspirational to meet so many 

alumni and friends of the College over the past year and it has been interesting to 

hear your honest and constructive views about the measures required to secure the 

unique experience of a Somerville education. We have a very real challenge ahead 

of us in order to secure the remaining £11 million of our £25 million target. This 

challenge is particularly acute because Somervillians have not traditionally chosen 

career paths in the most highly paid sectors. However, the genuine dedication and 

commitment shown by our alumni reveal a significant motivation to engage potential 

benefactors. This willingness, in turn, continues a culture of giving the College both 

financial support and perceptive advice. 

The priority this year has been to secure funds for the College’s flagship project: 

the construction of two new student accommodation buildings on the northern 

perimeter of the Somerville curtilage (the University’s Radcliffe Observatory 

Quarter’s site). This project will allow us to offer all undergraduates and more 

graduates affordable accommodation and thereby enable them to benefit fully 

from being resident members of a thriving academic community. The project 

is a central part of the College’s strategy to increase access for talented students 

regardless of their financial means. It has been heartening to see how generously 

Somervillians have responded to the appeal with donations of all sizes: more than 

700 donors have given £1.1 million towards the project. Of this, £800,000 has been 

donated in the past year alone. An innovative campaign in support of the building

Report from the Head of Development | 37 

project entitled “Make your Mark” was developed with the help of two creative 

Somervillians: Katie Thomas (1990) and Sian Thomas Marshall (1989). More 

than £115,000 has been raised from this campaign. The building plans are now 

advancing rapidly; the contractors began work on the Radcliffe site in July 2010 and 

we expect to welcome the first students to the new facilities in September 2011. 

Generous donations have also been received in support of student bursaries and 

fellowship funding over the past year and both funding streams are vital in order to 

help the College to provide the very best educational environment for generations 

to come. At the moment, Somerville offers 26% of all students a bursary and the cost 

associated with this corresponds to an endowment of £2.8 million. However, as the 

current bursary endowment is only £600,000 the aim is thus to raise another £2.2 

million before the end of the Campaign for student support and hardship grants. 

Fundraising for the Daphne Park Bursary Fund will be at the heart of these efforts, 

honouring Lady Park’s tremendous contribution to Somerville during her time as 

Principal by widening access to a Somerville education. This appeal has already 

gathered momentum and a number of generous lead donations have given the 

Daphne Park Bursary Fund a privileged place amongst the College’s activities. 

Our distinguished Development Board chaired by Mrs Harriet Maunsell (1962) 

and Mrs Clara Freeman (1971) continues to provide invaluable leadership for the 

Campaign. We are deeply grateful to the Board and to the more than 1,100 alumni and 

friends who have given so generously over the past year. 

With gratitude, 

JULIE CHRISTIANE HAGE, HEAD OF DEVELOPMENT 

Tel. 01865 280596 

julie.hage@some.ox.ac.uk

Members’ Notes

40 | President’s Report 

President’s Report 

After two years as President, I am delighted to be able to confirm that the 

Association is as vibrant as ever. Early in the new academic year, Shirley Williams 

held a crowded Hall spell-bound as she spoke on Fifty Years as a Woman in Politics. 

The Lawyers, Literary and London Groups have all produced entertaining and 

high profile speakers, with Lord Falconer giving us the benefit of his experience 

as former Lord Chancellor on the subject of A decade of constitutional affairs, Susan 

Cohen talking about her new book on Eleanor Rathbone, and Charles Moore, the 

former editor of the Daily Telegraph, describing his insight into our own Baroness 

Thatcher in relation to her authorised biography which he is writing. The London 

Group also heard from Hilary Spurling about Pearl Buck, and the City Group 

persuaded Martin Wolf of the Financial Times to speak to us on the highly topical 

subject of After the Crisis. We have had private visits to the Flemings Gallery and the 

Chelsea Physic Garden (London Group) and to the Old Bailey (Lawyers) amongst 

others. Special days were devoted to the Medics, the Media Network and to the 

English department, and we have enjoyed a plethora of garden parties, lunches and 

dinners, including the now annual Leavers’ Dinner held on the Friday of Eighth 

Week in Trinity Term. On 26 June the Principal attended a luncheon in York with 

guest speaker Victoria Glendinning (the fourth in a very successful series organised 

by Paddy Crossley (Earnshaw, 1956)), and the Principal’s farewell Gaudy in July was 

packed to capacity with alumni from 1994-2006. 

I want to thank all the members of the Somerville Association Committee, and 

of all the committees of the Groups, as well as the College-based people who 

help so much in creating and implementing such a varied programme for us. 

In particular my thanks go to the two who had to stand down from the Committee 

after six years: Nermeen Varawalla and Ferdy Lovett. In their place we welcomed

President’s Report | 41 

Juliet Johnson and Beth Seaman. Liz Cooke, our Secretary, is thoroughly invaluable 

and much appreciated. 

Our alumni have been particularly busy this year; as well as honours being awarded 

in the New Year’s Honours List to Rosalind Marsden (History, 1968) Ambassador 

to Sudan, DCMG, and Anthea Bell (English, 1954), OBE for services to literature 

and literary translation, we now have no fewer than five MPs in Parliament (see 

photograph on page 65). Our bursary, granted annually to a Somervillian moving 

from the JCR to the MCR, continues to be well-received and was awarded in this 

academic year to Jennifer Juillard Maniece, who has been working on an MSt in 

Medieval and Modern Languages. 

Three particular matters stand out for mention this year: one happy, one sad, 

and one which manages to be both! 

First, our AGM in February was much enlivened by Esther Rantzen asking us 

“If not now, when?” and causing much hilarity as well as reminding us to make the 

most of what life has to offer. 

Secondly, our beloved former Principal, Baroness Park, died after quite a long 

period of ill health, and we are all finding it hard to come to terms with Somerville 

being without her. Her contribution to the College was immeasurable, and we 

celebrated her life, first with a fine funeral service in the College Chapel in April, 

and then with an uplifting memorial service at the University Church in May. 

Daphne would have enjoyed both enormously. Later this year a Daphne Park 

Bursary Fund will be established in her memory. 

Thirdly, this year we are having to say a sad goodbye to our Principal of 14 years, Dame 

Fiona Caldicott. Much has been said and written about all she has done for the College, 

and there is no doubt that she has worked tirelessly and enthusiastically for all that it 

stands for. I should like to pay tribute to Fiona, on behalf of the Somerville Association, 

for her constant support of our aims, and her reinforcement of our belief that every one 

of our alumni is valuable and interesting in his or her own right. She leaves with all our 

gratitude and good wishes.

42 | President’s Report 

At the same time, we are fortunate indeed to welcome our new Principal, Alice 

Prochaska. She joins us at a difficult time politically and economically, and I 

know that the challenges of the office are not lost on her; however, we have every 

confidence in her (after all, she IS a Somervillian!) and we shall of course give her 

every support. Together we look forward to a future in which all our alumni will 

continue to be more than welcome to play a part. 

KAREN RICHARDSON, PRESIDENT 

Karen Richardson, President

Somerville Association Fund | 43 

Somerville Association Fund: 

Treasurer’s Report for the year 2009-2010 

This Fund is at present able to fund an annual bursary of £500 for a Somervillian 

wishing to continue graduate studies at Somerville. This Bursary was awarded in 2009- 

2010 to Jennifer Juillard Maniece, who has been working on an MSt in Medieval and 

Modern Languages. 

In addition, over the past year we have received several applications for grants and 

were able to respond quickly with small sums for help with expenses, for example, 

incurred over a visit to Oxford for a College event. We hope that people who find 

themselves in need will not hesitate to call upon the Fund. We are always glad to hear 

from third parties who think help would be appreciated. 

And we are always grateful for donations! 

Applications for grants should be made to elizabeth.cooke@some.ox.ac.uk 

or vpasley@talktalk.net

No harm was done to any African bullfrog (nor to any child - bullfrogs are ferocious biters of anything 

that looks like food) in the taking of this photograph. Alison is on the extreme right of the picture

Life Before Somerville | 45 

Life Before Somerville 

Dorothy Hodgkin expressed gentle surprise when as many as five Chemists came up to 

Somerville in 1951. ALISON SUTHERLAND was one of them. After Somerville she 

spent about half her married and working life in assorted universities before ‘retiring’ into 

school teaching in Orkney. Like many contemporaries she took early retirement in her 

50s. Surprisingly this led to twenty eventful years on a busy livestock farm. She now lives 

contentedly in her own modest house with two appreciative rescued collie dogs. 

She has a fond memory of her daughter’s group of 1970s teenagers complaining about their 

over-aspirational academic parents until one lass cried out: ‘Do you mean we don’t HAVE to 

go to University?’ 

‘At last I think I’ve really fallen on my feet’ said Uncle Jim. It was 1939, and he was in 

South Africa. He had recently landed the job of Superintendent of Robinson Lake, a 

popular resort for the white townsfolk of the Transvaal Witwatersrand gold mines. 

‘What the hell more can a chap wish for? They don’t call me Lucky Jim for nothing!’ 

he happily wrote home. 

A year later my brother Doug and I, aged 10 and 8, were evacuated to Robinson Lake 

to spend five unforgettable war years with Uncle Jim, Auntie Milly and our 3 South 

African cousins aged 14, 10 and 6. ‘I am enjoying myself very much here and we’ve 

decided that we’re not going home’ I bluntly wrote back to our anxious parents. 

Robinson Lake was special. It was the huge cooling dam for the mines power 

station. It lay out in the dry lands of the open veld, surrounded by blue-gum trees 

grown for pit-props. Surprisingly in such a hot climate, the warm water was a major 

attraction for crowds of visitors, especially at weekends and holidays, and we were 

never short of company. 

The Lake was mysterious. We spent hours in it, day and night. Winter morning 

swims and long walks to catch the school train were shrouded in dense white 

clouds of rising steam.

46 | Life Before Somerville 

Life at the Lake was lived outdoors. We swam great distances for such young 

children. We shone at all the local swimming and diving galas. We learned to row 

boats and to paddle home-made canoes. We fished enthusiastically but caught very 

little. Uncle Jim walked us for what seemed miles, with pet dogs and baboons and a 

cat and a goat or two, through the blue gum plantations and out over the veld. 

We four younger children, the ‘Gang’, made secret excursions to the forbidden mine 

dumps: huge glittering white unstable mountains of silica sand, and low-walled 

lagoons of perilous yellow slime left over from the gold extraction processes. As the 

family sissy I frequently panicked and got stuck half way up. We looked down the 

abandoned shafts of what cousin Jean said were the deepest mines in the world. I 

stood well back. 

We swung easily through the blue gum trees from long ropes, howling in the 

approved Tarzan manner, and camped out in our Tarzan hut up in the tallest blue 

gum tree. Holidays at Bushman’s River down on the (then) wild Cape Coast were, of 

course, even more energetic. 

The small Lake bungalow with its hospitable deep-red-floored stoep, its creaking 

corrugated iron roof and perpetually slamming screen doors was our refuge at the 

end of all the exciting days. On winter nights we all collected in the sitting room 

around a blazing fire of explosive blue-gum logs. I loved being part of this openly 

affectionate, physically confident and adventurous family. 

The grim realities of the strict racial segregation of 1940s South Africa largely passed 

us by. We were young enough to accept what little we saw of it uncritically as the 

norm. The ‘native’ workers at the Lake were generally chosen by Uncle Jim from the 

huge migrant workforce of single men living in the mine dormitory ‘compounds’. 

At the house the ‘maid’ from a nearby ‘location’ lived alone in her room out in the 

yard. We knew nothing of their lives away from the Lake, of their homes or their 

families. 

Uncle Jim had predicted ‘this outdoor life should work wonders with them’ - and, 

according to our letters, it certainly did! Sadly, our very reluctant return

Life Before Somerville | 47 

five years later to our war-weary suburban parents was far less successful, and 

brought great and lasting family unhappiness. We were both by then boisterous 

outspoken colonial teenagers bursting with health and energy, and complete misfits 

at home and at school. 

Eleven-plus examinations had never come my way, but a South African student 

doing some sort of survey had discovered that I had one of the highest IQs for my 

age group in the Transvaal, on the basis of which I was smuggled into strait-laced 

Cardiff High School for Girls. After years of losing battles over my unhappy, noisy, 

uncooperative behaviour, long-suffering Headmistress Miss Frances Rees OBE said 

I should apply to go to a place called Somerville College in Oxford, advised me not 

to mention my wilder out of school activities (with boys...) in youth clubs and the 

University students’ union, nor my essential fundraising holiday jobs in hotels, 

shops and market gardens - and kindly gave me a four week crash course in Latin 

which did the trick for Responsions. 

And so I set off, with holes in my shoes and a battered old hatbox for my few 

treasures, and something called a State Scholarship (I assumed that everyone had 

one), to become a scientist at Somerville in the endearingly humane, progressive 

and democratic times of Janet Vaughan and Dorothy Hodgkin - and found that life 

after Robinson Lake could, after all, be very good indeed. 

Years later when cousin Jimmy visited Cardiff, my poor mother told him ‘I lost 

my children to South Africa’. When in turn my brother revisited South Africa, 

Auntie Milly greeted him with ‘Here’s my other son, back again at last’. 

On busy days at the Lake Uncle Jim used to broadcast messages and cheery music 

to the public over the loudspeakers, always beginning with a hearty ‘Hello, Hello, 

Robinson Lake Calling!’ I learned about apartheid and never went back. Toxic and 

radioactive heavy metals dissolved in the mine waters closed the resort and polluted 

the entire Rand water table. But, more than 60 years on, Robinson Lake is still 

calling me... 

ALISON SUTHERLAND, 1951

48 | Somerville College Report for 1965 

Somerville College Report 

for 1965 

When you read this report it will be 45 years since we matriculated. We arrived in the 

middle of a decade of social change, some of us in mini-skirts and knee-length boots, 

our faces half hidden by long hair and make-up, others in twinsets. We were still being 

told to bring table napkins and cups with saucers, and actually used toasting forks in 

front of those small electric room fires. If we were lucky, we owned a Dansette record 

player and spent money on vinyl “singles”. Yet we had a great deal of freedom in 

organising (or not!) our daily life and in choosing our social activities. 

Reading the information you have so kindly sent me, I think we as a year group 

are now in a period of personal transition: the majority have retired or are about 

to do so, but some are still working full-time; grandchildren are a major part of 

some lives, but certainly not all; likewise involvement in the care of older family 

members. We have reached a useful perspective from which to evaluate our 

long-ago time as undergraduates, but also, perhaps, a time when we begin to

Somerville College Report for 1965 | 49 

place a higher value on links with those who knew us then. 

The year of 1965 

First, some figures to help you assess this report. After all, if we learned nothing else 

we did learn to be critical of bald assertions. 

Out of a total entry of 90 in 1965, this report is based on information from 25 people. 

Thank-you to everybody who took the time to reply. Some of the 90 were doing 

research or stayed only a short time. College has lost touch with some and, sadly, 

several of us have died. You can read an obituary for Vanessa Brand (Rodrigues) 

elsewhere in this issue. So this report comes from information about approximately 

1/3 of those starting a BA Honours degree in October 1965. The result may be a 

slightly rose-tinted view of the influence of college and Oxford as I think that people 

with negative memories are less likely to respond to reunion invitations, but, being 

Somervillians, you may well disagree.


Who were we? 

At a time when there is concern about providing access to Oxford colleges to a wide 

range of young people it is interesting to look at the geographical, social 

and educational background of our year. It might be useful to compare us with 

a year from each subsequent decade. 

There was no North/South divide among us, with London and Manchester 

well represented. As a Londoner, I first heard a Northern accent when I came 

to Somerville. Girls came from Lancashire and Surrey, Bath and Birmingham, Wales 

and Hertfordshire. None from the east, maybe something to do with Cambridge. 

There were also several overseas people in the full 1965 entry list. Several of you 

mentioned that your horizons were broadened by meeting people from other 

places. As we ourselves, and certainly our children, travel so widely now, it is hard to 

remember narrower experiences. 

Socially and educationally we were more homogeneous, although the Somerville 

tendency towards individuality did show. The “middle class with Bohemian flavour” 

family sounds fun. Most of us were from middle class backgrounds, many with 

professional parents. Several of you seemed to feel this was something of which to be 

slightly ashamed. The few with genuine working class backgrounds, or who were the 

first in their families to go to university, could be “scared of such clever upper-class 

fellow students”, at first. 

We came mainly from Grammar and Direct Grant schools, growing up when 

LEAs provided or paid for academically selective schools. Again there was the 

unusual: an atheist co-ed boarding school with half-days only devoted to academic 

rather than artistic/creative subjects, and an early comprehensive, Maesydderwen 

School in Ystradgynlais (Yes, in Wales). 

Although we are considering our college experience, a universal theme was the debt 

owed to our schoolteachers, headteachers and parents in encouraging us 

to apply to Oxford, and inspiring our commitment to our subject. Alongside 

their own ability in a particular subject, most paid tribute to a teacher. There 

were a few less common reasons for subject choice: an early settled vocation 

for medicine, admiration for Nobel prizewinner Dorothy Hodgkin, and going

Somerville College Report for 1965 | 51 

on an international Guide camp as motivation for reading Modern Languages. 

The choice of college was determined by Somerville’s academic reputation and/or 

the personal links of a headteacher or parent. Care to develop and maintain links 

between Somerville and individual schools is probably just as important today, as 

of course is the college’s academic reputation, as I realised myself when my own 

youngest son and daughter misguidedly would not apply to Somerville. 

How did we change? 

Only one person thought she had changed “very little”, referring to her time at 

Somerville as “like a dream”. Most of you thought that you developed confidence and 

independence in study and life as a whole, that you learned to look after yourselves, 

meet challenges, work under pressure and meet deadlines, evaluate evidence. Several 

mentioned analytical skills which could be applied to many different situations. 

Gillian Cross epitomises this group in her view that Somerville “gave me confidence 

and taught me how to study and write on my own. Without that, I would never have 

become a writer”. 

Some, however, became less confident, either because of difficulties and lack 

of satisfaction with courses, or because they compared themselves unfavourably with 

other students. A stereotypical view of a successful Somervillian seems to have quite 

a lasting negative effect, as shown in these two comments: “Real Somervillians make 

their mark on the world”; “ I will never be one of the high achievers”. I could certainly 

echo the latter remark, but for me it is a useful reality check rather than a regret. 

There were also contrasting views on the merits of living in or out of college. Living 

out made one of you feel “semi-detached”, while in college was described as “ too 

protected”. A more common view was of meeting “fascinating people from a much 

wider range of backgrounds, places, religions and cultures than 

I had encountered before.” 

Working life 

Everyone who sent information gained further degrees or professional qualifications 

and many of you have published research work. Definitely “real Somervillians” 

(see above!).


Your choices of careers were mostly unsurprising for the late 1960s, a majority 

in some level of education, several medical doctors, a lawyer, a wide range of 

administrative careers, social work. But we do boast one Yoga teacher and a 

writer of children’s literature, and we can only wonder about those who did 

not send any information. 

You have all been very hard workers, with only 6 taking a complete career break to 

bring up children, a gap of between 7 and 13 years, although I managed 20 years 

at home. Several kept part-time work going throughout, with the Open University, 

evening classes and translation work among the ways you avoided gaps in that CV. 

However, now most of us are either fully or partially retired, with only 2 still working 

full-time; one of these two is of course Alice Prochaska (Barwell). It is interesting to 

note that whilst most of us are winding down, or at least thinking about it, Alice will 

by the time this Report is published have embarked on a 

most important new job, as Principal of Somerville. 

Many of us keep up the wide range of civic or community roles which express part of 

the Somerville ethos. Your unpaid work ranges from international - helping victims 

of torture, helping girls in Uganda to learn science subjects – to national institutions 

such as the magistracy and Citizens’ Advice Bureau, and on to local roles on parish 

and village councils. Not quite sure where being a guide 

at Kew Gardens or on the committee of an underwater exploration group fit in these 

groups, but both bring me neatly to the most entertaining and individual part of your 

questionnaire replies, namely: 

Current interests and future hopes 

What an active bunch of 60 year olds! We love our granny duties, and some of us 

spend a good deal of time and thought on our parents. Many enjoy reading, going 

to the theatre and art exhibitions, writing, perhaps as would be expected. I seem 

to be the only couch potato among you! Several among you enjoy gardening, 

walking and travel; a smaller number like golf, tennis and cycling, but we then 

move to the very individual (no, not eccentric). A bee-keeper, a breeder of quails 

and rare chickens, a couple of bell-ringers who both mention Vanessa’s influence,

Dr Alice Prochaska (Barwell, 1965), Principal of Somerville from 1 September 2010 

Somerville College Report for 1965 | 53


a hardy outdoor swimmer, a cross-country skier, and an avid collector of glass 

paperweights. Helen Thornton gives us a glimpse into her world of research, travel, 

conferences, website, all connected to this hobby. The chance to talk to people 

engaged in such a range of interests must be one reason to come to college reunions. 

On a more serious note, Patricia Savours (Tricia Jones) plans to visit Uganda, Ethiopia 

and Rwanda when she retires in a year’s time to promote science education for girls. 

She has had one trip to Uganda, funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry, to do some 

teacher training. This summer she is taking 12 students from the 6th form college 

in which she teaches to a school near the Congo border. What an impressive way 

to spend retirement, helping girls there fulfil their ambitions of becoming doctors, 

dentists, nurses and pharmacists. 

So that is where we are now and let’s hope that the next person to write a 1965 report, 

in about 15 years time, will find that we still have such active and interesting lives. 

Looking back 

Your memories and thoughts about the lasting influence of the Somerville experience 

are actually as much about Oxford, the city, the wider university contacts both social 

and academic, as about college. Put most succinctly by Julia Lourie (Barr): “I met and 

married my husband at Oxford. My 1st. from Oxford got me my job”. From a practical 

point of view, one cannot ask for more. Ten of us met our husbands at Oxford, and 

most at least started their careers in work closely connected to the subject they read. 

More generally, Shirley Wynne Vinall (Jones) summarised a common view, writing 

that her time in Oxford was “immensely enriching intellectually, socially, culturally, 

politically”. You valued the contact with brilliant tutors, the work, and also the variety 

of societies which competed with work for our time.

Somerville College Report for 1965 | 55


A sense of place was also a strong theme: Oxford in summer, cycling in a hurry 

to tutorials away from college, the college garden and Library, the river, our rooms, 

especially in our last year. Meals also figured in our memories, obviously more for 

the quality of the conversation than of the food! 

Having time to talk to other students was a valued part of college life, and one which 

we perhaps appreciate more in contrast with later experiences in the workplace. 

Those conversations over coffee or tea helped us to develop our personal views on 

a wide variety of important subjects and to defend and stick to our beliefs while 

remaining on reasonable terms with those who disagreed with us. 

However, not everyone’s memories were good ones, nor did everyone think 

Somerville and Oxford had a positive effect on them. A feeling of “floundering, 

academically and socially” and that one did not deserve a place is easier to 

acknowledge now we are older, and should be given due space with all the sunnier 

comments. 

Whatever our past experiences, we all have contact with at least one person from 

our undergraduate days. There was a remarkably uniform pattern to your answers 

about current contacts: a few friends made either in a subject group, at a university 

society, through drama, music or sport, or by having neighbouring college rooms. 

Two of you were bridesmaids at each other’s weddings. It may be that we are only 

now at the stage of wanting contact with more of our contemporaries at Somerville, 

appreciating common memories, interested in what people have done, are doing 

and plan to do next. 

NICOLA DAVIES (GALESKI)

Members’ News | 57 

Members’ News 

1941 

Marjorie Boulton 

has written an essay for a 

presentation volume to the 

distinguished Esperantist, 

Humphrey Tonkin. 

1943 

Hanna Altmann 

(Mrs Broodbank) 

lost her husband in November 

2007 after 61 years of very 

happy marriage. 

Joey Huckett 

(Mrs Philpott) 

celebrated her Diamond Wedding 

anniversary on 23 August 2009. 

1944 

Audrey Clark 

(Mrs Butler) 

writes: “We are hoping to move 

south as soon as we can sell 

our present house: we want to 

be nearer more family and also 

closer to facilities generally. This 

rural spot is lovely, but rather 

isolated. Arnold and I celebrated 

our Diamond Wedding on 17 June 

this year. We actually met in 1947, 

in a history lecture in Schools. 

Since then, our two daughters 

have been to Somerville, and 

one grandson was at Arnold’s 

old college, Worcester, so the 

connection with both colleges has 

been maintained. Our first greatgrandchild 

was born in 2009, 

but whether she will eventually 

attend either establishment it 

is rather early to say.....We have 

had 60 wonderful years, our great 

tragedy being the sudden death 

of our second son last autumn.” 

1945 

Cecily Darwin 

(Mrs Littleton)’s 

husband died in June 2009, aged 86. 

1946 

Angela Croome 

is now confirmed as Deputy 

Editor of The International Journal 

of Nautical Archaeology, which 

she helped to launch in 1972 and 

for which she has been Reviews 

Editor (honorary) ever since. 

Barbara Lockwood 

(Mrs Forrai) 

writes: “Don’t laugh; I’ve got a 

new job as a 1-to-1 Tutor on the 

government scheme for failing 

students, teaching GCSE Maths 

at Westwood College! As I/M 

Secretary for the BHF I passed 

my £250,000 in processed 

donations this financial year, 

having written 9,500 letters of 

thanks. The circumnavigation of 

Wrangel Island was fantastic and 

my article thereon, “Expedition to 

the Russian High Arctic, or Flying 

to Tomorrow”, was published in 

the GB-Russian Journal, who used 

my photos also on the front and 

back cover. We stood where the 

180 longitude intersects the Arctic 

Circle and later sailed past the 

narrow gap between Russian and 

Alaskan islands.....not a bad year!” 

1947 

Mirjana Vidaković 

(Mrs Harding) 

has recently moved from Devon 

to Poole in Dorset. “It would be 

good to know of any Somervillians 

in the vicinity, especially with 

musical interests.” 

1948 

Shirley Catlin 

(Baroness Williams) 

came back to Somerville this year 

to open an archive room dedicated 

to her mother, Vera Brittain. The 

room contains a collection of 

correspondence, speeches, books 

and photos of, by and about 

Vera Brittain that were given to 

Somerville by her friend and 

biographer, Paul Berry. 

Philippa Downes 

(Mrs Bishop) 

has published Holburne Years 

(Millstream Books, 2009).

58 | Members’ News 

1951 

Lindsey March 

is now living in Hertfordshire, in 

a very pleasant community, not 

sheltered, but semi-charitable, which 

was founded for people who have 

been in publishing or book-selling. 

Lindsey qualified because she had 

worked for the Cambridge University 

Press long ago. The address is 34, 

The Retreat, Kings Langley, Herts, 

and Lindsey would be delighted to 

hear from contemporaries. Kings 

Langley is a small village, not yet 

swallowed up by Watford, which has 

a Steiner School. It is very near the 

M25 and the Ml. 

Helen Wilman 

(Mrs Bond) 

writes: “I spent ten years in an 

old house in the Yorkshire Dales, 

renovating it and myself after 

separating from my husband. In 

2008 I came to live in London for 

the first time in my life, to help 

look after my two grandchildren, 

both then under three. I am 

loving it, but like to go back to my 

hillside retreat in between holiday 

lets to meet up with old friends. 

Any Somervillian interested in an 

unusual and beautiful spot for a 

holiday should look up Nettlebed 

on www.catholecottages.com.” 

1952 

Daphne Gloag 

(Mrs Williamson) 

had her second poetry collection, 

A Compression of Distances, 

published by Cinnamon Press 

last autumn and has continued to 

have individual poems published 

in magazines. This collection 

includes part of a long poem 

sequence with a cosmological 

setting, which she is working to 

complete. The book is dedicated 

to the memory of her husband, 

Peter Williamson, also a poet, who 

died three years ago after a most 

happy marriage. 

1954 

Molly Bryant 

(Professor Scopes) 

writes: “I was honoured in 2009 

by the award of a Fellowship of 

Heythrop College, University of 

London, in recognition of my nine 

years of service as a Governor 

there, since retiring from Queen 

Mary. This is a bitter-sweet 

moment for me because it marks 

the end of 55 years of direct 

University involvement, since the 

time when I came up to Oxford in 

1954, and I shall miss that contact!” 

1955 

Jenny Dobbin 

(Mrs Knauss) 

resides now in a skilled care 

facility in Baltimore, happily 

close to her daughter Olivia 

and grandson Jacob. Though 

ever progressing brain damage 

means that Jenny’s recall of the 

past is minimal, her memories of 

Somerville are still strong because 

her years there were so happy 

for her and were an inspiration 

and foundation for her many 

major achievements afterward, 

achievements she does not now 

recall. Jenny is still very active and 

brings joy to her fellow residents. 

Her outlook on her new life is 

that of her happy childhood and 

of her happy years in Oxford. 

Julia Dunn 

(Mrs Barstow) 

retired from the University of 

Connecticut in 2002 after 24 

years. She enjoys country life, 

gardening, making maple syrup, 

sewing, knitting and time with the 

grandchildren (1 boy, 5 girls). She 

is re-learning Russian, originally 

studied in graduate school 

(University of Pennsylvania) in 

the 1960s. 

Helen Ross 

has published articles on “Perception 

in Unusual Environments” and 

“Weight Perception” in Encyclopedia 

of Perception, ed. E.B. Goldstein 

(Los Angeles: Sage, 2010), and, with 

A. Cowie, “The moon illusion in 

children’s drawings”, International 

Journal of Arts and Technology, 2010, 

3, Nos 2/3. 

1957 

Virginia Luling 

is co-editor, with Markus Hoehne, 

of Milk and Peace, Drought and War; 

Somali Culture, Society and Politics; 

Essays in honour of I.M. Lewis, 

published in May 2010 by Hurst and 

Company. She also contributed an 

article to it: “Farmers from Arabia: 

the role of Gibil Cad groups in the 

interior of southern Somalia.”


Maya Bradshaw 

(Dr Slater) 

has edited Boris Pasternak Family 

Correspondence 1921-1960, 

translated by Nicholas Pasternak 

Slater (Hoover Institution Press, 

Stanford University, 2010). 

1958 

Eileen Young 

(Professor Denza) 

has published 15 chapters in 

the 6th edition of Satow’s Guide 

to Diplomatic Practice, edited by 

Ivor Roberts; a chapter in the 3rd 

edition of M.D, Evans’ International 

Law; and a chapter in The 1951 

Convention Relating to the Status of 

Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, edited 

by Zimmermann. 

1961 

Vivien Evans 

(Dr Morris) 

gained a Diploma from the 

Society of Botanical Artists in 

2010. This was a demanding 

course which provided an 

interesting application of the 

physics of light (and of her 

husband’s botanical background). 

1962 

Sonia Anderson 

has published “Material relating 

to the Ionian Islands among 

Gladstone’s papers at St Deiniol’s 

Library, Hawarden” in Proceedings of 

the 8th Panionian Conference, Kythera, 

21-25 May, III (2009), 11-22. 

Jennifer Black 

(Professor Coates) 

gave the Richard Hoggart Lecture 

at Goldsmiths College, London, 

on 1 December 2009. She was 

Visiting Professor at the University 

of Paderborn, Germany, in 

February 2010 and has prepared 

the 2nd edition of Language and 

Gender : A Reader for Blackwell, 

due out in 2011. She was made 

Professor Emeritus in September 

2009. 

Christine Lee 

has been made a FRCOG ad 

eundem, in recognition of her 

work with women who have 

inherited bleeding disorders. 

Mandakranta Bose 

has two recent publications: 

Sangitanarayana, A Critical 

Edition of a 17th Century Sanskrit 

Text on Music and Dance (New 

Delhi: Indira Gandhi National 

Centre for the Arts, and Motilal 

Banarsidass, 2009); and Women 

in the Hindu Tradition: Rules, Roles 

and Exceptions (London & New 

York: Routledge, 2010.) Professor 

Bose visits Oxford regularly in the 

summer. 

1964 

Gillian Metford 

(Professor Clark) 

is taking early retirement, with 

the aim of safeguarding posts in 

difficult times, and looks forward 

to more research and writing. 

Sue Watson 

(Mrs Griffin) 

writes: “I have been a magistrate 

for over 30 years now, and am 

currently in my second year as 

Chair of the East Cambridgeshire 

Bench. This has been an interesting 

if, at times, challenging role. We are 

a small bench, about to merge with 

Cambridge which includes another 

old Somervillian, Stephanie 

Bishop (Lyons, 1971). Our 200 year 

old courthouse in Ely is on the list 

of 103 magistrates’ courts which 

the Ministry of Justice proposes 

to close. Sad to see a break with 

history like this, but the building 

is not much used, has limited 

facilities, and its listed status makes 

it expensive to maintain, so the 

cold logic of cost-cutting prevails. 

Family court work has expanded 

in the wake of the Baby Peter case, 

and is often demanding of time and 

emotional energy, but at times can 

also be very satisfying. A great treat 

to have Sunethra (Bandaranaike) 

to stay with us during her visit to 

the UK in May. We enjoyed visiting 

Somerville and having lunch with 

the Principal.” 

1965 

Carolyn Williams 

(Mrs Lyle), 

Senior Lecturer in the Department 

of English and American Literature 

at the University of Reading, 

has published Boudica and Her 

Stories: Narrative Transformation 

of a Warrior Queen (University of 

Delaware Press, 2009).


1966 

Alyson Bailes 

taught a course on “New 

Security Challenges and Security 

Governance” at the College of 

Europe in Bruges in the spring 

term 2010 and has been invited 

to continue it next year as a 

Visiting Professor. 

Jenny Salaman 

(Mrs Manson) 

still works for HMRC but part-time 

these days so that she can help with 

her grandchildren. She has recently 

published a book entitled What 

It Feels Like To be Me, a collection 

of contributions about the shared 

human condition of being alone 

in our heads. Men and women of 

all ages (including the poet Dannie 

Abse) address the question “What it 

feels like to be me” (for example, am 

I the same person day to day, year 

by year?). Liz Masters, 1966 (Mrs 

Shaw), comments as a professional 

counsellor. The foreword is by Dr 

Jonathan Miller. 

1967 

Deborah Hewitt 

(Mrs Bowen) 

writes: “2010 has seen two important 

‘births’ for me. First, the birth of 

my first grandson, to my daughter 

Anna …. of course an absolutely 

beautiful baby, and we are thrilled 

to welcome him into the family. 

Second, my book Stories of the Middle 

Space: Reading the Ethics of Postmodern 

Realisms, an investigation of four 

modes of contemporary fiction, 

was published by McGill-Queen’s 

University Press in April. Partly as 

a result of this publication, I will 

be ‘inducted’ as a full professor at 

Redeemer University College in 

October -- the first woman in the 

25-year-old college to reach this 

position.” 

Margaret Sidebottom 

(Dr Clark) 

has published in July 2010 

St Laurence’s Church, Ludlow: the 

Parish Church and People 1199-2009 

(Logaston Press). 

1969 

Jill Harries 

became a Fellow of the Royal 

Society of Edinburgh (FRSE), the 

Scottish Academy of Arts and 

Sciences, in May this year. 

Ariel Parker 

(Mrs Wagner-Parker) 

published a new book, In the Air, in 

February 2010. The book includes 

“Home from Home” (written with 

Guy Wagner), 3rd prize ex aequo 

in Luxembourg’s National Literary 

Competition in 2007, as well as short 

unpublished prose and a selection 

of the column which Ariel writes 

for the monthly socio-cultural and 

political magazine kulturissimo, 

which she co-edits (Luxembourg: 

Editions Le Phare, 2010). 

Elizabeth (Liz) 

Westbrook 

(Mrs Thorne) 

has just completed a Masters 

in Education with the Open 

University, focusing on Special 

Needs. In 2004 she took on the 

task of setting up a Learning 

Support Department at her school 

(Bristol Grammar School), and 

needed the additional training 

for this. She is retiring from 

full-time teaching next summer, 

and hopes to sell her services 

to schools in her area (Bath and 

Bristol) as a free-lance Specialist 

Teacher, offering assessments for 

Specific Learning Difficulties. “It’s 

surprising what opportunities 

offer themselves - I never thought 

I would teach, let alone specialise 

in young people with problems, 

but it is a very interesting field 

which offers plenty of intellectual 

challenge, especially 

in assessments.” 

1971 

Julia Smith 

has edited Susanna Hopton 

in the series The Early Modern 

Englishwoman: A Facsimile Library 

of Essential Works, 2 vols (Farnham: 

Ashgate, 2010). 

Ruth Thompson 

left the civil service in April 2009 

after over thirty years, having 

been Director General, Higher 

Education, since 2006. She has 

so far become a Governor at 

Birkbeck College, University


of London, and at Staffordshire 

University, and finds herself very 

fully and pleasantly occupied with 

a combination of paid and unpaid 

work. In 2010 she became an 

Honorary Fellow of Somerville. 

Trudy Watt 

has taken early retirement from 

Trinity College Oxford after eight 

years as the College’s first full 

time Senior Tutor, and is enjoying 

continuing to live in Oxford. 

1972 

Rosemary Hall 

has published “Coventry’s 

‘Pauper Lunatics’, 1844 -1889” 

in Warwickshire History 14(3) 

Summer 2009. 

Judith Palmer 

(Mrs Adam) 

was licensed as a Reader in the 

Church of England in January by 

the Bishop of Birmingham, and is 

now kept quite busy in her home 

parish, mostly preaching and 

leading services. 

1973 

Jane Darcy 

got her PhD in 2009 and was 

awarded a British Academy Post- 

Doctoral Fellowship. She began 

this at King’s College, London, and 

is transferring to University College, 

London, in September 2010. 

Cynthia Michalski 

(Professor Macdonald), 

Professor of Philosophy at Queen’s 

University, Belfast, has published 

Emergence in Mind, which she 

co-edited with Graham Macdonald 

(Oxford: OUP, 2010). She was 

appointed Emeritus Professor at 

the University of Canterbury, New 

Zealand, in November 2009. 

1974 

Olwyn Hocking 

writes: “Digital Voice, our social 

enterprise, supports media 

participation for groups often 

excluded: from traveller families 

to young refugees; from football 

fans who happen to have a learning 

disability to young people in secure 

accommodation. The last year has 

seen an opportunity to complement 

this with a role advising Ofcom, the 

industry watchdog, on how well 

it’s doing for us, as citizens and 

consumers. All views welcome!” 

Jenna Orkin 

writes: “Having worked since 9/11 

on the environmental disaster 

which ensued from the collapse of 

the buildings and the fires which 

burned and smouldered for over 

three months in New York, I’m 

now writing and doing research 

for a new website, CollapseNet. 

com. We focus on Peak Oil and its 

consequences: drilling in uncharted 

territory with its attendant dangers; 

energy shortages, economic 

collapse and global unrest with 

outbreaks of war. The parallels 

between the envirodisaster of 

9/11 and the oil gusher in the 

Gulf of Mexico are striking in 

terms of health consequences and 

government malfeasance.” 

Sue Owen 

is taking early retirement to live 

in the south of France with her 

husband. She will continue writing 

and will retain scholarly links 

with Sheffield University as an 

Honorary Professor. 

1975 

Judith Gilchrist 

(Mrs Corstjens) 

has published: Xtensity: Why 5% 

Of Dieters Succeed. 

Valerie Sackwild 

(Dr Rahmani) 

left IBM after 28 years to take a 

CEO role in a start-up. She also 

moved from New York to Atlanta, 

Georgia. “I recommend start-up life 

to everyone.” 

Linda Scott 

moved from her game farm in 

Botswana, where she had homeschooled 

her three children (an 

experience now captured in 

her daughter Robyn’s memoir 

Twenty Chickens for a Saddle), to 

Cape Town in 2002. She gained 

an MSc in Nutritional Medicine 

from the University of Surrey 

in 2006 - a programme run by 

Somervillian Professor Margaret 

Rayman (O’Riordan, 1966). In 

2008 she co-founded Mothers for 

All, a non-profit organisation that 

supports the caregivers of AIDS 

orphans in Botswana and South


Africa through training in incomegenerating 

projects and life skills. 

She is currently Chairperson 

of the Cape Town Oxford and 

Cambridge Society. 

1976 

Ruth Coggan 

(Mrs Mayes) 

continues to find working as a 

head teacher both challenging 

and rewarding. Her work-life 

balance has been improved by 

her recent marriage and her 

change to part-time working. 

Jane Davenport 

(Mrs Millinchip) 

has just been selected to begin 

training as a lay reader in the 

Diocese of Chester to serve in the 

Parish of St Mary Whitegate. 

1977 

Emma Henderson 

spent two years, after leaving 

Oxford, on a Fellowship in French 

at Yale then returned to the UK, 

where she worked as a copywriter 

at Penguin Books for several 

years before training to teach. 

“My ambition was always to write 

fiction, and I believed that teaching 

would be compatible with that 

ambition and with family life. I 

was wrong. Only after my family 

commitments became fewer and 

I stopped teaching was I able to 

fulfil my ambition. I completed my 

first novel last year, at the grand 

old age of 51, and, it was published 

by Sceptre on 10 June 2010 under 

the title Grace Williams Says It Loud. 

Sceptre has also contracted me to 

write a second novel.” 

1979 

Luisa Anton-Pacheco 

has been teaching at the 

Department of English Studies 

at the Universidad Autonoma 

de Madrid. She has written 

introductions to the Spanish 

editions of Ford Madox Ford’s 

The Good Soldier and Henry James’s 

The Portrait of a Lady. She stayed in 

Oxford for two weeks this summer 

with her husband and daughter. 

Julia Gasper 

stood unsuccessfully as a 

parliamentary candidate for UKIP 

in the 2010 General Election. 

“I feel that at least I made some 

protest when Britain gave away 

its democracy. I am as always 

writing various books. The last 

one, a biography, was accepted 

for publication in French and 

translated, but the publishers 

have never been happy with the 

translation and four years after 

signing the contract they are talking 

about hiring a second translator. 

It seems an interminable process, 

and I hope this will not be the one 

example in history of an entire work 

being lost in translation. Undeterred, 

I am writing another biography so 

we will see what happens.” 

1981 

Ruth Webb 

has been appointed Professor 

of Greek at the Université 

Lille 3 (which is in commuting 

distance from London). Her second 

book, Elephrasis, Imagination and 

Persuasion in Ancient Rhetorical 

Theory & Practice, appeared in 2009. 

1982 

Catherine Royle 

de Camprubi 

finished her time as Ambassador 

to Venezuela at the end of July 

2010. Her new post is Deputy 

Ambassador in Afghanistan, for a 

year or so from mid September. 

Madhura 

Swaminathan’s 

year began on a productive note 

with the publication of Socio- 

Economic Surveys of Three Villages 

in Andhra Pradesh (New Delhi: 

Tulika Books, 2010), of which she 

is an editor and contributor. Visits 

to South Korea, for a conference 

at the University of Daegn, and to 

Geneva, for a meeting called by the 

UN Independent Expert on Human 

Rights and Poverty, have livened up 

her regular academic routine. 

1983 

Helen Parnell 

(Mrs Williams) 

is very much looking forward to 

becoming an Oxford parent as her 

daughter, Stephanie, has a place at 

Brasenose to read physics. She also 

hopes to become a student again, 

doing a PGCE in secondary science 

teaching with the OU, subject to 

finding a suitable training school 

where she can do her teaching practice.


Serena Rendell 

(Mrs Joseph) 

has formed Joseph & 

Hepple-Wilson, a financial services 

regulatory practice, taking with 

her in November 2009 the team 

that worked for her as a partner 

leading the Regulatory Advisory 

Practice at Mazars LLP. 

1987 

Clare Ambrose 

has published the 3rd edition 

of London Maritime Arbitration 

(London: Informa, 2009). 

Otherwise all is well – Georgina 

(her third) has just started walking 

and the boys are great fun. She is 

working about half-time, mainly 

from home with reduced court 

work, which suits pretty well. 

Angela Ellis 

(Mrs Pearce) 

continues to balance her work 

and family life by working parttime 

from home, managing a 

website for Families Magazine, 

www.familiesonline.co.uk; she is 

“learning lots of new skills and 

having heaps of fun too.” 

1988 

Heather Grabbe 

is living in Brussels with her two 

daughters, Claudia (nearly 6) and 

Allegra (3). Last year she left the 

European Commission after nearly 

five years as Senior Advisor to 

Commissioner Olli Rehn, when 

she had been responsible for 

the Balkans and Turkey during 

turbulent and very interesting 

times. She is now director of the 

Open Society Institute-Brussels, 

which covers all the EU-related 

activities of OSI and the Soros 

Foundations in 70 countries. 

Anna Poole 

was appointed First Standing 

Junior Counsel to the Scottish 

Government in January 2010. She 

is an advocate at the Scots Bar 

and lives in Edinburgh with her 

husband and two children, 

Bess (8) and Jack (6). 

1989 

Therese Coffey 

has been newly elected Conservative 

M.P. for Suffolk Coastal. 

Liz Humphry 

(Mrs Heffner) 

has had a busy year. “I qualified as 

a nurse with a 2:1 (Hons) in August 

2009. Now that I have emigrated 

to Media, Pennsylvania, USA, I 

need to take a 9 month conversion 

course alongside American nursing 

students before being permitted 

to take their board exams and be 

licensed to practice. I am hoping 

to start this in January 2011. My 

daughter, Elanor Janice Louise 

Heffner, was born at 28 weeks on 

5th January 2010. I am adjusting 

to life as a full time mother, as her 

prematurity means that she cannot 

mix with other children in any form 

of day care!” 

1990 

Catherine Goddard 

(Mrs Callen) 

writes: “Unbelievably 20 years have 

passed since matriculation, and a 

few of us celebrated at our annual 

get together in Oxford. My husband 

and I now have two wonderful 

boys, Thomas, three, and James, 

one. James has Down’s syndrome, 

which means he will experience 

some degree of developmental delay 

and learning difficulty. He is very 

alert, constantly smiling, clapping, 

waving and babbling, and generally 

charming everyone with whom he 

comes into contact. Our family life 

continues as normal, Andi and I both 

enjoy working four days a week and 

spending the rest of our time with the 

children. We have been helped by 

several amazing families who were 

introduced to us after having James, 

and if anyone reading this faces a 

prenatal or postnatal diagnosis of 

Down’s syndrome, and would like 

someone to talk to, please contact me 

through College.” 

1991 

Sarah Case 

(Mrs Piggott) 

has become a Demonstrator for 

Stampin’ Up, a company making 

papercraft products. She is running 

monthly card-making classes in 

Eastbourne as well as holding 

home workshops.


Marisa Le Masurier 

works as a consultant psychiatrist 

in beautiful Cumbria and is 

spending her spare time 

climbing mountains. 

Kathryn Whitney, 

currently Walton Fellow at the 

Royal Welsh College of Music and 

Drama, Cardiff, performed songs 

by William Walton in Cardiff on 

30 June 2010, as a prelude to her 

performance at Lady Walton’s estate 

on the island of Ischia. 

1992 

Vicki Booth (Mrs Leu) 

married last April, had a baby son 

(Carl Alexander) in February, and 

moved from Munich to Zurich 

with her German husband. She is 

currently on a most generous 3 year 

maternity break from Linde, the 

company she moved from London 

to Munich to work for, enjoying 

motherhood, but also hoping to 

return to work. 

Celia Delaney 

(Wrighton) 

“had a wonderful wedding to David 

Ferris on 5th June at Lawrence Castle 

in Exeter in beautiful sunshine. We 

went on honeymoon to Turkey for 

a week, before returning to reality 

with a crash! My business, Delaney 

& Hart (event marketing), is going 

well, although there’s no doubt 

it is hard work in this climate. 

I’m not taking David’s name and 

will continue to work under my 

professional name of Celia Delaney. 

Looking forward to married life!” 

1993 

Natalie Cook 

(Dr Briant) 

writes: “Josie was born at home in 

November 2009. Miles is loving 

being a big brother and we are 

all enjoying my maternity leave. 

Unfortunately breaking my ankle in 

May 2010 has messed it up a bit!” 

Anita Howard 

continues to live and teach in Cork, 

Ireland. In March 2010 she published 

a book, The King Within: Reformations 

of Power in Shakespeare and Calderón 

(Oxford: Peter Lang, 2010). 

Kate Williams’ 

historical works, Becoming Queen 

and England’s Mistress: the Infamous 

Life of Emma Hamilton, have 

achieved considerable success; 

a film version of the latter is in 

production and a stage musical 

is in development. Her historical 

novel, The Pleasures of Men, will be 

published by Penguin next year. 

1995 

Sam Gyimah 

has been newly elected 

Conservative M.P. for Surrey East. 

1997 

Hannah Loach 

(Mrs Dunleavy) 

has been awarded a PhD from York 

University for her thesis, The Naked 

Eye : Vision and Risk in the World of 

Gerard Manley Hopkins. 

2000 

Marina Faggionato 

and Dean Briffa 

married on 23 July 2009. Dean is 

still serving in the army (he has just 

returned from a tour of Afghanistan) 

and Marina is in practice at QEB 

chambers. They are both changing 

their names to Webb. 

2002 

Gianna Chadwick, 

having originally read Human 

Sciences at Somerville, went on to 

do graduate fast-track medicine, 

graduating in July from King’s 

College London with distinction. 

She will be working as a junior 

doctor in Ashford, Kent, from 

August. “I was lucky enough to 

receive several Somerville postgraduate 

awards during my time 

at King’s, and I’m very grateful 

to the college for their support 

throughout my further studies.” 

Rose Lerner 

is starting (in October) a job in 

Finland at the Helsinki Institute 

of Physics as a research associate, 

having completed her PhD at 

Lancaster. 

2005 

Nicola Blackwood 

has been newly elected 

Conservative M.P. for Oxford West 

and Abingdon, the constituency in 

which Somerville lies.

Somerville MPs. From left to right: Therese Coffey (1989), Helen Goodman (1976), Nia Griffith (1975), 

Sam Gyimah (1995) and Nicola Blackwood (2005) 

Media Network Day 2009. Speakers from left to right: Roz Morris (1966), Kati Whitaker (1977), Rebecca Swindells (1992), 

Maggie Gee (1966), Peter Bazelgette and Rebecca Moss (Wilcox, 1999). Rhodri Jones (1996) is missing from the picture.

Somervillian mother, Nadine Majaro (1975) and son, Ben Pilgrim (2006)

Esther Rantzen, CBE (1959), speaker at the Winter Meeting 2010 and one of Somerville’s new Honorary Fellows.

19 June: Somerville Garden Party. The Principal with Oliver (1997) and Claire Rosten (Popper, 1997) and baby. The 

Principal conducted a blessing of their marriage in the College Chapel after the civil ceremony in 2006.

3 July: Somerville Gaudy 2010 for the matric years 1994-2006

Children’s entertainer at Dame Fiona’s farewell Garden Party 2010

The Principal and the Treasurer looking to the future on the ROQ site.

Somervillian mother, Margaret Brecknell (Dick, 1962) and daughter, Sophie (1997) after Sophie’s 

marriage to Richard Chapman in the College Chapel. 

Dame Fi’s Barmy Army: The Somerville Women’s Football Team.

Marriages | 73 

Marriages 

Civil 

Partnerships 

Abels-Patel 

on 20 June 2009 Tracy (1992) 

to Pathik Patel 

Brecknell-Chapman 

on 9 January 2010 Sophie (1997) 

to Richard Chapman 

Coggan-Mayes 

on 31 July 2009 Ruth (1976) 

to Christopher Mayes 

Farmer-Hanson 

on 1 September 2007 Eleanor 

(1998) to Luke (1999) 

Gooden -Willis 

on 3 April 2010 Rachel (1995) 

to Jonathan Willis 

Guhathakurta-Cook 

on 6 September 2009 Ela (1990) 

to Jonathan Cook 

Richardson-Hudson 

on 26 June 2010 Liz (1998) 

to David Hudson 

Sweeting-Sidell 

on 25 September 2009 Katie (1998) 

to Rob (1994) 

Tweedale-McGeagh 

on 25 September 2010 

Anna (1995) to Nicolas McGeagh 

Wentz-Harvey 

in 2009 Emily (2000) 

to Andrew Harvey 

Goodwin – Clarke 

on 26 September 2009 Julia (1969) 

to Aileen Clarke

74 | Births 

Births 

Asokarajan 

to Geeth (2000) and Roshani 

on 7 September 2009 a son, 

Arkash Geeth 

Bird 

to Carol née McColl (1990) on 23 

July 2009 a son, Otto Benedict 

Bird, a brother for Fred, Felix, 

Cottie and Bertie 

Briant 

to Natalie née Cook (1993) and 

Andy in November 2009 a daughter, 

Josie, a sister for Miles 

Coll 

to Elizabeth Louise (‘Beth’) (1976) 

on 6 January 2010 a daughter, 

Esme Mimosa Cela 

Goldsmith 

to Megan and Alexander (1995) 

on 11 February 2010 a son Theo, a 

brother for Cecilia 

Hammer 

to Emily née Carlisle (1995) and Jan 

on 9 September 2009 a daughter, 

Annabel Christina 

Hanson 

to Eleanor née Farmer (1999) and 

Luke (1998) on 17 January 2010 a 

son, Somerset Joseph 

Harford 

to Sophy (1997) and Alexander 

Flood on 18 March 2010 a daughter, 

Charlotte Daffern Amelia Flood 

Palmer 

to Jon (1996) and Christina 

Stahlkopf on 16 November 2009 a 

son, Nicholas Cameron Palmer 

Rosten 

to Claire née Popper (1997) and 

Oliver Rosten (1997) on 22 January 

2010 a daughter, Faye 

Ryle 

to Kate Ryle (1988) and Tom Barnes 

on 6 March 2010 a daughter, Eloise 

Lilith Barnes 

Timlin 

to Naomi née Cameron (1992) 

on 14 July 2010 twin boys

Deaths | 75 

Deaths 

Ackner 

Joan May née Evans (1943) 

on 8 May 2010 Aged 85 

Barr 

Rona Geneva née Gundry (1947) on 

24 July 2010 Aged 81 

Binns 

Helen née Whitaker (1943) on 28 

January 2010 Aged 84 

Blamires 

Gertrude Lillie née Skilling (1967) 

on 29 November 2009 Aged 61 

Brand 

Vanessa Carolyn Alexandra née 

Rodrigues (1965) on 29 September 

2009 Aged 63 

Broome 

Margaret Betty née Bliss (1939) on 

27 September 2009 Aged about 88 

Chapman 

Christine Margaret (1971) on 25 

July 2010 Aged 63 

Eastman 

Margaret Eleanor (1955) on 7 

August 2009 Aged 73 

Fagan 

Marion Rose née Wilbraham (1931) 

on 20 June 2010 Aged 97 

Fender 

Elizabeth née Davies (1961) 

on 7 August 2010 Aged 70 

Field 

Elizabeth Patricia née Payne (1944) 

on 13 February 2010 Aged 83 

Flexner 

Elizabeth Anne née Wrey (1936) on 

30 December 2009 Aged 92 

Harbron 

Lucy Jane née Wilks (1979) 

on 31 May 2010 Aged 49 

Heritage 

Elizabeth Faulkener née Robertson 

(1951) on 30 January 2010 Aged 77 

Higginson 

Margaret Dora (1937) 

on 1 September 2009 Aged 90 

Howarth 

Kathleen Verona née Maynard 

(1936) on 16 December 2008 Aged 

91 

Jones 

Muriel née Bentley (1938) 

on 17 January 2010 Aged 89 

Jones-Lewitt 

Gwenllian née Jones (1980) 


Jordan 

Margaret née King (1950) 


Kessler 

Constance Cecilia née Offen (1945) 


Loughnane 

Florence Mary (‘Molly’) (1944) 


Lourie 

Elena Ruth (1955) on 29 December 

2009 Aged 73 

Manches 

Judith Rose née Hydleman (1935) 

on 16 March 2010 Aged 93 

Marten 

The Hon. Mary Anna Sibell 

Elizabeth née Sturt (1948) 


Martin 

Margaret Imogen née Egford (1966) 

on 11 February 2010 

Aged 62 

Morton 

Jennifer Anne (1980) 


Mulvey 

Sarah Louise (1992) on 

28 January 2010 Aged 34

76 | Deaths 

Deaths 

Nichols 

Elizabeth Anne née Walsh (1982) on 

30 January 2010 Aged 47 

Papadopoulos 

Andreas-Theodoros (1999) 

on 21 March 2010 Aged 32 

Park 

Daphne Margaret Sybil Désirée 

(1940) on 24 March 2010 Aged 88 

Pontin 

Margaret née Leitch (1930) 

on 1 January 2010 Aged about 96 

Poole 

Stella Mary Grant née Morris (1940) 

on 8 December 2009 

Aged 86 

Reagor 

Simone (1963) on 3 August 2010 

Aged 71 

Rendel 

Bridget née Palliser (1944) 

on 9 May 2010 Aged about 84 

Rose 

Marion Hilda (1943) in 2009 

Aged about 85 

Thornhill 

Myma Kay née Heathcote (1936) 

in 2010 Aged 93 

Turner 

Janet née Dawson (1958) 


Wallace 

Charlotte Rachel Anwyl née 

Williams-Ellis (1938) 

on 30 December 2009 Aged 90 

Wallace 

Mary Elizabeth (1932) 


Wimbury 

Jane Frances née Cook (1953) 


Windsor-Clive 

Mary Alice née Joliffe (1956) 

in 2009 Aged 71 

Zinkin 

Sheila Joy (1946) in June 2010 Aged 

about 82

Obituaries | 77 

Obituaries 

Daphne Park, Baroness Park of Monmouth, 

Principal 1980-89, 

died on 24 March 2010. 

The College will be producing a separate memorial booklet about her life 

and a Daphne Park Bursary Fund will be established in her memory. 

There will be a memorial service for her at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster, at 

noon on 26 October (tickets from: Mr M Arnoldi, Room 26, The Chapter Office, 

20 Dean’s Yard, London, SW1P 3PA.) 

Daphne Park at the unveiling of her portrait 5th June 2009

78 | Obituaries 

Judith Manches (Hydleman, 1935) 

Judith and Sidney Manches 

Judith Manches died peacefully on 16th March 2010 at the age of 93. The following 

is an extract from an address given at her funeral by her son Louis Manches. 

“Today, Jane, Liz and I invite you to look back with us, to reflect on and to 

celebrate the lives of our extraordinary parents; lives which were long, full, and 

largely very happy, lives that touched the lives of many other people. 

She and Sidney, my father, were married for a couple of months less than 60 years. 

Their marriage was competitive, often stormy; they certainly had good times and 

bad times, often several of each during the same dinner. They were both strong, 

independent people, but nevertheless their marriage was the centrepiece of their 

lives: so much so that it’s hard for me today to talk about my mother without 

talking about my father almost as much - even though it might have irritated her to 

share the limelight with him today of all days.


My mother was ahead of her time in so many ways. As I tell the story of her career 

and her family, and how she balanced them, a familiar enough story in 2010, it is 

hard to remember that she was born in 1916, half way through the First World War. 

She met my father when she was 18. He was an articled clerk at Nicholson 

Graham and Jones at the time. He told his grandchildren the story of how he used 

to come and see her in Ealing each night and walk home to Willesden late at night, 

keeping himself awake by running a rolled up newspaper along the railings at the 

side of the road. 

At 19 she went to Somerville College, Oxford and got a degree in History. 

She was 23 when she and my father married on 3rd September 1939, the day war 

was declared. By then, my father had set up his own firm. She became his first 

articled clerk, and, when she qualified, they became the first husband and wife to 

practice as solicitors in partnership together. 

The first ten years of their marriage were eventful, to say the least. There was a 

war on for the first six years. They had just started a law firm; Jane was born when 

my mother was 26, Liz when she was 30. Two years later, when my mother was 32, 

they moved to Totteridge, which was to be their home for the next 30 years. Less 

than a year later, her father, who adored her and who had played a huge part in 

her life, was killed in a car crash, a devastating and defining moment in her life. By 

the time I was born she was 38, unusually old to have a baby at that time. 

My parents worked together in their law firm for 25 years. Quite how they 

managed it when they disagreed about everything, I don’t know, but somehow 

they did. She retired as a lawyer at age 50 and embarked on a second career when 

she was asked to be Chairman of the Trust that ran two homes for maladjusted 

children, absolute pioneers in their field. 

My mother had a huge sense of fairness, of right and wrong, and would never 

compromise a principle just because it made life difficult. She always supported 

the underdog - if she was on your side you knew you were in trouble.


She found it hard to resist saying what she thought, and weighing in on any 

argument, even when it might have been better not to. My parents’ home was a 

vibrant home where friends, theirs and their children’s, were always welcome. 

They were both wonderful hosts with a true gift for friendship, and their lives 

were illuminated by the friendships they made. 

Two days before her 51st birthday, my mother became a grandmother for 

the first time. Her tenth grandchild was born forty years later, two years before 

she died. Nothing gave my parents more pleasure than their grandchildren 

and they were outstanding grandparents in every way. 

Her husband Sidney Manches predeceased her in 1999 after 59 years 10 months 

of marriage. She is survived by her three children, ten grandchildren and 

six great-grandchildren. 

Margaret Dora Higginson (1937) 

The model of what a headmistress should be 

“I was always in awe of her and frankly scared stiff most of the time, but she was the 

model of what a headmistress should be.” The verdict of one former pupil. 

Margaret Higginson was born in Surrey in 1918, and read English at Somerville 

before becoming a teacher. She had a number of teaching posts, including at St 

Paul’s where she taught Shirley Williams, before becoming headmistress of Bolton 

School in 1954, where she remained until her retirement in 1979. 

I first became aware of Miss Higginson long before I ever met her. One evening 

my father emerged from behind the Bolton Evening News and said “That woman 

has been writing to the paper again. South Africa and oranges.” I was later to 

realise that writing to the papers was one of her passions, as was her opposition 

to apartheid, and the boycott on South African oranges was enforced in relation to 

school lunches.


Margaret Higginson, a southerner, had come to Bolton in a spirit of mission, 

as she herself admitted, describing her appointment at her 80th birthday party. 

She saw the job advertised and thought she might bring enlightenment to the 

benighted (and probably ignorant) north. She expected to find a school with 

asphalt playground and iron railings. Instead she found a large sandstone building 

in leafy grounds, with a hammer beam roof in the Great Hall. She nearly didn’t 

stay for interview. What she did do was to take the bus to its terminus and walk 

out on to the moors – and fell in love with the countryside. She conveyed her 

enthusiasm to the governors, and was appointed. 

She believed in a wide curriculum, including current events, compulsory maths 

for all Sixth formers, and general studies, organised jointly with the boys’ school, 

hitherto adjacent but alien territory. The general studies included modules on 

philosophy, architecture, nuclear physics and cosmology as well as cookery 

for the boys. An organ was installed in the Great Hall, and later a theatre was 

built. The school took part in schools competitions on the radio and television. 

She wanted us all to participate in whatever was going on. So, when the school 

hosted an exhibition of the work of local artists, we were all allowed to vote for 

our favourite, which was purchased. We also had regular votes for our favourite 

hymns. She saw the school as a community and wanted everyone to feel they had 

a part in it. 

Formidably well-read, and not only in her own field of literature, but also an 

enthusiast for science, she had strong views on how she wanted girls to be 

educated, and this was reflected in all aspects of school life. Not for nothing did 

she have an elderly aunt who had been a suffragette, and we were constantly 

exhorted to make the most of our talents and opportunities. She encouraged us 

all to have views on every topic, and to discuss them. Older girls had to endure 

lunching at high table with her, where she would fire intimidating questions on 

topics she considered you should be interested in, from literature, to politics, 

science and religion. This could be a terrifying experience, made worse by her 

insistence that all meals should be consumed only with a fork. School toad-in-thehole 

and semolina pudding are resistant to this method of consumption.


But it was not just Hig, as she was known, whom you might have to talk to. There 

was a constant stream of visitors, varying from local dignitaries to the really famous, 

such as Trevor Huddleston, Bernard Lovell, Fred Hoyle, and both Shirley and 

Bernard Williams. We all grew up able to converse, and well aware of the issues of 

the day. We also had well developed social consciences. She encouraged support 

for many charities, especially in the developing world. The school had close links 

with a leper hospital in Africa and water projects in India, from which she received 

regular letters, which she read out in assembly. Closer to home, she was keen on 

raising money through what she called self-denial. If there was a disaster such as 

the loss of a trawler, out would come the self-denial boxes on every window sill, 

and girls were expected to forego buying biscuits at break, or to walk rather than 

catch the bus home, and put the savings in the boxes. The fact that most people did 

most of the time says much for her strength of personality, though the school did 

occasionally go on strike when self-denial came around too frequently. 

Her concern for the disadvantaged led her to take a sabbatical to teach in Rhodes 

Boyson’s boys’ secondary modern school in Islington. This was a bold venture as 

it was a change of gender, location and ability range. We were never quite sure 

what the boys made of her, but she found the experience energising. 

Miss Higginson’s philosophy is best expressed through the words of the school 

prayer (“Of those to whom much is given, much will be expected”) and the school 

song, commissioned by her. We were left in no doubt that we had been given 

much. And lying behind this was the sentiment expressed in the opening lines of 

the poem that is the song, 

If God build not the house 

And lay the groundwork sure 

It cannot last the stormy day…… 

A deep quiet faith informed all she did, and gave strength to her opinions. 

This does not mean she was universally liked. She often seemed very alien and 

Home Counties to girls with strong local accents, and she was intimidatingly 

intelligent and intellectual. What it was impossible to be was indifferent. Love


her or hate her (and many people did both) she provoked a reaction, and forced you 

to think. 

Above all, she was a superb teacher. I can recall every lesson she ever taught me, 

from my first term to my scholarship classes. And unlike many heads, she made 

a point of teaching each form at least once a term. This meant she knew every 

girl in the school by name, as well as remembering details of their family. As she 

herself said, reminding us to recall Jacob and the angel (And the angel called Jacob, 

Jacob, and knew his name and had power over him), to know someone’s name is a 

powerful tool. You don’t shout “Stop running in the Corridor.” You say “Susan, 

stop running.” It works because not only Susan stops but others who think they 

too will be identified. 

Her care for her pupils extended into their later life. An inveterate correspondent, 

she kept in touch with large numbers of old girls, offering advice on reading for 

their children, running local groups, and generally on how to build the New 

Jerusalem wherever they were. She has even been known to write to husbands, in 

my case to encourage him to write more letters to The Times. 

She remained attached to Somerville, where she had undoubtedly been very 

happy, and in later years was a regular attender at literary lunches. She described 

Somerville as “plain living and high thinking”, and was always anxious to see the 

college prosper. 

She never married, and had no close family. The school became her family, and 

she will be sadly missed by all those she inspired, infuriated and influenced. 

JENNY CROFT (JACKSON, 1968)


Daphne Robinson (Coulthard, 1944) 

Daphne Robinson (Coulthard, 1944)


Although she was born in Exeter, Daphne Robinson had a lifelong attachment 

to Oxford—both town and gown—which began as a wartime undergraduate at 

Somerville and lasted for six decades until her death. 

She came to the College in 1944, to read PPE, following her sister to Oxford 

and her beloved brother, who died as a prisoner-of-war in 1945. Despite wartime 

austerity, she led a busy social life. A college photograph shows her in costume 

with a bonnet acting in Shakespearean comedy; she was an Isis ‘Idol’; a snapshot 

of her at the time carries a note on the back from an American soldier who 

later became a Hollywood producer: “June 6th will always be Daphne Day.” 

Her friendship with her Somerville contemporary Patricia Hutchinson, who 

joined the Foreign Service, remained particularly close; they shared a love 

of European languages. 

In 1952, Daphne married the Oxford physicist F. N. H. ‘Neville’ Robinson, who 

later became a founding fellow of St Catherine’s College. They lived in Jericho, 

Iffley and Cowley, bringing up a family of three children, before finally settling 

in Linton Road, North Oxford. The Somerville connection continued through 

three generations: not only did Neville teach physics to Somerville students, 

their eldest child Natasha studied medicine at Somerville in the 1970s, and 

their grand-daughter Zoe Sprigings recently studied history at the college. 

Despite having no formal scientific training, Daphne was nevertheless a steadfast 

supporter of Neville’s science in his early years at the Clarendon Laboratory. In 

the 1950s he was doing pioneering work in low-temperature physics, and had to 

visit the lab in the small hours to tend the apparatus. Daphne was left at home 

typing up his research and coping with all the scientific symbols on manual 

typewriters not designed for high-level science. She may not have understood 

the physics, but she recognized its importance, and inevitably some of her 

closest and most enduring friendships were made with physicists and their 

families, both in Oxford and in the United States during Neville’s sabbaticals. 

Her keenest scientific interest lay, however, in medicine. She became 

professionally involved as a researcher in Alice Stewart’s Department of Social 

Medicine in the 1960s. After that, she worked as an administrator of the British


Society for Immunology, and at the department of medical engineering. Her 

organizing skills were particularly valued as administrator of Iain Chalmers’s 

new National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, which was finding its feet when she 

arrived in 1980. At Daphne’s memorial service in Somerville Chapel, Sir Ian said 

with feeling: “The NPEU continues alive and thriving today. Had it not been for 

Daphne, it might have died during infancy.” 

She was also active in the University Newcomers’ Club, providing welcome 

practical support to overseas graduate students and their families; as a guide to 

the Bodleian Library; and as a Friend of the Oxford Botanic Garden. Some of her 

happiest hours were spent gardening, even as dusk fell, both at home and in the 

garden of the Bishop’s House in Linton Road, where she and Neville grew many 

flowers, fruits and especially vegetables—sometimes in overwhelming quantities. 

Daphne died, after a long illness, in Northampton, on 4 September 2009. She is 

survived by her three children and four grandchildren. 

ANDREW AND NATASHA ROBINSON


Cecile Kessler (Offen, 1945) 

Cecile (Babs) Offen was born in Monaco in 1927, the only child of British parents 

who ran a hotel in neighbouring Menton. She grew up a mentonnaise, speaking 

French and the local dialect, and throughout her life kept a deep and abiding love 

for the town and its surroundings. Her life was abruptly turned upside down in 

1940 when the entire population of Menton was evacuated. This started two years 

of pillar to post existence as refugees: loss of all possessions; crowded journeys 

in packed 3rd class train carriages back and forth across the southern coast of 

France; short stays in commandeered hotels and empty town halls; roaming the 

countryside for food; encounters with refugees from other parts of France and 

other countries. 

Cecile and her widowed mother finally arrived in Britain in a troop carrier in 1942 

via Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar. Cecile went straight to boarding school at Bath 

High School, where the warm reception she received helped her adapt to what 

for her was a new country, climate and milieu. The headmistress, a Somerville 

graduate, stretched the girls intellectually outside the exam syllabus, inspiring 

Cecile to apply to apply to read PPE at Somerville. 

Cecile was elected President of the Junior Common Room as well as President of 

the University’s Joint Commons Room Committee. She was dazzled by the beauty 

of Oxford, the banquet of activities it offered, the meeting of famous women and 

men. 1945 presented the possibility of making a new world and Cecile’s ambition 

was for a career in an international organisation such as the United Nations. In 

1948, however, the Principal of Somerville, eager to see more women in the top 

ranks of business management, arranged for Cecile to become a management 

trainee at Cadbury Brothers in Bournville, a position she left after 6 months. From 

1949 to 1953, as University Lecturer at the Institute of Social Medicine at Oxford 

she researched biological and behavioural norms in university students and 

factors affecting university performance, and in 1954-55, as Statistician in the MRC 

Unit on Constitutional Medicine at the Warneford Hospital, she studied genetic 

and physical factors affecting mental disorders.


In 1949, Cecile married Peter Standley, a physicist. Tabitha (as she then became 

known) had two sons and moved back to France in 1956 when her husband 

started to work at CERN (European Centre for Nuclear Research) in Geneva. 

She began her career at the World Health Organization in 1959, starting in the 

Mental Health Unit. From 1960 to1965, she worked in the Radiation and Isotopes 

Unit, liaising with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna to define 

maximum levels of permissible radiation at a time of major international concern 

with radioactive fallout from nuclear testing. 

She became increasingly involved in the Organization’s programme in human 

genetics and played a central role in the establishment of its Genetics Unit. 

Some of her more important activities now focused on twin studies, the 

standardisation of procedures for chromosome studies, the development of 

screening methods for inborn errors of metabolism, and on the application of 

computers for the study of human genetics. 

But it was to be her role, starting in 1969 and for the following 15 years, in Human 

Reproduction, one of WHO’s largest research programmes, that capped her career 

in the Organisation. Cecile made major contributions both to its development and 

its achievements. Most of the activities of the programme related to the regulation 

of human fertility in response to questions raised by governments about this new 

and sensitive field. Was there a health rationale for family planning? How could 

family planning be added to and integrated with other health services, which, so 

often, were deficient and already overworked in developing countries? Were the 

available methods of birth control suitable and safe in the conditions prevailing 

in these countries? Such issues were controversial and research was required to 

formulate national policies and practices. 

Cecile travelled extensively, particularly in Asia and Latin America, to identify 

suitable institutions and scientists for studies, and then to monitor the conduct of 

the studies, many of which were collaborative and multi-national in nature. Her 

exceptional blend of political sensitivity, analytical skills and technical knowledge 

made her the ideal bridge between scientists and policy makers at the highest 

level. As Deputy to the Director, she participated in the overall planning and


administration of the Programme and its coordination with other programmes 

in the WHO and with those of other agencies. She was highly respected for her 

intelligence, power of expression, broad knowledge, sound judgment, scientific 

“nous”, efficiency and administrative skills. In addition to author or co-authorship 

of over 40 publications, she wrote a large number of technical working documents 

and articles on research administration and evaluation. 

From 1975 until her death in 2009, Cecile lived in a very happy marriage with her 

second husband, Alexander Kessler, a physician and scientist and WHO colleague. 

In the mid 1980s, they both took early retirement and then moved 

to London in 1990. For a few years, Cecile served on the Research Ethics 

Committee of the Royal Postgraduate School, London, and on a Committee of 

the Department for International Development reviewing research proposals 

on health and development. 

They led an active social life with old and new friends, travelled extensively 

in England and on the Continent, enjoyed fully the cultural opportunities 

offered by the capital in music, theatre, exhibitions, lectures, and took further 

adult education courses in Oxford, Cambridge and London, especially in 

philosophy. On 7 November 2009, she collapsed on the way to a concert and died 

immediately, the kind of death she had always wanted, but which left her many 

loved ones devastated. 

Her family and friends will remember her for her tremendous breadth of 

knowledge and interests. She was a brilliant conversationalist, a voracious 

reader of French and English literature, a great cook. She had a life-long love 

for archaeology, church architecture, philosophy and renaissance art. Her two 

granddaughters will also remember her, not only for her warmth and love, but 

also for her wonderful story-telling. 

MARTIN AND ANDREW STANDLEY


Halina Sand (Parker, 1954) 

Halina Sand (Parker, 1954) 

Jane Gibbs and I met Halina on our first day at Somerville and together with several 

others - Elizabeth Arakie, Lyndon Moore, Gill Morton (who had been at school 

with her) - formed a lifelong friendship. Halina, on the advice of her headmistress, 

was reading P.P.E., which she did not enjoy, so Oxford was memorable for acting 

and a happy social life. Years later when her children were growing up Halina went 

to University College, London and got her well deserved First in English, for she 

was always passionate about Literature. That she achieved this while running her 

home and family, working as a freelance editor and voluntarily for the Patients 

Association, was owing not only to the support of her husband, Peter, for they were 

blessed with a very happy marriage, but also to Halina’s powers of organisation, selfdiscipline 

and hard work, starting early in the morning.


She loved music and was a great opera and concert goer - we met often at the 

Wigmore Hall; she cooked imaginatively for a large circle of friends; read widely 

- a great asset to her book group; loved travelling, both en famille and later just 

with Peter. They were extraordinarily kind to friends; I shall never forget when my 

first husband died their inviting me and my three young children to join them on 

several adventurous holidays in France and Italy. 

This sounds exactly the sort of life that Janet Vaughan expected us to lead, albeit 

an unusually successful one; but for Halina it was nothing short of miraculous for 

she was born a Polish Jew in Warsaw and her very survival was indeed a miracle. 

She and her mother had fair hair, making life easier for them in a then virulently 

anti-semitic Poland; not looking Jewish enabled Halina to assume at school a 

different identity and religion. An only child, she was taught to behave like all 

the other Catholic children and never once betrayed her origin. When the Nazis 

invaded Poland, Halina went into hiding and her ability to escape into a world of 

books helped her survive their cramped, restricted life. Frequently all in the ghetto 

were rounded up prior to eliminating the very old and the young; on one occasion 

in the queue to be counted, Halina was lying on the ground, wrapped in a bundle 

of old rags, and only the kindness of a young soldier noticing and ignoring a slight 

movement when she was pushed forward gave her yet another chance. 

During the day the Jews were allowed out of the ghetto to work and unusually 

one day Halina was able to accompany her mother - they all escaped and again 

went into hiding before the ghetto was destroyed and all perished. Paying a family, 

Halina’s mother worked as cook/housekeeper so that they could have shelter 

until the war ended. 

They went into the country for a year; in 1946 Halina and her parents were able 

to come to England. Her mother’s brother was Joseph Rotbat, the nuclear scientist 

who was working on the Manhattan project; the British government thought it 

inadvisable for him to have close relatives behind the Iron Curtain and so Halina 

came to Liverpool. Within a year, according to Gill Morton who was in the same 

class, she learned perfect English although retaining an accent.


Halina never forgot all those who did not survive; nothing has moved me more 

than accompanying her and Peter to Cracow and Warsaw, visiting the sites of the 

ghettoes and where she lived - all razed to the ground. 

She was not always serious. She loved jewellery, wore masses of rings, was an 

expert on amber. She had a dry sense of humour, enjoyed life. She was a perfect 

friend, a good companion at art exhibitions, loved her time working on the 

Macmillan Dictionary of Art. Despite her strong views on politics and Middle 

Eastern affairs these never interfered with her friendships: friends - especially 

those made at Somerville - were all important. 

ANNE WEIZMANN (OWEN, 1954) 

Elena Lourie (1955) 

Elena Lourie died on 30th December 2009, aged 73, after a ten year battle 

with cancer. She was born on 19th October 1936, in South Africa, the daughter 

of Norman and Nadia Lourie, founders of South African Habonim, a Jewish 

youth movement. When Elena was ten, the family moved to Palestine, arriving 

by train from Cairo in time to be in the King David Hotel when its west wing 

was blown off. 

After a stint at Westminster Tutors, Elena came to Somerville in 1955 as a 

Modern History scholar (perhaps the College’s first Israeli). Her chosen field of 

study quickly emerged. Elena concentrated on 12th-14th century Spain, a not 

particularly popular area when most Oxford medieval history research centred 

on England. Before returning to Oxford for her D.Phil., she returned to Israel to 

do her national service, and after receiving it taught at Birmingham University 

and the University of Michigan. Joining Ben Gurion University’s General History 

Department in 1971, she served as its Chair for a time and was a founder of the 

Gender Studies Programme, combining determination to introduce women’s 

studies with her historical scholarship.


Her strong feminist streak included studies of medieval women at war. Her article 

on “Black Women Warriors in the Muslim Army Besieging Valencia and the Cid’s 

Victory: A Problem of Interpretation,” Traditio 55 (2000), discusses African female 

warriors. In typically no-holds-barred language, Elena concludes that the story, 

originating in Arabic sources, disappeared from later chronicles to be interpreted 

by European scholars as a “Christian fiction… a striking illustration of the blind 

spots, special pleading, and sheer incredulity that occur when different concepts 

of femininity… are merged into one brief narrative… then interpreted without 

reference to feminist literary criticism or even to pre-colonial concepts of gender 

equality in Black Africa.” 

Much of Elena’s scholarship centered on the Reconquista – the Christian reconquest 

of Spain from the Moors - but she also focused on interactions between Jews, 

Muslims and Christians in and around the late medieval Crown of Aragon. Her 

interests and sources were far ranging: mythology and music, sexual relations, 

conversion, fiscal and communal politics as well as scholarly relations between the 

three faiths, military campaigns, government, politics, and economics. 

Elena’s historical skills were honed midst Oxford’s dreaming spires and 

Barcelona’s convents and archives, but it was in dusty Beersheba that she instilled 

in students her love of teaching and learning. For Elena, teaching was sacrosanct, 

and she was both a searing critic and unswervingly loyal to students and younger 

colleagues. 

It’s hardly surprising that Elena’s sense of justice and integrity led her, after 

retirement, to volunteer with MachsomWatch, the women’s human rights 

organisation which monitors the checkpoints, mounds and ditches that hamper 

daily life across the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The city of Hebron in the 

southern West Bank is an area to which women from the south go, and Elena, 

despite her illness, went for years into the midst of settler enclaves there and 

to the apartheid roads surrounding the area. 

In her spare time Elena read, read voraciously on all manner of subjects, but her 

detective story collection must be unique. She tried tai chi, did yoga, meditated


and enjoyed shiatsu. She loved music, came to opera performances in Tel Aviv as 

long as she could and was surrounded at home by her greatest passion, numerous 

dogs and cats – typically contending that “animals are more reliable than people.” 

SUSAN LOURENCO (LOEWENTHAL, 1954) 

Mary Dove 

(Joanna Randall-MacIver Research Fellow, 1959) 

Mary Dove and I met in 1969 when we came to Somerville as Research Fellows 

and shared rooms on the first floor of Maitland. She was the one who had a set 

of Robert Carrier recipe cards from which we cooked on Saturday evenings on a 

couple of gas rings; I was the one who escorted moths out of the bathroom. Mary, 

born in 1944, grew up in West Wickham, south-east London, and read English 

at Cambridge. She remembered affectionately her mother’s efforts to prepare 

her for the sophistication of Girton: her hair was permed and in her trunk was a 

good wool suit. The Mary that Somerville knew, however, was cool and stylish, 

with flowing fair hair. She was also brilliant – a quality she carried with benign 

nonchalance and flashes of arresting perceptiveness. 

Mary became a distinguished scholar of medieval English literature and Biblical 

scholarship. After a First she had taken a PhD at Cambridge, with a thesis entitled 

‘A study of some of the lesser-known poems of British Museum MS Harley 2253’ 

(1969). Harley 2253 is a manuscript collection celebrated for being the source of 

our best-known Middle English lyrics. The lesser-known poems include those in 

Anglo-Norman and material with Biblical sources, the seeds of Mary’s later work. 

Her first book, however, was devoted to medieval views of aging and the prime 

of life: The Perfect Age of Man’s Life was published by Cambridge University Press 

in 1986. She turned next to the study of the Glossa Ordinaria, the great medieval 

collection of scriptural glosses, in which she focused on the Song of Songs. The 

result was her Glossa ordinaria. Pars 2., In canticum canticorum (Turnholti: Brepols, 

1997), a Latin text with parallel English translation for the Corpus Christianorum


series. Her greatest achievement was a study of the fourteenth and fifteenthcentury 

English translations of the Bible, The First English Bible: The Text and Context 

of the Wycliffite Versions published by Cambridge in 2007. This is a study of a work 

extant in some 250 manuscripts, and an impressive investigation of the vernacular 

theology it represents. 

At the end of her fellowship at Somerville Mary married Trevor Mills in Exeter 

College Chapel. They moved to the Welsh Marches where Trevor worked for 

Richard Booth’s second-hand book emporium in Hay-on-Wye, and where their first 

child was born. In 1975 they went to Australia and Mary started her teaching career 

at La Trobe University, Melbourne. In 1978 she moved to Melbourne University 

where she stayed for seventeen years. On her return to England in 1995 she was 

appointed to Sussex University where she was when, on 5 June 2009, she died 

suddenly – and unaccountably – in her garden in Lewes. Amid the mourning for a 

life cut off in its ‘perfect age’, we can be grateful for the recognition she had won for 

her scholarship, both in the glowing reviews of her last book and in being made a 

Professor by Sussex in 2008. When she died she was working on a book illustrating 

the medieval debate about translating the Bible for which publication is planned. 

Mary loved singing, walking in the Lake District, and visiting her children, George 

in Spain, and Dora in Thailand. She also loved teaching, taking her students 

into, in the words of her colleague Brian Cummings, ‘a world of unexpected 

knowledge’. She was a specialist in a demanding area, the language requirement 

alone limiting the scope for teaching it in today’s universities. That was no 

problem for Mary who, though taking immense satisfaction in training up future 

medievalists, was also happy teaching in later periods. She was interested in the 

psychology of learning. One recollection stays with me. In Bodley I used to notice 

that on the top of Mary’s pile of serious books would sit a smaller volume - a 

novel, probably by a writer not often asked for. When she needed a break from 

study she would read a chapter or two of the novel and then, refreshed, go back to 

work. That was Mary: meticulous in scholarship; human in her acknowledgement 

of the mind’s needs, and straight-forward in supplying them. 

CLAIRE LAMONT (1969)


Vanessa Brand (Rodrigues 1965) 

Vanessa Brand (Rodrigues, 1965)


Vanessa Brand was a historian who moved into buildings conservation at a 

time of great change in our cities, and more recently had a central role in the 

development of the Olympics site. 

Vanessa went from St Paul’s Girls School to read History at Somerville, which was 

a natural home for someone with her enquiring mind, independence of thought 

and forthright opinions. She recalled her excitement arriving for the interviews, 

particularly when Agatha Ramm asked her to speculate about a period of Italian 

history following the one she had studied – and she was excited to begin to 

extrapolate future developments from the past. Vanessa also felt Oxford inspired 

her love of architecture – commenting not only on the dome of the Camera, and 

mists around St Mary’s spire, but also on the sun slanting through the windows of 

Somerville hall. Typically of Vanessa, she enjoyed meeting a wide range of people 

while she was at Oxford; much of her social life was spent bell-ringing, which 

involved people from outside the university and churches in different parts of the 

city. It was also through bell-ringing that she first met her future husband Paul, 

who read History at Magdalen. They married in Magdalen Chapel in 1970. 

Vanessa and Paul moved to London, where she held a Museums Association 

studentship at the Victoria & Albert. She then joined the GLC’s Historic Buildings 

Division and became a formidable defender of London’s architectural heritage in 

the face of the property development boom of the 1970s and 1980s. Early in her 

career she produced a report on London’s remaining Victorian theatres, which 

were under threat of demolition, and her thorough research, coupled with shrewd 

commercial judgement, achieved the listing of 18 theatres within 2 years. 

Following the abolition of the GLC – a development she strongly condemned at 

the time – she worked on buildings at risk, nationwide, at English Heritage. She 

was instrumental in protecting the Nicholas Barbon 1650s terrace in north-east 

London, Covent Garden when the market moved to Nine Elms, and the Mansion 

House/Royal Exchange site when a Mies van de Rohe tower was proposed to 

replace Mappin & Webb. She was not however a narrow traditionalist. She 

loved the architecture of New York, Chicago and Pittsburgh. She told me that 

she admired the groups of tall buildings in US cities, but it was inappropriate 

to build them out of proportion to their surroundings. Perhaps her admiration


for US cities led to her subsequent reconciliation to working in Canary Wharf, 

despite having fought hard in her early career to preserve the original grandeur of 

London’s docks. 

The vision and commitment of Vanessa and her colleagues has helped to make 

central London a place where people can live as well as work, and where visitors 

wish to spend their time and money. Vanessa was interested in the economics of 

public policy as well as the aesthetic and historical heritage. She tolerated with 

good grace the relentless criticism that the developers heaped at that time on 

conservation bodies. Her confident and friendly disposition also enabled her to 

work effectively with the demanding figures she encountered in her career, whom 

many were too nervous to challenge. 

In the 1990s she joined the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, and 

devoted herself to greater accessibility for the public, publishing the “Exploring 

England’s Heritage” series, spearheading Open House Weekend in London and 

the UK, drafting the National Heritage Act – which encouraged public access to 

townscapes and the countryside - and promoting the selection of Liverpool as 

European Capital of Culture. 

With this experience and reputation it is not surprising she was selected as 

Secretary to the Olympic Development Authority, a role she held until her 

tragically early death from cancer in 2009. She retained an involvement in her 

work there and a close interest and concern for her colleagues, despite her illness. 

A tree has been planted in her memory in the Olympic Park, which can be visited 

when the Park is opened. I feel she would be happy to watch the buildings rising 

up around her tree as the site develops, and to cast an appraising but always 

encouraging eye on the progress of her project. 

Vanessa was fortunate to have a very happy personal life. She had a close relationship 

with her parents, enjoying adventurous family holidays during her childhood with 

her parents and her friend Elaine. She remained devoted to her mother Marjorie, who 

died only two years before Vanessa. With Paul she shared academic interests and a 

wide circle of friends. They provided many excellent meals and convivial evenings to 

friends from around the world in their historic terrace house in Kennington.


Vanessa enjoyed travelling to visit Paul during his academic appointments – which 

included University College Dublin, Columbia University in New York, and All 

Souls. After Paul’s election to All Souls, she was very happy to start spending more 

time in Oxford, and she and Paul bought a house on Osney Island. 

Many friends have commented on her love of conversation in her garden in her 

final weeks, and her great courage and continued interest in the world around 

her. Always excited by new interests, Vanessa enjoyed listening to the radio 

commentaries on the test match during September 2009. She could hear the 

crowd at the Oval from her Kennington garden. Typically it was a new subject, 

cricket, that I and my husband last talked about with a friend who had enriched 

our lives in so many ways. 

The Vanessa Brand memorial scholarship has been founded by her family and 

friends for graduate students studying history at Somerville, with a preference for 

legal history or architectural history. 

CHARLOTTE MORGAN 1969


Lucy Jane Harbron (Wilks 1979) 

Lucy was born in London on 20 February 1961, but her family moved to Durham 

when she was about four years old and this became her natural home. The middle 

child of three, and the only daughter, she learned to hold her own at an early age. 

Equally interested in science and the arts, Lucy’s choice of degree at Somerville 

was typically pragmatic: “I can’t study Biochemistry in my spare time”. She 

achieved a happy balance between working in the laboratories and maintaining 

her interest in theatre, literature and music in her free time. Many of the friends 

Lucy made at Somerville she kept in touch with for the rest of her life. 

Outside her studies, Lucy chaired the bar committee in her second year. In the 

days before Somerville admitted male students the bar was more of a ladies’ social 

club than a drinking den. On nights when no darts matches were arranged, more 

chocolate was sold than alcohol. 

After leaving Somerville, she moved to the School of Pharmacy at the University of 

London to study for her hard-earned PhD, and then in 1988 began working 

on school books for science at Cambridge University Press. 

From 1993 onwards she worked at MAFF, and its reincarnation DEFRA. Even in 

the Civil Service, Lucy continued to display her independence, and was happy to 

take a principled stand in discussions with her colleagues, no matter how well 

known or high-profile they might be. For the first eight years she worked in the 

Chief Scientist’s Group. In 2000 she moved to the Animal Health Division, in 

the Spongiform Encephalopathies Advisory Group - a high-profile group which 

provided independent advice to the Government on BSE in cattle and its human 

form, CJD. At the height of the Foot & Mouth crisis, this was a particularly busy 

time with high media attention. 

Promoted in 2002 to the Land Management Improvement Division, she 

introduced a new scheme for assessing recommendations for honours (OBEs etc), 

which was subsequently implemented across DEFRA. After a period with the Local 

and Regional Government Division, in 2008 she moved to the DEFRA Adapting to


Climate Change Programme working particularly on the development of DEFRA’s 

Departmental Adaptation plan which was published in March 2010. 

Lucy met Stephen Harbron (New College, 1979) in her second term at Somerville 

and they were inseparable for the next thirty years. They married at Bede College 

chapel, Durham in 1988 and started married life together in their first home - an 

“interestingly decorated” house in Hitchin which they completely revamped. 

This was just practice for what was to come. In 1994 they moved to Wimbledon, 

buying a house “with development potential” (in reality, a complete wreck) that 

they initially made habitable and gradually restored to comfort/luxury over many 

years. 

Lucy and Stephen made all their friends welcome to their house and it was easy 

to overlook any bare floorboards and holes in the ceiling. We all knew we could 

be sure of good conversation and home-cooked food (Lucy’s puddings were 

legendary). 

She had strong views, but was always keen to discuss ideas with people of all 

opinions and her wicked sense of humour ensured that open debate never 

degenerated into confrontation. 

In 1996 their only daughter Rosy was born, and was the focus of Lucy’s happy 

family life. An overriding memory for her many friends is how proud Lucy was 

of Rosy and her achievements. 

Lucy’s love of the arts was constant, particularly music (Mozart was a favourite), 

theatre and literature, she was skilled in tapestry and enjoyed puzzles. Theatre 

trips with Lucy were always an insightful experience as she appreciated a wide 

range of genres, from the classics through to relatively obscure modern plays. 

Her family and friends were stunned by her sudden and unexpected death on 

31 May 2010; the memories of her laughter are still with us. 

JUDITH DINGLE (MARTIN 1979) AND LIZ WILMOTT (1979)

Academic Report

104 | Academic Report 

Academic Report 

The College is guided by the provisions of the Data Protection Act in the way it 

stores and publishes information about individual Somervillians and it is no longer 

thought advisable to print details of examination results or personal details of 

the College entry in the College Report. The University no longer publishes these 

details. For the same reason this year the reporting of awards is limited to those 

University Prizes which are published in the University Gazette.

Academic Report | 105 

Examination Results 2009-10 

There were twenty-one First Class degrees awarded to Somerville undergraduates 

in the Final Honour School Examinations held in Trinity Term 2010. These 

included three Firsts each in Engineering and History; two each in Biochemistry 

and Chemistry, and one each in Classics, Psychology, Human Sciences, 

Mathematics (BA and MMath), Mathematics and Computer Science, Medical 

Sciences, Music, PPE and Physics. 

Eleven post-graduate students were given leave to supplicate. Two completed 

an MPhil (with one obtaining a Distinction). Five completed an MSc and four 

an MSt; of these nine, six obtained Distinctions. Their fields of research ranged 

from Applied Statistics, Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, 

Numerical Analysis and Pharmacology in the sciences, to Archaeology, English, 

History, Modern Languages, and Philosophy in the Humanities. In the Social 

Sciences, graduates completed degrees in Criminology, Development Studies, 

Law, and Politics, whilst in the medical sciences degrees were awarded in Clinical 

Medicine and in Pharmacology. 

Students entering College 2009 

In October 2009 the numbers of undergraduate and graduate students admitted 

were the same as last year with 122 undergraduates joining Somerville (including 

two graduate-entry Medicine students) and thirty-seven post-graduates. Of the 

undergraduates, 71 were female and 51 were male; 60 came from state schools, 45 

from Independent Schools, and 17 from overseas. Of the graduate students, seven 

had already completed an undergraduate degree at Somerville, and three had 

previously completed a graduate degree.

106 | University Prizes 

University Prizes 

Undergraduates 

Clinical Medicine 

Graduates 

Emma Ladds 

(Medical Sciences) 

Association of Physicians Prize 

Claire Morley 

(Modern Languages) 

David McLintock Book Grant 

Tom Deegan 

(Biochemistry) 

Gibbs Book Prize 

Stavros Orfanos 

(Experimental Psychology); 

Christopher Ballance 

(Physics) 

Gibbs Prize 

Daniel Milnes 

(Modern Languages); 

Maximilian Hoell 

(Modern Languages) 

Heath Harrison 

Junior Travel Scholarship 

Robert Spence 

(Chemistry) 

OUP Book Prize 

Christopher Ballance 

(Physics) 

Oxford Lasers Prize 

Emily Tweed; 

proxime accessit, 

Ruth Corrigan 

Martin Wronker Prize in Medicine 

Chiara Carpita 

(Medieval and Modern Languages) 

Isaiah Berlin Scholarship 

Emily Tweed; 

proxime accessit, 

Ruth Corrigan 

Martin Wronker Prize in Medicine 

David Bowe 


Senior Paget Toynbee Prize 

Mikael Oez 

Oriental Studies); 

Jan Komarek 

(Law) 

Vice Chancellor’s Fund 

Felicia Gottmann 


Zaharoff Fund Travel Grant

Somerville Association Officers and Committee, 2009-10 | 107 

Somerville Association Officers 

and Committee, 2009-10 

President 

Miss Karen Richardson 

(Law, 1972) 

krmessages@yahoo.co.uk 

Karen is a solicitor, having 

qualified in the City of London. 

She was a partner in Travers 

Smith for some ten years 

before serving as Group 

Company Secretary of Reed 

International plc and then 

Novar plc. She was the first 

female Master of the City of 

London Solicitors’ Company, 

a 100 year old City Livery 

Company. She is a Trustee of 

the Oxford Law Foundation, 

and was for some years the 

Chairman of the Somerville 

Lawyers’ Group. She is married 

and lives in London. 

Secretary 

Mrs Elizabeth Cooke 

(Greenwood, 

History, 1964) 

Tel. 01865 270632 or Home 

Tel. 01608 683346; elizabeth. 

cooke@some.ox.ac.uk 

Read history; practised 

at the Bar for 10 years; 

has worked for Somerville 

since 1987. Lives in North 

Oxfordshire. 

Committee 

Members 

Dr Gina Alexander 

(Pirani, History, 1953) 

ginaalexander@btinternet.com 

Mr Thomas Fraine 

(English, 2003) 

Tom.fraine@gmail.com 

Tom works in human 

resources at Innocent Drinks. 

While at Somerville, Tom was 

JCR Equal Opportunities and 

Admissions Officer. 

Verity Holland 

(Psychology, 2002), 

from July 2008 

Verity.holland@gmail.com 

Verity is completing a Doctorate 

in Educational Psychology at 

the University of Southampton 

(2009-2012). 

Mrs Clare Howarth 

(Latham, PPE, 1985) 

Clare.howarth@yahoo.co.uk

108 | Somerville Association Officers and Committee, 2009-10 

Mrs Juliet Johnson 

(Adams, History, 1975) 

jvljohnson@gmail.com 

Mr Ferdinand Lovett 

(Lit. Hum., 1999) 

ferdy@fjcl.co.uk 

Former JCR President; solicitor 

at Sacker & Partners LLP. Retired 

from Committee February 2010. 

Mr Max Luedecke 

(1999, MCR) 

some@maqs.de 

Works in Risk Control at 

UBS. Married to Vanessa 

(née Kelly, 1996). 

Dr Kate McLoughlin 


kate.mcloughlin@wolfson. 

ox.ac.uk 

After working as a Parliamentary 

Counsel, returned to Oxford 

to do a DPhil in literature at 

Somerville and to hold a Junior 

Research Fellowship at Balliol. 

She has been a Lecturer in 

English Literature at Glasgow 

University and is now at 

Birkbeck College, London. 

Miss Jane Robinson 


Jane.h.robinson@btopenworld. 

com 

Worked in the antiquarian 

book business before becoming 

an author; her seventh book, 

Bluestockings: The Remarkable 

Story of the First Women to Fight 

for an Education, was published 

in 2009 and she will speak about 

this at the Literary Luncheon on 

3 November 2010. 

Ms Virginia Ross 

(1966, MCR) 

alchemy@dircon.co.uk 

Recently retired as Head of 

Finance & Administration, 

Undergraduate Admissions 

Office, University of Oxford. 

Ms Beth Seaman 

(Physiology & 

Psychology, 2004) 

beth.seaman@gmail.com 

Dr Nermeen Varawalla 

(Rhodes Research 

Fellow, Clinical 

Medicine, 1989) 

Tel: 0207 121 0173 

nermeen.varawalla@eccro. 

com; 

Founder & CEO, ECCRO. 

Retired from Committee 2010.

Somerville Association Officers and Committee, 2009-10 | 109 

Fellows Appointed by the College 

Dr Benjamin Thompson 

(Fellow and Tutor 

in Medieval History) 

benjamin.thompson@some. 

ox.ac.uk 

His mother is a Somervillian 

(Joy née Taylor, 1951). 

Dean 2001-4. He sings and 

is involved in College music, 

and co-ordinates the annual 

College Commemoration 

Service. 

Professor Fiona Stafford 

(Fellow and Tutor 

in English) 

fiona.stafford@some.ox.ac.uk 

There is a profile of Fiona 

on page 9 of the Somerville 

Magazine 2010. 

In 2011 one member of the 

Committee will be eligible for 

re-election for a second term; 

one other committee vacancy 

will arise. Nominations are 

invited and should be sent to 

the Secretary of the Association 

by 1 January 2011. 

Fiona Stafford

110 | Somerville Development Board 

Somerville Development Board 

Harriet Maunsell OBE 

(PPE, 1962), Chair 

Lawyer; Non-Executive Director, 

Serious Fraud Office; Member 

With-Profits Committee, 

Norwich Union; 

Honorary Fellow 

Clara Freeman OBE 

(Jones, History, 1971), 

Deputy Chair 

Former Executive Director of 

Stores and Personnel, Marks 

& Spencer and Governor, 

University of the Arts, London; 


Tom Bolt 

Director of Performance 

Management, Lloyd’s 

of London 

Sam Gyimah 

(PPE, 1995) 

Managing Director, Workology. 

MP for Surrey East. 

Lyn Haight 

(Schofield, Classics, 1966), 

Chief Operating Officer, 

Foresters. 

Margaret Kenyon 

(Parry, Mod. Lang., 1959) 

Former Headmistress, 

Withington Girls’ School, 

Manchester: Honorary Fellow. 

Retired from the Board in 2010. 

Niels Kroner (Philosophy 

& Mod. Lang.,1996) 

Management Consultant 

(formerly McKinsey, AKO 

Capital, Barclay’s Group). 

Visiting Professor of 

Economics at the European 

University at St Petersburg 

Hilary Newiss 

(PPP, 1974) 

Lawyer; former Head of 

Intellectual Property, 

Denton Hall 

Nicola Ralston 

(Thomas, History, 1974) 

Director and Co-Founder, 

PiRho Investment Consulting; 

Non-Executive Director; 


Jane Sender 

(Nothmann, History, 

1974) 

Founder & President, Sender 

Legal Search 

Sybella Stanley 

(Ancient & Mod. 

History, 1979) 

Director of Corporate Finance, 

Reed Elsevier Group Ltd. 

Dame Fiona Caldicott, 

Principal of Somerville

Somerville Development Board | 111

Notices

114 | Notices 

The Importance of an up-to-date Will 

Protect your loved ones 

Protect the value of your estate 

….and help protect the future of Somerville as well 

by keeping your will up to date 

An up-to-date will is so important – it ensures we maintain our own freedom to 

distribute our valued possessions to those whom we choose: family, friends and 

possibly even Somerville. 

If you are kindly considering a gift in your will to Somerville remember that outright 

gifts and bequests to UK charities, such as Somerville, are completely free of 

Inheritance Tax and will help to reduce the inheritance tax payable by your estate (in 

2010-2011 this threshold is £325,000 and tax is payable at 40% once the net value of 

your estate exceeds this sum). 

Suggested wording for wills and codicils is included on the following pages. 

If you are considering such a gift to the College, or have already included one – 

a very warm thank you. 

American donors only 

Somerville College is a member of a consortium of 39 colleges and the University which 

offers a cost effective Planned Giving service for Somervillians in America. Charitable 

Remainder Trusts benefit both the donor and the joint non profit beneficiary as well. 

Charitable Remainder Gifts have been around since the 1970s and combine the ability 

to get a significant tax write off and avoid capital gains tax. These instruments typically 

provide income for life for both donor and spouse. The current trend is to use real 

estate that has appreciated to fund the trust.

Notices | 115 

For more information on leaving a gift to Somerville in your will or on Planned 

Giving, please contact the Head of Development in strictest confidence at: 

Development Office 

Somerville College 

Oxford 

OX2 6HD 

Tel: 01865 280596 

e-mail: development.office@some.ox.ac.uk or julie.hage@some.ox.ac.uk 

Suggested wording for a gift through your will 

If you would like to remember Somerville in your will, you may find the following 

forms of words useful: 

As a testamentary clause when drawing up a new will: 

(a) A Pecuniary Bequest 

I bequeath to the Principal and Fellows of Somerville College in the University of 

Oxford for their general purposes the sum of £ (……………. pounds) free of tax and I 

declare that the receipt of the Treasurer of the said College for the time being shall 

be a sufficient discharge to my Executors for the said bequest. 

Or (b) A Residuary (or percentage share) Bequest 

I give all (or a share) of the residue of my estate absolutely to the Principal 

and Fellows of Somerville College in the University of Oxford for their general 

purposes, and I direct that the receipt of the Treasurer of the said College for the 

time being shall be a sufficient discharge to my Executors for the said bequest.

116 | Notices

Codicil form | 117 

Codicil form 

I: [Name] 

of [Address] 

declare this to be a (first/second) codicil to my will dated 

In addition to any legacies given in my said will I give to Somerville College in the 

University of Oxford (charity number: x4848*) the sum of £ 

(or specific item/ % share of my estate) to be used for its general purposes 

and I declare that the receipt of the Treasurer or duly authorised officer shall be 

a full and sufficient discharge. In all other respects I confirm my said will and any 

other codicils thereto. 

Signed 

Witnessed by: 

Signature 

Name 

Address 

Signature 

Name 

Address 

Occupation 

Date 

Occupation 

Date 

(Please note: two witnesses are required in England, Wales and Northern Ireland; one witness in Scotland) 

*Note : Somerville College is currently (July 2010) a charity exempt from registration under the Oxford & 

Cambridge Universities Act. Its number is X4848. It is anticipated that within the next year this reference will 

cease to be used when the College becomes a registered charity under the Charity Commission; at that point a 

registration number will be allocated.

118 | Somerville Literary Luncheon 

Somerville Literary Luncheon 

Speaker: Jane Robinson, Author of Bluestockings 

Somerville College, Oxford | Saturday 13 November 2010 | 12.00 For 12.30pm 

JANE ROBINSON (English, 1978) will talk about 

her most recent book Bluestockings, published 

by Penguin and read last summer by Miriam 

Margolyes on Radio 4’s Book of the Week. 

Bluestockings tells the remarkable story of the 

first few generations of women in England to 

reach university, from 1869 (when Cambridge’s 

Girton College was opened) until the outbreak 

of the Second World War. It was inspired by two 

significant events celebrated in 2009: Cambridge University’s 800th birthday, and 

the 50th anniversary of the five women’s colleges at Oxford finally becoming fullyincorporated 

members of the University here. Intrigued by the 750-year gap, Jane 

came to the Somerville archives to begin researching why it took so long for women 

to be accepted at English universities – and who those women were. 

Often in the words of the students themselves, she’ll reveal the extraordinary 

prejudice they faced from members of the academic and medical fraternity. 

Professors refused to teach them, and at Cambridge they were not awarded degrees 

until 1948; doctors warned that their brains were too feeble to think properly, and 

that studying would wither their wombs. Withstanding the brickbats with courage 

and tact, Jane’s pioneers (naturally including Somervillians) held their ground, and 

paved the way for those of us lucky enough to follow in their footsteps – most of us 

without a backward glance. 

Bluestockings is now being developed into a period drama for television, and has 

been acclaimed as ‘a gem of a book’, ‘social history of the best kind’, and ‘warm

Somerville Literary Luncheon | 119 

and funny: an education to us all’. Copies will be for sale at the luncheon, and 

there will also be an exhibition of material from the Somerville archives about our 

own College Bluestockings along with a preview of our forthcoming online digital 

picture archive. This project has been possible thanks to donations made to the 

Pauline Adams retirement fund and will provide a fascinating insight into the early 

days of Somerville. 

Jane Kirkaldy (Natural Science Tutor and Somervillian, 1887) and 13 science students in 1896 

Tickets £35 including reception before luncheon and tea afterwards. 

Please apply by 1 November 2010 to the Development & Alumni Office, 

Somerville College, Oxford, OX2 6HD. 

All profits from this event will support the Somerville Campaign. 

Loop system available. We regret that there is only a limited amount of parking 

space available in College, with priority for the disabled.

120 | Events Programme 2010 - 2011 

Events Programme 2010 - 2011 

(Events in College unless otherwise stated) 

2010 

26 October Daphne Park’s Memorial Service, 

St Margaret’s,Westminter 

13 November Literary Luncheon : Jane Robinson : Bluestockings 

18 November Somerville Association At Home for 

those living in Oxford 

20 November Media Network Day 

2011 

(all dates in 2011 are subject to confirmation) 

26 January Somerville London Group at the Oxford & Cambridge 

Club, Pall Mall: A reception and talk by Sir Sherard 

Cowper-Coles 

26 February The Winter Meeting/AGM of the Somerville Association 

12 March Medics Day 

11 June Commemoration Service 

2-3 July Gaudy for matric years 1935 – 1955 Garden Party 

September Golden Reunion for 1961 

16 -18 September University Alumni Weekend 

Details of some of these events are already on the College website 

(www.some.ox.ac.uk/alumni/). Further details will be supplied in due course and 

any enquires should be directed in the first place to Liz Cooke at Somerville (tel.01865 

270632, email elizabeth.cooke@some.ox.ac.uk)

Somerville Literary Luncheon | 121 

Literary Luncheon: 

Booking Form: Saturday 13 November 2010 

Name and title (please print) 

Telephone No 

Email address 

Names of any guests 

I require 

and enclose a cheque payable to Somerville College for £ 

Ticket(s) @ £ 35 each 

and a s.a.e. 

I have the following dietary or other requirement 

If you prefer to pay by debit card, please ring Elvira Camacho on 01865 280626. 

If you have registered for Somerville On-Line you may book on line by logging on and going to the events 

tab. If you have not yet registered go to: www.some.ox.ac.uk/alumni and click on Somerville On-Line - 

Log In – New User Registration 

If you would like to come to this event but need help with the costs, please consider applying to the Senior 

Members Fund for assistance (applications to Liz Cooke, elizabeth.cooke@some.ox.ac.uk, or Virginia 

Pasley, c/o Somerville College at the usual address or email, vpasley@talktalk.net). 

✁

Somerville College 

Oxford OX2 6HD 

Telephone 01865 270600 

www.some.ox.ac.uk 

Exempt charity number: x4848, March 2010

Somerville College Report 09|10 - University of Oxford

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