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28 | Somerville MagazineHappy 100th BirthdayDame Kathleen!Dr Anne ManuelLibrarian and ArchivistAt a special lunch to celebrate Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw’s 100th birthday,College Librarian Dr Anne Manuel interviewed Dame Kathleen for theCollege archives oral history project.Honorary Fellow, Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw (Somerville1931-34 and 44-45) is an internationally renownedmathematician and educationalist, having playeda major role in the creation of the Royal Northern College ofMusic and Manchester Metropolitan University, as well as in theadministration of Lancaster and Salford Universities and UMIST(as was). In 1979 she became the first woman president of theInstitute of Mathematics and its Applications. She became LordMayor of Manchester in 1975-6 and was granted the freedom ofthe city in 1984. In 1971 she was awarded her DBE for servicesto education.Kathleen Timpson arrived at Somerville College for her interview in1930. By any standards it was no ordinary interview. Concealingthe fact that she was almost entirely deaf, she lip-read her waythrough the questions posed and stunned the Fellows into silencewhen, in answer to the innocuous question ‘what did you do in thesummer vacation?’ she gave a full account of her attendance at aninternational Disarmament Symposium at the League of Nationsheadquarters in Geneva. The Fellows were duly impressed and shewas awarded a scholarship.She attended lectures given by T W Chaundey of Christ Church,and although she couldn’t hear what he was saying, attended hislectures religiously. He took a special interest in her and whenshe returned in 1944 to study for her DPhil, Chaundy was hersupervisor. She always worked hard and after three years of herfour year undergraduate course, decided that she was ready to takeschools. This she did, passing her exams with what would now bea 2:1. She did a similar thing ten years later when she was backat Oxford to take her DPhil. Publishing five papers in two years,she was awarded the degree without the need to spend three yearswriting a formal thesis.But it was not all study at Oxford. Kathleen spent much of hertime playing hockey, captaining the University XI for two yearsin her undergraduate years. She was also a keen ice skater andremembers that during the winter of 1944 she skated figures ofeight on the water tank which had been dug in Darbishire quad asa fire precaution.Although she had little to do with Margaret Thatcher whenshe was at Somerville (Margaret Thatcher would have been anundergraduate while Kathleen was then a graduate student), thetwo got to know each other well later on in life. Dame Kathleenremembers one occasion in particular when Margaret Thatcher wasSecretary of State for Education, she invited her to Manchester toopen a college of Further Education. Thatcher knew little aboutFE at the time, so Kathleen briefed her the night before and wasamazed at how expert she sounded the next day. “You would havethought she had known about it all her life!”But perhaps Kathleen’s fondest memories of Somerville concernthe friendship she struck up with Principal Helen Darbishire,a renowned Wordsworth scholar. Kathleen’s husband Robertdelighted the Principal one day with his extemporary verse “Forgiveme to remark, with the slightest touch of malice, That the strawsin Wordsworth’s hair would thatch the Crystal Palace!” Despite (orbecause of) the teasing, the Ollerenshaws became fast friends withMiss Darbishire and visited her in the Lake District every year inher retirement.Dame Kathleen’s lunch was attended by 25 friends and colleagueswith speeches from The Principal, Professor Sir Martin Taylor,Warden of Merton College and of course, Dame Kathleen herself.We were delighted to welcome her back.
Somerville Magazine | 29Events 2012-131962 Golden Reunion22 June 2012The 50th anniversary of their matriculationwas celebrated by 38 members of the 1962year group, with a weekend of events andrecollections.Garden Party 201223 June 2012Somerville London Group:An evening at Strawberry Hill House19 July 2012Somervillians of all ages and their familiesreturned to Oxford to attend the GardenParty. Wet weather meant that we had torelocate to the Hall, but our spirits weren’tdampened.The London Group enjoyed a wonderful evening at Strawberry Hill House. A tour ofthe house was followed by supper, during which the Principal gave a talk about theLewis Walpole Library at Yale – the prime source for the study of Horace Walpole andStrawberry Hill.Gaudy 201223 June 2012The Gaudy this year was for those whomatriculated between 1956 and 1966. Theevening’s black tie dinner was a glitteringoccasion, followed the next day by afascinating talk from Alex Rogers, Professorof Conservation Biology, on the topic‘Exploring the Submarine Mountains ofthe Oceans’.Somerville London Group:Talk by Vice-AdmiralPhilip Jones Gaudy 201227 September 2012Vice-Admiral Philip Jones, Fleet Commanderof the Royal Navy, spoke to the London Groupon the subject of the role of the Navy in the21st century.Concert for the Somerville Campaign6 October 2012To celebrate the College’s success, and to mark the start of the finalphase of its £25 million campaign, Somerville held a magical concertfeaturing soprano Emma Kirkby and lutenist Jakob Lindberg, at theAshmolean Museum.
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