Wolfson College Record 2021

old son to call him ‘Air Foster’; Mrs. Cross, our other neighbour, collecting shillings
for charity when she opened her distinguished garden to visitors; Harold Macmillan
as Chancellor marching past the house with the University mace to dedicate
Wolfson’s building site; and the Queen’s Bentley, having overshot the red carpet at
the dedication, backing up the temporary driveway that had been expressly made
circular because ‘the Queen does not back up’.
And then there was the Dragon School, where boys in shorts studied topics well
in advance of their counterparts in America. And ‘Cherwell’ now derelict, with J S
Haldane’s evocative gas chamber inside and giant mole hills outside: a pigeon hunter
hiding behind a tree with his gun called them ‘oontie hills’, a word my wife Barbara
and I love and still use with its overtones of a fairy world. And finally the epitaph on
‘Cherwell’ by another surprising character, the eternal, tweedy North Oxford lady
who declared almost spectrally: ‘I saw it go up and now I’m seeing it come down.’
Banbury Road Nostalgia
by Michael L Hitchman (JRF 1968–70)
Memories
Michael Hitchman is Emeritus Professor of Chemical Technology at the University
of Strathclyde. Earlier in this year’s Record he offers his advice about Covid, whether ‘To
Mask or Not to Mask’.
‘Hello, can I help you?’ These were the first words I heard as I walked through the
door of 60 Banbury Road on Tuesday 1 October 1968. I had entered with a little
trepidation as a newly appointed JRF. The friendly greeting from Mrs Dick put me
at ease. She was the Domestic Bursar and, as I discovered as time went by, one
could not have had a friendlier or more practically minded person for that position.
However, my composure was then ruffled somewhat by the exchange that followed.
‘Yes’, I replied. ‘I am a new Junior Research Fellow.’
‘And what’s your name?’
‘Michael Hitchman’, I said.
Her response dumbfounded me: ‘Which Michael Hitchman are you?’ And seeing
my look of astonishment and bewilderment, she continued: ‘You see, we’ve
appointed two Michael Hitchmans as Junior Research Fellows.’ I could not believe
it. In all my 27 years I had never come across another Hitchman outside my family,
let alone another Michael Hitchman. I thought I would bring some clarification by
saying: ‘Well, I’m the chemist.’
‘The other Michael Hitchman’s a chemist too’, was Mrs Dick’s reply.
I am sure there had been no confusion and that our merits justified both our
appointments, but I sometimes mused that Sir Isaiah would have taken an impish
delight in the muddles that might ensue amongst the administration, as indeed
96
college record 2021