As the opening of the new ROQ buildings grows nearer, it seems appropriate to show the opening ceremony of a Somerville building from years gone by. This is an informal snap taken at the 1935 opening of the East Quadrangle (now know as Darbishire). The ceremony took place at the Gaudy for that year, when Dorothy L Sayers happened to be… Read More »Opening of Darbishire (East as was)
A glimpse of what we now know as ‘traffic quad’ or Fellows’ car park, shortly after the construction of Darbishire (East) in the mid 1930s. Note the lack of plants but the addition of a high brick wall to screen the pathway through to the main quad. Votes for reinstating the wall? Back to Snippets from the Archives
Last weekend saw the opening of Somerville’s new accommodation buildings for undergraduates by the Chancellor of the University Lord Patten of Barnes. One of the floors in the new building has been named the Gilbert Murray Floor so it seems apporpriate to devote this post to Professor Murray and his association with Somerville. Professor Gilbert Murray was both a great classical scholar and an influential internationalist. Regius… Read More »Gilbert Murray
Charlotte Green was a member of Somerville Council from 1884-1929 and its Vice-President from 1908-1926. She was the sister of poet and literary critic John Addington Symonds, the aunt of future Somerville Principal Dame Janet Vaughan, wife of philosopher T H Green (one of the founding members of Somerville Council) and champion of higher education for women. At one stage she was considered to… Read More »Mrs T H Green
In this snap from c 1924, four Somerville students are captured in the snowy grounds of Somerville, playing musical instruments, singing carols and in one case, smoking a cigarette! The photo was given to the College in 1980 by one of the girls, Edith Standen (1923) though we cannot be sure which one she is. As ever, if anyone has any… Read More »Music in the Snow
A recent addition to the Somerville photo archive is this photo of Katherine Guthrie Wood who was a student at Somerville between 1914 and 1918. She was amongst the first women students to receive their degrees in 1921 when the university regulations were changed to admit women as full members of the university. Miss Wood married Sir Richard Robert Ludlow… Read More »First Graduation in 1921
Reading about the recent untimely death of foreign correspondent Marie Colvin in war-torn Syria, I was reminded of Somervillian Evelyn Irons. Both women were fearless in their determination to report from war zones and both were very often reported to be the first journalists into a war zone and the last to leave. Irons was a student at Somerville between 1918 and 1921 and a keen tennis player,… Read More »Evelyn Irons – War correspondent and Tennis Captain
In 1903 several students in their final year at Somerville got together to entertain their colleagues in College with a ‘Going-Down Play’. Dressed as an animal that they considered most closely resembled their nature, they appeared on stage whilst a master of ceremonies read out a verse or two describing the manner and customs of the creature. Happily for posterity,… Read More »Rose Macaulay as a caterpillar in 1903
On Saturday 28th April 2012, one of the founders of Somerville College and its first Secretary of Council, Mary Ward (also known as Mrs Humphry Ward) was honoured in Oxford with a Blue Plaque on the house in North Oxford where she lived from 1872-1881. Somerville Principal, Dr Alice Prochaska, spoke to the assembled company about Mary Ward’s contribution to the development… Read More »Blue Plaque for Mrs Humphry Ward
Somerville College was named after the renowned mathemetician, astronomer and scientist, Mary Somerville (1780-1872). The College is fortunate to own her papers which were given by the descendents of Mary Somerville, the Fairfax-Lucy family. The papers are held in the Bodleian Library and for many years access to their contents has been via a typewritten list available only at Somerville College or at the Bodleian… Read More »Mary Somerville