N e w s l e t t e rC H U R C H I L L C O L L E G E

Summer 2004

PublisherChurchill College, CambridgeStorey’s WayCambridge CB3 0DSTel. 01223 336197Fax 01223 336177development@chu.cam.ac.uk

Designed and produced for Churchill College by York & Timberlake PartnershipEditor: Stephen Yorkstephen.york@genrepublishing.co.ukProduction: Ted TimberlakeCover photo: Allanson Massam PhotographyPrinted in Spain by Grafo Industrias Gráficas

The Editor and the College would like to thank all the alumni, staff,students and other individuals and organisations who gave their timeand co-operation generously to the publication of this Newsletter.

All texts, photographs and illustrative material, except where notedotherwise, are © Churchill College 2004.Page 2: Orchids © Churchill Heritage and reproduced by kind

permission of Mrs Minnie S Churchill.Page 4: Illustration © John Keogh Design. Pictures reproduced by kind

permission of Steve Chick and Rêve Racing.Pages 6–7: All pictures of ‘Churchill and the Great Republic’ taken by

John Nelson and © The Library of Congress.Pages 8–9, 10, 11,12: All pictures © of their subjects.

Welcome 2College and alumni events 2College Reunions 2Points of contact 2From the Master 3Cover story 3

Crisis in maths and physics teaching 3

Building a superbike 4College finances 5Financing a student 5Churchill and the Great

Republic 6

Archiving Churchill’s art 7Other Archives Centre

activities 7Giving back to Churchill 8Making a legacy 9College prints offer 9

Growing enterprise 10To Australia by bike 11Development news 12The Tizard Fund 12Dick Tizard – a correction 12The Alumni Association 12

32

Welcome to this issue

The months of preparation for theexhibition Churchill and the GreatRepublic in Washington, D.C.came to an end in February 2004,when many alumni, alumnae andmany friends came together to cel-ebrate its opening (pages 6 and 7).The first time these papers havebeen on display in the USA, thefirst exhibition partnership, and aremarkable piece of transatlanticinnovation. Sir Winston would havebeen proud! We continue with accounts of what alumni are doing inthe wider world – from constructing a brand new superbike, to alsousing two wheels to cycle to Australia. Two very contrasting tales. Youwill see a few more features about development in this issue, andmost powerfully, the comments of three alumni who believe support-ing College is worthwhile. If every former student contributed mod-estly, Cambridge and the colleges would have a much more securefuture.Tony Bannard-Smith, Development Director June 2004

The College continues to per-form strongly. Through itsvigour, sense of curiosity,

range of activities and, as ever,delightfully informal style it neverfails to justify my confidence in thecollege system.

That system, however, is underpressure. I have been trying to getthat across to a wider audience.The need to defend and get maxi-mum value from the collegiate sys-tem rang a bell with the Oxfordand Cambridge Society inWashington DC when I spoke tothem last month.

One welcome source of strength is the new Vice Chancellor. AlisonRichard has made clear the value she attaches to the collegiate univer-sity. If we are to remain a top global institution, with the emphasis onquality above all, we know that we cannot afford to throw away any ofour Cambridge cards. Those include, by the way, ever increasing co-operation between the colleges and the University.

Hard choices will of course not go away. The colleges, just as theUniversity, must balance their books. How to run a tight ship withoutthe sacrifice of innovation and inspiration – that is the question. It isasked against the background of an uncertain international situation, inturn impacting on economic prospects. In these circumstances weneed cut back to our key activities.

When we talk about tradition at Churchill we think of the continuingforce of Sir Winston's ideas, beautifully displayed in our current jointexhibition with the Library of Congress in Washington DC. When wetalk of standards we think of a generally excellent academic perform-ance by our students, balanced, however, by lively commitment to asplendid range of activities. When we talk of the Churchill communitywe have much to be proud of, ranging from the MCR’s ‘Conferenceon Everything’ this month to the extraordinarily international quality ofour Fellowship and the student body, with links which range from Iranto Korea. (We have also been trying to help get Basra University backon its feet.)

Our young US talents, as ever, are an enormous asset to theCollege. Wing Yip Scholarships have brought us a first slice of new tal-ents from Beijing. The 30th anniversary of the French OverseasFellowship, to be celebrated in some style, coincides closely with the60th anniversary of D-Day. The two anniversaries remind us power-fully of the College's origin and the continuing force of its Founder'sideas.

I see this College as a young, forward-looking and creative commu-nity with a lot to offer nationally in the shared quest for internationaleducational excellence. Above all, we stay in touch with the realworld. Long before the Lambert Report, we gave high priority to ourindustrial links. Long before invention of OFFA, we were looking fortalent from across the UK, without fear or favour, and that remainsour orientation.

From theMaster

CCoovveerr ssttoorryy

Our cover photograph features the interior of the College Chapel andtwo Churchill undergraduates who benefited from the Chapel TravelBursary last summer. The Bursary makes modest annual grants to con-tribute towards the cost of travel for religious purposes. HannahKowszun (Theology) and Ben WWhite (English), both in their third yearat College, applied by submitting details of their travel plans after see-ing an e-mail circular about the awards. When an application isaccepted the recipient of a grant is expected to submit a short reportafter the trip, but otherwise there are no formal requirements.

Hannah used her award for her work as a leader at a CYFAVentures camp in Blandford Forum, Dorset (below). CYFA Ventures isan offshoot of the ChurchPastoral Aid Society and runsChristian holiday camps for8–18-year-olds through volun-teer leaders such as Hannah. ‘Ihad already participated in oneVentures camp in my gap year,’she told us. ‘There’s lots ofsport, and of course worship.’

Ben’s travels took him fur-ther afield, to Bethlehem, wherehe spent five weeks teachingconversational and colloquialEnglish to students at theBethlehem Bible College (right),a 25-year-old institution thatoffers theological and broadereducational opportunities tolocal Palestinians, bothChristian and Muslim. ‘I had been planning the trip for nine monthsand was immensely fortunate to arrive during a lull in the hostilities.As well as increasing my knowledge of the conflict I have establishedfriendships that make me determined to return next summer.’

Contents

PPooiinnttss ooff ccoonnttaacctt

All phone numbers are area code 01223 (+44 1223)Accommodation 336233 Housekeeping@chu.cam.ac.ukAlumni Officer/

Churchill College Association 336083 Alumni@chu.cam.ac.uk

Archives Centre 336166 Archives@chu.cam.ac.ukChurchill Review

Editor 336190 Review.Editor@chu.cam.ac.ukFellows' Steward's and

Conference Manager's Secretary 336041 Conferences@chu.cam.ac.uk

Development Fellow 336197 Development@chu.cam.ac.ukHigh Table bookings 336000 High.Table@chu.cam.ac.ukMøller Centre 465500 Reception.Moller@chu.cam.ac.ukNewsletter Editor 336083 nleditor@chu.cam.ac.ukPorters' Lodge 336000 Head.Porter@chu.cam.ac.ukSenior Tutor and

Admissions Tutors 336208 Admissions@chu.cam.ac.ukTutor for Advanced

Students 336157 TAS@chu.cam.ac.uk

Above: Orchids, by WinstonChurchill. See page 7

CCrriissiiss iinn mmaatthhss aanndd pphhyyssiiccss tteeaacchhiinngg

Many of you will have read of the current difficult state of maths andphysics teaching in secondary schools in the UK: the shortage ofteachers in these critical subjects has a knock-on effect on futurerecruitment into the profession, as teenagers are put off physics andmaths by lack of specialist teaching. Since the problem is worse instate schools it means that those potential science students from theseschools are even more disadvantaged when it comes to universityapplications.

Churchill College would like to help redress the balance in asmall way by organising an event in College where those of youChurchill scientists and mathematicians who might be contemplating acareer change and would consider teaching as one possible optioncould get together with some of the brave souls who are out therepractising it at the moment.

Also participating will be Fellows in mathematics and physics andthe Department of Education, including Churchill's very own BrendaJennison MBE, recently retired from 25 years of training physicsteachers in Cambridge.

There has never been a better time to enter teaching, in terms ofthe financial assistance to retrain and flexible training courses, so ifthis is of any interest to you or if you, as a teacher, can contribute tothe event, please contact Annette Tattersall, Alumni Officer(alumni@chu.cam.ac.uk, tel: 01223 336083) in the first instance.

CCoolllleeggee aanndd aalluummnnii eevveennttss

Monthly, first Tuesday Alumni Association Pub Night, The Lees Bagg, 4 Great Portland St, London W1 8QJ

24–26 September 2004 Alumni Weekend25 September 2004 Churchill College Association Dinner11 February 2004 College Spring Ball5 June 2004 Alumni v Students Cricket match3 July 2004 Reunion Dinner for years 1960-196525 September 2004 Churchill College Association Annual

Dinner and AGM

CCoolllleeggee RReeuunniioonnssEvery ten years or so you should receive an invitation to come backto College to a Reunion Dinner. This year's Dinner, for matriculationyears 1960–65, is on Saturday July 3rd 2004Years to be invited during the next four years are:9th July 2005 for years 1992–1994; 8th July 2006 for years1973–77. Years 1982–1985 will be invited in 2007, and years1966–1970 will be invited in 2008, dates to be confirmed.

Starting in 2004 there will be an invitation back to College to aSummer Reunion Lunch in July, every ten or so years, so we hope tosee you at Churchill every five years or so at least. Guests, includingchildren, are welcome at these lunches. Years invited to the Summer Lunch Reunion this year are 1969,1979, 1989, and 1999.In 2005 years 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000 will be invitedIn 2006 it will be years 1961, 1971, 1981, 2001, and in 2008,years 1963, 1973, 1983, 1993, and 2003.

arrangements and other buyingconsortia. Heads of departmentsin the College constantly testtheir prices against those bench-marks. We are spending anincreasing amount of manage-ment time seeking external fund-ing through grant-making bodies,and government agencies such asthe DTI, with its PartnershipFund. The Churchill ArchivesCentre, in particular, has man-aged to increase staffing levels bysuccessfully attracting grants forproject work. All of this relievesthe potential burden on theCollege. The appointment in2001 of the College's first profes-sional Development Director,Tony Bannard-Smith, was a con-scious decision by the GoverningBody to address the longer-termfunding issues.

enhanced bursary scheme andthis will be a key fund-raisingobjective in the College and inthe University as it headstowards its 800th anniversary.

On the cost control side, theCollege has been reducing non-academic staff numbers graduallyover the last two years as peopleretire, and three managementposts have been shed in the lastyear. One of the biggest changeshas been the phasing out of thecleaning of student bedrooms, atthe request of the students, tosave money.

Churchill College negotiatesjointly with other colleges thepurchase of utilities and cateringsupplies, which are two of thelargest areas of expenditure. TheCollege also has access to theUniversity's preferred supplier

Investment income Donations receivedCollege operating income Commercial income

(external)Education and fee income Miscellaneous income

Why exactly is Churchill– in common withmost other Cambridge

Colleges – so urgently seekingfurther funds? Increasingly it isnot just to provide the ‘frills’ butto supply the basics of accommo-dation, tuition and maintenance.

What has changed? Over the last five years,

Churchill College has faced anunprecedented number of finan-cial challenges: declining incomefrom UK and EU undergraduatesresulting from a planned phasedreduction in government funding;falling stock markets and invest-ment returns (and above all theremoval of tax relief on dividendsfor charities); increasing main-tenance costs as the buildingservices hit 40 years; and anincreasingly competitive confer-ence market, also hit by theaftermath of the UK foot andmouth epidemic and the eventsof 11 September 2001. Thecharts on the right show how theCollege's sources of income havechanged.

On the expenditure side,employment costs have been ris-ing ahead of inflation, largely dueto national insurance and pensioncost increases and rates, and utili-ties and insurance costs havebeen rising steeply.

Building costs reflect thebooming Cambridge economy,the age of our buildings and plantand higher standards of safety,

54

College Reunions always offer theNewsletter an interesting insight intothe current activities of alumni,

and last July’s event was no exception.It was there that we came acrossformer Churchill student SteveChick (Natural Sciences andMetallurgy, 1970–73) and heardabout an exciting new project inwhich he is combining experi-ence gained from a career inindustry with a lifelong inter-est in motor sport. Aftergraduation, Steve worked onthe Channel Tunnel in its earlydays, and went on to a 25-yearcareer with Mars Inc., ending asManufacturing Director of Mars’European petfood factories. Since 2002, however, he has beenGeneral Manager of a project to build a new all-British superbike.

In the motorcycle market, the superbike segment represents thepinnacle of sports performance and accounts for approximately one inten of all motorcycles sold. Superbikes have one-litre engines andrace-style chassis with aerodynamic fairings. As production models forroad use, they mimic the highly developed race bikes ridden in circuit-based championships. Road-going superbikes fall into two groups –‘showroom’ models, mainly from the Japanese manufacturers, widelyavailable at around £10,000, and ‘race replicas’, produced in smallnumbers, using more exotic components and race settings, at thehigher cost of approximately £20,000. Typical brands in this categoryare Ducati, Benelli, MV Agusta and more recently Foggy Petronas.

Steve’s ambition is to develop a well-known motorcycle racingbrand, Rêve Racing, into a top manufacturer of high-performance roadbikes. Rêve Racing was founded, developed and operated by business-man Ben Atkins, who asked Steve to join him as partner in the newcommercial venture. As well as running his own engineering contractcompany, Ben is a life-long motorcycle racing fan who is acknowledged

within the motorcyclingworld as an expert, profes-

sional and successful raceteam operator. Ben and Steve

intend to turn race success into theestablishment of a healthy business,

making the excitement of racemachinery accessible to

road riders and fans ofsuperbikes.

‘Our project will intro-duce a new entrant to

the replica niche, underthe brand name Rêve,

building on the successfulracing team of the same

name’, Steve told us. ‘The bike isbeing designed from a clean sheet of paper and will go into productionas a road model, supported by a parallel race version and high profilerace programme. We plan to promote awareness and sales of the newbike through success on the track. The closeness of the road model tothe racing model will be the new product’s USP.’

Having worked at the early stages of the project with a Formula 1team and a major branded bike manufacturer, Steve and Ben have nowtaken Rêve down the independent route and have retained the serv-ices of a specialist engineering outfit in the UK. This team is providingdesign and development of the new engine and gearbox, and projectmanagement for the whole bike, including an entirely new, race-derived chassis.

The Rêve Superbike is planned to go into production in March2006. Rêve Racing, which won the British Superbike Championshipsthree times between 1999 and 2001 with Ducatis, has already agreedwith the race organisers to enter it for the 2006 World SuperbikeChampionship.

Establishing a new motorcycle marque is a formidable undertaking,and Steve’s number one task is to raise the further £5 million neededto fund the complete programme: ‘The first stage will be to produce aworking prototype of the bike, including the initial version of the engineand new chassis. This will be followed by full detailed designs, bikedevelopment and testing, reliability work and the certification of theresulting, final bike. Then comes the pay-back, the roll-out of the pro-duction version of the Rêve Superbike with the support of the firstyear's race team and its assault on the World Superbike Championship.’

When did Steve’s love of motorsports begin? ‘When I was atChurchill. I spent quite a bit of time with the University Car Club,rallying and autotesting. The key mover in all this at Churchill wasSimon Davey. Simon was very energetic and valiantly tried to injectthe more slothful, such as me, with his get-up-and-go. I was persuadedto start, and having done reasonably well at autotesting with my feebleFord 105E Anglia, I moved on to rallies, eventually teaming up with theexcellent Bruce Macmichael (also from Churchill), who was entirelyresponsible for the successes that we had, due to his extraordinarynavigating skills. We rallied my Anglia and my Mini, both very modestvehicles, against the might of the fashionable Twin Cam Escorts, andshowed remarkably well!

‘After more than 30 years, this year I have entered my first rallyevent since university, the Three Castles Welsh Classic. Imagine mysurprise to find that the organiser, Ian Crammond, was a fellow mem-ber of the University Car Club, a Pembroke man, and rememberedmy name from way back! Small world, motor sport.’

Above: Designer’s impression of the new Rêve Superbike. Below: Steve Chick on his 1200cc Buell Cyclone.

Building a superbikeA Churchill alumnus is aiming to create a new worldbeater

disabled access and comfort.How are we trying to bridge

the gap? The College constantly reviews

what it has to spend to maintainits buildings to meet the needs ofthe current and future collegecommunity. There is a review ofthe conference business underway and a major marketing andsales initiative has begun inconsequence.

Over the last five years, theCollege has gradually beenincreasing its charges to studentsfor food and accommodation tomeet the true cost of operatingthe facilities.

Nonetheless, Churchill under-graduates are only required topay rent for 30 weeks of the yearand there are still more studentswanting to live in College thanwe have space for. Charging aneconomic rent at a time whenstudents fund their universityeducation through loans is alwaysan emotive issue and the Collegehas responded by increasing itsprovision for hardship amongststudents, but the situation willonly get worse as undergraduatefees rise as planned in 2006.

The big change from the cur-rent situation will be thatstudents will not have to pay thefees until after they leaveCollege, but the debt burden willbe considerably greater thannow. To help, the University andthe colleges are planning a greatly

College financesJennifer Rigby, the College Bursar, explains why, in spite of careful

cost management, Churchill still has to appeal for funds

2002/031998/99

Sources of College income

1 %

37 %

3 %29 %

9 %

21 %32 %

2 %

28 %

15 %

23 %

FFiinnaanncciinngg aa ssttuuddeenntt

While the debate continues on the funding of higher education in theUK, we thought that readers would be interested to see the followingfigures, which are taken from a report commissioned this year by theindependent think-tank OxCHEPS. Although the figures relate toOxford University undergraduates, the percentages are probably verysimilar for Cambridge students. The charts on the right show:A. The average annual cost (2002–2003), to the college and to theuniversity, of an Oxford undergraduate education.B. The sources of finance which enable the college and the university tomeet those costs.

Data © 2004 OxCHEPS and The Ulanov Partnership and reproducedby their kind permission. From Costing, Funding and Sustaining HigherEducation, downloadable from http://oxcheps.new.ox.ac.uk/

6%

15%

22%

5%

6%

47%

Pri

vate

Student feesB

Endowment

Earned income

Donations

Other

HEFCE

Pub

lic

23%

9%

10%

49%

3%

6%

Col

lege

s

Instruction and studentservices (tutorial)

A

Institutional andcommunity service(chapel, student clubs)

Institutional andcommunity service(museums, athletics)

Admin and overhead(colleges)

Admin and overhead(university)

Instruction and studentservices (lectures,laboratories, libraries)

Uni

vers

ity

Reynolds of Christ’s College, who sits on our Archives Committee.Needless to say, some hard choices had to be made to arrive at thefinal total of 200 or so items, of which the Churchill Archives Centrehas supplied about 70.’

The result is an impressive collection of letters, prints, photographs,maps, newspaper cuttings and other media that document Churchill’saffinity with what he called, in a speech to Congress on 17 April 1945,‘the Great Republic’. Rare filmclips of some of his American speeches,as well his typescript drafts, are also on display; one of the most strik-ing exhibits, however, must be the giant globe, a copy of the gift thatGeneral George Marshall gave to both Winston Churchill andPresident Roosevelt so that they could identify places covered in theirtransatlantic phone conversations.

During the research for the event historian Daun van Ee discoveredhitherto uninventoried Churchillmaterial in the Library ofCongress, in the form of a seriesof letters from Winston to hiscousin ‘Sunny’, the 9th Duke ofMarlborough, dating from 1898onwards and describing eventssuch as the Battle of Omdurman,during which Churchill partici-pated in one of the BritishArmy’s last great cavalry charges.

As he often reminded his USaudiences, Winston was half-American: his mother was thebeautiful New York heiressJennie Jerome. His first visit tothe States was in 1895 when, asa brash nineteen-year-old enroute to his first military adven-ture in Cuba, he stopped in NewYork long enough to record hisnot very flattering opinion of theAmerican press in a letter to hisbrother Jack. The exhibition

On 4 February this year President George W Bush delivered aforeign policy statement in the Great Hall of the JeffersonBuilding in the Library of Congress, Washington, DC. In the

background were images from Churchill and the Great Republic, anexhibition charting the lifelong links between the United States and SirWinston Churchill, which opened the same day. The inspiration for theexhibition and a core of key materials on display have come from theChurchill Archives Centre.

‘It has been three years in the making’, said Allen Packwood,Director of the Churchill Archives Centre and co-curator of the exhi-bition. ‘We have held successful exhibitions on Churchill’s life inCambridge, Edinburgh and Manchester, using the resources of theArchive, but we have always wanted to mount a major display in theStates, as a way of connecting with US alumni and acknowledging thegenerosity of the American donors who made the foundation of theArchives Centre possible. In 2001, while in Washington on other busi-ness, I was able to to meet senior Library staff, through the help ofgood friends of Churchill College such as Jack Kemp, a former candi-date for the Republican Presidential nomination. The proposal of ajoint exhibit on Churchill’s life “through an American lens” was imme-diately accepted, provided the costs could be met by outside financing.We felt that 2004, the 60th anniversary of D-Day, would be a particu-larly appropriate year for the event.’

The generous support of John W Kluge, the Annenberg Foundationand The Churchill Centre, Washington, ensured that the exhibitioncould go ahead. During the following two years, in a series of meetingsin Washington, Allen conferred with curators at the Library ofCongress to select items for display, dovetailing those available in theLibrary with the wealth of potential material in the Archives Centre toachieve what Allen Packwood refers to as a Union of English-speakingLibraries. ‘We were greatly helped by our academic advisers, includingSir Martin Gilbert, the Churchill biographer, and Professor David

takes us through many subsequent excursions to the States. In 1929he managed to get through customs into Prohibition America withalcohol in his luggage, and in 1931 his career was nearly terminated onNew York’s 5th Avenue when he was knocked down by a car (charac-teristically he turned the experience to financial advantage by writing itup for the US and British papers).

It is his wartime visits and speeches that are best remembered,however, and the exhibition devotes three of its six sections to thisperiod of his career. The final section covers Churchill’s postwar con-nections with the USA, including the 1946 lecture tour that includedhis famous ‘Iron Curtain’ speech, and the 1963 bestowal by Congressof honorary US citizenship upon Churchill, only the second person inhistory to receive this award.

President Bush’s appearance on the morning of the 4th guaranteedprimetime coverage of Churchill and the Great Republic, but theactual opening ceremony took place in the evening, when WinstonChurchill’s youngest daughter, Lady Soames, officially declared the

exhibition open, after speechesby the Librarian of Congress, theMaster of Churchill College andMr Winston Churchill to an audi-ence which included the BritishAmbassador, many Americanfriends of the College, and anumber of Congressmen.

‘The value to the ArchivesCentre and to College of such ahigh-profile event can’t be over-estimated’, commented AllenPackwood after the opening. ‘Itgives us an opportunity to recon-nect with friends of ChurchillCollege, the American benefac-

tors who made the Churchill Archives Centre possible, and not least,our US-based alumni, for whom we have laid on special events suchas a visit to the USS Winston S Churchill. We hope that the publicitywill lead to increased use of the Archives Centre’s resources by schol-ars, especially now that they are increasingly available online. And notleast, we were able to remind the American public that our ArchivesCentre, housing both the Churchill and Thatcher papers, is the equiv-alent of two Presidential Libraries, but unlike them is not state-supported and relies on private endowment.’Churchill and the Great Republic is open from 10.00 a.m. to 5.00p.m., Mon– Sat, in the Northwest Gallery of the Library of Congress, andbecause of its popularity has been extended into July. For more details seewww.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill. The book of the exhibition is available fromthe Churchill Archives Centre, price £10.00 + P&P.

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Churchill and the Great Republic

CAC partners the Library of Congress in a major US exhibition

Top of page: Churchill returning from a conference with Roosevelt, 1941.Above: Part of The Age of Youth, the first section of the exhibition. Below:The opening of the exhibition in the majestic setting of the ThomasJefferson Building, the Library of Congress.

Lady Soames opens the exhibition

Time to relax after three years of organisation. Left to right: KimberliCurry, Exhibition Director, LC; Allen Packwood, Co-Curator; Daun van Ee,Curator, LC; Irene Chambers, Chief, Interpretive Programs Office, LC.Behind is one of the giant globes used by Churchill and Roosevelt.

AArrcchhiivviinngg CChhuurrcchhiillll’’ss aarrttThe recently published book Sir Winston Churchill’s Life through hisPaintings by David Coombs and Minnie S Churchill documents in fullcolour nearly every picture painted by Churchill. In February this yearthe authors and publisher kindly presented to College a CD-ROMcontaining high-resolution images of all the paintings reproduced inthe book, as a permanent archive of Churchill’s art. The picture belowwas taken at the presentation ceremony in the Cockcroft Room,appropriately in front of Churchill’s Orchids, which hangs there.

Left to right: Lady Boyd, Mr David Coombs (author), Dr Maria Tippett,Mr Paul Richens, Mrs Ines Schaafsma, Anthea Morton Saner, MrHubert Schaafsma (publisher), Mrs Minnie S Churchill (author), MrSimon Bird, Sir John Boyd, Dr Mark Goldie, Mr Allen Packwood.

OOtthheerr AArrcchhiivveess CCeennttrree aaccttiivviittiieessOn 14 November 2003 the Centre opened a selection of files fromMargaret TThatcher's private archive up to 4 May 1979. This is thefirst time papers of a British Prime Minister have been opened to thegeneral public during their lifetime. Many of the key documents arealso available online at the Margaret Thatcher Foundation's officialsite, www.margaretthatcher.org.

The Churchill Archives Centre holds the papers of Lord YYoung oofDartington, who died in 2002, and his life’s work was commemoratedin a memorial symposium on the evening of 14 January. After anintroduction by Sir John Boyd, several speakers gave short talks onthe many facets of the career of this innovative and unconventionalsociologist. After working during World War II in economic planning,Michael Young went on to write the Labour Party’s 1945 electionmanifesto. A Fellow of Churchill College from 1961 to 1966 (andlater an Honorary Fellow), and President of Birkbeck College1989–1992, he is remembered today principally as the founder ofthe Consumers’ Association (1956) and of the National ExtensionCollege (1962), from which developed the Open University, in whichhe was also involved. Other achievements of his ‘institutional creativ-ity’ range from the University of the Third Age to the NHS Healthline.

The Archives Centre spans the political spectrum, and also holdsthe papers of controversial Conservative and Unionist politician EnochPowell. In February College hosted a one-day conference on ‘EnochPowell and the Politics of Immigration’, organised by CRASSH(Cambridge University’s Centre for Research in the Arts, SocialSciences and Humanities). This was accompanied by a display fromthe Powell Papers and a presentation by their archivist, KatharineThomson of the Archives Centre (see www.chu.cam.ac.uk/archives/about/Powell_talk.shtml).

ising their work permits, and soon. This took up about ninemonths of the year, and in the lastquarter I was in Stockholmmyself, teaching English to univer-sity students, pensioners, slowlearners, air force pilots, school-teachers – just about every groupyou could think of.’

This was in the mid-1970s,when big changes were takingplace in the methodology ofteaching English as a ForeignLanguage (EFL). Michael foundhimself writing materials for usein the British Centre, and laterorganising their production in theUK (‘much cheaper than doing itin Sweden’). He became inter-ested in the theory behind EFLmaterials and read widely in thearea of applied linguistics, whichled him to begin writing texts forteachers rather than the learners.

By 1979 he and a colleague atthe British Centre had writtentwo series for UK publishers, hadhad another one published inGermany and had created a seriesfor Swedish radio. They decidedto return to the UK and in 1980founded their own independentEFL publishing company, LanguageTeaching Publications. While run-ning the business as co-owner,Michael developed his career inapplied linguistics and wrote sev-eral influential books on the sub-ject of English Language Teaching(ELT), beginning with The EnglishVerb in 1986. At the same time hewas much in demand as a confer-ence speaker. Language TeachingPublications was sold to theThomson Corporation in 2002,and though Michael is ‘officially’retired now he still lectures andwrites articles.

‘I am one of that extremelylucky generation who had ourfees paid and recieved a grantthat you could actually live on. Asa northern grammar school boy Imight not have got intoCambridge a generation earlier(and I think I might have found itless to my liking socially – somecolleges were fearfully snobbish!);a generation later and thingswould have been much harderfinancially. I am happy to thinkthat by giving back to Churchill Imay be able to pass on the samesort of opportunities to futurestudents.’

9

households. If, as an alumnus, Ican do something to prevent thatfrom happening, I am more thanhappy to do so. The ChurchillArchives Centre provides a simi-lar situation. I believe it fulfils animportant function and, by itspresence at College adds an extradimension to what the Collegerepresents. I was honoured to beasked to join the US AdvisoryBoard and hope that through myparticipation I can help ensure itscontinued success.’

Michael Lewis is a UK-basedalumnus who retired after sellinghis publishing business in 2002.He has chosen to give toChurchill by means of a legacy,and his reasons are very straight-forward: ‘I simply would like togive something back to an institu-tion which gave a lot to me. Iloved my time at Churchill and Iam a great believer in the collegesystem, which is small-scale, sup-portive and provides a real edu-cation rather than just a degree.’

He read Mathematics atChurchill before going on to aPGCE, with the intention of pur-suing a career in maths teaching.Having previously visited Swedenon a College travel grant, hespent a year there teachingEnglish before returning to Britainto teach maths; this proved to bea career-altering experience.

‘Back in the UK I soon realisedthat I enjoyed teaching, but notteaching maths, and after a year Itook up a post running the UKend of the same scheme that hadtaken me to Sweden. This wasrun by the British Centre, part ofthe Folk University of Sweden,which is the extra-mural board ofthe Swedish universities. As theirDirector of Recruitment in theUK, I had to recruit about 50teachers a year to go to Swedenon half-year contracts, includingbriefing and training them, organ-

MMaakkiinngg aa lleeggaaccyy

‘You make a living by what you do. You make a life by what you give’ Winston S Churchill

Many Churchill members who would like to give a gift that wouldmake a real difference to the College, are unable to do so during theirlifetime because of their daily commitments. Including a legacy in yourwill allows you this opportunity.

A specific gift made during the lifetime of the donor can be asource of tremendous satisfaction. A legacy that is used to endow ascholarship, to build or restore the fabric of the College, creates alasting memorial that can have great meaning to the donor's friends,children and descendants. Specific gifts can include support of thefabric of the College.

People sometimes assume that only very large gifts are suitablefor creating a personal memorial or endowing a named fund in perpe-tuity. This is not the case. Prizes and travel grants can be establishedfor as little as a few thousand pounds, while a box of papers in theChurchill Archives Centre can be restored and the donor acknowl-edged for no more than £200. In addition: * The Charitable status of College means that legacies and bequests

are exempt of Inheritance Tax and Capital Gains Tax.* A gift of shares transferred to College may cost the donor only

20–40% of the market value.* Leaving a legacy to the College is one of the best ways to create a

memorial or honour to an individual or their family. Churchill College was founded through gifts and legacies. Its

present strength and academic excellence are due in large part to thegenerosity of former members of the College, whose legacies and spe-cific gifts have enhanced its character and helped establish it in theforefront of academic excellence. Specific gifts and legacies strengthenChurchill College for future centuries and generations.

8

Other articles in this issueoutline the financialchallenges which face

students, teachers and admini-strators at Churchill andCambridge in the 21st century.The questions of how universitiesshould be funded and how theycan attract students from a widespectrum of social and financialbackgrounds are currently thesubject of intense public debatein Britain. The role that privatedonations should play in fundingacademic institutions is one of themost controversial aspects of thatdebate. We asked three Churchillalumni who have chosen to sup-port the College, either by directdonation or by legacies, why theydecided to do so and what theyfelt they owed to Churchill.

Two of our interviewees nowlive in the United States, wherethe tradition of alumni supportfor the alma mater is much morestrongly established than in theUK; both have felt it important togive back to Churchill throughgenerous donations in the lastfew years.

Anthony H. Wild took hisPhD at Churchill and, after work-ing in the pharmaceutical industryfor 30 years in six countries, nowlives in New Jersey, where heruns and part-owns a small com-pany. ‘My career, and indeed mymarriage, are very much associ-ated with the wonderful start Iwas given in Cambridge and I willalways be grateful for the help Igot – academically obviously, butin my case also in helping megrow up and mature, and finan-cially.’

Tony grew up in Leeds andwent from Leeds Grammar

School to study chemistry atYork: ‘A very exciting time: thefirst year of sciences and the firstyear on campus. I’m not sur-prised that York has gone on toachieve a consistently high posi-tion in the university leaguetables. After my first degree Iwanted to pursue research inphysical chemistry in a field forwhich Cambridge was the cen-tre. I was encouraged to applyand, much to my astonishment,got an offer to do a PhD.’

He chose Churchill to avoidthe potential stuffiness of theolder colleges after the newnessof York, for its scientific pedigreeand because the college architec-ture fascinated him. ‘When I vis-ited I thought “this is it!”. Mythree years at Cambridge werethe most enjoyable of my earlylife. I loved the research inLensfield Road and loved the lifein College. I became engaged toa Swiss girl studying English inCambridge and we were marriedin the College chapel, so our tiesto Churchill are especially strong.We even lived in one of the flatsfor the last couple of months wewere there.’

In spite of a scholarship fromthe Royal Society, the time wasone of financial struggles. ‘Myfather was quite ill by that timeand no longer in a position tohelp much; indeed he died theyear after I left Cambridge.’ Theywere alleviated by teachingassignments in College and by aloan he had to take out (whichhe was able to pay off once hewas working in Switzerland).

‘Thinking back to those daysand recognising the enormoushelp I received, I think it is onlyright to give back. Everyoneshould do this, no matter howmodestly.’ With a daughter aboutto go up to Yale, Tony is wellaware of the financial strength ofthe top US universities. ‘Here inthe US there is a great traditionof giving back. I know many thinkthe wealth of American collegesstems from the Rockefellers,Carnegies and now the Gates ofthis world but, in reality, their

enormous endowments are thedirect result of the generosity ofthe hundreds of thousands ofalumni who give what they can.

‘This is tremendously impor-tant: the majority of the top col-leges here are totally private andreceive no federal or state sup-port. Fees here are high (typicallyover $30,000 a year!) but collegesare, for the most part, able tooffer places to students on aneeds-blind basis. If you getaccepted, the college will makesure you can pay the fees througha combination of grants, loansand part-time work.

‘Just think if this were possiblein the UK and universities wereno longer dependent on govern-ment handouts. Even a universityas ancient as Cambridge,together with all of its colleges,has a total endowment that isonly a fraction of that of a typicalAmerican Ivy League college. TheUK needs a radically differentapproach to financing universities,based on widespread giving byalumni. If every former studentcontributed modestly, Cambridgeand the colleges would have amuch securer future. Therewould be a veritable forest ofacademic oaks from all those littleacorns.’

Julian D. Gee is anotherYorkshire-born alumnus now liv-ing in the US. Having gone up toChurchill in 1968 to studyNatural Sciences, he stayed on toobtain a PhD in Zoology in 1974.Following three years at BristolUniversity School of VeterinaryMedicine he joined Pfizer’sAnimal Health Division in the UKand in 1985 transferred to theUnited States with the samecompany. He has lived there eversince.

After taking the opportunity ofearly retirement from Pfizer in2001 he became volunteerExecutive Director of theInternational Union for theConservation of Nature’sVeterinary Specialist Group andsince March 2004 has also been amember of the Churchill ArchivesCentre US Advisory Board.

‘Churchill had an enormousimpact on my life. Not only did Iget a wonderful education, butthrough my interactions with theteaching staff, both at Churchilland within the Zoology Depart-ment, and with my friends atCollege my horizons were vastlyexpanded. I remember my firstconversation with my tutor DrCampbell, at which he said that ifall I did at Cambridge was tostudy, I would miss out on themost important things thatChurchill and Cambridge had tooffer.

‘During almost 20 years in theUS I have seen how effective phil-anthropy can be. I feel stronglythat if there are causes or institu-tions that you believe to beimportant, the best way toensure their success is either todonate your time, or providefinancial support.’

Like Tony Wild, Julian has adaughter at a private US univer-sity; she has just finished her sec-ond year at Tulane University inNew Orleans. What he has seendemonstrated by Tulane is theability of a university to provideopportunities through scholar-ships to young people whobecause of their financial circum-stances would never otherwisebe able to afford to attend a top-rank university. ‘I doubt that thecurrent trend in university fund-ing in the UK will be reversed. Inall likelihood higher and higherfinancial contributions will beexpected from students and theirparents. It would be terriblyunfortunate if the effect of thiswere to make an education atChurchill College inaccessible toyoung people from less affluent

Tony Wild

Julian Gee

Giving back to ChurchillThree views on alumni philanthropy

Michael Lewis

College prints offer

Two views of Churchill College were painted in 2003 by JaneCarpanini, a member of the Royal Watercolour Society. One of thepaintings will represent the College in a new book, CambridgeWatercolours, to be published in May 2004. A limited edition ofprints has been taken from these two watercolours, and we aredelighted to offer College Members the first opportunity to buythe prints, to coincide with the book's publication. The College willreceive a royalty for each print sold. The prints will be limited to350 each signed and numbered by the artist, Jane Carpanini RWS,RWA.

Offered at a special pre-publication price of £109 each or £199for the pair, they are printed on acid free paper using colour fastinks by Gros Monti of Ashford, Kent. The image size is approxi-mately 11" x 16½", presented in an ivory coloured, bevelled hand-cut mount, the overall size being 17½" x 23". The prints can beordered from Contemporary Watercolours by telephoning 01474535922 with credit/debit card details.

11

All of us at some time haveprobably looked out ofthe window onto a grey

British winter and thought of justtaking off, but not many haveturned the fantasy into reality.When the Alumni Office alertedthe Newsletter to a Churchillalumnus who had done just that,we had to find out more. Our e-mails finally caught up with MarkMcLean (Churchill, Engineering1993) and his wife Juliette(Newnham, 1991) in Yunnan,Southern China.

The obvious first question was‘Why?’ Mark’s answer was sim-ply: ‘It was 7pm on a cold, wetFebruary day, I had just got homefrom work and Ju had a stack ofmarking to do. We were bothpretty fed up and wanted achange so I jestingly suggestedthat we do a cycle tour of theworld. “OK”, said Ju, “let’s doit!”. Of course it wasn’t quite aseasy as just getting the bikes outof the shed and going, we had tosave a fair bit of money and do alot of planning, sell our house andgive up our jobs, so it wasn’t untilthe following summer, 2002, thatwe actually set out.’

Climate, seasons and the tragicevents of September 2001 weredeciding factors in choosing aroute. ‘Ju wanted leave at the endof the school year for the sakeher students, which meant thatwinter would be upon us after afew months. We are notmasochists and had no desire topedal across Siberia in winter. Inview of the unfolding world polit-ical crisis we thought it best toavoid Iran and Pakistan. So weheaded south across France andItaly, spent January and February2003 in Greece and then strucknorth through Bulgaria andRomania into Ukraine in thespring. In the Carpathians wespent several weeks slitheringalong snow-covered roads. Wehad a few scares with wolveswhile camping in Bulgaria; appar-ently they won’t attack humansbut the hair-raising sound of theirhowls is bad enough!’

Ukraine was a surprise: ‘Wehad expected an industrial waste-land, but instead we got peasantsploughing their fields with horses,roads lined with blossoming apri-cot trees and the best friends wehave made on this trip. InDnepropetrovsk we met theMeteor Cycling Club, composedlargely of rocket scientists andengineers (the city was a majorcentre for ballistic missile designand manufacture). Since the col-lapse of the Soviet Union therehas been some diversification intocivilian rocketry but despite thisthere are few jobs available andlittle money, so these highlyskilled people survive by growingall their own vegetables on theirdacha and having a second jobsuch as teaching English or sellingbike spares on a market stall.They made us very welcome,introduced us to the delights ofsalo (lightly salted raw pig skin,surprisingly tasty and very goodcycling food), delicious salads andof course vodka.’

It is a very long way acrossRussia and Mark and Juliette tooka train from Dnepropetrovsk toUfa in the Urals. ‘From there weset out across Siberia. “Siberia”evokes images of freezing bliz-zards, starving political prisonersand endless wastes of bleak tun-dra. For us it meant hundreds ofkilometres of mixed swamps,birch forest and cow pasture, end-less sunny days of sweltering in35ºC and truly frightening num-bers of mosquitoes. There werebig flies that could cruise alongsideus at 25km/h and had a bite like adarning needle. In the morning wewould think it must be rainingoutside but it was just the soundof hundreds of flies banging on thetent, trying to get in.’

From Novosibersk theMcLeans headed into RussianAltai and then north-east toIrkutsk, following jeep tracks orjust pedalling across the steppe: ittook 14 days to cover 320km off-road with just one settlement enroute, carrying virtually all thefood they needed and trading

coffee (lightweight and high-value) for milk and dried milk bis-cuits from herders who wereliving in tents on the steppe.

‘The border crossing fromRussia to Mongolia was hilarious.The Russians were terribly effi-cient, filling out lots of forms andstamping everything three times.In contrast the Mongoliansseemed more interested in havinga go on Ju’s bike (mine was toobig) and wanted their photostaken with us. Mongolia is a won-derfully undeveloped country. TheState Department Store, UlaanBaatar’s biggest shop, has a foodsection smaller than that ofSainsbury’s in Cambridge city cen-tre. There are only a few tarmacroads and most of the populationare nomadic herders in the coun-tryside.’ In what proved to be thetoughest stretch of the trip todate, Mark and Juliette then hadto ride tracks for 700km acrossthe Gobi Desert to China, goingup to five days between watersources. The days were usuallysunny and warm but the nightswere cold enough to freeze their13-litre water can solid.

At the time of writing they hadbeen in China for five months,having pedalled through thewindswept grasslands of InnerMongolia and the high mountains

of Western Sichuan. ‘In northernChina we stayed in towns whereforeigners were virtuallyunknown. In one place a teenagegirl approached us to practise herEnglish and invited us to stay withher family, who lived in a tinyvillage about a day’s ride fromthe town. She was clearly a veryable student and explained to ushow expensive education is inChina. Her family’s only cow wasearmarked to pay for the nextterm’s school fees.’

So far the McLeans have been20 months on the road and havepedalled 18,000 km, plus about3000 km by train in Russia and700 km by bus in China. Theirremaining stages will take themto Laos, Thailand, Malaysia andthence to Australia, with plans tostay with relatives near Sydney atChristmas 2004, even if thismeans taking the train to getthere in time. Then what? ‘AfterAustralia we don’t have any firmplans – maybe we will pedal backvia New Zealand and NorthAmerica if funds permit.Eventually I am sure I will returnto electronic engineering; Ju ishoping to retrain as a GeneticCounsellor.’You can follow the McLeans’ con-tinuing story by visiting www.mark-ju.net.

Roadside stop in Western Sichuan

To Australia by bikeTwo Cambridge graduates who decided to sell up and pedal off

10

If you want an insight into what life is like for a Latin American stu-dent abroad, then navigate to www.lasegunda.com. and follow thelinks ‘Educación’ and ‘Red de Estudiantes’. So many students from

Chile are pursuing courses abroad that the national evening newspaperLa Segunda maintains a network for them on its website. La Red deEstudiantes is the brainchild of Cristian Hernandez-Cuevas, whocame to Churchill in 2002 from Santiago to study for a Master’sdegree in BioScience Enterprise.

‘I was contacted by a journalist from La Segunda who was compilinga database of Chileans studying overseas, as part of a campaign to mar-ket the paper to student readers’, he told us. ‘I contacted the editorand offered to co-ordinate a newsection of their site which couldact as an interactive forum forChilean students abroad, allowingthem to keep in touch with homebut also acting as a knowledgebase for those thinking of taking acourse overseas. The idea fromthe outset was to make it trulyinteractive. Students in Chile cannow get advice from those whoare already studying overseas, onall kinds of practical and academicmatters, even on career strategy.’

The result was a phenomenalsuccess, as La Segunda saw visitsto the section rise first to 100sand then to 1000s. ‘At any onetime there are probably 2–3000students from Chile at overseasuniversities’, explained Cristian,‘and most of them will probablyreturn home after completingtheir courses.’

Cristian obtained his Bachelor’sdegree in Engineering, specialisingin Molecular Genetics, at theUniversity of Chile. While still astudent he had helped to found the non-profit Biotechnology DiffusionCommittee of Chile, which promotes biotechnology to the generalpublic. After graduating he founded Aureogenomics Ltd, a consultancywhich now employs seven professionals to provide technical andstrategic appraisals of biotechnology projects for Latin American com-panies. While acting as Executive Manager for the start-up, balancingfinancing activities with work on a project to introduce molecular assayto the Chilean dairy industry as a way of testing for tuberculosis in cat-tle, he decided to strengthen his entrepreneurial skills by acquiring aqualification in Bioscience Enterprise. Having been granted a place onthe Cambridge course, he applied, with the University’s recommenda-tion, for a scholarship from the Shell Centenary Fund.

The Fund was set up by the petrochemical giant on its 100thanniversary to foster the development of human intellectual resourcesacross the world. Scholarships are awarded by regional quotas, andcan be for science or humanities studies. Chile is part of a subregioncomprising five South American countries, which together are eligiblefor just three scholarships annually, so competition is intense.

Although unable to travel to the UK for an interview, Cristian won

his scholarship on the strength of his entrepreneurial track record,supported by an essay on his ambitions to use biotechnology toimprove the economy of his home country, a subject on which he hasa lot to say: ‘Chile is a country rich in natural resources of all kinds –the world’s largest producer of copper, with a thriving agriculturaleconomy that comes from the extraordinary geography and diversityof its climate. Biotechnology is often wrongly promoted as a solutionfor just about everything, but I think its main applications for Chile willbe in health care, in agriculture and in protecting the environment;bio-mining has great possibilities.’

Bio-mining? ‘If you grind copper ore and pile it up, you can use engi-neered bacteria to consume therock eventually and leave themetal free. It’s not economic as away of mining top-grade ore, buton poorer grades, including all thewaste material that the industryproduces, it’s an ideal way ofextracting extra yields.’

Bio-engineering to the UK pub-lic means GM crops. We askedCristian for his views on this con-troversial subject. He is generallyin favour, although he notes that‘Chile already grows GM crops –but only to produce GM seeds forexport, not for homeconsumption.’

Having obtained his universityplace he did his homework andopted for Churchill College onthe basis of its reputation for sci-ence and engineering excellence,and has found the interactivityand community life of the collegesystem very congenial. He arrivedto start his course in October2002, accompanied by his wifeBernardita Maria Araya-

Kleinsteuber, who after working for a year as a research assistant inthe University’s Institute of Biotechnology is now reading for a PhD inBiological Sciences here. So now Cristian has completed his Master’sdegree but is waiting until Bernardita has finished hers, in 2006, beforereturning home.

‘I’ve carried out some freelance work for ProChile, the Governmentof Chile’s overseas economic development agency, and of course thereis still work to do in developing the Red de Estudiantes, but I’d reallylike to use the time to publish more.’ By this he means general articlesfor the business community on biotechnology and on the Chileaneconomy, rather than academic or research publications. An entrepre-neur through and through, he sees networking and visibility as keysteps to his ultimate ambition to be a successful venture capitalist orbusiness consultant in the Latin America’s biotechnology industry. Heasked us to point out that would-be candidates for his personal net-work can contact him at cah56@cam.ac.uk!If you read Spanish you can enjoy Cristian’s eye-opening and lively accountof his life as a Cambridge student at: www.lasegunda.com/_portada/La_red/hernandez/3/index.asp.

Growing enterpriseA Churchill student from overseas has developed an innovative way

to keep in touch with his home country

Cristian Hernandez-Cuevas and Bernardita Maria Araya-Kleinsteuberrelaxing in traditional Cambridge style

The hot topic in our June 2003 Newsletter was the future costof being a student. Well, we now know our worst fears werepretty well spot on – it is going to cost more! Let us hope the

Tizard Fund, The Master’s and Fellows’ Funds, and other bursaryFunds continue to receive gifts so that their contribution may yetdevelop to match the reality of the situation. At present, they are justbeginning to scratch the surface.

As well as further reductions in the UK Government’s subsidy forUK students, the income College receives for teaching has also beenreduced. The figure of 2.2% reduction per year may not soundmuch, but already College receives £220 less per undergraduate nowthan 5 years ago when the scheme was introduced. In 2002/3, Collegespent £814,000 more on educating its graduates and undergraduatesthan it received for this purpose. The balance, funded from reserves,equates to over £1100 per student in the year, the equivalent of £49per student for each week they are in College.

I have no doubt Mr Micawber would have had a strong word tosay; so also would our founder Fellow Lord (C P) Snow, and not leastthe thoughts of the business minded amongst you! So what doesCollege do? And, what can you do for your College?

Establishing a stream of philanthropic funding for each CollegeTeaching Officer post – and there’s at least one in each subject – isCollege’s preferred solution. A flow of new funds, either annually orfrom an invested lump sum, will enable academics to serve the cur-rent and future students of your College. Such sponsored Collegeposts will be formally established and will carry a benefactor’s name.This will give College the desirable and permanent terms of financialsecurity that we all seek in our own employment.

If just 100 alumni in each subject made a monthly gift of £26*, wecould fund one new College Teaching Officer in each of the 28 sub-jects now taught at Churchill College.

(* £33 pm if not a basic rate UK tax payer)

12

Development news

As Chairman of the Association, Iam often asked ‘What is theAssociation about?’ Well, theAssociation is primarily aboutcommunication. This is not sim-ply a way of avoiding what isoften a very sensitive issue withalumni, that of supportingCollege today by being involvedor contributing financially, butwithout communication, it is verydifficult to engage in eitherfriend-raising or fund-raising. IfCollege do not know where itsalumni are, and have not spokenor written to them since theygraduated, then they are unlikelyto consider themselves friendsand even less likely to supportCollege financially.

As a new college, Churchilldoes not have the establishedways of doing things and chan-nels of communication of Trinity

or Peterhouse. As a young andtechnologically adept college,however, we are able to movequickly to adopt the most modernand effective means of communi-cating with alumni. We are alsountrammelled with historical bag-gage and open to new ideas, as ascientific college should be.

There have been three excit-ing developments since the newDevelopment Director took hispost. Most usefully from thepoint of view of the alumni, theCollege website has beenexpanded to include an alumnicontacts system that enables eachof us to track down long-lostfriends, former drinking buddiesand unrequited loves from long-forgotten May weeks. This systemhas already been responsible forsignificant damage to my ownliver.

Secondly, perhaps the moststrategically significant develop-ment in the long term has beenthe replacement of the multipledatabases with a single modernsystem. While there is still anenormous amount of work to doin cleaning and completing theexisting data, which may takeyears to finish, this will ultimatelyyield great dividends. Whereaspreviously people might not havereceived invitations to events, asthe quality of the data improveseverybody will be included.

Finally, after much effort try-ing to find a way to extendalumni activity beyond the UK,over the first half of 2004 therehas been a programme of alumnievents in the USA, particularlyrelated to Sir Winston Churchill.

What I am trying to commu-nicate to you, the alumni and

members of the College, is thatwe'd like to talk to you. Please doupdate your details on the web-site, www.chu.cam.ac.uk/alumni/contact/Homepage.go.

Please do also come along tothe pub nights in the Lees Baggnear Oxford Street. Dates can befound on the Contact System cal-endar at www.chu.cam.ac.uk/alumni/contact?sp=2. Comealong to the traditional eventssuch as the annual dinner but alsotake part in new ventures such asthe informal careers guidanceevent that we tried earlier thisyear. Remember,it's good to talk.

Alasdair Gill(U89, NaturalSciences)AssociationChairman

This fund was established with theexplicit hope that undergraduatesmatriculating during the years1961 and 1979 specifically willwant to celebrate the contributionDick Tizard made in the earlyyears of Churchill College asSenior Tutor. How right we were!Many of you from that erarecounted strong and fond memo-ries of Dick, and have made yourown contributions to the TizardFund as a result. What has beensomewhat unexpected, is thatundergraduates matriculating since

1980 have seen even greatermerit in the Fund’s objectives, andhave supported it most gener-ously. Today's Churchill studentsreally do value this type of newopportunity fund, and the TizardFund is about to begin distribu-tions for suitable study-relatedprojects.

We want our Churchill stu-dents to obtain the maximum pos-sible from their all-too-shortperiod of study here and less onvacation employment to offset thecost of being a student.

The Tizard Fund currentlystands at £68,000, with a pro-jected balance of £193,000 after3 years of gifts have beenreceived. If you would like toreceive the pack ‘How I can sup-port today's students through theTizard Fund’ please contact theDevelopment Office.

‘We were able to be radical, inno-vative, and unconventional in ourthinking. Tomorrow's studentsshould have the same freedom.’Ron Sandford (U65 Engineering)

DDiicckk TTiizzaarrdd –– aaccoorrrreeccttiioonn

In our 2003 issue we mistak-enly attributed the wartimeinvention of the gyro gun-sightto Dick Tizard, who wrote to usafter publication to point outthat although he contributed toits development, the real inven-tors were Sykes and Hancock,in whose team he was proud tohave worked in the early1940s.

TThhee AAlluummnnii AAssssoocciiaattiioonn

TThhee TTiizzaarrdd FFuunndd