wood words

Wood Words 2009/2010 Collingwood College

College Contacts Principal: Professor Ed Corrigan email [email protected] Senior Tutor: Dr Steve Rayner email [email protected] Senior Tutor: Dr Kevin Miller email [email protected] College Office: 0191 334 5014/15

COVER_1_20 FINAL.indd 1 31/08/2010 11:56:59


contentsEditorial 2

A Note from the Principal 2-3

Steve Rayner 3

JCR President’s Report 4

The SCR President 5

A Very Durham Wedding 5

Harry Bird and the Rubber Wellies 5

ARTICLES

William Hogarth 6-8

National Service 8-9

A Glass Universe 10

Collingwood Arts 11-12

Edward Foyle Collingwood 13-14

Special Projects and

Travel Funds

A Palestinian Encounter 15

The Tooting Times 16

Duck in Thailand 16

Team Durham Sri Lanka 2009 17

College News

David Pain-An Appreciation 18

Sally Metcalf 18

Tina Jackson 18

College Sport

Collingwood Boat Club 19

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First of all I am grateful to all my colleagues, working across every area of college activity, and the outgoing sabbatical JCR President and Bar Steward, for all their help and support

over the past year. I am continually impressed by the professional standard of all staff whether they be working directly with students or our commercial business, or working behind the scenes to ensure the whole enterprise works as efficiently as possible.

Collingwood students, as I have come to expect, excel in every venture they try. Over the year, professional standards of direction, performance, technical support and music were maintained with the ambitious ‘Seven Lears’ in the Michaelmas Term, the inspired and atmospheric ‘Blitz!’ in the Epiphany Term, and the two Summer plays: the farcical ‘A Flea in Her Ear’ and Shakespeare’s tragicomedy ‘The Winter’s Tale’. These productions represent a tremendous range of challenging material and this year I was happy to present five well-deserved Arts Prizes at the Finalists Dinner.

Collingwood has returned to the top of the Colleges’ League Table in sport, with dominance in each of the League, Knockout and the Festival of Sport, and a number of Collingwood students have shone individually in national and international events. The first Collingwood-James Challenge (James is one of the colleges of the University of York whose Provost is a Collingwood alumnus), was held in December and the trophy was won by Collingwood - though not without a struggle. Congratulations are due to all our sportswomen and sportsmen for their admirable dedication and consistently high standards.

Oh, and by the way, Collingwood students are no slouches academically, with 84% of this year’s finalists graduating with a first or upper second.

A Note fromthe Principal….Welcome to another

packed and interesting issue of Wood Words

Wood Words 2009/2010

EDITORIAL

AlumniNews Katherine Barnes née Pestell (1992 to 1995) is currently working part

time as Editor of Nature Protocols. Prior to this she was editor of Trends in Pharmacological Sciences; worked for two years worked in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, and did PhD in Cancer Research. At the time of writing

Katherine had two children, Hannah (2004) and Ian (2008) and was expecting a third child in April 2010.

A slight change of direction this year that I hope will meet with your approval. Alongside the usual fayre of annual reviews by college officers, alumni news and reports from recipients of grants from the Special Projects and Travel Fund etc I’ve included two articles of a more academic nature than has been the norm for Wood Words. Firstly, a fascinating overview of Mark McNally’s research on the life and work of William Hogarth; secondly, and with a very light touch, Michael Bohlander addresses the issue of National Service through the lens of his own experiences in the German army; extremely funny in part but with a serious point nonetheless.

Both articles, in some measure, highlight the role of the College as a ‘scholarly community’, and it is my hope that they will encourage alumni to submit scholarly articles from their own fields of interest. The brief for these pieces, and indeed all submissions, is that they should be accessible to a general but intelligent audience - you are after all a very eclectic and bright bunch. In terms of length, they should be readable over coffee and cake, though in the case of Mark McNally he’s gone for the free refill! I’m very aware that writing for a general audience may at times result in the ‘air-brushing’ of important and complex issues, but this should not in itself be a barrier to opening up specialist fields to a general audience. The challenge is to make astrophysics intelligible to a politics graduate!

This year’s cover features Sir Edward Foyle Collingwood (1900 – 1970) in whose memory the College is named. Sir Edward’s life and achievements tend to be overshadowed by his ancestral link to Admiral Lord Collingwood of Trafalgar fame; indeed I’m sure there are many who still labour under impression that we were named for the Admiral, an error we need to correct. A distinguished mathematician and Chairman of Durham University Council he made significant contributions to both, as Vernon Armitage explains in his excellent appreciation (pp.13-14) of a man whose life and work were characterised by unassuming service. The College is now home to a number of very impressive portrait photographs of Edward Collingwood for which we must thank Henry Dyson who has also managed to fill the walls of the College with an amazing array of artwork throughout the year.

Based on your responses to returned ‘Alumni Personal Information Forms’ (don’t forget to send the form back to us!), opinion remains firmly in favour of a paper version of Wood Words and while this is so, and we are financially able, we’ll continue in the current format. We will however introduce new technology as and when it becomes appropriate. I’ve toyed with the idea of asking college officers to produce their contributions as podcasts and asking for video diaries from recipients of SPFT grants; maybe next year! We will however add a PDF version of this issue to the College website www.durham.ac.uk/collingwood

Space is at a premium in this issue so I will take my leave of you now with my annual plea to keep in touch and let us know what you’re up to. We really do want to hear from you.

Aimee Le Meilleur Kevin Miller


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You are continually helping us to support student activities in a multitude of ways and for this we are exceedingly grateful to you. For example, at the beginning of the year the floor of the gym crumbled requiring urgent attention, and the tennis court is due to be resurfaced very soon. Students are also community-minded and great travellers - participating in substantial projects, usually in vacations and with your support, to help young people around the world, and to raise money for many worthy causes. Others have been able to take advantage of internships that have been setup through the generosity of individual alumni.

One of our bigger projects - to extend the JCR space into the present gym area, requiring the gym to be relocated, has received an enormous boost from an alumnus who has challenged past, present and future students to raise at least £48,000 to supplement his own rather more substantial contribution. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who, in response to a letter from the JCR President, have pledged support for the project.

I have set up and started to finance a fund specifically for arts and other initiatives. The Durham Fine Art Society has continued to use the Principal’s garage (now relabelled ‘Studio’), and has exhibited some of their work in Collingwood, St Mary’s and the Cathedral Cafe. It is also noteworthy that next year’s president of DFAS is from Collingwood. There is now a small but enthusiastic bunch of students looking after Collingwood’s allotment, and there is a hive of bees in the Paddock (thanks to Kevin Miller).

You are always welcome to telephone or email me if you wish to know more about our projects, or to make suggestions for new ones. I would be delighted to hear from you.

With best wishes, Ed Corrigan

STEVE RAYNERIt’s time to reflect on another year for Collingwood and its extended family. It may not be your most abiding memory, but the top priority for us and our students remains the academic study that we’re all trying to do. I’m happy to report that Collingwood students by and large did very well when it came to the degree results at the end of the academic year. 86% of our graduating students achieved a first or 2:1 classification. It’s not really meaningful and I should be above such things but I was pleased to see this was one of the top performances from a College in the University.

We’ve had a great year for arts, with an impressive tally of four productions. ‘Blitz’, by Lionel Bart, was this year’s musical and, as ever, the biggest production of the year. As ever, we lost some of our best performers to the mixed blessing that is graduation but there will be another three hundred coming in October and we’ll be missing them in another three or four years. In addition to drama, we enjoyed a number of arts concerts and a photography competition. The open mic nights in the coffee shop have evolved into ‘live lounge’ evenings in the bar and continue to prove popular. I imagine details will be given elsewhere so I won’t say more except to express my personal appreciation for all the contributions people made - they seemed to be enjoying themselves on stage or behind it or front of house and I know I was.

I can’t resist celebrating our achievement in sport - last year the University instituted a points table for College sport which I thought was very kind of them since it would prove beyond doubt that Collingwood were better than the competition. However, they then decided to award a bucketful of points for a one-off festival of college sport which they decided to hold on Collingwood Day. Our students, entirely understandably, decided they would rather party than head off to Maiden Castle to administer a tonking to the other Colleges so we ended up scoring ‘null points’ and our commanding lead prior to the festival was overturned and we ended up coming second or third (I have a terrible memory for unwelcome details). This year, I am happy to report, justice was done and the festival took place on a date when we could attend. Consequently, Collingwood finished in first place in the league points, the knock-out points and in the festival points. Inevitably, we were comfortable winners overall. It’s worth mentioning that this achievement much more the result of the sheer volume of sport that is played in Collingwood and the number of people that get involved than the result of a small number of highly successful teams. In this respect, men’s football stands out - this year we have an H Team. Frankly, they’re not very good but they’re enjoying the game (although it may be that the socials are as important as the football) and getting involved and that’s quite good enough.

Finally, we’re all very excited about developments that are due to take place next year. Thanks to a fantastically generous gift from one of our alumni, it is going to be possible to build a bigger fitness suite to replace our current one and incorporate the space occupied by the current fitness suite into the JCR, expanding the communal space available for the students. The students have been energetically and imaginatively raising money and are determined that this will go ahead in the coming year. I can’t help saying that any contribution you can make would be very much appreciated. I hope you’re having a great time and enjoying travelling the path whose direction may have been set or affected by your time in Collingwood. If you’re ever in Durham please look us up - you’ll always be welcome.

Cheers, Steve Rayner

A Note fromthe Principal….

Collingwood College

AlumniNews Taryn Bennett (2004 to 2007) is currently studying

for a PGCE in Secondary Geography at St Anne’s College, University of Oxford.

AlumniNews Mark Blowers (1977 to 1980) is still working for Air Products after 30 years.

He is currently Global GG Machinery Manager, a job that allows him to use the engineering skills learnt at Durham. His work takes far and wide with frequent visits the US, China, Taiwan and Korea. In 2009 he was made a Fellow of the

Institute of Engineers which put his subs up somewhat - the price of high office! Mark is still happily married and has two children, one strapping 6’.5” 18st son,

currently at university and a daughter in her last year at school.


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The year started off with a bang, welcoming all of the freshers to the ‘Hotel on the Hill’, and to life in Durham. Leanne Adamson, the Senior Fresher Rep, put on an amazing week with her team of merry reps which was so full of events it really set the scene for a fun filled year to follow. Our Vice President Tom Hancock has kept us entertained all year with some amazing formals. Themes such as Blind Date, Monte Carlo, Army, Chinese New Year and the legendary Burns’ Night formal well exceptionally well received by all students. The Spring Ball had a very successful 3rd anniversary, cementing its place in the annual events calendar. Tom did a phenomenal job organising the formal dinners this year, but acknowledgement must be given to Social Sec, Alex Severn and her Ents Committee who coordinated the décor and post-dinner festivities.

The Winter Solstice, was a huge success this year with Alex Severn creating a night to remember for a very long time! This year’s theme, labelled ‘Once Upon a Time, invited everyone to step back into their childhood stories, fantasies and experiences. As always the Ents Committee did an amazing job of transforming the college into an unrecognisable wonderland full of flabbergasted students. The entertainment was great, the fancy dress costumes were better, and nobody wanted the night to end. Amy Fry and her deputy Pierre McIlwee will have a lot to live up to in December, as Alex and the assistant Social Sec Mohini Dhanjee have set the bar pretty high!

Post exam festivities included two of the year’s biggest events – Collingwood Day and the Summer Ball. Monday 7th June saw our sabbatical bar steward Andy George throw a spectacular Collingwood Day which was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. The day, which had a ‘Great British Summertime’ theme involved lots of live music, stand up comedy, bouncy inflatables and Punch and Judy! Though doubts were cast over the weather, we were fortunate to have the skies remain overcast rather than the torrential downpour weather reports predicted. The short shower late afternoon didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits as they all piled into a double decker Routefinder bus taking us all into town. The summer ball was held in the local Rainton Meadows Arena, and included performances by Radio One DJ Greg James and UK solo act McLean. Though many were sad to leave to beautifully decorated arena, everyone headed back to Collingwood at 2am to spend the rest of the night/morning dancing away at a Silent Disco! Many thanks have to go to Rob Young and Tim Daniels, who successfully put on this massive event for us all.


There is a well known saying, “time flies when you’re having fun”, and of all the years since I started at Durham back in 2003, this year has by far felt the shortest. As JCR President I’ve had the privilege of getting involved in all aspects of college life, and although it’s been hard work, it has been so much fun! Allow me to tell you about some of the things that have made time fly this year in Collingwood College…

Moving onto the Arts; we’ve had a whole host of events this year demonstrating the vast range of talent which makes our college so great. This year’s Arts Officers Phil Davies and Danni Reece-Greenhalgh deserve special praise for their efforts throughout the year. Phil has written an excellent review of the year in arts for this issue of Wood Words so, rather than steal his thunder I’ll let him tell you all about it!

It has been a great year for sports at Collingwood, culminating in us topping the intercollegiate points table! This has been one of Collingwood’s big aims this year, after having fallen short last year due to not being able to attend the festival of sport in the Easter term. The Boat Club have had a number of successes this year, most notably the Womens VIII who won the Tyne Head of the River Race (beating Northumbria University and Hatfield College by about 1 minute) and also winning the Hayward Cup held in Queens campus. Unfortunately we only had one league winning team this year, which was Women’s Hockey, but I’m proud to say that in the majority of leagues in which we entered teams we came 2nd, consistently pulling in large points for Collingwood – even our newly formed Women’s Basketball team managed to accomplish this feat. The Festival of Sport was the clincher for us, as various teams and individuals set out on a rainy day in June to compete in all the sports on offer – including rounders! Are sheer enthusiasm and determination ensured that we were the only ones that were going to lift the trophy this year, and I’m hoping we can emulate this feat next year!

In November, we experienced what will hopefully become a new annual sports competition. The James-Collingwood Shield is an idea which came about as a result of a meeting between Dr Neil Lunt, the Provost of James College of York University (and Collingwood alumnus) and Ed Corrigan, our Principal. We took 4 sports teams (rugby, hockey, netball and squash) down to York for a day and a half to battle it out, and came out on top! We won 2 sports to 1 (netball drew) and so have brought back another

treat for the trophy cabinet – please have a look if you go past reception! The trip worked out very well, and the organisational team from James College worked very hard to accommodate us and made sure fun was had by all, and so we’re very grateful and hope the same can happen when we host next year. It was also successful from the point of view of interaction between sports teams, as often there is no communication between different sports. It was encouraging to see, for example, the football team on the sidelines cheering on the netball girls – many of whom they’d never met before.

2009/2010 will be remembered for the birth of the JCR Refurbishment project that has developed this year. Due to a generous donation from a very special alumnus, we have been able to put plans in motion for a refurbishment and enlargement of the JCR area and relocation of the gym. We have been extremely lucky to have had alumni donate where possible towards our goal, and the JCR will be contributing profits from both Bar and JCR activities this year to help us reach our own goal of £40,000. Our profits will be supplemented by smaller fundraising activities which will allow students and sports teams to do their bit for the college - we’ve already had a small group of students (including myself) bungee jump 160ft from the Transporter Bridge in Middlesbrough! We are confident that my successor Phil Davies will be able to harness the enthusiasm of the freshers when they arrive in October, and that the busy fundraising calendar will add that little bit extra to our total next term. For now we’ve got a long way to go, but I must sincerely thank the Principal Ed Corrigan, Bryan Fleming from the University’s alumni office, and of course, our generous benefactor, who has turned the whisperings of a refurbishment project into a reality.

As I come to the end of my final report as JCR President, I would like to thank everybody I have worked with this year for their help and support; they are too numerous to name but they know who they are. It’s been a pleasure serving as JCR President, and although I will leave Durham this summer with great sadness, I shall take with me fond memories of the friends I have made and the experiences I have had this year, and in my 5 years as a student. I wish my successor Phil Davies the best of luck for the next academic year – I trust he’ll do a fantastic job in coping with all that’ll get thrown at him, and know that his charisma, personality and determination will help him lead Collingwood on to bigger and better things.

Nic Peters Collingwood College JCR President 2009/2010

AlumniNews David Boden (1994 to 1997) is still living in Beverley, still looking

for Mr Right, but enjoying his time with East Riding Council. He would love to hear from anyone.

AlumniNewsLynnette Borradaile (1972 to 1975) is working as a self-employed outdoor/

environmental learning teacher, a path that began when she joined the Durham University Himalaya Expedition to the Langtang National Park in Nepal. The expedition spent over a year living in a high altitude village collecting

information which, ultimately, became the joint management plan for the area. A life changing experience.

2009/2010


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I could never have imagined how quickly time would pass, but suddenly I find myself at the end of a wonderful three-year term as SCR President. And the same goes for Claire Croft, my tireless and simply irreplaceable SCR Secretary!

From the SCR President

We’ve had an excellent three years and the SCR has seen all sorts of changes with brand new fixtures becoming firmly established in the events calendar, such as the SCR Garden Party (which this year has a Japanese theme) and the annual JCR/MCR/SCR arts evening. Indeed, there’s even been a new look created for the Common Room itself, which now boasts soft furnishings and creature comforts galore. Collingwood SCR is a truly inviting place to be, in terms of both bricks and mortar and, of course, its people!

This year, we’ve had a wonderful variety of events, from walks and pub grub to teppanyaki meals to talks from IAS fellows to jazz nights, and we’ve been delighted to see how positively our members have involved themselves both with our new-fangled ideas for events and activities and with the more traditional, long-standing events, such as our fine dining nights. Not least of all, I’m delighted to report that SCR support for the student travel fund and JCR musical is unwavering, and indeed seems to be increasing with each year that passes. Interaction with the younger members of Collingwood is now at an all-time high, and long may it continue!

I hope that, in handing over to our successors, Claire and I will effectively be leaving a well-oiled machine for the next SCR executive officers, such that when they look upon it with fresh eyes, they are able to make their ideas for the future happen with relative ease. If we have left any legacy, we hope it is that our SCR is now firmly entrenched within Collingwood’s sense of community, such that interaction between all three Common Rooms now happens as a matter of course and because people desire it. For us, this is what it has all been about – adding value to Collingwood’s social and pastoral community, and I really think we have managed to make significant headway.

If you would be interested in finding out what’s currently happening in the SCR, and more about membership benefits, please do get in contact with the secretary, Claire Croft: [email protected]

Leah Tether - SCR President

A very Durham wedding in snowy NorthumberlandWe are delighted to announce the wedding of Kate Findon to Chris Hodson. The wedding took place on 31st December 2009 in the spectacular grounds of Langley Castle in Northumberland and was attended by a number of Collingwood Alumni; Tim Fenton, Claire Fenton née Dovey, Ruth Reid née Atkinson, Simon Reid, Alex Essery, Martin Macfarlane, Lauren Rogers, Debs Corcoran, Pip Regan. There were also friends from Grey, St Aiden’s, St Mary’s and Trevelyan Colleges in attendance.

Our congratulations.

AlumniNews Lesley Bradford née Newton (1986 to 1989)

is/was on a TDA ‘Return to Teaching Course’ and loving it!

AlumniNews Jane Brocklehurst née Povall (1974 to 1978) has escaped to the country and lives in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (on the edge of the Forest of Bowland in the Ribble Valley). Jane ‘wastes’ a lot of time watching the sheep and wildlife (deer, hares, rabbits and many varieties of birds) from her upstairs windows. She is still writing her book and after joining the Clitheroe Writers Group is nowhere

near completion. When not ‘wasting time’ Jane is a self-employed Domestic Clutter Clearer www.homefreed.co.uk

Harry Bird and the Rubber WelliesMembers of the Senior Common Room were treated to a very special evening in early February when Harry Bird and the Rubber Wellies dropped into College whilst on-tour to play an impromptu gig at an SCR Whisky Tasting Evening. It was the perfect winter warmer; heathery Highland Malts and earthy folk tunes ensured a great evening was had by all. Our thanks to the band for making a detour in a very crowded tour schedule. But who on earth are Harry Bird and the Rubber Wellies? Since meeting in Durham in 2000, Harry Bird (Van Mildert) and Christophe Capewell (Collingwood) always enjoyed playing tunes together wherever they could find the time to meet up. Only when Maria Blackwell joined them in 2008 did they feel it was the right time to finally release an album of songs which they called ‘Long Way to be Free’ and was released on Hot Drop Records in December 2009. They became Harry Bird and the Rubber Wellies and have been busy touring in the UK, Ireland and Spain over the last few months. As Harry lives in Bilbao and Christophe and Maria are based in Dublin they have to plan their tours very carefully! “People tell us our gigs are inspiring and fun which is always nice to know!” says Christophe. Long Way to be Free has been described as “a joyful assortment of folk tunes with fiddle harmonies and circus beats, telling tales of revolutionaries, wanderers, mariners, reptiles, lost love and long beards...” For more information you can go to www.hotdroprecords.com/harrybirdandtherubberwellies where you can listen to a few of their songs, check out gig listings and get hold of an album.

You can also listen to their songs at www.myspace.com/harrybirdsongs



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The Rakes Leveé 1734/5

William Hogarth 1697-1764

1Eveline Cruikshanks, Hogarth’s England (Folio Society, London 1957), p. 8


William Hogarth: Saint or Sinner?by Mark McNally (Collingwood Tutor) . . .

AlumniNews Hannah Cox (2002 to 2005) completed her ACCA exams in June 2009

and in September discovered she had won two prizes as a result: highest mark in the world in paper P7 Advanced Audit and Assurance and a joint silver medal for the joint highest mark in the world for her

score in the last five, professional, papers. Congratulations.

AlumniNews Ian Crook (1997 to 2000) married Sabine Baumann

on 16 July 2009 at the Spa Hotel, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Our congratulations.

I first became aware of William Hogarth during my final undergraduate year special subject which dealt with eighteenth century patterns of consumption. This pugnacious patriot standing at barely five feet had something of the rebel about him especially as he found it almost impossible to be accepted by the contemporary artistic establishment. Being on the side of the under-dog has always appealed to me hence my attraction to Hogarth. Not being an art-historian I make no claim to being familiar with the finer points of composition, form and style, but what did appeal to me, and what has formed the basis of my PhD area of research, is the way in which he pioneered a new way of recording contemporary life in London, where dirt and disease flourished alongside the elegance of Georgian society. In so doing he challenged contemporary fashion and drew upon his own more humble upbringing by satirising those who aped their superiors and in doing so risked not only a crisis of identity, but their own moral wellbeing in the process. What follows is a very brief overview of his work and the societal context in which it took shape. I hope you find it interesting.

Hogarth: From Jobbing Engraver to Great Master To the casual observer wandering around the National Gallery in London, it may seem quite normal to stop and admire William Hogarth’s Marriage-a-la Mode 1743, which describes in six paintings, the folly of arranged marriages and the shallowness of such arrangements that inevitably leads to personal disaster. To find such paintings alongside the ‘great masters’ of the day such as, Rubens and van Dyck however, is something of an achievement for an English born artist, son of an impoverished schoolmaster who began his career as a jobbing engraver of shop cards and bill heads and received no formal artistic training to speak of other than the basics of form and design. There are other paintings by Hogarth in the National Gallery such as The Shrimp Girl and The Graham Children but these are executed in the conventional portrait style that one might expect of the period. The success of the Marriage-a-la-Mode series is characteristic of the style that established Hogarth as a leading artistic commentator of the early eighteenth century and is down to his distinctive style of ‘moralising’ in a didactic fashion through art. Realising that as a self-made man and an ‘outsider’ to the artistic establishment, he needed to fashion a different approach to art which an increasingly curious commercial society might find attractive, Hogarth created his ‘moral cycles’ which he intended to be interpreted as ‘stories in pictures’. In doing so he ‘wished to compose pictures on a canvas similar to representations on the stage…. I have

endeavoured to treat my subject as a dramatic writer; my picture is my stage and men and women my players, who by means of certain actions and gestures are to exhibit a dumbshow’.1 Raised with a strong sense of ‘morality’, Hogarth thought of himself continually as an ‘underdog’ and not part of the art establishment which he sought to penetrate and which viewed him as a ‘jobbing’ engraver who had progressed only to the level of ‘low art’ rather than the loftier heights expected of those who used the ‘old masters’ and the Grand Tour as the gold standard. This style of painting earned Hogarth a unique position with the popular consumer, but not with the contemporary art fraternity who possessed what Hogarth considered to be an infatuation for the ‘old masters’ and foreign fashion as a sign of accreditation either in art, furniture or architecture leaving English artists little scope for individual expression.

The Moral CyclesThe most successful phase of his career began in earnest in 1732 with the Harlot’s Progress which, in six paintings, told of the arrival of a young and innocent Moll Hackabout in London from York, and her inevitable decline into prostitution at the hands of her unscrupulous ‘sponsors’ who, despite offering her work as a domestic, lured her into a world of prostitution from which she found it impossible to escape and eventually died of what would today be called, a ‘sexually transmitted disease’. This story, like all of Hogarth’s art, has different levels of interpretation, characteristic of his playful style of artistic narrative and deals with issues such as the perils that

the city holds for vulnerable young girls, their exploitation by those in positions of political influence with the Walpole government and, worst of all, their betrayal by those in the religious establishment who were more interested in their own careers than the welfare of those entrusted to their care. The six prints which form the total work were meant to be ‘read’ from right to left rather than being merely viewed in the conventional style. This critique of contemporary society through art would be a constant theme throughout Hogarth’s career, especially the early formative years, and would distinguish him from others who considered that moralising over ‘real life’ issues was not the purpose of the artist and should be left to the traditional institutions such as the church.

The success of the Harlot which Hogarth sold by the subscription process transformed him almost overnight from a relatively obscure English artist to one very much in demand by an affluent metropolitan audience who found his style of art hugely popular, especially the ease by which it translated itself through prints capable of being hung on walls or framed. Furthermore it attracted comment from across the social divide as it offered the viewer a mirror image for self-interpretation and became the subject of fashionable debate. This ‘confessional’ style of self reflection both amused and intrigued the contemporary audience and encouraged Hogarth to consider similar themes for public consumption. Key to the Harlot’s success was the way it also depicted the fashionable areas of London, such as Covent Garden where the action is located, as being


The First Stage of Cruelty 1751

Moll Hackabout arrives in London

The Reward of Cruelty (Fourth stage) 1751

The Harlot’s

Progress-

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Wood Words 2009/2010 Collingwood CollegeWilliam Hogarth: Saint or Sinner?

Industry and Idleness-The Apprentices at Work 1747

AlumniNews John Crow (1972 to 1976) has just passed the 20 year milestone of commuting

to London from Hampshire. He continues to work for the government although the thought of retirement is increasingly attractive! His daughter

Emily in the 3rd year of a five year MEng degree at Bristol and his son Thomas is about to start as a Choral Scholar at Cambridge (Kings College).

AlumniNews Jon Davidson (1978 to 1981) is Chair of Earth Sciences at Durham.

Prior to his current position Jon was a UCLA (1987 to 2000) where he married Donna, who still works as UK Consultant to her company in Burbank. On

returning to Durham he served as Head of Department in Earth Sciences (2002-2005). Jon and Donna have two children Max (7) and Daisy (2) (probably 8 & 3 when this reaches print) and keep in touch with about a dozen Collingwood

friends from the 1978 and 1980 intakes.

disreputable as well as fashionable, a theme of contemporary society that Hogarth was always keen to emphasise.

The Rake’s Progress continued the ‘progress’ cycle of paintings and adopted a similar theme to that of the Harlot in that it warned of the dangers of excessive social emulation and tracked the downfall of the young Tom Rakewell who, on inheriting his miser father’s fortune, proceeded to be seduced by the ‘high’ lifestyle which predictably lead him to brothels, gambling dens, a marriage of convenience to an old spinster for her money and eventually ‘bedlam’, the home for insane where young Tom at last saw the error of his ways- but too late. The moral of the story, classically depicted through six finely engraved paintings consolidated Hogarth’s reputation for fine art and accuracy of observation as part of his ‘moralising’ tendencies. Its publication was delayed till 1735 to prevent piracy by unscrupulous imposters through the introduction of an Act of Parliament specifically designed to protect the copyright of such engravings which Hogarth and friends had been able to promote through their social and political connections.

The Rake’s Progress can be seen in the Sir John Soanes Museum, Lincoln’s Inn Field, London and is well worth a visit.

This ‘moralising’ theme continued unabated with Industry and Idleness 1747 which was intended for all young apprentices and extols the virtues of hard work and diligence. It depicts over twelve frames to be read like a novel, the parallel story of two young apprentices, one who applies himself and rises through his trade and eventually becomes the Lord Mayor of London; the other who, because of a lack of application, becomes involved in petty crime and eventually is convicted for murder and executed at Tyburn, a gruesome spectacle which his Lord Mayor former friend is required to witness. The theme of the prints was sufficiently predictable for the intended audience to be left in no doubt as to what message Hogarth intended to send although the price of the prints may have made the whole exercise counterproductive as it is unlikely that young apprentices would have been able to afford them. It is more likely that Hogarth intended them to be bought by close relatives and used as a way of pointing out to young males the alternative paths of fortune and their consequences. It has been suggested that the virtuous and hard working apprentice who becomes Lord Mayor is modelled on Hogarth’s own experiences although this is open to subjective interpretation.

The constant emphasis on ‘morality’, although a hallmark of Hogarth’s prints at the time, does not mean that he did not explore other themes, often of a more salacious nature. This was the case with ‘Before and After’ which depicts the

conflicting emotions surrounding the sexual encounter between a young rake and his more gullible lady friend. These prints are highlighted to correct any misconceptions that understandably exist because of Hogarth’s conventional reputation as an arch ‘moralist’. He was more than capable of including ‘titillating’ scenes designed to attract the more ‘rakish’ of the metropolitan audience. This theme was one however that Mrs Hogarth was quick to disassociate herself from when disposing of her late husband’s estate as it damaged his reputation as a ‘moralist’ and consequently reduced the value of his portfolio. Interestingly Hogarth painted this pair of prints in 1731 before embarking on his more pronounced ‘moral cycles’ thereby demonstrating his ability to switch from theme to theme depending on prevailing social attitudes and with them the type of print that best fitted contemporary taste .

Towards the end of his career when he was well established and had less need to rely upon the ‘whims’ of the market for the sale of his prints, Hogarth was more inclined to satisfy his own interests. This led to him joining his close friend Henry Fielding, the successful novelist -turned Magistrate for Westminster, in warning against the social evils they both considered were ruining the lower classes and which represented a threat to society overall, and especially the established order of which both would regard themselves members. This concern took the form of the now famous pair of prints Gin Lane and Beer Street published in 1751 at the height of the craze for imported Dutch gin by the lower classes- ‘ drunk for one penny, dead drunk for two pence, clean straw for nothing’ being the invitation extended on the sign of the public house. The scene is redolent of chaos and social disorder from the mother losing the baby at her breast to the coffin displayed outside the undertakers and the pawn shop to which all routes led as the craze for gin brought bout both financial and moral ruin. The print was sent to the Lord Mayor of the City of London along with a request that he address the dire situation that existed amongst the lower orders. This initiative was said to be responsible for the passing of subsequent legislation which reduced the import

of foreign gin markedly and increased taxes making it less easy for the lower orders of society to buy.

The partner print Beer Street in contrast extols the virtues of the national drink and shows a collection of healthy, robust individuals hard at work and play able to enjoy their social recreation without the social and physical side effects of excessive gin drinking. The abundance of food on display including a huge side of beef and the healthy appearance of the folk provides little business for the pawn broker whose sign is collapsed indicating a lack of use.

Both Beer Street and Gin Lane were produced as woodcuts as well as by the conventional mezzotint process. This was to make them more affordable to the lower orders although this is highly unlikely to have happened and the main targets may have been the Poor Law Overseers and Parish Officials who had primary contact and responsibility for the welfare of this section of society.The same principles that had inspired the Gin Lane - Beer Street pair of prints were used in the last of Hogarth’s ‘moral cycles’, the Four Stages of Cruelty’. By aiming his remarks at an audience made up mainly of the serving classes, Hogarth tells the simple, if sometimes horrific story of cruelty to animals which he claims desensitises the perpetrator and can lead to more serious acts of violence against human beings. Made up of four prints the images depict street cruelty against animals and eventually the macabre scene of the autopsy which is designed to satirise surgeons who Hogarth claims were motivated more by cannibalistic impulses than humanitarian motives. Once again the prints were printed on woodcut in addition to the normal mezzotint in the hope that their message might reach the target audience of the lower classes.


8


AlumniNews Claire Delapanosta née Grace (1995 to 1998) is a full-time mother of four and a childminder. Alongside her husband Claire also leads a church based in Wheatley

Hill (Co Durham), ‘His Chosen Victorious Army’ which is also a registered charity. They do a great deal of work in the region advising and supporting refugees, asylum seekers, international students and ethnic minorities. They are currently in the midst

of a church building project.

AlumniNews Philip Edwards (1999 to 2002) has been teaching English in

China for three years. He worked in Xinjiang in the North West for 18 months, Beijing for one year and is currently working in

Nanning in the South West of the country.

William Hogarth:

Saint or Sinner?

ConclusionWilliam Hogarth showed himself to be at odds with his surroundings in the artistic community. He put himself in the hands of his public and emancipated himself from aristocratic patronage.He had a special relationship with his audience; indeed society became the audience and his prints provided a window on contemporary society in all its various shades. He stressed the inappropriateness of history painting (then the conventional norm) to contemporary English life by stressing realistic social values instead. Although this brought him fame and fortune, it did not carry with it due recognition as an artist which he was entitled to. And here lies the paradox of the man. Saint or Sinner?

‘Before’ from Before and After 1731

‘After’ from Before and After

1731

Beer Street 1751

Gin Lane 1751

I recently had the pleasure of being invited by the Durham Union Society to participate in a debate about the reintroduction of national service in the UK. The motion was proposed by Lieutenant General Robin Brims and Godfrey Bloom MEP, and opposed by Major General Andrew Ritchie and myself. I gave an account of my experience in the German Armed Forces, which operate on the basis of national service in the meaning of conscription. Apart from the fact that we won, the debate was also a stimulating and very

enjoyable experience. Given the fervour with which the topic was discussed, I thought it might be useful to recount my main arguments here for the general readership of Wood Words, to serve as a warning for all those who flirt with this dangerous and pernicious idea.I am against national service partly because I have done national service and it has taken me a long time to get over the ensuing trauma. I still sometimes have to use the therapeutic crutch of the cathartic retelling of – in my distorted view – humorous war stories in the company of friends and colleagues, a burden they are apparently less and less willing to bear. I did my national service from June 1986 until September 1987, just after having

obtained my first law degree, and had the privilege of spending my 25th birthday in the pleasant surroundings of the firing range at Daaden. A photograph taken of me on that day by a fellow soldier showing me in Rambo pose with two G3 assault rifles was tragically lost and thus regrettably cannot be reproduced here. I left the German Army, the Bundeswehr, with the rank of Obergefreiter, i.e. Private 1st class1. I had passed the fitness exam when I was 18 and was put back from normal rotation because they did not want/need me then, so I began my law studies at Saarbrücken University. I hoped they would not develop a recurring deeper interest in my abilities while I was out of the loop, but to my chagrin they must have had someone with an elephantine brain in charge of their records. When I was called up in 1986, I had no good reason to dodge the draft, so I had to do it. I hated every minute of it and was probably one of the worst recruits they ever had. I was in fact explicitly told so by my company staff sergeant who said on our demobilisation day that I would never be a good soldier, to which I think I replied that that had not been my primary ambition in the first place. However, and that shows the depths to which the Bundeswehr will stoop to keep its recruits happy, I still managed to get the Medal of Honour for the exemplary fulfilment of my soldierly duties. These soldierly duties consisted of being the ombudsman for the privates in my company with the attendant reputation with my superior officers of being a legally-trained pain in the neck, and a paper-pushing job in the office of a unit in charge of the maintenance of vehicles, battle tanks Mark Leopard 2 and RPGs. Somehow they were always broken, which made you think about the general state of the national defence.

In all of the 15 months of my service I probably fired my gun (live or blank ammunition) no more than a dozen times - of which I was very glad because these things were a nightmare to clean. I fired the company machine gun twice – once, much to the delight of my drill instructors, during a manoeuvre (with blank ammunition) at my commanding officer when he repeatedly refused to give the right password, and the second time on the firing range where I managed the impressive feat of not hitting a single target and consequently losing my squad the chance of two days extra leave it had until then lined up as best squad. The service was a combination of dull office work, dull military exercises, dull barracks life and lots of serious drinking. To give an example: On one occasion my platoon was on standby for sentry duty during the weekend and we were, as usual, bored out of our wits. Then someone came up with the bet that he could open 60 bottles of beer with a cigarette lighter in under 60 seconds. He succeeded in 59 seconds, but his commendable agility then left us with 60 open beer bottles which it would have been a shame to let go to waste. No-one wanted to be there, everyone tried

NATIONAL SERVICE IN

THE UK? - A GERMAN

VIEWProfessor Michael Bohlander Collingwood SCR, Durham Law School

1 An Obergefreiter has two stripes on his shoulder. Anecdote has it that one stripe (Gefreiter) means you can read, two stripes that you can read and write and three stripes (Hauptgefreiter) that you know someone who can read and write.


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AlumniNews Steve Hammond (2002 to 2005) moved to Southampton following graduation in 2005 to join NATS graduate programme. NATS provide air traffic control

services for UK national airspace and control tower services at 15 UK airports. Steve is now a Senior Research Analyst studying the environmental

performance of Air Traffic Management (ATM) systems.

AlumniNews Mark Hillery (1985 to 1988) resigned as Senior Partner of the U.S.

hedge fund ‘Tudor Investments’ in 2008 after eight years. He then took a year off travelling before joining Europe’s largest hedge fund, Brevan Howard Asset Management, as a Founding Partner. Mark works from

his own trading office near his home in Wimbledon Village.

to dodge as many duties as possible and the quality of our training and the level of our personal engagement were near zero. Overall, when I served the joke among us was that the purpose of the Bundeswehr in the case of an attack was to stall the Soviets until soldiers had arrived. But let us move on to more serious arguments against national service in the German context.

The Ideology of national service in Germany - Fiction

and factsThe idea behind having national service was to anchor the Armed Forces within general society, to avoid a “state within a state” because of the history of the Third Reich and the disgraceful role played by the army in its policy. It is true that people in Germany debate the Armed Forces differently and that because of WWII we no longer have an unbroken relationship to them, a fact which meets with a lack of understanding in countries like the UK and the US. However, one needs to remember that Hitler could only mount the massive WWII campaigns by introducing full conscription himself in 1935, four years before the catastrophe began. The “state within a state” argument, if viewed against the background of history and common sense, is more precisely aimed at the officers, not the rank and file – in Germany officers are, of course, professionals (either full-time or fixed-term). It is always the officers, not the rank and file, who start planning a putsch or coup etc – and once they decide to stage one, the rank and file usually do not put up too much of a resistance.

National service is based on old idea of standing army for large-scale interstate warfare, a paradigm which is no longer apposite. After end of Cold War, the prevailing military paradigm has shifted significantly due to the different nature of modern conflicts. This shift has also seen a continuous reduction of troops from 495,000 when I served to 255,000 in 2010. Of those 255,000:

• 17,057 were women - who do not have to do national service;

• only37,729werenormalnationalservice recruits - they are under law not allowed to go abroad on missions;

• 27,790werenationalservicerecruitswith a voluntary prolongation of their service, who can go abroad;

• 188,500wereprofessionalfull-timeorfixed-term soldiers;

• Ofthe6,600soldiersengagedin‘overseas’ missions, only around 4.5 % were national service recruits.

• Ineffect,thismeansthattheBundeswehr is already de facto a professional army.

Wehrgerechtigkeit – Spreadingthe burden: More fiction

National service duty applies only to men, women can join but do not have to after the ECHR Kreil case of 1998. Originally there was thus an obvious disadvantage for men as far as professional career was concerned. In addition, the Constitution allows for conscientious objectors to engage in Zivildienst, i.e. Alternative Community Service: men do their service in care homes, hospitals, with general health and social services etc. The alternative service is tied to the national service: if the one goes, so does the other. There has been a continued reduction of national service time to presently 9 months, with a matching reduction of the Zivildienst. The present situation with a need for 40,000 national service recruits per year is as follows:◊ 44%ofeachcohortareeithernot

examined for fitness, are unfit to serve or are not called up for other reasons and consequently do not have to do Zivildienst in the first place;

◊ oftheremaining56%,half(28%) refuse national service as conscientious objectors and do Zivildienst;

◊ (18%)arecalledup,10% (almost one third) are not being called up despite being available;

The consequence is that around 51% of any annual cohort don’t do any service at all, only 18% do national service. There is thus an acute problem of fair distribution of the burden. National service has for all intents and purposes become a lottery. If the national service period goes down, so does the Zivildienst, and that presents serious problems for social services, for whom men in the Zivildienst are cheap labour.

Final commentsI would like to finish with two quotes that may help to describe the German attitude to national service before and after Germany became fully independent and sovereign after Unification in 1990, and was asked by the international community to join in extraterritorial missions - a vision which they all had previously not exactly been enamoured of:

Clive James, in his Unreliable Memoirs from 1980, captures the mood before unification:

Einstein once said that any man who liked marching had been given his brain for nothing; just the spinal column would have done. But I wasn’t Einstein. Since most of one’s time in the Army is wasted anyway, I preferred to waste it by moving about in a precise manner.

Jackie Mason, in the following quote ascribed to him, does the same for the situation now:

I’m still recovering from a shock. I was nearly drafted. It’s not that I mind fighting for my country, but they called me at a ridiculous time: in the middle of a war.


10

AlumniNews James Hudson (2003 to 2007) works for Pernod-Ricard

the wine and spirits company. He is currently working on the spirits portfolio.

AlumniNews Anna Jones (2001 to 2003) taught English at an international school in Kerala

after graduation and then completed a PGCE in Primary Education at Cambridge University. After two years of enjoyable teaching in Germany she decided to pursue a career in Clinical Psychology. Anna now works as an Assistant

Psychologist on a project involving early intervention and prevention of mental health problems in schools. She hopes to gain a place on the Clinical Psychology

Doctorate course in the next few years.

or many years now I have been fascinated by the cosmos; it’s formation, from the basic elements to the myriad bodies of which it now consists, and the many theories which help explain how the universe came into being and how it works. Also for some years now I have been studying and practising the many ways of working in glass.

In the recent past I had made two examples of the Earth which were painted images using vitreous pigments and enamels and fired in a kiln.

The first was in a form influenced by earthquakes, the movement of tectonic plates, and the devastation caused by these, and the Boxing Day Tsunami. All of which led to the fractured abstract shown, decorated by engraving and fired painting and then leaded.

The second was also based on the Earth, again with fired painting. The ‘satellites orbiting’ were made by the technique known as Lampwork, using rods of special borosilicate glass, heated and melted in the very hot flame of the ‘lamp’, the ends of which were melted and formed into globes to represent satellites, which when lit from below would reflect different colours (if viewed from above). The cylinder of coloured glasses covering the lamp holder was cut and finished using the technique of ‘copper foiling’. The whole piece being completed with turned and drilled hardwood finished into the form of a table lamp.

Hence, the train of thought about the Solar system and the cosmos had been established. Having regularly visited the NASA website, http://www.nasa.gov/, viewing the wonderful images, many taken by the Hubble space telescope and other missions, those from the orbiting space station, and space shuttles; there was endless stimulation for my imagination.

What actually started this whole venture and formed my ideas, initially for one glass piece, which became the abstract form I now describe as ‘Universe 1’; was when one of the tutors at the National Glass Centre in Sunderland, offered to me two large discs of clear glass. One piece of glass was a flat disc 60cm across, the other was, after firing, the same size but had been fired in a kiln into a convex shape.

So I then had to think what to do with these large and quite heavy pieces of glass.

On the flat disc of glass I decided to start with a design based on images of the Earth from space, which shows the thin blue line of atmosphere when the sun is just rising from behind the body of Earth; together with the traditional image depicting the radiating sunlight.

The next thought was to try to include my abstract versions of a number of features of the cosmos, such as, a Black Hole, a Red Giant star, a Nebula, and two bodies from the Solar System namely our Moon and Mars. I also wanted to include an image of the (Hubble’s) Red Shift, depicting the speed of galaxies; the principles of triangulation and Parallax; discs of radiation, all bound in Dark Matter.

On the convex disc, I decided to place some of the Constellations which when the piece was complete, would lie over the areas of dark matter. These constellations were engraved into the surface of the glass in the forms depicted in maps of the night sky, which show the named constellations in their astrological forms. I then picked out the main stars of each constellation using small glass crystals cut as ‘faux’ diamonds.

I did think about mentioning that it took me very much longer than six days to make my Universe, but then I thought better of it!

I’m currently working on a second glass version of the Universe and hope to share its development with readers in the next issue of Wood Words.

By Edwin Fellows (Collingwood SCR)

A GLASS UNIVERSE

FWood Words 2009/2010 Collingwood College

The fractured Earth

The Earth with Satellites

The finished design (with clouds and Polar caps over Earth), and the engraved constellations, surrounded by leading holding the two glass discs together

A close-up of an engraved constellation called ‘Cygnus’ (over Dark Matter) showing the crystal ‘stars’ and Mars in its orbit

A Nebula A Red Giant and the Red Shift

The basic design on the flat disc of glass (no clouds over Earth)

A Black Hole Mars showing its orbit line

The moon Dark matter and the sun’s rays

The Black Hole showing part of the triangulation lines and part of a ‘radiation’ disc

The making of Earth Earth showing the sunlight


11


A Year of

Collingwood

Arts

The last year has yet again served as a showcase for the varied and first-class talents of Collingwood students, both those who are used to the spotlight’s glare and those who have never been in front of an audience before.

Providing as many opportunities for as many different arts as possible to be performed at Collingwood has always been our main priority and this year seems to have been a great success.

The first term saw the Collingwood Drama Society, known as The Woodplayers, take on the dark, sombre work of Seven Lears by Howard Barker. The play acts as a prequel to Shakespeare’s King Lear and describes Lear’s life from childhood to aged king, exploring the twisted and tortured existence that leads to his madness in Shakespeare’s tragedy. The audience followed Lear, a king in pursuit of good, honesty and truth, through seven stages of his life as, through his own failings and the malice of others, he bring much pain to his family and kingdom through the needless casualties of war, the imprisonment of both subjects and family and attempted infanticide. This dour and, in places, highly abstract piece certainly wasn’t an easy play to put on in the festive Christmas season but the director, second year Gareth Davies, had an excellent vision for the production and indeed was praised in reviews; “Davies should be credited for drawing some excellent performances from his cast despite the difficult material he had to work with.”

It was also greatly encouraging to see that over half the cast were freshers, keen to get involved with Collingwood Arts from the beginning of their university careers, many of whom were involved with all the Collingwood productions through the year. A special mention should go to first year Jamie Kitson who played Lear in all seven stages of life to critical acalim “he played this challenging role excellently, and his portrayal of the mental instability of the King towards the end of the play was very convincing.”

The end of Michaelmas Term also included the rather more upbeat Winter Arts Concert which provided the opportunity for everyone to bring whatever performance they wished to college and we certainly weren’t disappointed with the range and quality of the acts. The event included a performance by the Collingwood Cheerleading Squad, tap and

contemporary dance, whilst Music came from violins, pianos, guitars and mandolins accompanied by solos, duets, quartets and even some Christmas carols from the Collingwood Choir. Laughs were provided by comedy sketches as well as a barbershop arrangement of the Collingwood Song and the show ended with an ensemble performance of the Shakin’ Stevens hit Merry Christmas Everyone which the audience joined in the second time round. The concert was a huge success with over 100 people attending, not including the performers, and raised money towards a drama school for children with special needs.

Once again the Senior Common Room very kindly supported the annual Collingwood College Photography Competition, which took place in February. There were nearly thirty entries in total, a staggering increase on last year, which brightened up the college foyer for much of the Epiphany Term. The competition was judged by local artist Tim Fowler, who also came and gave a talk about his work and how he creates it, at a special dinner held for the winners. He awarded first place to first year Quin Murray whose brilliant photography can be viewed at www.quinography.com.

Epiphany term also featured the Collingwood Musical 2010, this year a joint venture between Collingwood Arts and The Woodplayers. The chosen show was Blitz!, written by Lionel Bart, the creator of the classic show Oliver! and, although not as well known, was just as impressive, with loud explosions, crumbling buildings and excellent choreography.

by

Phil Davies

AlumniNews Alison Kirby née Hinch (1991 to 1994) married Neil in 1999 and now has two

lovely children, Edward born in 2003 and Frances born in 2006. Alison also works part-time as a Packaging Technologist for Reckitt-Benckiser.

AlumniNews Peter Lampitt (2001 to 2004) is living in North London and has recently

qualified as a Solicitor and specialises in construction disputes.

AlumniNews Sam Lascelles (2000 to 2003) is based in London and works for

Accenture which has seen him work both in the City and abroad. Weekends, where possible, are spent running up and down

mountains!


12


A Year ofCollingwood

Arts

The story revolves around two rival families in East London during World War Two and the fallout from two of the children falling in love. Yet a greater emphasis lay on exploring the spirit of the British people of the time and how they dealt with living under the daily threat of invasion. Songs such as “Who’s this geezer Hitler?” and “As long as this is England” made the show as much a homage to the resilience of the people of the time as a love story between two feuding families and we were proud to receive this review from the university newspaper: “Blitz! is an unfurnished gem in a sea of glossy musicals whose unrelenting energy and homeliness is truly cheering in this the most unlikely context - in one word, inspired.”

The people behind the success of the show are too many to name but plaudits must go to Danielle Reece-Greenhalgh who not only discovered the musical but also brought it to life on the stage through her direction, all whilst studying her final year of Law! It was also great to see all year groups being represented on and off stage and friendships forming across years.

The Spring Arts Concert delivered more gems of undiscovered talent from around the college including a cover of the Glee version of Journey’s ‘Don’t stop believing’.

With exams over, the Woodplayers plunged straight into performing the Collingwood Summer Plays, as it has now become tradition to produce two plays in the Easter Term. Having less that two weeks to bring everything together both casts worked amazingly hard to put together Georges Feydeau’s A Flea in her Ear and Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.

Feydeau’s farce tells the ridiculous story of Victor Emmanuel Chandebise and his wife Raymonde who is convinced he is having an affair. In order to trap him she writes him a secret letter inviting him to the far-from-reputable ‘Hotel Coq d’Or’ where the porter happens to look just like him. Throw in a jealous, homicidal Spaniard, backstabbing best friends, and speech impediments, and it’s all a bit of an hilarious disaster. Director Pierre McIlwee had to deal with problems such as the presence of a revolving bed in the play and staging a play outside in the Collingwood turning circle with the threat of rain looming but the sun shone (mostly) and the audience laughed their way through the show, made even better by free strawberries at the interval.

The Winter’s Tale, one of the lesser known of Shakespeare’s plays is labelled as a comedy although it includes considerably more drama than his other comedies. The complicated plot involves the jealous king Leontes condemning his wife Hermione to death; misinterpreted oracles and the famous stage direction ‘Exit, pursued by a bear.’ Harriet Tarpy brilliantly directed her cast through the fervours of learning Shakespearean lines to create a show that was both harrowing and hilarious when required. As you can see, the design of the posters for these productions is an art in itself and both posters were the work of fresher Jie Ying Low.

The year of arts was brought to an end with a very relaxed Summer Arts Concert, which took place on the meadow in the sunshine with several acoustic sets on guitar and a few piano pieces.

I’ve personally had a great time being heavily involved with the arts this year and must pass on a huge “Congratulations” to everyone who played their part in all the productions, concerts and competitions. There are also plenty of people to thank such as those on production teams, the Tech Crew without whom nothing at all would happen, and my fellow Arts Officer this year Danielle Reece-Greenhalgh for all the hard work she’s put-in keeping me in order. Collingwood College may currently have a reputation for success in sporting achievements but the world of arts is one that is also thriving and will, I hope, continue to grow.

AlumniNews Sarah Lee née Lawson (1999 to 2002) married

Sandy Shei Lam Lee (1999 to 2002) in July 2009. Congratulations.

They live and work in Manchester where Sarah is a Research Midwife and Sandy works as an Accountant (ACCA).

AlumniNews Sarah Lisowiec (2004 to 2007) is now working as a Graduate Marketing Trainee

in the Consumer Marketing Division of World Vision UK, the international development and aid charity. The two year programme includes training across all the marketing functions in the organisation, further qualifications with the

Chartered Institute of Marketing and a six month placement in an international office, as well as trips to ‘field projects’ in either Cambodia or Zambia. Sarah is

now based in Broughton, near Milton Keynes.


13

For example, Stuart Dodgson Collingwood was Lewis Carroll’s nephew and wrote a very interesting biography of him. There are other Durham connections with Dodgson and Collingwood; for example, in the early days of St Hild’s College (in 1859) the Treasurer of the College was the Hon. G. Liddell, to whose niece. Alice Liddell, Dodgson told the original story of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ on 4th July 1862.

Edward also followed the tradition of serving in the Royal Navy; after being at Osborne and Dartmouth, he joined the Royal Navy as a Midshipman in 1915 and served, most appropriately, in H.M.S. Collingwood.

Unfortunately he was invalided out of the Navy, but fortunately (from our point of view) he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1918 where he read Mathematics under direction of G.H. Hardy, one of the most distinguished mathematicians of the Twentieth Century – and a keen cricketer. Hardy inspired him to undertake research in pure mathematics and he was so keen that he became a member of the London Mathematical Society in 1919 (when he was 19 and still an undergraduate).

At an early stage in his postgraduate career, Collingwood met Georges Valiron of the Sorbonne, another distinguished mathematician (but not, as far as I know, a cricketer), two of whose books are in the Collingwood Library in the Mathematics Department, a very generous bequest from Collingwood. Those books are signed by the author with a personal tribute to Collingwood.

Edward Foyle

Col l ingwood

Edward Foyle Col l ingwood

By Vernon Armitage

I was invited to share my memories of Collingwood and to talk about his mathematical work and to say

something of his outstanding contributions to the University of Durham, and to other aspects of our National life, at the Senior Common Room Dinner

on 19th March 2009. The talk was supposed to last for about ten

minutes (and, I believe, did); the account that follows is a slightly expanded version.

Forgive me if I begin with a personal reminiscence - it is not entirely irrelevant, as I hope will emerge in what follows. It is almost exactly fifty years ago, that I was interviewed for a lectureship in Pure Mathematics, in what was then the Durham Colleges Division of the University of Durham. Edward Collingwood was the Chairman of the Durham Colleges Council, a member of the King’s College Newcastle Council and a member of the Court of the University (he was Knighted in 1962).

I was at that time a schoolmaster and shortly after I took up my lectureship at Durham there was a meeting here of the Headmasters’ Conference (we hosted conferences even in those days!), when my former Headmaster was present and I had the good fortune to meet Collingwood socially. He was a distinguished mathematician and a keen follower of cricket, interests that I shared (but you should omit the ‘distinguished’ bit!) and the privilege of meeting with him was one that I continued to value over succeeding years.

He worked with Valiron and also with Borel (as you will have guessed, another distinguished mathematician) and he began his research on the theory of integral functions.

Suffice it to say that an integral (or entire) function is a function of a complex variable z (think of it as a point in a plane) that is analytic (differentiable) for all finite z, for example, sin z, cos z, z². For his work on such functions he was awarded the Rayleigh Prize in 1923.

Edward Foyle Collingwood was descended from a brother, John, of Admiral Lord Cuthbert Collingwood and there were other fascinating connections.


AlumniNews Beth Martin (1977 to 1980) is still working for Creative Partnerships

in Hastings, which is now part of Sussex University. She was divorced from Bruce in the Summer of 2009 and has two children

still at school (primary and secondary). Beth is very involved in the Transition Town Initiative.

AlumniNews Elizabeth Meadowcroft née Rae (2000 to 2004)

married James Meadowcroft (2001 to 2005) on 19 September 2009 at St Vincent’s Church in Altringham,

Cheshire. Guests included former members of Collinwood Boat Club. Our congratulations.

Vernon Armitage: Principal: College of St Hild and St Bede 1975-97; Dean of Colleges 1988-93; Honorary Senior Fellow Department of Mathematical Sciences 1997-to date


14

There followed some very important work with the Finnish mathematician, Rolf Nevanlinna, on meromorphic functions. (A function that is analytic for all z, in some region, except at those isolated points called ‘poles’, is said to be meromorphic in that region, for example tan z, cot z and functions like R(z)=(z-b)-² Q(z) where Q(z) is finite at z=b, which is said to have a pole of order two at z=b, where it behaves like ‘infinity squared’.

Probably some of the most important work in function theory in the Twentieth Century was that of

Nevanlinna, who, in 1924, wrote

that Collingwood’s “work on Picard’s Theorem was his greatest achievement”. (Picard’s Theorem says that an integral function takes all finite values except, at most, one.)

He took his Ph.D. (1929) supervised by J.E. Littlewood, another of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th Century. He was highly regarded as a very good teacher, an inspiring lecturer and a brilliant administrator becoming Steward of Trinity in 1930. His general ability was so highly thought of that, although not a Fellow, he was elected to the Council.

He had taken over responsibility for the family estate at Lilburn Tower, near Alnwick, in 1928 and he admirably fulfilled all the obligations that went with that, not least the social life and work in the local community. He was a J.P. and Chairman of the Bench and Lieutenant in the Northumberland

Wood Words 2009/2010 Collingwood CollegeEdw

ard F

oyle

Col l i

ngwoo

d

Edward Foyle Col l ingwood

Hussars (the Yeomanry). He became High Sheriff of Northumberland in 1937 and continued to visit Trinity often, even though his official responsibilities there had ended.

At the beginning of the Second World War, he became a Naval Scientist in the Mine Sweeping Division and then Chief Scientist of the Admiralty Mine Design Department, in 1943, having acted as liaison officer between the United States and British Navies in Washington in 1942. It was during those days that he spotted the talents of one Francis Crick and employed him on several projects

and allied missions in the later years of the War, long before Crick discovered the secrets of the Genetic Code.

After the War he was awarded a C.B.E. and an Honorary D.Sc. from Durham in 1950 and a Sc.D. from Cambridge in 1959. He served as a very successful Treasurer and President of the

London Mathematical Society and he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1965.

He held no paid post for most of his life and it was partly due to that that he was enabled to know a large number of people from different walks of life. Walter Hayman recalls that “when a quotation from Jane Austen arose in a conversation he could always cap it exactly and very much to the point. He was a fine dancer - what a wonderful member he would have made of the Collingwood Senior Common Room! He was Chairman of the Durham Colleges Council and became Chairman of the new Durham University Council after the separation from King’s College Newcastle. In the field of Medicine he was Chairman of the Newcastle Regional Medical Board (1953-1960), Treasurer of the Medical Research Council (1961-1967) and Chairman of the Central Health Services Council (1962-1970). Sir George Godber wrote of him in an obituary in the Lancet (in 1970) that “He was a friend and advisor to many of us, always sound in

judgement and full of common sense. He managed to be an academic of the highest standing, but he was above all a guide to the practical solutions of problems of ordinary life. He was among the foremost mathematicians of his generation. His shrewdness, humour, unfailing understanding and support will be deeply missed by a very wide circle of friends”.

I should like to end by adding a few personal reminiscences. He was a wonderful colleague and I shall never forget him showing his cricketing photographs in the Mathematics Department. There were photographs at Fenners in Cambridge and of Hardy’s XI, which included Bosanquet, and of other cricket memorabilia. I wonder where those photographs are now? They would be a wonderful addition to Durham’s cricket archives and I am sure that Collingwood College would be proud to offer them a home. Edward Collingwood believed profoundly in the Durham Collegiate System and it is a proper tribute to name this College after him.

Alfred North Whitehead, who was the author, with Bertrand Russell of ‘Principia Mathematica’ (and who was probably at Trinity at the same time as Collingwood) wrote that: “The justification for a University is that it preserves the connection between knowledge and the zest for life, by uniting the young and the old in the imaginative consideration of learning”.

I am sure that Edward Foyle Collingwood shared that vision and we in Collingwood and the other Durham Colleges should continue to treasure and to share that vision within the University.

AlumniNews Clare Snowball née Wright (1996 to 2000) is living in York with her husband

of four years, Jamie, and is Head of Maths at Millthorpe School.

AlumniNews John Spens (1970 to 1974) is self employed and works in Overseas

Development in a Project Management capacity. John has been working in Southern Sudan since 2006.

AlumniNews Graham Thompson (1980 to 1983) arrived back in the UK in May

2009 after over six years working in China. Graham now runs a small charitable trust and is involved in various writing

and publishing projects. www.blackfordtrust.org.uk


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The Special Projects and Travel Fund (SPTF) provides grants for Collingwood students engaged in a whole range of projects. Many of the awards we make are to students working on charity-based activities in developing countries whilst other are to students working on projects that add to

their overall educational experience or bring merit to the individual and, by association the College and University. The fund tends to make awards

of between £50 and £250 and is financed through a combination of contributions from the SCR, JCR and individual alumni and members of the

SCR. If you wish to contribute to the fund, or indeed establish a specific SPTF bursary - perhaps named and/or for a particular cause or activity -

please contact Kevin Miller [email protected] would be happy to help.

Special Projectsand Travel Funds

A Palestinian Encounter by

Howard Murray

The Collingwood Travel Fund was instrumental in facilitating my month long trip to Israel and Palestine, allowing me to venture on the Palestine Summer Encounter program

and enjoy an invaluable experience that will aid my academic studies as well.

My reason for requesting the fund was to try and understand an area of the world that was so prevalent in my studies and rarely out of current affairs. Fundamentally, I wanted to see the two countries with my own eyes. I was very aware that much of my understanding of the realities on the ground was being fed to me by partisan news outlets and five-minute news slots, leaving me in a position where I could not discern analysis from conjecture. As a Combined Social Scientist, with over half my modules in International Relations, two of which are centred on the region, I believed that actually visiting the region would bring a new dimension to the way I thought about the topics I spent so much time studying. Indeed, the experience has given me a much more intimate understanding of the underlying tensions, within and between the two countries, enabling me to engage with the issues I have subsequently studied in my Israel and Palestine module on a much more personal level.

I went on the Palestine Summer Encounter, which was a month long program run by a charity dedicated to improving understanding between the West and Palestine, the Holy Land Trust. The Holy Land Trust is based in Bethlehem, and organised home stays for its participants around the surrounding three towns of Beit Lechem, Beit Sahour and Beit Jala. It also organized volunteer placements around the area, whilst also providing afternoon classes in Arabic, Politics, and Theology. However, most enjoyable were the trips they organized for the weekends, with excursions to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Nazareth, Ramallah, the various religious sites, the Golan Heights and the Dead Sea. This meant that during the month that I was there, I was able to travel across most of the country, with guides outlining areas of significance.

The house placement was superb. I stayed with the Harb family, who lived in a deserted shopping mall, right next to the Apartheid Wall in Beit Lechem. There I lived with two brothers and their respective families. Interestingly, they were not permitted by the Israelis to lock any doors, as the Israeli Defence Force had used it as a vantage point from which to fire on civilians during the Al Asqa Intifada. When I asked how they stopped people robbing them, the mother simply pointed to a watchtower in the wall and said, “They watch the house all the time, they know everyone who goes in and out.” Rather naively I asked whether they would know that I was in the house, to which she simply replied, “Of course, they are probably watching us having this conversation right now.”

They were many events worthy of recalling, especially as I met Abu Mazen* on four separate occasions. With regards to seeing the holy sites, the Mount of Beatitudes was probably the most amazing with its octagonal church surrounded by tropical fruit trees and the Sea of Galilee below; and I still to this day consider it to be the most beautiful place in the world. A visit to Hebron to see the tomb of Abraham was also an incredible opportunity to see a city that has been carved in two between Palestinian locals and Israeli settlers, and talk to people about their concerns. I was also very fortunate to be in Bethlehem at the time of the first Fatah conference for many years. Political dignitaries flooded the town and soldiers lined the streets the entire time. I managed to get an inside loop on the discussions thanks to my Fatah fixer, Marwan, who continually gave us reports on what was going on in the conference room. In addition to this, I had a Palestinian Special Forces detachment placed outside our house as Abu

Mazen was staying in a hotel only fifty meters down the road. This, alongside the three riots I was caught up in, and four hour ‘interrogation’ upon departure from Tel Aviv, made it one of the most entertaining, interesting, and exciting trips I’ve ever had.

*Mahmoud Abbas: President of the Palestinian National Authority and Chairman of the PLO


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Wood Words 2009/2010 Collingwood CollegeSpecial Projectsand Travel Funds

The Tooting Times Department of Obituaries. At first glance this might not seem to be a scenario teeming with comic potential, but it was under this guise that the Durham Revue departed for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with a sketch show entitled Knees Up Mother Brown and Other Obituaries, loosely based on Cockney songs of the 1930’s and, well, death. Back by popular demand, the Durham Revue was performing in its thirty-third consecutive year for the duration of the festival, but my first time – if it had been my thirty-third year that would have been impressive for an entirely different set of reasons. I’d never even been to the city, let alone as a writer and performer, but armed with the fifty pounds awarded to me by the Special Project and Travel Fund, I knew at the very least I wasn’t going to starve.

For anyone who hasn’t been, Edinburgh’s Royal Mile is the most bizarre stretch of road you will find anywhere in the world. It’s here on this hallowed ground that every production tries to sell their show, and so it was to the Royal Mile that the six of us descended for four hours of ‘flyering’ every day. If you’re looking for a place where an argument between a troop of acapella zombies and some French mime artists can break out over the prime spot by the bollards while no one else bats an eyelid, the Royal Mile is the place

The Tooting Times Department of Obituaries. By Adam Usden

to be. Thanks to our own cunning promotional strategies, which involved pretending the flyer

was a phone (less funny in words) and sticking flyers to people’s umbrellas in wet weather, the Durham Revue was able to sell out on several occasions, unheard of for a sketch group that isn’t Oxford or Cambridge, who just have to think ‘Fry and Laurie’ and the punters come running.

The show itself was a tremendous success, winning the National Student Sketch Comedy Award and the Underbelly Sketch-off. Particular highlights included Hadrian discovering that instead of his villa stretching the breadth of Britain like he had ordered, the Geordie builders had run out of materials and built a four foot wall; a parody of University Challenge, presided over by a megalomaniac Jeremy Paxman and, of course, the running narrative, where a group of Obituary writers in 1930’s London realise they can generate more business by killing people themselves. A less successful sketch was the now infamous Argos Dance. The sketch was based on a wonderful premise, opening with the line “Have you ever wondered what happens upstairs at Argos?”, before we took to the stage for a full choreographed dance to the Overture from Chicago. The problem was two-fold – firstly, we had made the bizarre decision to relegate Matt Johnson, the only recognised dancer in the troupe, to voice-over duties for this sketch, and also because after forty minutes of verbal comedy, an insane dance-sequence left every single audience member thunderstruck,

which is perhaps not the reaction you want in a comedy show.

However, the show would not have been possible at all without such a close-knit bond in the group. Showing someone your writing for comment is putting yourself in one of the most vulnerable positions you can possibly be – now add to that a requirement to make them laugh, and the fact that it is in everyone’s best interests to reject the weaker material because no one wants to be part of a poor show. If you can work in a team of sketch comedians, you can work with anyone. Living with them, however, was another matter entirely. The mess; it’s difficult to articulate how bad it actually was. Suffice to say that after three weeks, our flat had become home to several different animals, not all of them human. The kitchen was soon cordoned off as a health hazard, despite Tom Lyons’ valiant attempts to clean it. It is perhaps summed up by the old adage: “Cleaning the house when kids are growing, is like shovelling snow when it’s still snowing.” As it happens, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had started to snow indoors as well. The saviour of my trip came in the reasonably surprising form of microwaveable quiche, which was cheap, quick, and contained just enough vegetables to ward off scurvy.

Despite all the mess, the hours of flyering in the rain, the acapella zombies and having to perform the same material over thirty times; despite all of that; for that moment, that one glorious moment when you step out on stage and know, you just know, this is going to be a good show, it’s all worth it. The wave of laughter that sweeps the room when you’ve said something funny, or even better, written something funny, well…everything’s got to be worth that. And Matt Johnson did get to dance. The Underbelly Sketch Off was tied between Durham and Oxford so the compere decided that only a dance-off would decide it. Oxford might have had a good physical comedian, but we had a trained ballet dancer who now struts his stuff at the Royal Academy of Dance - no contest. Who needs Fry and Laurie?

The Thailand D.U.C.K. (Durham University Charity Kommittee) expedition was established in 2008 and aims to raise money to fund the building of schools for Burmese children fleeing the political unrest in Burma. The project lasted five weeks; the main element of which was teaching in schools for three weeks sandwiched between a short time volunteering at an Elephant Sanctuary and free time to relax and explore Thailand before returning home.

The two charities supported by the expedition are the Burma Education Partnership (BEP) and Baan Romjit. The BEP have just started a Mobile Teacher Programme so that volunteers who speak English can be trained at the schools in which they teach. Another task the BEP has set itself is to improve the current curriculum. Baan Romjit, on the other hand, contributes to the building cost of new schools and supports in general the day to day running of many others.

Initially we spent two days and a night volunteering at an Elephant sanctuary near to Chiang Mai; clearing up the shelters, preparing food, and washing and bathing the elephants. We spent a night at Chiang Mai before going to Mae Sot- our destination for teaching. The 16 of us split up into pairs and were allocated schools on a random basis. Matt and I spent three weeks at Saó Kha Son Sar School teaching all age groups from Kindergarten (3 years old) to Grade 5 (up to 16 years old). The subjects taught ranged from learning the alphabet to conversations and profiles.

I also spent time helping to teach at three other schools when ours was closed (lack of driver to take the kids to school!!). Two of these schools were those we’d we helped to fund through Baan Romjit- Agape and Hle Bee Primary School.

The expedition concluded with a couple of nights in Phuket, one night in the small island of Ko Phi Phi and four nights in Bangkok. Here I enjoyed such adventures like sea kayaking, snorkling, visiting many temples and going on a day trip to the Bridge over the River Kwai.

DUCK in ThailandDUCK in Thailandby Emma Rowley

A huge thank you to Collingwood for helping to fund my trip. For any more information on the expedition please look at the Thailand website: http://duck.dsu.org.uk/expeditions/thailand/


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Wood Words 2009/2010 Collingwood CollegeSpecial Projectsand Travel Funds

During each week the team split into two groups of four and were divided between the village and the University. At Sabragamuwa University the programme involved leading daily morning fitness sessions beginning at 7.30am and then coaching the sports degree students for specialised curricular sports. Afternoon sessions primarily encouraged wider participation and involved the coaching of a variety of sports available for all students, such as swimming, badminton, netball, cricket and tennis. Those members of the team with specialised coaching qualifications took the University team training sessions for football and rugby, which proved hugely successful.

In the village, a typical day involved helping with the preschool English activities in the morning. The children improved immensely in such a short space of time through interaction with the equipment we brought for them. We would then move to the playground and teach sporting activities to the school children aged between six to sixteen years. These included team warm-up games and races, parachute games, cricket, football and rounders. In return they taught us a thing or two about volleyball! It was hugely rewarding to arrive to the village and see the children

By Alexandra (AJ) Rankin

I would like to thank Collingwood College ‘Special Projects and Travel Fund’ for your

generous donation to the Team Durham Project Sri Lanka, 2009. This project has

developed as a result of humanitarian need and brings together people of all ages

in communities both in the UK and Sri Lanka. It is therefore recognised nationally

and internationally as a ‘flagship’ in internationalisation and inter-cultural

humanitarian endeavours.

In total, each of the eight members representing TeamDurham spent six weeks in Sri Lanka during July/August 2009. Our purpose was to deliver sports coaching and community activities, as well as providing sporting equipment. In addition, a significant part of the project also involved community support through the academic teaching of English. In order to accomplish this, each team member had to raise £2000. A large amount of this money covered the cost of flights and basic living needs such as accommodation and food. The funds raised also covered transport costs to the village and around the area to different schools during the six weeks. In addition money raised was spent on sporting equipment for Sabragamuwa University and the local village, Ihalagalagema. Each team member was provided with a contingency fund for emergencies and to cover costs outside of the University, such as transport and food.

and teachers eventually using the equipment independently and creatively.

I had never experienced a project such as this before becoming part of the Team Durham Sri Lanka Project 2009. I feel that I have benefited hugely from the organising, planning and preparation stages both with the team in Durham and at home. It was also an invaluable experience working as a team in situations out of my original comfort zone and country! Fundraising both as a group and individually was a huge challenge but the support we received was fantastic.

Coaching sports and participating in community activities in the local village was a highly rewarding experience and very different to previous coaching experiences in England. The bonds built with both the children, students and staff at village Ihalagalagema and Sabragamuwa University were invaluable to our experience in Sri Lanka. I therefore gained friendships, as well as the practice of coaching a variety of age groups and abilities, which will potentially benefit my future career.

In addition I feel I gained a further sense of independence, as well as building on such life skills as communication, team work, project management and leadership. Furthermore aside from the sports coaching, our immersion into Sri Lankan culture was personally an invaluable and very educational aspect of our project. Working alongside the community within Ihalagalagema enabled us access to such sights as the sacred Temple in the forest and experience friendships that tourists would not have been exposed too. Words cannot do justice for the beauty of this country and the kindness and enthusiasm of the people we worked with. The project was definitely challenging but hugely worthwhile and I feel both proud and privileged to have undertaken such a project with such a fantastic team. As the first team to complete this project there is much feedback to build upon and improve for future projects to follow.

Team Durham Sri Lanka Report 2009

AlumniNews Rebecca Trudgen née Dean (1993 to 1996) married Nick

in August 2009 and is happily living and teaching in Bristol.

AlumniNews Patrick Whalen (2000 to 2004) has been living and working in China since graduation. He is currently making a career in the music industry and has

a contract with a Chinese recording and entertainment company. He is singing in a duo called ‘Hong Mai/’The Pulse’ and has travelled extensively in China and appeared on Beijing TV. He had the honour of performing a duet at the

closing ceremony of the Olympic Water Sports Events at the Beijing Olympics.


A fond farewell

There wasn’t a dry eye in the house as staff gathered to bid an emotional farewell to Tina Jackson on her retirement at

the end of July. Tina has been around for almost as long as the college and will have been known to almost every

Collingwood student, having joined us in 1977. She will be greatly missed by staff and students alike and the place will not be the same without her. The Jackson link to the College will continue however with Tina’s daughter, Joanne, who

also works in the Dining Hall.

We wish her a long and happy retirement.

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AlumniNews Jenny Wilson (2001 to 2005) spent June 2008 to September 2009 living abroad in Poland, Norway, Spain and France before returning home to

Newcastle to start her training contract as a solicitor.

AlumniNews Thomas Willet (2000 to 2004) completed a PhD in Bio Chemical Engineering, September 2009.

In the early summer of 1989 I received a telephone call from the Principal of St John’s College who had just appointed a new bursar. Knowing that Collingwood was looking for a new bursar she told me about an outstanding candidate they had not been able to appoint because he did not wish to live in the college, and wanted to work-part time. She urged me to contact him without delay, and within a few days we had appointed David Pain as our bursar. I have often thought what a blessing it was that St John’s did not appoint him and we did. David Pain was a superb bursar, a wonderful colleague, and an enthusiastic ambassador for the college he came to love.

Before coming to Collingwood, David had enjoyed a distinguished career as an engineer, working first in East Africa, and later for water boards in Scotland and England. He was with Northumbria Water for 15 years where he was Principal Engineer for the huge Kielder Water project, and responsible for the environmental and sewerage clean up of the Tyne. This background gave him extensive experience in handling large budgets, and a wealth of practical knowledge of buildings and estates. He was accustomed to dealing with hard-nosed contractors and he never shrank from battling to secure the best possible terms for the college when negotiations were involved. During the ambitious scheme to build the new block David’s experience helped steer the college through some tough times and difficult decisions.

David Pain 1934-2009

AnAppreciationGerald Blake: Collingwood Principal (1987 to 2001)

Sally Metcalf née Britton

We are saddened to report that Sally Metcalf née Britton (1976 to 1979) passed away on

January 7 this year.

Sally and Phil were both at Collingwood together,

Sally read History and Phil, Engineering Science.

They married in 1981 and stayed in touch with the college in the intervening years.

Sally was buried in Wilden, Befordshire on 26 January.

Many old friends including a number from Collingwood attended the funeral.

Phil can be contacted at [email protected]

On one occasion a foreman who was unaware of the bursar’s background tried to hoodwink him over some aspect of the college water supply (I forget the detail). David listened courteously as he always did, and then demolished the foreman’s arguments with a technical broadside delivered with equal courtesy. Game over!

The new bursar’s contract in 1989 was to work for three days a week. Such was his skill and commitment that the transition from full-time to part-time bursar was scarcely noticed. Although he had the indefatigable support of Pat Spoors (accountant) and Andrew Hopper (domestic bursar) he still had a heavy workload, and it became clear that David was taking piles of work home every day. His contract was therefore changed to four days a week, but the college was still getting great value for money from the bursar. He commuted from Ponteland (west of Newcastle) but was never late for work. When occasion required, he stayed on to attend evening events in college. He was a great advocate of the merits of a strong SCR, and he was a conscientious college tutor. Sometimes David was accompanied by his wife Brenda and their black Labrador (whom I noted was far better behaved than mine).

David Pain’s accounts and budgets were always impeccable and became the envy of many other colleges. He put in place reforms and efficiencies across the board in catering and cleaning, trading and conferences, staffing and buildings management. He was ever eager to improve student rooms and JCR facilities. I recall endless discussions about the provision of telephones, computer terminals and microwaves, and the renovation and extension of

the bar. Gradually Collingwood began to secure top places in the performance indicators put out by the treasurer’s department. Not surprisingly David Pain was appointed to several university committees and working groups to tap into his knowledge and wisdom. He was much respected for his contributions to these gatherings where his common sense, good humour, and fresh insights were his hallmarks.

When not in college David was equally busy. He was a magistrate in Newcastle, a member of the Ponteland Rotary Club and church warden at St Mary’s Ponteland. He loved gardening, dog walking, and sailing. Above all, David was devoted to his family, writing pen and ink letters to his children every week without fail. When Brenda reached her 50th birthday he was determined to arrange something memorable for her. The special treat was a nine mile walk inside a section of the Kielder to Tees pipeline shortly before it was flooded. Brenda recalls it as cold, wet, and dark, but a day she will never forget. Brenda Pain is probably the only woman on the planet to have walked inside the Kielder pipeline.

David was a man of unusal talent, but disarming humility. He could be single-minded in implementing plans and policies, but he rarely fell out with his staff or senior colleagues. Nigel Martin (Vice-Principal), who worked closely with him recalls “his practical common sense, his wisdom and humanity”. It was an enormous privilege to work with David during his eight years as our bursar, and I learnt much from him.

He left his mark on the college, and the college left its mark on David Pain. He had a great affection for Collingwood and its members, and his appointment as Assistant Principal in 1994 and as honorary Fellow in 2001 brought him great pleasure. He retired in 1997.

David Pain died on 23rd December 2009 at Blakeney in Norfolk after being unwell for some time. We extend our deepest condolences to Brenda and their four children Judith, Sarah, Caroline, and James and their nine grand children.



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AlumniNews Jane Olsen (1980 to 1984) has been with GlaxoSmithKline during which time she has had lots of different jobs and locations, making the time fly by. Jane is now HR Director responsible for Central and Eastern Europe

and so still able to use her Russian at work as well as at home with husband Andrei. Children Katya and Tim are also learning the language

to maintain the family tradition.

I suggested in the 2008-2009 Wood Words that we ought to try to put together a history of CCBC, although fortunately there is no particular anniversary requiring a publication deadline. Having examined the club records I concluded that they fall far short of providing the material we would need for an interesting and comprehensive account. Foolishly perhaps, I promised to do my best to begin the task of writing a history, but I appealed for help in collecting crew lists, results, photographs, and anecdotes which might do justice to the ups and downs of a remarkably spirited club.

The response has been very encouraging. It is clear that many members of the club have treasured memories of their time with CCBC, and they have hoarded lots of potential material for a history. I suspect that what has been mentioned to me so far is just the tip of the iceberg, and it would be great to know what else is out there. I am very eager to hear more from those who knew the club in its earlier years, and nobody has been in touch from 1989-1982, 1994-1998, and 2001-2002. As yet there are few photographs from the seventies and eighties.

The following have sent (or promised)

Boat ClubCollingwood College

Towards a club history? continued ...By Gerald Blake (Collingwood Principal 1987 to 2001)

material of one kind or another: Tom Durie (1975-78), Martin Lampard (1982-86), Martyn Edwards (1986-90), Andrew Dearlove (1988-91), Hilary Stossel (1988-91), Rebecca Carter (now Lockwood) (1989-93), Jolyon Tidmarsh (1991-94), Kathryn Paget (now Saunders) 1998-2001), Sam Doody (2002-06), Rob Wilson (2004-06), Chris Carey (2004-07), and Nicholas Allan (2002-07), who photographed almost every crew and event during his long time with CCBC! It was great to hear from all of the above, and I appreciated the information they contributed. I apologise if I have left out anybody else who has emailed me since last summer: please don’t give up on me.

Incidentally I had answers to several of the questions I put last year about rowing before 1978 (yes there was), the Loch Ness adventure, and the singers before the Durham Head.

I have made very little or no personal progress in research or writing, apart from collecting the above offers of help. This is largely due to taking over as President of the Rotary Club of Barnard Castle in

July last year and doing my best to pilot it through some energetic celebrations of its 70th year. I had no idea how much time this would involve. I still have other projects on the go, but I would hope to make more progress in the coming months towards the CCBC history. If anybody else would like to take on the task, or particular aspects of it, of course I would be very content to let them do it, and they would have my enthusiastic assistance. I could definitely offer some memories and insights from the coaching viewpoint.

The most immediate tasks are compiling lists of club captains, and top crews (as far as possible), and results year by year

in inter-college competitions and other regattas. All this can be done, but it will take time. I would also like to put together a list of the names of the boats we have had over the years (they seem to evoke

memories as much as almost anything!) Once all the basic data is in place we can begin the delightful task of embellishing it with our stories, photographs, and observations. It should be fun! My email address is [email protected] and my telephone number is 01833 650 899Home address: Kirkstile, Romaldkirk, Barnard Castle, DL12 9EB.


College Contacts Principal: Professor Ed Corrigan email [email protected] Senior Tutor: Dr Steve Rayner email [email protected] Senior Tutor: Dr Kevin Miller email [email protected] College Office: 0191 334 5014/15

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