THE QUEEN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD

'The Queen's College', founded 1341, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Queen's is centrally situated on the High Street, and is renowned for its eighteenth-century architecture. The college has one of the finest college library in Oxford, a magnificent Hall and impressive Chapel. It is one of the wealthier colleges with an estimated financial endowment of £88m (2003).

Contents

History

Library

College Chapel

College Life

Sport

Music

Academic issues

Notable former students

References

See also

External links

History

The college was founded during the 14th century by a chaplain, Robert de Eglesfield, of Queen Philippa of Hainault, wife of King Edward III of England, hence the name. It should be noted that whilst the name of Queens' College, Cambridge is plural, the Oxford college is singular. The coat of arms of three red eagles on a white background was inspired by the chaplain's surname. The magnificent frontage was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, part of a substantial rebuilding in the 18th century during which the impressive library was built.
The college has had a long association with the north of England, in part because of its founder. Eglesfield is a village in Cumberland. This was reinforced for many years until relatively recently by the large number of Hastings Scholarships given to men from 20 schools in Yorkshire, Westmorland and Cumberland. Graduate students from the universities of Bradford, Hull, Leeds, Sheffield, or York are still able to apply for Hastings Senior Scholarships. One of the most famous feasts of the College is the Boar's Head Gaudy, which originally was the Christmas Dinner for members of the College who were unable to return home to the north of England over the Christmas break between terms, but is now a feast for old members of the College on the Saturday before Christmas.

Library

Queen's College has one of the best-stocked college libraries in Oxford. The current lending library consists of around 50,000 volumes. Extensive provision is made for Final Honour Schools, often through the purchase of multiple copies of titles in high demand. There is also an excellent range of journals and a large and an ever-increasing number of on-line resources.
The Upper Library is considered one of the finest rooms in Oxford and has been a focal point for the College ever since its construction at the end of the seventeenth century. The Upper Library remains as a reading room for students and is virtually unique in this respect in the University.
The College has one of the largest (around 100,000 volumes) and most diverse collections of rare books in Oxford.

College Chapel

The College Chapel is noted for its excellent Frobenius organ in the west gallery. It was installed in 1965, replacing a Rushworth and Dreaper organ from 1931. The earliest mention of an organ is 1826. The Chapel Choir has been particularly successful and busy in recent years, and has established a reputation as one of Oxford's finest mixed-voice choirs.^[1]
The Chapel is one of Oxford's most notable buildings and its fabric has stood virtually unchanged since it was consecrated by the Archbishop of York in 1719.
The Chapel has a significant place in College life. Holy Communion is celebrated every Sunday morning and at other times and is open to all communicant members of any Christian church or denomination. The Sunday evening service takes the traditional form of Choral Evensong. Short services are held morning and evening, and at other times some like to use the stillness for their own prayer. Baptisms, confirmations and weddings are also conducted for members or former members of the College. The religious life of the College is usually both lively and stimulating.

College Life

Queen's is an active community performing strongly in intercollegiate sport competitions, having a variety of societies and, as one of the larger colleges, hosting triennial Commemoration balls. The 2004 ball was notable for the presence of Chesney Hawkes and his rendition of "The One and Only", while the 2007 ball coincides with the 666th anniversary of the college.^[2] Queen's is host to a number of dining, drinking and sports societies as well as some which are more academically orientated such as a medical society.^[3]

Sport

The College's sports facilities are second to none. The College playing field, less than a mile from the main buildings, runs down to the banks of the Isis (which is what the Thames is called as it flows through Oxford): It has a football and a hockey pitch, together with hard and grass tennis courts, a netball court and a pavilion. Queen's College shares a rugby pitch nearby with University College. In the summer the goal posts go down and a cricket square appears in the middle.
On the opposite bank of the river is a modern and well-equipped boathouse, which contains a mini-gym for enthusiastic rowers. The College's two squash courts, located at the College's Cardo Building, are amongst the best in Oxford.
The College has a designated table tennis room in College for which a new table has just been purchased. Golf, fencing, boxing, lacrosse, and everything from karate to hillwalking are catered for by University clubs which all members of Queen's are free to join.
Queen's attracts its fair share of particularly talented sportsmen and women, and these may be selected to represent the University against Cambridge (thus winning a Blue or Half-Blue). All others compete enthusiastically at inter-collegiate level in various leagues and cup competitions.
In the summer, cricket is played at the sports ground, and sometimes even the least sporting of people come down to the sports ground to watch.
A light-hearted sports day, that includes a bouncy castle and barbecue, is often held towards the end of summer term, after exams have finished. There is also a joint sports event - 'Us v Them' - with Teddy Hall, our neighbours. Friendly rivalry is evident, but we always win the most important event, namely the Tug of War.
The Queen's College competes strongly in most of the intercollegiate Cuppers (tournament style) and league sports with many first teams placed in the 1st division. In 2005 the 1st XI football team won the league competition and netball has been especially strong.
The College is notable for having one of the oldest boat clubs in the world. In 1837, The Queen's College Boat Club represented Oxford in the third Boat Race against Lady Margaret Boat Club, representing Cambridge, and won. This event, held on the River Thames at Henley-on-Thames, is credited with leading to support from the town for the establishment of the Henley Royal Regatta, one of the most famous rowing events in the world, in 1839. Rowing is still a major sport in the College, with the men placed 9th in Torpids and 13th in Eights and the women 2nd in Torpids and 8th in Eights. The women are closing in on the Head of the River in Torpids.
Rowing is not the only sport in which members of the college excel. In 2005, in addition to two Blues in women's rowing, 11 other members of the college were awarded a Blue and 11 were awarded Half Blues.

Music

Queen's College is well known in and beyond Oxford for the quality and quantity of its musical activities. The mixed-voice Chapel Choir is widely regarded as the finest such choir in Oxford. It is directed by the Organist (Dr Owen Rees) and the Organ Scholars; the singers include Choral Scholars (up to eighteen at any one time) and volunteers. The Choir sings for Evensong three times a week during term, as well as for other services such as Compline; it gives one major concert each term, and undertakes regular tours and short visits both within this country and abroad. The Eglesfield Musical Society, named after our Founder (and the oldest musical society in Oxford), organises a substantial series of concerts each year, ranging from chamber music to orchestral works. These concerts provide abundant performing and conducting opportunities for the College's many musicians, as well as featuring visiting artists. There are weekly lunchtime organ recitals in College (the College organ - built by the Danish firm of Frobenius in 1965 - is one of the finest in the country), including, during 2000, a prestigious series featuring the complete organ works of Bach, to mark the 250th anniversary of the composer's death.
Jazz and popular music also have regular adherents. Facilities for individual and group rehearsal are available in the Music Practice Room. In addition to the organ, the chapel contains a concert grand piano and a fine harpsichord, and is acoustically one of the best chapels in Oxford for musical performance.

Academic issues

The college has been strong academically for many years. In 2005, 21 members of the college were awarded First Class B. A. degrees, 6 were awarded University Prizes and 17 were awarded D. Phil. degrees.

Notable former students

★ Edward Penley Abraham (Biochemist)

★ Joseph Addison (English politician and writer)

★ Lancelot Addison (Royal Chaplain)

★ Henry Airay (English Puritan preacher and author)

★ Drummond Allison (English war poet of World War II)

★ Rowan Atkinson (English comedian, actor and writer - ''Mr. Bean'')

★ Philip Ingress Bell (British barrister and judge, who also had a political career)

★ Jeremy Bentham (English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer)

★ Tim Berners-Lee (Inventor of World Wide Web - director of the World Wide Web Consortium)

★ Edmund Blunden (Poet, author and critic)

★ Cory Booker (Mayor of Newark, New Jersey - Democratic politician)

★ John Boste (A saint in the Roman Catholic Church and one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales)

★ John Sherren Brewer (English historian and scholar)

★ Michael Brunson (British political journalist)

★ Adam Lewis Buick (A prominent London-based socialist)

★ Ingram Bywater (English classical scholar)

★ Daniel Parker (English barrister and member of parliament)

★ Henry Compton (English bishop)

★ Georges Carpentier (French boxer, actor)

★ Vere Gordon Childe (Australian philologist by training who later specialised in archaeology)

★ E. T. Cook (English organist and composer)

★ Thomas West, 3rd (or 12th) Baron De La Warr (The Englishman after whom the bay, river, American Indian tribe and state all later called "Delaware" were named)

★ Henry Jerome De Salis (Divine: Rector of St. Antholin, and Vicar of Wing.
Also known as: Revd Henry Jerome de Salis, MA; Dr. de Salis; Rev. Dr. Henry Jerome de Salis, and, from 1809, Rev. Count Henry Jerome de Salis)

★ Sir Ralph Delaval (English landowner and politician who was created 1st Baronet of Seaton in the Baronetage of England in 29 June 1660 in the reign of Charles II)

★ Edmund Emanuel Dell (British politician and businessman)

★ Ernest Christopher Dowson (British poet)

★ Charles Dyson Perrins (English organist and composer)

★ Mark Edgley Smith (British composer)

★ Sir Henry Fletcher, 3rd Baronet (English politician)

★ Norman Alan Stanley Gibson (English journalist, writer and radio broadcaster)

★ Edmund Gibson (English divine and jurist)

★ Bernard Gilpin (English theologian)

★ Sir John Glynne, 6th Baronet (Welsh politician and landowner)

★ John Goulden (United Kingdom Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Council and to the Western European Union from April 1995 until 2001, current member of the Security Commission)

★ Sir Arthur Sackville Trevor Griffith-Boscawen (British Conservative Party politician)

★

★ Edmund Halley (English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist)

★ Guto Harri (Political correspondent for the BBC)

★ John Harris (British journalist, writer, and critic)

★ John Francis Alexander Heath-Stubbs (English poet and translator)

★ Henry V of England (King of England from 1413 to 1422)

★ Leonard Hubert "Lenny" Hoffmann, Baron Hoffmann (Senior British judge, serving as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary)

★ David Edward Jenkins (Bishop of Durham)

★ Paul Carey Jones (Baritone opera singer)

★ Gerald Kaufman (British Labour Member of Parliament, a government minister during the 1970s)

★ Andy Pymont (Economist at Procter & Gamble, scorer of famous goal for Queen's College Third XI)

★ Ruth Kelly (British politician - Member of Parliament for the Bolton West constituency representing the Labour Party - Secretary of State for Education and Skills from 2004-2006, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and Minister for Women and Equality since May 2006, appointed as Secretary of State for Transport on 28 June 2007 under the first reshuffle performed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown)

★ David George Kendall (British statistician)

★ Hastings Lees-Smith (United Kingdom Labour politician who was briefly in the Cabinet in 1931 - acting Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party (as chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party) from 1940 during the time Clement Attlee was in government)

★ Sir James Lowther, 4th Baronet (English landowner, politician and industrialist)

★ Sir Colin Hugh Verel McColl (Head of the British Secret Intelligence Service from 1989 - 1994)

★ Thomas Middleton (English Jacobean playwright and poet)

★ Basil Stanley Moss (Provost of Birmingham Cathedral from 1972 to 1986)

★ William Nicolson (English divine and antiquary)

★ Sir Thomas Overbury (English poet and essayist)

★ John Owen (English Nonconformist church leader and theologian)

★ Walter Horatio Pater (English essayist and art and literary critic)

★ Christopher Price (Labour politician in the United Kingdom)

★ Richard Rampton QC (A leading British libel lawyer)

★ Henry Robinson (English priest, Bishop of Carlisle from 1598 to 1616)

★ Larry Sabato (Political analyst)

★ Oliver Sacks (United States-based English neurologist)

★ John Roderic Steele (Expert in international and European Union transport policy)

★ Percy Reginald Stephenson (Australian writer, publisher and political activist)

★ Iain Sutcliffe (English cricketer)

★ Thomas Tanner (English antiquary and prelate)

★ Sir Edward Turnour (Speaker of the House of Commons)

★ Brian Walden (Labour Member of Parliament, a journalist and broadcaster)

★ Peter Jaffrey Wheatley (Chemist)

★ Llŷr Williams (Welsh pianist)

★ John Farnsworth Wright (British economist)

★ John Wycliffe (English theologian)

★ Adam Zamoyski (Historian and a member of the ancient Zamoyski family of Polish nobility)
:See also .

References

1. The Chapel Choir of The Queen's College Oxford
2. Queen's College Ball
3. Queen's College Medical Society

See also

★

★ Queens' College, Cambridge

External links

★ Official website

★ Virtual Tour of the Queen's College