No. 141 The Trusty Servant
Vale
James Fox( CoRo, 6-12 & 13-) says a fond farewell to Rowena Hodgins( CoRo, 03-23):
Rowena Hodgins arrived at Win Coll as Miss Cook in September 2003 to teach Spanish and French. She has the rare distinction of being a Nicholas Tait( HM, 00-03) appointment, and joined an experienced and settled MFL department, bringing with her a wide range of skills, enthusiasms and energy. She used her patience, kindness and knowledge to help all of her pupils develop their love of language, whether novice or expert. Throughout her time at Winchester her teaching has been characterised by a genuine care and interest in her pupils, perhaps best evidenced by her endless generosity when it came to giving up her time to run speaking clinics and tasktimes for those who were struggling.
It was also under her leadership that Community Service began the transformation into what it has become today. Her focus on finding worthwhile activities in the wider community produced both the positive effect of engagement for the pupils, but also removed the need for pupils to walk staff dogs and collect empty wine bottles. From the same pool of dons she had to recruit willing minibus drivers for the numerous other activities that required transport. Rowena managed and increased the extraordinary range of longstanding relationships we have with the local community with care and precision.
Initially given the opportunity to help with Winkies, under the instruction of Michael Nevin( I, 63-68, CoRo, 74- 12)(‘ Do you see what happened there?’‘ No.’), and hockey, she found a role more suited to her as one of the lead dons in JCR. As a tutor, she worked in Cook’ s and then Hopper’ s, before taking up a permanent position in Furley’ s under Richard Shorter( CoRo, 80-13) becoming Assistant Housemaster as the role was introduced across the school.
As an MFL don she was involved in the running of numerous overseas trips. Regular visits to Seville and Valencia with Jan Hepworth( CoRo, 11-24) allowed the pupils studying Spanish to develop their language skills, but no school trip is a holiday. This was never truer than when she agreed to join a school trip to Colombia. Her calmness and good sense overcame numerous challenges: a missed connection in Madrid; first aid delivered to a bleeding foot on a remote beach; rickety cable car rides in Bogota; scorpions in Villa de Leyva; a wildly entertaining Chiva ride. Her ability with vernacular Spanish and regional accents stretched to the limit, she ensured that the pupils had an incredible experience.
Her marriage to James Hodgins( CoRo, 96-) in 2008 was followed by their move into Chawker’ s and starting a family almost simultaneously. Their twelve years in the house saw her take every opportunity to support the pupils with their academic and personal development. Her kindness and disarming generosity were invaluable in supporting both parents and Chawkerites and undoubtedly benefited the hundreds of pupils who passed through the doors, leaving a legacy that will long be remembered and greatly appreciated.
When the Hodginses came out of the boarding house in 2021, RAH was able to weigh up a number of options, but having been hospitalised in Easter 2023, and then received the news that she was suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, it became clear that tough decisions would need to be made. Her attempt to return to teaching in Short Half 2023 made it sadly obvious that this was not the right thing for her, and so having made the difficult decision to step down from teaching, she has now left the College’ s employment. She remains in Winchester, of course, and is always pleased when old Chawkerites find the time to visit. Her impact on the school community, both inside and outside the classroom, has been profound and enduring.
Books of Wykehamical interest.
For Dr Andy’ s French’ s book Science by Simulation: vol. 2, Models of Classical Physics, please see Pupil Achievements above.
Several old Wykehamists feature prominently in a recent book by writer and historian Ollie Randall. Writers in Whites: How a group of literary cricketers changed English culture is about a coterie of writers who played cricket together for three generations, from Arthur Conan Doyle, JM Barrie and PG Wodehouse, via Evelyn Waugh and Edmund Blunden to Michael Morpurgo, and how their cricketbased bonds influenced their careers and the wider literary landscape. Between chapters, the author profiles particularly interesting members of the network. Of the seven profiles, three of them( A. G. Macdonell( Coll, 1909- 14), A. P. Herbert( C, 1904-09) and Douglas Jardine( C, 1914-19)) are of Wykehamists.
240 pages; Fairfield Books; ISBN 978-1915237743
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