The Wykehamist
Editorial
Welcome to the 1480th edition of The Wykehamist. Inside, amongst other articles, you’ ll find an overview of the Lemon Shark, a stab at an Election paper from a VIBk1 Collegeman, and an exposé on the oddities of QEII. We hope you enjoy.
This term, Winchester College bids farewell to its 2020 cohort and 2024 VIBk2 entrants. They will be missed, and we wish them all the best in their future efforts; as top years become OWs, The Wykehamist in particular, welcomes Laurie Sawbridge( H, 2022-) as arts editor. If you’ re interested in helping run The Wykehamist, don’ t hesitate to reach out – we are beginning to look for editors to take it up next year.
Congratulations to Calam Tamana( E, 2021-) for succeeding Antony Kim( E, 2021-) as the new Editor of Quelle. We admire his confidence, and look forward to reading his published works.
The archives of Winchester College hold many interesting artefacts: historical editions of The Wykehamist are one such feature. A quick perusal of the 1453 rd edition, for instance, dated to October 2008, reveals that our Headmaster bears an affinity for the lemon biscuits from KPO; and a skim through the 1432 nd edition, published in October 2004, discloses that DIF has reportedly made multiple television appearances – including on University Challenge.
A longer view of The Wykehamist, however, reveals a lens via which we can trace the changes and the continuity of the paper, and the College itself. For the change, consider the 864 th edition, published on March 5 th, 1940. Historical editions of The Wykehamist held a record of the motions put forwards to Debating Society( or Deb: Soc, as we refer to it now). According to the 864 th edition, the Society met on November 2 nd, 1939, and discussed the Motion“ That this House would welcome a decline in the Imperialist Spirit”. The debate itself was not recorded, but the result was: the Motion lost by 62 votes to 20. Such an outcome nowadays would be more surprising; the result reflects the attitudes of the time, of a generation raised on the rhetoric of empire. And as for the changing nature of the paper, The Wykehamist has not published records of debates for many decades.
Amidst the changes, though, some things have remained constant. If you compare the 1 st edition of The Wykehamist, published in October 1866, to the 1456 th, published in June 2009, a similarity in the tone of the editorials is eminently noticeable. The stated aim of the first edition is the curation of a“ full, detailed, and readily accessible account of all matters which concern the school”, and the documenting of“ many other things which have occupied our time and been of interest to us”; and the intention of the 1456 th edition, as written of by the editors, is the capturing of“ moments at the College that you can read of with interest, look back on fondly or perhaps just wish you were there for”. At its core, whilst it no longer records every event in the school, The Wykehamist remains a curated chronicle of College life, shaped by its writers and lived by( some of) its readers. Its purpose is clear: to record what matters to Wykehamists, as determined by Wykehamists; to give a little permanence in print to the commendable pupils of Winchester College. Long may that continue.
With the closing of the final term also comes the end of this year’ s public and internal exams. The last exam hall is closed; the Cloister-Time exam reports are drafted. We emerge, from exam-induced gloom, into the summer. So enjoy the holiday, enjoy the sun – and enjoy The Wykehamist.
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