The Wykehamist
Nicolas Katkoff( Katkov)( H, 1906-08)
Katkoff was the only Russian to come to the College before the Great War. His father, Mikhail Mikhailovich Katkoff, Secretary of the Russian Legation in Lisbon, died 5 months before he was born in 1893. His mother, Olga Nikolaevna Lobanova-Rostovskay, came from one of Russia’ s oldest noble families; they trace their roots back to Rurik, the founder of Russia. Her subsequent marriage to Sir E. H Egerton, the British ambassador to Greece, brought Nicolas to Winchester. Little is known about his time at Winchester, except for him being a part of an unsuccessful Trant’ s side in 1907 during the Richardson Shield— Jun Gymnā( I wonder why that’ s gone). After spending two years in Trant’ s, he returned to Russia for the rest of his studies, until the outbreak of war. He entered the Russian Navy before graduating school in 1915, and was promoted to lieutenant in 1917, before which he was sent to the Russian Embassy in London as the Assistant to the Naval Attaché. There, in March 1917, he was presented by King George V with the only Great War DSM( Distinguished Service Medal) ever given to a Russian( see the previous page). It is also believed that he worked as a secret service agent under Alexander Abaza, his known associate and the head of the Tsarist Secret Service in London. He spent his later life being a translator, famously translating Yusupov’ s biography. He died in Paris, 1976, after being hit by a car.
noted to have been a devout Wykehamist as well as an enthusiastic Winkies player, being part of both the College XV and VI. Michael was known as‘ Zog’ to his English friends. He won a scholarship to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and achieved Firsts in Chemistry and Natural Sciences in 1927. During the Second World War, Michael was a part of the Allied Expeditionary Force and took part in political broadcasting, after which he was placed in control of the German chemical industry in the British zone of occupation until 1946. He worked at Unilever for a large portion of his life, as well as writing many articles on chemistry and economics, being an original member of the PEP research organisation. Later in life, he was a near founding member of the NRDC, pushing research into the Hovercraft, and being one of four NRDC members to receive a Jubilee Medal( 1977). Michael was also the father of two other Wykehamists: Serge( Coll:, 1949-55) and Nicholas( Coll:, 1952-57). He passed away in 1978 after a short illness.
Michael Zvegintzov( Coll:, 1918-23)
Zvegintzov is unique in that he has a comment attached to his admission; it reads‘… admitted under the guardianship of the warden because of his father’ s death in battle against the Germans.’ He was born in Grosdevka, Voronezh, in 1904, which is only 15km from the village that the Grishaevs lived in … Perhaps my ancestors were his ancestors’ serfs. His father Alexander Zvegintzov was an army colonel as well as a leading member of the liberal democrats( the Octoberists), becoming the president of the IV th Duma; he died in 1915 on the Galician front. Michael was actually entered to Winchester in 1910 by his father during a delegation to England. At the College, Zvegintzov is
Alexander, Michael Zvegintsov’ s father.
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