No . 132 The Trusty Servant
Vox Senum
A selection of correspondence from our readers . Readers can write to the Editor , Tim Giddings , at trustyservant @ wincoll . ac . uk or the Director of Win Coll Soc , Christopher Normand , at wincollsoc @ wincoll . ac . uk .
Mark Stephenson RIP
Alec Russell ( K , 80-84 ), Editor of FT Weekend , wrote the following in his column on 12 th June : Readers often ask for insights into editing . This week I learnt of the death of my first great editor : my A-level History teacher , Mark Stephenson . ‘ Sloppy writing reflects sloppy thinking ’ was a watchword . Detail and precision were essential . He also believed in reading essays aloud to eliminate clumsy phrasing . I do this sometimes when editing Lunches [ weekly interviews ]. It works !
Robert Woods ( G , 60-64 ) writes : I much enjoyed your note on Mark Stephenson . He was a most influential don to be up to . However , you missed out his sailing abilities . In 1964 MSS , Mark Lethbridge and I sailed under his command to Cherbourg and back in a RNSA yacht Annette ( a small Folkboat ). It was a memorable trip and Mark was an outstanding skipper ! I enclose a copy of him enjoying wine in Cherbourg .
A Toyeite ( 68-73 ) recalls an anecdote : Your obituary of MSS reminds me of an occasion when I arrived late for one of his classes . Naturally I was in a state of considerable mental agitation . The following conversation ensued :
Me : Sorry I am late , Sir . MSS : What is a dichotomy ? Me : I failed to look at my watch , Sir . Class : uncontrolled laughter .
It turned out that MSS had just discovered that no one in the class knew what a dichotomy was . Providentially I did , and after I had recovered my equilibrium and answered satisfactorily , I escaped punishment .
William Paton ( G , 89-94 ) adds : I was saddened to read of the death of Mark Stephenson , whom we knew in my time at Winchester as ‘ The Bear ’. Although he left shortly after my arrival at the school , he had an immeasurable impact on my development in his short stint as my div don in my first year .
It was a shorter stint than usual : he was absent on sabbatical for the first term , his position filled by Henry ‘ Tiddles ’ Thompson . That was a warm welcome , and while perhaps not entirely representative , was much appreciated . Returning to Winchester after the holidays to find the Bear presiding was a baptism of fire .
One of the first tasks he set us , in what was nominally a Church of England school , was an analysis of the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles in which we were encouraged to compare and contrast the different accounts in order to deduce which events may actually have taken place 2000 years ago . To take the Bible , present it to a batch of 13-year-olds , and ask them to probe its likely veracity was provocative , but priceless . While he could be quite the autocrat , he was also an iconoclast , and encouraged the healthy questioning of authority .
Despite that , he was also a strict disciplinarian . He clearly felt that ‘ Porter ’ s Lodge ’ was hardly a punishment at all , and so instead some of us had to ring his doorbell , far further afield and far earlier in the morning , as penance for various faults . I was a fairly frequent visitor . But even at the age of 13 , I recall him being remarkably hospitable , both on those occasions and also while demolishing my essays in one-to-one sessions in his home . A lot of what I consider the Wykehamical aspects of my learning , I attribute wholly to the crucible of those early lessons .
Revd Vaughan Roberts ( C , 78-83 ) shares a report : I have just looked at a report which ‘ The Bear ’ gave me at the end of a term during which I did tasktimes with him . He writes , ‘ The best passages in any of them were , as it seemed , diligent summary of others ’ exposition . A charitable interpretation is that modesty and diffidence prevent him from working out his own arguments , as also from conversing usefully in tasktimes . But it does not account for the faults of expression .’ He was entirely right and , although I found them rather crushing at the time , they helped me begin to think for myself and to write with greater accuracy and precision . I have been grateful ever since .
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