No . 132 The Trusty Servant
So , what happened in 1873 ? An article in the November 1881 Wykehamist ( quoted in the separate article about 2021 ’ s Ad Portas ) sheds some light on the changing traditions of the College . By 1881 everybody had forgotten how an Ad Portas ceremony worked . The reason for that forgetfulness can be laid at the doors of the Clarendon Commission of the 1860s and the subsequent Public Schools Act of 1868 . As a result of these , the methods of electing scholars to both of Wykeham ’ s colleges underwent change . In 1873 the College ’ s original statutes were rewritten , presumably taking away the formal structure of the six posers and the double elections . Peter Gwynn reminds us that the election examination for New College continued to be held at Winchester and that New College Fellows still travelled down for it . He suggests that an Ad Portas ceremony for the New College fellows was revived before the end of the 19 th century , finally dying out in the early 20 th century . It seems unlikely that Ad Portas would have survived the First World War , if only because in 1916 not one pupil was sent by Winchester College to either Oxford or Cambridge .
Therefore the ‘ modern ’ tradition of Ad Portas can be said to have started in 1873 or 1881 . The Editor of The Wykehamist claims that 1881 marked the revival of an old custom , but it makes more sense that the 1873 honorand , Lord Selborne , was the first recipient of the new
Indian Princes in 1902
style of Ad Portas . He was an Old Wykehamist and had been appointed Lord Chancellor by Gladstone the previous year , however , did not fit the profile of Poser , Royalty or Bishop of Winchester . But it does appear accurate to suggest that the practice of Ad Portas was formally revised in 1881 , and that is the pattern we use today . It became from that time the highest honour that the College
Ad Portas and Bar ?
HM George VI and Queen Elizabeth 1946
bestows . A significant feature of the revision was the inclusion of the ‘ Oratio ad Portas ’ by the Aulae Prae . With the ending of the old system of Election in 1873 , there is no record that the payment for this speech continued , but the current Prefect of Hall , WM Goltz , is 13s 4d richer ( decimal currency being indivisible by three !), through the generosity of Ian Fraser , the Master in College .
Since 1873 , Ad Portas has been offered to prominent visitors on 53 occasions , on several of which there have been multiple honorands , such that 121 honorands have been received . On very rare occasions , a person has been honoured twice . The short list of such honorands is :
HRH The Prince of Wales ( future King Edward VII ) June 1883 , 25 th June 1893
Queen Mary 15 th July 1912 ( with King George V ) 2 nd April 1929
Rt Revd Dr Alwyn Williams 2 nd July 1952 , 7 th October 1961
HM The Queen 25 th July 1955 , 19 th May 1982
Professor Freeman Dyson 20 th May 1995 4 th May 2011 ( as one of 22 Wykehamist Fellows of the Royal Society and the British Academy )
General Sir Nick Carter 30 th April 2008 ( as Brigadier NP Carter , one of 24 Wykehamist officers serving operational tours ) 9 th September 2021
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