the wellington college year book 2010/2011
the wellington college year book 2010/2011
suitable memorial to the Duke of Wellington.
The Royal Military College at Sandhurst and
Academy at Woolwich already performed the
military task of training cadets for the Army.
One assumes that white Portland stone
or Yellow Bath Stone would have been the
main building material, without any unsightly
and cheaper brick. Could the first Master
Benson have won his point over Prince
118
Albert, insisting that the Chapel had to be
Gothic — the only style in which it was
possible to worship the Almighty ? One
would assume that George Gilbert Scott’s
Chapel could never have been placed
alongside Classical buildings. As for 1,000
students, could the ghost of R. Norman
Shaw have inspired the present Governors
and Master as the natural growth figure
worthy of such a College and such a Duke ?
Did John Shaw, who must have known about
the prizewinning design, gain the idea for twin
towers from Norman Shaw’s conception ?
Wren’s Greenwich buildings also feature two
towers. Anyway, the design is worth studying
and speculation greatly enjoyed about what
might have been.
ows in the news
T
obiter dicta
wo great men of science and
luminaries of Wellington
College were recently
reunited after fifty years.
The photograph shows
former cr member and Gold medal winning
Australian, Dr Peter Pockley, together one
of his former pupils, Sir Richard Feacham
[Hl 1960–1965]. (See 2009/2010 Year Book
for Dr Pockley’s award.) ‘Feacham’, stated
Pockley, ‘stood out in class as the boy who
would always be boldly asking leading ‘why ?’
questions, and expressing himself clearly. He
is now exhibiting the same qualities in his
unique leadership roles in health and other
pat r i c k m i l e h a m [ a 1 9 5 9 – 1 9 6 3 ]
first design for ‘a wellington college’ 1853
T
he original buildings of
Wellington College are
known as the work of a
Victorian architect John
Shaw. Apart from the
cheerful aspects of North Front, South Front,
Great School and the soaring twin towers of
‘The Wellington College’, built in an eclectic
style all of its own, John Shaw is not well known
as an architect. Other than our College,
his most notable public building is what is
now Goldsmiths’ College in South London.
We have now discovered a fact, hitherto
never recorded in any of the histories
of Wellington College or architectural
commentaries (like Pevsner). Before our John
Shaw ever got to work, another, and much
more famous man of the same surname, R.
Norman Shaw, won the Royal Academy Prize
for Architecture in 1853, for the design of ‘A
Wellington College’.
The print shown here has been found
in The Illustrated London News, of shortly
before the Royal Charter was granted by
the Queen in December of that year, which
shows a staggering classical building of vast
proportions, similar to Wren’s conceptions
of St Paul’s Cathedral and the Royal Naval
Hospital (later College) at Greenwich. St
Paul’s is already connected with Wellington
College, while Greenwich is a building of
‘outstanding universal value … the finest
and most dramatically sited architectural
and landscape ensemble in the British Isles’,
according to unesco. Tout ensemble the
design rivalled the buildings atop Capitol
Hill, Washington ! The caption specifies that
it was to be for ‘1,000 cadets and requisite
officers and masters’, although the term
‘cadets’ — unequivocal military — had never
been mentioned as an intention in the
Charter and previous national debate about a
Dr Peter Pockley with
Sir Richard Feacham [Hl ???? –????]
aid programmes’. The occasion was a lecture
at the Lowry Institute for International
Policy in Sydney, Australia on 25th May
2011. Richard’s title was ‘Re-engineering
Aid: A Bold Agenda for the 21st Century’.
A world class scientist, Sir Richard has
worked in international health and aid for
over forty years. He is currently Executive
Director of Global Health Sciences at the
University of California, San Francisco, and
Professor of Global Health there and also
at the University of California, Berkeley.
From 2002 to 2007, Richard was founding
executive Director of the Global Fund to
Fight aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. During
that time the Fund grew from nothing to
become the World’s largest health funding
institution for developing countries. With
assets of us$11 billion, it supports 450
programmes in 136 countries. He worked
previously for a number of other health and
aid institutions, including Director for Health
Nutrition and Population at the World Bank
and as Dean of London School of Hygiene
and Tropical medicines. We are proud of
Richard’s and Peter’s contribution to today’s
and tomorrow’s World.
Another award-winning ow who has
contributed to progress overseas is Anthony
Anthony Cooper [T ????–????]
HRH Tuanku Muhriz, Ruler of Negeri Sembilan
HRH Tuanku Aishah Rohani, the Ruler’s wife
Andrea Cooper
Cooper [T 1953–1958]. One time Senior
Partner of Price Waterhouse in Malaysia,
1982–1985, Anthony was honoured by
the Ruler of Negeri Sembilan with the title
Dato, (equivalent of the kcvo) in the Ruler’s
Birthday Honours, for services to Malaysia.
Mention should be made of Wellington’s
connection with that Malaysia. The new
Selangor Court, complete with overhead
glass canopy against the Berkshire rain and
heat, will be opened soon under the auspices
of Selangor state. The Sultan’s son Amir Idris
[Hl 2004–2009] has recently left College and
his guardian has been Richard Curtis.
the wellington college collection
C
areful not to mention
Archives in the above
sections, there is good
reason.
Much work
has been done in the
past two years on the College’s holding of
historical artefacts, pictures, busts, prints
and photographs, as well as printed books,
documents, manuscripts and other records of
our great College. Many people are surprised
just how great is the history of College, so
close to public life for the fi ?? [? ?Y YX\?????H] ???[?[??[??^[? ???\????]?H ?X?[?YY][??? H\?]Y?H??[Z] YB?X?YY ][\??X?[][\? ??[??LNB??