Music, happily, remains a great strength of Win Coll from an examined academic subject, through the satisfaction of learning an instrument and playing with others, to the sheer joy of listening to any Win Coll choral performance.
part of our endowment in 1382. As such, proceeds will, indeed must, remain within the endowment, in this case to support bursaries. Our Founder would be pleased. Being a donor to Win Coll should occasionally be fun. So it turned out when a small group of Wykeham Patrons, whose significant or regular donations support bursaries, journeyed to the Basque Country“ in the steps of George Steer”. The gastronomy was a revelation, but this would not have been a Wykehamical occasion without serious instruction, both in the history of this ancient people, and in particular in its treatment by the Fascists in 1936. The aerial bombing of Guernica was a new departure in the development of war against civilians. George Steer( Coll, 1923-28), by then an established freelance journalist, wrote from direct observation, reports of such impact in The Times and the New York Times that Picasso started his greatest political painting immediately, and many began to realise that the tocsin for the start of the Second World War had been sounded. All of us in the Wykehamist community of boys, dons, staff, parents and alumni are delighted with the way Tim Hands has involved us all, and especially parents, with his open invitations to see him in
Witham Close. We are also delighted with his recognition of the importance of sport in the lives of Wykehamists, referring to cricket in a note as“ the really beautiful game”. Thus his arrival sits well with the beginning of the Kingsgate Park development, built around the new Sports Centre. All such institutions need their winners, and this year we were thrilled to see George Nash( K, 2002-07) win a gold medal in the Rio Olympics in GB’ s coxless four. And it was good to read that Dan Escott, who had by 2015 broken many Wykehamist cricketing records, has kept going in his freshman year with a century for Oxford in the second innings of the Varsity Match, followed by a match-winning“ six-fer”( 6 – 71) with his leg spin. Music, happily, remains a great strength of Win Coll from an examined academic subject, through the satisfaction of learning an instrument and playing with others, to the sheer joy of listening to any Win Coll choral performance. The Advent Carol Service was one such, and the St John Passion, performed by the joint choirs of Winchester and Eton, simply could not be bettered. Remarkably, all the soloists were OWs or OEs, including James Gilchrist( A, 1979-84) as the Evangelist. There will be more beginnings and endings to come. Stet Res Wiccamica.
4 The Wykeham Journal 2016