After an opening salvo of Dostoyevsky, Dr Cramer announced to the class that someone had dropped off a pheasant at his house the day before.‘ Can anyone pluck it?’
After an opening salvo of Dostoyevsky, Dr Cramer announced to the class that someone had dropped off a pheasant at his house the day before.‘ Can anyone pluck it?’
In November 2013 Matthew McCullough had never heard of Winchester College. Living in Belfast, he was frustrated with his school’ s music department. When asked to describe his education in Northern Ireland, Matthew offers‘ not meeting my requirements’ and little else. Noting his frustration and considerable ability, Matthew’ s director of music at St. Peter’ s Cathedral mentioned a scholarship for Northern Irish students to study at Winchester. Following some email correspondence with the Registrar, Matthew was invited for interview. He arrived on a Wednesday, stayed in Phil’ s, and was interviewed in his four subjects – Mathematics, French, Music and Physics. He impressed. In little over a week, Matthew McCullough was a Wykehamist and a Philite. The Northern Ireland Bursary was established to recover Winchester’ s lost connection with the province. It was funded by James Ferguson( D, 1961-66), whose grandfather followed his time at Winchester with instruction in business at the Belfast Technical College, before enjoying a successful business career. When asked to describe what affected him the most during his first visit to Winchester, Matthew immediately recalls three things: the serene architectural beauty of the school, the impressive commitment to hard work, and the ubiquitous kindness and helpfulness he received from both dons and students. When asked to summarise his experience at Winchester more generally, Matthew returns to these themes. We spend much of the interview talking about the kindness of Wykehamists. Mr Herring’ s introductory booklet to Toye’ s life in 2009 started simply with
‘ be kind’. From what Matthew told me, a similar impulse had been inspired in his cadre of Philites. Despite knowing him for just two weeks, many of his housemates offered to house him over the November Exeat. For the remainder of his time at Winchester, Matthew never once had to worry about organising a trip back to Belfast – Wykehamical camaraderie and kindness made sure that every Leave Out and Exeat was covered. Matthew McCullough’ s first academic experience at Winchester was as Wykehamical as they come. He was up to Dr Cramer for Div. After an opening salvo of Dostoyevsky, Dr Cramer announced to the class that someone had dropped off a pheasant at his house the day before.‘ Can anyone pluck it?’, he enquired. Matthew, by this point already quite unsure about what was going on in his bizarre new school, was surprised further when one of his classmates replied‘ Of course, sir’. And so his VIth Book Div retired for the hour to pluck a pheasant at Dr Cramer’ s house.
Matthew processing as a Choral Scholar through the Cloisters, Durham Cathedral
The Wykeham Journal 2017 21