LMH News 09 LMH to Tokyo 24 Rowing for Gold 32 Standards in Public Life 38 Forbes 30 under 30 - Lady Margaret Hall
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LMH
09 LMH to Tokyo
24 Rowing for
News
Gold
32 Standards in
Public Life
38 Forbes 30
Issue 5 | 2022 under 30
COLLEGE UPDATE
I
t is hard to believe that is two years mentoring opportunities, internship and
this March since all our lives were career advice. Once again LMH is leading
changed dramatically by the Covid the way. During the last week of Hilary
pandemic. I’m writing this from the USA, term, we shortlisted for our final year of
attending an LMH fundraising event in the LMH Foundation Year as the scheme
New York and then giving a conference is rolled out across the University in 2023
paper in Baltimore postponed from as Foundation Oxford. During the same
two years ago – the first of so many week, I held personal mid-career reviews
cancellations. Students will soon be with over 120 penultimate year students.
starting the final term of their first fully I was struck again by how keen students
‘normal’ year since 2018-19. are to do well, and how they have
These past two years have been surmounted difficulties.
particularly difficult and disruptive for On the final Friday of 8th week in
students. Last term we held no fewer Hilary, the Heron-Allen lecture and
than six graduation ceremonies ( just dinner, packed with students, tutors
under one a week!) to catch up on and guests, made me feel that LMH has
graduating students from 2020 and 2021 really bounced back in force. Armorel
who had missed out on this important Heron Allen, a beautiful and brilliant
milestone. All these students have LMH student, was killed in a car crash
undertaken degrees in exceptional two weeks after graduating with a First in
circumstances. I commended them for Zoology in June 1930. Her family created
attaining joint degrees in resilience, fire pits, social events in the gardens, my a legacy which has given scholarships
perseverance, and ingenuity, overcoming personal weekly boot camp, cycling and and travelling funds to students, who I
obstacles such as library closures, online walking trips organised by Mark Seal the also interviewed during the last week of
tutorials, isolation, Final exams sat alone boatman, have continued and expanded term. This year’s lecture was given by a
on laptops in bedrooms and living rooms beyond lockdowns. Gardening clubs, home grown LMH former student, the
across the country. yoga and other mindful activities, have intrepid Professor Amy Dickman of LMH’s
LMH rose to the challenges cohered around plans to do more with WildCRU, on lion conservation in Tanzania
impressively. Financially we felt the pinch the gardens. working with local communities to find
but managed to keep going through Wellbeing in its broadest definition is ways of protecting lions rather than killing
prudent and careful management. central to LMH’s vision of how it will move them as predators. She had just flown in
What has helped us pass through this forward to sustain its students and to from Africa. It epitomized everything that
testing time and emerge the stronger achieve the strongest academic results. LMH is about – adventure, intellectual
is our inclusive culture and community, We are revising our welfare structures and physical challenge, strong women
cemented by unrivalled levels of staff and breaking new ground in appointing breaking the mould, ethical and
loyalty and a sense of belonging. LMH’s a full-time professional Head of environmental concerns, care for
exceptional green spaces have really Wellbeing who will co-ordinate support communities both at home and abroad.
came into their own during this period. and activities to enable our students to Without your help, LMH would not be
Outside tutorials in gazebos and around thrive and flourish, including study skills, the amazing college that I’ve been a part
LMH is for life
The Gift of Education
make a lasting impact through your legacy
Please let us know if you would like more information about
making a bequest by contacting carrie.scott@lmh.ox.ac.uk
of for more than three decades. During for details of the History reunion in as an undergraduate and how that love
the Covid period, I’ve been honoured September. Our long-standing and became her career (p.18). In a similarly
to have been Vice-Principal and then enthusiastic Physics Fellow Professor environmental vein, MPhil student
Interim Principal. This dual perspective – Todd Huffman offers a wonderfully Victoria Emanuelle Forest Briand explains
as Professor in English, Fellow and Tutor, transparent account of his research at how LMH is focusing on our need as a
invested in the academic mission of the the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in college for greater sustainability. Finally,
college, and then working on a day- Switzerland (p. 40). Our distinguished my successor Professor Stephen Blyth,
to-day operational basis with college alumna Eliza Manningham-Buller (p.12) who joins us in October as the new
officers and support staff – has been explores the role that the Wellcome Trust, Principal, sets out his background and
enabled me, I hope, to help lead LMH which she led, has played in supporting interests, and vision for LMH as we move
through this difficult time. research into the pandemic. Two of our forward into the future (p. 26).
This edition of LMH news points leading STEM graduates Sapna Sinha As our horizons once more open, I look
backwards and forwards and highlights (p.10) and Kris Kaczmarek (p.38) explore forward to meeting you and welcoming
the power of academic research to their research, Sapna on the application you back to LMH. Thank you for all that
solve practical problems. Professor Mike of nanotechnology to neuroscience you have done, and continue to do, to
Broers, retiring from LMH after 18 years and Kris on how we can improve the make LMH the great college that it is.
at the College, unfolds his fascinating scalability of quantum computers. On
research on Napoleon Bonaparte (p. the wellbeing front, Jenny Rose Carey Professor Christine Gerrard, Principal
4). Historians may want to look out explores what the Gardens meant to her
LMH NEWS 2022 | ISSUE 5
College update 2 Welcoming back visiting students 46
Of Napoleon and Lady Margaret 4 Two LMH Fellows awarded title of full Professor 48
LMHer wins the John Potter Prize in Neurology 8 What would I tell my younger self? 49
LMH to Tokyo 9
From Nano to Neuro 10
Wellcome news 12
Lady Margaret Hall
Blue Plaque honour for LMH alumna 14 University of Oxford
Norham Gardens
Changed times 15
Oxford
A Gardener’s World 18 OX2 6QA
Embedding sustainability in our everyday college life 20
@LMHOxford @LMH:BuildingLinks
Rowing for gold 24
@LMHOxford LMH Oxford
Our Principal Elect 26
@LMHOxford
Meaningful diversity 28
In Conversation with LMH 30
www.lmh.ox.ac.uk
Standards in public life 32 College Enquiries (Lodge): +44 (0) 1865 274300
Development Office: +44 (0) 1865 274362
LMH Changemaker 34
FreeTrade Museums 36 We are always very pleased to hear your comments
and feedback, so please do get in touch with the
Doctor of Medicine 37
Development Office on the above telephone number,
Forbes 30 under 30 38 or by emailing development@lmh.ox.ac.uk, to let us
know what you think of this issue.
Why two Higgs are better than one 40
Carving my own cultural diplomacy path 42
Editor: Emma Farrant, Alumni Engagement Officer
From finance to foodie 44
Contributor: Tom Hughes, Digital Communications Manager
LMH News 2022 | Issue 5 3
OF NAPOLEON AND
LADY MARGARET
Professor Mike Broers will be well known to our almost-1,200
History alumni. After a career in several universities in the UK and
USA, he became Fellow and Tutor in History at LMH in 2004. He
© caifas –stock.Adobe.com
became Professor of Western European History at Oxford in 2011.
4 LMH News 2022 | Issue 5
Over the course of Mike’s
distinguished career, he has
built a reputation as one of the
world’s leading scholars of the
Napoleonic era, writing a number
of prize-winning books, including
The Napoleonic Empire in Italy,
1796–1814: Cultural Imperialism in
a European Context? (2005). He
has spent much of the last decade
researching and writing what has
become a three-volume biography
of Napoleon: Napoleon: Soldier
of Destiny (2014); Napoleon:
The Spirit of the Age (2018); and
Napoleon: The Decline and Fall of
an Empire: 1811–1821 (forthcoming,
2022). This is the first major
biography to benefit from a new
edition of Napoleon’s personal letters by the Fondation Napoléon.
Having spent 18 years at LMH, Professor Broers retires at the end of
this academic year. On 3rd September, LMH historians will gather
for their subject reunion and have chance to reflect upon Mike’s
achievements.
I
had no thought of writing a biography I took of a Major Leverhulme Research exile. One great thing spurred me to say
of Napoleon when I first came to Fellowship in 2011, to begin the long yes, and by that hangs a tale. Beginning
LMH, almost 18 years ago. Goodness task of writing the biography, which in 2004 – the same year I had the good
knows there are enough of them! My is only now reaching completion. fortune to come to LMH – the Fondation
mind was occupied with teaching, I have still ducked the question of why Napoléon in Paris began publishing
with becoming Tutor for Admissions I took it on. The call came when I was well a wholly new version of Napoleon’s
(almost immediately) and, perhaps most settled in my work as a tutor. I was not at correspondence, Napoléon Bonaparte.
important of all for the life of the college, all restless, as a scholar sometimes needs Correspondance Générale. It has been
on taking over as chair of the Wine to be. Clive Holmes (Emeritus Fellow a mammoth undertaking, involving
Committee, a post I was swept into with in History) and I had worked happily teams of researchers scouring archives,
all the undue haste of a military coup, together until his retirement in 2011, and libraries, and many private collections all
it then seemed. Perhaps the power and I looked forward – correctly, as it has over the world for letters and documents
influence of that particular remit went proved – to my years ahead in harness often never before brought to light. The
to my head and gave me the delusions with Dr Grant Tapsell (Fellow and tutor in result is 15 volumes of small, densely
of grandeur needed to accept the task History). Indeed, if I have done one thing packed text, each more than 1,500 pages
of composing yet another study of what of real worth in my time here, Napoleon long. By 2010, nine of the fifteen volumes
one reviewer called ‘the pestiferous or no Napoleon, it was to have been on were in print, and I stood a fair chance
little Corsican’. Being drunk on power the committee that appointed Grant. of having them all at my disposal for my
may have helped me take the plunge. Unlike Napoleon, I leave an assured project. I knew, if I kept my head down
I certainly found points of unexpected regime behind me, as I go to my own and my skates on, mine would be – and
empathy with my subject: a mutual love
of red Burgundy, of which I bequeathed
a healthy volume to the college cellars,
and an indifference to the cost of my “It is a strange thing to talk about
enthusiasm – in Napoleon’s case, war
and palaces; in mine, good French wine, ‘firsts’ for lives of Napoleon, one of
as those of my Fellows who recall their
battels from my years at the helm of the the most written-about figures in
bottles will recall. With suitable irony, I
had to renounce my college jobs when the world, but that is the case.”
LMH News 2022 | Issue 5 5
is – the first full-scale biography based but from reliable memoires – and there and Black. So it still goes on. Until now,
on this remarkable resource. Volume one is a vast array of the unreliable type to writing a life of Napoleon was no easy
appeared in 2014; volume two, four years be had, let it be said! What is worse, matter. There was a forest to cut through.
later; the third and final volume should many people who could have provided The new correspondence, together
arrive this summer, with luck. It has been important memoires steadfastly refused with a mass of good, recent research and
both a labour of love and something of a to ‘spill the beans’ on their former other compilations of source materials,
race against the clock. The last volume of boss, itself something of a tribute to at least gives the historian a fighting
the new correspondence – which covers him as a leader and friend. There was chance of writing a clear, objective life
the 100 Days and the ever-popular battle plenty of demand, and money, after of Napoleon. Certainly, he spun his
of Waterloo – appeared only in the last his fall in 1815, for those who did put own tale often and craftily as he wrote,
weeks of 2018. There were moments pen to paper or allow ghost writers to but no one can hide from minute to
when I felt a bit like George R. Martin, do so, the great novelist Honoré Balzac minute during the 24-7 life Napoleon
and not just in terms of my subject prominent among them. Nevertheless, lived, and keep up the smoke screen
matter (which is far more labyrinthine most of those closest to Napoleon all the time. So copious is his output,
and bloodthirsty than his!) held out. Taken together, all this made it feels like reading someone’s texts at
It is a strange thing to talk about the serious biographer’s task anything times. Long-suppressed family rows –
‘firsts’ for lives of Napoleon, one of but straightforward. It was like picking the vitriol hurled at siblings, especially,
the most written-about figures in the through a minefield of myths, lies and, can shock – come vividly to life, as do
world, but that is the case. The original worst of all, half-truths. On the one side, his immediate thoughts on battles won
version of his official correspondence his propagandists, on the other, his and lost to those he trusted most and
was compiled in Paris, in the late 1850s demonisers, but worst of all, the middle whose descendants often parted with
and early 1860s, another age in terms ground who simply made up a good tale those secrets hesitantly, when asked by
of research facilities, and has remained to tell. His own mother lambasted one the Fondation. Most of all, there was
unrevised ever since. The team behind of his earliest – and most sympathetic the worry and fear behind the public
it simply did not have the ‘reach’ of the – biographers, for romanticising the face that he had been pushed into a
digital age. More to the point, it was circumstances of his birth. No, said the corner and may well lose everything,
published under the direction and at the redoubtable Madame Bonaparte, he had even on the eve of his greatest triumphs.
behest of his nephew, Napoleon III, who not been born on a carpet depicting the It was truly a ‘learning curve’ for me,
buried family skeletons and much else siege of Troy on the living room floor. one I would not change for all the
besides. It was, for we who work in the She could not afford such a carpet, and hours of hard graft. The worth of my
field, something that was ‘there and not it was summer when he was born – 15 offering is, of course, for others to
there’, as it were. How then, did serious August 1769, yes, they got that right – judge, but as one colleague said to me
people write serious lives of Napoleon? and no one puts out carpet in summer when I was turning over in my mind
By a circuitous route, is the answer. The in Corsica. What’s the siege of Troy, whether to take it on, ‘Whatever, Mike,
best lives of Napoleon are not drawn anyway? The target of this ‘corrective’ good bad or ugly, at least we’ll finally
from his private papers, as is the rule letter to the press was no less than Henri have a normal life of Napoleon.’ As if
for most biographies of public figures, Beyle, ‘Stendhal’, the author of Scarlet there could ever be such a thing!
Napoleon: The Decline and Fall of an Empire
is due to be published in July by Pegasus
Books, NYC. It covers Napoleon’s last years,
his defeat in Russia, the collapse of his
empire, and his final defeat at Waterloo. It
turns on the great power struggle between
Napoleon and Tsar Alexander of Russia,
two very different men, both of whom were
broken by the conflict. It will be available
from all good bookshops.
6 LMH News 2022 | Issue 5
“Until now, writing a
life of Napoleon was
no easy matter. There
was a forest to cut
through.”
© Georgios Kollidas –stock.Adobe.com
LMH News 2022 | Issue 5 7
“Recently, a number of biological,
technological, and mathematical
advances have greatly improved
our understanding of how
information is represented in the
nervous system.”
T
he National Undergraduate Neuroanatomy
Competition is an annual contest open to
all medical students in the UK and Ireland.
Contestants are tested on their ability to identify
structures on anatomical specimens and are
questioned on clinical neuroscience knowledge. Owen
came in the Top 10 clinical students nationally and was
awarded a distinction.
Falling in the middle of his 5th-year exam week,
LMHER WINS
Owen was unsurprisingly very happy with the results!
“I’ve been tutoring LMH preclinical students in
neuroanatomy for the last two years, so would like to
thank them for pushing me with their questions and
THE JOHN
keeping me on my toes!”, he said.
The John Potter Prize is offered annually and is
open to clinical students working in Oxford towards
a Bachelor of Medicine. The prize is awarded for
POTTER
an essay on a clinical neurosurgical, neurological
or neuropathological topic. Owen’s prize-winning
paper was titled ‘Reading and Writing Neural Code: A
burgeoning paradigm shift’.
PRIZE IN
Owen provided a brief insight into what his
essay was about: “Recently, a number of biological,
technological, and mathematical advances have
greatly improved our understanding of how
NEUROLOGY
information is represented in the nervous system. I
explore how these advances have developed, focussing
on Chemogenetics and Brain-Computer Interfaces –
devices that allow brain activity to control computers.
I explore how these approaches could be applied
clinically, offering potentially restorative treatments for
conditions that have previously had poor outcomes
In summer 2021, medical student Owen or few treatment options, including strokes, visual
Sweeney (2016 Preclinical Medicine & 2019 impairments and a range of psychiatric pathologies.”
Owen said: “I’m feeling delighted about both the
Clinical Medicine) was awarded the John prize and the competition, and would like to thank the
numerous tutors and friends who have supported and
Potter Prize in Neurology and distinguished at pushed me over my time at LMH.”
the National Competition for Neuroanatomy. Alongside his studies, Owen is a keen rower and
has previously been President of the LMH Boat Club,
initiating a regular newsletter to our boat club alumni.
8 LMH News 2022 | Issue 5
ImageComms
LMH TO
TOKYO
During the middle of her degree in
summer 2021, Polly Maton (2018 History
and Politics) was selected to represent
Paralympics GB at Tokyo 2020.
A
longside her studies, Polly is part of the para British
Athletics squad as a long jumper. She competes in
the T47 classification for those who are one handed
or have similar impairments. In 2015, she made her senior
international debut at the World Championships in Doha
and then went on to be selected and compete in the Rio
2016 Paralympics. Polly has also previously served as the JCR
Disability Officer for LMH. While doing so, in her own words,
she “tried to push the college to think of new ways to make
itself more accessible, so more welcoming to those with a
disability.”
When asked about her achievement in being selected for
Tokyo 2020, Polly said:
“On coming to Oxford, I realised the challenges I faced
balancing a world-class education and continuing my sport.
I threw myself into LMH life and thoroughly enjoyed my
studies in the first year but unfortunately became injured
by the time I came to sit my prelims. This ‘bone bruising’ to
my jump foot, quite crucial for my sport, was believed by
the medical team to have largely come from overexertion. I
knew something had to change in order to give my all to both
pursuits and with the incredible support of my tutors and
Senior Tutor Anne Mullen I managed to secure a split-second
year, never before given to someone for sport at Oxford.
After more injury struggles in 2020 which would have
ruled me out of the Games, I was lucky to have another
year without the pressure of imminent finals to rehabilitate
my foot to aim for 2021. I am incredibly excited to say I have
been selected to represent Paralympics GB at Tokyo 2020. I
genuinely believe this would not have been achieved had I
been at a different college, and I am immensely grateful to
the LMH community who have continually supported me
through the last few years.”
Polly placed 7th in the Tokyo 2020 T47 long jump final, with a
best distance of 5.19m.
LMH News 2022 | Issue 5 9
FROM NANO G
rowing up, I often accompanied
my parents on field trips
where they used to design
and introduce appropriate energy
TO NEURO
technologies, such as solar panels and
biomass energy, for the development
of remote villages in India. My parents
had a never-ending drive to support very
poor communities around my hometown
with very basic science, and this had a
huge influence on the development
of my own personal interests during
In the summer of 2021, my formative years. These early
Sapna Sinha (2016 DPhil experiences not only propelled me
towards science, but also over time
Materials) joined the made me realise that the challenges
faced by the world are complex
latest cohort of Schmidt and cannot be solved by any single
Science Fellows. Many discipline of science or engineering.
The world is more connected than ever,
of our recent alumni and and if we want to provide solutions to
still-current students may the ‘big global challenges’, then we
need to transcend the boundaries of
recognise Sapna as the traditional disciplinary science. On
Junior Welfare Dean, a position their own, physicists cannot solve the
clean energy problem and biologists
she held form 2017 to 2020 alongside her DPhil. cannot cure Alzheimer’s disease. The
“Supporting the community directly was not current response to COVID-19 itself
provides an excellent example of joint
only a rewarding and fulfilling experience, collaborative effort and interdisciplinary
but it also had a huge impact in determining cooperation across sectors that is
being undertaken on a global scale
the academic path that I have chosen after to bring an end to the pandemic.
graduation”, Sapna told us. “The direct My own academic journey has touched
various fields of science. I completed an
engagement with the community as a Junior undergraduate degree in Chemical and
Welfare Dean motivated me to also explore new Biological Engineering, before coming to
Oxford to undertake a DPhil in Materials
projects in my own research that can directly Science. As an undergraduate, I was
benefit society”. Here she tells us more about fascinated by nanotechnology and the
potential benefits it could have on our
her research and the prestigious Fellowship. lives – foldable phones, printable solar
panels and flexible electronics, just to
name a few. This motivated me to join a
research group during my sophomore
year and get introduced to research and
different types of techniques employed
to study these new nanomaterials. By
the end of my DPhil at Oxford, I had
developed diverse technical and scientific
skills across fields such as chemistry,
physics, and materials, which I could
employ to conduct a holistic study of a
new type of nanomaterial. The ability
to discover new materials, synthesise
them at will, and explore their unique
For further information and reading: properties was exciting to me. I could
study the unusual physical and chemical
Please visit www.schmidtsciencefellows.org/fellow/sapna-sinha/ properties of these materials and
endlessly explore their atomic structure
10 LMH News 2022 | Issue 5until it was time to go home. Some of pandemic. Although it doesn’t compare
these materials (a particularly famous to in-person meetings, the online
example is Graphene) are stronger format allowed us to meet experts from
than diamond, stiffer than steel, and around the globe during our online
more conductive than copper, and yet sessions in the first few months of the
they are invisible to the human eye. Fellowship. The Global Meeting Series
I have found it extremely rewarding is an impactful platform to meet like-
to be able to work on cutting-edge minded peers working at the frontier of
technologies that have potential to have a variety of disciplines. We were able to
a big impact on the world. We are slowly share knowledge across different fields,
but surely moving towards creating identifying problems and discussing their
solutions to our existing problems solutions. Thus far, we have had trainings
by using such advanced materials. and workshops on interdisciplinarity,
My academic trajectory was varied, problem solving, data representation,
but thus far was still limited to physical and science communications. My
sciences. Moreover, it was still mostly personal favourite was the Science
confined to fundamental science. After Policy Workshop organised by the
working in this field for such a long Blavatnik School of Government, which
time, I was ready and eager to work on made me ponder the role of scientists
things that can directly translate into in influencing government policies
applications. One of the big impacts at a higher level. Another highlight
of nanoscience that I could see going of the Global Meeting Series was the
forward was in healthcare where there discussion on interdisciplinarity with
is massive scope for improvements in Nobel Laureate Didier Queloz. We got
almost every aspect. The understanding to interact and discuss with the Nobel
of Neuroscience, in particular, was Laureate directly on not only his research
limited for a long time due to the lack work but also on outreach, science policy,
Sapna’s last day at LMH, pictured with
of technology to explore the brain on and experience of working between
Junior Dean Vania Pinto
a single neuron level. The advent of different scientific fields. After these
nanoscience and improvements in virtual meetings, I felt empowered and
the technology has finally given us the better equipped to reach out to a wide
desired tools and the materials to actually I was elated when I first found out about audience and communicate my work,
start understanding this field in greater the Schmidt Science Fellows. It is a post- engage with policymakers, enhance
depth. The scope and impact of carrying doctoral fellowship intended for people my network, and start working in a
out such studies in Neuroscience using who want to make a genuine pivot in completely new field. These experiences
these advanced materials and novel tools a discipline different to that of their have been extremely rewarding and
are enormous. Just imagine the impact DPhil. The Fellowship offered a variety have contributed to my own personal
it could have on our understanding of of resources and support for carrying growth. I cannot wait for the next two
brain degenerative diseases and how out this pivot and it was an excellent Global Meetings this year, hoping
to treat them! The availability of new platform to conduct world-class research that we can finally meet in person!
materials also creates an enormous area and develop new tools in a rigorously Dr Megan Kenna, Executive Director
of impact for implantable bio-electronic interdisciplinary field. of Schmidt Science Fellows, first
interfaces with an opportunity to restore The opportunity to go anywhere in the introduced me to the metaphor of
previously lost neuronal functions. world whilst at the same time learn about being ‘pi-shaped’, i.e. developing deep
I had already acquired the skillsets a new field of science is unparalleled. knowledge and expertise in two or more
and expertise to work with nanomaterials Moreover, the Fellowship promotes the knowledgeable areas, whilst having a
and I was not motivated to carry out development of scientific skills towards broad general knowledge of other areas,
the next logical/incremental steps from creating new technology that will have like the shape of π. Going forward, I
my DPhil. I had already tried my hand an immediate application in the real wish to switch from ‘T’ shape to this
in creating innovative applications in world. Using your science to make the ‘π’ shape and combine my experience
healthcare by co-founding a biomedical world a better place to live in – what else and knowledge of nanotechnology with
entrepreneurial group during my DPhil can an academic dream of? Another the training in Neuroscience that I will
and later working as a Lead Material incredible opportunity presented by receive as a Schmidt Science Fellow.
Scientist at an Innovate UK-funded the Schmidt Science Fellows is that As I write this article in early 2022, I
start-up focused on intelligent body- they offer the Global Meeting Series, am waiting for my visa documents to get
adaptable clothing with embedded tailored training that gives the Fellows processed so that I can finally get over
biometric sensors. Although these the ability to interact with scientists who to MIT to start working in Neuroscience.
experiences were exciting, I felt my share similar ambitions of solving global I have a lot of gratitude and I couldn’t
general lack of knowledge in the field I problems. Our first Global Meeting have been more thankful for this
wanted to create an impact in. Therefore, was held virtually, due to the ongoing incredible opportunity.
LMH News 2022 | Issue 5 11“It shames me that
I spent so many
decades paying the
minimum attention
to science and its
developments.
I never fully
understood
how exciting
it could be.”
WELLCOME NEWS
Eliza Manningham-Buller (1967 English Language and Literature) has led a
famously distinguished career, but when a new challenge called in 2015 it wasn’t as
well-known to her as some of her other ventures. Taking up the Chair of Wellcome
Trust, she tells us, was eye-opening for Baroness Manningham-Buller, and she
wants more people to understand its reach: “It deserves to be better known for
it is an extraordinary organisation which has had a profound effect on human
health”. Having stepped down last year, she talks us through her time there.
I
celebrated leaving MI5 in 2007 by one did not appeal. I wanted a fresh solutions, plus levers and fulcrums and
smashing my ankle falling downstairs challenge and lighted on learning the amoeba. There is no excuse for my
(and, no, I don’t drink alcohol). A something about science. I had given up remaining in ignorance. I have tried to
year of enforced physiotherapy and science at school at the O-level stage. It make up for it since.
boring exercises gave me plenty of time shames me that I spent so many decades By the autumn of 2008, I had joined
to think about what I might do next. I paying the minimum attention to science both the Council of Imperial College,
wasn’t convinced that my somewhat and its developments. I never fully London and the governing board of
arcane skills would be very saleable understood how exciting it could be, how the Wellcome Trust. In 2013 I became a
but job offers started arriving, often to it was often creative and imaginative, member of the House of Lords Select
become a security adviser to a company. and how, by adding all the time to our Committee on Science and Technology,
The thought of relying on my rapidly knowledge, it was meeting challenges on which I am currently serving a second
dwindling knowledge (much unusable and finding answers to intractable term. I became Chair of Imperial in 2011
anyway because of sensitivity) in roles problems. At school I mistakenly thought until 2015 and Chair of Wellcome in 2015
that would be a shadow of my previous it was all about petri dishes, full of smelly until 2021.
12 LMH News 2022 | Issue 5Further shame: I was only dimly aware Mastercard, of a Therapeutics trying to find the information that those
of Wellcome for most of my working life. Accelerator in March 2020 to speed up who have generally wish to keep secret,
If I had been a research scientist whose the discovery for treatments of COVID; and the scientist’s effort to expand
work had an application for health or a knowledge to address some of the
• Extensive genome sequencing by
university leader, I would probably have world’s most critical problems.
the Wellcome Trust Sanger Centre
been more tuned in. It deserves to be I left Wellcome at Easter 2021, after 12
of millions of COVID samples,
better known for it is an extraordinary and a half years. I was sad to go as I had
advancing the recognition of
organisation which has had a profound found my time there so rewarding. The
variants (the Omicron variant was
effect on human health since it was opportunity to do good, which
first identified by Wellcome-funded
established in 1936 by Henry Wellcome, Wellcome’s outstanding investment
researchers in South Africa);
an early pharmaceutical entrepreneur. team makes possible, makes it a most
Much of the success of British bioscience • Working with the WHO, other stimulating organisation to be part of. Its
is rooted in its funding by Wellcome over organisations, and national valuable independence, both strategic
decades. governments, on a global and financial, challenges it to spend
So, what is it? Wellcome is an response to the pandemic; and effectively, to take the risks it is
independent charitable foundation sometimes harder for governments to
• Much more, including researching
funding science to address health do, being accountable to taxpayers. It
the effect of the pandemic on
challenges. Its endowment, as I write, can point to many past achievements
mental health.
early in 2022, is worth £38 billion. It plans but what I found especially exciting is its
to spend at least £1.6 billion each year for long-term vision. Unlike some
the next five years. It funds work in over From this I hope it will be clear what a foundations, its policy is to continue to
70 countries. In addition to a number wonderful privilege it was for me to work operate in perpetuity. That encourages
of Wellcome Trust centres in British in the organisation for over a dozen both long-term investments but also
universities, it funds research centres in years. When I left MI5 I did not expect to some necessary patience. Scientific
Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Vietnam, find another job that was as absorbing discovery can often take time, with dead
and Thailand. or rewarding. But Wellcome proved to ends and frustrations along the way. But
And what does it decide to fund? The be so. And the two organisations turned COVID has shown what can be done at
core is the financing of research across out not to be as different as those who speed. My hope is that Wellcome, in
a range of disciplines with potential questioned me on my transition had partnership with others, can help apply
discoveries for health, from the basic assumed. Both are staffed by highly that sort of urgency and funding to the
science of human biology through to committed staff focused on protecting many health challenges that the
drug discovery and therapeutics. In people and saving lives. There is a population of the world faces. The
addition, it focuses on three health major difference in scale, of course, and staggering number of deaths from
challenges: infectious disease, mental obviously resources. In MI5 we could COVID, the economic and educational
health, and the health effects of global point to many thousands of lives saved, damage, the effect on mental health, the
warming. Apart from providing grants, in Wellcome to millions. Both work with appalling global inequities, with the rich
it works with partners round the world extensive partnerships and have wide countries hogging the vaccines, should
as well as in the UK on campaigns and global links. I may be stretching the all cause the world to come together to
shared research. It funds the humanities analogy too far, but I also see parallels plan a proper global health policy for the
too when they can illuminate and help between the intelligence officer’s search future. I expect Wellcome to be a leading
communicate its focus. Henry Wellcome’s for the truth of what might be planned, advocate for trying to make that happen.
Collection and Library have also had
their own influence on Wellcome’s
mission to improve human health.
I cannot begin to list what scientists
funded by Wellcome have discovered
in the 85 years of its existence, but
will mention a few COVID-related
achievements:
• The founding in 2017, together
with the Gates Foundation, the
World Economic Forum, and the
Governments of India and Norway,
of the Coalition for Epidemic
Preparedness Innovation (CEPI),
formed to fund the development of
vaccines against infectious diseases;
• The establishment, again with the
Gates Foundation and also with
LMH News 2022 | Issue 5 13BLUE PLAQUE HONOUR
FOR LMH ALUMNA
MI5 has a history with LMH women. A Putney Society
blue plaque was unveiled in October 2021 at the
former home of Milicent Bagot CBE (1925 Lit Hum).
W
ith a folkloric memory for making her the most senior woman in
facts, Milicent Bagot became the history of the secret service. This
the first woman appointed appointment soon proved shrewd:
to a senior rank in MI5, acting as the Bagot was allegedly the first person
agency’s leading expert on international to raise the alarm about Harold “Kim”
communism. She is widely believed to be Philby, a double agent for the KGB.
the inspiration for the character Connie Cover blown, he fled to the Soviet Union.
Sachs from John le Carré’s novels Tinker, After retirement Bagot worked part-
Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Honourable time at MI5 for another decade, leafing
Schoolboy, and Smiley’s People. through pre-war Comintern files
Milicent was educated at Putney High to try and identify active spies,
School before coming up to LMH in 1925 researching the influence of
where she read Classics. After her studies Communist front organisations
she left Oxford and returned to London abroad, and investigating
with a fourth-class degree. the 1924 Zinoviev Affair.
Milicent Bagot had a reputation This was the first plaque that
as a formidable security officer and the Putney Society has ever
specialised in international communism awarded to commemorate
throughout her service, advising on the a woman and recognises
threat posed by the Soviet bloc to Britain the significant impact that
during the Cold War. Milicent Bagot made to her
After the war, she spent some time field whilst living in Putney.
working with the British authorities in Milicent is also featured in the
the Middle East, guiding them on how Deneke Corridor Alumni Portrait
to overcome Soviet subversion. By 1949 Exhibition at LMH.
she was recognised as a leading expert London’s famous blue plaques link
on the matter and was promoted to the people of the past with the buildings
Assistant Director of MI5 in 1953. of the present. Across the capital
Although most of the details about over 950 plaques, on buildings
her career remain shrouded in secrecy, humble and grand, honour
what is evident is that she had built a the notable men and
strong reputation as a studious and women who have
devoted operative, becoming the go-to lived or worked in
expert on the affairs of the Comintern. them.
Briefly loaned to MI6 to advise on
countering international communism
in the Middle East and the Balkans, With thanks to the
she became known for her fierce and Putney Society for
robust style of leadership. MI5 Director sharing this news
General Sir Dick White promoted her to story with us.
the rank of assistant secretary, thereby
14 LMH News 2022 | Issue 5The 1946 class photo from
the College Archives
CHANGED TIMES
Brigid Wells (Haydon, 1946 Modern History) came up to LMH just after WWII.
As we kept in touch with our alumni community throughout the pandemic,
Brigid found herself thinking back to her own time at LMH and kindly offered
to share her memories. Times change, and she mused to us, “The solace of
the garden and the marvellous opportunities to meet and chat must be the
same, but not much else, I suspect – certainly not the washing facilities!”
W
hen I came up to Oxford in feel like austerity, but after five years of their early to mid-twenties, thoroughly
October 1946, the war had not air raids and fractured families, nobody grownup, having been through far more
long ended and the scars were really complained. Most fathers, brothers gruelling experiences than any of the
still there. and sons had been demobbed, blackout boys who had come straight from school.
Oxford was not much damaged, but in was over; the street lights shone again The older men presented a bit of a
many big towns a row of terraced houses and the permanent cloud of anxiety challenge to the 18-year-olds, who had to
would be defaced by the empty gash of a had lifted a little. People who seemed to make a special effort to look impressive.
bomb site. As clothes were still rationed, be enjoying themselves too lavishly no Most of the girls were also only eighteen;
some ingenuity was needed to look at longer got reproached with ‘Don’t you at LMH, there were only two or three
all smart. Essential work clothes were off know that there’s a war on?’ older ex-service women. I went to a
ration, and so was army surplus gear. Oxford students post-war were a dance at LMH in some excitement with
My best friend therefore had a navy and very mixed bunch: far more men than a heavyweight boxing Blue, a gentle,
white skirt made from butcher’s aprons women, of course, but many of the thoughtful giant who had been a Major
and I bicycled around in an adapted Air men were much older than the usual in the Indian Army, but he soon realised
Raid Warden’s tunic, cut short to make undergraduate. Anyone who had joined I was not anywhere near his level of
a bomber jacket. (It would have been the Forces on leaving school, provided maturity and he kindly dropped me. The
possible to make silk underwear out of they had the entry qualifications, could SCR were determined that the dance
parachutes, but we lacked the expertise.) take up a free place at university once should pass off without incident; all
Food was adequate but very boring. To they had been demobbed. This meant individual rooms were out of bounds and
students nowadays, the conditions would that many of the new arrivals were in the Chapel was firmly cordoned off.
LMH News 2022 | Issue 5 15ABOVE View from top of Talbot 1948
LEFT Boathouse around 1948
Oxford city, which had not suffered doors on the Deneke corridor, would entrance was through the door under
too much from air raids, had resumed its smell it from afar. Alcohol was not really the round stone-pillared canopy at the
normal humdrum activities, tolerating a feature of everyday life for students back of the present library quad, and
the students for half the year but not then; there was no Freshers’ week to get that was the only one open at night. If
setting out to attract visitors. There you started, and no one I knew would you went out in the evening, you had to
were no tourist buses or guided parties. have felt that they had the money to sign out saying where you were going
During the day, anyone could wander spend on drink. People who lived out of (most people just wrote ‘coffee’) and
in and out of college quads or chapels. college would sometimes throw a private come back by 11.00 p.m. It was possible
Apart from the market and a few cinemas party, but in general if you wanted to to get special permission until midnight
and Indian restaurants, there was not a socialise in mixed company, or just meet but climbing in could result in being
great deal of entertainment to be found. a boyfriend, it had to be over tea or cocoa rusticated or even sent down. The most
No undergraduates, male or female, in one of your rooms before 07:00 p.m., peculiar regulation was that if you went
were supposed to visit pubs; Proctors or at an evening event like a choir to a Ball at the end of the summer term,
in bowler hats would patrol the various rehearsal or Society debate. you had to be back at LMH to sign in by
drinking places and throw them out, with Seventy-five years ago, physically 6.00 a.m. the following morning. It was
disciplinary action to follow. Some girls speaking, there was a lot less of Lady quite embarrassing to leave your party
did occasionally risk it in the hope that, Margaret Hall. The Norham Gardens before breakfast in order to bicycle back
with a bit of lipstick and attitude, they road then swept down past Old Hall and to college in a long dress.
might not be taken for a student, but in Talbot, where the small Porter’s Lodge LMH was of course a women’s college
general there was no real drinking culture was on the right, near the archway to in 1946. Men were only allowed to visit
at any of the women’s colleges. The men’s the garden, and continued around the before 7.00 p.m. unless you were related
colleges had their own bars where beer corner to the left, becoming Fyfield or actually engaged to them. In theory,
could be consumed, but alcohol was in Road, running over the area that is now women were not allowed in men’s
theory prohibited for students in LMH. the Porter’s Lodge and across the front colleges either after Hall, except for a
My father brought in some gin for my 21st of Deneke. There was no separate library, function. A few of us used to sing in a
birthday; I was terrified that the Principal, no Pipe Partridge building, just grass madrigal group whose conductor was
who lived on the other side of swing sloping down to the road. The main at Christ Church, and we had special
permission to be in his rooms from 8:00
till 10.00 p.m., escorted by the porter in
“My father brought in some gin for my 21st a bowler hat, as ‘Mr Armstrong’s young
ladies’. (That was Robert, an excellent
birthday; I was terrified that the Principal, who musician, who later became Private
lived on the other side of swing doors on the Secretary to Edward Heath and Cabinet
Secretary.) We once sang carols in the
Deneke corridor, would smell it from afar.” gallery at a pre-Christmas lunch at LMH.
16 LMH News 2022 | Issue 5Student living is not luxurious now,
but in 1946 it was probably more Spartan
“Seventy-five years ago, physically speaking,
than today. There was no central heating there was a lot less of Lady Margaret Hall.”
in our rooms. We had coal fires, for which
three small buckets of coal and a bit of
firewood were provided each week. You went for an audition with him, arranged nowadays some university campuses
had to light the fire and then draw it for about 11:00 a.m., and he conducted seem almost empty at the weekend.
up, either with a bit of newspaper held it lying in bed in pyjamas and yellow bed As there were no mobile phones then,
over the fireplace to send the draught socks. Most of us were a great deal less and only one or two public telephones
up the chimney or, more dangerously, a sophisticated than students are today. in the College, it would not have been
commoner’s gown (a scholar’s was too Not many had been to co-ed schools or possible in any case to keep in close
floppy to be useful). One bucket of coal were used to male company (I always touch with friends or family at home.
would last about 4–5 hours, so on the envied the easy sociability of a friend We wrote and posted infrequent letters
days when you had no fire, you had to who had been at Bedales). The younger to our parents. For the eight weeks of
work in the library, then in the central male students were often equally shy. In term, you were cut off; Oxford had to be
block behind the front door, or go to the time, most people learnt how to cope. your only life, lived with great intensity. I
Camera, or hope to share with a friend. As women students were very much am sure it is very different now. Keeping
The washrooms were communal: a row a minority (there were five women’s in touch is so much easier with mobile
of washbasins along one wall and loo colleges compared to over 20 for men) phones. All young people know how
cubicles on the other, with a bathroom at they still had a slight feeling of being at to multi-task and manage devices to
the end. You did your washing by hand Oxford on sufferance. Certainly, almost all help them communicate and study. The
and hung it in a downstairs drying room; of them worked extremely hard to justify amount of information available online
there were no machines. All meals were their existence. In Modern History, two saves hours of trawling through libraries.
taken in Hall. You handed in your ration essays were required each week, one for University and College rules are far more
book at the beginning of term and very each tutorial, each involving a hunt for a relaxed; relationships are more natural.
seldom ate out. Food was adequate but dozen books and learned articles which Undergraduates are much freer in many
not very imaginative: the only dish I can might or might not be available in the ways than they were in 1946, but the
remember is vegetable curry. Breakfast Camera or the College library. Essays were three years at LMH must still be the same
was porridge or cereal and toast. We hand-written; I think I was the only person intense and rewarding experience that
had our own labelled plates of butter who had a typewriter. The SCR kept a stays with you for the rest of your life.
for breakfast, about 2 ounces to last the beady eye on anyone who appeared to
week. Every morning we had to sign be neglecting their studies. I was horrified
a register in Hall to prove that we had to be hauled before a roomful of tutors
spent the night in college, in order to in my second term, because I had taken
complete the statutory eight-week termly a part in ‘Uncle Vanya’ with the ETC. With
residence. We became quite expert at exams, then known as ‘Sections’, at the
forgery when a friend was having a lie-in. end of that term, acting was considered
Women were not allowed to join the a frivolous, if not dangerous, activity. The
Union, but you could go and listen; it warning must have had some effect, as I
was mostly privileged young men trying did not disgrace myself in Sections. Only
to be witty, but it did provide a route into two theatrical performances were allowed
Parliament for some of them. The Oxford over the three years at LMH. In my second
University Conservative Association held year, I played Lucy in the ‘Beggars’ Opera’
rather pretentious formal dinners, where in a real theatre; the Operatic Society
the men had to wear dinner jackets. were allowed to use the Playhouse! That
Other Societies were less ambitious and meant that when, in my last year, I was
more friendly. My best friends were my offered the part of Joan in Shaw’s ‘St
two neighbours in Deneke, but other Joan’, to be performed in New College
lasting friendships came either through cloisters, the College did not let me take
singing in choirs or acting with the it. It was a rational ruling on their part,
Experimental Theatre Club (ETC). This was but the effect on my morale was probably
less prestigious than OUDS but it put on as damaging to any degree prospects as
more plays and revues. Kenneth Tynan, acting in the play would have been.
later a well-known theatre critic, was its There was very little outside contact
leading light. His face was gaunt, almost then for students in term time. No
skull-like, and he used to wear coloured one went home, or anywhere else,
two-piece suits, green or purple, which for weekends, and parents very rarely
marked him out from the run of the visited. Oxford social life took off on
mill in their old tweed jackets and grey Saturdays and Sundays; the colleges
flannels. I found him terrifying: I once never felt deserted in term time, whereas Talbot Hall 1947
LMH News 2022 | Issue 5 17Summer view of one of the
sheds at Northview with
Rudbeckia, Blue Lobelia, and
Daylilies in yellows and blues
A GARDENER’S WORLD
Jenny Rose Carey (1981 PGCE) is
H
aving grown up as the daughter of a botanist, and studying
Biology as an undergraduate, I was lucky enough to study
a long-standing supporter of the at LMH as a postgraduate. The beautiful gardens at LMH
enhanced my time there as they were right outside my door if I
College; some readers may have needed a place to relax, think quietly, or clear my head before the
noticed our feature about her next assignment. The gardens immensely enhance life at the College.
As we walk from building to building, we are automatically connected
in the 2021 Philanthropy Report. to the natural world. This daily interaction with nature has been
Passionate about gardens both proven to help to reduce stress and lift our moods.
Gardens and gardening have been a major part of my life. I
personally and professionally, taught Biology; first in Northamptonshire, and later in America. My
she has generously pledged working life has taken various twists and turns – I earned a degree
in Horticulture, was the Director of two public gardens, and have
to endow the Head Gardener authored three books about gardens and gardening.
post to ensure that the grounds Wherever I have lived I have had a garden; at first modest in size
and scale and now extensive. Our current garden, Northview, in
which so many students and Pennsylvania, is a four-and-a-half-acre site and sits on a watershed
alumni cherish are maintained between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. My American husband,
Gus, and I have lived here for 25 years. During that time, I have
for future generations. In her own designed and developed a series of (what Americans feel are)
words, she shares why gardens English gardens. As a garden historian I insist that they are English-
inspired and not English. For a start the climate is so different. On a
are so important to her and recent winter day, it was 12 degrees Celsius in Oxford and 12 degrees
how they feature in her life. Fahrenheit (minus 11 Celsius!) in my garden. We get heavy snowfalls,
blistering hot summer days, and even a tornado that roared through
the garden last September knocking down and twisting off huge
trees. Gardening here is not for the faint of heart.
18 LMH News 2022 | Issue 5“We get heavy snowfalls,
blistering hot summer days,
and even a tornado that
roared through the garden
last September knocking
down and twisting off huge
trees. Gardening here is not
for the faint of heart.”
Jenny Rose Carey
The general rate of growth of all plants mowed down by a herd of deer. I have
is phenomenal. Trees in Pennsylvania enclosed various areas and corral my
grow to magnificent proportions. I adore more delicious plants within these fenced
the woodland spring ephemerals that areas. I also use lots of herbs and scented
grow beneath them. I have a lovely shade foliage to disguise vulnerable plantings.
garden that is a little more sunny now The gardens are varied in theme and
due to the tornado tree damage. There purpose. I have a dry garden that has not
I grow native east coast American flora been watered since 2004, a rain garden,
such as delightful trilliums, shooting stars, several ponds, a herb garden, cutting
and bloodroot. I mix American bluebells, garden, vegetable garden, a winter walk,
Mertensia virginica, with English bluebells. a stumpery, moss garden, and sunset
These plants thrive because we have and moon gardens. I love to share my
lovely, rich, deep soil here that I amend gardens and open them up for visitors
each year with compost and leaf mould. from around the world.
My appreciation for gardens as a place From the first snowdrops and crocus
where we can positively impact our local to the last brown stems of autumn my
environment grows year by year. It has garden provides me with a place of
become such a passion that I use it as a refuge, a place to find rejuvenation and a
theme when I give gardening lectures source of intellectual stimulation. During
around the country. I use no pesticides or the pandemic millions of people around
herbicides, I use as little additional water the world have taken up gardening.
as I can, and I try to gather rainfall to use Whether it is to feed yourself, for
later. I garden for pollinators such as bees, exercise, to provide a place of beauty, or
butterflies, and hummingbirds. The birds as a great life-long hobby, gardens are a
The Teapot Fountain in the Moss
are a special treat with a wide range of fabulous adjunct to our homes and our
Garden in spring with bluebells and
woodpeckers, cardinals, chickadees, blue way of life. Couple that with a chance to
Redbud trees behind it
jays, warblers, a heron, and a red-tailed make an impact on our environment,
hawk to name just a few. In the garden we one garden at a time, and you have a
I have tried growing most plants have deer, rabbits, groundhogs, skunk, winning solution.
that are found in English gardens with raccoons, snakes, a snapping turtle, If you ever find yourself on the east
varying degrees of success. Sweet peas chipmunks, and even once an escaped coast of America and would like to come
work if started early and then removed wallaby! I appreciate the wildlife that uses and visit me in my garden, I will welcome
when the heat kicks in. Old-fashioned my garden most of the time, but it does you with a cup of tea. I am easy to find
roses do well if they flower before the get annoying when your phlox or lilies are via Instagram and other social media.
dreaded Japanese beetles try to eat
them up. I have found techniques to
nurture biennials such as foxgloves
through the cold months. Hollyhocks For further information and reading:
are normally covered in a fungus called
You can follow Jenny on Instagram @NorthViewGarden
rust, but they look good if you ignore
Visit her website at www.beforeyougarden.com
the foliage. Delphiniums elude me and
become expensive annuals. On the plus The Ultimate Flower Gardener’s Guide will be released in summer 2022
side, tomatoes and basil grow like weeds.
LMH News 2022 | Issue 5 19You can also read
