Wadham College, Oxford

Oxford_College_Infobox
name = Wadham College
university = Oxford
picture =
primary_colour = #000326
colours =
named_for = Nicholas Wadham
established = 1610
sister_college = Christ's College, Cambridge
head_name = Warden
head = Sir Neil Chalmers
undergraduates = 460
JCR President = William McCallum
MCR President = Richard Muscat
graduates = 180
latitude = 51.755871
longitude = -1.254593
homepage = [http://www.wadham.ox.ac.uk/ Homepage]
boat_club = [http://wcbc.wadham.ox.ac.uk/ Boatclub]
shield =

Wadham College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, located at the southern end of Parks Road in central Oxford. It was founded by Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham, wealthy Somerset landowners, during the reign of King James I. As of 2006, it has an estimated financial endowment of £66 million. [ [http://www.btinternet.com/~akme/OXCpress.html Oxford College Endowment Incomes, 1973-2006] (updated July 2007)]

History

Nicholas Wadham died in 1609 leaving his fortune towards the endowment of an Oxford college. The design and implementation of this vague intention fell to his wife Dorothy, a diligent septuagenarian. In a period of only four years, she gained royal and ecclesiastical support for the new college, negotiated the purchase of a site, appointed the west country architect William Arnold, drew up the college statutes, and appointed the first warden, fellows, scholars, and cook. Although she never visited Oxford, she kept tight control of her new college and its finances until her death in 1618.

Although it is one of the youngest of the historic colleges, Wadham has some of the oldest and best preserved buildings, a result of the rash of rebuilding that occurred throughout Oxford during the 17th century. It is often considered as perhaps the last major English public building to be created according to the mediaeval tradition of the master mason. Wadham's front quad, which served as almost the entire college until the mid-20th century, is also the first example of the "Jacobean Gothic" style that was adopted for many of the University's buildings. A dramatic expansion since 1952 has made use of a range of 17th and 18th century houses, a converted warehouse originally built to store bibles, and several modern buildings designed by Gillespie, Kidd & Coia and McCormac Jamieson Prichard. It also includes the Holywell Music Room, the oldest purpose-built music room in Europe. Wadham also has a second claim to fame: it is thought that the college's chapel was the first religious building in England to regain its stained glass and statuary following the reformation. The college was refaced in the 1960s.

Under the original statutes, women were forbidden from entering the college, with the exception of a laundress who was to be of 'such age, condition, and reputation as to be above suspicion.' These rules were relaxed over the years, and in 1974 they were altered to allow for the admission of women as full members of college at all levels. In fact, Wadham was the first historically all-male college to have a female student.

Wadham has a well-deserved reputation for being a progressive and tolerant college. In 1975 the Junior Common Room (JCR) chose to re-brand itself as a "Students Union", becoming the first Oxford College to do so. As a protest against apartheid, the students' union passed a motion in 1984 to end every college "bop" (disco) with The Special AKA's single "Free Nelson Mandela". The tradition continues despite Mandela's release in 1990. Wadham also has a reputation as a strong supporter of gay rights, and plays host to "Queer Bop", an annual night of slightly debauched behaviour popular with students of all colleges and sexual orientations.

Notable alumni

* Waseem Sajjad, two time interim President of Pakistan and Former Chairman Senate.
* Tuanku Abdul Halim, Sultan of Kedah, former King of Malaysia (1970-1975)
* Monica Ali, novelist
* Lindsay Anderson, film director
* Charles Badham, classics scholar
* Samuel Augustus Barnett, social reformer
* Robert Blake, Cromwell's admiral
* Richard Bentley, scholar and critic
* Richard Bethell (Lord Westbury), former Lord Chancellor
* Thomas Beecham, conductor
* Jerome Bradpiece, poker player
* Melvyn Bragg, television broadcaster
* James Broomfield, Monopoly Champion of Champions
* Alan Bullock, historian of Nazi Germany
* Cecil Day-Lewis, former Poet Laureate
* Andy Cato, of Groove Armada
* Sir Michael Checkland, former Director General of the BBC
* Robert Caesar Childers, Pali Language Scholar
* John Cooke, prosecutor of Charles I
* Alan Coren, comic writer
* James Flint, writer
* Michael Foot, politician
* Neil Forrester, Artist and subject of The Real World TV show (London series)
* William Fox, premier of New Zealand
* C. B. Fry, sportsman
* Penaia Ganilau, former Governor General and President of Fiji.
* Neil Gerrard, politician
* Thomas Guidott, physician
* Henry de Beltgens Gibbins, economic historian
* Evan Harris, Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon
* J. W. Harris, legal scholar, Professor of the London School of Economics and Fellow of the British Academy.
* Sir Thomas Graham Jackson, architect
* Felicity Jones, actress
* Reginald Victor Jones, physicist, scientific military intelligence expert and writer
* Michael Kenyon, novelist
* Francis Kilvert, clergyman and diarist
* Hari Kunzru, novelist
* John Leslie, philosopher
* Tim McInnerny, actor
* Kamisese Mara, former Prime Minister and President of Fiji.
* Patrick Marber, comedian and playwright
* Sharon Mascall, journalist, broadcaster and writer
* Jodhi May, actress
* Robert Moses, city planner
* Arthur Onslow, former Speaker of the House of Commons
* Iain Pears, novelist
* Rosamund Pike, actress
* Michael Rosen, poet and broadcaster
* Nathaniel Philip Rothschild, British financier and only son of Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild
* Mary Ann Sieghart, former assistant editor of "The Times"
* John Simon, 1st Viscount Simon, former Lord Chancellor
* F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead, former Lord Chancellor
* Thomas Sprat, divine and cofounder of the Royal Society
* Irving Wardle, theatre critic
* Rowan Williams, current Archbishop of Canterbury
* John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, libertine poet
* Christopher Wren, architect and cofounder of the Royal Society
* Henry Penruddocke Wyndham, politician, topographer and author
* Sir Wadham Wyndham, judge:See also .

Famous Wardens and Fellows

* Alfred Ayer, logical positivist
* T.J. Binyon, Russian literature scholar and crime writer
* Maurice Bowra, scholar and wit
* Peter Derow, historian of ancient Greece and Rome
* Terry Eagleton, literary theorist
* Stuart Hampshire, philosopher and literary critic
* Humphrey Hody, clergyman and divine
* Thomas Graham Jackson, architect
* Frederick Lindemann (Lord Cherwell), Churchill's scientific adviser during the Second World War
* Claus Moser, economist
* Bernard O'Donoghue, poet
* Roger Penrose, mathematician
* Marcus du Sautoy, mathematician, writer, television presenter
* Robert Thistlethwayte, the warden who fled to France in 1737 after a homosexual scandal
* John Wilkins, scholar and cofounder of the Royal Society
* Robert J.C. Young, post-colonial theorist

References

External links

* [http://www.wadham.ox.ac.uk Wadham College]
** [http://su.wadham.ox.ac.uk Wadham College Student Union]
** [http://mcr.wadham.ox.ac.uk Wadham College Middle Common Room]
* [http://thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Oxford_College_Pros_and_Cons#Wadham Wadham College wiki] at The Student Room