Page 12 - Linacre 50 years

Linacre College

The Beginning

Linacre’s origins go back to the late 1950s, as St

Catherine’s Society prepared to vacate their St

Aldate’s site and become a new undergraduate

college. This is recalled in the balcony railings

above the entrance to St Aldate’s, which can

s ll be seen on the present building.

The idea of a graduate society at the St Aldate’s

site —as proposed by the Censor of St

Catherine’s, Alan Bulloch—nearly foundered as

diverse Oxford interests jostled for their own

pet projects. Indeed, not all were convinced of

the need or advisability of an all-graduate hall.

Fortunately plans were put firmly back on track

by Sir Keith Murray, Chairman of the University

Grants Commi ee.

Linacre by another name?

While “Linacre” now seems the perfect, and

obvious, name for the new society, it was not so

clear at the me. For example , St Aldate’s Hall

was the ‘working name’ used on early dra

documents, although many agreed that “this

would be a sad mistake, historically and

topographically.” One Oxford don offered either

St Michael’s Hall (“to add the lustre of a well-

known archangel”) or Grosseteste Hall (for

“Robert Grosseteste, the first known chancellor

of the University”). A more prosaic sugges on

was Mill Hall, for “the stream on whose banks

the buildings stand”. But even Oxford

academics knew that one could take pedan c

ra onale too far. “It is true that there stood on

this site in the Middle Ages a building known as Bust and portrait of Thomas Linacre (above)

Rack Hall, flanked by a lane called ‘The Rack’, on display in Linacre College The 19th century

but this is perhaps be er forgo en.” bust was donated to the College by the A.T.

Linacres. Also, ‘Thomas Linacre, Inglese’ from

We can all breathe a sigh of relief that more the Sala dei Quaranta at the University of

sensible views prevailed. Dame Lucy Padua, is pictured to the right.

Sutherland, Principal of Lady Margaret Hall, is

credited with sugges ng the society be named College AdministraƟon

a er Thomas Linacre (c. 1460 –1524), a great

Renaissance classicial scholar, physician, and

Fellow of All Souls.

The Delegacy The First ‘Senior Members’

Linacre House was ini ally governed by a

Delegacy, which answered to the University.

Many of the members were very eminent;

Nobel Laureate Dorothy Hodgkin was one of

them. A facsimile of her acceptance of the

invita on to join the Delegacy is below.

A commi ee appointed by the University

Hebdomadal Council conducted the search for

Linacre’s first Principal. On 16 May 1961, John

Bernard Bamborough was formally confirmed

as Principal-Elect. By Michaelmas 1962, key

staff were in place, including Dr Rupert Cecil,

the first Dean of Linacre; Peter Holloway, who

transferred from St Catherine’s Society as

Bursary Clerk; Giles Barber, the first College

Librarian; and Chris ne Turner, the first