Page 13 - Linacre 50 years

Linacre College

1962—1963: The First Term

Linacre House was formally established They included a mix of ages (the oldest was 68), subjects and naƟonaliƟes, including an Irish

missionary priest, a female Turkish engineer, a colonel in the Israeli army, a Japanese Professor of
on 1st August 1962, and the first intake

Economics and an American nun—”a real exercise in internaƟonal co-operaƟon and in the cross-

of students arrived in October 1962. ferƟlizaƟon of subjects”.

Linacre has been born.

May it flourish!

THE FIRST DINNER

… So I was anxious before [the first College]

dinner that evening. My nerves were not

improved when Rosie Low, our cook cum

housekeeper, came to me half an hour

beforehand to announce that she hadn’t got

enough knives and forks for all those who were

dining. (Kathleen Smith drove me to Wadham,

whence I borrowed enough cutlery from the

Steward to see us through). I need not have

worried. From the moment we all sat down it

was clear from the sound (which in the hall was

considerable) that all was well. As someone

said, it was as if the College had always been

there. At the end of the dinner I made a

speech, and I finished with a toast: “Linacre has

been born. May it flourish!” It has.

John Bamborough, Linacre College:

The First Dinner Menu from the first dinner, with signatures of

aƩendees, including John Bamborough, Man Mohan with Rashid Halloway, first

MatriculaƟon Day, October 1962 Dorothy Hodgkin, and Gilbert Ryle. Linacre Common Room President