Christ's College, Cambridge

Colleges of the University of Cambridge Christ's College
Founders	William Byngham (1437); Lady Margaret Beaufort (1505)
Named after	Jesus Christ
Established	1437, Refounded 1505
Previously named	God's House (1437-1505)
Admission	Men and women
Master	Frank Kelly
Undergraduates	420
Graduates	170
Sister colleges	Wadham College, Oxford Branford College, Yale Adams House, Harvard Pforzheimer House, Harvard
Location	St Andrew's Street (map)
Souvent me Souvient (Old French, "I often remember")
College website
JCR website
MCR website
Boat Club website

Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, officially comprising the Master and Fellows of the College as well as about 600 students. The student body divides into roughly 430 undergraduates and 170 postgraduates. The college was founded by Lady Margaret Beaufort in 1505, its charter granted on May 1, and was the twelfth of the current colleges to be founded in its current form, though it had been previously founded as God's House in 1437.

With a reputation for high academic standards, Christ's College averaged top place in the Tompkins Table from 1980-2000. The College is often noted for producing two of Cambridge's most famous alumni, John Milton and Charles Darwin, who, during the celebrations for the 800th anniversary of the University, were both placed at the foreground as two of the four most iconic individuals in the University's history.

College history

The college grew from God's House, an institution founded in 1437 by William Byngham on land now occupied by King's College Chapel. It received its first royal licence in 1446. It moved to its present site in 1448 when it received its second royal licence. It was renamed Christ's College and received its present charter in 1505 when it was endowed and expanded by Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII, and her confidant St. John Fisher.

College Grace

The College Grace is normally said before any dinner held in the Formal Hall of the College. Though the student body rises to recite the Grace, Christ's is one of the only Colleges in Cambridge where the students do not rise when the Fellows enter and leave the Dining Hall. This is said to be the result of a historical conflict between the Students and Fellows at Christ's, who were at opposite sides during the English Civil War.

Exhiliarator omnium Christe Sine quo nihil suave, nihil jucundum est: Benedic, quaesumus, cibo et potui servorum tuorum, Quae jam ad alimoniam corporis apparavisti; et concede ut istis muneribus tuis ad laudem tuam utamur gratisque animis fruamur; utque quemadmodum corpus nostrum cibis corporalibus fovetur, ita mens nostra spirituali verbi tui nutrimento pascatur Per te Dominum nostrum, Amen.

Christ, the gladdener of all, Without whom nothing is sweet, nothing pleasant: Bless, we beseech you, the food and drink of your servants, Which you have now provided for the nourishment of the body; And grant that we may use these gifts of yours for your praise, And enjoy them with grateful minds; And that, just as our body is nourished by bodily foods, So our mind may feed on the spiritual nourishment of your Word. Through you, our Lord, Amen.

Buildings

The Great Gate on St Andrew's Street.

The original 15th/16th century college buildings now form part of First Court, including the chapel, Master's Lodge and Great Gate tower. The gate itself is disproportionate: the bottom has been cut off to accommodate a rise in street level, which can also be seen in the steps leading down to the foot of L staircase in the gate tower. The college hall, originally built at the very start of the 16th century was restored in 1875-1879 by George Gilbert Scott, the younger. The lawn of First Court is famously round, and an impressive wisteria sprawls up the front of the master's lodge.

Second Court is fully built up on only three sides, one of which is formed by the 1640s Fellows' Building. The fourth side backs onto the Master's garden.

The Stevenson Building in Third Court was designed by J. J. Stevenson, in the 1880s and was extended in 1905 as part of the College's Quadcentenary. In 1947 Professor Richardson designed the second building, the neo-Georgian Chancellor's Building (W staircase), completed in 1950. Third Court's Memorial Building (Y staircase), a twin of the Chancellor's building was completed in 1953 for £80,000. Third Court is also noted for its display of irises in May and June, a gift to the college in 1946.

The controversial tiered concrete New Court (often dubbed "the Typewriter") was designed in the Modernist style by Sir Denys Lasdun in 1966-70, and was described as "superb" in Lasdun's obituary in the Guardian. Design critic Hugh Pearman comments "Lasdun had big trouble relating to the street at the overhanging rear". It appears very distinctively in aerial photographs, forming part of the northern boundary of the college.

An assortment of neighbouring buildings have been absorbed into the college, of which the most notable is The Todd Building, previously Cambridge's County Hall.

Through an arch in the Fellows' Building is the Fellows' Garden. It includes two mulberry trees, of which the older was planted in 1608, the same year as Milton's birth. Both trees have toppled sideways, the younger tree in the Great Storm of 1987, and are now earthed up round the trunks, but continue to fruit every year.

Christ's College, Cambridge, from above

Great Gate First Court Chapel Master's Lodge Hall Library Second Court Fellows' Building Third Court Memorial Building Stevenson Building Chancellor's Building Todd Building Four Staircase New Court (Lasdun Building) Fellows' Garden

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  The Master's Lodge

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  Fellows' Garden, showing the back of the Fellows' Building

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  The Charles Darwin Room

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  Christ's Dining Hall

College Societies

Christ's College Boat Club's boathouse on the River Cam

The Junior Combination Room (JCR), Christ's College Students' Union, is involved in every aspect of student life. Representative of the undergraduate student body, it organises social and welfare events, and negotiates on the students' behalf on important issues. The JCR has a standing committee as well as a common room open for use to all students of the College. The JCR's counterpart, the Middle Combination Room (MCR) represents the graduate students of the College. Christ's MCR is one of the few in Cambridge to run its own bar, specializing in Belgian beers and malt whiskies. The MCR organises regular Graduate Halls, which stand out from standard Formal Hall dinners by their more relaxed atmosphere. A Garden Party is held by both the JCR and the MCR every June in the Fellows' Garden. The Senior Combination Room (SCR) is comprised solely of fellows of the College and holds two feasts each year.

Other societies in Christ's include:

• The Marguerites Club, one of the oldest surviving College societies, reformed in 1899 by Gilbert Jessop the then captain of CUCC. It is believed to have originally formed some ten years earlier, but was soon disbanded. Originally the society was confined to captains and secretaries or those with colours in three sports. Nowadays it is known more as a drinking society than a club recognising sporting excellence. The name originated from the club's original blazer, which was navy blue in colour with the Foundress's 'rebus' or badge, signifying her name, embroidered on the pocket.
• Christ's College Boat Club, the oldest college sports club still active, having been founded in 1830. Like other Cambridge Colleges, Christ's has its own boathouse on the banks of the Cam (see photo).
• Christ's College Rugby Football Club, founded in 1875 by Alfred Cort Haddon, who is considered the father of modern anthropology. In the 1960 Varsity Match, eight of the starting Cambridge team were students at Christ's and all of the side's points were scored by Christ's players. The CCRFC is nicknamed "The Brown Rings" after the brown and white hoops featured on the match kit.
• Christ's College Association Football Club, which prides itself on having won the inter-collegiate Cuppers competition more times than any other.
• Christ's Films, which uses the theatre to screen new films weekly.
• Christ's Amateur Dramatic Society
• Christ's College Medical Society.
• Christ's Politics Society.
• Christ's College Music Society, founded 1710.
• Christ's College Chapel Choir.

Christ's, like most other Cambridge Colleges, also hosts a biennial May Ball in the time after undergraduate examinations which is by students commonly known as May Week. A separate society called "Christ's College May Ball Committee" is set up every two years to organise and direct this event. The most recent May Ball was on 19 June 2012 and featured a Rio De Janeiro carnival theme. The previous May Ball, named "L'Esprit Nouveau", was held on the 15th of June 2010 and featured a 1920s Parisian theme.

Proctors of God's House

• 1439-1451 William Byngham
• 1451-1458 John Hurt
• 1458-1464 William Fallan
• 1464-1477 William Basset
• 1477-1490 Ralph Barton
• 1490-1505 John Sickling

Masters of Christ's

See also: Category: Fellows of Christ's College, Cambridge and Category: Honorary Fellows of Christ's College, Cambridge.

• 1505–1507 John Sickling
• 1507–1510 Richard Wyot
• 1510–1517 Thomas Thompson
• 1517–1530 John Watson
• 1530–1548 Henry Lockwood
• 1548–1553 Richard Wilkes
• 1553–1556 Cuthbert Scot
• 1556–1559 William Taylor
• 1559–1582 Edward Hawford
• 1582–1609 Edmund Barwell
• 1609–1622 Valentine Carey
• 1622–1646 Thomas Bainbridge
• 1646–1654 Samuel Bolton
• 1654–1688 Ralph Cudworth
• 1688–1722 John Covel
• 1723–1745 William Towers
• 1745–1754 George Henry Rooke
• 1754–1780 Hugh Thomas
• 1780–1808 John Barker

• 1808–1814 Thomas Browne
• 1814–1830 John Kaye
• 1830–1848 John Graham
• 1849–1849 Joseph Shaw
• 1849–1881 James Cartmell
• 1881–1887 Charles Anthony Swainson
• 1887–1910 John Peile
• 1910–1927 Sir Arthur Shipley
• 1927–1936 Norman McLean
• 1936–1939 Charles Galton Darwin
• 1939–1950 Charles Raven
• 1950–1963 Brian Downs
• 1963–1978 Alexander R. Todd, Baron Todd
• 1978–1982 Sir John Plumb
• 1982–1995 Sir Hans Kornberg
• 1995–2002 Alan Munro
• 2002–2006 Malcolm Bowie
• 2006–        Frank Kelly

See Christ's College by John Peile (1900)

Famous alumni

See also: :Category:Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge

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  Charles Darwin

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  John Milton

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  Jagdish Chandra Bose

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  Louis Mountbatten

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  Jan Smuts

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  Frederick Cornwallis

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  Sir Martin Evans

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  Simon Schama

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  William Paley

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  Rowan Williams

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  Sacha Baron Cohen

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  Beilby Porteus

Name	Birth	Death	Career
HRH Prince Ra'ad bin Zeid Al-Hussein	1936		Iraqi Prince
HRH Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein	1964		Iraqi Prince
William Ames	1576	1633	Reformed Theologian
Richard Bancroft	1544	1610	Archbishop of Canterbury, Organiser of James I Bible
Jasmine Birtles	1962		British financial and business commentator, television presenter, author and journalist
Jagdish Chandra Bose	1858	1937	Indian physicist
Sir Anthony Caro	1924		Sculptor
Sacha Baron Cohen	1971		Comedian
John Cook	1918	1984	Prolific Anglo-American composer and organist
Frederick Cornwallis	1713	1783	Archbishop of Canterbury
John Cornwell	1940		British author and journalist
John James Cowperthwaite	1916	2006	Credited with policies allowing Hong Kong's economic boom in the 1960s
Charles Darwin	1809	1882	British naturalist
Patrick Arthur Devlin, Baron Devlin	1905	1992	Jurist, Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
Colin Dexter	1930		Novelist
Sir Martin Evans	1941		Biochemist, Nobel laureate in medicine
Noel Gay	1898	1954	Composer
Edmund Grindal	1519	1583	Archbishop of Canterbury
Alfred Cort Haddon	1855	1940	Father of modern anthropology
Yusuf Hamied	1936		Chemist and industrialist
John Healey	1960		British politician
Matthew Hutton	1693	1758	Archbishop of Canterbury
Derry Irvine, Baron Irvine of Lairg	1940		Lord Chancellor
Phillip King	1934		Sculptor
David Konstant	1930		Bishop of Leeds
Sir John Kotelawala	1897	1980	Prime Minister of Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
John Leland	c 1506	1552	Father of English history
Tony Lewis	1938		England and Glamorgan cricket captain
Richard Luce	1936		Lord Chamberlain
Michael Lynch	1965		Founder of Autonomy Systems
Allama Mashriqi	1883	1963	Founder of the Khaksar Tehreek
David Mellor	1949		British politician
Miles Millar	c 1967		Hollywood screenwriter and producer
John Milton	1608	1674	English poet
Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma	1900	1979	British Admiral of the Fleet and statesman
John Oliver	1977		British Political Comedian
J. Robert Oppenheimer	1904	1967	American theoretical physicist and 'father of the atomic bomb'
Andy Parsons	1967		English comedian and writer
William Paley	1743	1805	English theologian and philosopher
William Perkins	1558	1602	Leading Puritan Theologian of the Elizabethan Era
Sir John Plumb	1911	2001	British historian
Thomas Plume	1630	1704	English clergyman, founder of the University's Plumian Chair of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy
Roy Porter	1946	2002	British historian
Beilby Porteus	1731	1809	Bishop of Chester and Bishop of London, leading reformer and abolitionist
Peter Rawlinson, Baron Rawlinson of Ewell	1919	2006	Attorney General for England and Wales
Forrest Reid	1875	1948	Cambridge apostle, novelist, literary critic
Austin Robinson	1897	1993	British Economist and economic historian
Thomas Robinson, 2nd Baron Grantham	1738	1786	British Foreign Secretary
Nicholas Saunderson	1682	1739	British mathematician
David Say	1939	2006	British bishop
Simon Schama	1945		British historian, author, and television presenter
Nicholas Serota	1946		Director of the Tate Gallery
Jan Smuts	1870	1950	Prime Minister of South Africa, Field Marshal, and Commonwealth statesman
C. P. Snow, Baron Snow	1905	1980	British novelist and philosopher
F. Gordon A. Stone	1925	2011	British chemist
Szeming Sze	1908	1998	Chinese Diplomat, WHO co-founder
Nicholas Tarling	1931		Historian
Jeffrey Tate	1943		Conductor
Henry Teonge	1620	1690	Naval chaplain and diarist
Andrew Turnbull, Baron Turnbull	1945		Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service
Richard Whiteley	1943	2005	British television presenter
Rowan Williams	1950		British theologian, Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury
Christopher Zeeman	1925		British mathematician

Christ's College has also produced alumni and fellows in biological sciences that have gone on to become heads of various research institutions. These have included: Hugh Pelham, Director of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology; Daniel St. Johnston, Chairman of the Gurdon Institute; Jim Smith, Director of the MRC National Institute for Medical Research; Richard Treisman, Director of CRUK London Research Institute; Simon Tavaré, future Director of CRUK Cambridge Research Institute and Peter Lachmann, Founding President of The Academy of Medical Sciences.

References

• Lloyd, A. H. (2010). The Early History of Christ's College, Cambridge: Derived from Contemporary Documents. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 1108008976.  (account of the history of God's House, originally published in 1934)

External links

• Official Christ's College website
• Christ's JCR website
• Christ's MCR website
• Christ's biennial May Ball
• Exhibition celebrating 400 years since the birth of John Milton
• Cambridge 2000 — Christ's College photographs