The Founding of St Antony’s College Boat Club
Geoffrey Underhill (DPhil Politics, 1980)
‘When I think back, with the possible exception of forty-years of university teaching, founding SACBC was my most important legacy. It remains the most important student association and activity in the college, and has made more young people happy, fit, and frequently rather triumphant, friends for life, than anything else I ever did.’
Read Geoffrey’s fantastic full account of the foundation of St Antony’s College Boat Club here.
Invited by Raymond Carr
Jürgen von Kruedener (Academic Visitor, 1986)
I took this photo in June 1987, at the end of Raymond Carr’s tenure as warden (between Fox hunting – 2nd ed. – and retirement, so to speak) and at the end of my stay as a Visiting Fellow. It shows him and Sara enjoying an apéritif in the Buttery before a private dinner with friends and companions as well as the new chancellor Roy Jenkins.
Raymond Carr invited me too because he felt a bit guilty; he wanted to make amends. As usual, as a so-called Volkswagen Professor, I was supposed to stay at the European Studies Centre. But when I arrived in Oxford, he had alrady taken the apartment in question for himself, and I was forced to find private accommodations outside St Antony’s.
‘You Scobberlotchers!’
Baqer Moin (Senior Associate Member, 1985)
It was the winter of 1986, and I was dining at High Table with a group of dons and friends whose combined knowledge of languages could probably have translated the Bible before dessert. The wine had flowed generously, the port was making its traditional rounds, and the conversation had reached that stage of linguistic one-upmanship.
When my turn came to contribute a word, I dug deep into memory and produced a gem from my old classical Arabic teacher in Mashhad, the formidable Adib Nishabouri — a man who could juggle words the way others juggle walnuts or oranges. He once told us the story of a weary Bedouin surrounded by an over-curious crowd of young men. Fed up, he snapped in magnificent, archaic Arabic:
«ما لَكُم تَكأكأتم عَلَيَّ كَتَكأكُئِكم عَلَى ذي جِنَّةٍ، افرَنْقِعوا عنِّي»
‘What aileth you, that ye have beswarmed about me as men beswarm about one possessed? Avaunt ye, and franckle yourselves from me!’
It brought joy and laughter to the table. And just when I thought the evening could not get any more obscure, the head of the High Table stood up, glanced at his watch and announced, ‘Gentlemen and ladies, it is time for me to depart — you scobberlotchers!’
I was utterly bamboozled. Scobber-what? It was too late (and perhaps too much port had been consumed) to ask. The next morning, still curious, I turned to an English dictionary, which said something like this: a scobberlotcher is an idle Oxford student, loafing in the college garden and counting the trees over the wall in the next college.
That how I did my research at St Antony’s on my book on the Iranian revolution and the life of Ayatollah Khomeini.
The first illustrated College leaflet
In 1983, the College decided to produce its first illustrated promotional leaflet. It had identified the need for a College brochure ‘to give a general view of the nature of the College’ which should be ‘attractively printed’. A combination of text and colour photos, it was chiefly aimed at prospective students, but designed to be of interest to others, such as visitors to the College.
Originally conceived as a much larger, glossy, booklet, high production costs meant that it had to be scaled down to a single-sheet leaflet. But the leaflet packs a lot into its small size. Prospective members are given a range of information about the College: its history, membership and degree courses. The photographs, taken by Thomas Photos of Oxford, give a real flavour of life at St Antony’s in the early 1980s and include some great shots of the College grounds and buildings, some of which look very different today.
Click the four-arrow icon on the right underneath the leaflet to expand it to full screen.
Internment in Scottish alien prisoners’ camp did not happen…
Celia Szusterman (DPhil Politics, 1986)
On April 2nd 1982 the Argentine military junta, in all its lack of wisdom, decided invading the Malvinas Islands (Falklands) was a brilliant idea to cap its murderous six years in government. Surely all atrocities would be forgiven by a rapturous, grateful population? Well, it did not turn up quite like that.
On April 3rd 1982 I received a telephone call from the Warden, Sir Raymond Carr. After reading the leader in The Times that morning, where there was speculation about possible consequences should there be a formal declaration of war between Argentina and the UK, he wanted to reassure me. ‘If you are interned as an enemy alien somewhere in Scotland, I shall come to visit you and bring cigarettes.’ When I thanked him but regretted to say I didn’t smoke, his reply was quick: ‘Oh well, then I shall bring apples.’
Fortunately there was no declaration of war, I did not become an enemy alien, and Raymond did not have to travel to Scotland carrying apples.
Anecdotes
H B Paksoy (DPhil Oriental Studies, 1982)
This is a series of anecdotes written by H B Paksoy about his time at St Antony’s, including the unexpected ramifications of his wardrobe choices, the x-ray vision of the Lodge Porters, and how he unwittingly ended up on Spanish television (and much more).
Click the four-arrow icon on the right underneath the document to expand it to full screen.
When the College first opened, there were too few students and fellows to play many sports other than tennis. In the early 1950s two tennis courts were built in the College garden next to the main building. From that point on they became a popular feature of the College campus. Speaking in 1999, a former member of staff of the Bursary (which at that date was a small temporary hut in the middle of the College grounds), recalled that in the early 1950s lots of the fellows and staff, including the Bursar and College Secretary, played tennis during their lunch hours. Sometimes well into the afternoon. Every summer there was a garden party at which the College tennis championships took place.
In 1955 a squash court was built next to the tennis courts. Both served many cohorts of students and fellows until the 1990s when the Nissan Institute and Founder’s Building were built. These required the demolition of both the tennis and squash courts. College tennis continued for a while after the loss of the courts. St Antony’s tennis teams played on the University Club’s tennis courts and on 3 June 2000 the first annual ‘Goulding Cup’ tennis championship was held, named after the Warden at that time, Sir Marrack Goulding. A student-fellows mixed doubles tournament, it was held to combine ‘the joys of tennis’ with increased student-fellow interaction.
The photo shows the College gardens and tennis courts in c1987.
The photograph at the top of this page has been reproduced by kind permission of Gillman & Soame photographers and can be ordered online here.