Archivist & Records Manager Alice Millea has prepared an updated timeline of the College’s history to celebrate the last 75 years of St Antony’s. Please get in touch if you have any photos or materials related to the timeline so we can include them in the College Archive!
Negotiations begin between Antonin Besse and the University Registrar for a new postgraduate college. Besse gives £1.5 million for its foundation.
Following much discussion as to a site for the new college, St Antony’s College opens on 9 October in a former convent on Woodstock Road. FWD (‘Bill’) Deakin is its first Warden. The first cohort of seven students is admitted.
The founder, Antonin Besse, receives an honorary DCL (Doctor of Civil Law) from the University. He dies less than a month later, aged 74.
The College coat of arms is created. The arms feature the colours of the Red Sea (red) and the desert sand (gold) along with mullets borrowed from Antonin Besse’s own trademark and the tau crosses of St Anthony of Egypt. The motto ‘plus est en vous’, meaning ‘there is more in you’ or ‘there is more to you than meets the eye’, often accompanies the shield.
The College is granted its first charter on 1 April. The College’s first regional centre, the Russian and East European Studies Centre, is established.
The first number in the St Antony’s Papers series of publications, ‘Soviet Affairs’ by Kenneth Kirkwood, is published.
The Middle East Centre is established.
A College football team is formed.
The Far East Centre is established.
Architects Howell, Killick, Partridge and Amis (HKPA) are appointed to draw up a plan for the redevelopment of the College site which includes demolition of the convent. The plan has to be seriously curtailed due to insufficient funds.
The numbers of new students admitted each year grows steadily, reaching 38 by 1960. In total, 260 students (of 34 nationalities) have attended the College by the end of its first decade.
The Middle East Centre Archive is established.
St Antony of Egypt is designated the official patron saint of the College following some debate as to whether the College saint was St Antony of Padua or St Antony of Egypt.
A supplementary College charter enables the admission of women. The first women students join the College in October 1964.
St Antony’s becomes a full college of the University having formerly held the status of a ‘new foundation’.
The Latin American Centre is established.
Sir Raymond Carr becomes the College’s second Warden.
The only part of the 1960 College redevelopment plan by architects HKPA to be built, the hall and common room block, is officially opened. This is renamed the Hilda Besse Building in 1981, after the wife of the College founder.
Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer is commissioned to design a new building for the College but insufficient funds are raised to enable it to be constructed.
The West European Studies Centre is established, following a grant from the Volkswagen Foundation. This is renamed the European Studies Centre in 1990.
The St Antony’s Series at Palgrave Macmillan is launched, publishing studies of international affairs of contemporary interest. The Series has produced around 400 publications to date.
The Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies is established following a benefaction from the Nissan Motor Co Ltd.
The Asian Studies Centre is established as a successor to the Far East Centre.
The Chinese Studies Centre is founded jointly by St Antony’s and Wolfson College.
Sir Ralf (later, Lord) Dahrendorf becomes Warden.
The Nissan Institute for Japanese Studies moves into a new purpose-built building on the main College site. The building also houses the Bodleian Japanese Library.
The College Library undergoes a major redesign and refurbishment including the renovation of the apse paintings of the convent chapel.
Sir Marrack Goulding becomes Warden.
Founder’s Building is officially opened by the Princess Royal to mark the College’s 50th anniversary. As well as student accommodation, it also houses a gym and two seminar rooms.
The ‘Chihauhaus’, St Antony’s and Wolfson Colleges’ joint women’s football team, are founded.
The African Studies Centre is established.
The St Antony’s International Review (STAIR), a peer-reviewed journal of international affairs, is founded by graduate students of St Antony’s.
Professor Roger Goodman becomes Acting Warden.
Professor Margaret MacMillan becomes Warden.
The Russian and Eurasian Studies Library, successor to the Russian and East European Centre, opens after extensive refurbishment.
College’s Gateway Buildings opens providing a new main entrance to the College on Woodstock Road, housing the Porter’s Lodge, student accommodation, conference spaces and offices.
The Middle East Centre Investcorp Building, designed by architect Zaha Hadid, is opened. The building houses a lecture theatre and the Middle East Centre Library and Archives.
Professor Roger Goodman becomes Warden.
The Hilda Besse Building reopens after major refurbishment, winning an Oxford Preservation Trust award for ‘best building conservation’.
St Antony’s appoints its first Artist-in-Residence, Dr Karen Aarre.
