St Catharine's College, Cambridge

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St Catharine’s College, Cambridge

Full name

Collegium sive aula D. Catharinæ in Universitate Cantabrigiensi

Motto

For the wheel! (unofficial)

Named after

St Catharine of Alexandria

Previous names

Katharine Hall (1473-1860)

Established

1473

Sister College(s)

Worcester College

Master

Prof. Dame Jean Thomas FRS

Location

Trumpington Street

Undergraduates

436

Postgraduates

165

Homepage

Boatclub

St Catharine's College at night

St Catharine’s College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge.

Most Cambridge students refer to it by the nickname “Catz”. Catz has a reputation for being a very easy-going and well balanced college. The College has always generously contributed to the Cambridge team in the University boat race, providing three of the eight in both 2003 and 2004. The college was placed at the top of the Tompkins Table, which ranks the colleges by the class of degrees obtained by their undergraduates, for the first time, in 2005. The proportion of students from state schools is relatively high for Cambridge, though still only a slight majority.

Apparently, there is a long-running but good-natured feud with Queens’ College which apparently derives from Queens’ disapproval of Catz having built its court in front of Queens’, turning Cambridge’s former High Street into a back alley. In the 1970s St. Catharine’s built a modern block of flats named St Chad’s near the University Library, in which the rooms are octagonal to resemble the Catharine wheel on the college crest. Second year students reside in St. Chad’s while the First and Third years are at the main college site. A good number of Fourth years are also resident on the Island Site.

1 History
2 Famous alumni
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

Robert Wodelarke, Provost of King’s College, had begun preparations for the founding of a new college as early as 1459 when he bought tenements on which the new college could be built. The preparation cost him a great deal of his private fortune (he was suspected of diverting King’s College funds), and he was forced to scale down the the foundation to only three Fellows. He stipulated that they must study theology and philosophy only.

Wodelarke may have chosen the name in homage to the mother of King Henry VI who was called Catharine, although it is more likely that it was named as part of the Renaissance cult of St. Catharine, who was a patron saint of learning. At any rate, the college was ready for habitation and formally founded on St. Catharine’s day (November 25) 1473. There are six Saints Catharine, but the college was named for Saint Catharine of Alexandria. It was initially known as Katharine Hall.

St. Catharine’s College, as seen from Trumpington Street, showing the open court.

The initial foundation was not well-provided for. Wodelarke was principally interested in the welfare of Fellows and the College had no undergraduates at all for many years. However, by 1550 there was an increasing number of junior students and the focus of the College changed to that of teaching undergraduates. A rapid growth made it necessary to expand the college and short-lived additions were made in 1622. By 1630 the College began to demolish its existing buildings which were decaying, and started work on the current buildings. The three-sided court, which is almost unique among colleges in Cambridge (with the exceptions of Jesus and Downing in addition to St. Catharine’s sister college - Worcester - which has a three-sided quad, which may well be the same thing), was built over the period 1675 to 1757. Proposals for a final range of buildings to complete the fourth side of the court were made on many occasions up to the 20th century.

In 1637 the College came into possession of the George Inn (later the Bull Inn) on Trumpington Street. Behind this Inn was a stables which was already famous for the practice of its manager, Thomas Hobson, not to allow a hirer to take any horse other than the one longest in the stable, leading to the expression “Hobson’s choice” meaning no choice at all.

The college was granted new statutes in 1860 and adopted its current name. In 1880, a movement to merge the college with King’s College began. The two colleges were adjacent and it seemed a solution to King’s need for more rooms and St. Catharine’s need for a more substantial financial basis. However, the Master (Charles Kirkby Robinson) was opposed and St. Catharine’s eventually refused.

A history of the college was written by W.H.S. Jones in 1936.

[edit] Famous alumni

John Addenbrooke, founder of Addenbrooke’s Hospital
Herbert Rowse Armstrong, only English solicitor to be hanged for murder
Harivansh Rai ‘Bachchan’, 20th century Indian poet
Nathaniel Bacon, revolutionary in Virginia
John Bayliss, poet
Peter Boizot, founder of Pizza Express
James Bond, fictional British spy Agent 007 (see Terence Young below)
Howard Brenton, playwright
Adam Buddle, after whom the Buddleia is named
Henry William Bunbury, caricaturist
Oliver Cromwell, second son of Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell
John Cutts, 1st Baron Cutts of Gowran, MP and army commander
John Bacchus Dykes, Victorian hymn-writer
Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, fifth President of India
Jenny R. Fray, first female Captain with British Airways
Leo Genn, actor
Sir Peter Hall, stage manager and director
Leslie Halliwell, film reviewer
Joanne Harris, author
Sir Peter Hirsch materials scientist
Emyr Jones Parry, United Nations diplomat
Malcolm Lowry, writer
Sir Ian McKellen, actor
Roy MacLaren, Canadian diplomat
Nevil Maskelyne, Astronomer Royal
Michael Morris (Lord Naseby), former Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons
Sir Geoffrey Pattie, former Minister of State for Information and Technology, and former Minister of State for Defence Procurement during the Falklands War
Jeremy Paxman, television journalist
Sam Pickering, Professor of English at the University of Connecticut and the inspiration for the Keating character (played by Robin Williams) in the film Dead Poets Society
Noel Thompson, television journalist
Steve Punt, comedian
John Ray, naturalist
Thomas Sherlock, theologian
James Shirley, Elizabethan poet and playwright
Prince Arun Singh, former Defence Minister of India
Donald Soper, Methodist minister and campaigner
John Strype, historian
Tunku Abdul Rahman, first Prime Minister of Malaysia
William Wotton, historian
Terence Young, screenwriter and film director (including James Bond films Dr. No, From Russia with Love and Thunderball)
John Bradford, martyr of the English reformation, 1 July 1555