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The workshop of Benedetto Boschetti (1820-1870) was renowned for the exceptional quality of its marble work 'after the antique'. From his premises at 74 via Condotti in Rome, Boschetti supplied extremely high quality works of art to satisfy the academic and sophisticated tastes of young Englishmen on the Grand Tour. His work was widely praised and he was awarded a medal at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. The most celebrated examples of his work today are a mosaic table depicting the Triumph of Cupid in the Gilbert Collection, London, and the fine reductions of the Warwick Vase, in rosso antico now in the Toledo Museum, Ohio.

Lettice Ramsey (née Baker, 1898 -1985) was a graduate of Newnham College, Cambridge, and she married Cambridge mathematician and philosopher, Frank Ramsey (son of A.S. Ramsey, President of Magdalene College) in 1926. Frank died in 1930 and Lettice looked for a new way to support herself and her two young daughters. In 1932 she set up in the photographic business with Helen Muspratt, a Dorset photographer who had trained at Regent Street Polytechnic in London. Lettice had the Cambridge contacts to get the firm work while Helen had the photographic skills and experience.

In 1937 Helen Muspratt moved to Oxford and set up a second studio for the firm there. While the partnership continued, Helen ran the Oxford Studio and Lettice the Cambridge one.

Nicholas Lee took over the business in 1978 when Lettice retired. The business was then purchased by Peter Lofts in 1980. There is an extensive indexed negative collection from the firm in the Cambridgeshire Collection, deposited by Peter Lofts after he bought up the business.

Ramsey and Muspratt are best known for their portrait work. Their sympathetic, well lit images quickly made the firm fashionable, photographing the up and coming and influential throughout the 1930s, including Anthony Blunt and Virginia Woolf. The firm also undertook a wide range of commercial photography.

Noel Odell was a member of the 1924 British Mount Everest Expedition and last person to see George Mallory and Andrew Irvine alive.

In 1924 Odell was an oxygen officer on the Everest expedition. He spent two weeks living above 23,000 ft and twice climbed to 26,800 ft and higher, without supplemental oxygen. In 1936 Noel Odell with Bill Tilman climbed Nanda Devi, at the time the highest mountain climbed.

On 8 June 1924 George Mallory and Andrew Irvine attempted to summit Mount Everest via the Northeast Ridge route. Odell reported seeing them at 12:50 p.m. ascending one of the major "steps" on the North-East ridge, "the last step but one from the base of the final pyramid" and "going strongly for the top." The is no evidence to prove reached the summit, or that they ascended above the major second step. They never returned and died on the mountain.

In his first two accounts, written between June and November 1924, Odell was certain he had seen Mallory and Irvine climbing the second step, but in the expedition account published in 1925, and after mounting skepticism from members of the climbing community as to whether it was the second step or the lower first step, Odell conceded it might have been the first step. After he had been rejected as too old for the next Everest expedition, he recanted his change of mind and returned to the belief that he had seen the two climbers on the second step. Had they done climbed this, there would have been a fair chance that one of them, at least, might have reached the summit.

Speaker of the House of Commons, 1529; Lord Keeper, 1532-1533; Lord Chancellor, 1533-1544, who presided over the trials of Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher. Regarded as the founder of Magdalene College, by virtue of securing its re-foundation through Letters Patent granted by the King, almost certainly choosing the dedication as a pun on his own name. He has the reputation of being not a very nice man (a heart as black as marble).

Matriculated in 1927 and achieved a first class in all parts of the Mathematical Tripos.

Chief Cryptographer at Bletchley Park, during the Second World War, where ‘the outstanding skill and inventiveness of Dennis Babbage and his team’ is now acknowledged (D. Taunt), together with his legendary skill at billiards (Michael Smith, Station X: the code-breakers of Bletchley Park (2000) p 41).

Bye-Fellow, 1931 - 1933
Fellow, 1933 - 1991
Director of Studies in Mathematics, 1934 - 1977
Tutor, 1946
Senior Tutor, 1964 - 1973
President 1973 - 1979 (Acting Master, Michaelmas, 1978)
University Lecturer, 1936 - 1976
Senior Proctor, 1953 - 1954

In March 1962 he married Stephana Gaselee, daughter of Lady Gaselee and the late Sir Stephen Gaselee (Fellow of Magdalene, 1908 - 1943).

He was a distant relative of the 19th century mathematician Charles Babbage but was not a descendant.

Matriculated from Magdalene College, 1929. Bye-fellow, 1935-1936; College lecturer in history, 1936-1982; Official Fellow, 1938; Tutor, 1952 - 1980; President, 1979-1982.
During the Second World War, he served at Bletchley Park as an intelligence analyst, translating and evaluating the Ultra decrypts of the German Enigma cipher.
As a historian, he achieved eminence in two unrelated fields: medieval ecclesiastical history and modern military history.

College Magazine
Obituary by R. Hyam, College Magazine, vol. 46 (2001-02) pp 12-17

Hugh Dalton studied mathematics at King's College, Cambridge changing to Economics part way through his undergraduate studies. He was close friends with Rupert Brooke and President of the University's Fabian Society of which George Mallory was a member. He later served in the post war Labour Government including serving two years as the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

French sculptor in a modified Neoclassical tradition who was known for his use of allegory in his work. In 1850 he began working and studying with a well-known sculptor James Pradier. Following Pradier's death in 1852 Chapu began studying with another sculptor, Francisque Duret. After coming in second in 1851, he won the Prix de Rome in 1855, then spent five years in Italy. His statues Mercury of 1861 and Jeanne d'Arc of 1870 (in which she was represented as a peasant girl) were his first big successes, and led to many commissions thereafter. He is also known for his medals, and led the French revival in the medal as an artistic form.

A Monaco sculptor who achieved distinction in the first quarter of the nineteenth century with his work for Napoleon and for the restored French monarchy.Apart from the imperial busts and the statue of Louis XVI, other important works included the quadriga of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel and the statue of Hercules fighting Acheloos transformed into a snake in the Louvre. Many of his most important sculptures and statues can today be found in the Louvre museum in Paris.

Gregoire trained under the celebrated sculptor Jean Jules Salmson at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and his work was first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1867. His bronze sculptures were often classical in nature and commonly took war and music as their themes, typical of the Academic style in which he was trained.

A French sculptor. He was one of the founding members of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, and was made an officer of the Legion of Honour. His work encompassed all manner of sculptural subjects and materials, and his naturalism incorporated a breadth of styles: unembellished Realism, neo-Baroque exuberance, and Rococo elegance

A French sculptor. He was born in Lille, France, and died in Paris. He studied at the Accademia Albertina in Turin. One of his teachers was Odoardo Tabacchi. From 1885, Villanis lived in Paris and became one of the most productive sculptors towards the end of the 19th century. His female bronze busts, cast by the Society de Bronze de Paris, were exported all over the world from Paris, particularly to the United States. Today his sculptures can be found regularly in auctions.

Eden was born in Newington Green in 1812. He enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools in 1828 and between 1837 and 1881 his work was regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy.
He is best known for his portraits, which included many of well-known people. The National Portrait Gallery in London holds a drawing of him by Walker Hodgson.
Among the subjects of his portraits were the historian Lord Macaulay, Bishop Charles James Blomfield, Archbishop Sumner, the essayist and fashionable cleric Sydney Smith, the sculptor Francis Leggatt Chantrey and Peter Mark Roget the compiler of the original thesaurus. He died in 1901 at Shalford near Guildford.

Matriculated in 1619 from Magdalene College probably aged about 13. His father was John Bridgman (also Magdalene) who was chaplain to James I and became Bishop of Chester in 1619.

BA in 1623 and elected Fellow in 1624. His father wouldn't let him accept the Fellowship on the grounds that they should be reserved for men of more modest means.
MP for Wigan, 1640; University Counsel, 1642; Kt, 1643, Baronet, 1660.

A lawyer who specialised in conveyancing (a critical concern in the aftermath of the Civil War) and was a prominent Royalist. He presided in the trial of the regicides. Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, 1660; Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, 1667-1672 (in effect Lord Chancellor). In Pepys’s view ‘a mighty able man’ (Diary vol 8, p 421), and probably the College’s most eminent lawyer. Patron of the poet Traherne.

Bridgeman's reports, spanning his time as chief justice of the common pleas, are in the British Library (BL, Hargrave MSS 55–58).
Personal papers - there are notebooks and letters relating to Bridgeman family and public affairs in the Staffordshire Record Office, and some miscellaneous correspondence at Longleat.

Arms in Hall glass, W3.

In the College Magazine
Article: 'Sir Orlando Bridgman: the College's seventeenth century legal star'. by N. G. Jones, College Magazine vol. 40 (1995-96) pp 31-36

An English painter active in the later part of Elizabeth I's reign and for most of the reign of James I. In 1604, he was appointed picture maker to the heir to the throne, Prince Henry; and in 1607, serjeant-painter to King James I – a post he shared with John De Critz. Peake is often called "the elder", to distinguish him from his son, the painter and print seller William Peake (c. 1580–1639) and from his grandson, Sir Robert Peake (c. 1605–67), who followed his father into the family print-selling business.

Educated at Christ’s College. Bursar of St George’s Choir School, Windsor.
Fellow, 1949-1989; Bursar, 1949-1977.
Director of A & C Black, publishers. For forty years editor of the Public and Preparatory Schools Yearbook/Independent Schools Yearbook. A bibliophile who was well read in the history of the Victorian church. The University Fives Courts are named after him.

Obituary by R. Hyam in the College Magazine vol. 34 (1989-90) pp 2-6

Admitted to Magdalene as a sizar in 1647, aged 15.
Made a Fellow in 1654 on Parliamentary authority, in place of the ejected John Dacres. He was respected and well liked and his contemporaries considered him an 'eminent tutor' [Cunich, P., Hoyle, D., Duffy, E., Hyam, R., *A History of Magdalene College Cambridge8, 1428-1988, pp. 128-129]

Chaplain to Lord Keeper Bridgeman; Canon of Norwich; Rector of St George’s Southwark, 1668-1680; Vicar of Barnes, 1680.
He died aged 49. Archbishop Tillotson described Burton as of ‘incomparable sweetness of temper’ (Preface to Discourses, 1684).

A fashionable and prolific English portrait painter who exhibited some 138 works at the Royal Academy between 1802 and 1838, and was one of the founders of the Society of British Artists. His work was influenced and overshadowed by his more successful contemporary Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830). Lonsdale was a pupil of George Romney (1734–1802).
Lonsdale, who started off as a pattern designer at Margerison and Glover's print-works in Catterall, was encouraged as an artist by the Lancaster architect Richard Threlfall, of whom he exhibited a portrait in 1809. Lord Archibald, impressed by the quality of his painting and drawing, invited him to Ashton Hall. Here he met two of Lord Archibald's daughters, Lady Anne Hamilton and Lady Susan, the Countess of Dunmore. Feeling that his future would hold more promise in the city, he moved to London, becoming a favourite pupil of Romney's, accompanying him abroad on several occasions. He enrolled in the Royal Academy Schools on 23 October 1801. Lonsdale married a Lancastrian, Miss Thornton, and set up a residence in Southgate.

Typographer and inscriptional letter-cutter in wood, slate and stone, working in Cambridge from 1934, and founder of the Rampant Lions Press.

Made an Honorary Fellow in 1977. He produced many inscriptions and brasses for the College, beginning with the 1939 - 1945 War Memorial designed by Reynolds Stone. Described by Brooke Crutchley, University Printer, as having produced some of the ‘most handsome products of the printing press in this century’, his letter-cutting was perhaps of more variable quality, and not given to virtuoso displays.

In the College Magazine
Article: 'Will Carter and The Rampant Lions Press' by Brooke Crutchley, College Magazine, vol. 26 (1981-82) pp. 41-45
Obituary by R. Hyam and R. Luckett, College Magazine, vol. 45 (2000-01) pp.14-18

David James Poole, was born at St Pancras, London on 5 June 1931, second son of Thomas Herbert Poole (28 December 1897-1978), and his wife Catherine née Lord (29 May 1897-1980), who married at Pontypridd, Glamorgan in 1929. His father was a miner from South Wales who migrated to London to find work during the depression of the late 1920s and in 1939 was a builder's foreman, living at 41 Sidney Road, Ilford, Essex with his wife Catherine. David was educated at Stoneleigh Secondary School and studied at Wimbledon School of Art 1945-1949 and after completing his Military Service 1949-1951, studied at the Royal College of Art 1951-1954. Lecturer at Accrington School of Art 1954-1957 followed by a position as Lecturer at Lowestoft School of Art in Suffolk 1957-1961 and was Senior Lecturer at Wimbledon School of Art until 1977 and married at Winchester in 1958 Iris Mary Toomer. In 1968 elected a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and elected their President 1983-1991. In 1977 commissioned by the City of London Corporation to paint the official painting of the Royal Family Group to commemorate Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Luncheon held at Guildhall and has executed several portraits of the Queen, the Queen Mother, the Duke of Kent, Lord Louis Mountbatten and Prince Philip and many civic dignitaries including Robert Runcie (1921–2000), the Archbishop of Canterbury and many others. He has had solo exhibitions of Portraits and Studies at the Mall Gallery, London in 1978 and an exhibition of Portraits, Drawings and Landscapes in Zurich in 1980. A diversion from his portraits in 2008 saw Poole exhibiting landscape paintings mainly in pastels at the Curwen & New Academy Gallery. In 2002, David Poole was living at Trinity Flint Barn, Weston Lane, Weston, Petersfield, Hampshire. He is sometimes conflated with the Norwich landscape artist David John Poole (1936-1995).

Educated at Northampton School for Boys before studying Natural Sciences at St John’s College.

He joined the family firm, Pianoforte Supplies Limited, started by his father in 1919 to make the metal components of pianos (the firm grew into a major supplier of metal fittings for other trades, especially the motor industry). Cripps became Managing Director in 1960 and Chairman in 1979. The decline in the British car industry in the 1970s caused Cripps to diversify his business interests, and he invested abroad, playing a major role in the creation of Velcro Industries.

He was made an Honorary Fellow of Magdalene College in 1971. He was also an Honorary Fellow of St John’s, Selwyn and Queens’ Colleges, for whom he built large courts; his contribution to Magdalene was the completion of Buckingham Court. (Cripps Court, Chesterton Road, was financed by his sons).

The Cripps Foundation is a charity established in 1956 by the Cripps family which has made huge gifts to universities, colleges, schools, churches, hospitals and museums. Many Cambridge Colleges have benefited from this generosity, as well as the Fitzwilliam Museum. Halls of residence at St John's College, Magdalene College, Selwyn College, Queens' College and the University of Nottingham are named after the Cripps family.

After many years of service to Northamptonshire County Council, he became High Sheriff and later Deputy Lieutenant of the County.

An English portrait painter. He was the most fashionable artist of his day, painting many leading society figures – including his artistic muse, Emma Hamilton, mistress of Lord Nelson.

Educated at Merton College, Oxford, and Harvard University. Poet and critic. Director of Faber & Faber. Elected Honorary Fellow of Magdalene College in 1939. Nobel Laureate, 1948. He bequeathed to the College the manuscripts of The Dry Salvages and Little Gidding.

A British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited BLAST, the literary magazine of the Vorticists.

Lewis was educated in England at Rugby School and then Slade School of Fine Art, University College London. He spent most of the 1900s travelling around Europe and studying art in Paris. While in Paris, he attended lectures by Henri Bergson on process philosophy.

His novels include Tarr (1918) and The Human Age trilogy, composed The Childermass (1928), Monstre Gai (1955) and Malign Fiesta (1955). A fourth volume, titled The Trial of Man, was unfinished at the time of his death. He also wrote two autobiographical volumes: Blasting and Bombardiering (1937) and Rude Assignment: A Narrative of my Career Up-to-Date (1950).

An English engraver and subject painter, the brother of the artist George Dawe. Dawe was born at Kentish Town, near London, in 1790. He was taught by his father, Philip Dawe, the engraver, and he also studied in the schools of the Royal Academy. He assisted Turner on his Liber Studiorum, and mezzotinted many of his brother's portraits. As a painter, he exhibited at the Society of British Artists, of which he was elected a member in 1830. He died at Windsor in 1848.

Born on 21 July 1865 in Edinburgh, the fourth son of William Raeburn, a brewer, and his wife, Jessie, née Ramsay. In 1896 Raeburn joined the Scottish Mountaineering Club, which had been founded in 1889, and within a few years he became its leading climber, recording many classic routes throughout Scotland. He climbed further afield too including the first British guideless ascent of the Zmutt ridge of the Matterhorn in 1906, as well as first ascents in Norway and the Caucasus. In 1904 he joined the Alpine Club (London).

Raeburn was vice-president of the Scottish Mountaineering Club from 1909 to 1911, but later turned down the presidency.

1921 he was appointed lead climber on the the First Everest expedition. By the time the expedition reached Tibet, dysentery had broken out. One member of the party, Alexander Mitchell Kellas, died, and Raeburn himself had to be carried down and spent two months in hospital. Against common sense he returned to the expedition, but he was exhausted and never really recovered. Declining health eventually led to his death five years later. He died, unmarried, at Craig House, Edinburgh, on 21 December 1926.

Son of John Verrall of Southover, Lewes, Sussex. Privately educated.
Admitted pensioner, Magdalene College in 1880 aged 23.