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Father of Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria.

Master of Magdalene College, 1967-1978

Educated at Trinity College, and Fellow of Trinity, 1931-1933, 1946-1950 (University Lecturer in Classics, 1947). Published an extremely successful translation of Plato’s Symposium (1951). Head Master of Westminster School (1950-1957) and of Rugby (1957-1966); chairman of the Headmasters’ Conference. Honorary Fellow , 1978.

‘Not so hearty as Willink, not so pedagogic as Ramsay, not so melancholy as Benson, and not so teetotal as Donaldson’ – Lord Ramsey, on Hamilton’s retirement (College Magazine 22 (1977-78) p 2). What most people remember is his baleful humour.

Further reading:
College Magazine vol. 22 (1977-78) pp. 2-4 (D. W. Babbage)
Obituary College Magazine vol. 32 (1987-88) pp. 11-16 (R. Hyam)
College Magazine* vol. 36 (1991-92) pp. 59-61 (review by R. Luckett)

Painter notable for perceptive portraits and subtle landscapes, stage designer, exhibition organiser and writer, brother of the artist John Hill. He was born Arthur Derek Hill in Bassett, Hampshire. Was educated at Marlborough College, then studied stage design in Munich, Paris and Vienna, 1933–5, and began life drawing. Although he designed sets and costumes for the ballet The Lord of Burleigh at Sadler’s Wells in 1937, in Paris a year later he chose to paint rather than pursue designing. During World War II he worked on a farm in England, painting spare-time. Contributed articles to Penguin New Writing, New Statesman and other magazines. The 1940s and 1950s were busy years for Hill, for he had a first solo show at Nicholson Gallery, 1943; designed for Il Trovatore at Covent Garden, 1947; painted in Ireland and Italy, where he was encouraged by the critic Bernard Berenson; organised the Degas exhibition at Edinburgh Festival, 1952; had a series of shows at Leicester Galleries; and was art director of the British School in Rome, 1953–4, and 1957–8.

Matriculated 1764; 3rd Wrangler, 1768 and Chancellor’s Medalist. Fellow and Tutor, 1782, but later apparently a non-resident Fellow, who was primarily an author. Apart from publishing studies on civil liberties, gaming and duelling, suicide, happiness (a reply to Tom Paine’s Rights of Man), Egyptian mummification, and the promotion of Christianity in India, he also wrote a tragedy, The Captive Monarch in 1794, and a novel, Edington in 1796).
His younger brother Samuel was President of the College, 1778-1786, but is not the subject of a College portrait.

Scottish painter and printmaker, notable for illustrating the works of Bunyan, Coleridge and Kipling. Strang was born at Dumbarton, the son of Peter Strang, a builder, and was educated at the Dumbarton Academy. For fifteen months after leaving school he worked in the counting-house of a firm of shipbuilders, then in 1875, when he was sixteen, went to London. There he studied art under Alphonse Legros at the Slade School for six years. Strang had great success as an etcher and became assistant master in the etching class. He was one of the founding members of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, and his work was part of its first exhibition in 1881. Some of his early plates were published in The Portfolio and other art magazines.

Educated at Trinity College. Fellow of Magdalene, 1818; President and senior Fellow, 1829-1836; Tutor, 1821-1826, 1831-1832; Senior Proctor, 1833-1834. University Librarian, 1822; elected sole Principal Librarian – Protobibliothecarius – in succession to Thomas Kerrich in 1828, a post he held until 1845.
In 1836 there was a dispute with the College about his continued combination of the Presidency with the University Librarianship (which his predecessor Kerrich had not done), and he vacated his Fellowship to take up the College living of Anderby. ‘Lodge had shown more energy, more understanding and more willingness to work at the Librarianship than almost any of his predecessors for nearly two centuries’ (McKitterick, pp. 506-507).

Arms in Hall glass, W2.

A painter who was one of the five sons of Thomas Forbes Walmisley (1783–1866), a London-born organist, composer and ‘Professor of Music’, who also had at least two daughters.
Walmisley trained at the Royal Academy schools and according to Redgrave’s dictionary was also a pupil of H. P. Briggs. Redgrave also says that he ‘became paralysed in his legs early in life’ and that his works ‘were very mannered from want of power to study’. He nonetheless exhibited 21 at the Academy between 1838 and 1868, 18 at the British Institution between 1841 and its closure in 1867 and 16/17 at the Society of British Artists (SBA) during 1840–1872. The majority were landscapes and subject paintings, the latter often derived from literature and drama but the first five at the Academy (to 1841) were portraits.

Walmisley appears not to have married, and lived with his father and his two unmarried sisters. From some point before 1840 this was at 18 Cowley Street, Westminster, but probably from 1843 until 1846 he was in Rome. According to Graves’s Royal Academy listings, a Roman view he sent home in 1843/1844 was noted as ‘painted on the spot’ when submitted for the 1844 Academy show by his father. In the 1844 catalogue itself, his Rome address is given as Café Graeco and, in 1845, Via di Capo le Cose. From then on, Italian subjects from Venice to the Naples area predominate in his exhibition record, including after his return to London in 1847.

In about 1864 he and his father moved to 19 Earl’s Court Gardens, Brompton. His father died there aged 84 in 1866, leaving an estate of under £1,500, Frederick being executor. He died at St John’s Wood on 25th December 1875, aged 60.

Two of Walmisley’s brothers were organists. The eldest, Thomas Attwood Walmisley (1814–1856), became Professor of Music at Cambridge University in 1836. The other was Henry (1830–1857), an organist in London. Frederick’s portraits of them both were lent by their civil engineer brother, Arthur Thomas Walmisley (1847–1923), to the Victorian Era Exhibition of 1897 at Earl’s Court. The fifth brother, Horatio (1827–1905), became a clergyman. Frederick is also recorded in published RIBA papers for 1868–1869 to have done a ‘remarkably good portrait in oil’ of the architect Arthur Ashpitel, ‘representing him sitting and sketching’, of unknown date. (Ashpitel also studied in Rome from 1853.)

While Walmisley was only baptised Frederick (on 26th May 1815 at St Mary, Newington, Surrey) some contemporary and later printed references call him ‘F. W.’ or ‘Frederick W.’ which is seemingly an error.

Matriculated in 1834. Made a Fellow in 1841. Called to the Irish Bar in 1844; QC 1865; Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, 1877-1887, and Lord Justice of Appeal (1878); he narrowly avoided having to try his fellow Old Member, C. S. Parnell, in the case of conspiracy against the payment of rent in 1880-1881 but having dismissed a motion for the postponement of the trial, he was accused of partiality, and did not sit. ‘A learned, painstaking and impartial judge’ (DNB).

Arms in Hall glass, E1.

Matriculated at Magdalene College in 1848. Held a travelling Fellowship from 1854. Made a Foundation Fellow in 1877.
Fellow of the Royal Society, 1870; Royal Medal 1900.
An ornithologist who was the first Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, 1866-1907.
Lived in Old Lodge as a conservative eccentric; however, he was also a world leading pioneer in environmental conservation. British Ornithologists’ Union founded in 1858 from Old Lodge. Sponsor of the first sea-bird protection act in 1868.

Master of Magdalene College, 1781-1797

Educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford in the late 1730s where he was a young tearaway, repeatedly in trouble for being drunk, even during divine service, which he often skipped. A major transformation in his character must later have taken place, perhaps due to his service as an Army Chaplain.
He lost his left arm 'when very young' the result of 'the unexpected going off of his companion's gun'. He was skilful in concealing the injury.

Married Martha Ferrar in 1755.
Vice-Chancellor, 1784-1785.
Dean of Peterborough, 1792-1797.
The first Anglican sermons against the slave trade were preached by Peckard in the College Chapel, leading to courageous and galvanic sermons in Great St Mary’s in 1783 and 1784, and to the prize essay which inspired Thomas Clarkson's campaign. Peckard was also a notable benefactor to the College.

Memorial brass in the Old Library.

College Mgazine:
Article: 'Peter Peckard', College Magazine, No. 1, 1956-57, pp.15-23
Article: 'The Peckard Bicentenary', College Magazine, vol. 42, 1997-98, pp. 29-31

Martha Peckard was a published poet in her day. Her Ode to Spring and Ode to Cynthia were featured in the periodicals The Gentleman's Magazine and The Weekly Magazine, or Edinburgh Amusement. She was the eldest daughter of Edward Ferrar, a lawyer in Huntingdonshire, and she married Peter Peckard in 1755. She ensured the safe transfer of the Ferrar Papers and Peckard's personal library to Magdalene College upon Peckard's death.

Elizabeth de St Michel was born at Bideford, Devon, on 23 October 1640. She was the daughter of Alexandre le Marchant de St Michel and Dorothea Fleetwood. The family lived in Devon, where Dorothea had inherited land. They later lost this property and subsequently travelled between Germany, Flanders, and Ireland. Dorothea, along with Elizabeth and her brother Balthasar, fled to Paris after their fortunes had been undermined by Alexandre's increasingly determined religious views. Her mother intended that Elizabeth should become a nun, and she was briefly placed in the city's Ursuline convent before she and Balty were removed to London by their father.

It was in London that Elizabeth met Samuel Pepys, then in the employ of Edward Mountagu, later first earl of Sandwich. Details of the circumstances of their meeting remain unknown, though it is evident, given that neither party stood to gain financially from the union, that theirs was a love match. The couple were married at a civil service at St Margaret's, Westminster, on 1 December 1655, when Elizabeth, described as being of St Martin-in-the-Fields, was aged fifteen and Samuel twenty-two. By the time of this service the couple had apparently already 'married' in an unrecorded religious ceremony which took place on 10 October, the date Pepys identified as their anniversary during his years of diary keeping.

The early months of their marriage were characterised by antagonism and argument. The cramped conditions of his attic apartment at Whitehall Palace exacerbated both Elizabeth's irritation at the prosaic nature of married life and Samuel's jealousy and sexual frustration which derived, in part, from his own and his wife's recurrent ill health. Within a year of their marriage Elizabeth left her husband to stay with her family at Charing Cross returning to Whitehall in December 1657. In August of the following year the couple left for a house in Axe Yard, Westminster, where they stayed until July 1660 before moving to the Navy Office at Seething Lane.

By this date Pepys had begun a diary, which he maintained daily until six months before his wife's death. Pepys never named her in his journal but referred to 'his wife'.

Elizabeth gained additional leisure time as her husband's career, and salary, improved over the decade. She also enjoyed more freedom than many women of her status on account of the marriage remaining childless.

In June 1669 Elizabeth accompanied her husband and brother on a tour of northern France and the Netherlands. Here she contracted the fever, probably typhoid, which developed during their return journey and from which, aged twenty-nine, she died at Seething Lane on 10 November.

Percy Farrar was born in 1857 in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire. He was President of the Alpine Club between 1917-1919 and was an original member of the Mount Everest Committee (a joint body composed of Alpine Club and Royal Geographical Society members that was set up to co-ordinate the reconnaissance of the approaches to and possible routes up Mount Everest in 1921). He had been party to the discussions that led to this body's formation and proposing the mountain as an achievable mountaineering objective Farrar's role was, amongst other things, to raise funds for the expedition. He was the one who successfully proposed that George Mallory, to whom he had been introduced at one of Geoffrey Winthrop Young's parties at Pen-y-Pass in 1909, should go on the initial 1921 expedition.

Samuel Pepys was admitted as a Sizar to Magdalene College in October 1650, and was subsequently a benefactor to the College. His most notable appointments to which he was appointed are as follows: Secretary to the Admiralty, 1673-1679, 1684-1689; MP for Castle Rising, 1673-1679, and Harwich 1679, 1685; Deputy Lieutenant for Huntingdonshire, 1685-1689; President of the Royal Society, 1684-1686. Pepys kept his celebrated diary ran from January 1660 to May 1669.

Arms in Hall glass, E2.

Further reading:
Latham, R. C. & Matthews, W. eds, The Diary (11 vols, 1970-1983)

Cunich, P., Hoyle, D., Duffy, E., Hyam, R., A History of Magdalene College Cambridge, 1428-1988 pp. 129-130

Article: ‘Pepys and Pascal’ College Magazine, vol. 86 (1955), pp. 5-8 (R. W. Ladborough)
Article: 'The Religion of Pepys' College Magazine, vol. 27 (1982-83) pp. 52-59 (E. Duffy and J. E. Stevens)
Article: 'Pepys and the Law', vol. 30 (1985-86) pp. (R. W. M. Dias)
Article: 'Pepys's Health Problems', vol. 42 (1997-98) pp. 40-45 (M. Keynes)

Among the biographies:
Ollard, R. Pepys: A Biography (1974)
Tomalin, C. Samuel Pepys: the Unequalled Self (2002)

An English portrait painter, a pupil of Peter Lely, who approached his teacher in artistic excellence, but whose life was cut short by a dissolute lifestyle.

Matriculated in 1870. Senior Classic, 1875, Chancellor’s Medalist. Made a Fellow in 1875.
Tutor, 1896-1912
President, 1896-1912.
Peskett was the first married Fellow (1882)

Arms in Hall glass, W2

Obituary: College Magazine vol. 68 (1932) pp. 29-31

Master of Magdalene College, 1642 - 1650 (ejected), 1660 - 1664

Born at Blyton in Lindsey, Lincolnshire, son of Thomas Rainbow, the vicar, and his wife, Rebecca, daughter of David Allen, rector of the neighbouring parish of Ludborough.
Educated at school in Gainsborough and then in Peterborough under John Williams. In 1621 he transferred to Westminster School.
In July 1623 he obtained a scholarship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where his brother was a Fellow, but through the family of his godfather Edward Wray of Rycot, he received from Frances, Dowager Countess of Warwick, a nomination to one of the Wray scholarships founded at Magdalene College, Cambridge by her father.

He matriculated in 1624; BA in 1627; MA in 1630.

He was ordained in April 1632.

1633 made a Fellow.
1637 he accepted the small vicarage of Childerley, near Cambridge, and became Dean of Magdalene.
1642 he was appointed Master in succession to Henry Smyth. He was an effective Master, putting College registers in order, ably managing finances and increasing student numbers.
He served as Master twice, having been ejected for Royalist principles in 1650. He was restored in 1660 and resigned in 1664.
He was appointed Chaplain to the King.
1661 he was made Dean of Peterborough.
1662 appointed Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University.
1664 became Bishop of Carlisle.

Arms in Hall glass, E3.

Master of Magdalene College, 1925 - 1947

A schoolmaster at Eton, 1895-1925. Vice-Chancellor, 1929-1931. The antithesis of A. C. Benson in many ways, and ever the schoolmaster (he even retired into a preparatory school), he was more highly regarded by the Fellows than by the undergraduates. He had some facility as a Latin versifier.

Arms in hall glass, E3.

Obituary - College Magazine, No. 87, 1955-56
Article: 'A. B. R. - A Tribute', College Magazine, No. 79 (1948) pp. 8-9 (F. McD C. Turner)
Cunich, P., Hoyle, D., Duffy, E., Hyam, R., A History of Magdalene College Cambridge, 1428-1988 pp. 233-238
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

A British painter best known for his portraits. Gerald Kelly was born in London, educated at Eton College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and later lived and studied art in Paris. James McNeill Whistler was an early influence. Kelly travelled much, visiting Spain, America, South Africa, and Burma, which inspired a series of paintings of Burmese dancers. He became a favourite painter of the Royal Family. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1930, was the Academy's Keeper from 1943–45, and served as its president from 1949–54.

Born at 71 Chesterton Road, Chesterton, Cambridge, on 14 November 1904, the son of Arthur Stanley Ramsey (1867–1954), mathematics fellow of Magdalene College and (Mary) Agnes (1875–1927). His elder brother, Frank Plumpton Ramsey, became an outstanding mathematical economist.

Matriculated 1923. Regius Professor of Divinity and Fellow, 1950-1952. Honorary Fellow, 1952. Bishop of Durham, 1952-1956; Archbishop of York, 1956-1961; Archbishop of Canterbury, 1961-1974. Life peer, 1974.

Memorial brass in Chapel.

Further Reading:
Reminiscences, 'Magdalene, 1923-1927', No. 30, (1985-86), pp. 19-21
Obituary, College Magazine, No. 32 (1987-88), pp. 4-9

Educated at Hemel Hempstead Grammar School and Aldenham School. Matric 1957; PhD 1964, ScD 2001. Bye-Fellow 1962–1963, Fellow 1964 (Emeritus 2003), Tutor 1974, Senior Tutor 1980–1984, Joint Director of Studies in Natural Sciences. University Lecturer in Biochemistry 1968–2003; Visiting Fellow, Pasteur Institute, Paris, 1996; Hon Member, Société Française de Microbiologie.

Educated at University of Adelaide (LLB), and Oxford (BCL). Professor of English Law, London School of Economics 1970–1990, Professor of Law, Cambridge 1990–1995, Herschel Smith Professor of Intellectual Property Law 1995–2004.
Fellow 1990 (Life Fellow 2004). President 1998–2001.
LLD 1996, Hon QC 1997; External Academic Member, Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition & Tax Law, Munich, 1989 (CMG 2013).

College Magazine
Article, College Magazine, vol. 42 (1997–98) p. 2

Educated at Eton College; Westcott House; matriculated 1950 (Scholar); Chaplain 1956–1960; Fellow and Dean of Chapel 1963–1969; General Secretary of the Church Missionary Society 1975–1985; Bishop of Coventry 1985–1997; Chairman, Partnership for World Mission 1987–1991; International Affairs Committee, Board for Social Responsibility of General Synod 1986–1996. Honorary Fellow 1987, and (resident) Honorary Assistant Chaplain 1997. Prelate of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George 1989 (KCMG 2001).

College Magazine
Article vol. 32 (1987–88) p. 17
Obituary by Ronald Hyam, College Magazine, No. 64 (2019-20), pp. 11-17