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Made an Honorary Fellow in 1965 in succession to T. S. Eliot. This was felt appropriate, not only because of his reputation as a composer, but also because he was a MusD without College affiliation, long associated with the Cambridge University Musical Society. Britten was already in declining health by the time of his election, and the College saw little of him.
Life peer, 1976: Baron Britten of Aldeburgh.

Obituary by J. E. Stevens in the College Magazine vol. 21 (1976-77) pp 7-8

Portraitist who Studied art at Canford School under Robin Noscoe. Attended Bournemouth and Poole College of Art. Held an Exhibition in English at Christ’s College, Cambridge.
Studied Architecture and History of Art. Between 1979 and 1980 he undertook a series of pencil portraits of Honorary Fellows for Magdalene College, Cambridge.

Son of Charles Johnson Brooke, 2nd Rajah of Sarawak, and Margaret de Windt. He was educated at Winchester and Magdalene College (matriculated in 1894). He failed to take a degree as his main interest was horse-racing.

He succeeded his father in 1917. His rule ended in 1946 with cession to the Crown.

Arms in Hall glass, W3.

Daughter of Clayton de Windt, cousin and wife of the 2nd Rajah of Sarawak whom she married in 1869. Mother of Charles Vyner Brooke.
Once estranged from husband after producing the necessary heirs, she returned to London, where she was at the centre of a social circle that included several of the leading literary talents of the 1890s, such as Oscar Wilde and Henry James.
Her younger brother Harry matriculated from Magdalene in 1875, and was afterwards ADC to the Rajah.
As ‘Ghita’ (her childhood name), the Ranee composed the Sarawak National Anthem (1872).

Article 'Margaret, Lady Brooke, Ranee of Sawawak' by Susannah Roberts, College Magazine No. 63 (2018-19)

Painter of historical genre scenes, specialising in Regency and medieval subjects. His art is associated with the pre-Raphaelite movement of the mid-to-late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

In July 1835 Magdalene established a closed scholarship for men from the newly founded King's College, London. Charles Kingsley studied at King's between 1836-1838 but found living at home increasingly restrictive. He left King's and at first entered Trinity College but migrated to Magdalene after winning the scholarship from where he matriculated at Easter 1838. He studied mathematics before getting a First in the Classics Tripos in 1842. He looked back on his years at Magdalene as spent largely 'in drink, horses, gambling, cards, and prize-fighting'. He was a keen oars-man but always remained in the second boat.

Believed to have been resident in C 8 First Court (where Benson placed a small commemorative plaque). Rector of Eversley from 1844, but best known as a novelist (Yeast, The Water babies, etc). Regius Professor of Modern History (whose lectures were moralistic rather than scholarly), 1860-1869. He was not a Fellow, and, when resident, lodged outside the College until 1863; thereafter, his visits to Cambridge appear to have been occasional – he dined perhaps twice a term.

Arms in Hall glass, E2. Memorial brass in Chapel.

Article: 'One of our portraits is missing! Charles Kingsley (1819-1875) by G.W. Atkins, College Magazine No. 57 (2012-13)

Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham succeeded to the title as a boy in 1460. He became Lord High Constable of England, and perhaps the wealthiest Duke in England. Traditionally regarded as a benefactor of the Monks’ Hostel (financing the nucleus of First Court), though it is not obvious why he should have volunteered this role, and we now prefer to speak of the ‘Buckingham Benefactor’, maybe his grandmother, the Dowager Duchess, Anne Neville. At some point in the 1470s, Monks’ Hostel became known as Buckingham College. The Duke, after turning against Richard III, was executed for treason.

Jacobus Houbraken was a Dutch engraver and the son of the artist and biographer Arnold Houbraken (1660–1719), whom he assisted in producing a published record of the lives of artists from the Dutch Golden Age.

Benefactor of Buckingham College, who built part of First Court, probably including the Hall, 1519, but thereafter got into serious debt. ‘Formidable alike by his descent, his wealth, his wide estates, and his connections’ (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography), he was a possible contender for the throne, leading to his trial and execution for treason, on very flimsy grounds.

Painter, who had some repute as a history painter in the reign of Charles II. In early life he went to the West Indies, and narrowly escaped death by poisoning. He returned to England, and was much employed, although 'his Genius was so impair'd by that Attempt on his Life, that his latter Works fail'd of their usual Perfection.' He was considered a rival of Isaac Fuller. He drew in the Academy that then existed, and latterly was scene painter to the play-house in Covent Garden. Some plates in R. Blome's 'History of the Old and New Testament' are probably from his designs. It is not known when he died, but he can hardly have lived till 1747, and be identical with the I. Freeman who drew the large view of 'The Trial of Lord Lovat in Westminster Hall.'

Born in Holland, John Faber came to London in around 1687 and began engraving portraits shortly thereafter. By 1707, he had established a shop near the Savoy in the Strand where he printed and published his own work. Among his more famous mezzotints are portraits of the founders of both Oxford and Cambridge, a set of the heads of the twelve Caesars and twenty-one portraits of the Reformers. Faber's work is noteworthy because he was one of the few mezzotint engravers who often both designed and engraved his plates. His son, John Faber, also became a portrait engraver.

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

Does not appear to be the more famous Henry Holzer who retired in 1968 from blindness.

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).

Composer and music critic. Pupil of Battishill. Organist of St Mary Woolnoth, Lombard St, 1798.
Entered Magdalene as a sizar in 1800. MusD, 1801, for a thanksgiving ode on British naval victories.
Composer of various stage-works and oratorios, beginning with The Prophecy (after A. Pope, The Messiah), first performed in 1799. Author of A Complete and Comprehensive Dictionary of Music (1805) and A General History of Music, from the earliest times to the present (1819).
He would appear to have been more successful in writing about music than composing it. Was said to have had ‘loose notions on religious subjects’.

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

Master of Magdalene College, 1979-1985

Educated at University College, Oxford, and Harvard. Scientific Officer, Research and Experiments Dept, Ministry of Home Security, 1941-1945.
Made a Fellow of Magdalene College in 1945 and was Bursar between 1947 and 1949.
Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds, 1949-1955
Professor of Applied Science, Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, 1955-1960
Vice-Chancellor and Warden, University of Durham, 1960-1978
Chairman of the Committee of UK Vice-Chancellors and Principals, 1967-1970
Chairman of the Royal Fine Art Commission, 1980-1985

Honorary Fellow of Magdalene College, 1969-1978 and 1985-2000. One of the College’s most distinguished Masters.
Opened the new campus of the University of Malta.

In the College Magazine
Article: 'Sir Derman Christopherson - A Welcome' by W. Elkan, College Magazine, vol. 22 (1977-78) pp. 4-7

Article: 'Sir Derman Christopherson: Tribute' by J. E. Stevens, College Magazine, vol. 29 (1984-85), pp. 1-3

Obituary by R. Hyam College Magazine, vol. 45 (2000-01) pp. 8-13

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).

Benefactor of the College, and particularly of the Pepys Library. A Londoner who was Chairman of the Trees, Gardens and City Open Spaces Committee of the City of London, Common Councillor of the Corporation of London; Chairman of Haslemere Estates, 1943-1983. His interests were the built environment, gardens, and Samuel Pepys. Honorary Fellow, 1973.

Further reading:
Article: 'F. E. Cleary by C. F. Kolbert, R. C. Latham & D. J. H. Murphy, College Magazine, No. 23, 1978-79, pp. 38-40
Obituary by C. F. Kolbert, College Magazine, vol. 28 (1983-84) pp. 5-8

Richard Stone was a protégé of Sir Gerald Kelly, and the youngest royal portrait painter for two centuries, painting the Queen Mother, and Princess Margaret, also prime ministers Wilson and Callaghan.

He was born in 1951 and was the son of a Colchester postman. At the age of 4 he was involved in an accident that left him with a fractured skull and permanent deafness in his right ear. He began sketching in a notebook and later painted to communicate with his family and teachers. From the age of eight, he was encouraged by his next door neighbour, Frederick Heron. An amateur Essex painter, Heron taught Richard the basics of art.

When he was fourteen, he saw a portrait by Sir Gerald Kelly at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. He wrote to Sir Gerald saying how much he had admired the portrait and asking if he could possibly help and advise him. This was the start of a friendship that lasted until Sir Gerald’s death in 1972.

One of his earliest subjects was Sir Arthur Bliss, the Master of the Queen’s Musick. After accepting a commission to produce a likeness of Lady Adam Gordon, Richard was invited to paint the Queen Mother’s portrait. The finished work was greeted with tremendous critical acclaim.

In 1992 his portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II was unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery and is his most famous work. To commemorate HM becoming Britain’s longest reigning monarch, Richard was commissioned by The Realms to paint Her Majesty’s portrait again in 2015. Upon completion, it was acquired by The Royal Collection and now hangs in St James’s Palace, London.

Matriculated in 1849, as Fellow-Commoner: a graduate of University College, London, he was refused admission at Trinity, Christ’s and one other College, but after the intervention of the Prince Consort as Chancellor, he was admitted to Magdalene, with dispensations as to Chapel attendance. He was the first professing Jew to become a graduate of the University.

5th Wrangler (not being Senior Wrangler rankled for the rest of his life). President of the Union, 1853.

A commercial lawyer (Inner Temple), specialising in insurance cases, but also keenly interested in International Law, as well as Mathematics and Philosophy. Counsel to the University, 1879, and to the secretary of state for India, 1893; Liberal MP for Southwark, 1880-1887 (which precluded acceptance of a judgeship).

Honorary Fellow, 1885 (one of the first; not 1883 as usually stated). ‘A great lawyer… for the argument of a question of law before an appellate tribunal he had few equals’ (ODNB). Major player in the Alabama arbitration.

Silver candlesticks presented in his memory by his nephew.

Arms in Hall glass, E1.

Obituary, College Magazine No. 17 (1914), pp. 328-330

A British printmaker and teacher of printmaking. He revived the practices of mezzotint and pure aquatint, while expanding the expressive power of line in drypoint, etching and engraving. Short also wrote about printmaking to educate a wider public and was President of the Royal Society of Painter Etcher & Engavers (now styled the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers) from 1910 to 1938. He was a member of the Art Workers' Guild and was elected Master in 1901.

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.

Obituary: College Magazine, No. 44 (2000-01)

An English portrait painter, engraver and sculptor, best known for his portraits of the British royal family. He was elected a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 1948 and served as their president from 1979 to 1983. Elected as an Associate Member to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1954, Hepple became an Academician in 1961

Born in London where his father was a tailor. Educated at St Paul’s School where he was friends with Samuel Pepys.

Matriculated from Magdalene in 1649 and became a Fellow in 1653. Amongst his friends and contemporaries at Magdalene were Hezekiah Burton, Sir Samuel Morland and Orlando Bridgeman.

In 1658 he was made Rector of Brampton Ash in Northamptonshire and in 1661 was appointed as one of the twelve preachers of the University. In 1670 he became Rector of All Saints in Stamford and married Anne Quinsey. In 1672 he published De Legibus Naturae which was dedicated to Sir Orlando Bridgeman.
In 1691 he was made Bishop of Peterborough and only found out when he read the newspaper in a coffee house in Stamford. He was persuaded to accept by his friends although he refused any further appointments. He carried out his new duties with energy and continued his episcopal visitations until he was 80. He was distinguished by his gentleness and humility. He died on 8 October 1718 and is buried in Peterborough Cathedral.

Like Bishop Rainbow (see WA/A/106) he gave all his surplus revenue to the poor, reserving only £25 to pay for his funeral.

Memorial brass in Chapel.

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.

An English mezzotint engraver and print seller. Closely associated with the portrait painter Godfrey Kneller, Smith was one of leading exponents of the mezzotint medium during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and was regarded among first English-born artists to receive international recognition, alongside the younger painter William Hogarth.