Sir Laurie Magnus: ‘Protecting and Championing England's Heritage: Transforming Places and Improving Lives’

Sir Laurie Magnus: Warden’s Talk, New Hall, Thursday 5 October, 19:00

For the first of the 2023 Warden’s Talks, we are delighted that the Chair of Historic England (formerly English Heritage) Sir Laurie Magnus has agreed to speak.

Sir Laurie was Deputy Chairman of the National Trust from 2005 to 2013 and an elected member of the Trust’s Council since 2003. He was appointed as the Prime Minister's new Independent Adviser on Minsters' Interests on 22 December 2022.

Sir Laurie is a Senior Adviser at Evercore Partners, the investment banking group, and holds a number of listed company non-executive directorships within the finance sector. He has over 40 years’ experience in the corporate finance advisory business, including in South East Asia.

Sir Laurie’s title is deliberately wide ranging, and we look forward to a fascinating evening.

Warwick Goodall: ‘How will we charge all the electric vehicles needed to transition to net zero?’

Warwick Goodall: SLT, Tuesday 10 October 2023, 19:00

The transportation sector is a major contributor to climate change, accounting for about 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The Government has announced that by 2030, all new cars sold in the UK will need to be zero-emission. However, there is a challenge to transitioning to electric vehicles (EVs): how will we charge all of them? The current charging infrastructure is not sufficient to support a large-scale shift to EVs.

Warwick Goodall will set out the challenges for EV charging at a national scale and some of the emerging science, engineering and public policy trends that will power a sustainable future for transportation. These include battery chemistry, smart technology to balance grid demand, and government regulations and subsidy.

Warwick Goodall (College 1991-96) is an expert in EV Infrastructure and Mobility. Warwick founded PA Consulting’s growth practice in Clean and Smart Mobility. Warwick helps clients to understand the changing technology landscape and benefit from digital innovations to serve customers, operate efficiently, maintain their assets, deliver net zero and low carbon objectives, and plan future transport investments in mobility services. Warwick’s team is supporting the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles to enable the rollout of £billions of public and private investment in EV Chargepoint infrastructure. Warwick is a passionate advocate for decarbonisation and net-zero commitments. He was an invited speaker at COP26 Glasgow in November 2021. Warwick is a thought leader on UK opportunities in Future of Mobility and has been interviewed by the Financial Times and London Evening Standard. 

British Art Deco Architecture: Our Love Affair with Houses and Hotels of the 1920s and 1930s 

Pamela Campbell-Johnston: Kenneth Clark Society talk, Musa, Wednesday 11 October, 19:00

Pamela Campbell-Johnston considers a selection of iconic British Art Deco buildings, whilst exploring our continued love affair with one of the most fascinating of 20th-century architectural styles.

From hotels, restaurants and tube stations to apartment blocks, offices, picture houses and lidos, the British public fell in love with this ‘architecture of luxury’ of the 1920s and 1930s.

Highlighting signature examples of both houses and hotels, Pamela will explore the development of this ‘interwar’ architectural style within the context of its social and economic environment.

Pamela has an MA Hons in Art History from St Andrews University and has devoted her career to the Arts with public speaking, guided tours, residential trips, and providing an Art Consultancy Service.  With a particular focus on British Domestic Architecture and Modern British Art, Pamela spent over 12 years at the Royal Academy of Arts. Additional work experience included time at Bonhams Auction House, the National Trust and the Art Loss Register. She is also an Accredited Lecturer with The Arts Society (formally NADFAS).

Studium

Studium: various locations, Wednesday 18 October, 9am to 1pm

You choose whom you would like to listen to - three speakers out of a list of about 20.  A full list will be sent to you closer to the event.

Studium is one of the highlights of the academic year and we hope you will join us.

A morning of remarkable lectures by remarkable people.  You can choose up to three speakers during Studium, a morning when the College invites lecturers from a range of backgrounds to address our pupils. In the past, a mix of explorers, politicians, journalists, diplomats, entrepreneurs, writers, scientists and historians have come to Winchester.  Our speakers talk for about 35 minutes, leaving time for questions. 

Amongst the speakers who have kindly agreed to talk are: Sir Keith Peters GBE FRS FMedSci, Emeritus Regius Professor of Physic, University of Cambridge; Major General Jonathan Shaw MA(Oxon) CB CBE, former Director Special Forces and Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff; the artist Mr. Peter McDonald; and Mr. Russell Stopford, Chief Executive Officer at Stadion, specialists in digital sports.

Talk followed by Q&A by Dr. Iain McGilchrist (OW): Musa, Wednesday 1 November, 19:00

We are delighted that Dr. Iain McGilchrist has agreed to come back and talk at Winchester for a talk followed by a Q&A session. Iain has a wide internet following and is the author or a number of scholarly and bestselling books and articles. To find out more about the remarkable work of Dr. McGilchrist, please follow the link here. 

Dr Iain McGilchrist is a psychiatrist, neuroscience researcher, philosopher and literary scholar. He is a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, an Associate Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and former Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Director at the Bethlem Royal & Maudsley Hospital, London. He has been a Research Fellow in neuroimaging at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore and a Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Stellenbosch. He has published original articles and research papers in a wide range of publications on topics in literature, philosophy, medicine and psychiatry. He is the author of a number of books, but is best-known for The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World (Yale 2009). In November 2021 his two-volume work The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World was published by Perspectiva Press.

War Cloister and the Search for the Missing

Robert Sackville-West (F, 71-75): School, Thursday 2 November, 19.00, War Cloister Series

One of the names commemorated in War Cloister is that of George Cecil (first cousin of Robert Palmer, see Tour of Two Cloisters, 14 October) who died in September 1914 when the war was barely a month old.  His body was hastily buried but not identified until two months later when he was reburied in a marked grave.  More recently, Osmund Wordsworth (Coll, 1899-06) was identified using DNA checks after being among the missing for 96 years.  Killed in action on 2 April 1917, he was buried in an unmarked grave, only for his remains to be rediscovered in 2013.  After identification, Wordsworth was reburied in a marked grave in June 2021. 

These two stories reflect the central theme of Robert Sackville-West’s book The Searchers, in which he brings together those who dedicated their lives to the search for the missing.  Also closely relevant to the story of our War Cloister is the desire to build memorials to those lost.  He will weave his knowledge of century-old searches with some of our own stories, such as those above.  Robert Sackville-West (F, 71-75), 7th Baron Sackville, is a publisher, author and Guardian of Knole House. 

Mike Brearley: A Life in Cricket and in the Mind

Mike Brearley in conversation with Andreas Campomar (C 1984-89): School,

Friday 3 November, 19:00, Philosophy Society talk

Mike Brearley was one of England’s finest captains, for whom cricket wasn’t just a physical activity but also an intellectual game.  When his cricketing career came to an end, he rejected sporting commentary for a career as a psychoanalyst.  Reflecting on sport, philosophy, literature, religion, leadership, psychoanalysis, music and more, Brearley delves into his private passions and candidly examines the various shifts, conflicts and triumphs of his extraordinary life and career, both on and off the field.  He will be interviewed by his publisher, Andreas Campomar (OW) prior to a Q&A session.

Mike Brearley was educated at Cambridge, where he read classics and moral sciences, and captained the university. He played for Middlesex County Cricket Club intermittently from 1961 to 1970, and regularly from 1971, captaining the side until his retirement in 1982.  He first played for England in 1976 and captained the side from 1977 to 1980, winning seventeen Test Matches and losing only four. He was recalled to the captaincy in 1981 for the Ashes home series, leading England to one of their most famous victories.  From 1981, he trained and continues to work as a psychoanalyst, and is a lecturer on both leadership and psychoanalysis. He is the author of the bestselling The Art of Captaincy, On Form, On Cricket, Spirit of Cricket and has written on cricket and the psychology of sport for the Sunday Times, Observer, The Times and Prospect.  He lives in London.

Andreas Campomar (C 1984-89) was educated at Cambridge University, where he read modern history. He worked as a financial journalist and banking lawyer before pursuing a career in publishing.  He is currently publisher at Little, Brown Book Group, where he publishes non-fiction and international fiction.  He is also a Latin American specialist.  He has written and reviewed for, among others, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Financial Times, Literary Review, Times Literary Supplement, Spectator and Standpoint. He is the author of ¡Golazo! A History of Latin American Football.

Andreas Campomar (C 1984-89) was educated at Cambridge University, where he read modern history. He worked as a financial journalist and banking lawyer before pursuing a career in publishing.  He is currently publisher at Little, Brown Book Group, where he publishes non-fiction and international fiction.  He is also a Latin American specialist.  He has written and reviewed for, among others, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Financial Times, Literary Review, Times Literary Supplement, Spectator and Standpoint. He is the author of ¡Golazo! A History of Latin American Football.

Professor Sir Jim Smith: Lessons from the frog help mend broken hearts.

Professor Jim Smith, Crick Institute, Musa, Thursday 9 November, 1900, Science Soc.

Professor Sir Jim Smith is an Emeritus Scientist at the Francis Crick Institute, and he also serves as President of the Zoological Society of London. His research studies on amphibian development have helped better understand heart disease. He was knighted for his services to medical research and science education. 

Useful Enemies: Islam and the Ottoman Empire in Western Political Thought, 1450-1750

Sir Noel Malcolm: School, Thursday 16 November, 19:00, History Society

Dr. Xavier Bray, director of the Wallace Collection:  'Velázquez's Las Meninas: The Theology of Painting’

Dr. Xavier Bray:  Musa, Thursday 23 November, 19:00, Kenneth Clark and Spanish Soc. lecture

We are delighted to announce a Winchester talk from director of the Wallace Collection Dr. Xavier Bray.

Dr Xavier Bray is an art historian specialising in Spanish art and Director of The Wallace Collection, London, since 2016. He completed his PhD In 1999 at Trinity College, Dublin, on Goya as a painter of religious imagery. He was Chief Curator at Dulwich Picture Gallery, London and the Museum of Fine Arts, Bilbao, as well as Assistant Curator at the National Gallery. He has curated a wide range of exhibitions including El Greco, Velazquez, The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting and Sculpture 1600-1700, Murillo & Justino de Neve: The Art of Friendship, Goya: The Portraits and Ribera: The Art of Violence. Since joining the Wallace Collection he has overseen and co-curated several exhibitions including Richard Wallace: The Collector, Henry Moore: The Helmet Heads and most recently with the writer William Dalrymple, Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company. He is also the lead Curator on the Wallace’s current exhibition Portraits of Dogs: from Gainsborough to Hockney, which is open until October 2023.  

Operation Pitting: a personal perspective on the Kabul evacuation

Oliver Wettern (G, 2006-11): New Hall, Wednesday 6 December, 14:40 – 15:40

An OW’s reflection on the events of the coalition’s conclusion of 20 years in Afghanistan.  Oliver Wettern (G, 2006-11) of 3 Para will give a witness account of the Kabul evacuation in the summer of 2021. 

Join Sir Anthony Seldon as he discusses his journey of reflection along the Western Front Way and shares his thoughts on the legacy and memory of the First World War.

Sir Anthony Seldon: School, Thursday, 21 March, 19:00

In 2021, Sir Anthony Seldon set out on a 35-day pilgrimage from the French-Swiss border to the English Channel, tracing the historic route of the Western Front.

His journey was inspired by Alexander Douglas Gillespie (OW), 1889-1915, a soldier who dreamed of creating a ‘Via Sacra’ that the people of Europe could walk to honour the fallen of the Great War.

I would make a fine broad road in the ‘No Man’s Land’ between the lines, with paths for pilgrims on foot, and plant trees for shade, and fruit trees, so the soil should not be altogether waste man, woman and child in Western Europe on pilgrimage along that Via Sacra, so that they might think and learn what war means from the silent witnesses on either side. A sentimental idea, perhaps, but we might make it the most beautiful road in all the world.

Lt. A. D. Gillespie, 14^th June 1915

With others, Sir Anthony has created the Western Front Way, a path of remembrance along the line of the Western Front.  Western Front Way

After the talk, a group will set off cycling from Winchester to Switzerland in memory of Douglas Gillespie – please contact EACR@wincoll.ac.uk if you are interested in joining the trip.

To find out more about Douglas Gillespie, please click  here