New members join the St. Clare's family
125 students and staff, from more than 26 countries, joined together in one of Oxford's oldest
traditions: Formal Dinner in college. This was the moment when over 100 new members from our
International Further Education College were officially added to the St. Clare's family – a family
that has been growing ever since our foundation almost 60 years ago.
The magnificent dining room at
Pembroke College (founded in 1624 as part of the University of Oxford)
provided the venue for the event. Whilst the traditions of high table and 3 lower tables, walls lined
with portraits of famous alumni – and the good food and good wine - enhanced the experience.
We were also reminded that we followed in the footsteps of many famous students and fellows of Pembroke
College:
- Samuel Johnson (whose influential ‘Dictionary of the English Language' was published in 1755);
- James Smithson (who left a legacy to the world's largest museum, the Smithsonian in Washington
DC in the 1830s);
- Senator J William Fulbright (who set up an international exchange scholarship program between the
US and 155 countries);
- Radek Sikorski (who was made foreign minister of Poland in 2007);
- Viktor Orbán (who was elected Prime Minister of Hungary in 2010);
- King Abdullah II (who became King of Jordan in 1999);
- JRR Tolkien (who wrote The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings whilst a fellow at Pembroke in the 1940s);
- Roger Bannister (former Master of Pembroke, who, in 1954, in Oxford on the Iffley Road track,
ran the first 4 minute mile).
September
