Black History Month Dinner

Homerton College celebrated Black History Month in October and played host to the biggest gathering of Black students in the University’s history – over 200 –and brought 80 prominent Black guests from all over the country to meet them.

Co-hosted by Lord Woolley and by Jesse Panda, President of the Cambridge University African Caribbean Society, the event had a long waiting list. The 80 invited guests included Tunde Olanrewaju, UK head of McKinsey plc; Conservative MP Shaun Bailey; Gillian Joseph, Sky News presenter; Wayne Marshall OBE, distinguished organist; Leroy Logan MBE, founder of the Black Police Association; and Diane Abbott MP, who spoke about being told at school that she would “never amount to anything” yet found the courage to apply, successfully, to Cambridge and to go on to be the UK’s first Black woman MP. Guests were treated to a musical performance by a quartet from the all-BME Chineke! Orchestra, whose founder Chi-Chi Nwanoku CBE was in attendance.

Two special awards were presented. Sister Bernadette Chabongora was a Homerton student in the 1980s, and when she came to the College was slightly older than her cohort and already a nun in Holy Orders. She came from Zimbabwe to train as a teacher, and on her return rose both in the teaching profession and in the Church, to become National Chief Examiner and to help lead her convent through Covid-19. Sister Bernadette, tragically, died in May 2022, and her award was collected on her behalf by Sally Hyde Lomax, one of a group of Homertonian friends who had raised funds to support Sister Bernadette’s work. A lifetime achievement award went to Michael Eboda, creator 17 years ago of the Powerlist, which each year recognises 100 Black individuals, prominent in their fields. Presenting the award, Lord Woolley said “As the publisher of the Powerlist, Michael has never appeared in it – but his creation has done more than anything for the visibility of Black excellence in the UK”.

In September Homerton held a Garden Party to say goodbye to Bursar, Deborah Griffin OBE.

In the journey to full College status and beyond, Homerton has been hugely fortunate with its recent bursars, who have turned a financially precarious teacher-training college into a thriving ‘going concern’, in an environment that supports excellence to the standard required of a Cambridge College.

Deborah Griffin came to Homerton in 2012 and dedicated her energies to the College for ten years, retiring in October 2022. A chartered accountant with a background in consultancy and the hospitality industry, she brought to the College many useful skills and in particular was the perfect person to spearhead the vital development of Homerton’s conference business, which has given the College much of its financial flexibility.

In addition to her professional capabilities, Deborah has the word ‘rugby’ running through her like a stick of rock. She was among the organisers of the first ever women’s World Cup. The year before she joined Homerton she was awarded an OBE for services to women’s rugby, and in 2014 she was the first woman to be elected as a board member of the RFU. She later joined the board of World Rugby, and the month after her retirement from the College she was inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame.

She was steely-eyed in her determination that students should be proud of their College, and let no opportunity go by to improve the facilities students enjoy in their time here.

Alumni coming back to Homerton in the last 20 years will have noticed the furious pace of building work that has accompanied our new status as a full Cambridge College. Even after the Royal Charter of 2010, a long list of new work has been found to be necessary to enable us to fully live up to that status, and the College is deeply indebted to Deborah for leading much of that long building campaign.

The huge residential and commercial development of ‘Homerton Gardens’ (on 3.5 acres of adjacent land purchased by the College) dominated Deborah’s early years at Homerton and brought a revenue stream that enabled future projects. Accommodation at Harrison House (completed in 2006) was insufficient for a growing community of postgraduates, and so Deborah led construction of a new block – twice the size of Harrison House – which became Morley House in 2016. Since then, the College has seldom been without a construction project.

Some are more visible than others: the glorious new Dining Hall and the Griffin Bar in the centre of the College are hospitable and welcoming spaces, but just as important to the running of the College are the new buildings for the Gardens and Maintenance teams. And some are not visible at all: an array of twelve 150-metre ground-source heat pumps is hidden discreetly under the lawns.

Deborah was adamant that the point of investing in buildings was ultimately to invest in people, and thanks to her energies the College community enjoys many wonderful amenities unknown to the students of ten years ago.

Deborah was a hugely active member of College life, regularly participating in college events. As she leaves Homerton after 10 years of dedicated service, we are deeply grateful for all that she has done for the College.