and pulmonary systems. Ultimately the aim is to use such cells in drug development, cell transplantation and organ generation programmes aimed at improving a patient’s quality of life rather than trying to attain immortality.
AN AFTER-DINNER SPEECH
This is an edited version of a speech by the Senior Fellow, Professor William Brock FBA, at a dinner given by the Fellowship to mark his and Professor Owen Chadwick’s 95th birthdays.
It is pleasant to be congratulated on reaching an advanced age, but there is no merit in it – just a biological freak aided by modern medicine.
PART TWO
Recently I watched an interesting TV programme on the rivalry between Harold Wilson and Edward Heath. From time to time, ancient faces, recognized with an effort as people then prominent in public life, appeared on the screen. Suddenly it came home to me that I was born in the same year as Wilson and Heath. This was my generation! What was I doing here? My ‘use-by-date’ was clearly marked.
Nevertheless this item has some rarity value. Give a month or so and I have been a Fellow for half the life of Selwyn College. So long as I live, I shall keep slightly ahead of the half-way point. No other fellow, present or future, will match this.
It is true that for 14 years I was a hybrid – a Professor north of the border and a Fellow here – so, not being a member of the Governing Body, I had no part in momentous change during the seventies, including the admission of women. But the retention of my fellowship has been a great blessing. In later years, long retired from active teaching, widowed and living alone, life would be bleak without membership of the High Table, freedom to attend social occasions, and frequent opportunities to meet old and new friends.
The year in which I became a fellow was significant in College history. In 1946-47, Selwyn doubled in size, a majority of undergraduates had seen military service, and most were here on public grants, a great departure from pre-war days. It proved to be a generation long remembered with gratitude and admiration. The fellowship, though small, included a majority of men who were young, able and ambitious – for the College as well as for themselves. Selwyn must not remain a ‘college which is not a college’: by Royal charter a college, by University statutes an approved foundation. They hoped to see Selwyn win a secure place among medium-sized colleges. Never, in their wildest dreams, did they see this college ahead of them all in its academic achievements.
This introduces a favourite theme: how greatly our lives have been changed by things that not long before have been beyond the range of imagination. I could make a long list of things that no one foresaw when I was twenty. For instance, it would have been 44
Selwyn Calendar 2010-2011