GCR
Fellowship
News from the GCR A message from Kara Juul (DPhil Oriental Studies, 2016) & Nainika Dinesh (MPhil
T
Modern South Asian Studies, 2018), GCR Presidents 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 more Antonians than ever, and the ambience of the Dining Hall during these dinners given a makeover. Meanwhile, to the excitement of every weary student, the Welfare team brought back the serving of bespoke ‘Barefoot’ cake at the weekly tea & cake sessions. Everyone is pleased to support St Antony’s local businesses, particularly when doing so involves delicious cakes! Welfare tea every week was accompanied by small activities like mindfulness, and craft sessions for those wanting a break from academics. The Academic tea m continued to deliver its popular roster of events including Jolly Good Fellows, Language The GCR committee immersion nights, and the Research in Progress Colloquiums. The academic team focused on providing as also organized a one day interdisciplinary conference themed ‘Ages of Disorder: many opportunities as Opportunities and Challenges’. This year also saw the introduction of exam possible for students to practice sessions to help students prepare for Oxford’s unique exam environment. mix and make memories Writing boot camps were also organized for those looking for a focused space to write without distraction. Organised inside a beautiful yurt, Mental Health Awareness Week brought the Oxford community together to pause during a busy term and talk about mental health. St A ntony’s Mental Health Awareness Week, supported by the Antonian Fund, draws students from all colleges and has been recognised as an important and necessary annual event in Oxford. The week was packed with serious talks and discussions on anxiety, depression, and supporting friends to mix and make memories, flex their intellectual muscles, and and mindfulness sessions. We had a special guest, Lama Aria rest up during the fast pace of studying at St Antony’s. Some Drolma who visited from New York to discuss her journey from of the highlights included the return of the phenomenally supermodel to Buddhist lama and lead meditation sessions. popular bops (HalloQueen enjoying its 21st anniversary), Social activities like celidih, movie nights, comedy nights were Research in Progress conferences, and Mental Health Awareness very popular during the week. And of course, there were alpacas! week activities. A ‘Kids BOP’ was introduced and well received by the parent The GCR Committee itself underwent a long-overdue population at Oxford and will be established as a regular St shakeup. Streamlining processes, consolidating positions Antony’s termly event. The GCR looks forward to packing in of responsibility (and adding much needed new ones), and good memories of fun events, and informative workshops in the overhauling the constitution. This has allowed us to build our Hilda Box next year. teams in a new way to ensure continuity even in a college with a high percentage of one-year masters students. Continuing St Antony’s strong tradition of hosting social activities that draw fans from the entire Oxford college community, the social team held a record-breaking number of bops which filled the Hilda Besse and stretched over two floors. The summer themed ‘Goodbye BOP’ bid farewell to the Hilda Besse and to students who were leaving Oxford at the end of Trinity term. Proceeds from these were funnelled into GCR Welfare activities. Formal dinners were expanded to include
14
he 2018-2019 academic year marks the last spent in the ‘old’ Hilda Besse Building, and many of the activities were designed as a great send off for the building that has been home to generations of Antonians. To make sure our community stays strong as we move into more turbulent (yet exciting!) times the GCR committee focused on providing as many opportunities as possible for students
As well as organising events to give the Hilda Besse a good send off, there were regular pastoral and academic activities, including Barefoot cakes and Language Immersion nights.
The Hudson Fellowship Captain Chris O’Flaherty Royal Navy (Hudson Fellow, 2017-18)
O
ne thread of St Antony’s 21st century history is that of the naval Hudson Fellows, elected annually to research on topics related to International Relations, politics and maritime policy. A bequest in 1995 to Oxford University by the late Lieutenant Richard Guy Ormonde Hudson DSC RNVR stipulated that half-a-million pounds from his estate should be used ‘for the education of Royal Navy and Royal Marine Officers at the University.’ The details of how to enact this wish had vexed his executors until they approached Professor Bob O’Neill at All Souls College, who had informed the Royal Navy that whilst his own college would be unable to accommodate such wishes, he knew somewhere that may be ideal. To quote from one recollection, Professor O’Neill then ‘made a few telephone calls’, contacting some friends at St Antony’s College who had developed a particularly good programme for Visiting Research Fellows. The situation was thus explained to the Governing Body Fellows of St Antony’s. Guy Hud son had st ud ied Jurisprudence for one year at St John’s College, matriculating just after the outbreak of World War II. Abandoning his studies in order to instead serve his country, he joined the Royal Navy in September 1940. Quickly thrust into the action of a brutal war, Guy Hudson was assigned as an Ordinary Seaman ‘Coder’ in HMS Sikh, a Tribal Class frigate of 2,500 tons. From the bridge he witnessed his ship torpedo the German Battleship Bismarck before she was sunk by the devastating gunnery of HM Ships King George V and Rodney. He then witnessed for himself the horrors of war when ordered to cease recovering survivors due to the presence of the German submarine U-74. Selected for Officer training, Guy Hudson qualified to serve in Motor Torpedo Boats. However, he was also by now probably suffering from PostTraumatic Stress Disorder. Having turned to drink to suppress his dark memories, he was sent to the Mediterranean where he served with bravery and distinction, including an especially daring raid sailing into Kelibia Harbour on the Tunisian coast, whilst it was still occupied by Axis forces, to attack and sink the enemy
barges therein. On returning to England, he used his operational experience to pioneer then execute radar control tactics that proved decisive in protecting the flanks of the D-Day landings in 1944. In November of that year he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, ‘for outstanding enterprise and skill in preventing the enemy from bringing supplies to and withdrawing troops from Le Havre.’
Since its inception there have been 28 UK Hudson Fellows and 19 US Hudson Fellows Guy Hudson then demobilised and qualified as a solicitor, concurrently refining his favourite tipple. Known as a ‘Hudson Heart Starter’, it was an especially strong version of a Gin and Tonic. Supported by alcohol, he made a good living until drink consumed his life and he lost everything, including his wife. After being struck-off as a solicitor he found new love, dried himself out and then played the stock market to make the fortune that is now the Guy Hudson Memorial Trust. A 1997 motion proposed to St Antony’s Governing Body by Professor Archie Brown agreed that the college would act as the primary host for the proposed Fellowship. The Royal Navy then nominated Captain (later Commodore) Guy Challands to be their first Hudson Fellow. Between October 1997 and September 1998 he developed a thesis titled ‘Sense about European Defence: affordable arms procurement through collaboration?’ He was succeeded as Hudson Fellow by Commodore (later Vice Admiral) Tim Laurence who, mentored by Warden Sir Marrack Goulding, published a paper on ‘Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Assistance – an uneasy alliance.’ With the formidable reputation of the Royal Navy’s Hudson Fellowship spreading internationally, the United States Navy in 2000 wrote to St Antony’s; the Trustees of Hudson’s British Fellowship then agreed to share the name with our American counterparts, even though the US would fund their own Fellow. Since its inception there have been 28 UK Hudson Fellows and 19 US Hudson
HMS Sikh, 1939. Credit: Medway Studios.
Fellows, with research ranging from piracy to people, and from maritime law to humanitarian relief. 42 Fellows have been hosted at St Antony’s College, making the College the mainstay of our Oxford Fellowship. And every year many now gather to continue collaboration and research as well as to remember our benefactor, with Gin and Tonic as one of our drinks of choice. The biography of Guy Hudson and a full history of the Hudson Fellowship has been published by Choir Press and is available in the College Library, as well as from booksellers (ISBN 978-1-78963-062-6).
Crash Start: The Life and Legacy of Lieutenant Richard Guy Ormonde Hudson DSC RNVR. Gloucester: Choir Press, 2019.
15