OLD PERSEANS
Obituaries We are saddened to report the death of the following OPs:
John Polkinghorne (1948) Alan Weeds (1958) writes: John was born on 16 October 1930 in Weston-Super-Mare, educated initially in Street in Somerset, he joined The Perse in the 4th form when his father became Head Postmaster in Ely. He participated in many school activities, including becoming co-editor of The Pelican alongside Sir Peter Hall (1949). Victor Sederman taught him the intoxicating powers of mathematics and he was awarded a major scholarship at Trinity College to read mathematics, specialising in high-energy physics. Elected a Fellow of Trinity in 1954, a year later he married Ruth Martin whom he had met at the Christian Union (Ruth sadly died in 2006). After a brief period teaching in Edinburgh, John returned to Cambridge as Reader in Theoretical Physics, becoming Professor of Mathematical Physics in 1968. This was a very exciting time in quantum physics, with the discovery of quarks as subatomic particles in neutrons and protons in 1964. Unravelling the mysteries of subatomic physics continued, with the discovery of the Higgs boson (nicknamed the “God particle”) in 2012. John was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1974 and served as Chairman of the Nuclear Physics Board in 1978–9. In 1979, approaching the age of 50, he changed career entirely by becoming ordained, to the incredulity of many Fellows of Trinity. After training at Westcott House he served as a parish priest for four years but returned to Cambridge in 1986 as Dean of Trinity Hall. In 1989 he was elected President of Queens’ College.
John’s passion for understanding the mysteries of particle physics now collided with a passion for understanding the mysteries of religion and in particular of ontology. Over a period of 30 years he published more than 20 books focusing on the belief in God in an age of science, including an autobiography “From Physicist to Priest” in 2007. John’s unshakeable Christian faith convinced him that belief in God through the Christian tradition was not just compatible with scientific understanding but that the physical reality of the world could be explained in terms of God’s purposes, something many scientists find hard to reconcile, not least because of advances in our understanding of the origins of the universe and of Darwinian evolution in the light of DNA sequencing. Like Einstein, he believed that mystery was at the centre of all art and all science and retained that sustaining sense of wonder throughout his life. He also believed that we have a duty to help society behave responsibly both for present practice and provision for future generations. He served on many committees related to medical ethics, chaired the Science, Medicine and Technology Committee of the Church of England’s Board of Social Responsibility and also a working party on cloning, held jointly with the Human Embryology Authority. John was Trinity’s representative Governor at The Perse for many years and Chairman of the Board from 1972 to 1982. Tony Melville, 20
the then Headmaster wrote “It was fortunate for The Perse and for me that John Polkinghorne was prepared to take on the Chairmanship of Governors, by no means a sinecure. He steered us through some controversial years; he knew what the school was for and his contact with it gave confidence to all of us. I shall always be grateful for the firm and understanding way in which he steered the governing body, as well as remembering him as a friend”. John was appointed KBE in 1997 and in 2002 awarded the Templeton prize, which celebrates scientific and spiritual curiosity, “harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest questions of the universe and humankind’s place and purpose within it”. He used much of the prize money to establish a lectureship at Queens’. I knew John as Fellow at Trinity from 1975 and overlapped with him as a Governor at The Perse, but most of all, I treasure the termly meetings of the “Triangle Club”, where senior academics in Science, Philosophy and Theology met for dinner and talks on matters of common interest, often with an outside speaker. There, over many years, I increasingly admired him for his intellect and breadth of understanding, his modesty and essential humanity, and his infectious smile. John sadly passed away on 9 March 2021 and is survived by his daughter and two sons.
David Emerson (1949) Neil Emerson (1985) writes: David was born in Birmingham in 1931. The family moved to Cambridge and David attended the Milton Road Primary School followed by The Perse after winning a scholarship. He vividly recalled Headmaster HA Wooton, who was pranked by the Sixth Form by writing “Gob” on all the
