A window on the past: Student names discovered in Fellow's room

A window on the past: Student names discovered in Fellow's room 

Following the discovery of several names dating back to the 1870s etched on the window of a Fellow’s room in O staircase, research by the College Archivist uncovered more information about these previous occupants of O7. (With thanks to Dr Charlotte Hammer.)

Sholto Rawlins Pemberton (1858-1937) matriculated in 1876 studying Law. He is one of the men pictured in a surviving 1877 May Boat photograph (see the Gallery below). He was a member of the General Legislative and Executive Councils of the Leeward Islands, 1885-95, where he was Puisne Judge, Attorney-General and Chief Justice. He was also Assistant Attorney-General and Administrator of Dominica, where he died in 1937.

Charles Godfrey Broadwood (c.1859-1919) was admitted as a Fellow-Commoner (a student who paid higher fees in return for extra privileges) in 1879, but does not appear to have graduated. He was living in Jersey as a leather merchant by 1901 but emigrated to America in 1908, returning to England in the years before his death.

Herbert Charles Walter Jones (1860-1909) matriculated at Downing with Broadwood in 1879, studying medicine. Dr. Jones later worked at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, becoming Senior House Surgeon, and also at the Miller Hospital and Royal Kent Dispensary.

Frank John Turner (1856-1956) came up from Exeter School as a Scholar in 1895. He studied Natural Sciences and was Captain of the Boats and the fledgling Rugby team. After graduating, he held various teaching positions before being appointed Headmaster at Drapers’ School, Addington in 1921. He was Assistant Master at King Edward VI School in Stratford-on-Avon from 1923 until his retirement in 1933.

Paul Sison Ham (1891-1957) came up to Downing from Westminster as a Scholar in 1910, reading Engineering. He was Captain of Boats in 1913 (pictured in the Gallery in the May Boat photograph of that year), also trialing for the University. He was a member of the Griffins Club and the Theological and Literary Societies. From 1914 to 1920 he was a Captain on active service with the Army Service Corps and Indian Army. After the war, he worked in engineering and was director of Messrs Ham, Baker and Co Ltd of Westminster and Birmingham.

Richard Burmester matriculated in 1914 and is included on a surviving matriculation photograph (see below). He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1894 after his father emigrated from Portugal. Richard came to the UK in 1914 and matriculated that October, just after the outbreak of the First World War. In 1915, shortly after scratching his name on his window, Richard went to France to serve with the American Ambulance supporting the British Expeditionary Force. (Before the United States entered the war in 1917, more than 2000 Americans in Europe volunteered for the American Field Service as ambulance drivers in France.)

Sadly, the last name remains something of a mystery, as there are no records of a Hardy studying or working in College in 1944. The Lent 1944 Griffin (College magazine) noted that the “College continues to give war-time hospitality to members of the Dominions and American Forces”, so it is possible that one of these may have followed their predecessors in O7 and left a permanent reminder of their short time in Downing.