January 21, 2010

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Cambridge News
– SIR Winston Churchill’s daughter marked the 50th anniversary of a Cambridge University college named after her father by planting a tree in his memory.

Lady Soames, the only surviving child of Winston and Clementine Churchill, planted a weeping mulberry tree in the grounds of Churchill College on Saturday, near the oak planted by her father on October 17, 1959. She used the same spade he had used.

 

Now 87, she spoke of her pride in helping mark the 50th birthday of the science and technology college founded in her father’s honour.

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She said before the event: “It makes me very happy and proud that today (Monday, 19 October) I shall be literally following in my father’s footsteps in planting a tree in the grounds of Churchill College.

 

“I find it moving that as an elder statesman in the 1950s my father grasped the realities of the atomic age and was the founder of this major institution devoted to the advancement of science and technology.'”

 

Sir David Wallace, Master of Churchill College, said: “Ours is a modern college in an ancient university. It has always aimed to innovate.

 

“The 50th anniversary provides a historic opportunity to build on our achievements.”

 

Churchill College is the national and Commonwealth memorial to the wartime leader and houses the archive of his papers.

 

It was founded in Sir Winston’s honour in 1959 when the former Prime Minister, aged 84, planted a tree on college grounds in a then unoccupied field.

 

The idea for Churchill College was devised by Churchill, Sir John Colville and Lord Cherwell while on holiday in Sicily in 1955.

 

Churchill wanted a purpose-built science and technology college which could emulate and aspire to the work of MIT, which the former Prime Minister greatly admired.

 

However, it was felt that the college should also contain a mix of non-scientists to ensure that scholars and fellows had access to a well-rounded education.

 

In his 1959 visit Churchill made a speech outlining his wish for Britain to continue as a world leader in science and technology.

 

The first postgraduate students arrived at Churchill in October 1960, and the first undergraduates a year later. In 1972 it was the first all male Cambridge college to admit women. Nobel Prizes have been awarded to 24 of Churchill’s members – more than whole countries such as Russia, Sweden and China.

 

©cambridge-news.co.uk

 

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