College celebrates 50th Anniversary

• The College celebrates its 50th Anniversary with numerous events throughout the year including the 50th anniversary Summer Ball and 50th anniversary exhibition on the College’s scientists.
• Robert Edwards, Fellow, awarded Nobel Prize for in-vitro fertilization.
• Alumnus Michael Cowan (U70) becomes the first Benefactor Fellow.
• College ranked 3rd in Tompkins Table (Tripos results): highest in 20 years.
• Event for 30th anniversary of Canon Noel Duckworth’s death.

Canon Noel Duckworth (1912-80), the first College chaplain, much beloved among early students, was cox of the Cambridge crew, 1934-6, and of the British crew at Hitler’s Berlin Olympics, 1936; captured by the Japanese at the fall of Singapore, 1942, and survived the POW camps; saved many lives by his camaraderie and skilful defiance in dealing with Japanese captors. His heroism is celebrated in Russell Braddon’s The Naked Island (1951), dedicated to Duckworth, ‘who lived more fearlessly and more gently than all others’. He featured on the popular 1950s television show This is Your Life. Chaplain, St John’s College, Cambridge, 1946-8; Senior Tutor, University College, Gold Coast (Ghana), 1948-58, before serving at Churchill.