The Modern College

In the final section of our exhibition we explore the most recent period in New College’s long history.

During this time, the college had to react both to wider events affecting the whole country—most notably two global wars—and to changes closer to home, as higher education liberalised and started to open its doors to a wider portion of society. As we have seen in previous tabs, New College has never stood still. This development has continued right to the present day, with some of the most exciting changes in the college’s history occurring in the most recent past.

Following the success of its refoundation, New College became one of the leading colleges of the entire university in the first decade of the twentieth century. At this point in time, the choir was the best in Oxford and the increased academic success of New College students was praised throughout the university. This achievement is, no doubt, partly due to the efforts of the most famous warden in New College’s long history: Warden Spooner (1844–1930).

Pictured here, Spooner was notable from the time he arrived at New College in 1862. Coming as a scholar, he was the first to be elected from outside Winchester College, following the reforms to the college statutes discussed in the previous tab. Spooner was extremely well liked by all members of college during his tenure as warden, particularly so amongst the undergraduates on account of his ‘Spoonerisms’. These verbal slips of the tongue, where the initial sounds of two or more words are switched, were frequent additions to many of Spooner's speeches at New College—one of the most famous today is ‘Our Lord is a shoving leopard’ instead of ‘Our Lord is a loving shepherd’.

Spooner’s period as Warden was not only marked by academic and musical success at his college. Indeed, it is the sporting prowess of New College that is most marked in this period. The most successful team is pictured below in a photograph now held in the college’s archives (NCA JCR/R/Parker). It shows the New College VIII that won a silver medal during the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm.

The winning of an Olympic medal by a college boat club is a spectacular achievement in itself, but it was not without controversy. The final race was between New College Boat Club and the Leander Club—another British club with rowers mainly from Magdalen College, Oxford.

At such races, it was customary for the choice of lane to be decided by a coin toss. Usually, the winner of the coin toss would offer the choice of lane to their opponents, who would politely decline. During this race, New College won the coin toss and offered the choice of lane to the Leander Club. Instead of declining, though, the Leander Club chose what was by far the better of the two lanes—a decision that was instrumental in their subsequent victory.

Although the Leander Club won the gold medal, the Swedish King Gustav V reputedly presented his colours to New College, believing them to be the honourable victors. To this day, New College Boat Club use the Swedish Royal colours of purple and gold and also use the toast “God damn bloody Magdalen”—a college rivalry that has been running now for over a century.

The peace and prosperity of New College in the early years of the twentieth century would again be shattered by events of national and international importance. As in the seventeenth century, New College would find itself again affected by war—this time by the most destructive conflicts in human history. New College’s students, fellows, and staff signed up in great numbers at the start of the First World War. In total, 1,265 members of college served in the armed forces during the fighting—one of the largest numbers of any Oxford college. As such, the college was virtually empty of students from 1914 for the first time since the college’s foundation.

Although empty of students, New College was by no means unoccupied during this time. Instead, the college was completely transformed by the establishment of a military field hospital in the college grounds. Created for convalescent soldiers recovering from battle wounds, the New College site was part of the much larger 3rd Southern General Hospital that had its headquarters in the Examination Schools. 

In total, five sites across the city were used to support the work of the hospital. As can be seen in the painting, at New College this support consisted of the provision of accommodation in tents in the college grounds. A contemporary painting by the artist Walter Spradberry, it dates from 1919 and shows the hospital at the end of the conflict. 

This hospital, though, was by no means static—instead growing and adapting to casualty needs following major battles on the Western Front. On the map below, click on the dots to discover more about how the hospital developed over time. More information can also be found in this recently published New College Note, dedicated to the history of the hospital.

Sadly, the greatest impact of the war was at a very personal level for the college community. Over 250 members of college lost their lives during this unprecedented conflict—the highest casualty figures of any Oxford College. In a courageous decision, Warden Spooner decided to add the names of all New College members that died on the ‘pro patria’ list posted on the chapel door—including the three German undergraduates who died in the conflict.

A controversial decision at the time, in 1930 New College again recognised these three undergraduates, creating the above memorial plaque in the Chapel in the same design as the existing 1921 New College roll of honour on the south wall of the Chapel. Intended to be an act of reconciliation after a bitter and acrimonious conflict, this 1930 memorial was well received in Germany. It was just one way that the First World War was marked in college—the other substantial work being the creation of a new memorial library. Pictured here in its original plan, this new library was designed by Sir Hubert Worthington (1886–1963) and completed in 1939.

The completion date of the new library would, sadly, be portentous for a yet greater conflict—the Second World War. In this conflict, the novel threat of air raids changed New College in a rather different way to the First World War. Makeshift air raid shelters were created in the cellars of the New Buildings, the Holywell Lodge was used by Air Raid Wardens, and again New College students, fellows, and staff enlisted in their hundreds to serve their country. 

The Founder’s Library, too, was also transformed. As demonstrated in a recent New College Note, the Old Library was formally requisitioned by the Admiralty for use in Naval Intelligence, with the Lower Founder’s Library also temporarily housing Mansfield College’s Library for a brief period as well. Thankfully, Oxford was not the target of heavy bombing during the Second World War, so the air raid shelters were not heavily used. William of Wykeham’s foundation and medieval buildings, therefore, survived another intense period of war without damage, emerging in 1945 into a completely new world.

The extended period of peace after the Second World War was marked by both expansion and liberation in New College. In part, the college was following a much wider trend across society, as governments across Europe began to increase funding allocated to higher education and increasing numbers of students studied at degree level for the first time. In total, the number of universities across Europe increased from 204 to 504 between 1949 and 1984. At New College, though, expansion was not only in terms of numbers (although numbers did increase following the construction of the Sacher building in 1961). More significantly, the gender of the college diversified through the 1970s. 

As greater numbers of women studied for degrees, the question of both female junior and senior members at New College had been much discussed. The University as a whole had started to provide lectures for women as far back as 1873 and had awarded degrees to women from the 1920s, so women’s education in the wider university had a long history by the 1970s.

Not surprisingly, therefore, there were numerous attempts to open up the fellowship and the student body to women. One such attempt was made in the 1960s—an attempt that would most likely have been successful without the resistance of the existing women’s colleges. Although surprising from a modern standpoint, many of the women’s colleges in Oxford were apprehensive about co-education in the oldest colleges in the university, believing that co-education in these colleges would negatively affect their own recruitment.

By the subsequent decade, though, the direction of travel across the university and in wider society was clear. It was not a question of if New College would admit women, but rather when. The wait for this to happen was, in the end, not a long one in the 1970s. In 1974, New College admitted Anne Barton (1933–2013) as the first female fellow of the college. Pictured here in a portrait that hangs in the New College Dining Hall, Anne Barton was a renowned Shakespeare scholar—later Professor of English at Cambridge—and paved the way for the subsequent decision to admit women students in 1979, alongside Balliol College and Magdalen College.

In Michaelmas Term 1979, the first cohort of women matriculated as students at New College—twenty-five in total. Since then the number of female students has grown considerably, with the gender split in each year of admission today being roughly equal. Although they have only been students at New College for a fraction of its long history, female alumni have had a marked impact across several fields after graduation. From literature (Kate Mosse, Rachel Cusk) to history (Lucy Worsley), acting (Sally Phillips), to politics (Susan Rice, Rachel Reeves), women have made a lasting contribution to life at New College and beyond. In 2004, the college recognised their contributions and this important change to its education with a plaque in front of the entrance to the Library. Pictured here, it commemorates the twenty-fifth anniversary of women studying alongside men.

New College has now entered the eighth century of its history as an institution. These first few decades of the twenty-first century have seen many positive developments across college. Firstly, New College is committed to widening access to Higher Education.  New College’s Step-Up Programme currently works with 43 state-schools from across England and Wales.  New College is also part of the ‘Oxford for Wales’ consortium, working alongside Jesus College and St. Catherine’s College to support Welsh state-schools. The college is also committed to supporting local school children and formed a partnership with Wood Farm Primary (an Oxford primary school) which has been facilitated by the charity, The Oxford Hub.

At the same time, the college buildings have been transformed once again with the construction of the new Gradel Quadrangles, thanks to the generosity of New College alumnus Chris Gradel. Pictured above, these impressive buildings form the first ‘curved quadrangles’ in Oxford—housing much need student accommodation as well as purpose-designed student study space and a recital hall for concerts and events. The buildings are also at the cutting edge of academic research, hosting the Gradel Institute of Charity—the world’s first research centre for charity that examines how money raised from philanthropy can be best spent for the maximum benefit.

We have now come to the end of our epic journey through the history of New College.

From William of Wykeham’s original foundation in 1379 to the construction of the Gradel Quadrangles in 2024, we have seen that New College has been a place of both continuity and change—a place that Wykeham would still recognise but also a place that has continuously adapted to events both locally, nationally, and internationally. Indeed, one key thread through the college’s long history has been this continued need to adapt a medieval institution and Wykeham’s founding principles to the pressing needs of each subsequent generation. As we have seen, this adaptation has been mostly successful throughout the centuries, with New College entering the twenty-first century in a strong position. No doubt Wykeham’s institution will continue to build on this success as it approaches its seven hundredth anniversary—and long into the future.