Sunday 30th November 2014 - A Norman tapestry returned

Last night I was involved in the completion of something that started, for me, in late June.  Then, as I blogged on 17^th June, 2014, I helped to present an 18^th century tapestry to its rightful owner.  It had been stolen from his family’s chateau in Normandy during the Second World War and from 1959 onwards, as a result of a legitimate purchase, had graced the room that we had come to call the ‘Tapestry Room’ in the University.

Yesterday evening I was one of 23 people assembled by the present Count to celebrate the return of the tapestry and its placing on a wall in an elegant salon in his chateau.  Several of the other guests were owners of other neighbouring chateaux, many of them with similar stories to tell of losses of works of art during the war.  But we were celebrating a happy story of return.  The British Ambassador to France and his wife were present, and the French Minister of Culture was represented by her Commissioner for the Normandy region.

It was a moving occasion, just as the event in Sheffield in June in the University Librarian’s office had been.  The Count’s local guests had not seen the tapestry before.  Once glasses of champagne had been served, he embarked a substantial and emotional speech (in French of course) about the loss of the tapestry, the death in a concentration camp of his uncle who had been the owner of the chateau at the time, the other two tapestries that had been similarly stolen, the specific significance of the tapestry to the family (since it was commissioned by them and included a coat-of-arms of a now defunct branch), the discovery a few months ago that the University of Sheffield was now the owner, and his intense gratitude at what he called a  “noble and elegant donation” by the university in returning the tapestry and the “miracle” that this constituted.   The Count had clearly prepared his speech fully, and took me by surprise, since I had not realised there was to be a formal element to the proceedings.  So I felt I had to give an off-the-cuff response – in French – expressing the pride of the University that we had been able to right a wrong (albeit one not of our making), and I was able to add that although I had spent many hours in the presence of the tapestry while it hung on the walls of our university, it looked so much better in its rightful place in the chateau.  The university’s actions were cheered with shouts of ‘Bravo” all round, and throughout the evening guests came up to me and called our actions “honourable”, “principled” and what one should expect from a good University.

So it was a wonderful occasion – worth the long journey out to deepest Normandy for a single night’s stay.  It was a time to be very proud of the University and of our actions, and to make new friends for Sheffield.  We assembled for drinks at 2000 and the party broke up at midnight after coffee and calvados.  But speaking French over dinner for two-and-a-half hours was a challenge – although I don’t think I have ever been flanked by two charming Countesses before in doing so.

Friday 28th November 2014 - Postgraduates from widening participation backgrounds

Having been involved in widening participation initiatives for some years, I have also, for some years, been concerned that outreach and financial support activities intended to bring people from disadvantaged backgrounds into undergraduate studies aren't enough.  Doing an undergraduate degree in Law isn't enough to become a solicitor or barrister - a postgraduate course is needed; a first degree in sociology or geography is not enough to become a professional town planner - a postgraduate professional qualification is needed; it is increasingly difficult get a postgraduate scholarship to do  a research degree without having a Masters qualification first.  And financial support for students from disadvantaged backgrounds undertaking postgraduate qualifications have not been available.

Three or four years ago I proposed to the Office of Fair Access that the University should be allowed to allocate some of its widening participation expenditure towards postgraduate support - but was told that that was not allowed.

This evening we held a celebration for 99 students from disadvantaged backgrounds or difficult circumstances who are now in receipt of scholarships.  Times have changed, and the funding council has created a two year project to explore how postgraduate support can be financed and what the effects would be.  We have matched their funding with finances from other sources, including alumni.  The project will last two years, and the demand from potential students has shown what a pent-up interest there is for such support.  Today has seen the fulfilment of something I have wanted for some years.

But it is the personal stories that are the most affecting.  As I left to collect my coat a woman leaving with me turned to me and said 'Thank you for this.  I'm a mother with three children and without this support I couldn't fulfil my dream of doing a Masters course.'  It's taken too long to get to this position, but that testimony shows the importance of what we are doing.

Tuesday 11th November 2014 - Remembrance

Along, I guess, with several other members of the University Executive Board, I am from the first generation in over a century not to have had direct experience of war or of a wartime economy.  My parents’ and grandparents’ generations were of serving age in the second and first world wars respectively.  I know of relatives who were involved in the Boer War, and one of my wife’s ancestors was a Troop Sergeant Major in the Crimean War and took part in the Charge of the Light Brigade.  I know that the parents of many UEB members did war service, or were conscripted into National Service during the later 1940s or 1950s.  And I know that the father of one UEB member was held as a prisoner-of-war: others of my colleagues may also have that experience written into their family histories – I don’t know.

The modal age decade of University Executive Board members is almost certainly in their 50s (although there are some younger and some older).  For our undergraduate students, many born in the 1990s, it will have been their great grandparents or grandparents who would have been involved in the Second World War.

My own father was in an occupation that was initially ‘reserved’, but that classification later changed and he was called up into the Royal Air Force well before his twenty-first birthday – in other words at the age of many of our final year undergraduates.  My mother was in a reserved occupation throughout the war, but I had female relatives who served in various ways.  I sometimes wonder how our current students would fare put into the same sort of situation. War is now something that passes most of us in universities by.  And I am thankful that is the case.  But I am, of course, cognisant of the students and ex-students who were called up to serve in the two World Wars, and who left their studies to serve in the trenches, in Normandy, the Far East, or in the Royal Navy. 

I was chairing today’s Executive Board, with a very long and complex agenda.  But at 1100 I stopped the proceedings and we observed the two minutes silence.  The Vice-Chancellor had previously left the meeting to lay a wreath at the University’s war memorial.  These were the right things for us to do – both as representatives of the University and in personal capacities as individuals who have grown up – in the UK, in Australia, in the USA – in circumstances of peace.

Here’s a final twist – I’m entering this blog whilst on the train to London to have dinner with an ex-student who has become a very successful businessman and who is deeply grateful for his education at our University.  It will be delightful to catch up with him, and to hear about life in the country he is from and which is now a close partner of the UK.  He is German.