Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Trinity is the largest and richest of the colleges in Cambridge, and is now a home to around 656 undergraduates, 320 graduates, and over 160 Fellows. In per student terms, Trinity is one of the wealthiest educational establishments in the world (second only to All Souls College in Oxford which does not admit undergraduate students), with an endowment of almost a billion pounds.

Trinity's sister college is Christ Church, Oxford, which was founded by Henry VIII in the same year.

Trinity has many college societies: its rowing club is the First and Third Trinity Boat Club. The college May Ball is regarded by many as one of the highlights of the Oxbridge social calendar.

Trinity has a strong academic tradition and has provided four Fields Medallists, as well as 31 Nobel prize laureates since they were first awarded in 1901. Trinity College and King's College were for decades the main recruiting grounds for the Cambridge Apostles, an elite, intellectual secret society.

History

The college was founded by Henry VIII in 1546 and most of its major buildings date from the 16th and 17th centuries. Trinity was formed by combining Michaelhouse and King's Hall, two older colleges. Michaelhouse had existed since 1324; King's Hall had been established by Edward II in 1317 and refounded by Edward III in 1337.

Much of the college was re-designed and re-built by Thomas Nevile, who became Master of Trinity in 1593. This work included the enlargement and completion of Great Court, and the construction of Nevile's Court between Great Court and the river Cam. Nevile's Court was completed in the late 17th century when the Wren Library, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, was built.

Buildings

Great Court (principally 1599–1608, various architects)

The brainchild of Thomas Nevile, who demolished several existing buildings on this site.

King's Hostel (1377–1416, various architects)

Located to the north of Great Court, behind the Clock Tower, this is (along with the Great Gate), the sole remaining building from King's Hall.

Nevile's Court

(1614, unknown architect): Located between Great Court and the river, this court was created by a bequest by the college's master, Thomas Nevile.

Wren Library (1676–1695, Christopher Wren)

Located at the west end of Nevile's Court.

Bishop's Hostel (1671, Robert Minchin)

A detached building to the south-west of Great Court, and named after John Hacket, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. Additional buildings were built in 1878 by Arthur Blomfield.

New Court (or King's Court; 1825, William Watkins)

Located to the south of Nevile's Court, and built in Tudor-Gothic style, this court is notable for the large tree in the centre.

Whewell's Court (1860 & 1868, Anthony Salvin)

Located across the street from Great Court, these two courts were entirely paid for by William Whewell, the then master of the college.

Angel Court (1957–1959, HC Husband)

Located between Great Court and Trinity Street.

Wolfson Building (1968–1972, Architects Co-Partnership)

Located to the south of Whewell's Court, on top of a podium above shops, this building resembles a brick-clad ziggurat.

Blue Bloar Court (1989, MacCormac Jamieson Prichard and Wright)

Located to the south of the Wolfson Building, on top of podium a floor up from ground level.

Burrell's Field (1995, MacCormac Jamieson Prichard)

Located on a site to the west of the main College buildings.

Traditions

The Great Court Run is an attempt to run round the perimeter of Great Court (approximately 367 metres), in the 43 seconds taken for the clock to strike twelve. Students traditionally attempt the complete the circuit on the day of the Matriculation Dinner. The only people believed to have actually completed the run in time are Lord Burghley in 1927 and Sebastian Coe when he beat Steve Cram in a charity race in October 1988.

One Sunday each June (the exact date depends on the university term), the College Choir perform a short concert immediately after the clock strikes 12 noon. Known as Singing from the Towers, half of the choir sings from the top of Great Gate, while the other half sings from the top of the Clock Tower (approximately 60 metres away), giving a strong antiphonal effect. Midway through the concert, a brass band performs from the top of Queen's Tower. Later that same day, the College Choir gives a second open-air concert, known as Singing on the River, where they perform madrigals (and arrangements of popular songs) from a raft of punts on the river.

Another tradition relates to a wooden duck (known as the Mallard), which resides in the rafters of the Great Hall. Students occasionally move the duck from one rafter to another (without permission from the college).

Scholarships and Prizes

Trinity offers a Junior Scholarship (principally a monetary award and also, as of present, preference in the 3rd year room ballots) to undergraduates who achieve a first-class result in their first part of Tripos. Undergraduates who achieve such a result in subsequent parts of Tripos are granted a Senior Scholarship. This award can also be gained by first year undergraduates who finish very close to the top of their year. High achievers may also be offered financial support for proceeding with a Masters or PhD thesis. The highly regarded right to walk on the grass in the college courts is exclusive to Fellows of the college. Scholars do however have the right to walk on Scholar's Lawn, but only in full academic dress.

Related pages

• Cambridge
• University of Cambridge
• Michaelhouse
• King's Hall
• Great Court
• Nevile's Court
• Wren Library

Notable Alumni

Trinity Nobel Prize winners

• 1904 Lord Rayleigh (Physics)
• 1906 J. J. Thomson (Physics)
• 1908 Lord Rutherford (Chemistry)
• 1915 William Bragg (Physics)
• 1915 Lawrence Bragg (Physics)
• 1917 Charles Glover Barkla (Physics)
• 1922 Niels Bohr (Physics)
• 1922 Francis Aston (Chemistry)
• 1922 Archibald V. Hill (Physiology or Medicine)
• 1925 Sir Austen Chamberlain (Peace)
• 1928 Owen Willans Richardson (Physics)
• 1929 Sir Frederick Hopkins (Physiology or Medicine)
• 1932 Edgar Douglas Adrian (Physiology or Medicine)
• 1936 Sir Henry Dale (Physiology or Medicine)
• 1937 George Paget Thomson (Physics)
• 1950 Bertrand Russell (Literature)
• 1951 Ernest Walton (Physics)
• 1952 Richard Synge (Chemistry)
• 1962 John Kendrew (Chemistry)
• 1963 Alan Lloyd Hodgkin (Physiology or Medicine)
• 1963 Andrew Huxley (Physiology or Medicine)
• 1973 Brian David Josephson (Physics)
• 1974 Martin Ryle (Physics)
• 1977 James Meade (Economic Sciences)
• 1978 Pyotr Kapitsa (Physics)
• 1980 Walter Gilbert (Chemistry)
• 1982 Aaron Klug (Chemistry)
• 1983 Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (Physics)
• 1996 James Mirrlees (Economic Sciences)
• 1998 John Pople (Chemistry)
• 1998 Amartya Sen (Economics)

Other notable alumni

• George Gascoigne 1525–1577 Poet, dramatist – Jocasta, The Glasse of Government
• John Dee 1527–1608 Alchemist, geographer, mathematician
• Sir Edward Coke 1552–1634 Lawyer, politician; Chief Justice of the King's Bench
• Sir Francis Bacon 1561–1626 Lawyer, philosopher; Lord Chancellor
• Sir Henry Spelman 1562–1641 Antiquary – 'Reliquiae Spelmannianae'
• Sir John Coke 1563–1644 politician
• Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex 1566–1601 Soldier, courtier to Elizabeth I; executed for rebellion
• Giles Fletcher 1588–1623 Poet – Christ's Victory and Triumph
• George Herbert 1593–1633 Poet – The Temple; MP (Montgomery)
• Thomas Randolph 1605–1635 Poet, dramatist
• Sir John Suckling 1609–1642 Poet, dramatist
• John Pell 1610–1685 Mathematician
• Abraham Cowley 1618–1667 Poet, dramatist – The Mistress
• Andrew Marvell 1621–1678 Poet -'Horatian Ode', The Rehearsal Transpros'd; MP (Hull)
• George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham 1628–1687 Wit, politician, dramatist – The Rehearsal; member of the 'Cabal'
• John Ray 1627–1705 Naturalist; created the principles of plant classification
• John Dryden 1631–1700 Poet Laureate -Absalom and Achitophel; Translator of Virgil
• Francis Willughby 1635–1672 Naturalist
• Sir Isaac Newton 1642–1727 Mathematician, physicist; MP (Cambridge University)
• George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys 1645–1689 Judge – 'Bloody Assizes'; Lord Chancellor
• Nathaniel Lee 1649–1692 Dramatist – The Rival Queens
• Charles Montagu, 1st Duke of Manchester (1656–1722) Whig statesman
• Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax 1661–1715 Founded Bank of England, 1694; Chancellor of Exchequer
• Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset 1662–1748 Politician and Whig Grandee
• George Montague-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax 1716–1771 Secretary of State
• John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich 1718–1792 First Lord of the Admiralty; invented the 'sandwich'
• Richard Cumberland 1732–1811 Playwright – The Brothers, The West Indian
• Thomas Nelson 1738–1789 Signatory of the American Declaration of Independence
• Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine 1750–1823 Lord Chancellor, jurist
• George Crabbe 1754–1832 Poet; did not matriculate
• Richard Porson 1759–1808 Classical scholar
• Spencer Perceval 1762–1812 Prime Minister 1809–1812 (Tory); assassinated
• Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey 1764–1845 Prime Minister 1830–1834 (Whig); Great Reform Act (1832)
• Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford 1765–1802 Whig aristocrat
• John Copley, 1st Baron Lyndhurst 1772–1863 Lawyer; Lord Chancellor 1827–1830; 1834–1835; 1841–1846
• William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne 1779–1848 Prime Minister 1834, 1835–1841 (Whig)
• Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne 1780–1863 Whig statesman
• Charles Pepys, 1st Earl of Cottenham 1781–1851 lawyer, Lord Chancellor 1846–1850
• John Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl Spencer 1782–1845 Known as Lord Althorp; Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Henry Goulburn 1784–1856 Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Adam Sedgwick 1785–1873 Geologist
• George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron 1788–1824 Poet – `She Walks in Beauty', Don Juan
• Charles Babbage 1791–1871 Mathematician; Built the forerunner of modern computers
• Constantine Henry Phipps, 1st Marquess of Normanby 1797–1863 Politician
• Thomas Macaulay 1800–1859 Historian, essayist
• William Fox Talbot 1800–1877 Inventor of photography
• Sir George Airy 1801–1895 Astronomer, geophysicist
• William Smith O'Brien 1803–1864 Irish Nationalist
• Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton 1803–1873 Novelist – The Last Days of Pompeii; politician
• James Challis 1803–1882 Astronomer; twice observed Neptune without noting it, before its discovery
• Frederick Maurice 1805–1872 Theologian, writer, Christian Socialist
• Augustus De Morgan 1806–1871 Mathematician; symbolic logic
• Richard Chenevix Trench 1807–1888 Poet, Archbishop of Dublin; Theorist of English Language
• James Spedding 1808–1881 Scholar; editor of Bacon's Works
• Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton 1809–1885 Politician, man of letters
• Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson 1809–1892 Poet – Maud, In Memoriam
• Edward FitzGerald 1809–1883 Poet – `The Rubá iyá t of Omar Khayyá m'
• William M. Thackeray 1811–1863 Novelist – Vanity Fair, Henry Esmond
• Tom Taylor 1817–1880 Scottish dramatist; editor of Punch
• Thomas Francis Wade 1818–1895 Diplomat; invented Wade-Giles Chinese transliteration
• John Manners, 7th Duke of Rutland (also known as Lord John Manners) 1818–1906 Conservative statesman
• Arthur Cayley 1821–1895 Mathematician; non-Euclidean geometry, invented matrices
• Sir Francis Galton 1822–1911 Scientist; meteorology, heredity
• Brooke Westcott 1825–1901 Canon of Westminster, Bishop of Durham
• Edward Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby 1826–1893 Foreign Secretary
• William Waddington 1826–1894 French Prime Minister 1879; archaeologist
• Sir William Vernon Harcourt 1827–1904 Liberal statesman; home secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Hugh Childers 1827–1896 Australian statesman, then British Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Joseph Barber Lightfoot 1828–1889 Bishop of Durham; theologian
• Edward White Benson 1829–1896 Archbishop of Canterbury, 1883–1896
• James Clerk Maxwell 1831–1879 Physicist; electromagnetism
• Bishop Hale, first Bishop of Perth and, later, Bishop of Brisbane, social and educational pioneer
• Spencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire (also known as Marquess of Hartington) 1833–1908; politician
• John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton 1834–1902 Historian
• Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman 1836–1908 Prime Minister 1905–1908 (Liberal)
• Sir Michael Foster 1836–1907 Physiologist; MP (London University)
• Henry Sidgwick 1838–1900 Philosopher, major proponent of women's colleges
• Sir George Otto Trevelyan 1838–1928 Historian; MP; Father of G. M. Trevelyan
• T. J. Cobden Sanderson 1840–1922 Bookbinder; Arts and Crafts Movement pioneer.
• Sir Richard Jebb 1841–1905 Greek scholar
• King Edward VII 1841–1910 Reigned 1901–1910
• Sir Frederick Pollock 1845–1937 Jurist
• Edmund Gosse 1845–1928 Poet, critic – On Viol and Flute
• Arthur Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour 1848–1930 Prime Minister 1902–1905 (Conservative)
• Frederick W. Maitland 1850–1906 Legal historian
• Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey 1851–1917 Governor-General of Canada 1904–1911
• Sir Charles Villiers Stanford 1852–1924 Composer, organist
• Sir James Frazer 1854–1941 Anthropologist; writer – The Golden Bough
• A. N. Whitehead 1861–1947 Philosopher, mathematician
• George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon 1866–1923 Egyptologist; funded the discovery of Tut'ankhamun's tomb
• Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon 1866–1941 Administrator; Viceroy of India
• Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley 1867–1947 Prime Minister 1923–24, 1924–29, 1935–37 (Conservative)
• Erskine Childers 1870–1922 Writer, Irish Nationalist – The Riddle of The Sands
• Ralph Vaughan Williams 1872–1958 Composer – Sea Symphony, Pilgrim's Progress
• Prince Ranjitsinhji 1872–1933 Cricketer; Indian Prince
• G. E. Moore 1873–1958 Philosopher
• Aleister Crowley 1875–1947 Writer and 'Magician'; 'the wickedest man alive'
• Mohammed Iqbal 1875–1938 Islamic poet and philosopher
• Charles Rolls 1877–1910 Co-founder of Rolls-Royce; aviator
• Sir James Jeans 1877–1946 Astronomer, mathematician; stellar evolution
• G. H. Hardy 1877–1947 Mathematician; A Mathematician's Apology
• Warwick Deeping 1877–1950 Novelist
• Lytton Strachey 1880–1932 Biographer – Eminent Victorians; Bloomsbury Group
• Leonard Woolf 1880–1969 Writer; husband of Virginia; Bloomsbury Group
• Clive Bell 1881–1964 Art and literary critic; husband of Vanessa
• Alfred Radcliffe-Brown 1881–1955 Social anthropologist
• A. A. Milne 1882–1956 Writer – Winnie-the-Pooh
• Sir Arthur Eddington 1882–1944 Astronomer
• John Edensor Littlewood 1885–1977 Mathematician; Fourier Series, Zeta Function
• St. John Philby 1885–1960 Explorer of Arabia; father of Kim
• Sir Geoffrey Ingram Taylor 1886–1975 Physicist, mathematician; Fluid dynamics, crystals
• C. D. Broad 1887–1971 Philosopher
• Srinivasa Ramanujan 1887–1920 Mathematician; analytic number theory, elliptic integrals
• Sydney Chapman 1888–1970 Mathematician, geophysicist; kinetic theory, geomagnetism
• Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889–1951 Philosopher
• Jawaharlal Nehru 1889–1964 First Prime Minister of India, 1949–1964
• King George VI 1895–1952 Reigned 1936–1952
• Edward Arthur Milne 1896–1950 Mathematician
• Vladimir Nabokov 1899–1977 Russian and English novelist – Lolita
• Christopher Hinton, Baron Hinton of Bankside 1901–1983 Nuclear engineer; constructed Calder Hall, the first large scale reactor
• George 'Gubby' Allen 1902–1989 Cricketer – captained England; played in Bodyline series
• Frank Plumpton Ramsey 1903–1930 Philosopher, mathematician, economist
• Otto Frisch 1904–1979 Nuclear physicist; first used the term 'nuclear fission'
• Erskine Childers 1905–1974 President of the Irish Republic, 1973–74
• John Lehmann 1907–1987 Poet, man of letters; inaugurated The London Magazine
• Anthony Blunt 1907–1983 Soviet spy; art historian
• Sir Peter Scott 1909–1989 Artist, ornithologist; Olympic sailor (1936)
• Nicholas Monsarrat 1910–1979 Novelist – The Cruel Sea
• Guy Burgess 1910–1963 Soviet spy and traitor
• Kim Philby 1911–1988 Double agent; communist
• Enoch Powell 1912–1998 Statesman; Minister of Health, 1960–3
• William Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw 1918–1999 Statesman; Home Secretary, 1979–83
• John Robinson 1919–1983 Theologian; Bishop of Woolwich, Dean of Trinity
• Alexander Ramsay of Mar 1919–2001 great grandson of Queen Victoria
• John Stott born 1921 Evangelical Church Leader
• Raymond Williams 1921–1988 Marxist critic, novelist – The Country and the City
• Rajiv Gandhi 1944–1989 Prime Minister of India, 1984–1989
• Jonathan King born 1944 Pop impresario and sex offender
• Vilayanur Ramachandran born 1947 Psychologist, Neuroscientist
• HRH The Prince of Wales born 1948
• Antony Gormley born 1950 Sculptor, best known for Angel of the North 1968–71
• Baron Kishichiro Okura, Japanese playboy and motor racing enthusiast
• Lee Hsien Loong, born 1952 Prime Minister of Singapore, 2004-present

College Officials

List of Masters

The head of Trinity College is the Master. The first Master was John Redman who was appointed in 1546. The role is a Royal appointment and in the past was sometimes made by the Monarch as a favour to an important person. Nowadays the Fellows of the College, and to a lesser extent the Government, choose the new Master and the Royal role is only nominal. A complete list of the Masters of Trinity is below.

• John Redman 1546–1551
• William Bill 1551–1553
• John Christopherson 1553–1558
• William Bill 1558–1561
• Robert Beaumont 1561–1567
• John Whitgift 1567–1577
• John Still 1577–1593
• Thomas Nevile 1593–1615
• John Richardson 1615–1625
• Leonard Mawe 1625–1629
• Samuel Brooke 1629–1631
• Thomas Comber 1631–1645
• Thomas Hill 1645–1653
• John Arrowsmith 1653–1659
• John Wilkins 1659–1660
• Henry Ferne 1660–1662
• John Pearson 1662–1672
• Isaac Barrow 1672–1677
• John North 1677–1683
• John Montagu 1683–1699
• Richard Bentley 1700–1742
• Robert Smith 1742–1768
• John Hinchliffe 1768–1789
• Thomas Postlethwaite 1789–1798
• William Lort Mansel 1798–1820
• Christopher Wordsworth 1820–1841
• William Whewell 1841–1866
• William Hepworth Thompson 1866–1886
• Henry Montagu Butler 1886–1918
• Sir Joseph John Thomson 1918–1940
• George Macaulay Trevelyan 1940–1951
• Edgar Douglas Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian 1951–1965
• Richard Austen Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden 1965–1978
• Sir Alan Hodgkin 1978–1984
• Sir Andrew Huxley 1984–1990
• Sir Michael Atiyah 1990–1997
• Amartya Sen 1998–2004
• Sir Martin Rees 2004-present

List of deans

• John Bowker 1984–1991
• John Robinson 1975–1983