Spirit of Churchill invoked at Cabinet War Rooms

Churchill College launches its 50th Anniversary Appeal tonight at the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms - where the war-time Prime Minister famously directed Britain’s efforts to defeat Hitler’s Germany.

Sir Winston went on to found the Cambridge College in 1959, at the height of the Cold War. He stated his desire for a purpose-built science and technology college that could aspire to be the British equivalent of America’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Tonight, Master of the College, Sir David Wallace, will issue a call to secure the College’s future for the next fifty years and beyond.

He said: “In just fifty years, twenty-four members of the College have won Nobel Prizes. Their achievements are prodigious. The first master, Sir John Cockcroft, split the atom. Founding Fellow Francis Crick unravelled the ‘secret of life’ in DNA and most recently alumnus Roger Tsien won the prize in 2008 for his discoveries in green florescent protein.

“We want to build on our achievements. We aim to do this literally, by providing the £8m New Court for sixty students whom we cannot now accommodate on campus. We also aim to raise a further £4m to provide undergraduate and postgraduate studentships.”

Among the invited guests is Baroness Thatcher, whose papers are housed on college grounds at the Churchill Archives Centre, along with Sir Winston’s.

Sir David added: “By the standards of Cambridge University’s 800 years, Churchill is a young college, just fifty years in existence. But it already has a rich history and heritage.

“The New Court and studentships are vital needs. Churchill College was created entirely by private donations. There was no state funding. Again, in this age, our ability to deliver Sir Winston’s expectations will be increasingly dependent on funding other than that which Government can provide.

“When Winston signed the original Appeal letter in 1958 he asked the nation to put their faith in a project for a college established in his name, and, in his words, ‘to contribute with enthusiasm and not with caution’. Half a century on, we ask this again today.”

Among the guests at this evening’s Appeal launch will be Churchill’s daughter, Lady Soames, his great grand-children Randolph Churchill and Duncan Sandys, Lord Mayor of Westminster.

Also present will be, Sir Christopher Frayling, Sir John Stuttard, Lord Jordan CBE and the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, Professor Alison Richard.

Footage of Sir Winston’s first and only visit to Churchill College on October 17, 1959, survives, along with an audio recording of the speech made to hundreds of assembled guests that day.

His prescient speech at the College, his penultimate in public, reveals his keen desire for Britain to continue as a world leader in the fields of science and technology, particularly with regard to the space race and the winning of the Cold War.

He said: “More than any other country in the world, Britain must rely on the enterprise and trained ingenuity of her people. Since we have neither the massive population, nor the raw materials, nor yet adequate agricultural land to enable us to make our way in the world with ease, we must depend for survival on our brains, on skilled minds.”

Sir David said: “By educating the intellectual leaders of the future to the highest standards of excellence, Churchill College, the national and Commonwealth Memorial to Sir Winston, does its utmost to achieve his aims. With the passion (if not the eloquence) of our Founder, I urge everyone to support our endeavours through this 50th Anniversary Appeal.”