It is stated in the Statutes of the College that once every year the Master, Fellows, Scholars and other members of the Collegiate body should gather in the Chapel to call to mind and give thanks for our Foundress, Lady Margaret Beaufort, and for all subsequent benefactors, who, through generosity and selflessness, have contributed in many ways to the promotion of the values and resources of our College. It is a tradition which we uphold, because it is a very valuable and humbling act to remember those who come before us, to consider our place in the long line of history, and to prepare for those who shall come after us. 

Due to the pandemic, we are unable to hold the Commemoration event in Chapel on the last day of the Michaelmas Full Term as usual.  While we plan to reschedule the service when it is possible to do so, the Governing Body of Christ’s has decided to publish the Commemoration of Benefactors’ Roll on the College website to acknowledge the generosity of its Benefactors.

 

Crest

 

It is in a spirit of profound gratitude that we give thanks to God today, aware of our great fortune, but equally aware of the many troubles and needs of the world around us. In College our lives are at once safe, yet vulnerable. Our intellects are both developing, yet challenged. Our hearts are energised, yet restless. Beyond these walls, the world continues, and when we leave here, may we never underestimate that our contribution to society will be greatly valuable. Never forget too, that once a member of Christ’s, always a member, and the part you play in the life of the College will always be greatly welcomed and appreciated.

And so, as we read again the names of many of our generous & departed benefactors, we give thanks to God for them, and for the memory of them which we treasure.

William Byngham, with permission from King Henry VI (1439)

John Syclyng (1490)

Lady Margaret Beaufort, with the assistance of John Fisher,   Chancellor of the University and later Bishop of Rochester (1505)

Margaret Warton and her husband Richard Clerk that there should be kept for ever “one obit or anniversarie for the souls of Richard and Margaret and for all Christian souls” (1507)

Edith Fowler, gentlewoman of the Lady Margaret’s household,  so that she would be remembered by the college with her husband, Thomas Fowler (1514)

Thomas Thompson, 3rd Master of the College (1540)

King Edward VI (1552)

Thomas Patynson (1544)

King Edward VI (1553)

Robert Broadbanke (1558)

Philip Rawlins (1559)

Sir Walter Mildmay (1568)

Edward Hawford, 9th Master (1580)

Edmund Grindal, Archbishop of Canterbury (1583)

Richard Buntin, a tenant of the College (1597)

Henry, James and Sydney Montagu (1597)

Thomas Jenes (1606)

Valentine Cary, 11th Master (1626)

George Montagu (1628)

Maria Bainbridge, wife of Thomas Bainbridge, 12th Master (1635)

Edward King, the Lycidas of Milton’s poem (1637)

Joseph Mead (1638)

Michael Honywood (1640).

William Austin (1679)

Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury (1691)

Sir John Finch and Sir Thomas Baines (1682)

Ralph Widdrington (1688)

Richard Crosse (1702)

Thomas Plume (1704)

John Harvey (1713)

Thomas Linford (1714)

John Covel, 15th Master (1722) and many others of that time including Sir Isaac Newton of Trinity College

Christopher Clarke (1736, 1738)

Lady Diana Drury (1745)

Mrs Bridget Beridge (1751)

Christopher Tancred, of Whixley in Yorkshire (1754)

John Kaye, 21st Master, Bishop of Lincoln (1823)

Bernard Gilpin (1823)

Joseph Shaw, Fellow and 23rd Master (1823)

Jane Caroline Burney, in memory of her brother Richard Burney, Fellow-Commoner (1848)

Thomas Cecil Fitzpatrick (1888)

John Peile, 26th Master (1910)

The pupils and friends of John Peile, in his memory (1912)

John Pierpont Morgan (1919, 1923)

Edward Athow Field, in memory of his father Edward Field (1924, 1937)

Sir Oswald Stoll (1925)

John Young Buchanan, Chemist and Physicist of the ‘Challenger’ Expedition (1925)

Archibald Liversidge (1927)

Mary Stuart Adami, in memory of her husband John George Adami (1927)

Sir Arthur Everett Shipley, 27th Master (1933)

Alfred Valentine-Richards, Fellow and Dean (1933)

Florence Mary Blackmore, in memory of her husband William Blackmore (1936)

Sir Ernest Budge, in memory of his wife Lady Budge (1936)

Archibald Liversidge (1937)

Arthur William Rogers, Honorary Fellow (1938)

John William Chippett, Scholar (1941)

Robert Owen Bishop (1943)

William Lucas (1946), whose bequest was augmented by Ralph Stanley Williamson.

Gordon Bottomley, in memory of himself and his wife, Emily Bottomley (1948)

Jessie Lloyd, in memory of her husband Albert Hugh Lloyd (1950)

William H. D. Rouse, Fellow and later Honorary Fellow (1950)

Ian Thomas Ramsey, Fellow and Bishop of Durham (1953)

Charles George Lewis Wolf, in memory of his wife Josephine Rebecca Wolf (1954)

Annie Fantham, in memory of her husband Harold Fantham (1964)

Francis Harold Vaughan Schofield, Scholar (1965)

Reuben Levy, Fellow, formerly Professor of Persian (1967)

Eric and Sylvia Sosnow, in memory of their son Norman Sosnow (1968)

Marion Odell, in memory of her brother Robert Eric Odell (1975)

An anonymous benefactor, in honour of Charles, Lord Snow, Fellow, Tutor and later Honorary Fellow (1975)

An anonymous benefactor, executor of Arthur Leslie Peck, Fellow and Librarian, in his memory (1975)

Leon Levy and Sir John Plumb, 33rd Master (1997)

Sir Robert Clayton, Honorary Fellow (1998)

Jane Roth, in memory of her husband George Kingsley Roth (2001)

Joyce Alsop, member of staff, and her husband Dennis (2016)

Terry Cann (2019)

These are our Founders and principal Benefactors, whose names we have thus publicly recited to the service and glory of God, to the perpetuating of their memory, and to the demonstration of our gratitude.

And besides all these who have made provision for the necessities of our common life and study, there are others yet more numerous who have enriched the College by the honour which they have brought it:  some by their achievements in the arts and sciences; some by activities in the service of the Church or of the State; some by uneventful constancy in public or in private life; others by their devoted work for the College and for the University; and not a few by giving their lives for the cause of peace and civil harmony. Them also we now commemorate, and for what they have done we give thanks to God.