The twinning of my fate with that of another Brasenose alumnus, David Cameron, is not something of which I suspect even those closest to me are anything more than dimly aware. And yet, and yet…Every major stepping stone of my time at Brasenose College has coincided with a major event in the public career of this college’s most famous son. In spite of the fact that I had studied neither Greek nor Latin at school, I arrived at Brasenose for an interview to study Classics in December 2005. On the same day that my enthusiasm for the subject was being put to the test by Llewelyn Morgan and Ed Bispham, David Cameron (another young man with no obvious training for the position he was seeking) was elected as Leader of the Conservative Party. Skip forward five years and, as the erstwhile Leader of the Opposition entered 10 Downing Street as Prime Minister, so did I complete my final exams, leaving my undergraduate life behind and commencing the daunting prospect of being a member of Brasenose’s graduate community. One might note, incidentally, that while these two achievements are nothing to sniff at, neither Mr Cameron nor I acquitted ourselves particularly well when one looks at the fine details of my individual marks on the one hand, and his electoral mathematics on the other. Perhaps more worthy of applause were the successes of May 2015, a month which was able to witness simultaneously both Mr Cameron defying expectations to win a Parliamentary majority and me, at long last, completing my doctorate (allowing my patient students finally to gain my full attention).
Last month, however, things came to a sudden halt. David Cameron left Downing Street to compose his memoirs and I was offered the opportunity to take up a post at St Anne’s College. We have both been replaced by exceptionally talented women, although I suspect that I am more pleased with my successor, Dr Karolina Sekita, that Mr Cameron is with his.
A ten-year sojourn is, of course, but a blink of the eye to a college that celebrated its 500th birthday while I was still a mere undergraduate. Nevertheless, I think I have witnessed some important developments during my time here. Brasenose feels happier and more at ease with itself than it was in 2006. Brasenose floats higher in the Norrington Table than it used to, it attracts more applicants than it used to, and it suffers fewer drinking clubs than it used to. The college is healthier, wealthier and (that awful word) nicer than I remember it being when I first arrived here.
I owe a great deal to Brasenose College: its tutors have taught me all I know about the ancient world; its community has provided me with some of the kindest, sharpest, jolliest friends one could hope for; its choir has instilled a love of choral music in me that still causes me to give up majority of my Sundays to music-making; its students, through their eagerness and bright minds, have shown me how rewarding it is to teach; and, perhaps most importantly, it was at Brasenose that I met my wife. For all of these reasons, Brasenose will always be more than just my old college – it has been my home.
My mind turns to students who are on the cusp of arriving for their first week at Brasenose. I remember how intimidating I found it at first, how keen I was (at times) to leave it behind and return somewhere more familiar. I am glad I fought that urge and stuck it out. My suspicion is that I will always remember my decade at Brasenose as one of the happiest times of my life, and I hope that Brasenose’s latest set of students find here the pleasures, both simple and complex, that I did. All of that, sadly, is now in the past for me. It was the future once.
By Andrew Sillett