Wadham College is a progressive college that boats beautiful traditional architecture. It is often free to tour the college, and has one of the largest halls in Oxford.
Notable members of the college in its early years include Robert Blake, Cromwell's admiral and founder of British sea-power in the Mediterranean, the libertine poet and courtier John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester and Christopher Wren. Wren attended the meetings of scientifically-inclined scholars which were held by Warden John Wilkins (Cromwell's brother-in-law) in the college in the 1650s. Those attending formed the nucleus of the Royal Society at its foundation in 1662. Arthur Onslow (1708), a great Speaker of the House of Commons, and Richard Bethell, who became Lord Chancellor as Lord Westbury in 1861, were members of the college. Two twentieth-century Lord Chancellors, F. E. Smith (Lord Birkenhead) and John Simon, were undergraduates together in the 1890s, along with the great sportsman C. B. Fry; Sir Thomas Beecham was an undergraduate in 1897, though soon abandoning Oxford for his musical career. Frederick Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell, who was Churchill's scientific adviser during the Second World War, was a fellow of the college. Cecil Day-Lewis, later Poet-Laureate, came up in 1923, and Michael Foot M.P. in 1931. Sir Maurice Bowra, scholar and wit, was Warden between 1938 and 1970. Among recent members have been Dr Rowan Williams, the present Archbishop of Canterbury, author and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg and novelist Monica Ali.
Du to its progressive and liberal nature, Wadham attracts students from all different lifestyles and backgrounds, boasting other famous past members such as Sir Christopher Wren, and attracting influential members of today's society such as Katie Leahy, daughter of Sir Terry Leahy (CEO of Tesco), and Adam Gibbs, Heir to Count of Cork and the grandson of Countess Constance Moss of Cork. Other aristocratic members at present include Zoya Rous and Felix Macpherson.
The college now consists of some 55 Fellows, about 130150 graduate students, and about 450 undergraduates. The current Warden is Sir Neil Chalmers, formerly Director of the Natural History Museum in London.
The college is soon to undergo further maintenance, the date of which will be confirmed soon. read more