Greetings from the Prisoner of the NHS! Or ‘A Word from a ‘Sometime Warden’!’
I have been exhorted, nay, commanded by Mr Peden to provide some account of my doings or activities since retirement, and especially since establishing digs in Cambridge, London.
Unfortunately my coming to Cambridge was held up due to a lengthy hospitalisation in Melbourne following surgery and I actually ended up arriving five months after the original planned date. Messages from Johnians were a great support while in hospital then, and the President of the Old Johnians’, Briony Benjamin, made a special and much-welcomed visit. Thus it was in the middle of the British winter 2014 that I arrived – a time of damp cold and grey skies. But the warmth of the welcome from the two colleges with which I am associated here more than compensated and I soon became involved in the lives of the Senior Combination Rooms.
The aim in coming was, in part, to deal with the separation after thirty-one years with St John’s! No-one ever finds retirement easy if they have enjoyed what they have been doing. The vigorous life of the college community, a place where relationships develop and often continue cannot be put behind one either easily or quickly.
Initially, leaving Brisbane and returning to my hometown in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley – unfortunately now one of the most deprived towns in Australia – was not easy, but I found enough to do in the parish where I quickly ended up as locum priest during a sudden and prolonged vacancy.
Now in Cambridge since February 2014 I have become involved in a church which is in the throes of seeking to renew itself. The church building – the foundation of which goes back to Viking times – is unfortunately in need of massive refurbishment. The lay people are working hard in developing the life of the parish and applying for grants to help with the repairs to the fabric. It is over forty years since there was a priest on stipend but signs of renewal are evident with the re-foundation of a choir, opening the church most days with employment on a grant of a lay pastoral assistant and a number of clergy assisting in services and preaching. I act as associate priest at this church with the vicar of the neighbouring parish who is a styled ‘priest in charge’. We have also attempted to help in the community with our pastoral assistant volunteering for night shelter work amongst those sleeping rough over the winter.
Being in a place such as Cambridge (a popular tourist destination less than an hour from London) means that many Old Johnians, and sometimes their parents, have come to visit. Since arriving I have had scores of visitors and have also been able to meet up with some of those living and working in England and Europe, as well as seeing Johnians when I took part in weddings such as that of Kathy Farrington in Gosfield, Essex, and that of Alexander McKinnon outside Lyon in France. A hearty contingent came from Australia for each of these. I also made a brief trip back to Australia in 2014 to help marry Louis Greenup and Ben Ward. While passing through New York I was able to visit Nick and Leith Ward and to meet their recently born daughter. All of these reunions help to reinforce the bonds which developed when we all lived together at St John’s.
Unfortunately I recently became a prisoner of the National Health Service (NHS) when I had a bout of ill health and again spent too long in hospital. Yet again I was cheered up by visits from Johnians – from those both living and/or studying in Cambridge and London. Upon discharge I was fortunate to receive further Johnian support and yet again I certainly valued these wonderful College ties.
While in hospital at Addenbrookes (the main university teaching hospital), I found myself delivering some ethics tutorials to a couple of groups of medical students. But I was glad to be finally released from the bonds of the NHS – no matter how good Addenbrookes was I could not wait to leave, to escape!
At an academic level I am working on a project involving examination of the role of the Church of England, and especially some of its clergy, in the medical and scientific revolutions of the English Enlightenment – the late 17th and 18th centuries. Many clergy not only ministered to the medical needs of parishioners in rural areas but also were active experimenters involved in furthering knowledge of science and medicine. Prominent lay people such as Sir Isaac Newton saw no conflict between their Christian faith and their work in ‘natural philosophy’ – a blanket term for science in the period. Recently I have been looking at the life and career of a priest who, while vicar of his parish for over forty years, was active as an astronomer, a natural historian, a meteorologist and author of a couple of theological bestsellers. Interestingly he was the first person to work out almost exactly the speed of sound.
One of the historical sources for the life of that clergyman is the wonderful collection of letters in the British Library, known as the Sloane Manuscripts or the Sloane correspondence. Sir Hans Sloane was a fashionable Anglo-Irish physician who became Secretary and then President of the Royal Society – the ‘peak’ body of English scientists, founded in 1660, and one of the oldest scientific bodies in the world. Sir Hans attracted and conducted correspondence with an enormous range of people across the world. He was an avid collector and after his death his collection became the basis for the British Museum.
I have also enjoyed working in the Welcome Library for the History of Medicine in London, as well as the University Library (UL) here in Cambridge. The latter has some of the most uncomfortable seats of any library I have known!
Last summer I looked after the English church in Barcelona for three Sundays. This was an enjoyable experience which saw me working with a diverse congregation of people from the UK, USA, Canada and Australia , as well as various expatriates – some of whom were widows of Spanish husbands and families on assignment in Spain.
Barcelona is a fascinating city with its intriguing architecture from the medieval period and the spectacular legacy of Antonio Gaudi, in particular the Sagrada Familia which is still in the throes of completion. There is also a fine Picasso Museum and all of the Catalonian heritage. I will be there again for a similar period this May.
I am delighted that the Foundation and Old Johnians’ Association are helping to build and maintain links between Johnians. As the College motto ‘exsoltus iterum vinctus’ is sometimes rendered, we are “dissolved and rebound” through our collegiate experience. On entering college we leave home and one community and its ties of locality and become bound into the lives and experiences of those with whom we share some of our most formative and exciting times. It is an important time when we clarify our values and direction in life and form new bonds which help to support and sustain us during the remainder of our lives.
My warmest regards and blessings to all Old Johnians and their families.
JLM.
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