Bangor University 1884-2009. David Roberts

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СКАЧАТЬ trivial matter, and once the decision had been made the pace of activity quickened. A charter and constitution for the university college were drawn up and approved by the Privy Council in October 1883. Following Cardiff’s lead, women were to be welcomed into full membership of the college and, significantly, the college was to be independent of any religious influence or control. Students would work for degrees of the University of London, as did students of many new university colleges in the nineteenth century.

      The Earl of Powis, because of his position as president of the north Wales site committee took a leading role in the preparatory work, along with William Rathbone, the former Liverpool politician and businessman who had been elected MP for Caernarfonshire in 1880; the dean of Bangor and Thomas Gee were also active. Another important part was played by Henry Jones, then an outstanding young philosophy lecturer in Aberystwyth. Jones, the son of a Denbighshire shoemaker, had left school at the age of 12 to become an apprentice shoemaker himself. But after winning a scholarship to Coleg Normal in Bangor at the age of 18, he was to train as a teacher, become a Calvinistic Methodist minister and study philosophy at Glasgow. In 1882, to the fury of Aberystwyth, he became secretary of the north Wales site committee, and he clearly had input into the drafting of the political and religious aspects of the Charter.

      There were few surprises in the election of the principal lay officers of the university college: the Earl of Powis became President, and the Vice-Presidents were George Osborne Morgan and Richard Davies, Liberal MPs for Denbighshire and Anglesey respectively. John Roberts, MP for Flint Boroughs, was Honorary Treasurer. In fact, for all the concern that the new college would be in thrall to Conservative opinion, to some extent almost the opposite was the case. Rathbone, fellow Liberal MP Stuart Rendel and Thomas Gee were all members of the University College Council. The first meeting of the Council took place on a Saturday, 8 March 1884, at the Queen’s Head Café in Bangor: Colonel W. E. Sackville West, appointed to the Council by Oxford University, was elected Chairman, with Rathbone as Vice-Chairman.

      The first university post to be filled was that of Registrar. W. Cadwaladr Davies, born and educated at elementary school in Bangor, had worked in the office of the North Wales Chronicle before becoming editor of Cronicl Cymru. A forceful advocate for higher education, he worked with the educationalist Hugh Owen in London in the 1870s, and after returning to Bangor in 1876 he played an active role in the administrative work for the new college and with the raising of funds. Intelligent and resourceful, his appointment was almost inevitable; he was later described as ‘pre-eminently the man to help forward the new institution’.⁷

      The appointment of the Principal, however, was a much different matter. The Principal was also to be the holder of one of six Chairs to be filled, and there were 21 applications for the post. The Council met on 14 May 1884, again at the Queen’s Head Café, and interviewed six candidates. Three young men were regarded as particularly serious contenders: William Edwards, a native of Denbigh who had three Firsts from Oxford, a Fellowship from Jesus College and had been HM Inspector of Schools in Wales; Henry Jones, aged 32, already well known in Welsh educational circles and arguably the ‘people’s choice’; finally there was Harry Rudolf Reichel, the youngest of the three and the unlikeliest candidate. Born in Belfast, the son of the bishop of Meath and of German extraction, Reichel had pursued a brilliant academic career at Balliol College, Oxford, with four firsts and a Fellowship of All Souls by the age of 24. A glittering academic career undoubtedly lay ahead, possibly in Oxford. The appointment of a Welsh principal might have been expected in Bangor, perhaps considered inevitable. But there was no unanimity over the choice of a Welsh candidate. Each candidate was put to the vote, and with one dissentient – Thomas Gee – Harry Reichel was appointed the first Principal of the University College of North Wales at the age of 27.

      In May 1884 the Council also appointed five professors. Reichel himself was to hold the Chairs of English and History. Henry Jones took his defeat with equanimity and became Professor of Logic, Philosophy and Political Economy. W. Rhys Roberts (Greek), George Ballard Mathews (Mathematics), Andrew Gray (Physics) and James Johnston Dobbie (Chemistry) were also appointed to Chairs. It was, without question, an exceptionally gifted group of scholars. Jones became an internationally renowned philosopher and was knighted. Ballard Mathews, Gray and Dobbie all became Fellows of the Royal Society. Curiously, there was no Welsh department or Chair: a dearth of candidates was essentially the problem. A Welsh and Classical lectureship was considered in 1884,⁸ but the new College Senate could not recommend an appointment, and had to wait for John Morris-Jones’s arrival from Oxford five years later. As well as the Chairs, lectureships in Latin, modern languages and Biology were established.

      At first, it had seemed that there was no available building in Bangor to house the new university college. However, in April 1884, it transpired that the Penrhyn Arms Hotel could be leased from the Penrhyn Estate for around £200 per annum. Built as a coaching inn in the eighteenth century, overlooking the harbour, it had seen better days. Yet with some adaptation and renovation it was to be a valuable first home. The kitchen and scullery of the hotel became the library; science buildings were subsequently added and one of the stables became a ‘smoking room’.

      So on 18 October 1884, to an immense fanfare in the city, and with the motto ‘Knowledge is Power’ emblazoned over its entrance, the University College of North Wales opened. Flags appeared in windows, and an enormous procession – including several thousand quarrymen – to the University College building took place. The Royal Penrhyn Band marched, and local councils, schools, and various trades (printers, millers, bakers, for example) were all represented. It was ‘one of the most brilliant spectacles ever witnessed in this part of the Principality’,⁹ and was followed by a lunch (at which Mundella and others spoke) and a concert in the evening. As one political observer correctly predicted months before ‘North Wales and his wife will be there.’¹⁰

      Once opened, with 58 students enrolled, there was no question of complacency setting in. The foundations were there to be built upon. J. J. Dobbie, a considerable scientist who delivered much-admired lectures, was instrumental in shaping the science programme in the University College to meet the needs of the economy of north Wales. In particular, he played a leading role in founding in 1888, and securing a government grant for, an Agriculture Department, and an imaginative scheme for delivering agricultural classes in various north Wales towns. Dobbie also had a keen interest in geology, but another much-favoured project – a school of mining and quarrying – was never to be realized. In January 1889, John Morris-Jones was appointed as a lecturer in Welsh, establishing the subject in Bangor and beginning an illustrious career during which he was to exert a profound influence over Welsh cultural and literary life. In 1890, prompted by Andrew Gray, who had studied physics and applied electricity and worked with Lord Kelvin at Glasgow, an electrical engineering department within Physics was established. A lecture-ship was added, too, in zoology, and student numbers had by this time reached a hundred.

      It was not all plain sailing, however. As the University College’s first decade proceeded, there were demanding financial hurdles to surmount. The government grant of £4,000 remained unchanged, and additional funds had to be sought. But rural north and mid-Wales at this time was experiencing recession, and public donations began to dry up. In 1888, as a special Council committee was reviewing the financial position, Bangor’s professors anticipated one of its recommendations by agreeing to accept reduced payments. This allowed staff other than the professors to receive some increase. The Council accepted the offer, commending the professors’ ‘public spirit and self-sacrifice’.¹¹ Some external help was also forthcoming. In 1890, Henry Tate generously donated £1,000 to a scholarship fund. Even more dramatically, in June of that year came news of the largest legacy the University College had so far received, from a Dr Evan Thomas of Manchester, and amounting eventually to £47,000. The ‘Manchester bequest’, as it became known, eased the financial difficulties and numerous developments (including that in electrical engineering) began to proceed.

      Tensions – between Anglicans and Nonconformists, between Liberals and Tories, between Bangor and Aberystwyth – were never far from the surface in these early years. СКАЧАТЬ