FITZWILLIAM HOUSE
Fitzwilliam House is the title both of the body of
graduates and undergraduates long known as 'NonCollegiate', and of the building in Trumpington
Street which has been their headquarters since 1874.
The society was founded as a result of suggestions
made by the university commissioners of 1850. In
order both to increase the numbers of undergraduates and to reduce the cost of residence for some of
them, it was proposed to revive on a small scale the
system, which had been universal before colleges
existed, of matriculating certain students simply and
directly as members of the University without
membership of a college. Academic opinion was
hostile to the scheme in both universities, but more
so in Cambridge, and the Cambridge Commissioners unlike those for Oxford did not recommend
it. Nevertheless external authorities favoured the
scheme. A bill was introduced into Parliament in
1867 for creating non-collegiate bodies, but failed
to complete its first committee stage. (fn. 1)
Opponents of the idea urged that even considerable saving of expense would rarely tempt good
students to become, much less to remain, 'noncollegiate', that many who came would migrate to
colleges in search of scholarships and other advantages, that the remainder might thus be chiefly
'the poor and dull boys' even in an intellectual sense
'the residuum of the University', and that noncollegiate status might mean socially 'a markedly
inferior position', which lacked 'the great social
advantage of cohesion', and in particular much of
that 'self-respect engendered in colleges by esprit de
corps.' It was also pointed out that a non-collegiate
institution would have to be administered by members of colleges, who might put the interests of
their colleges first, and that it would not be able to
attract funds for scholarships and exhibitions.
In 1868, however, Oxford yielded, and in the next
year Cambridge after rejecting one scheme accepted
another, and an Order in Council of 13 May 1869
approving the necessary statute, (fn. 2) brought into
existence the Cambridge 'Non-Collegiate' community, with the Vice-Chancellor instead of a
master, a censor instead of a tutor, and instead of
a college council a board, which apart from the
censor was an entirely external body. While the
Oxford institution was heavily subsidized by the
University, Cambridge decided to make the new
body as self-supporting as possible. The University's
commitments were strictly limited to the guarantee
of an annual sum, not exceeding £100, to meet any
deficit. This guarantee was only called upon during
the first two years of the society's existence and
then for a total of less than £38.
The Board first met on 2 June 1869, and three
days later Ralph Benjamin Somerset of Trinity
College was appointed the first Censor. He described
his charge as 'here, there, and nowhere in particular', (fn. 3)
and urged as one means of 'recognizing more distinctly the status of the students as members of the
University', the occupation of some University
building. (fn. 4) He and the Board, seeing from the first
the mischief of 'social isolation', encouraged the men
to meet together and form clubs. (fn. 5) In 1874 rooms
were hired in the present building, then known
simply as 31 Trumpington Street, and a boat club,
cricket club, and debating society were formed. A
common room was furnished and with the aid of a
grant of £50 from the University a library was
started. In the same year the Company of Clothworkers offered an annual exhibition of £50.
Meanwhile the men remained scattered about in
lodgings. They had few common obligations and
those such as involved only occasional and casual
contact between them. The chief were to report
annually on their work and to sign attendance books
five times a week. Poor, obscure, and marked off
from other undergraduates by their title which made
their distinctive characteristic seem to be the lack of
something generally considered an essential feature
of university life, they found it hard to organize and
maintain any continuous corporate life. What they
did achieve in this direction was constantly imperilled
by the ceaseless migrations to colleges, taking away
every year from a third to half of the men in residence. For any distinction, academic or athletic,
often meant for a 'Non-Coll.' ready admission, or
even invitation, to a college. Men lacking any such
recommendation but feeling the drawbacks of noncollegiate life, or thinking that the negative title
might handicap them on going down, were greatly
tempted to migrate if and as soon as they could
afford any extra expense. Inevitably, therefore, a
non-collegiate generation was liable to lose by its
third year not only all its outstanding but also all its
comparatively well-to-do members. So in 1886 over
a hundred members petitioned the Board to have its
name changed into some 'positive' title, but this the
Board could not achieve.
By 1887 the Board had saved £2,000 and with a
further £1,000 lent by the University bought the
freehold of numbers 31 and 32 Trumpington Street.
Gifts from the University and private benefactors,
especially Tristram F. C. Huddleston, the Censor,
and his two predecessors, enabled this debt to be
repaid by 1890. (fn. 6) The society then proceeded to raise
further money for reconstruction, which was not
finally paid for until 1905. Dining had started as
early as 1882, when, at the request of the men, a hall
dinner was organized at the Bird Bolt Hotel. Ten
years later, on 29 October 1892, the opening of
the reconstructed building was made the occasion
of a celebration, when 83 sat down to dinner in
Fitzwilliam Hall. The name was suggested by the
Amalgamated Clubs, presumably because it faced
the Fitzwilliam Museum. The Hall became not only
the centre of the non-collegiate body, but also a
symbol of, and an aid to, the development of corporate life. At the same time permission was obtained
from Earl Fitzwilliam to use for the boat flag the
Fitzwilliam arms, with the University arms in chief.
In 1896 St. Edmund's House became the first of the
present Attached Houses, which came to include
Cheshunt College, Wesley House, and Westminster
College.
The appointment of William Fiddian Reddaway
as Censor in 1907 was a most significant event in the
history of the society. Ten years' work as a history
lecturer had given him an intimate and deeply
sympathetic understanding of non-collegiate hardships, needs, and aspirations. Farsighted and inflexible in purpose, Reddaway sacrificed his personal
interests without stint. Undeterred by indifference,
misunderstanding, or obstruction, he deliberately
set himself so to raise the status, foster the esprit de
corps, and increase the happiness of his men that
membership of the non-collegiate body (to him
always 'Fitzwilliam Hall') would be no longer a
badge of honourable poverty, but a positive source
of pride. In particular he strove to minimize the
effect of migration, making men think it, speaking
generally, as an ungracious desertion, and to develop
corporate life for all who wanted it, leaving others
entirely free to stand aloof. So academic and athletic
clubs flourished and multiplied and dining in hall
became a regular though voluntary custom. The
Fitzwilliam Magazine (founded 1908) recorded successive acquisitions of a playing-field (1908); a
chapel (1913); a hostel, consisting of additional
rooms in the Hall, which with neighbouring lodginghouses bought or leased for the purpose accommodated a nucleus of Fitzwilliam men interested in
corporate activities; a Fitzwilliam Trust largely
financing this corporate venture; and after the First
World War two exhibitions in memory of fallen
students. When in 1924 a new Censor, W. S.
Thatcher, one of Reddaway's own Fitzwilliam pupils,
took office, he found himself the head of a body with
honourable traditions, and faith in the eventual fulfilment of its high aspirations.
In 1919 the Hall was recognized by the Board of
Education as a college for the purpose of the award
of maintenance grants, and both the society and the
University began to look forward to a measure of
self-government for Fitzwilliam. The desirability
of developing the Hall as an independent body was
strongly urged upon the Royal Commission on the
Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, but the
report of the Commission published in 1922 was
disappointing. Although admitting that the noncollegiate system had never flourished, it recommended that Fitzwilliam Hall should not receive
independent status, because there were still a large
number of men for whom the cost of University
education should be kept to a minimum. (fn. 7) The society
henceforth received a grant of £1,000 a year from the
University Grants Committee, and the name of the
building and the clubs was changed by the University, against the wishes of its members, to Fitzwilliam House. (fn. 8)
This setback in the development of the society led
to a fall in numbers. Nevertheless it was found
possible in 1928 to raise £1,000 for the building of
a new pavilion, and in the same year the Fitzwilliam
Society began to hold annual meetings, which have
continued ever since. Within the terms of the Commission's decision, the University did what it could
to help, and the whole organization was assimilated
so far as possible to that of a college, although under
the statute of 1869 the Board was not able to raise
fees high enough to accumulate funds for providing
residential buildings. In 1934 the University at last
replaced for official purposes the old negative title
of 'Non-Collegiate' by that of Fitzwilliam House.
A Censor's building fund was thereupon started and
in 1937 this was widened to a Fitzwilliam Appeal Fund.
The Second World War brought the complete
disbandment of the House, the building being let to
Addenbrooke's Hospital and Bedford College; but
in 1946 an intake of over 400 men raised the House
to the fifth largest body in the University. They
included about 100 research students for whom club
facilities were made available in a house in Fitzwilliam Street. The new policy in education extinguished the class of poor undergraduates for
whom the society had been originally intended, and in
1952 the University approved the policy of encouraging
the corporate life of the House and building new
administrative and residential accommodation. (fn. 9)
No immediate progress with buildings could be
made, but in 1954 proposals were approved for
abolishing the old non-collegiate system, and for
converting Fitzwilliam House into an Approved
Foundation bound to limitation of the number of its
undergraduates and the performance of certain
functions hitherto performed by it as an institution
of non-collegiate students. (fn. 10) An appeal has brought
in £20,000, including a gift from King's College
towards endowing a scholarship in the name of W. F.
Reddaway. By the end of 1955 the society seemed
to have started on the road which would eventually
lead to full collegiate status. Mr. Thatcher resigned
from the Censorship, after 30 years in office, in 1954.
No new appointment was made to the office but he
carried on for a further year as Senior Tutor. In
February 1958 it was decided that Dr. W. W. Grave,
formerly registrary, should become Censor on 1 January 1959. (fn. 11)
Portraits.
Portraits of the second, fourth, and
fifth Censors hang in the hall, the Reddaway portrait
by de Laszlo, and that of Thatcher by Edward Halliday.
Arms and Seal.
The arms, Lozengy, silver and
gules (the arms of Fitzwilliam); in chief the arms of
the University, were first adopted in 1887, by permission of the then Earl Fitzwilliam, by the Fitzwilliam Boat Club, and thereafter by all Fitzwilliam
organizations, and so by usage came to be regarded
as proper to Fitzwilliam Hall or House. They are
used for example in the University Calendar. The
first seal was a small oval, a belt with the legend
non-collegiate students board. The present seal
is circular, 1 in. in diameter, with the arms of the
House surrounded by the legend . fitzwilliam
house. cambridge.
List of Censors
Ralph Benjamin Somerset: 5 June 1869.
Francis George Howard: 24 Oct. 1881.
Tristram Frederick Croft Huddleston: 4 Feb.
1890.
William Fiddian Reddaway: 6 June 1907.
William Sutherland Thatcher: 5 Aug. 1924.