OXFORD’S GREAT BENEFACTOR

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20272, 14 August 1937, Page 16 (Supplement)

OXFORD’S GREAT BENEFACTOR

Tributes to Lord Nuffield

Lord Nuffield’s generosity to St. Peter’s Hall, Oxford, the University’s newest hall, was commemorated by the unveiling of a portrait of its benefactor by the Chancellor, Lord Hali- • fax, says a London paper. Lord Nuffield himself and the artist, , Mr Philip de Laszlo, were present. ! The Vice-Chancellor, Mr A. D. Lindsay ; (Master of Balliol) and the proctors, | Mr C. R. Morrice and Mr Gilbert Tyle, i brought the University’s greetings to the hall. The Chancellor, after the unveiling, j said that it was a privilege to have a i , part in the commemoration of a bene- j factor to an institution which stood j in Oxford as a great memorial to one | i of the outstanding figures in the his- i tory of the Church in the last hundred r years. Lord Nuffield was an out- j . standing figure in many fields, and , they hml good cause to know he was . not a newcomer in the field of uni- | . versity munificence. Lord Nuffield, the Chancellor con- 1 , tinued, was the greatest benefactor ' the University had ever known. After ! i an initial gift to St. Peter’s Hall of . £20,000. Lord Nuffield completed his ] ■ scheme by offering pound for pound I of donation to the fund, up to a limit j of £50,000.

“In the long list of sons of Oxford ( | to whom she owes gratitude,” he went on, “ I do not know of any to whom she will owe a greater debt than the • one-time poor Oxford boy, whose lack ]' j of means prevented his realising what j . ; as a boy he longed to do —to enter i ! the gates of the University—but who, | 1 j since reaching manhood, had been glad j j and proud to devote the fruits of hand I j and brain, through the University, to I helping the human race in other ways.” I The Master of St. Peter’s Hall, the ! Rev. C. M. Chavasse, said none out.- j . j side the Hall could know what it i 1 meant to St. Peter’s, striving desper- j j ately not to have an inferiority com- j j plex, when they found themselves asI sisted by Lord Nuffield. It was very j j appropriate that the portrait bf a man : j whose name was likely to become as ! much a household word in Oxford as I that of Bod ley should hang in Ox- j I ford’s newest hall. “ I think, however, that the memI orial he likes best to remember will j be in the hearts of countless thous- I 1 ands of unknown and humble men and 1 women whom he will have raised from I death to life and from despair to hope, j by the researches of his great insti- ( lute of healing,” he added. I