News

Student house renamed in honour of ‘refounding’ veterans

(29 November 2005)

A small group of former students who re-established one of Durham University’s colleges after the Second World War are to be honoured in the re-naming of a student residence.

St Cuthbert’s Society – a distinctive member of Durham’s residential college system - is renaming one of the Parsons Field residences in a ceremony to take place on November 25th at 4pm. The building will be known as Refounders House. The Society dates from 1888 when the growing numbers of Durham University students, who were not attached to one of the two existing colleges, organised themselves into a formal structure. They decided to call the new body St. Cuthbert's Society. Its founding spirit was fed by the close connections between academic success, sporting achievement and the arts. The Society's historian, Henry Tudor (1935-1997), records the early formation within St Cuthbert's of a choral society, a boat club, which soon had successes in the Durham Rowing Regatta, and a vigorous programme of formal debates. From its base on Palace Green alongside the Castle and Cathedral, the Society developed all the way through to 1941. The Society was closed in for the remainder of the Second World War until 1946 when it was re-opened. However this was not straight-forward and those who succeeded in continuing the existence of the society were returning servicemen. Most were local people who had lost their first opportunity to study at university due to the hostilities. Professor Roy Boyne, Principal of St Cuthbert’s Society, said: “The small group of individuals who were responsible for injecting energy and determination into the process of re-establishing St Cuthbert's Society became known as the ‘Refounders’. Those who are still alive from this group return to St Cuthbert's every year for a commemorative dinner. The group of alumni, from the immediate post-war era, has a greatly valued position in the history and traditions of St Cuthbert's Society.” A dinner is to be held on Saturday at which the first ever gathering of Presidents of St Cuthbert's Society will take place. Because St Cuthbert's was founded by students, the position of President has always been more than a JCR position, and has provided a symbolic presence at the head of the Society. Twenty residents from 1953 forwards are travelling back to St Cuthbert's to take part in what it is hoped to establish as a biennial event.