Matthew as Director of Music conducting in Hatfield Chapel, Durham.
Div allowed Matthew to
pursue his own interests within
Winchester’s academic structure.
Matthew correctly identifies Div as the experience
that unites all Wykehamists, regardless of differences
in their academic interests. It is in Div hours where
he noticed that Wykehamists were their most
confident and inquisitive selves. Their happiest,
too. My headmaster, Dr Ralph Townsend, spoke
brilliantly on this theme during a morning talk at
Chapel. He outlined how other schools had sought
to ‘brand’ their students whereas Winchester’s radical
tradition promoted individualism amongst pupils.
Div has been the tool to achieve this function.
When I introduce this to Matthew, he immediately
recognises it with his own experiences. Div allowed
him to pursue his own interests within Winchester’s
academic structure. He used the Kenneth Clark
prize to investigate the Waterhouse piece, ‘The Lady
of Shalott’, which now rests above his bed at Durham
University. Div allowed Matthew to look beyond his
subjects and extra-curricular interests into learning
Italian and engaging with introductions to politics.
Despite his relatively short stint at Winchester, it is
22 The Wykeham Journal 2017