Autumn 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of your arrival as Freshers at Somerville in 1975. We are celebrating this milestone with a Golden Reunion in College and we would love to see you.
Please spread the word to any of your contemporaries who may not be on email, or not in touch with the College at all. If you know anyone who wants to re-establish contact with College please direct them to Jackie Watson jacqueline.watson@some.ox.ac.uk so that we may include them.
The University’s annual Alumni Weekend, Meeting Minds, takes place on 19th – 21th September, and we hope this may make a journey to Somerville even more worthwhile for those who live further away.
We are aware that reunions are not everyone’s cup of tea but we hope that the informality and joy of this special one will attract you! Alumnae who have come to their Golden Reunions in the past have been hugely positive in their feedback…
“Several of us had misgivings beforehand about reunions. I’m really glad I overcame my doubts and hesitations and turned up – it was far more interesting and entertaining than I expected and led to some quite unusual reflections on the past, both mine personally and that of our generation.”
If you would like to come to your reunion but need help with the booking costs, you are welcome to apply to the Senior Members Fund for financial assistance (applications to Jackie Watson jacqueline.watson@some.ox.ac.uk)
Thursday 18th September
- From 12.00am Tea and Coffee in the Mary Somerville Room (old JCR)
- 1.00– 2.00pm Buffet lunch in Hall/Reading Room
- Lunch in Margery Fry for MCR alumnae
- 2.30pm College tour – what is the same and what has changed?
- 3.30pm Tea in the Margaret Thatcher Centre, and a light hearted College quiz.
- 4.30pm Somerville Now and Then: your chance to talk to those who run the College today
- 7.00pm Drinks Reception in the Mary Somerville Room, followed by photograph in Hall
- 7.30pm Gala Dinner in Hall, followed by second dessert in the Mary Somerville Room
Friday 19th September
- From 8.00 Breakfast in Hall
- 9.30am Art talk, and tour of the highlights of the College’s collection
- 11am Tea and coffee in the Mary Somerville Room
Throughout the reunion, there will be displays of publications and of memorabilia: Life at Somerville in the 1970s.
Year group booklet – a request for EVERYONE
It has become a tradition since this event started to produce a booklet at these key milestones, so that people can find out about those in their year group they have lost contact with, whether they can come to the Golden Reunion or not. The booklet will be available to all of you and is a really important part of the College archive. A printed copy of the booklet will be available free to those attending the reunion. A digital copy will be sent to all members of the year group, so do please send your contribution, whether or not you are able to come to the event itself.
Here are some suggestions about putting your entry together:
• A length up to 500 words would be helpful
• Photographs of you (perhaps then and now?)
• You could write about any aspects of life since Somerville: home and work, any community involvement, travels or moves, changes or developments of your interests and opinions. This is not all about amazing successes in life, but about those things that have been important to you. All lives and experiences are worth reading about!
• It would be interesting to read any reflections you want to share now, about your time at Somerville and how, if at all, the experience affected your life subsequently
Please feel free to write as you like; an informal style has worked well in the past. Here are some examples of last year’s entries for their booklet.
Please send your entry, and any photographs, to Jackie Watson (jacqueline.watson@some.ox.ac.uk) by the end of July.
B&B is available and bookable using the code SOME1975. Please note: you will need to input this code before checking availability.
The reunion has been nominated as a charity fundraising event which enables it to be VAT exempt. Therefore, the College charges to you for this Reunion will not be subject to VAT (currently a saving to you of 20%). If you would like to make a gift to the College this can be done via the College’s one-off gift page here www.some.ox.ac.uk/support/make-a-gift/ . However, we want to emphasise that it is getting together rather than fundraising which is the primary purpose of this event.