Two Somervillian journalists, Flora Prideaux (2022, History) and Sam Martin (2023, History), have together won half the available awards in this year’s Geddes Student Journalism Prizes.

The Geddes Prizes are awarded each year to the University of Oxford’s foremost student journalists. Four prizes are awarded, recognising different journalistic specialisms and named for acclaimed journalistic alumni of the University. This year, second-year Somerville historian Sam Martin won the Clive Taylor Prize for Sports Journalism, while her fellow historian and current finalist Flora Prideaux won the inaugural Paddy Coulter Prize for Opinion Journalism.

The Geddes Prizes are awarded by the Geddes Trust and St Edmund Hall. Previous winners include many talented journalists now working for major broadsheets, wire services and TV.

Each Geddes Prize is accompanied by £2,500 in prize money, which must be used to support further journalistic work, either through internships or in support of a media project. Flora, who writes both op-eds and investigative pieces on climate change, will use her prize money to fund a trip to COP30 this November in the Amazon rainforest, where she plans to use her writing to create greater transparency in climate negotiations. She previously attended COP29 in Azerbaijan in her capacity as Co-President of the Oxford Climate Society, and wrote about it here and here.

Second year Historian Sam Martin

Second-year Historian Sam started writing about horse-racing aged just 12 for the website Rein It In, having acquired a love of the sport by attending races with her grandfather. She now combines her degree with freelance writing for The Times, where she contributes horse-racing articles and conducts in-depth research projects when her studies allow it. Sam will use her prize money to visit Paris for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe weekend, an event that has long been on her bucket list both as the epitome of top-class thoroughbred flat racing and an opportunity to compare British and French racecourse experiences.

Speaking of her win, Flora commented, ‘I was honoured to be the inaugural recipient of the Paddy Coulter Prize for Opinion Journalism. Paddy was a broadcast journalist at the forefront of where activism meets journalism, criticising where Western media distorted the reality of life in other countries. I hope to follow in his footsteps, using journalism as a tool to report, inform and create social change.’

Sam told us, ‘I am honoured to have won the Clive Taylor Prize for Sports Journalism. The articles I submitted are so special to me and it is incredible that they have been acknowledged as competition winners. I think my experience in horse-racing journalism before coming to Oxford has definitely helped with the research side of my History degree and Oxford’s proximity to Cheltenham and Ascot has certainly been helpful!’

Somerville Principal Jan Royall commented, ‘The fact that these two Somerville women, who were also College mother and daughter, have won half the available prizes in this prestigious and highly competitive field is proof that critical thinking and bravura style remain inalienable elements of the Somerville identity.’

Student journalists Flora Prideaux and Sam Martin