Spirit of the Hall

In the final episode of Series Five, hear Olly Belcher, past President of the St Edmund Hall Association, in conversation with John Milloy who came up to the Hall in 1990 as an MCR student to do his Doctor of Philosophy in Modern History.  John absolutely loved his time at Teddy Hall and particularly enjoyed being the MCR Steward.  After Teddy Hall, John returned to Canada and immediately got invo...

In this episode, hear Olly Belcher, Past President of the St Edmund Hall Association in conversation with Robert Macaire, who came up to the Hall in 1984 to read Modern History.  Rob rowed in the first eight and was one of the founding members of the much loved Syndicate! After Teddy Hall, he joined the Ministry of Defence and then the Foreign Office where his first posting was to Romania.  Follow...

In this episode, hear Olly Belcher, Past President of the St Edmund Hall Association in conversation with Dr Emma French, who came up to the Hall in 1993 to read History and English. Emma completed her PHD in Literary Theory from Southampton University before publishing her first book,  Selling Shakespeare to Hollywood.   Emma has edited several plays and is the author of a number of bestselling t...

In this episode, hear Olly Belcher, Past President of the St Edmund Hall Association in conversation with Hugh McManners, who came up to the Hall in 1975 to read Geography.  Hugh was actually born at Teddy Hall as his Father was the Chaplain and then the Dean.  Hugh returned to study at Teddy Hall after Sandhurst which he went to to avoid any more education!  After Teddy Hall, Hugh returned to the...

In this episode, hear Olly Belcher, Immediate Past President of the St Edmund Hall Association, in conversation with Andrew Peach who came up to the Hall in 1991 to read Modern History. Andrew loved his time at Teddy Hall and started his career in radio whilst there by getting a job at the BBC in his first term.  He now has over 30 years experience in presenting news programmes and is a well known...

In this episode, hear Olly Belcher, Immediate Past President of the St Edmund Hall Association, in conversation with Bob Gaffey, who came up to the Hall in 1975 to read Jurisprudence.  Bob threw himself into everything he could at Oxford.  He became the JCR Steward, played in the jazz band OxCentrics and coxed the First V111 boat despite having never rowed before.   After Oxford, Bob moved back to...

In this episode, hear Olly Belcher, Immediate Past President of the St Edmund Hall Association, in conversation with Robin Osterley, who came up to the Hall in 1981 to read PPE.  After Robin’s first year, he changed to Human Sciences, even though the Hall didn’t actually teach it!  Robin spent much of his time at Oxford playing in orchestras and bands as well as acting in plays and musicals. After...

In this episode, hear Olly Belcher, Immediate Past President of the St Edmund Hall Association, in conversation with Sir Melvyn Stride, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, who came up to the Hall in 1981 to read Chemistry but quickly changed to Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE).  During Mel’s time at Oxford he embraced the Oxford Union, enjoyed being the President and meeting dignitarie...

In this episode, hear Olly Belcher, Immediate Past President of the St Edmund Hall Association, in conversation with Professor Jools Simner who came up to the Hall in 1990 to read Modern Languages.  Jools actually joined a year later than planned due to an incorrect A level result being entered into the system.  That one error changed the course of her life. Jools is now a professor of Neurophysch...

In the first episode of Series Five hear Olly Belcher, Immediate Past President of the St Edmund Hall Association, in conversation with the British Comedian, Al Murray.   Al came up to the Hall in 1987 to read Modern History.   Since then he has become known as the “Pub Landlord” as well as appearing on TV, recording podcasts, writing history books, playing the drums with Queen and dabbling in Pol...

In the final episode of series four, hear Olly Belcher, immediate part President of the St Edmund Hall Association, in conversation with Andrew Vivian, Teddy Hall’s Director of Development.  Andrew is responsible for fundraising and alumni relations at the Hall and he touches on his day to day life in this role. He is also in charge of executing the £50 million Hallmarks Campaign and talks about h...

In this episode, hear Olly Belcher, Immediate Past President of the St Edmund Hall Association, in conversation with Jessica Milligan who came up to the Hall in 2023 to read Geography.  Jess is Teddy Hall's current Environment and Ethics Officer and feels that students really do care about the College’s green agenda being led so effectively by the Principal and her Senior Leadership Team.  Jes...

In this episode, hear Olly Belcher, Immediate Past President of the St Edmund Hall Association, in conversation with Alice Hart-Davis who came up to the Hall in 1982 to read Modern History.  Today, Alice is the Founder of the Tweakments Guide, a remarkable source of knowledge about beauty tweakments and great practitioners to go to.  In an evolving and often overwhelming world of non-surgical cosm...

In this episode, hear Olly Belcher, Immediate Past President of the St Edmund Hall Association, in conversation wit Senator Larry Pressler who came up to the Hall in 1964 as a Rhodes Scholar where he was awarded his Diploma in Social and Public Administration.   Senator Pressler loved his time at the Hall and after was sent to Vietnam in 1966 to fight in the war there.  He then entered American po...

In this episode, hear Olly Belcher, Immediate Past President of the St Edmund Hall Association, in conversation with Bob Gaffey, the Association’s North American Representative.  Bob speaks to Olly about her time at Oxford when she came up to the Hall in 1999 to read Geography.   She talks about how her Gap year and Geography dissertation all led to what she does today - Shivia, the charity she fo...

In this episode, hear Olly Belcher, Immediate Past President of the St Edmund Hall Association, in conversation with David Picksley who came up to the Hall in 1953 to read French and Russian.   David’s first memories go back to the 1930s where he recalls historic events such as George V’s Silver Jubilee and George V1's Coronation!  David was a school boy during World War 11 and tells us of the...

In this episode, hear Olly Belcher, Immediate Past President of the St Edmund Hall Association, in conversation with Anna Botting who came up to the Hall in 1987 to read Geography.   Whilst at Oxford Anna threw herself into all sports alongside her degree and was part of the first women’s rugby team who despite winning a Varsity match never actually gained a blue!  Anna has been at Sky News since...

In this episode, hear Olly Belcher, Immediate Past President of the St Edmund Hall Association, in conversation with Jo Ensor who came up to the Hall in 1988 to read Geography.   Since then Jo has dedicated her life to the non profit sector, initially working for leading organisations such as EveryChild and AMREF where she lived amongst the communities she served, all over the world.  When Jo had...

In this episode, hear Olly Belcher, Immediate Past President of the St Edmund Hall Association, in conversation with Clio Georgiadis who came up to the Hall in 1990 to read Psychology and Philosophy.   Since Teddy Hall, Clio has done all sorts of jobs in what she describes as a zig-zagging career but she has ended up in the world of hospitality.  Clio wrote to the owner of the famous restaurant Es...

In the first episode of Series Four hear Olly Belcher, Immediate Past President of the St Edmund Hall Association, in conversation with former Principal Professor Michael Mingos.    Whereas Mike has spent most of his life in the UK, he arrived in 1950 when he was just six from Iraq by cargo boat.  He tells us of his fascinating family background, what brought him to the UK and then his journey to...

In the final episode of series three, hear Olly Belcher, President of the St Edmund Hall Association, in conversation with Professor Rob Whittaker, Teddy Hall’s Vice Principal and Geography tutor.   Rob was appointed as Vice Principal in 2019 and has been at Teddy Hall for 32 years where he has also been the College Dean and witnessed many changes including an expanding MCR and the incre...

In this episode hear Olly Belcher, President of the St Edmund Hall Association, in conversation with Sophie Richardson who came up to the Hall in 2020 to read Geography. At the time of recording, Sophie is in her final few weeks as the College JCR Social Secretary. Sophie tells us of experience as JCR Social Sec as well as being a student during the turbulent Covid years. Spirit of the Hall podcas...

In this episode hear Olly Belcher, President of the St Edmund Hall Association, in conversation with Catriona Ward who came up to the Hall in 1999 to read English.  After her A-levels, Cat wrote to several Oxford Colleges explaining that her results weren’t that good but she was commended for her English exam.  It was the warmth of Teddy Hall’s reply that made her apply.  After Tedd...

In this episode hear Olly Belcher, President of the St Edmund Hall Association, in conversation with Clement Hutton-Mills who came up to the Hall in 2001 to read Modern Languages.  After Teddy Hall, Clem joined the world of banking and is currently a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, sitting on various committees to increase diversity within the workplace.  Aside from his career, Clem...

In this episode, hear Olly Belcher, President of the St Edmund Hall Association, in conversation with Robbie McRobbie who came up to the Hall in 1989 from Scotland when he was just in 17 to read Modern History. Robbie became the JCR Social Secretary in his second year and managed to get Kylie Minogue to become an honorary member due to the students’ love at the time for the soap opera “Neighb...