We enjoyed a wonderful Benefactors' Garden Party

It was a great joy to welcome back to College this weekend, amidst the glorious sunshine, some 230 alumni supporters and their friends and family members to the annual Benefactors’ Garden Party, held in the Fellows’ Private Garden. It was a wonderful opportunity for many to reconnect with old friends, and to speak to the many Fellows and Emeritus Fellows who joined the event.

Attendees spanned the decades, from Edward Jones (Modern History, 1949) to Katharina Anders-Stroud (Applied Statistics, 2015), as well as the continents: Emeritus Fellow David Mabberley flew in from Australia and Fiona Schaeffer (Law, 1993) and her son travelled from the United States to take part.

We were very happy to welcome the family of former Foundation Fellow, Alan Green (Chinese, 1948) and his wife, Shirley, who laid a beautiful bouquet of flowers at the foot of the tree planted in Alan and Shirley’s memory in the Fellows’ Garden.

It was a delight that many young families were able to come as well to enjoy the bouncy castle, garden Jenga and a range of other games in the gardens.

The Warden, Robert Hannigan, thanked our donors and 1610 Society members for their continued, generous support. With no prospect of government investment in higher education changing direction, he stressed that alumni support is more important than ever in ensuring that Wadham can attract the best and brightest students and tutors. Our alumni support remains at the heart of the College’s widening access programme, too, he said, touching on the thousands of students who come to Wadham or whom our Access team meet each year through aspiration visits and talks.

We would like to thank everyone who joined us and hope that you enjoyed a relaxing afternoon with live music and refreshments in these beautiful surroundings. It is a small way in which we can thank so many of you for your extraordinary support and for sharing the College’s vision of making an Oxford education open to all excellent students, whatever their background.

Find out more about how you can support Wadham or contact our Development Team to discuss further.