Beginnings
As early as 1906 Conwy Lloyd Morgan had stated his intention to give up the Principalship of University College, Bristol. Sir Isambard Owen, nephew of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, became the first Vice Chancellor of the University and worked upon the detail of the Universities charter. Owen is also credited with the design of the University gowns with the colour said to have been based upon the colour of the rocks of the Avon Gorge after rain. One area of early controversy was the re-advertisement of some Chair positions and the decision not to give one, Cowl, a reappointment. This caused the resignation of the Chair of Physics Arthur P. Chattock.
Henry Overton Wills became the first Chancellor of the University and on his death Haladane was invited to succeed him. The installation of Haladane was used in order to honour all those who had been involved in the creation of the University and 70 Honorary degrees were awarded by the University. This act, coming from a University not yet three years old caused some controversy and led to public criticism of the University in The Observer.
After the death of their father Henry Wills and George Wills donated money for the building of a University building in memory of their father. He met with George Oatley (later Sir George Oatley) to plan building what was to become the Wills Memorial Building which the brothers requested would be built to last for 400 years. When the Wills family acquired Royal Fort gardens as a site they were given to the University and were to be the site of a castle like building which became the Physics department.
Read more about this topic: History Of The University Of Bristol
Famous quotes containing the word beginnings:
“[Many artists], even the greatest ones, are not sure of their own existence. So they search for proof, they judge, they condemn. It strengthens them, it is the beginnings of existence. They are alone!”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“Let us, then, take our compass; we are something, and we are not everything. The nature of our existence hides from us the knowledge of first beginnings which are born of the nothing; and the littleness of our being conceals from us the sight of the infinite. Our intellect holds the same position in the world of thought as our body occupies in the expanse of nature.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“Those newspapers of the nation which most loudly cried dictatorship against me would have been the first to justify the beginnings of dictatorship by somebody else.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)