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:
“These beginnings of commerce on a lake in the wilderness are very interesting,—these larger white birds that come to keep company with the gulls.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“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)
“When the beginnings of self-destruction enter the heart it seems no bigger than a grain of sand.”
—John Cheever (1912–1982)