| Trinity College | |
|---|---|
| University of Cambridge | |
 Trinity College Great Court | |
 Coat of arms of Trinity College Arms:Argent, a chevron between three roses gules barbed and seeded proper and on a chief gules a lion passant gardant between two closed books all Or | |
| Scarf colours: navy, with three equally-spaced narrow stripes, the outer stripes of yellow and slightly narrower, the central stripe of red and slightly wider | |
| Location | Trinity Street |
| Full name | The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity within the Town and University of Cambridge of King Henry the Eighth's Foundation |
| Latin name | Collegium Trinitatis |
| Motto | Virtus Vera Nobilitas[1] (Latin) |
| Motto in English | Virtue is true nobility |
| Founder | Henry VIII of England |
| Established | 1546; 479 years ago (1546) |
| Named after | The Holy Trinity |
| Previous names | King's Hall andMichaelhouse (until merged in 1546) |
| Sister college | Christ Church, Oxford |
| Master | Dame Sally Davies |
| Undergraduates | 735 (2022–23) |
| Postgraduates | 336 (2022–23) |
| Endowment | £2.02bn (2023)[2] |
| Visitor | .svg) Charles III,The Crownex officio[3] |
| Website | trin |
| Students' union | www |
| BA society | basociety |
| Map | |
  Location in Central Cambridge Show map of Central Cambridge Location in Cambridge Show map of Cambridge | |
Trinity College is aconstituent college of theUniversity of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by KingHenry VIII, Trinity is one of the largestCambridge colleges,[4] with the largestfinancial endowment of any college at Oxford or Cambridge. Trinity has some of the most distinctive architecture in Cambridge with itsGreat Court said to be the largest enclosed courtyard in Europe.[5] Academically, Trinity performs exceptionally as measured by theTompkins Table (the annual unofficial league table of Cambridge colleges), coming top from 2011 to 2017,[6] and regaining the position in 2024.[7]
Members of Trinity have been awarded 34 Nobel Prizes out of the 121 received by members of the University of Cambridge (more than any other Oxford or Cambridge college).[8] Members of the college have received fourFields Medals, oneTuring Award and oneAbel Prize.[9] Trinity alumni includeFrancis Bacon, six Britishprime ministers (the highest number of any Cambridge college), physicistsIsaac Newton,James Clerk Maxwell,Ernest Rutherford andNiels Bohr, mathematiciansSrinivasa Ramanujan andCharles Babbage, poetsLord Byron andLord Tennyson, English juristEdward Coke, writersVladimir Nabokov andA. A. Milne, historiansLord Macaulay andG. M. Trevelyan, and philosophersLudwig Wittgenstein andBertrand Russell (who the college expelled before reaccepting). Two members of theBritish royal family have studied at Trinity and been awarded degrees:Prince William of Gloucester and Edinburgh, who gained an MA in 1790, and KingCharles III, who was awarded a lower second class BA in 1970.
Trinity's many college societies include theTrinity Mathematical Society, the oldest mathematical university society in the United Kingdom, and theFirst and Third Trinity Boat Club, itsrowing club, which gives its name to theMay Ball. Along withChrist's,Jesus,King's andSt John's colleges, it has provided several well-knownmembers of the Cambridge Apostles, an intellectualsecret society. In 1848, Trinity hosted a meeting at which Cambridge undergraduates representingfee-paying private schools codified a set of early rules of football known as theCambridge rules.[10] Trinity's sister college isChrist Church, Oxford. Trinity has been linked withWestminster School since the school's re-foundation in 1560, and its Master is anex officio governor of the school.[11]
The college was founded byHenry VIII in 1546 with the nameCollege of the Holy and Undivided Trinity within the Town and University of Cambridge of King Henry the Eighth's Foundation, from the merger of two existing colleges:Michaelhouse (founded byHervey de Stanton in 1324), andKing's Hall (established byEdward II in 1317 and refounded byEdward III in 1337). At the time, Henry had been seizing (Catholic) church lands from abbeys and monasteries. The universities ofOxford andCambridge, being both religious institutions and quite rich, expected to be next in line. The King duly passed anAct of Parliament that allowed him to suppress (and confiscate the property of) any college he wished. The universities used their contacts to plead with his sixth wife,Catherine Parr. The Queen persuaded her husband not to close them down, but to create a new college. The king did not want to use royal funds, so he instead combined two colleges (King's Hall andMichaelhouse) and seven hostels to form Trinity.
The monastic lands granted byHenry VIII were not on their own sufficient to ensure Trinity's eventual rise. In terms of architecture and royal association, it was not until the Mastership of Thomas Nevile (1593–1615) that Trinity assumed both its spaciousness and its association with the governing class that distinguished it since the Civil War. In its infancy Trinity had owed a great deal to its neighbouring college ofSt John's: in the words ofRoger Ascham, Trinity was acolonia deducta.[12]
Most of Trinity's major buildings date from the 16th and 17th centuries.Thomas Nevile, who became Master of Trinity in 1593, rebuilt and redesigned much of the college. This work included the enlargement and completion ofGreat Court and the construction ofNevile's Court between Great Court and theriver Cam. Nevile's Court was completed in the late 17th century with theWren Library, designed byChristopher Wren. Nevile's building campaign drove the college into debt from which it surfaced only in the 1640s, and the Mastership ofRichard Bentley adversely affected applications and finances.[12] Bentley himself was notorious for the construction of a hugely expensive staircase in the Master's Lodge and for his repeated refusals to step down despite pleas from the Fellows. Besides, despite not being a sister college ofTrinity College Dublin, as is the case with St John's College, Cambridge, it is believed that the Irish institution takes its name from this college, which was thealma mater of its first provost,Adam Loftus and, likewise, fromTrinity College, Oxford.
In the 20th century, Trinity College, St John's College andKing's College were for decades the main recruiting grounds for theCambridge Apostles, an elite, intellectual secret society. In 2011, theJohn Templeton Foundation awarded Trinity College's Master, the astrophysicistMartin Rees, its controversial million-pound[13]Templeton Prize, for "affirming life's spiritual dimension". Trinity is the richestOxbridge college with a landholding alone worth £800 million.[14] For comparison, the second richest college in Cambridge (St John's) has estimated assets of around £780 million, and the richest college in Oxford (Magdalen) has about £940 million.[15]In 2005, Trinity's annual rental income from its properties was reported to be in excess of £20 million. The college owns:
In 2018, Trinity revealed that it had investments totalling £9.1 million in companies involved in oil and gas production, exploration and refinement. These included holdings of £1.2 million in Royal Dutch Shell, £1.7 million in Exxon Mobil and £1 million in Chevron.[18] In 2019, Trinity confirmed its plan to withdraw from theUniversities Superannuation Scheme (USS), the main pre-1992 UK University pension provider.[19] In response, more than 500 Cambridge academics signed an open letter undertaking to "refuse to supervise Trinity students or to engage in other discretionary work in support of Trinity's teaching and research activities".[20] On 17 February 2020, protestors from the campaign groupExtinction Rebellion dug up the front lawn of Trinity College to protest against the College's investments in fossil fuels and its negotiations to sell off a farm in Suffolk that was to be turned into a lorry park.[21]
Lord Byron purportedly kept a pet bear whilst living in the college.[22] Trinity is also often cited as the inventor of an English version ofcrème brûlée, known as "Trinity burnt cream".[23][24]
Trinity College has a long-standing relationship with the Parish of St George's,Camberwell,[25] in South London. Students from the College have helped to run holiday schemes for children from the parish since 1966. The relationship was formalised in 1979 with the establishment ofTrinity in Camberwell as a registered charity.[26]
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The Great Gate is the main entrance to the college, leading to theGreat Court. A statue of the college founder,Henry VIII, stands in a niche above the doorway. In 1983, Trinity College undergraduateLance Anisfeld, then Vice-President of CURLS (Cambridge Union Raving Loony Society), replaced the chair leg with a bicycle pump. Once discovered the following day, the college removed the pump and replaced it with another chair leg. The original chair leg was auctioned off by TV Presenter Chris Serle at a Cambridge Union Society charity raffle in 1985. In 2023, the college replaced the chair leg with a sceptre to mark the 75th birthday ofCharles III, an alumnus of the college.[27] In 1704, the University's firstastronomicalobservatory was built on top of the gatehouse. Beneath the founder's statue are the coats of arms ofEdward III, the founder of King's Hall, and those of his five sons who survived to maturity, as well as William of Hatfield, whose shield is blank as he died as an infant, before being granted arms.[28]
Great Court (built 1599–1608) was the brainchild ofThomas Nevile, who demolished several existing buildings on this site, including almost the entirety of the former college ofMichaelhouse. The sole remaining building of Michaelhouse was replaced by the then current Kitchens (designed byJames Essex) in 1770–1775. The Master's Lodge is the official residence of the Sovereign when in Cambridge. King's Hostel (built 1377–1416) is located to the north of Great Court, behind theclock tower. This is, along with the King's Gate, the sole remaining building fromKing's Hall. Bishop's Hostel (built 1671) is a detached building to the southwest of Great Court, and named afterJohn Hacket, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. Additional buildings were built in 1878 by Arthur Blomfield.
Nevile's Court (built 1614) is located between Great Court and the river. It was created by a bequest by the college's master,Thomas Nevile, originally two-thirds of its current length and without theWren Library. The court was extended and the appearance of the upper floor remodelled slightly in 1758 byJames Essex. Cloisters run around the court, providing sheltered walkways from the rear of Great Hall to the college library and reading room as well as the Wren Library and New Court.
The Wren Library (built 1676–1695,Christopher Wren) is located at the west end of Nevile's Court, the Wren is one of Cambridge's most famous and well-endowed libraries. Among its notable possessions are two ofShakespeare's First Folios, a 14th-century manuscript ofThe Vision of Piers Plowman, letters written by Sir Isaac Newton, and theEadwine Psalter.[29] Below the building are the pleasant Wren Library Cloisters, where students may enjoy a fine view of the Great Hall in front of them, and the river andBacks directly behind.
Since the completion of theWren Library in 1695, a number of prominent portraits have been displayed within its walls, including those ofArthur James Balfour,John Hacket,Isaac Barrow,William Lamb, andThomas Nevile.[30][31] As of November 2024, the portrait of Balfour was temporarily relocated to an undisclosed location in Cambridge after being vandalised by an activist associated with the groupPalestine Action.[32] Trinity College stated that revealing the painting's current location or restoration studio would present a security risk.[33]
New Court (orKing's Court; built 1825,William Wilkins) is located to the south of Nevile's Court, and built in Tudor-Gothic style; this court is notable for the large tree in the centre. A myth is sometimes circulated that this was the tree from which the apple dropped ontoIsaac Newton; in fact, Newton was at home inWoolsthorpe when he deduced his theory of gravity – and the tree is ahorse chestnut tree.[34][35] For many years it was the custom for students to place a bicycle high in branches of the tree of New Court. Usually invisible except in winter, when the leaves had fallen, such bicycles tended to remain for several years before being removed by the authorities. The students then inserted another bicycle.
Whewell's Court (1860–1868,Anthony Salvin)[36] is located across the street from Great Court, and was entirely paid for byWilliam Whewell, the Master of the college from 1841 until his death in 1866. The north range was later remodelled byW.D. Caroe. Angel Court (built 1957–1959,H. C. Husband) is located between Great Court andTrinity Street, and is used along with the Wolfson Building for accommodating first year students.
The Wolfson Building (built 1968–1972,Architects' Co-Partnership) is located to the south of Whewell's Court, on top of a podium above shops, this building resembles a brick-clad ziggurat, and is used exclusively for first-year accommodation. Having been renovated during the academic year 2005–06, many rooms are now en-suite. Blue Boar Court (built 1989,MJP Architects) is located to the south of the Wolfson Building, on top of podium a floor up from ground level, and including the upper floors of several surrounding Georgian buildings on Trinity Street, Green Street andSidney Street.Burrell's Field (built 1995, MJP Architects) is located on a site to the west of the main College buildings, opposite theCambridge University Library.[37]
Trinity College Chapel dates from the mid 16th century and isGrade I listed.[38] There are a number of memorials to former Fellows of Trinity within the Chapel, including statues, brasses, and two memorials to graduates and Fellows who died during the World Wars.[39] Among the most notable of these is a statue of Isaac Newton byRoubiliac, described bySir Francis Chantrey as "the noblest, I think, of all our English statues."[40] The Chapel is a performance space forthe College Choir which comprises around thirty Choral Scholars and twoOrgan Scholars, all of whom are ordinarily students at the University.[41]
The Fellows' Garden is located on the west side ofQueen's Road, opposite the drive that leads to the Backs. The Fellows' Bowling Green is located north of Great Court, between King's Hostel and the river. It is the site for many of the tutors' garden parties in the summer months, while the Master's Garden is located behind the Master's Lodge. The Old Fields are located on the western side ofGrange Road, next to Burrell's Field. It currently houses the college's gym, changing rooms, squash courts, badminton courts, rugby, hockey and football pitches along with tennis and netball courts.
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Trinity Bridge is a stone built triple-arched road bridge across the River Cam. It was built of Portland stone in 1765 to the designs ofJames Essex to replace an earlier bridge built in 1651 and is aGrade I listed building.[42]
Since 1997, the college has always come at least eighth in theTompkins Table, which ranks the twenty-nine undergraduate Cambridge colleges according to the academic performance of their undergraduates, and on eleven occasions it has been in first place. Its average position in the Tompkins Table over that period has been between second and third, higher than any other. In 2016, 45% of Trinity undergraduates achieved First Class Honours, twelve percentage points ahead of second place Pembroke – a record among Cambridge colleges.[43]
Trinity's history, academic performance and alumni have made it one of the most prestigious constituent colleges of the University, making admission extremely competitive. About 50% of Trinity's undergraduates attended independent schools. In 2006 it accepted a smaller proportion of students from state schools (39%) than any other Cambridge college, and on a rolling three-year average it has admitted a smaller proportion of state school pupils (42%) than any other college at either Cambridge or Oxford.[44][45][46] According to theGood Schools Guide, about 7% of British school-age students attend private schools, although this figure refers to students in all school years – a higher proportion attend private schools in their final two years before university. Trinity states that it disregards what type of school its applicants attend, and accepts students solely on the basis of their academic prospects. Trinity admitted its first female graduate student in 1976, its first female undergraduate in 1978 and elected its first female fellow (Marian Hobson) in 1977.[47]
The Scholars, together with the Master and Fellows, make up theFoundation of the College. In order of seniority:
These scholarships are tenable for the academic year following that in which the result was achieved. If a scholarship is awarded but the student does not continue at Trinity then only a quarter of the stipend is given. However, all students who achieve a First are awarded an additional £240 prize upon announcement of the results.
Many final year undergraduates who achieve first-class honours in their final exams are offered full financial support, through a scheme known as Internal Graduate Studentships, to read for amaster's degree at Cambridge.[48] Other support is available forPhD degrees. The College also offers a number of other bursaries and studentships open to external applicants. The right to walk on the grass in the college courts is exclusive to Fellows of the college and their guests. Scholars do, however, have the right to walk on the Scholars' Lawn, but only in full academic dress.
The Great Court Run requires a circuit of the 400-yard perimeter ofGreat Court, in the 43 seconds of the clock striking 12. The time varies according to humidity. Students traditionally attempt to complete the circuit on the day of the Matriculation Dinner. It is a difficult challenge: one needs to be a fine sprinter to achieve it, but it is not necessary to be of Olympic standard, despite assertions made in the press.[49]
It is widely believed thatSebastian Coe successfully completed the run when he beatSteve Cram in a charity race in October 1988. Coe's time on 29 October 1988 was reported byNorris McWhirter to have been 45.52 seconds, but it was actually 46.0 seconds, while Cram's was 46.3 seconds. The clock on that day took 44.4 seconds and the video film confirms that Coe was some 12 metres short of the finish line when the final stroke occurred. The television commentators were wrong to speculate that the dying sounds of the bell could be included in the striking time, thereby allowing Coe's run to be claimed as successful. One reason Olympic runners Cram and Coe found the challenge difficult is that they started at the middle of one side of the court, having to negotiate four right-angle turns. In the days when students started at a corner, only three turns were needed. In addition, Cram and Coe ran entirely on the flagstones, while until 2017 students have typically cut corners to run on the cobbles.[50]
The Great Court Run was portrayed in the filmChariots of Fire about the British Olympic runners of 1924. The run was filmed atEton College in Berkshire, not in Great Court. Until the mid-1990s, the run was traditionally attempted by first-year students at midnight following their matriculation dinner.[51] Following a number of accidents to undergraduates running on slippery cobbles, the college now organises a more formal Great Court Run, at 12 noon on the day of the matriculation dinner: while some contestants compete seriously, many others run in fancy dress and there are prizes for the fastest man and woman in each category.[52]
One Sunday each June, theCollege Choir perform a short concert immediately after the clock strikes noon. Known asSinging from the Towers, half of the choir sings from the top of the Great Gate, while the other half sings from the top of the Clock Tower approximately 60 metres away, giving a strongantiphonal effect. Midway through the concert, the Cambridge University Brass Ensemble performs from the top of the Queen's Tower.[53]
Later that same day, the College Choir gives a second open-air concert, known asSinging on the River, where they performmadrigals and arrangements of popular songs from a raft ofpunts lit with lanterns or fairy lights on theriver. For the finale,John Wilbye's madrigalDraw on, sweet night, the raft is unmoored and punted downstream to give afade out effect. As a tradition, however, this latter concert dates back only to the mid-1980s, when the College Choir first acquired female members. In the years immediately before this, an annual concert on the river was given by the University Madrigal Society.[54]
Another tradition relates to an artificial duck known as the Mallard, which should reside in the rafters of the Great Hall. Students occasionally moved the duck from one rafter to another without permission from the college. This is considered difficult; access to the Hall outside meal-times is prohibited and the rafters are dangerously high, so it was not attempted for several years. During the Easter term of 2006, the Mallard was knocked off its rafter by one of the pigeons which enter the Hall through the pinnacle windows. It was reinstated by students in 2016, and is only visible from the far end of the hall.[55][56]
The college remains a great rival ofSt John's which is its main competitor in sports and academia. This has given rise to a number of anecdotes and myths. It is often cited as the reason that the older courts of Trinity generally have no J staircases, despite including other letters in alphabetical order. A far more likely reason is that theLatin alphabet did not have the letter J—the older courts ofSt John's College also lack J staircases. There are also two small muzzle-loading cannons on the bowling green pointing in the direction of John's, though this orientation may be coincidental. Another story sometimes told is that the reason that the clock in Trinity Great Court strikes each hour twice is that the fellows of St John's once complained about the noise it made.
Each evening before dinner, grace is recited by the senior fellow presiding, as follows:
Benedic, Domine, nos et dona tua,
quae de largitate tua sumus sumpturi,
et concede, ut illis salubriter nutriti
tibi debitum obsequium praestare valeamus,
per Christum Dominum nostrum.
Bless us, Lord, and these gifts
which, through your generosity, we are about to receive
and grant that we, wholesomely nourished by them,
may be able to offer you the service we owe
through Christ our Lord.
If both of the two high tables are in use then the followingantiphonal formula is prefixed to the main grace:
A. Oculi omnium in te sperant Domine:
B. Et tu das escam illis in tempore.
A. Aperis tu manum tuam,
B. Et imples omne animal benedictione.
The eyes of all are on you, Lord:
and you give them their food, in due time.
You open your hand
and bestow upon all living things your blessing.[57]
Following the meal, the simple formulaBenedicto benedicatur is pronounced.[58]
Befitting the termtrinity, Trinity Collegepunts are named after people or things related to the number three, such asBronze (award for third place),Codon (which has threenucleotides) andWise Monkey. In 2023, the launch of the puntCharles marked the coronation of alumnusCharles III.[59]
Trinity College undergraduate gowns are readily distinguished from the black gowns favoured by most other Cambridge colleges. They are instead dark blue with black facings. They are expected to be worn to formal events such as formal halls and also when an undergraduate sees the Dean of the College in a formal capacity. Trinity students, along with those ofKing's andSt John's, are the first to be presented to the Congregation of the Regent House at graduation.
TheParish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge contains the graves of 27 Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge most of whom are also commemorated in Trinity College Chapel with brass plaques.Charles III,King of the United Kingdom, attended from 1967 to 1970.Marian Hobson was the first woman to become a Fellow of the college, having been elected in 1977,[60][61] and her portrait now hangs in the college hall along with those of other notable members of the college.[62] Other notable female Fellows includeAnne Barton,Marilyn Strathern,Catherine Barnard,Lynn Gladden andRebecca Fitzgerald.
This list includes winners of theNobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, which is not one of the fiveNobel Prizes established byAlfred Nobel's will in 1895.
Four members or alumni of Trinity College have been awarded theFields Medal.
| Name | Year |
|---|---|
| Michael Atiyah | 1966 |
| Alan Baker | 1970 |
| Richard Borcherds | 1998 |
| Timothy Gowers | 1998 |
| Name | Year |
|---|---|
| James H. Wilkinson | 1970 |
| Name | Party | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Spencer Perceval | Tory | 1809–1812 |
| Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey | Whig | 1830–1834 |
| William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne | Whig | 1834–1841 |
| Arthur Balfour | Conservative | 1902–1905 |
| Henry Campbell-Bannerman | Liberal | 1905–1908 |
| Stanley Baldwin | Conservative | 1923–1924 1924–1929 1935–1937 |
Other Trinity politicians includeRobert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, courtier ofElizabeth I;William Waddington, Prime Minister of France;Erskine Hamilton Childers, fourth President of Ireland;Jawaharlal Nehru, the first and longest serving Prime Minister ofIndia;Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India;Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore;Samir Rifai, Prime Minister of Jordan;Richard Blumenthal, incumbent senior US Senator from Connecticut; andWilliam Whitelaw, Home Secretary and subsequently Deputy Prime Minister.
The head of Trinity College is called the Master. The role is a Crown appointment, formally made by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister.[63] Nowadays, the fellows of the college propose a new master for the appointment,[64] but the decision is formally that of the Crown. The first Master,John Redman, was appointed in 1546. Six masters subsequent toRab Butler had been fellows of the college prior to becoming master (honorary fellow in the case ofMartin Rees), the last of these beingSir Gregory Winter, appointed on 2 October 2012.[65][66] He was succeeded byDame Sally Davies, the first female Master of Trinity College, on 8 October 2019.[67]
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52°12′25″N0°06′53″E / 52.2070°N 0.1146°E /52.2070; 0.1146 (Trinity College)
