On October 15th we held our Annual Reunion and AGM.  If you’ve already looked at the photos our web editor Gary has posted, you’ll see that we had a good time listening to Martin Hughes reminiscing about the QEC Chemistry dept and also telling us about his research interests over the past 40 years.  A summary of that talk will be published in next year’s Envoy.  The refreshment and lunch breaks were in the Council and Committee Rooms on the Strand campus where portraits of past Principals of all the constituent colleges are hung.  It certainly brought back memories, seeing images of Miss Sargeaunt and Kenneth Denbigh.

The attendance at this year’s reunion was much lower than it has been for several years.  Only 36 people came, which was about the same as the number who came to our walk round Kensington during the KCL Alumni Reunion weekend in June.  As we had sent invitations to about 650 members of the Association, we are clearly not appealing to the vast majority of you.  Our constitution requires us to hold an AGM and until now, we have organised an event (usually a guest speaker and lunch) to coincide with the AGM.  Given the rising costs of providing refreshments and lunch, plus the falling numbers of attendees, I have proposed that we make some changes for future years.  These were discussed at the AGM but no final decision was made as we felt the wider membership should be consulted for your opinions.

Next year we will hold our AGM at the end of the Special Reunion being held on June 10th as part of the Alumni weekend.  There will not be a reunion weekend in October 2006 as we feel attendance will be reduced by holding two events in June and October (as we did this year with the Kensington walk).  I have proposed that we hold future reunions and AGMs in June to coincide with the Alumni weekend, so that members can combine their trip to central London with attending other events arranged by King’s.  I also believe that travelling conditions in June are generally better than those in October - temperatures are higher, days are longer, and hopefully the prospect of a day trip to London seems less of a hassle than struggling through cold winds and rain, trains disrupted by leaf-fall, and leaving/arriving home in the dark.  Queen Elizabeth College and its predecessors, King’s College of Household and Social Science, and the Ladies Dept of King’s College, have several important anniversaries in June which make it an appropriate month to reunite:

12th June 1885 : KCL Council officially recognised the ‘Ladies Department’ promoted during the 1870s and 1880s (a first step towards QEC – 100 years later it became part of King’s again!)

15th June 1888 : KCL Council gave the Ladies Department the same semi-autonomous management status as the other Departments of the college.

11th June 1914 : foundation stone of Queen Mary Hall and the Home Science department laid by Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein

17th June 1946 : ‘Leaving Reception’ at the Bell Hotel Leicester for evacuees returning to Kensington (next year is the 60th anniversary)

24th June 1959 :  Foundation stone of Atkins Building laid by HRH Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

(Webmaster’s comment : for more QEC dates please see the QEC History pages)

We would like to hear from you before we make a decision on annual reunions.  Would you come to a reunion in June, in October, or any month of the year? What would attract you to come to reunions?  Do you prefer a walk, or a venue to meet, in Kensington?  Do you like the idea of hearing talks by alumni of QEC or not?  Do you think we should simply hold a stand-alone AGM late morning/early afternoon and then retire to a nearby restaurant before heading for the shops and theatres.

We will be debating this at next year’s AGM when attendees will have had a chance to compare the pros and cons of coming to a summer rather than an autumn meeting.  If there is no strong feeling that a formal reunion should continue, then the AGM may be tagged onto the annual Alumni weekend organized by KCLA, so that we do not have to organize a separate event to attract members.

Another issue I raised earlier this year, was that of the QEC Bursary or Prize for a student studying for a degree in a science subject.  I had thought it might be nice to have something to remember QEC by, and that we could all contribute to.  I had very few responses to my website article so there is clearly little, if any, enthusiasm for this among online members.  We discussed it at the October AGM where I proposed that we drop the idea because it was clearly not generating any interest.  During the discussion it became obvious that there was some enthusiasm among the attendees for a named prize, but we could not agree on which group(s) of students would be eligible and what the criteria should be.  One idea - an essay prize – was discounted as it would involve a lot of work each year – deciding what the topic should be, who would mark it, what the marking criteria would be, and so on.  Giving a prize specific for the ‘best’, ‘most promising’, or ‘most improved’ science student was also discounted, as most of the undergraduate science degrees that were taught in QEC will not exist after next summer.  Only Biochemistry, Maths, Nutrition, Physiology and Physics will remain so clearly only a fraction of us will feel any allegiance to those specific degrees.

One suggestion of a travel Bursary for a Nutrition student to attend a conference met with some (but not universal) approval.  This in effect would go to a postgraduate student (as undergraduates tend not to go to conferences).  If we are going to target postgraduate students, then we can include (non-Medical) scientific projects that will still exist at postgraduate level in disciplines such as Biochemistry, Nutrition, Microbiology, Physics, and Maths among others.

You will see it is not as straightforward as I had originally thought it might be.  Again, this will be
discussed one last time at next June’s AGM and if there is no consensus, the idea will be dropped.  So if you have any comments for or against this idea, please let us know because we don’t want to take decisions by only 30 or so people when there are over 600 of you out there somewhere.

Webmaster’s note : We now have 3 polls running on the website to seek your views on when and where for the Annual reunion, and your thoughts on an additional event for the 2006 reunion. Click here to go to the Your Views Count! Page

One final important issue I want to highlight is our title – Queen Elizabeth (Kensington) Association.  We represent all those who attended College on the Campden Hill Road campus, whether it was King’s College of Household and Social Science (1928-53), Queen Elizabeth College (1953-1985), or King’s College London (1985-1999).  Some of you may not even have done science degrees there, but may simply have been a resident of Queen Elizabeth (or Queen Mary) Hall.  Whoever you are, whatever your link to the much-loved and much-missed Kensington campus, with its friendly and informal atmosphere, we are here to keep you in touch with each other and to keep the common bond alive through the internet and by annual get-togethers…..do join us and keep the QEC hearth fires burning bright!

This page created 04 December 2005