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Hannah History Prize
I was both honoured and delighted that the Hannah Prize took place again this year. The rules
entailed choosing an essay title from a list, planning it during the Christmas break and writing
it up at school on the first day back after the holidays. (No better way to start the Lent Term
than with a good dose of history!)
On the menu were three titles: a nice piece
of historiography (the most popular choice)
exploring the notion that history has to repeat
itself because no-one listens; a counterfactual
theme assessing what the modern world
might be like had some important historical
event not taken place, and an empathic option,
on participating in the French Revolution.
Taragh Melwani
(RemovesWinner) chose
the latter, offering a bloodthirsty narrative
of the proceedings (1789-93) from the
point-of-view of a sans-culotte, including a
gruesome account of the beheading of the
Marquis de Launay, the unfortunate Governor
of the Bastille.
Tom Eadie
(Third-yearWinner)
and
Henry Minter
(Fifth-year Runner-up)
imagined a whole new world. For Eadie, there
had been no FirstWorldWar, thus no Hitler, no
Nazis and no Holocaust. In Minter’s case, again
with no GreatWar, there was general European
détente after 1914, with strong Anglo-German
relations and Free Trade all round.The Russian
Tsars had experimented with democracy
and the best elements of the British Empire
flourished as never before, creating a global
Utopia.
David Jin Li
(Third-year Runner-up),
Christopher Orr
(Removes Runner-up),
Andrew Heywood
(Fifth-yearWinner)
and Joseph Menell (the overall winner),
each opted for the philosophical approach.
Jin Li made some perceptive comparisons
between Napoleon and Hitler in 1812 and
1941 respectively. Orr illustrated the fact
that history repeats itself using examples of
financial crises from the South Sea Bubble
(1720) to modern times. He concluded
optimistically that,‘we are slowly getting
better at listening [to history] because of
increased understanding and learning’.
Heywood’s thesis was that people
do
listen, but it is the way they then act which
determines the scale of any historical
repetition. Human nature also plays an
important role, a view echoed by Menell in his
splendidly analytical piece.
It was a delight to meet the prize winners in
Blackwell’s, to discuss their choice of historical
reading and sign their books.Well played
everyone – persevere – read your books for, as
it has been justly written,‘Histories make men
wise’.
GWH
Winton
Humanities
Trophy,
Stowe
Early in the Summer Term
fifteen 3rd Years went to
Stowe School to compete in
this new competition.
With workshops on Politics, Ethics, Art
History and Geography, plus a fascinating
talk from the Rt Hon John Bercow MP,
the boys were inspired and challenged on
several fronts. As ever, we asked a multitude
of pertinent and perceptive questions, and
benefited from the extensive knowledge
and stimulating teaching of the Stowe staff.
Though the competitive element played
second fiddle to the intellectual one, it
kept our boys on the ball to the end; we
were pleased to make it onto the winners’
podium, but were narrowly squeezed out of
first place.
MJF
Abingdon
Business
Challenge
In February six Third Year
boys took part in Abingdon
School’s Business Challenge,
which has now become an
annual event.
Oliver Edwards, Cenk Oguz , Gabriel
Thomas, David Jin-Li, George Zhou
and
Freddie Dooley
were charged with the
task of creating a new shower product
and presenting their business plan for
it. The boys worked very hard for two
hours on their luxurious and exotically
named product ‘Midnight Sun’. In their
very well presented business plan they
detailed their target market, product
ingredients and finances.While the
judging panel did not place their product
in the top two, the Summerfieldians’
efforts in design and presentation were
recognised by Abingdon’s Head of
Business and Economics, who made some
extremely positive comments. There
was further consolation when our boys
were pronounced overall winners of the
marketing quiz, an event that ran alongside
the business challenge. The boys had to
name the correct logo for a variety of
global brands as well as giving their famous
slogans. It was a fantastic day and great to
see the boys working so well as a team and
presenting so well under pressure.
SRF
S u m m e r F i e l d s
2 0 1 5 – 2 0 1 6
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