Tanya's concert gets a mention in the Trinity Alumni newsletter

1. Trinity Matric ’58 Publisher iansenior@aol.com
No 94 27 April 2013 ian.senior@trinity.oxon.org
Service to commemorate the Dambusters’ raid, 17th May in
Chapel by Clare Hopkins, College Archivist
On 17 May there will be a service in Chapel to commemorate the
70th
anniversary of the Dambusters’ Raid. This is properly an
event of the Oxford University Air Squadron, but it has come to
Trinity because the only Oxford man who took part in the raid was
Henry Melvin ‘Dinghy’ Young (1934). Melvin Young was second
in command to Guy Gibson. His bomb was the first to hit, and
crack, the Möhne Dam, but his plane was shot down as they flew
home over the Dutch coast. He and his crew are buried in a
cemetery at Bergen.
Rev Emma Percy, College Chaplin, is arranging the service with
members of the OUAS. It will include a short eulogy for Melvin
Young, given by his biographer Arthur Thorning (1962), the
reading of the names of the 53 men who fell, and a minute’s
silence to remember the many thousands of civilians who lost their
lives in the flooding of the Ruhr Valley. The choir will be singing.
The service in Chapel starts at 5.30 and is open to the whole College, but old members should let
Emma Percy know if they are intending to come. emma.percy@trinity.ox.ac.uk From 4 pm there
will be an archive exhibition about the life of Melvin Young on display in the Old Bursary. He was
a member of the Boat Club and one of the crew who took Trinity to the Head of the River in 1938,
the first time since 1864. He was a Blue the same year. Although not a natural oarsman he was
notable for his hard work and determination and the same was true of his flying. Although not a
natural pilot, he was a great leader of men and a gifted administrator. Twice he was shot down and
brought his crew home safely, the first time after a night in a dinghy in the Atlantic – and this was
how he acquired his memorable nickname.
Following the service there will be a drinks reception at which Arthur Thorning will present a copy
of Dambusters: Failed to Return to the Library/President. This fine publication is being released on
the anniversary of the raid. Arthur has contributed the chapter on Melvin Young.
Tanya Sen’s (2009) valedictory concert
The College Music Society continues to flourish but will certainly miss Tanya Sen when she graduates this
year. She is a past president of TCMS and is blessed with a extraordinarily beautiful voice with a wide range
of colour and expression. Her programme on 26th
April began with a Vivaldi motet accompanied by Soloman

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Lau (2009) on harpsichord, our current organ scholar, and by the Trinity string quartet. This was followed by
two amusing songs from Die Fledermaus. In introducing them Tanya gave us the context with little
thumbnail sketches of what the characters were up to in the opera. Her acting skills were obvious and carried
through to the way she presented the songs. The recital ended with Puccini’s heart-melting O Mio Babbino
Caro in which the heroine pleasds with her father to be allowed to marry the man she loves.
The retiring collection was in aid of India’s Pratham Education Foundation and the entire concert was
dedicated to the memory of past President, the late Sir John Burgh,
Tanya is reading engineering, economics and
management. In the autumn she starts with the
Singapore office of Bain Consulting, a marvellous
posting. I hope she will find time to read about
Singapore’s founder, Sir Stamford Raffles, who
established Singapore in 1819 as a free-trading
British settlement that guaranteed our trade route
to China. Raffles did so without the permission
of the East India Company who then bankrupted
him for his pains.
Tanya Sen, right, Soloman Lau and the Trinity string quartet
Rattigan’s Less than Kind
For the second consecutive year this recently discovered play by
Terence Rattigan (1930) is now on national tour and will open at the
Oxford Playhouse from14-18 May. Other dates are below. Those of
us who packed the small Jermyn Street theatre in January 2011 will be
surprised to read the publicity blurb that describes it as “previously
unperformed”. No matter. The title is one of Hamlet’s opening lines
from scene 2 and the plot is cleverly based on Hamlet’s main
structure. The big difference is that there is a happy ending. Instead
of a stage strewn with bodies, Hamlet, Gertrude and Claudius exeunt
going off to lunch at Claudius’s club. The production has had
excellent reviews.
Oxford Playhouse Tues 14-Sat 18 May, 01865 305305
Salisbury Playhouse Mon 20-Sat 25 May ,01722 320333
Brighton Theatre Royal Mon 27 May-Sat 1 June 0844 871 7650
Richmond Theatre Mon 3-Sat 8 June 0844 871 7651
York Theatre Royal Tue 11-Sat 15 June 01904 623568
Cheltenham Everyman Mon 17-Sat 22 June 01242 572573
Aylesbury Waterside Mon 24-Sat 29 June 0844 871 7607

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Nevile Gwynne – a correction
I apologise for mis-spelling both Nevile and Gwynne in the
two previous issues. When I Googled him his first name
came up as Neville. His name on the cover of his book is
N.M.Gwynne so I missed the correct spelling of Nevile.
Anyway, my copy of Gwynne’s Grammar has arrived from
Amazon and I hope he will have a book signing before long,
preferably in Blackwells.
The Seagull in a new version by John Donnelly —as bad as
Pinter
I’ve seen recent productions of The Cherry Orchard and Uncle Vanya and thought them passable if your taste
is for not much happening against a background of gloom and doom usually finishing in a gunshot suicide. A
new version of The Seagull by John Donnelly has all that in spades. The actors are in jeans, the language has
been modernised and the dialogue is angry-young-men stuff. Add to this plenty of f-words, some Pinteresque
pauses, an onstage simulated copulation and the predictable off-stage gun-shot suicide left me wondering if
this really is Chekov’s finest. I’d like any better informed readers to tell me how wrong I am. Otherwise
avoid this production at all costs.