Alumni News in Brief…
King’s Birthday Honours
Our congratulations to Christopher Clapham (1960 BA, DPhil PPE), who has been appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2025 King’s Birthday Honours for "services to academia, foreign policy, and UK relations with the Horn of Africa".
Best New Song
Alumni Oli Adcock (2017 History and Politics) and Zach Burns (2017 History) have won the ‘Vision, Voice and Potential’ category in the ‘Stiles + Drewe Best New Song Prize 2025’ for their song ‘And Begin’ from the upcoming musical For All Time. Twelve finalist songs from new British musicals, selected out of 230 submissions, were presented on Tuesday 25 November at a concert at The Other Palace. ‘And Begin’ was performed by Lizzy-Rose Esin-Kelly (also pictured).
Poetry Book Launch
To celebrate the release of her full poetry collection, Suzanna Fitzpatrick (1994 English) launched her book Crippled at Keble on 14 November in the Crisp Hollamby Lecture Theatre at our H B Allen Centre. The evening featured readings from Suzanna and poet Sarah Gibbons, followed by a Q&A.
Railway Chair
Rebeka Sellick (1987 Engineering, Economics & Management) has been elected Chair of the Railway Division of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers for the year 2025-2026. Rebeka joined British Rail for a shop-floor year before coming to Keble in 1987 to read EEM and still loves mending trains to this day. Railway jobs from shift management to creating companies have taken Rebeka to CEng and FIMechE, spanning geographies from Derby, London and Inverness to SNCF in Paris and assignments in Asia. During seven years as Engineering Director at ATOC (Rail Delivery Group’s predecessor), she got excited about policy and innovation, which she continues to deliver for UK Rail and at Cordel, creating useful asset information for infrastructure engineers.
Playing with Numbers
Bijan Toloui (1976 DPhil Metallurgy) has recently developed and introduced NumberQuash®, an innovative board game that brings together elements of chance, strategy, and logic. Designed to stimulate both analytical thinking and friendly competition, NumberQuash® offers players of all ages an engaging way to enjoy the creative and intellectual aspects of working with numbers. The inspiration for NumberQuash® arose from a lifelong interest in puzzles and problem-solving, pursued further during retirement.
Rugged Weekend
A group of Keble alumni have developed a great way to stay in touch. Pictured here are the members, all of whom matriculated in 1979 and studied PPE or history. The Rugged Weekend was dreamed up when they began work — the idea was to do something in the great outdoors, such as camping, so as not to become too soft. Over the years, the Rugged Weekend (or 'Rug') has become less rugged, but it still retains its core feature of a strenuous walk or climb, this year, up Snaefell on the Isle of Man. Each year a new leader of the group, a ‘Rugmeister', emerges, by acclamation. The Rugmeister has absolute authority to decide where the Rug will meet, and to make arrangements. The Rug has gathered in many corners of the UK but also has ventured as far afield as Vermont. Featured in the photo are (l-r): Nick Jennings, Steve Kelly, Mark Dewey, Neil Pearse, Stuart Bell, Andy Kennedy and Phil Goodwin.
