Chancellor's Gold Medal
The Chancellor's Gold Medal is annual award for poetry open to undergraduates at the University of Cambridge, paralleling Oxford University's Newdigate Prize. It was first presented by Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh during his time as Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. In the mid-19th century, the topic for each year was sent out at the end of Michaelmas Term, with a requirement that entries were submitted by 31 March of the following year. A second requirement is and has been that poems must be submitted anonymously. Over the last few decades the system of set topics has been abandoned.
The winner of the medal would have the honour of reading his or her poem aloud in the Senate House on Commencement Day. The prize was first awarded in 1813 to George Waddington of Trinity College. The early lists of winners show a considerable overlap with the list of Senior Wranglers.
This literary prize continues to exist today under the name of Chancellor's Medal for an English Poem. Intermittently it was also known as the Chancellor's Medal for (an) English Verse.
The prize takes the shape of not so much a medal, but of a rather large coin or medallion. In modern times the medallion is decked with a representation of the King on the front and a poetical figure on the back.
The prize has not been bestowed upon a young poet in every academic year since 1813. Where available information has been provided as to which college of the university the particular student belonged.
Chancellor's Medals may also be awarded to undergraduates for academic distinction in Classics or English Law.
1813 , Trinity, Columbus
George Waddington
1814 , Trinity, Boadicea
William Whewell
1815 , St. John's, Wallace
Edward Smirke
1816 Mahomet
Hamilton Sydney Beresford
1817 , Trinity Hall, Jerusalem
Chauncy Hare Townshend
1818 , Trinity, Imperial and Papal Rome
Charles Edward Long
1819 , Trinity, Pompeii
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay
1821 , Trinity, Evening
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay
1823 , Trinity, Australasia
Winthrop Mackworth Praed
1824 , Trinity, Athens
Winthrop Mackworth Praed
1825 , Trinity, Sculpture
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
1827 , Trinity, The Druids
Christopher Wordsworth
1828 , Trinity, Invasion of Russia by Napoleon Boneparte
Christopher Wordsworth
1829 , Trinity, Timbuctoo
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson
1831 , Jesus, Attempts to find a North West Passage
George Stovin Venables
1842 , Pembroke, Birth of the Prince of Wales
Henry James Sumner Maine
1844 , Trinity, The Tower of London
Edward Henry Bickersteth
1845 , Trinity, Caubul
Edward Henry Bickersteth
1846 , Trinity, Caesar's Invasion of Britain
Edward Henry Bickersteth
1852 , Trinity, The Arctic Regions
Frederic William Farrar
1873 , Trinity
Arthur Woollgar Verrall
1901 George Dean Raffles Tucker, Magdalene
1903 Not awarded
1904 Robert Quirk, Kings
1905 Arthur Conway Osborne Morgan, Trinity
1906 Charles Mendell Kohan, Trinity
1907 Donald Welldon Corrie, King’s
1908 George Geoffrey Gilbert Butler, Trinity
1909 , Trinity
Dennis Holme Robertson
1910 Dennis Holme Robertson, Trinity
1911 Dennis Holme Robertson, Trinity
1912 Not awarded
1913 Not awarded
1914 Donald Frederick Goold Johnson, Emmanuel
1915 Philip Carrington, Selwyn
1916 Not awarded
1917 Harold Obbard Lee, Jesus
1918 Hugh l'Anson Fausset, Corpus
1919 Frederick Francis Thomas Pinto, Non-Collegiate
1920 Colin Hercules Mackenzie, King's
1921 Cecil Roy Leonard Falcy, Queens', Death of Napoleon
[7]
1922 Montague Maurice Simmons, Queens
1923 David William Allun Llewellyn, St John's, St Francis of Assiss
1924 , Corpus Christi, Buddha
Edward Falaise Upward
1925 Henry Hugh Thomas, Sidney Sussex, Stonehenge
1926 Alan Trevor Oldham, Emmanuel, Gallipoli
1927 also Frederik Norton, Pembroke, Orestes
Frederik John Norton
1928 Kenneth Harold Ellis, Trinity, Proserpine
1931 also Robert William Victor Gittings, Jesus, The Roman Road
Robert Gittings
1934 Frederick William Clayton, King's, The English Countryside
[10]
1936 also Terence Rogers Tiller, Jesus, Egypt
Terence Tiller
1937 Christopher Thomas Gandy, King's, The Thames
1938 John Darrel Boyd, King's, A Great Man
1939 Reginald Arthur Burrows, St Catherine's, Fire
1942 Irene Josephine Blanche Snatt, Girton, A Londoner (F)
[12]
1948 George James Moor, Downing, The Year's to Come
1949 Alan John Maurice Bird, Selwyn, Speed
1966 William Paul Huw Merchant, Emmanuel
1967 , King's
Clive Wilmer
1969 Alexander John Howard Martin, Jesus
1970 Elliot Alexander Grant, Christ's
1974 also John Lawton Wilkinson, Jesus
John Wilkinson
1976 Charles Ellis Leftwich, St John's, Cadenzas
1977 David Colles Lloyd, King's, Ecologies
1978 Aidan Semmens, Trinity
1980 Michael Thomas Hutchinson, Trinity
1982 also Alice Abigail Goodman, Girton, Four Poems (F)
Alice Goodman
1984 James William Noggle, Fitzwilliam, A painting of the garden
1985 , Clare, The Sounds from the Stairs and other poems (F)
Jean Hanff Korelitz
1988 Joanne Marion Wiess, St. Edmund's, Untitled Poem (F)
1989 Simon James Alderson, Trinity, Memory
[17]
1992 Nicoletta Fotinos also N. I. Fotinos, Churchill, Pergamon (first non-native speaker recipient), (F)
1994 Keith Malcolm Sands, Jesus, Axis
1997 also Keston M. Sutherland, Hate's clitoris
Keston Sutherland
2006 Benjamin Morris, Sonata in orange
(PDF). Cambridge: University of Cambridge (printed by W. Metcalfe). 1859. Retrieved 1 October 2008.
A Complete Collection of the English Poems which Have Obtained the Chancellor's Gold Medal in the University of Cambridge
Cambridge University Janus Records
A list of its recipients since 1922 may be found in Graham Chainey, A Literary History of Cambridge (1986), pp. 295ff.