Canon Hugh Wybrew Shares Memories of Exeter Then

My first connection with Exeter College was in 1967.  I was then a tutor at St Stephen’s House, one of Oxford’s theological colleges. The Chairman of the House Governors was Eric Kemp, Chaplain and History Fellow of Exeter who later achieved the distinction of becoming Dean of Worcester and a few years later Bishop of Chichester. He had created a small chapel in the space now occupied by the choir’s music cupboard in the antechapel, and had instituted a daily evening Eucharist there. He was much involved in central Church of England affairs, like the revision of Canon Law and the Anglican-Methodist reunion scheme, and quite often had meetings to attend in London. He therefore needed a priest to preside at the Eucharist in his place and invited me to be the college’s assistant chaplain. Part of the arrangement was that on any evening when I officiated in chapel I could dine on High Table, and I made full use of the privilege. For one whole term, when Eric was on sabbatical leave, I was acting chaplain. That meant I officiated too at Choral Evensong on Sundays as well as on weekdays. College paid me £120 for the term, quite a good sum at that time.

The Senior Common Room had been dominated for many years by the Classics Fellow, Dacre Balsdon. He was a don in the old style. A bachelor, he had a set of rooms in college and took all his meals at the common board. After dinner at high table, he sat in the SCR next to the fireplace, as tradition prescribed, and led the conversation. There were usually about half a dozen mostly young other fellows present. I was still relatively young and completely inexperienced as far as college life was concerned. I listened to conversation rather than taking an active part in it, though Dacre occasionally darted an unexpected question at me, to which a response was required. After I had left Oxford I heard that the view of the SCR was that I was agreeable enough company but they wished I had spoken more. My first taste of SCR life was a completely new experience, for which I was grateful. Eric Kemp left Exeter in 1970 to become Dean of Worcester. John Drury replaced him as Chaplain and inherited me as assistant chaplain, and he and I got on well. The following year I left St Stephen’s House to become chaplain at the Anglican Church of the Resurrection in Bucharest, serving congregations in Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. My association with Exeter College therefore came to an end. It was destined to be renewed twenty-five years later.