Darwin College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded on 28 July 1964, Darwin was Cambridge University's first graduate-only college, and also the first to admit both men and women. The college is named after one of the university's most famous families and alumni, that of Charles Darwin. The Darwin family previously owned some of the land, Newnham Grange, on which the college now stands.
The college has between 650 and 800 students, mostly studying for PhD or MPhil degrees with strengths in the sciences, humanities, and law. About half the students come from outside the United Kingdom, representing 80 nationalities as of 2016. Darwin is the largest graduate college of Cambridge. Darwin's sister college at Oxford University is Wolfson College.
Members of Darwin College are termed Darwinians. The college has several distinguished alumni including prominent heads of government and state, politicians, diplomats, and scientists from various countries such as British primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall, American conservationist Dian Fossey, Barbadian Governor-General Elliott Belgrave, Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Blackburn, Nobel Prize winner Eric Maskin, Solicitor-General of the United States Paul Clement, Global Energy Prize winning scientist Thorsteinn I. Sigfusson, and Pulitzer Prize nominated neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi.
Sir Ian Wilmut, the leader of the research group that in 1996 first cloned a mammal from an adult somatic cell (a Finnish Dorset lamb named Dolly), is also an alumnus of the college. Honorary fellows include Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, and the scientist Martin Rees. Notable students and fellows of Darwin College include British politician Oliver Letwin, Nobel Prize winner Richard Henderson and four Nobel Laureates. The college has 23 Fellows of the Royal Society among its current, emeritus, and honorary fellows including Dame Jane Francis.
History
A significant increase in the number of postgraduate students at Cambridge University in the post-war period led to a growing realisation that a graduate college was becoming a necessity. In 1963, three of the university's older colleges – Trinity College, St John's College, and Gonville and Caius College – announced their intention to jointly form a new, wholly graduate college. The college was established in 1964, located on the bank of the River Cam, opposite Queens' College. On 29 January 1965, the Privy Council gave formal approval to the college as an Approved Foundation. It received its Royal Charter as an independent college within the university in 1976.
The college is named after the Darwin family, Charles Darwin's second son, George Darwin, having owned some of the property which the college now occupies. He bought Newnham Grange, the oldest part of the college, in 1885, together with the adjacent building known as The Old Granary, and Small Island. (Newnham Grange was originally built in 1793 for the family of Patrick Beales, a local corn and coal merchant. It was extensively remodelled by George Darwin.)
Following the death of George's son, Sir Charles Galton Darwin, in 1962, those concerned with the foundation of the new college learned that the property was to become available. Katherine, Lady Darwin, and her family were very receptive to the idea of their home becoming the nucleus of a new college, and to the suggestion that it should bear the family's name. Family portraits of the Darwin family are on loan to the college from the Darwin Heirloom Trust and can be found on the walls of several of the college's main rooms. In the book Period Piece: A Cambridge Childhood, the granddaughter of Charles Darwin, Gwen Raverat describes how she grew up at Newnham Grange.
A commemorative book entitled Darwin College: A 50th Anniversary Portrait was commissioned and published by the college in 2014 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the college in 1964.
Buildings
Darwin College is known for its distinctive Georgian and Victorian architecture, gardens, and college site which is integrated into the nearby River Cam.
Located on Silver Street and Newnham Road, the college is also known for the Darwin College Bridges which connect the college grounds with the two islands of the college.
In 1966 the college acquired the Hermitage (a house built in the nineteenth century on the west side of Newnham Grange) from St John's College. Work to convert and extend the college's buildings was funded by the founding colleges and through substantial donations from the Rayne Foundation established by Sir Max Rayne, a Jewish businessman and philanthropist.