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Pembroke College, Oxford




  University Oxford
  Picture
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  College Name Pembroke College
  Named For The Earl Of Pembroke
  Established 1624
  Sister College Queens' College
  Head Name Master
  Head Giles Henderson
  JCR President Claire Addison
  Undergraduates 408
  Graduates 94
  Homepage Homepage



Pembroke College is one of the constituent colleges of the University Of Oxford in the United Kingdom .

Founded in 1624 , the College was named after the 3rd Earl Of Pembroke , who was at the time Chancellor of the University and the patron of William Shakespeare . The official founder was King James I , and it is in his name that Pembroke students are permitted to wear silver Tassel s in their caps ( Mortarboard s). Part of the College is situated in buildings formerly used by the mediæval Hall ''Broadgates''.

The main buildings of the College date mainly from the 17th , 18th , and 19th centuries, and are built of Cotswold Limestone . Pembroke also has modern accommodation built nearby on the banks of the River Thames at Grandpont , providing accommodation for almost a hundred undergraduates.

Samuel Johnson was one of the College's more famous alumni, though he did not complete his degree (he was later awarded an honorary degree by the University); lack of funds forced him to leave Oxford after about a year and a half. Two of his desks and various other possessions (his teapot, mug, and the like) are on display in the library and elsewhere in the College.

James Smithson , whose bequest founded the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. , despite his never having visited the United States , was an undergraduate at Pembroke, under the name "James Lewis Macie" — he changed his name to that of his natural father after the death of his mother.

Senator J. William Fulbright , who established the Fulbright Fellowships , was a Rhodes Scholar at Pembroke in the 1920s .

Pembroke has the dubious honour of being home to the only leather condoms still intact today - kept in the archive room of the college library.

Although he had been an undergraduate at Exeter College , J.R.R. Tolkien was a Fellow of Pembroke from 1925 to 1945 , and wrote '' The Hobbit '' and the first two books of '' The Lord Of The Rings '' during his time there.

Among the College's more recent Masters was Roger Bannister , the first man to run the mile in under four minutes.

Pembroke was described by John Betjeman , in ''Summoned by Bells'':

:How empty, creeper-grown and odd
:Seems lonely Pembroke's second quad
:Still, when I see it, do I wonder why
:That college so polite and shy
:Should have more character than Queen's
:Or Univ, splendid in the High.




Notable former students



:See also .


Academics/teachers

''(The names of current members are followed by links to their College pages)''


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