Dons and students at Oxford have in recent years been deeply exercised about Cecil Rhodes, who died 120 years ago. Some politically sensitive students removed a portrait of the Queen in the Magdalen graduate common room, and others even persuaded the geography department to remove a portrait of Theresa May. Yet they seem strangely silent on the implications of taking money tainted by fascism.
This month it was announced that the university had been given £6 million from the Alexander Mosley Charitable Trust for a chair in biophysics. Two colleges have also taken money from the Trust — St Peter’s College received £5 million for a new block of student accommodation and a Fellow in Engineering; and Lady Margaret Hall received £260,000 to fund a foundation year.
Alexander Mosley, after whom the Trust has been named, was a grandson of Oswald, and a graduate of St. Peter’s. By all accounts, Alexander was a fine mathematician and without political affiliations.
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