SEVERAL Winchester old boys returned to the city last week to be honoured for their achievements.

Winchester College welcomed 19 former pupils to an Ad Portas cememony on Wednesday, May 4, a traditional college event held to recognise exceptional achievement.

The ceremony has been running since 1615 and was last held three years ago when 25 Old Wykehamist army officers were honoured for their service in Iraq and Afghanistan and Prince Charles was received in June 2000.

For almost 250 years the ceremony was conducted to welcome examiners prior to the selection of scholars to Oxford University. However, since 1873 the speech has served as a mark of regard to distinguished old members of the College.

This year’s 25 honorands, six of whom could not attend, were academics and all either Fellows of the Royal Society (FRS) or Fellows of the British Academy (FBA), and the majority were professors of their fields.

The whole school was present for the ceremony with welcoming speeches made in both English and Latin.

Honorands Professor Stephen Bann FBA (Coll, 1955-60) Professor David Beach FRS (G, 1967-71) Professor Jeremy Brockes FRS (K, 1961-65) Professor Christopher Brooke FBA (Coll, 1940-45) Professor Nicholas Brooks FBA (C, 1954-59) Professor Terence Cave FBA (K, 1952-56) Professor John Dunn FBA (Coll, 1953-57) Professor Freeman Dyson FRS (Coll, 1936-41) Dr Maurice Keen FBA (Coll, 1947-52) Professor Michael Longuet-Higgins FRS (Coll, 1939-43) Mr John Lucas FBA (Coll, 1942-47) Professor Ian Macdonald FRS (Coll, 1941-46) Professor Nicholas Mackintosh FRS (Coll, 1948-53) Dr Andrew McLachlan FRS (Coll, 1948-53) Professor Nicholas Postgate FBA (Coll, 1959-63) Professor Francis Reynolds FBA (F, 1946-51) Professor Nicholas Shepherd-Barron FRS (Coll, 1968-72) Professor Charles Thomas FBA (H, 1941-44) Professor John Tiley FBA (Coll, 1955-59) Honorands In Absentia Professor John Albery FRS (A, 1949-54) Professor Horace Barlow FRS (I, 1935-39) Professor Sir Michael Dummett FBA (Coll, 1939-43) Professor Guy Jameson FRS (Coll, 1948-53) Professor Anthony Pawson FRS (I, 1965-69) Professor David Thouless FRS (Coll, 1947-52)