Randal Cousins
Posted: Fri Nov 22, 2013 3:50 pm
Word has reached me of the sudden death of my exact contemporary and housemate Randal Cousins.
His CH career can perhaps best be summed up as The Senior Grecian Who Never Was. Named after an archbishop, and (at the time), to use a phrase of John le Carré's, 'one of nature's prefects', he was universally regarded as the natural SG for our year almost from day one, and when, rather surprisingly (the reasons were complicated) he became house captain of Thornton B while still a 2nd year grecian, his fate seemed sealed (as existing house captains were prime candidates for SG). However this was 1962, and the turmoil that was to characterize the decade was beginning to make itself felt at Christ's Hospital too. CME Seaman, who, reformer though he was, was uncomfortable with these developments, clearly decided he needed not one of nature's prefects, but one of nature's sergeant-majors, and chose instead the head of the CCF (who, by an ironic twist, was then Randal's no. 2 in Thornton B, which involved some re-shuffling).
Randal was a mathematician and chess player of some note. (He became what they still quaintly called in Cambridge in those days a 'Senior Wrangler', i.e. got a 1st in Maths.)
As is the way of these things, I was at his wedding, but had not seen him since.
Edit: Sorry, I got my terminology mixed up. I thought there were Senior Wranglers (Firsts), Junior Wranglers (Seconds) and Optimes (Thirds). There aren't: there are Wranglers, Senior Optimes and Junior Optimes (and apparently still are). The 'Senior Wrangler' is the top maths graduate of the year. I don't think Randal was that, but he was a Wrangler. (Thanks to Katharine for pointing this out.)
His CH career can perhaps best be summed up as The Senior Grecian Who Never Was. Named after an archbishop, and (at the time), to use a phrase of John le Carré's, 'one of nature's prefects', he was universally regarded as the natural SG for our year almost from day one, and when, rather surprisingly (the reasons were complicated) he became house captain of Thornton B while still a 2nd year grecian, his fate seemed sealed (as existing house captains were prime candidates for SG). However this was 1962, and the turmoil that was to characterize the decade was beginning to make itself felt at Christ's Hospital too. CME Seaman, who, reformer though he was, was uncomfortable with these developments, clearly decided he needed not one of nature's prefects, but one of nature's sergeant-majors, and chose instead the head of the CCF (who, by an ironic twist, was then Randal's no. 2 in Thornton B, which involved some re-shuffling).
Randal was a mathematician and chess player of some note. (He became what they still quaintly called in Cambridge in those days a 'Senior Wrangler', i.e. got a 1st in Maths.)
As is the way of these things, I was at his wedding, but had not seen him since.
Edit: Sorry, I got my terminology mixed up. I thought there were Senior Wranglers (Firsts), Junior Wranglers (Seconds) and Optimes (Thirds). There aren't: there are Wranglers, Senior Optimes and Junior Optimes (and apparently still are). The 'Senior Wrangler' is the top maths graduate of the year. I don't think Randal was that, but he was a Wrangler. (Thanks to Katharine for pointing this out.)