Stanhope essay prize

The Stanhope essay prize was an undergraduate history essay prize created at Balliol College, Oxford by Philip Henry Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope in 1855.

Notable winners

Notable Stanhope Prize winners:

• John Richard Magrath, 1860 ^[1]
• Francis Jeune, 1863, 1st Baron St Helier ^[2]
• Thomas Pitt Taswell-Langmead, 1866 ^[3]
• Thomas Buchanan, 1868, Liberal politician ^[4]
• Arthur Francis Leach, 1872
• Richard Lodge, 1875 ^[5]
• Charles Harding Firth, 1877, British historian
• Arthur Elam Haigh, 1878 ^[6]
• Holden Hutton, 1881 ^[7]
• William Carr, 1884, biographer
• Owen Morgan Edwards, 1886 ^[8]
• George Arnold Wood, 1889, English Australian historian
• John Buchan, 1897, British novelist
• Robert Rait, 1899 ^[9]
• Alfred Eckhard Zimmern, 1902, New College, Oxford, British classical scholar and historian^[10]
• Archibald Main, 1903
• George Stuart Gordon, 1905 ^[11]
• Vivian Hunter Galbraith, 1911, English historian
• Michael Sadleir, 1912 ^[12]
• Aldous Huxley, 1916, English writer
• Bruce McFarlane, 1924 ^[13]
• Bernard Miller, 1925, British businessman^[14]
• Maurice Ashley, editor of The Listener.
• Derek Pattinson, 1951, Secretary-General of the General Synod of the Church of England ^[15]

In fiction

In Max Beerbohm's satirical tragedy of undergraduate life at Oxford, Zuleika Dobson (1911), the hero Duke of Dorset,^[16] was awarded, amongst others, the Stanhope:

At Eton he had been called "Peacock", and this nick-name had followed him up to Oxford. It was not wholly apposite, however. For, whereas the peacock is a fool even among birds, the Duke had already taken (besides a particularly brilliant First in Mods) the Stanhope, the Newdigate, the Lothian, and the Gaisford Prize for Greek Verse.^[17]

References

1. H. A. P. Sawyer, ‘Magrath, John Richard (1839–1930)’, rev. M. C. Curthoys, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
2. Herbert Stephen, ‘Jeune, Francis Henry, Baron St Helier (1843–1905)’, rev. Sinéad Agnew, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
3. J.M. Rigg, ‘Langmead, Thomas Pitt Taswell- (1840–1882)’, rev. Catherine Pease-Watkin, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
4. Gordon F. Millar, ‘Buchanan, Thomas Ryburn (1846–1911)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
5. Geoffrey Best, ‘Lodge, Sir Richard (1855–1936)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
6. S. J. Low, ‘Haigh, Arthur Elam (1855–1905)’, rev. Richard Smail, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
7. H. C. G. Matthew, ‘Hutton, William Holden (1860–1930)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
8. Gareth Elwyn Jones, ‘Edwards, Sir Owen Morgan (1858–1920)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
9. D. M. Abbott, ‘Rait, Sir Robert Sangster (1874–1936)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
10. "University intelligence". The Times (36770). London. 17 May 1902. p. 11.
11. R. H. Darwall-Smith, ‘Gordon, George Stuart (1881–1942)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
12. Derek Hudson, ‘Sadleir , Michael Thomas Harvey (1888–1957)’, rev. Sayoni Basu, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
13. G. L. Harriss, ‘McFarlane, (Kenneth) Bruce (1903–1966)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
14. Daily Telegraph Obituary 28 February 2003
15. The Times Obituary 14 October 2006
16. Or in full, John Albert Edward Claude Orde Angus Tankerton Tanville-Tankerton, fourteenth Duke of Dorset, Marquis of Dorset, Earl of Grove, Earl of Chastermaine, Viscount Brewsby, Baron Grove, Baron Petstrap, and Baron Wolock
17. Beerbohm, Max, Zuleika Dobson (Part 1 out of 5) online at fullbooks.com, accessed 16 August 2008