Page 64 - Hi Res - OR-2016

64 RATCLIFFE’S PAST

RATCLIFFE COLLEGE’S LINK TO DAVID BOWIE

A rather unlikely link has emerged
between Ratcliffe College and David
Bowie. Old Ratcliffian Richard Wallace
(79) was browsing through the Sotheby’s
catalogue for the upcoming sale of
Bowie’s art collection when he stumbled
upon a sketch from 1935 that the
sculptor, Eric Gill, had done of the Virgin
Mary for Ratcliffe; the sculpture still sits
in the Headmaster’s Corridor today. The
sketch, owned by David Bowie, has now
been valued for sale at between £1,500
and £2,500.
The following text is taken from Sotheby’s
website catalogue:

Study for Sculpture, Ratcliffe College

In February 1935, Gill received a
commission from Fr O’Malley of Ratcliffe
College, a boy’s public school in Leicester,
for sculptures of Christ and the Virgin
Mary. In March, Gill visited the College
to discuss the commission, and on 15th
August made this drawing for the figure
of the Virgin Mary. On 29th and 30th
October, he made ‘new designs for the
Ratcliffe Madonna’, depicting the Virgin
in a robe and a hooded cloak; the present
work shows the version that he went on to
carve in January 1936. The sculpture of the Virgin Mary that Gill commissioned, which sits in the Headmaster’s Corridor

The sheet bears a Latin inscription taken from Ecclesiastes, cp. without original sin, pray for us’. The reason for the change in
24, v.24, which translates: ‘I am the mother of fair love, and of Mary’s clothing, pose and inscription is not known, but probably
fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope’. The Latin inscription stems from guidance given by Fr O’Malley.
that Gill carved on the second version reads: ‘Mary, conceived

THE GREAT APPLE FIGHT

It was the 1969 Spring Term, and it had been a long and snowy frenzy, sending them away with as much force into the dark as
winter. I was in the St Aloysius dorm (Third Form, first year at could be mustered; and all the time, hilarity with the unfolding
Ratcliffe) in the first bed on the left (from the door). Someone events, based on groans, splashes, thuds and shrieks. At some
in the middle of the opposite side announced, whilst we were point, the debris became too small to continue this merry game,
making ourselves ready for bed, that he’d bought a boxful of and after much animated re-running of highlights, we gradually
apples from a local market. Eccentric, we might have thought. fell asleep.

Some short while after lights-out, there came a clang against The next morning, the walls and wardrobes gave away the night’s
a wardrobe door, followed by a disappointed cry of revolt from combat, with circles of sticky debris and trickles of apple juice
one of our dorm-mates. Two of us (of around twenty in all) had reminding us of the fruit explosions some nine hours earlier - our
some idea of what had just happened, and the rest of us became beds and surrounding floors being awash with pithy and sweet-
alert with curiosity. A dull thud and a groan came from the dark smelling debris. We enjoyed the hilarity once more, swapped
shortly after. In no time, there were rotten apples being thrown stories of hits (to ourselves – the sting of sticky mess) and of
with glee in the dark, with splashes of nascent cider components; pulp finding its speedy way to walls, wardrobes and imagined
finding apple remnants on our beds and nearby floor became a heads and shoulders.

Register online at www.ratcliffianassociation.co.uk