only made significant contributions to the science and application of fertilisers
but also [to a very much lesser extent] to that of munitions. Practical innovation was Woodland Toms’ forte and Robert’s career displayed the same
characteristic in abundance. Frederick Woodland Toms died in Jersey on 20
July 1938 at the age of 82.
1.3 University College London
and Matriculation
Robert completed his secondary education during the 1900–1901 term but
very little remains about his time at Victoria College. With regard to extra
curricular activities, he seems to have been an unexceptional student. The
school notes in the ‘Victorian’
24 magazine however show that he achieved a
number of distinctions in the Science and Art Examination of 1900. The
notes from November 1901 record that ‘R. Le Rossignol obtained a First
Class pass in Practical Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry, and a Second
Class pass in Model Drawing’. Robert subsequently left Victoria College for
the University of London
25 where he matriculated in June 1901. The school
notes for November recording that ‘R. Le Rossignol has passed the London
Matriculation Examination in the Second Division’. The same notes also
record that Dr. Augustin Le Rossignol and his three sons presented the
College with a complete copy of ‘Encyclopaedia Britannica’.
‘Matriculation’ is an unfamiliar term these days but earlier it was commonly used to describe a student’s formal entry into a University—’the act of
placing a student’s name upon the matricula or roll of members’.
Matriculation was permitted on passing the University’s matriculation
examination, or on approval of a student’s existing qualifications as being of
an equivalent standard. Examinations are always stressful, but the London
matriculation was a particularly brutal process. Just prior to the time Robert
sat the examination, matriculation at the University of London had been the
subject of scrutiny in the British Medical Journal
26 where an article raised a
number of concerns regarding the age and health of the candidates, the
syllabus, and the conduct of the examination.
London accepted as inevitable that candidates at examinations for
University degrees were ‘nervous’ (or as the ‘correspondent’ describes them
‘sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought’), but questions were raised as to
whether the matriculation process paid due care to ‘prevent injury to the
health of candidates.’ Candidates of course were young, at the beginning of
14
D. Sheppard
but also [to a very much lesser extent] to that of munitions. Practical innovation was Woodland Toms’ forte and Robert’s career displayed the same
characteristic in abundance. Frederick Woodland Toms died in Jersey on 20
July 1938 at the age of 82.
1.3 University College London
and Matriculation
Robert completed his secondary education during the 1900–1901 term but
very little remains about his time at Victoria College. With regard to extra
curricular activities, he seems to have been an unexceptional student. The
school notes in the ‘Victorian’
24 magazine however show that he achieved a
number of distinctions in the Science and Art Examination of 1900. The
notes from November 1901 record that ‘R. Le Rossignol obtained a First
Class pass in Practical Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry, and a Second
Class pass in Model Drawing’. Robert subsequently left Victoria College for
the University of London
25 where he matriculated in June 1901. The school
notes for November recording that ‘R. Le Rossignol has passed the London
Matriculation Examination in the Second Division’. The same notes also
record that Dr. Augustin Le Rossignol and his three sons presented the
College with a complete copy of ‘Encyclopaedia Britannica’.
‘Matriculation’ is an unfamiliar term these days but earlier it was commonly used to describe a student’s formal entry into a University—’the act of
placing a student’s name upon the matricula or roll of members’.
Matriculation was permitted on passing the University’s matriculation
examination, or on approval of a student’s existing qualifications as being of
an equivalent standard. Examinations are always stressful, but the London
matriculation was a particularly brutal process. Just prior to the time Robert
sat the examination, matriculation at the University of London had been the
subject of scrutiny in the British Medical Journal
26 where an article raised a
number of concerns regarding the age and health of the candidates, the
syllabus, and the conduct of the examination.
London accepted as inevitable that candidates at examinations for
University degrees were ‘nervous’ (or as the ‘correspondent’ describes them
‘sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought’), but questions were raised as to
whether the matriculation process paid due care to ‘prevent injury to the
health of candidates.’ Candidates of course were young, at the beginning of
14
D. Sheppard