All Souls College

All Souls College stands on Oxford’s High Street, its long façade facing Radcliffe Square. To the east lies The Queen’s College and to the north Hertford College, while its entrance opens onto the busy thoroughfare. Founded in 1438 by Henry VI and Archbishop Henry Chichele, it was created to remember those lost in the Hundred Years’ War. The college began with a warden and forty fellows, all taking holy orders and divided between arts and law. For centuries it admitted only men, with women first allowed as fellows in 1979. The American philosopher Susan Hurley became its first female fellow two years later. Today Sir John Vickers serves as warden, leading a community devoted to research. The college is best known for its examination fellowships, open to recent Oxford graduates. Each September candidates sit two days of rigorous papers, described as the hardest exam in the world. The competition offers seven-year fellowships in subjects such as classics, economics and philosophy. Past papers have asked candidates to discuss Samuel Johnson on history or whether prizes should be gender-specific. Four to six finalists then face an oral examination before joining the college. About a dozen such fellows study or research at any time, free to pursue their interests without teaching duties. A small stipend supports them during their first two years. The Codrington Library holds some 185,000 books, a third printed before 1800. Its collection focuses on law and history, including strong military history holdings. The building, completed in 1751 to designs by Nicholas Hawksmoor, has stood in continuous use since then. A Wren sundial, once on the chapel wall, now marks the quadrangle above the library entrance. The chapel itself dates from 1438, its medieval misericords among the oldest in Oxford. Victorian renovations reshaped its interior, though fragments of original glass remain. Services follow the Book of Common Prayer, using the King James Bible.