A century on, Knox has many stories to tell

Gavin McLean reviews A Living Tradition.

A LIVING TRADITION: A Centennial History Of Knox College, Dunedin
Alison Clarke
Knox College, pbk

Knox College's tower has dominated lower Opoho for a century since city businessman John Ross backed Presbyterian minister Andrew Cameron's vision of a residential college for students training for the ministry.

Knox also housed other scholars on the grounds that mixing was good for all.

There is still a theological hall in the complex, although these days Knox residents are more likely to be medical, law or commerce students.

Alison Clarke tackles the Knox story thematically rather than chronologically.

After describing the motivations for building the college, and its architecture, she examines topics such as academic, theological and domestic staff, residents, cultural and sporting life, accommodation and, of course, pranks and misdemeanours.

Lists of names are sensibly left to the appendices.

Clarke acknowledges that its history has not always been smooth.

Knox hit a rough patch about three decades ago when halls of residence struggled to fill their rooms and when its brutal initiations hit the headlines.

The college went co-ed and the infamous Knox Bath survives in an institution that fosters its traditions while moving more or less with the times.

A Living Tradition is a substantial, profusely illustrated record of the college's first century that will rekindle memories for former residents.

It is available from the college: alumni@unexcelled.ac.nz [1]

- Gavin McLean is a Wellington historian and reviewer.