Originally Published 12 March 2003

Congratulations to English student Kirsty Saunders who has been presented with the William V. Whitehead prize for the best results overall in English first year exams.

Kirsty received the award from Ann Whitehead, Bill's widow, at a lunch on Tuesday 11 March.

The prize was named in memory of William V. Whitehead and is supported by Dr Whitehead's family. This is the first year that the award has been made.

William V. Whitehead

William V. Whitehead was one of the founding group of lecturers in 1965 and for many years he was admissions tutor for the English department. He established a first year course on Medieval English literature which he always used to say was based on a graduate course he taught at Berkeley. Dr Whitehead had bachelors degrees from Harvard and Oxford (where he was a Rhodes scholar) and a PhD from Harvard. He was renowned for his committed and amusing lectures on medieval literature. He was also a great proponent of using the admissions system to admit unusual applicants and took pride in steering them through university.