John Desborough Walford is an important figure in the history of Winchester College. Appointed as a member of staff in 1834, Walford was the school’s first dedicated Mathematics teacher, a post he held for forty years.

In the nineteenth century the school curriculum was dominated by classical languages and literature. Otherwise reluctant students were eventually persuaded by the novel discipline of Mathematics when marks in the subject counted towards the final orders and when there were new and significant end-of-year prizes to be won. Institutional recognition for Mathematics came in the form of ‘Walford’s’, an extension (now demolished) built into School and used solely for mathematical teaching. Walford’s name was kept alive as a ‘notion’, part of the private language of the College. ‘John Des’ is white, unruled, acid-free Heritage Bookwhite paper, expressly guillotined by Wells Bookshop’s bookbinder and, until the early 2000s, a bestseller among Winchester’s students.

Provenance: Bequeathed to Winchester College by Helen Walford, a descendant of the sitter, 1974