educational foundations of New College , Oxford and Winchester College . Whereas you can look up at this nave as a sufficient sermon in stone – it can almost speak to you itself – Wykeham ’ s twin educational foundations need some elucidatory explication . There had been schools and colleges before Wykeham . But Wykeham designed a system of smooth progression from school to university , and , in terms of the number of scholars , and the magnitude of the buildings and their endowment , he endowed foundations on a scale never before witnessed . Furthermore he gave his educational ideas astonishingly beautiful architectural expression . As Walter Oakeshott elegantly put it in giving this address 60 years ago , “ We must recognise in our founder one of the master builders of Western education ”. It was therefore right , Oakeshott argued , “ that those who bear his name should from time to time reflect upon the debt they owe to him – and not they only , but all those who care for education throughout the English-speaking world .” Wykeham ’ s achievement was a remarkable one : he changed the shape of British education and therefore the shape of education and the world . Hoc fecit Wykeham .
II . Us That inscription challenges the onlooker , and it is now time to turn to us . Wykeham did not have to start a school . He worried that foundations often fail to fulfil the hopes of their founders and even as late as 1400 was considering whether the best use of his goods might be to distribute them among the poor . What attracted Wykeham to the idea of a school , especially in a period overshadowed by mortality and threats to the social order , was the concept of education as something in organic relation with the state and its needs , the recurring opportunity to make a national difference . Early Wykehamists , like Henry Chichele and Thomas Beckington , were immediately distinctive , reflecting the founder ’ s intentions and stamp of mind ; and our daily journey through War Cloister , with its bespoke inscriptions and iconography , impresses on both you and me that this stamp of mind was neither short-lived nor half-hearted .
The historic imperative laid upon us is clear . Wykeham was not a man for half measures . His heraldic crest and its motto , as explained by Mark Griffith , were distinctive and challenging . The iconography , reminiscent of that of the Carpenters ’ Company and also displaying the Hampshire rose , is geographically loyal and professionally confident . The form of speech , a traditional proverb , is deliberately demotic . The language , English , is consciously provocative . “ Judge me ”, says Wykeham , “ not by origins but by outcomes . Do not be complacent about social standing . Be worthy of any privilege which has fallen to you and always seize gratefully and ambitiously on any opportunity ”. This theme was again taken up by George Ridding , the school ’ s so called second founder , when giving this address in 1874 . Ridding argued that great names and venerated histories have ennobling powers only so long as they constitute ennobling examples which say “ Go thou and do likewise .” The question at the heart of this commemoration , Ridding explained , was not “ Are we enrolled in the traditions of this wonderful place ?” but “ Are we determined to take forward the spirit of it ?” So this annual service is not only a memorial to Wykeham but also a challenge from Wykeham to us . We will be judged by how we invest Wykeham ’ s legacy . This is a special school , and special responsibilities are laid upon you and me as a consequence . Every one of us is a Wykehamical investment . If we work to repay our inheritance , then William of Wykeham will have the lasting memorial he so richly deserves , a memorial not in the stone of Wykeham the builder , but in the deeds and lives so beloved of Wykeham the bishop , the politician , the educator and the philanthropist . This service twice calls for us to stand up . We are first called to stand up , like the prophet in our wonderful first reading , and say ‘ Here am I ; send me .’ We are called second to stand up , like the servants in our second reading , and be called to account on how we invest a legacy , Wykeham ’ s legacy . Today ’ s service requires us to read unequivocally the writing on the highly individual and Wykehamical wall . Yes indeed : Hoc fecit Wykeham .