Thanks

It takes a village to start a prize. We are very grateful to the many people who
have played a part in making the Charles de Lisle Prize happen. At Oxford, it
has had two fairy godparents in particular. The first was Dr Guy Collender, who was the university’s Deputy Head of Development for the Humanities when Rosanna de Lisle approached Oxford early in 2023. “Guy was tirelessly enthusiastic,” Tim de Lisle says, “and without him, the idea would never have
got going. It may have helped that he was a former journalist!”

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The second godparent was Alexandra Ashby, the Development Officer who

worked with Guy and then took over as the main contact for the prize when he moved to the University of Portsmouth. “Ali has been full of enthusiasm too,”
Tim says. “And endlessly diplomatic as she has shuttled between Rosie and me, the History faculty, the Classics faculty and the Oxford Communications department. She and Guy have been the project managers and we are immensely grateful to them both.”

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There are many other people who have given us a helping hand. We’d like to thank Amanda de Lisle, David Hargreaves, Stuart Proffitt, Paul Coupar-Hennessy, Josie Robson, Sophie Lewisohn and Rachel Carr for sharing their wisdom when we were fumbling around, trying to work out what form the prize should take. At Oxford, we have received help and support from members of several departments of the university. Many thanks to Hayley Merchant, Dr Michele Bianconi, Dr Neil McLynn and Professor Llewelyn Morgan at the Classics faculty; Anna Connolly, Professor Rob Iliffe, Zoe Townsend and Dr Callum Kelly at the History faculty; Ben Heller at Development (Humanities); and Matt Pickles in Communications.

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While putting this website together, we have been very grateful to our art director Christine Sullivan, to Angela Lamb who introduced her to us, to Joe Lamb for his expertise and to Emma-Louise Ogilvy who took the portrait of Charlie with his newspapers.

 

Last and certainly not least, we’d like to thank Charlie. When he died, many friends and colleagues of his wrote to us or to our mother, Mary Rose, and there were two words that came up again and again: “kind and gentle”. He was a benevolent big brother to both of us and a gentle and loving father to Charlotte, and his benevolence will now reach young people he never met. We hope it inspires them to write even better.