Trinity College, Cambridge facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Trinity College
Trinity College Great Court Trinity College scarf
Coat of arms of the Trinity College Blazon: Argent, a chevron between three roses gules barbed and seeded proper and on a chief gules a lion passant gardant between two closed books all Or
University	University of Cambridge
Location	Trinity Street (map)
Full name	The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity within the Town and University of Cambridge of King Henry the Eighth's Foundation
Motto	Virtus Vera Nobilitas (Latin)
Motto in English	Virtue is true nobility
Founder	Henry VIII of England
Established	1546; 477 years ago (1546)
Named after	The Holy Trinity
Previous names	King's Hall and Michaelhouse (until merged in 1546)
Sister college	Christ Church, Oxford
Master	Dame Sally Davies
Undergraduates	730
Postgraduates	350
Senior tutor	Sachiko Kusukawa
Map
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Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII. Trinity is one of the oldest and largest colleges in Cambridge, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. Trinity has some of the most distinctive architecture within Cambridge, with its Great Court reputed to be the largest enclosed courtyard in Europe. Academically, Trinity performs exceptionally as measured by the Tompkins Table (the annual unofficial league table of Cambridge colleges), coming in first from 2011 to 2017, with 42.5% of undergraduates obtaining a first class result in 2019.

Members of Trinity have won 34 Nobel Prizes out of the 121 won by members of Cambridge University, the highest number of any college at either Oxford or Cambridge. Members of the college have won five Fields Medals, one Turing Award and one Abel Prize. Trinity alumni include the father of the scientific method (or empiricism) Francis Bacon, six British prime ministers (the highest number of any Cambridge college), physicists Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, Ernest Rutherford and Niels Bohr, mathematicians Srinivasa Ramanujan and Charles Babbage, poets Lord Byron and Lord Tennyson, English jurist Edward Coke, writers Vladimir Nabokov and A. A. Milne, historians Lord Macaulay and G. M. Trevelyan and philosophers Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell (whom it expelled before reaccepting).

Two members of the British royal family have studied at Trinity and been awarded degrees: Prince William of Gloucester and Edinburgh, who gained an MA in 1790, and Prince Charles, who was awarded a lower second class BA in 1970. Royal family members that have studied at Trinity without obtaining degrees include King Edward VII, King George VI, and Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester.

Trinity has many college societies, including the Trinity Mathematical Society, which is the oldest mathematical university society in the United Kingdom, and the First and Third Trinity Boat Club, its rowing club, which gives its name to the college's May Ball. Along with Christ's, Jesus, King's and St John's colleges, it has also provided several of the well known members of the Apostles, an intellectual secret society. In 1848, Trinity hosted the meeting at which Cambridge undergraduates representing public schools such as Westminster codified the early rules of football, known as the Cambridge Rules. Trinity's sister college in Oxford is Christ Church. Like that college, Trinity has been linked with Westminster School since the school's re-foundation in 1560, and its Master is an ex officio governor of the school. Trinity also maintains a significant connection with Whitgift School in Croydon, as John Whitgift, the founder of Whitgift School, was the master of Trinity from 1561 to 1564.

With around 730 undergraduates, 300 graduates, and over 180 fellows, Trinity is the largest Oxbridge college by number of undergraduates.

Images for kids

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  1575 map showing the King's Hall (top left) and Michaelhouse (top right) buildings before Thomas Nevile's reconstruction.

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  David Loggan's print of 1690 showing Nevile's Great Court (foreground) and Nevile's Court with the then-new Wren Library (background) – New Court had yet to be built

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  Trinity established Cambridge Science Park, UK's first science park, in 1970

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  A historical plan of the development of Trinity College by 1897.

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  The Wren Library at Nevile's Court

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  Wren Library interior, showing the limewood carvings by Grinling Gibbons

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  Whewell's Court north range

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  Inside Trinity College Chapel

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  Trinity Bridge

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  The statue of Sir Isaac Newton in the chapel, where scholars are typically installed

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  Great Court, with (from left to right) the dining hall, Master's Lodge, fountain, clock tower, chapel and Great Gate

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  The statue of the college's founder Henry VIII presiding over the Great Gate, with a chair leg in his right hand

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  The High Table is at the far end of the dining hall under the portrait of Henry VIII

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  Newton's own copy of the Principia Mathematica, with handwritten corrections, on display in the Wren Library

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  Prince Charles

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  Amartya Sen

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  Lord Melbourne whose name gave rise to the Australian city, Melbourne served as Prime Minister in 1834–1841

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  Martin Rees was Master of Trinity from 2004 to 2012

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  Great Gate

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  Clock Tower

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  Fellows' Bowling Green, with the oldest building in the college (originally part of King's Hall) in the background

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  Old Kitchen set up for a formal dinner

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  New Court after 2016 refurbishment

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  The River Cam as it flows past the back of Trinity, Trinity Bridge is visible and the punt house is to the right of the moored punts

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  The Avenue of lime and cherry trees, and wrought iron gate to Queen's Road viewed from the Backs

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  Sundial and shelter at the Fellows' Garden

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  1995 development of Burrell's Field

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  Blue Boar Court, with the Wolfson Building in the background.