Harry Golombek at university

[John Townsend]

What higher education did Harry Golombek have? W.R. Hartston and W.D. Rubinstein indicated that he did not complete his degree at London University, while R.D. Keene has written that he studied Icelandic epic sagas for a doctorate.

Edward Winter was not satisfied with the lack of clarity and looked for hard evidence:

https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/index.html#CN_12036

[Matt Mackenzie]

So presumably he never studied for a doctorate and Raymondo was being economical with the actualite (again)?

[John Townsend]

I would say it is a matter for Mr Keene to clarify. At this stage, no evidence is known that Golombek achieved a first degree.

[John Upham]

I would say it is a matter for Mr Keene to clarify. At this stage, no evidence is known that Golombek achieved a first degree.

What would you say would be the chances of GMRDKOBE clarifying anything let alone something to do with HG?

Perhaps the offer of a ten course meal at Simpson's would help?

Close to zero perhaps or simply zero?

We could always wait and see.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I cannot immediately recall how funding worked in those days. Did you need to have the wherewithal to fund a university degree in the 1930s, or at the least a scholarship of some sort? That period does coincide with the effects of the Great Depression.

Do we know whether Golombek went straight into employment after that? We know the chess he was playing before the Second World War, but I cannot immediately find any records of his employment.

The matriculation year of 1927 (on the image from King’s College, London, archives) seems slightly odd. Was this a case where Wilson’s Grammar sent pupils to KCL after the age of 16? i.e. Did Golombek do his "G.S." and "H.S." (do these refer to some 'general' and 'higher' standard for school-leaving age pupils?) at Wilson’s Grammar or KCL?

By the time he was studying (and failing) courses in "Latin, English, French and History" in 1931 and 1932, he would have been 20-21. There seems to be a slight gap around 1930, unless there is some quirk of the education system at that time? Maybe a brief period of employment before his years at KCL (where he would have been required to read the classic texts, but how prepared was he for that?).

https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/golombek.html

Golombek was born in Lambeth to Polish-Jewish parents.

From Winter's CN 1081:

The July 1946 CHESS (page 226) states that Golombek was born of Polish parents, while the 1985 Who’s Who reports that he is the son of Barnet and Emma Golombek.

Winter's CN 6555 has a photograph of Golombek in 1931.

From Winter's CN 11824 (where John Townsend writes in):

Barnet Golombek, a 33-year-old dealer in gas fittings, who was recorded as being of Russian nationality and born at Zambrov [sic]. [...] H.G.’s mother, Emma, was also stated to be of Russian nationality, and there were two other children, Abraham and Rosy.

Do we know what social circles Golombek moved in during the 1930s?

Possibly the extent to which Golombek was familiar with (or fluent) in different languages is pertinent here. His Russian parentage might lead to a presumption that he was fluent in Russian (was he?). Winter's CN 10218 gives a Golombek column where he (Golombek) claimed to be "equally fluent in all three languages" (the languages being French, English and German).

His fluency in other languages might explain (though not excuse) the philology claim.

Golombek did review a German-language (Austrian) chess book in the November 1955 BCM.

From Winter's CN 11557, the quote is from the ODNB (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography) article on Golombek by W.D. Rubinstein. If it is this Rubinstein (an academic historian), I see no reason to think that anything was missed there ("Golombek also began, but did not complete, a general degree at King’s College, London, leaving in 1932").

(Sadly, we cannot ask William Rubinstein about his sources, as he died in July of this year [1 July 2024]. Sometimes you can't leave it to later to ask such questions, but presumably he followed the same trail as Winter did.)

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Slight additon from here:

https://mannchess.org.uk/People/Sendak,%20Moses.htm

It seems that chess may have featured fairly prominently in the Sendak family, as not only did Moses/Morris play chess, but his sister Emma is the person who reportedly taught her son, Harry Golombek, how to play the game.

I have no idea where that claim comes from.

I also failed to check the British Chess News page for Golombek, which has some additional research and personal reportage from John Upham (I think he wrote that entry):

https://britishchessnews.com/event/deat ... 024-01-07/

He is a recorded with a service number of 992915 as being a member of The Royal Regiment of Artillery in 1939 and was discharged as having reached the age limit in 1956 aged 45 and one day.

Harry married his long time nurse, Noel Frances Judkins (1941 – 2011) in January 1988 and they had (born in 1992) one son : Oliver Golombek-Judkins BVSc MRCVS who is a successful Somerset based veterinary surgeon. The marriage was recorded in the district of Kensington & Chelsea.

(Noel would have been 51 at the time of Oliver's birth; Harry would have been over 80...)

John relates a shared love of cricket, and Harry's quintessential Englishness.

The languages are mentioned:

he was swiftly transferred to the Intelligence Corps, perhaps at the behest of Hugh Alexander who knew that Harry had studied German at his London grammar school in Camberwell and then at London University.

Golombek had lots of writing-related income [EDITED]:

Moreover, it took him about three whole days to assemble the documents and papers to enable him to fill in his income tax form.

There is a nice anecdote also about the transfer of Golombek's library to the BCF.

Unfortunately, the university education elements (which appear to be incorrect) get repeated:

From The Anglo-Soviet Radio Chess Match by Klein and Winter: "A graduate of London University, he served in the Foreign Office during the war, but has since retired to the country (Chalfont St. Giles). His literary activities include 50 Great Games of Modern Chess"

There is a lovely photo of Golombek giving a simultaneous display for juniors to mark the 50th anniversary of his 1929 London Boys' Championship, with Leonard Barden giving the caption:

Harry was invited because it was the 50th anniversary of his victory in the London Boys 1929 a success which he often referred to in his Times column. There were seven 30-board simuls that day, the top three being England Juniors v USSR (Spassky, Vasyukov, Kochiev) where Spassky had the worst simultaneous result of his career. No 4 was by Murray Chandler, Harry was No5 and the others by Whiteley and Rumens. The juniors who played the Russians were personally invited.

Still little light to shed on Golombek's non-chess activities in the 1930s.

[Edited the above post to remove what on reflection was an inaccurate statement.]

[Mike Gunn]

I cannot immediately recall how funding worked in those days. Did you need to have the wherewithal to fund a university degree in the 1930s, or at the least a scholarship of some sort? That period does coincide with the effects of the Great Depression.
...
The matriculation year of 1927 (on the image from King’s College, London, archives) seems slightly odd. Was this a case where Wilson’s Grammar sent pupils to KCL after the age of 16? i.e. Did Golombek do his "G.S." and "H.S." (do these refer to some 'general' and 'higher' standard for school-leaving age pupils?) at Wilson’s Grammar or KCL?
...

From what my father (now dead 20+ years ago) told me the standard public examination at the time (in his case in the 1920s) was the School Certificate taken at about 16. You had to pass 6 subjects and if you passed at a high enough level you got "matriculation exemption" (which my father did, but I never found out exactly what that meant). The school said he was certain to be successful in gaining entry to university but his parents said they couln't afford to support him even if he was in receipt of a scholarship so he left school, took the Civil Service examination (which he passed) and he went to work for the Crown Agents.

[Mike Gunn]

PS GS and HS could be General School Certificate and Higher School Certificate ...

[John Saunders]

The matriculation year of 1927 (on the image from King’s College, London, archives) seems slightly odd. Was this a case where Wilson’s Grammar sent pupils to KCL after the age of 16? i.e. Did Golombek do his "G.S." and "H.S." (do these refer to some 'general' and 'higher' standard for school-leaving age pupils?) at Wilson’s Grammar or KCL?

The 'matriculation' referred to as occurring in 1927 is in all probability what was often referred to as 'matriculation exemption' which occurred when you obtained credits in at least five key subjects in your School Certificate (or 'G.S.' - which must stand for 'General School' in this example). Hence Golombek must have obtained his (General) School Certificate (equivalent of later GCE O-Level and now GCSE qualifications) in those mandatory subjects at Wilson's Grammar School in 1927. The 'Date of Matriculation' field in the form is simply an acknowledgement that Golombek had the necessary School Certificate credits to satisfy KCL's entrance requirements and doesn't indicate any connection between him and KCL in 1927 (there would have been none). 'H.S.' must be Higher School Certificate - equivalent of modern A-Levels.

I'm not sure whether matriculation exemption is still a general requirement for university entrance these days, but it was at Cambridge in 1971, though I don't recall people using this precise term. (I remember my mother using it to describe her own School Certificate qualifications in 1936.) In the 1970s I think it was mandatory for prospective Cambridge undergraduates to have at least five O-Level passes in subjects including two ancient/modern languages, one maths/science subject and one English Language/Literature subject, as well as passing a Use of English exam, before they could matriculate. One guy I knew had won an open exhibition nine months before being due to arrive at college but didn't have the two mandatory O-Level language passes, having passed French O-Level but failed Latin. He spent several fraught months sitting and re-sitting various versions of Latin O-Level, eventually scraping a pass just before he was due to start. He later became a university lecturer.

N.B. Mike Gunn and I have 'crossed in the post'.

[Roger de Coverly]

[I think it was mandatory for prospective Cambridge undergraduates to have at least five O-Level passes in subjects including two ancient/modern languages, one maths/science subject and one English Language/Literature subject, as well as passing a Use of English exam, before they could matriculate. One guy I knew had won an open exhibition nine months before being due to arrive at college but didn't have the two mandatory O-Level language passes, having passed French O-Level but failed Latin. He spent several fraught months sitting and re-sitting various versions of Latin O-Level, eventually scraping a pass just before he was due to start. He later became a university lecturer.

Not so many years before that, a pass in Latin had been mandatory. That arguably discriminated against lower ranking schools who perhaps didn't have the resources or inclination to teach classics. That requirement was replaced by the Use of English exam. The well known broadcaster Jeremy Paxman had been at my College and has told a story that he was awared a place to read English but reminded that he also had to get a pass in O level Maths.

[Gerard Killoran]

From the South London Observer, Wednesday 23 November 1927 page3

From a report of Wilson's Grammar School prize day.

South London Observer _ Wednesday 23 November 1927 _ page 3.png (514.19 KiB) Viewed 1640 times

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Thank you all. Can we speculate at all on any profession or employment for Golombek prior to the war? And do we know the story at all of how Golombek came to be chess correspondent for 'The Times' and over time acquired the wealth he did at death (as reported in the ODNB article)?

Can we maybe presume, given that he did not talk about it in later life (to my knowledge) that it was not something like Civil Service, but that he would have had to seek other forms of employment? It may have to remain a mystery, as presumably any evidence would have surfaced by now. What I am wondering is what would have motivated him to register for study at KCL and what may have been the reasons behind the failure to progress?

It could be that he had to work at the same time, and was unable to devote enough time to studying. Do we know if he was playing chess in those university years? It could also be that he failed a specific element (maybe the Latin aspects)? It seems he had a good mastery of modern languages at least. But other than the HS qualification, there is no indication that he was prepared in any advanced way for university level studies in Latin and Greek texts, or history texts (I have even less idea of what that KCL course would have involved in those days, presumably some first-year syllabus common across the University of London?). He may have found it not to his taste, and simply 'dropped out' so to speak. Or played too much chess...

It is ultimately a bit pointless, as the main points of his biography are that he used his skills (chess and some modern languages, especially German) to do the work he did in the war, and to forge a very successful career as a chess correpondent after the war, but I am slightly curious as to how he earnt a living in the 1930s, and whether he was at that time the quintessential Englishman (tea and cricket, with lashings of chess) that he was later.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

To add from the ODNB article (which I have now read):

https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/58547

All Golombek's grandparents came from a small Jewish community near Warsaw, migrating to England about 1903. Golombek won a scholarship to Wilson's Grammar School, Camberwell, where his ability at chess (first taught to him by his brother) became evident, as did a strong facility at languages and mathematics.

So his brother here, not his mother (maybe it was both?).

Hitherto a lifelong bachelor, he quickly separated after a brief marriage contracted in the late 1980s.

That sheds slightly more light on that. It may be that the son was a step-son, adopted son, or biological son.

Sources: [...] private information (2004) [K. Bligh; E. G. Winter; K. Whyld]

Both Winter and Whyld... Does anyone know who K. Bligh is?

Sadly nothing on the periods between 1932 and 1935.

PS. It may be as simple as him helping out in the family business. But no evidence for that as such.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

Does anyone know who K. Bligh is?

I think this is probably Golombek's niece, Katherine Bligh. Daughter of his sister, Joan.
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/perso ... s/GFX6-54P

[Roger de Coverly]

Do we know if he was playing chess in those university years?

You can trace a certain amount of activity through britbase. For example in 1931 he played in the Major Open scoring 50%. Vera Menchik won the 12 player APA with 9/11.

In 1932, he qualified or was selected for the British Championship itself, making 4.5/11. Sultan Khan was the winner with 8.5/11.
The following year in 1933, he was again in the British, scoring 5.5/11 including a win by default against William Winter. Sultan Khan won again, this time with 9.5/11.
He was again mid-table tn the 1934 event scoring 6/11 in a tournament won by Sir George Thomas with 8.5/11.

In 1935 he was selected for the BCF in the Olympiad.