For some reason I missed the announcement of Owen Chadwick’s death on 17th. July aged 99.   He was the chairman of Trustees at the National Portrait Gallery at the time that I was appointed, although he stood down the day I started in order to allow a new chairman to take over.   To this day I don’t know what role he played in the appointment, but he remained a benign and sympathetic presence.   I had been brought up to regard him as a great man:  Cambridge to his fingertips;  the longest serving Master of Selwyn;  always refusing a bishopric because it would take him away from Grange Road;  a blue in rugby football.   He was appointed Regius Professor of History above Geoffrey Elton and Jack Plumb, much to their annoyance, and, as Vice Chancellor, defended the rebellious students by contrast to the boorishness of the rugby-playing undergraduates of his youth.