In the gardens of Rhodes House, amidst the beautifully manicured lawns, Gardener Neil’s vibrant, brilliant flowers and newly installed glass pavilion, stands a very tall tree with a story that stretches beyond its branches. This tree, a Tulip tree, was given to the House by Charles Chatfield (Nevada & Lincoln 1921), a Rhodes Scholar whose life was marked by hardship, resilience, and an enduring sense of gratitude.
Charles Chatfield came to Oxford in the early 1920s on a Rhodes Scholarship to study Chemistry. Yet, in October 1923, his life took an unexpected and tragic turn. He contracted polio (then referred to as "Infantile Paralysis"), a disease that left him extensively paralysed. His health battle saw him spend nine months in an Oxford nursing home, followed by two years in Headington’s Wingfield Orthopaedic Hospital. During these years of recovery, he found support from Rhodes House and the Trustees who paid for his hospital care and forged a personal bond with Warden at the time, Francis Wylie, who visited him daily.
Despite the strain on his health, Chatfield was offered a grant from the Trustees to support a return to Reno, Nevada, after a long stay in hospital. His father had died in an accident shortly before Charles came to Oxford, and so he returned to live with his widowed mother. While his family had limited means, Chatfield worked to recover as best he could and eventually secured a position as the First Assistant Librarian and Chief Reference Librarian at Washoe County Library in Reno. Choosing librarianship—an area far removed from his Chemistry studies—was a pragmatic decision, as it suited his need for a sedentary role amid lingering health issues.
In his role, Chatfield continued to embody a spirit of service and dedication, becoming State Secretary of the Rhodes Scholarships for Nevada. However, in 1937, his health took another tragic turn; he passed away at a young age from complications of flu and pneumonia.
When Chatfield was at his most vulnerable, the Trustees and members of Rhodes House supported him steadfastly. Wylie, writing after Chatfield’s death, remembered him as “a real friend” and expressed a deep personal loss: "He was just splendid in the way he faced that terrible trial – it was a wonderful exhibition of uncomplaining courage." Chatfield’s quiet strength left a profound impression, and Wylie wrote of him as "one of the finer Rhodes Scholars that we have had."
Chatfield expressed his wish to leave a gift —a living token of his “deep gratitude and warm affection” for the Rhodes Trust “in recognition of help and kindness which he had received from the Trustees and from the Wylies when he was very ill in Oxford with infantile paralysis”. Initially considering roses, he was ultimately persuaded to select a tree, which he believed would serve as a lasting symbol. In his own words, Chatfield wrote, “I wished to have some inconspicuous and small, yet ever-present and growing, token of the deep gratitude… I yield to your suggestion with the wish that the token be associated with the same gratitude and affection of other Rhodes Scholars who meet and who have met with misfortune, and who find and will find themselves growing, like the tree, stronger and stronger as the seasons go by.”
The Tulip tree he donated was planted in 1930, a sturdy presence embodying the strength and resilience Chatfield showed throughout his life. Though the commemorative plaque was only added in 1949, Chatfield’s legacy remains embedded in this part of the garden, and we hope sharing his story enlivens that further. His tree continues to stand as a testament to courage in the face of life’s greatest challenges and to the enduring power of gratitude.
If you ever visit the gardens of Rhodes House, we encourage you to take a moment to pause as you walk by it. Neil Wigfield, the Rhodes House gardener, notes, “during the maelstrom of The Big Build, the ‘Tree Protection Area’ with huge fences surrounding the trees on the West and East lawns, and the Tulip Tree in particular, offered me the one unchanging piece of landscape to mentally cling on to, and while everything else shifted about them, the trees still ‘did their thing’; leaf burst, flowers, glorious autumn colour, incredible winter structure. But like the things we see every day, they mostly go unnoticed.”
Georgie Thurston is Global Programmes and Alumni Engagement Lead at the Rhodes Trust.
With thanks to the Rhodes Trust Archives for material used in this post.