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Oxford
Foxon returned from Ceylon at the end of the War, and in 1946
began a shortened degree course at Oxford, where Jane Jarratt was
already part of the Bletchley diaspora, the friendships made during the
War continuing to exert an influence for the next ten years or so. An
important link was through Theo Chaundy, Reader in Mathematics
and Student of Christ Church, who had been part of Bletchley's reserve
force and now offered something like a second home to Jane Jarratt and
to Foxon. With Chaundy's son, Christopher, Foxon experimented with
electronics and built his first loudspeaker in the Chaundys' workshop,
establishing an interest in hi-fi that was to last until his death. Undergraduate
study with Jack Bennett and C. S. Lewis was a success. Foxon
joined in a discussion society, the Lyly club, with other Magdalen men,
and took Lewis's advice to sample Oxford lectures outside his subject.
Egon Wellesz, composer and pupil of Hindemith (whose small audiences
were particularly in need of Foxon's support), and Sarvepalli
Radhakrishnan, diplomat and author of Eastern Religions and Western
Thought, made a particularly strong impression, as did Kenneth Clarke,
who showed that a lecture could be constructed round illustrations.
Clark's example was something Foxon remembered in preparing his
Lyell lectures in Oxford in 1976.
In 1947 David Foxon and Jane Jarratt married. Her background was
from being a cinema pianist to assuming a public role as the manager
of a national chain of cinemas, a friend of Lord Mountbatten's, and a
film producer in alliance with Alexander Korda, Herbert Wilcox, and
Michael Balcon. Jane Jarratt had come to Bletchley from the Central
School for Speech and Drama, and through his marriage Foxon became
tangentially connected to a more glamorous social world, though Jane
Foxon herself had little time for film society, refused to be presented at
court, and much preferred the comradeship of Bletchley. I gained the
impression that Foxon relished the contact with the entertainment industry
more than she did. The couple shared an interest in the arts,
particularly music, and, as Jane brought with her a small private income
of £200 a year, they were able to live a modest, cultured life, with a
wide circle of friends. A daughter, Deborah, was born in 1952. Although
the Foxons were divorced in 1963, they remained friends, sharing holidays
and family concerns, until Jane's death in 1988.
After graduating with first-class honours Foxon started research for
a BLitt on the relationship between words and music in the seventeenth
century. Although he was given a supervisor from the Music Faculty,
Jack Westrup, he was left very much to his own devices. He set himself
to read every Restoration play for what it had to say about music and
even settled on Purcell's ceremonial odes as a specific topic, but he felt
little confidence in his progress with what was potentially a very large
project. At this point, late 1948, a circular appeared offering a final
opportunity to apply for the civil service. Many of Foxon's Bletchley
friends had taken that route and he now decided to follow them. He
took the exam successfully (passing out second in mathematics) and
survived the country house weekend and the interview with the selection
board. (Some flavour of the exercise is conveyed by C. P. Snow's
asking Foxon whether he considered it was more important to be than
to do.) Foxon was sent to Town and Country Planning, but a casual
meeting over lunch changed his career. Angus Wilson, a friend from
Bletchley, was now back at the British Museum Library (his piercing
tenor soon to become famous during his superintendency of the reading
room), and Bentley Bridgewater, who had also been at Bletchley, was
now secretary of the Library. These two persuaded Foxon that work at
the Library would be more congenial to his temperament and talents,
and he successfully applied for transfer to the Museum.
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