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
very different from his. Her father Sir Arthur Jarratt had progressed 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.
