Coburn-Mulligan Gazette 2025

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Headline 

Summary paragraph.

The Wedding of Our Year 

On a sun-filled day in August, and on a night of a full-moon, Alice and Martyn pledged their troths and threw a fun party. We congregated in Missenden Abbey to bear witness, throw confetti, shed the occasional tear, and fling ourselves around in a ceilidh. The main question on everybody's lips was "What took them so long?".

Saying Yes to the Dress

A year in the planning. (Still awaiting images from Helen of racks of dresses)

Half a Century of Reminders

1975 was the year that Andrew and Helen came up to Cambridge, with a head full of both dreams and hair. 2025 entailed celebrating the 50 years since those halcyon days and reconnecting with the year-group and friends who shared those formative times. Christ's and Churchill colleges both hosted 50th alumni anniversaries, and we reconnected with our fellow students at the Faculty of Architecture and many friends we've had the pleasure of keeping in touch with in the half-century since. Keeping in the mood, we also re-lived the songs of the 70s, going to concerts by Lindisfarne and Australian Pink Floyd. Shine on you crazy diamonds...

Business Section

Risilience Annual Report

This was the fourth year of Andrew's company Risilience (Risk + Resilience, geddit?). Risilience helps companies manage their climate change risk and decarbonize their activities. Client numbers doubled this year, bringing the total amount of annual greenhouse gas emissions they are eliminating to over a gigatonne. But this year saw a backlash against sustainability spearheaded by the Trump presidency, pulling the US out of the Paris agreement and halting climate-protecting regulation, which has caused many companies to pause. We face uncertain times, but the fundamentals haven't changed - fossil fuels cost more than renewables so it makes good business sense to switch to a more sustainable business model. Risilience clients are finding that doing good for the planet is good business.

Edinburgh Fringe

August brought the Edinburgh Festival, and another amazing variety of shows and creativity, enjoyed with our friends Anne and Simon. The highlight show was 'Mariupol', scoring highly collectively. We also enjoyed James Joyce's Ulysses as a puppet show, the inevitable pick-on-the-audience comedy show, and the Lady Macbeth netball show. A fabulous weekend in the Highlands.

Helen's Hats 

Helen’s HNC course in millinery culminated in a final show which opened at Lock & Co., the renowned hatters in St. James’s Street, Mayfair.  Her work was also selected for the end of year show representing work produced on all Morley College courses, at the gallery in Waterloo – and also featured in the bi-monthly Hat Magazine.

In January, the millinery students went as a group to Fashion Week in Paris to participate in events co-organised by the British Hat Guild and its French counterpart.  A highlight was a visit to the Stephen Jones, Chapeaux d’Artiste exhibition at the Palais Galliera, guided by the star milliner in person.

As an extra treat, Helen met up with school friend Annick to visit the gleaming interior of Notre Dame - newly-restored since the catastrophic fire in April 2019.

The hat-making group came together once more for the acclaimed highlight of the millinery year – Ladies’ Day at Royal Ascot! (It’s quite famous for horse racing too). Their most spectacular hats were on show, some from our final collections and others made specially for the occasion. Due to the generous sponsorship from colleagues who are Members at Ascot, they had the ultimate luxury of tickets to the Royal Enclosure.  Plus a fabulous tailgate buffet supper in the Members’ carpark – many thanks to Julia Bullman and her long-suffering husband Pat – to round off the day.

Helen's Work Headline

Helen’s work in the area of Shrinking Cities continued with an invitation to lecture at a summer school for PhD students in Bad Durkheim, Germany, and participate in a short study of flood defences in the Rhine valley. Helen’s paper with Vlad Mychenko – based on previous fieldwork in Stoke-on Trent – will shortly appear in a special issue on urban shrinkage in the journal Cities.

Dr and Dr Coburn-Smith

Apart from getting married (did we mention that?) it’s still been a busy and memorable year for Alice and Martyn Coburn-Smith. And not just changing their names on all the endless official documentation you need to operate your lives. After several years of planning, they finally made their long-awaited trip to Thailand. From navigating vibrant canals to a personal cooking class, they loved every minute. A major highlight was spending a day with rescued elephants, learning their stories and making their breakfast.

It’s been a milestone year for Martyn. He submitted his PhD thesis, survived his viva, and passed—graduation awaits in 2026. Congratulations Doctorand Coburn-Smith! As if that weren’t enough excitement, he also started a new job in November, joining a team that includes some familiar faces from a previous job.

Alice continues in the same role with the British Orthopedic Society, which somehow manages to deliver a fresh set of challenges each week. She rounded off the year with the successful launch of a new exam platform in December—a major achievement. Outside work, she’s kept up her running, completing two half-marathons and even joining a 200-mile relay around London’s greenbelt as a last-minute sub. Meanwhile, Martyn has taken on the role of strength coach, introducing her to weightlifting with great enthusiasm.

Henry's Final PhD Chapters

Henry is finishing up his PhD at the University of California in Santa Barbara. He has been hitting the academic job market, publishing papers on false convictions in AI and presenting his work at conferences in the US and UK. He is planning for this to be his last year in the United States before heading on to pastures new, and is very glad to be back in the UK and (relative) sanity for Xmas!

Five Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

The five intrepid aeronauts took a Dragon Rapide into the skies over Cambridge. 

Sports Section

Football Report

The 2024/25 season was another stupendous one for Arsenal.  Helen and Alice were there at the Emirates stadium in March as Arsenal took on PSV in the Champions’ League.  Can Arsenal step it up a notch this season, and win a trophy or two?  Andrew came along for the drubbing of Bayern Munich in November – the same week as Alice was treated to a nice result too against old rivals Spurs.

Photos: Alice and Helen cheer on the Arsenal to a 9-3 aggregate win over PSV Eindhoven in March.
Alice and Helen at the Tottenham Hotspur game 
Andrew and Helen at Arsenal v. Bayern

Tennis

Wimbledon.

Rowing

Bumps 2025.

Entertainment

Don't Cry for Me, Aunty Vera

The hot tickets this summer were to see Rachel Zegla starring as Evita, singing 'that song' from the balcony of the Palladium Theatre. We paid good money to be sitting in the seats inside while she sang to the crowds outside. So we stuck around and went to see her do her evening performance from the cheaper vantage point of the street outside. A terrific atmosphere and an extraordinary performance.

Travel

Horta Cultural

April saw us enjoying a wonderfully sunny long weekend in Brussels, where we visited early 20th century buildings by Art Nouveau architect Victor Horta and his successors in Art Deco, such as Govaerts and Van Vaerenbergh.  In between, we took in the battlefields of Waterloo and Wipers – the Tommies’ nickname for the hellish trenches of the Ypres salient. We paid respects to the grave of Helen’s great-uncle Joe Shirt at Lijssenthoek military cemetery.

Finally Meeting Our Waterloo

Belgium battlefields, part 1: Waterloo

The Fields of Flanders

Belgium battlefields, part 2: Flanders

Made in Ancient Egypt

(and Modern Cambridge)

Helen works like an Egyptian.

Yarn-Bombing Campaign Continues

Andrew has continued to faithfully record the crocheted ornaments that adorn the post box in Fen Ditton to mark special occasions, which have appeared throughout the past two years (see last year's Gazette). This year's collection was even finer, commemorating Valentine's day, Easter, Euros football, Olympics, autumn, the postal service itself, and of course, Christmas. Even though it was nothing to do with us, these fine, mad efforts deserve to be recorded for posterity.

Milestones

Remembering Edna

In the spring, it was 10 years since the death of Helen’s mother Edna.  We gathered several of the cousins together for a visit to the family graves in Lancashire, and a commemorative lunch.

And Our General Photo Scrapbook...

An album of more of our 'photos of the year'.

And in case you've lost your way, this is the home page of the Coburn Family: Andrew Coburn, Helen Mulligan, Alice Coburn and Henry Coburn.