James Edward Michael Naylor “Jem”

James Naylor was born in London, on 15 January 1985, and died on
9 January 2009, aged 23.

James attended St Ronan’s Prep School, where he was Head Boy, and there gained a scholarship to Tonbridge School, where he excelled academically both inside and outside class. In 2000, he won the Simon Elvin Young Poet of the Year Prize with his poem ‘A Family Affair’, a mixture of found phrases with a bebop rhythm, the work of preternaturally mature poet. What was surprising was not his success but how modestly he kept it quiet afterwards, which was typical of all of James’s achievements.

An all-rounder, James was torn between following his love of science and the classics at university. Classics won out and he matriculated in 2003. He took one of the top Firsts in Mods, winning the Comparative Philology Prize and was one of three proxime accesserunt for the Sunderland Prize for Greek.

James’s interests were broad, moving from Languages to Ancient History and to Classical Architecture, which complimented his lifelong love of travel. With his father, Dan, he attended several archaeology summer schools including one to the Naples area. At one point on the Italian trip, he even had a recalcitrant official open up a closed museum by talking him round – in Italian. Another trip to Italy attending a culinary course combined his love of the country and cooking.

At Magdalen, James, ‘Jem’ to his friends, was a huge support in all aspects of college life. Fought over as a tutorial partner, he was equally in demand for his support at the first night of friends’ plays (where he could always muster a kind word even for performances not necessarily deserving of one), or as great company at formal dinners, where his wit – drier than the pre-prandial sherry – was always welcome.

James had friends all over Oxford, enjoying many a ‘formal hall swap’, sampling the delights – or otherwise – of other colleges’ dinner offerings. An enthusiastic member of the Monarchist Society, writing for their publication as well as indulging in their enjoyment of after-dinner drinks. He was also seen at countless College balls, always debonair, like a character from the Cole Porter musicals of which he was so fond.

He could never let himself enjoy too much leisure time, as his renowned self-discipline kept him ever-near a library, or at least brought the books to his room. Thus despite the famed tea-drinking of other Magdalen Classicists, James would always eventually leave them to their procrastination, too soon for their liking. Even in his summer vacation, he stayed up in Oxford to study for the TEFL qualification and, true to form, obtained a Distinction.

A man of many talents, James’s life post-Oxford took several turns. He tried his hand at extended travel, then successfully worked in insurance at Lloyds, before being accepted to Newcastle University on the prestigious Accelerated Medical Degree. As ever, his gentle, charming nature made him many friends in Northumberland, but he found the return to study less palatable than expected, and left the course in the November, unwilling, in his own words, to take up a place for someone who really deserved it, as ever not perceiving how well he would have done.

This restlessness and indecision sadly turned into a despondency from which James would not recover and he took his life in January this year. He was greatly loved and will be greatly missed by all his family, friends and tutors that knew him during his short but brilliant life.