The initial name for the Campus (Magee Campus) originated from
Martha Magee, the widow of a
Presbyterian minister, who, in 1845, bequeathed £20,000 to the
Presbyterian Church of Ireland to found a college for theology and the arts. It opened in 1865 primarily as a
theological college, but accepted students from all denominations to study a variety of subjects. From 1941 this bunker, part of
Base One Europe, together with similar bunkers in
Derby House, Liverpool, and
Whitehall was used to control one million Allied personnel and fight the
Nazi U-boat threat. On 14 September 2013 Magee hosted the 23rd International
Loebner Prize Contest in Artificial Intelligence based on
The Turing Test. Julian Peck's (who resided at Prehen House in
Derry) mother, Lady
Winifred Peck (née Knox), was a sister of
Dilly Knox who directed the code breaking at Bletchley Park. Sir
Harry Hinsley OBE was Director of Studies at
Cambridge University to Professor Robert Gavin, a former Provost of Magee. Dame Alice
Rosemary Murray, the first female Vice-Chancellor of
Cambridge University, who also sat on the
Lockwood Committee (1963–65) which recommended the closure of Magee as well as the location of Northern Ireland's 2nd University being Coleraine (February 1965), from which she was later awarded a Doctor of Science (DSc) Honorary Degree (1972), was stationed at
Base One Europe as
WRNS Chief Officer and responsible for the welfare of 5,600 Wrens stationed at Londonderry.
Postwar In 1953, Magee Theological College separated from the remainder of the college, eventually moving to
Belfast in a 1978 merger that formed
Union Theological College. Also in 1953, Magee College broke its links with Dublin and became
Magee University College. It was hoped by groups led by the
University for Derry Committee that this
university college would become Northern Ireland's second university after
Queen's University of Belfast. However, in the 1960s, following the recommendations in
the Lockwood Report by
Sir John Lockwood, Master of
Birkbeck College, London, and former
Vice-Chancellor of the University of London, the
Stormont Parliament made a controversial decision to pass it over in favour of a new university in Coleraine. Instead it was incorporated into the two-campus
New University of Ulster in 1969. In October 2014 the University of Ulster was rebranded as Ulster University.
Timeline • 1845 – Foundation endowment from Martha Magee. Government funding greatly reduced. • The Magee College bequest is mentioned on the founder's graveyard memorial in
Lurgan,
County Armagh,
Ulster, where her husband was a
minister. ==Campus==