Professor Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh (5 September 1861 – 13 May 1922) was an English scholar, poet and author.

He was born in London, the fifth child and only son of a local Congregationalist minister. Raleigh was educated at the City of London School

City of London School

The City of London School is a boys' independent day school on the banks of the River Thames in the City of London, England. It is the brother school of the City of London School for Girls and the co-educational City of London Freemen's School...

, Edinburgh Academy

Edinburgh Academy

The Edinburgh Academy is an independent school which was opened in 1824. The original building, in Henderson Row on the northern fringe of the New Town of Edinburgh, Scotland, is now part of the Senior School...

, University College London

University College London

University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...

, and King's College, Cambridge

King's College, Cambridge

King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....

.

He was Professor of English Literature at the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College in Aligarh (1885–87), Professor of Modern Literature at the University College Liverpool (1890–1900), Regius Professor of English Language and Literature at Glasgow University (1900–1904), and Chair of English Literature at Oxford University and Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...

 (1904–22). Raleigh was knighted in 1911.

On the outbreak of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 he turned to the war as his primary subject. In 1915 he delivered the Vanuxem lectures at Princeton

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 on "The Origins of Romance" and "The Beginnings of the Romantic Revival," and lectured on Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...

 at Brown

Brown University

Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

, which gave him the degree of Litt.D.

Doctor of Letters

Doctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...

  His finest book may be the first volume of The War in the Air (1922).

He died from typhoid (contracted during a visit to the Near East

Near East

The Near East is a geographical term that covers different countries for geographers, archeologists, and historians, on the one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other...

) in 1922, being survived by his wife Lucie Gertrude, and their four sons and a daughter. He is buried in the churchyard of the parish church of St. Lawrence at North Hinksey

North Hinksey

North Hinksey , is a small civil parish in county Berkshire, 2 miles west of Oxford, and 5 miles north of of Abingdon,situated on the right bank of the Isis...

, near Oxford. His son Hilary edited his light prose, verse, and plays in Laughter from a Cloud (1923). He is probably best
known for the poem " Wishes of an Elderly Man Wished at a Garden Party, June 1914 ".

A few of his works are available on Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...

.

Raleigh Park

Raleigh Park, Oxfordshire

Raleigh Park is a park of about in North Hinksey, Oxfordshire . The land was formerly part of the estates of the Harcourt family. The land was sold in 1924 to Raymond ffennell, then owner of Wytham Abbey, who gave it to the City of Oxford for use as a park...

 at North Hinksey, near Harcourt Hill

Harcourt Hill

Harcourt Hill is a hill and community in North Hinksey in Oxfordshire, England, west of the city of Oxford. There is a good view of the city from the hill. It lies between Hinksey Hill to the southeast, Boars Hill to the south and Botley to the north...

 where he lived from 1909 to his death, is named after him.

List of works

• The English Novel (1894)
• Robert Louis Stevenson: An Essay (1895)
• Style (1897)
• Milton (1900)
• Wordsworth (1903)
• The English Voyagers (1904)
• Shakespeare (1907)
• Six Essays on Johnson (1910)

External links