Jebb, Sir Richard Claverhouse, 1841-1905, Knight, classical scholar, educationist and MP

Person

Jebb, Sir Richard Claverhouse, 1841-1905, Knight, classical scholar, educationist and MP

1841-1905

Born at Dundee, 1841; in his early years lived in or near Dublin, and at Killiney from 1850; educated by his father and subsequently at St Columba's College, Rathfarnham, from 1853; Charterhouse School, City of London, 1855-1858; entered Trinity College Cambridge, 1858; Porson scholar, 1859; Craven scholar, 1860; senior classic and first Chancellor's medallist, 1862; elected fellow of Trinity College, 1863; classical lecturer, 1863-1875; elected public orator of Cambridge University, 1869; participated in the reorganisation of classical lectures in the university on the intercollegiate plan; with Edward Byles Cowell, founded the Cambridge Philological Society and was the first secretary, 1868; examiner in London University, 1872; leader writer and reviewer on The Times ; Professor of Greek, University of Glasgow, 1875-1889; introduced the novelty of lecturing one day a week on modern Greek; friends included Alfred, 1st Baron Tennyson, whose Harold he reviewed in The Times , 1876; visited Greece and explored its archæology, receiving from the King of Greece the Gold Cross of the Order of the Saviour, 1878; helped to found the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, 1879; honorary LLD, Edinburgh, 1879; began work on his edition of Sophocles, 1880; paid a first visit to America and received the degree of LLD from Harvard University, 1884; honorary LittD, Cambridge, 1885; active in the foundation of the British School of Archaeology at Athens, 1887; honorary fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1888; honorary LLD, Dublin, and honorary PhD, Bologna, 1888; composed a Pindaric ode to the University of Bologna, celebrating its 800th year of existence, 1888; to this Tennyson referred when he dedicated Demeter and Persephone to Jebb, 1889; Regius Professor of Greek, Cambridge University, and fellow of Trinity College, 1889-1905; lectured, mainly on the history of Greek literature, and was active in administration; delivered the Rede lecture at Cambridge, on Erasmus, 1890; honorary DCL, Oxford, 1891; succeeded Henry Cecil Raikes, MP for the University of Cambridge, as a Conservative, 1891; re-elected, 1892, 1895, 1900; besides serving on parliamentary committees, sat on the Royal Commission on Secondary Education, 1894; London University Commission, 1898; Commission on Irish University Education, 1901; a member of the consultative committee of the board of education from 1900; revisited the United States and delivered at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, lectures on 'The Growth and Influence of Greek Poetry', 1892; appointed fellow of the University of London by the crown, 1897; declined a knighthood, 1897; elected Honorary Professor of Ancient History by the Royal Academy, 1898; Romanes lecture, on 'Humanism in education', at Oxford, 1899; knighted, 1900; active in the formation of the British Academy; an original fellow when the Academy received its charter of incorporation, 1902; elected a trustee of the British Museum, 1903; became a member of the British Association and was elected a vice-president of the section of education, 1904; became president and delivered his address in Capetown and Johannesburg, 1905; Order of Merit, 1905; died at Cambridge, 1905; buried in St. Giles's cemetery, Cambridge. Publications: editions of Sophocles' Electra (1867) and Ajax (1868) in the Catena Classicorum series; edition of The Characters of Theophrastus (1870); Translations into Greek and Latin Verse (1873); Attic Orators from Antiphon to Isaeus (2 volumes, 1876); replied to Professor J P Mahaffy's charge of excessive obligation to the work of F Blass in Some Remarks (1876) and Rejoinder (1877); Primer of Greek Literature (1877); in collaboration with Henry Jackson and W E Currey , Translations in and from Greek and Latin Verse and Prose (1878); Selections from the Attic Orators (1880); Modern Greece (1880); The Progress of Greece (1880); Byron in Greece (1880); monograph on Bentley in the 'English Men of Letters' series (1882); Homer: an Introduction to the Iliad and Odyssey (1887); The Growth and Influence of Greek Poetry (1893); Humanism in Education (1899); Bacchylides (1905). His edition of Sophocles (the Greek text, English prose translation, critical notes on the text, and commentary) comprises Oedipus Tyrannus (1883), Oedipus Coloneus (1885), Antigone (1888), Philoctetes (1890), Trachiniæ (1892), Electra (1894) and Ajax (1896). Contributed to the Journal of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies; the 9th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica ; articles on Richard Bentley (1662-1742) and Richard Porson (1759-1808) for the Dictionary of National Biography ; and a chapter on 'The Classical Renaissance' for the Cambridge Modern History , i (1902). Wrote on Tennyson in T H Ward's English Poets , iv (1894). Sir John Sandys re-edited Characters of Theophrastus (1909) and prepared for the press Jebb's translation of Aristotle's Rhetoric (1909). His widow issued his Essays and Addresses (1907) and Life and Letters (1907).

0100 KCLCA

Final

Partial

Further information is available at the National Archives (F70970)