Sir John Tresidder Sheppard, MBE (7 November 1881 – 7 May 1968) was a British classicist and academic, who was the first non-Etonian to become the provost of King's College, Cambridge.[1]

Early life

John Sheppard was educated at Dulwich College.[1] He went up to King's College, Cambridge, where he studied Classics and won the Porson Prize. His subject tutors included Walter Headlam and Nathaniel Wedd, but he was also influenced by the historian Oscar Browning.[2][3] He achieved first class honours in part I of the Classical Tripos in 1902, but only second class honours in part II in 1904.[2] His "zeal" as president of the Cambridge Union likely affected his final classification.[2] He graduated from the University of Cambridge with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1904.[2]

Career

Sheppard (right) with T.S. Eliot in 1920

After graduating with his undergraduate degree, Sheppard began his academic career teaching classics at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.[3] In 1906, he was elected a fellow of his alma mater King's College, Cambridge.[2] He published his first book Greek Tragedy in 1911.[2] He was a lecturer in classics King's College from 1908 to 1933. He additionally taught in the Faculty of Classics, as Brereton Reader in Classics from 1931 to 1947.[4] He was made vice-provost of his college in 1929, and was elected unanimously as provost in 1933. His term as head of the college was extended by two additional years, and he retired in 1954.[2]

During his long career, he translated many famous Greek classics, and published several books on the subject, including The Pattern of the Iliad, Greek Tragedy, and Aeschylus & Sophocles: Their Work and Influence. He loved to share his knowledge with others, and a "school had only to ask" for him to attend to give a lecture on Greek literature to both boys and girls.[2] He also produced the Cambridge Greek Play eleven times during his time at the university.[2]

During the First World War, he was a deputy assistant censor in the War Office, for which he was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1919.[5] In 1934, he made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Redeemer by the modern state of Greece.[4][6] In the 1950 King's Birthday Honours, he was made a Knight Bachelor "for services to the study of Greek literature" and was therefore granted the title sir.[7]

Sheppard was a member of the Cambridge Apostles.[8]

Personal life

John Sheppard was openly homosexual.[9][10][11] He never married.[2]

Sheppard died on 7 May 1968 in London, England, aged 86. His funeral service was held on 19 May 1968, after which he was cremated, and his ashes are in a vault in King's College Chapel.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Hodges, S, (1981), God's Gift: A Living History of Dulwich College, pages 88, (Heinemann: London)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Noel, Annan (25 May 2006). "Sheppard, Sir John Tresidder (1881–1968)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/37953. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ^ a b "Collection: Sheppard: The Papers of John Tresidder Sheppard". archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk. University of Cambridge. Retrieved 8 March 2025.
  4. ^ a b "Sheppard, Sir John Tresidder, (1881–7 May 1968), Knight Commander of the Order of the Redeemer (Greece); Provost, King's College, Cambridge, and Senior Fellow of Eton College, 1933–54; Brereton Reader in Classics, 1931–47; Associate Fellow, Berkeley College, Yale; Hon. Fellow of New College, Oxford, and of Queen Mary College, London". Who Was Who. Oxford University Press. 1 December 2007. Retrieved 8 March 2025.
  5. ^ "No. 31114". The London Gazette (Supplement). 7 January 1919. pp. 463–472.
  6. ^ "Honours thought to be John Tresidder Sheppard's, 1919 - 1950". archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk. University of Cambridge. Retrieved 8 March 2025.
  7. ^ "No. 38929". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 June 1950. pp. 2775–2776.
  8. ^ Ryan, Alan (28 October 1999). "The Voice from the Hearth-Rug". London Review of Books.
  9. ^ Costello, John (1998). The Mask of Treachery. Collins. p. 359. ISBN 0-00-217536-3. Cambridge boasted the flamboyant homosexual John Tresidder Sheppard of King's…
  10. ^ Annan, Noel (2001). The Dons: Mentors, Eccentrics and Geniuses. University of Chicago Press. p. 115. ISBN 0-226-02108-4. Sheppard, when a young fellow…went about proclaiming his infatuation with various handsome young men and tried to convince Lytton Strachey that to fall for a philistine was not necessarily evidence of a bad state of mind.
  11. ^ Tamagne, Florence (2004). A history of homosexuality in Europe: Berlin, London, Paris, 1919–1939. Algora Publishing. p. 173. ISBN 0-87586-252-7.
Academic offices
Preceded by Provost of King's College, Cambridge
1933 to 1954 		Succeeded by
Allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tresidder_Sheppard
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