Jackson Knight letters to Mr Collingsplatt

The collection is of four letters and one postcard from Jackson Knight to Mr Collingsplatt, dated 1962-63, and Collingsplatt's written Latin composition heavily marked by Knight.

William Francis Jackson Knight (1895-1964), classical scholar, the elder son of George Knight and Caroline Louisa Jackson, was born on 20 October 1895. He was educated at Dulwich College and Hertford College Oxford, to which he won an open scholarship in Classics. He served as a despatch rider during the First World War. After a number of teaching jobs, including ten years at All Saints' School, Bloxham, he became a temporary lecturer in Classics at the University of St Andrews. The following year he accepted an Assistant Lectureship at Exeter, which he turned to a Lectureship the next year and a Readership in 1942. He remained at Exeter, a committed educationalist who inspired hundreds of students, until and after he retired. His publications included several works on Virgil, including Vergil's Troy (1932), Cummaean Gates (1936), Accentual Symmetry in Vergil (1939), Roman Vergil (1943), Vergil and Homer (1950), and Virgil's Aeneid, a translation (Penguin Classics, 1956). In addition he played a key role in extra-mural activities, encouraging young poets and establishing and commanding the University's Officer Training Corps. He established the international review Erasmus. He retired from teaching in 1961. His biography, by his brother George Wilson Knight, was published in 1975.

RA Collingsplatt appears to have been a student of Knight's at Exeter, although his name does not appear in either volume of the Exeter University Register. He appears to have been resident in Newmarket for some years.

Usual EUL arrangements apply

The papers were bequested to Exeter University Library and were passed on to the University in June 1986.

Unlisted

Usual EUL arrangements apply