Personal papers and medals of Professor Bonamy Dobre

Comprises: (1) Birth and marriage certificates; (2) 2nd lieutenant's commission, 1910; commendation, 1916; (3) Manuscript and typescript testimonials from Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, Sir James Baillie, Allardyce Nicoll and others, 1925-34; (4) University of Cambridge certificate, 1921; (5) French identity card and other papers, 1920; Military identity card, 1940; National Registration identity card, 1945-51; International P.E.N. membership card, 1974; Liberal Party membership card, 1974; (6) OBE, grant and medal, 1929; (7) Military medals: 1914-15 Star; British War Medal, 1914-20; Victory Medal, 1914-19; War Medal, 1939-45; Defence Medal, 1939-45; 1 set of miniature medals; (8) Other medals and awards, including: Royal Drawing Society medal, 1908; Cambridge University Boxing and Fencing Club medals, 1920.

The son of Bonamy Dobre and Violet Chase, Bonamy (the younger) was born in 1891 and educated at Haileybury and the R.M.A., Woolwich. Commissioned in the Royal Artillery in 1910, he served in France and Palestine, and in the Second World War attained to the rank of Lt. Col. He graduated in 1921 from Christ's College, Cambridge, then lived mainly in France until 1925, when he was appointed a lecturer in English at Queen Mary College, London. There he was active in journalism and as theatre critic for the Nation & Athenaeum. Between 1926 and 1936 he was Professor of English at Cairo before coming to his professorship at Leeds. After retirement in 1955 he became Gresham Professor of Rhetoric in London. He died in 1974. Dobre is particularly remembered for his work on Restoration dramatists, eighteenth-century English literature, and Kipling. He was also a member of the Central Advisory Council for Education (England) and of the editorial board of Universities Quarterly.

Access is unrestricted.

In English

See also: MS 223, MS 408, MS 659, MS 898, and MS 1550