Brian Juden

Professor Brian Juden M.A. D.èsL. (14 February 1920 – 31 July 2008) was Professor of French and Head of the Department at Royal Holloway College, which is now known as Royal Holloway, part of the University of London, from 1970 to 1985. He was one of the leading authorities on the links between French literary creativity and political, religious and aesthetic thought.

Biography Brian Valentine Juden was born on 14 February 1920 in New Malden, Surrey. His father was Charles Henry Juden (1883–1969), a civil servant in the Post Office, and his mother was Elizabeth (Lilly) Sarah Maria Juden née Shillingford (1884–1956).

Juden attended Surbiton County School from 1930 to 1936, and Wimbledon Technical College from 1936 to 1937, where he studied Motor Car Technical Drawing and Calculations, and Motor Car Mechanics. He then started work as a motor engineer.

In the Second World War Juden served in the Royal Artillery and the Royal Army Medical Corps.

After the war, Juden attended the Victoria University of Manchester, reading French from 1945 to 1948 for a Bachelor of Arts degree, and studying education from 1948 to 1949 for a Teacher's Diploma. He was awarded a scholarship by the French Government to study at the Sorbonne from 1949 to 1953.

In 1954 Juden was appointed assistant lecturer at the University of Sheffield, where he taught French language and French 19th century literature, and supervised the French lecteurs and lectrices.

When Juden was staying in the English halls of the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, he met Marie-Josèphe Christiane Tortat, who was staying in the American halls and studying English. She was born on 5 June 1925 in Beton-Bazoches, which is about forty miles to the east of Paris, the daughter of Marie Joseph Georges Tortat, known as Georges, and Berthe Marie Henriette Tortat née Pouron. Juden and Marie-Josèphe married on 29 October 1955 in the Holy Cross Church in West Barnes, in south-west London. He shortened the name Marie-Josèphe Christiane to Josette, and they made their first home in Sheffield. Josette taught French to A level students at the girls' High School. The Doctorat d'État ès Lettres is equivalent to a Ph.D.

In 1970 Juden was appointed to the University of London Chair of French at Royal Holloway College, which is now known as Royal Holloway. He was Professor of French and Head of the department. He and Josette moved home first to Guildford, Surrey and then in 1971 to Ascot, Berkshire.

When Juden retired in 1985, a volume of essays on "Ideology and Religion in French Literature" was published in his honour. More than twenty scholars from nine nations contributed the essays to the volume, which demonstrated the depth and geographical extent of the esteem in which Juden was held, as a scholar and as a man.

Juden died in Ascot, Berkshire on 31 July 2008. Josette died in Ascot, Berkshire on 30 November 2014. They had no children.