About Bruce Dickins
Lived 1889 – 1978 (aged 88). Bruce Dickins was a British academic, linguist and scholar of English.
Bruce Dickins, FBA (26 October 1889 – 4 January 1978), a graduate of Magdalene College, Cambridge, was Professor of English Language at the University of Leeds from 1931 to 1946 (where he succeeded E. V. Gordon), teaching medieval English and Old Norse. He sat on the executive committee of the Yorkshire Society for Celtic Studies from 1931 to at least 1943, serving as president in 1936-37, and editing several numbers of its journal, Yorkshire Celtic Studies.
Dickins became Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, University of Cambridge, from January 1946 until September 1957 (when he was succeeded by Dorothy Whitelock) afterwards Emeritus Professor; and Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge from 1946. At Cambridge, Dickins continued to support Celtic Studies, creating a University Lectureship for Nora Chadwick in 1950 and in 1955 making "an eloquent case to the General Board for the establishment of a Professorship of Celtic in his Department, so as to put Cambridge on an equal footing with Oxford in this respect" (though the latter proposal was scotched in the face of "aggressive opposition" from Whitelock).
In 1968 he held the Sandars Readership in Bibliography at Cambridge University speaking on "The Making of the Parker Library."
Dickins's seventieth birthday was marked by the publication of a Festschrift.
Archives
Northern Illinois University - Founders Memorial Library, Special Collections Non-Circulating PR1120 .D49 1915a
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Important facts
People in Bruce Dickins's life
Named in this biography and alive at the same time
Contemporaries
People whose lives overlapped Bruce Dickins's
Frequently asked questions
Who was Bruce Dickins?
British Anglo-Saxon scholar
When was Bruce Dickins born?
Bruce Dickins was born on 26 October 1889.
When did Bruce Dickins die?
Bruce Dickins died on 4 January 1978.
What was Bruce Dickins's occupation?
Bruce Dickins was an academic, linguist and scholar of English.
What nationality was Bruce Dickins?
Bruce Dickins was British.
Sources & further reading
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Bruce Dickins. https://biography.guide/bruce-dickins/
MLA: "Bruce Dickins." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/bruce-dickins/.
Chicago: "Bruce Dickins." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/bruce-dickins/.
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