Peter Bayley

Peter James Bayley (20 November 1944 – 10 April 2018) was a British scholar of French literature, specialising in 17th-century French literature, sermons and essays. He was Drapers Professor of French at the University of Cambridge from 1985 to 2011, and a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge from 1971 until his death.

Biography Peter Bayley was born in Portreath, Cornwall, and was educated at Redruth Grammar School. In 1963, he went up to Emmanuel College, Cambridge to read modern and mediaeval languages (French and Spanish); in 1966, he graduated with a First. He continued at Emmanuel as a postgraduate student, and in 1969 was elected to a Research Fellowship. In 1971, he was awarded his PhD for a thesis on 17th-century French sermons. That same year, he was appointed to a college lectureship at, and was elected Fellow of, Gonville and Caius College. In 1974, he was appointed university assistant lecturer in the Department of French; and in 1978, university lecturer. In 2011, he retired, and was presented by his colleagues with a volume in his honour containing contributions by leading scholars from the United Kingdom, France and North America. He increasingly spent his days at the house in Hackleton, Northamptonshire he shared with his partner Angus Bowie, classicist, of The Queen's College, Oxford; who delivered the eulogy at his funeral in Caius Chapel on 4 May 2018.

Honours In 1988, Bayley was made an Officier (Officer) of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques by France.

Selected works