Robert Auty

Robert Auty, FBA (10 October 1914 – 17 August 1978) was an English philologist who specialised in Slavonic languages.

Early life and education Robert Auty was born on 10 October 1914 in Rotherham to George Auty, a schoolmaster. His sister Phyllis was a Slavist and historian who worked at the University of London and was then the professor of modern history at Simon Fraser University from 1974 to 1978. He attended Rotherham Grammar School before reading modern and medieval languages at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, under E. K. Bennett; he placed in the first class in both parts of the Tripos, graduating in 1935. but the title was changed to include German and Czech in 1948, on 18 August 1978. and been elected a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy (1975) and a fellow of the British Academy (1976). He received the DLitt from Oxford. In 1965 he became one of the founders of the Journal of Belarusian Studies writing an introduction about "a little-known East European people and its contribution to civilisation". In 1971 he opened the Francis Skaryna Belarusian Library and Museum, one of the largest Belarusian libraries outside Belarus – an event commemorated by a plaque bearing Auty’s name at the library’s entrance.