Walter George Headlam

Walter George Headlam (15 February 1866 – 20 June 1908) was a British classical scholar and poet, perhaps best remembered for his work on the Mimes of Herodas. He was described as "one of the leading Greek scholars of his time." His father was the fifth of seven sons of Rev. John Headlam, and Thomas Emerson Headlam was one of his uncles. Through his mother, he was descended from the classical scholar Richard Bentley, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.

He attended Elstree School in Hertfordshire and Harrow School, where the headmaster was Dr H. M. Butler, later Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. At Cambridge he became a member of a small society of friends known as the Twice a Fortnight Club, often abbreviated to TAF; this was made up of students from King's College and Trinity College who would meet every Sunday evening for supper. Fellow members included James Kenneth Stephen, Stanley Mordaunt Leathes, M. R. James and Henry Babington Smith. King's College appointed him a fellow in 1890 after which he took up a teaching post within the college. Despite his eccentricity and scholarship he was extremely popular with his students, possibly because of their common interest in cricket, music, and hunting.

Deeply interested in textual criticism, "in order to elucidate difficult passages he read exceptionally widely in Greek texts of the classical and post-classical periods".

Apart from his translations from Greek into English Headlam also wrote English verse. Many of these were collected by his brother Cecil Headlam and published in 1910. In addition, Walter Headlam wrote articles for the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, signing his work "W. G. H." A friend was Virginia Woolf, with whom he had a "brief flirtation". Just before his death he gave a course of lectures in London, and was preparing a series to be given in Cambridge on Greek Ideas.

Walter George Headlam died suddenly in St George's Hospital in London in June 1908 from 'an accidental twist of an intestine' after having been taken ill in a hotel. He was buried at Wycliffe in Yorkshire, the home of his mother's family.

He planned to publish a full edition of the plays of Aeschylus but his death prevented its completion. However, he left annotated copies of the text which have been used since by scholars. Martin Litchfield West wrote of Headlam, "Many of his conjectures were injudicious, but at their best they have a profundity and elegance that Wilamowitz seldom if ever achieved".

Published works Fifty Poems of Meleager, London: Macmillan and Co. (1890) On Editing Aeschylus: A Criticism, London: David Nutt (1891) The Suppliants of Aeschylus. Translated by Walter Headlam, M.A., George Bell & Sons (Bell's Classical Translations) (1900) A Book of Greek Verse, Cambridge University Press (1907) Herodas: The Mimes and Fragments. With notes by Walter Headlam ... Edited by A.D. Knox., Cambridge University Press (1922)