It is with great sadness that the we mark the death of Emeritus Professor Eric Stanley.
Born in 1923, Professor Stanley was a scholar of Philology and Medieval Literature. He joined the Fellowship at Pembroke College in 1977 when he arrived in Oxford as the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, a post he held until his retirement in 1991.
Professor Andy Orchard, current Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo Saxon at Oxford and Fellow of Pembroke paid tribute to Professor Stanley: "Eric’s published work is prodigious in its scope and scale and impact, comprising more than 600 items on Old and Middle English language, metrics, and literature, as well as on Anglo-Saxon history and law, the perception of medieval topics in modern literature, and especially in lexicography, detailing lost or obscure words and phrases."
Professor Stanley continued his involvement with his College in his retirement, and was a frequent attendee of events, lectures and celebrations. Not only that, but he continued to host gatherings at his own home, as he had done throughout his career. Current Fellows in English, Professors Lynda Mugglestone and Helen Small remember with great affection evenings spent there, and the encouragement given to their own research by the ever-interested prolific book collector Professor Stanley, who "always seemed to have a first edition to hand of whatever I was currently writing about" (-Professor Mugglestone).
Professor Stanley's funeral will be held on Monday 9th July at St Giles Church, Oxford.
