Bruce Dickins, FBA (26 October 1889 – 4 January 1978), a graduate of

Magdalene College, Cambridge Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Ma ...

, was

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...

English Language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

at the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

from 1931 to 1946 (where he succeeded

E. V. Gordon Eric Valentine Gordon (14 February 1896 – 29 July 1938) was a Canadian philologist, known as an editor of medieval Germanic texts and a teacher of medieval Germanic languages at the University of Leeds and the University of Manchester. Early ...

), teaching medieval English and Old Norse. He sat on the executive committee of the

Yorkshire Society for Celtic Studies Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions hav ...

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 The Elrington and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon is the senior professorship in Anglo-Saxon at the University of Cambridge. The first chair was elected in 1878, when a gift endowed in 1867 by Joseph Bosworth, Rawlinsonian Professor of Ang ...

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, from January 1946 until September 1957 (when he was succeeded by

Dorothy Whitelock Dorothy Whitelock, (11 November 1901 – 14 August 1982) was an English historian. From 1957 to 1969, she was the Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Cambridge. Her best-known work is '' English Historica ...

) afterwards Emeritus Professor; and Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge from 1946. He was succeeded as professor at Leeds by

Harold Orton Harold Orton (23 October 1898 – 7 March 1975) was a British dialectologist and professor of English Language and Medieval Literature at the University of Leeds. Early life Orton was born in Byers Green, County Durham, on 23 October 1898 and w ...

, and in some respects also by

A. R. Taylor Arnold Rodgers Taylor (1913–1993) was a scholar of medieval English, Old Norse, and modern Icelandic. Early life Taylor was the youngest of the four children of Arthur Harry Taylor, from Burnham in Norfolk, and Elizabeth Rodgers, from Stoc ...

. In November 1947, when the issue of full membership of Cambridge University for women was being debated for the fourth time, and a proposal to grant full equality was proposed by a Syndicate appointed to report on the issue, there was only one speaker at the ensuing debate who opposed the proposal and that was Bruce Dickins. He "came forward to oppose the motion. He seemed to think he would be one of a long line of disputants, but he had the floor to himself and no one bothered to counter his plea against the proposed new status for women. In his view, the women did not have any grievances which needed righting, they would gain nothing by membership of the University and, if Oxford was any example, nor would the University. Cambridge would do better to stand firm with Harvard and Yale as all-male institutions. The dim echoes of what had once been a white-hot argument found no support, and the discussion was closed. Dickins's seventieth birthday was marked by the publication of a ''Festschrift''.Clemoes, Peter d. The Anglo-Saxons: studies in some aspects of their history and culture, presented to Bruce Dickins, London: Bowes & Bowes, 1959.

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