Frederick Sefton Delmer (24 October 1864 – 7 April 1931) was an Australian linguistics

university lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct res ...

and journalist.

Life

He was born in

Battery Point, Tasmania Battery Point is a suburb of the city of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is immediately south of the central business district. It is in the local government area of City of Hobart. Battery Point is named after the battery of guns which were ...

, to James Delmer (1837–1914) and Margaret Sefton Burgess (1837–1886). Delmer studied at

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

of the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

and continued his studies in Europe, where he made the acquaintance of

Herman Grimm Herman Grimm (6 January 1828 in Kassel16 June 1901 in Berlin) was a German academic and writer. Family and education Grimm's father was Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859), and his uncle Jakob Grimm (1785–1863), the philologist compilers of indigenous ...

, son of

Wilhelm Grimm Wilhelm Carl Grimm (also Karl; 24 February 178616 December 1859) was a German author and anthropologist, and the younger brother of Jacob Grimm, of the literary duo the Brothers Grimm. Life and work Wilhelm was born in February 1786 in Hanau, in ...

. After his return to Australia, he was a teacher in 1896, but also wrote travel reports. He soon returned to Europe where he became a lecturer at the

University of Königsberg The University of Königsberg (german: Albertus-Universität Königsberg) was the university of Königsberg in East Prussia. It was founded in 1544 as the world's second Protestant academy (after the University of Marburg) by Duke Albert of Prussi ...

in 1900 and, from 1901 to 1914, he was a lecturer at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin. He married Isabella Mabel Hook (1879–1938) in 1901. They had a son,

Sefton Delmer Denis Sefton Delmer (24 May 1904, Berlin, Germany – 4 September 1979, Lamarsh, Essex) was a British journalist of Australian heritage and propagandist for the British government during the Second World War. Fluent in German, he became friendly ...

, and a daughter, Margaret Mabel Sefton Delmer (1905–1990). In 1910, he published the book ''English Literature from Beowulf to Bernard Shaw'', which was, for decades, a standard work for English lessons in German schools. At the beginning of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he was held in the

Ruhleben internment camp Ruhleben internment camp was a civilian detention camp in Germany during World War I. It was located in Ruhleben, a former ''Vorwerk'' manor to the west of Berlin, now split between the districts of Spandau and Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. The ...

, with his family, because he refused to accept German citizenship and was suspected of being a spy. In 1917, he was deported to England as part of a prisoner exchange program. He was later active in Germany and Italy as a journalist, translator and interpreter.Delmer family further papers

State Library of New South Wales The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establish ...

He died in

Rapallo Rapallo ( , , ) is a municipality in the Metropolitan City of Genoa, located in the Liguria region of northern Italy. As of 2017 it had 29,778 inhabitants. It lies on the Ligurian Sea coast, on the Tigullio Gulf, between Portofino and Chiavar ...

, Italy, on 7 April 1931.

Works

* ''English debating exercises and spoken essays: an aid for English conversational courses'', 1912 * ''English Literature from Beowulf to Bernard Shaw'', Berlin 1910 (with many re-editions until at least 1984. In 1951, the 22nd edition was published under the title ''From Beowulf to TS Eliot, for the Use of Schools, Universities and private students'', with alterations, new chapters, and sections by H.S. Harvey, B. Litt.

Literature

* John Fletcher, ''Frederick Sefton Delmer'', Sydney, 1991.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Delmer, Frederick Sefton Linguists from Australia 1864 births 1931 deaths People from Hobart