Sir Francis James Wylie (18 October 1865 – 29 October 1952) was a British university academic and administrator. He was the first

Warden A warden is a custodian, defender, or guardian. Warden is often used in the sense of a watchman or guardian, as in a prison warden. It can also refer to a chief or head official, as in the Warden of the Mint. ''Warden'' is etymologically identic ...

of Rhodes House at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Francis Wylie was educated at St Edward's School, Oxford, the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

, and

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

, where he received a first class degree in '' Literae Humaniores'' in 1888. He became a lecturer at Balliol College in 1891 and a Fellow of Brasenose College in 1892.Frances Amicia de Biden Footner
Portrait of Sir Francis James WylieArt of the Print
His research was in the area of

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

. He was coauthor of the book, ''The Poetry of Matthew Arnold; A Commentary''. Wylie was supervisor of the

Rhodes Trust Rhodes House is a building part of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on South Parks Road in central Oxford, and was built in memory of Cecil Rhodes, an alumnus of the university and a major benefactor. It is listed Grade II* on ...

scheme at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

and became Warden of Rhodes House in Oxford from 1903 to 1931. He presented

Einstein's Blackboard Einstein's Blackboard is a blackboard which physicist Albert Einstein (1879–1955) used on 16 May 1931 during his lectures while visiting the University of Oxford in England. The blackboard is in the collection of the Museum of the History of ...

in the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford (saved by University dons on 16 May 1931) after

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

's series of three lectures at Rhodes House that year. He was knighted in 1929 and became an Honorary Fellow of Brasenose College in 1931. In 1933, Wylie received an honorary degree from

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...

in the USA. Wylie's fourth son, born in Oxford, was Shaun Wylie (1913–2009), a mathematician who worked at

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. A portrait of Sir Francis Wylie hangs in Rhodes House, Oxford, and there are images of him held by the National Portrait Gallery, London.

References

1865 births 1952 deaths People educated at St Edward's School, Oxford Alumni of the University of Glasgow Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Fellows of Brasenose College, Oxford British literary critics Wardens of Rhodes House Knights Bachelor {{UK-academic-bio-stub