John Peile (24 April 1838 – 9 October 1910) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

Life

He was born at

Whitehaven Whitehaven is a town and port on the English north west coast and near to the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies by road south-west of Carlisle and to the north of Barrow-in-Furness. It is th ...

, the son of geologist Williamson Peile, F.G.S., who died when his son was five years old.Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement, vol. 3, ed. Sidney Lee, p. 95 He was educated at

Repton Repton is a village and civil parish in the South Derbyshire district of Derbyshire, England, located on the edge of the River Trent floodplain, about north of Swadlincote. The population taken at the 2001 Census was 2,707, increasing to 2,8 ...

(under the headmastership of his uncle, Thomas Williamson Peile, father of Sir James Braithwaite Peile), St. Bees School and

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...

. After a distinguished career (Craven Scholar, Senior Classic and First Chancellor's Medallist), he became Fellow and Tutor of his college, Reader of Comparative Philology in the university (1884-1891), and in 1887 was elected Master of Christ's. He took a great interest in the higher education of women and became president of

Newnham College Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicent ...

. He was the first to introduce the great philological works of

Georg Curtius Georg Curtius (April 16, 1820August 12, 1885) was a German philologist and distinguished comparativist. Biography Curtius was born in Lübeck, and was the brother of the historian and archeologist Ernst Curtius. After an education at Bonn and ...

and Wilhelm Corssen to the English student in his ''Introduction to Greek and Latin Etymology'' (1869). He died at Cambridge in October 1910, leaving practically completed his exhaustive history of Christ's College (publ. 1913). Married.

Selected publications

* * *

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Peile, John 1838 births 1910 deaths Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Masters of Christ's College, Cambridge Fellows of Newnham College, Cambridge People educated at Repton School People educated at St Bees School Vice-Chancellors of the University of Cambridge English philologists Fellows of the British Academy