Sir Walter Leaf (26 November 1852,

Upper Norwood Upper Norwood is an area of south London, England, within the London Boroughs of Bromley, Croydon, Lambeth and Southwark. It is north of Croydon and the eastern part of it is better known as the Crystal Palace area. Upper Norwood is situated ...

– 8 March 1927,

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignton ...

) was an English banker,

classical scholar Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

and psychical researcher. He published a benchmark edition of Homer's

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odysse ...

and was a director of

Westminster Bank Westminster Bank was a British retail bank which operated in England and Wales from 1834 until its merger into the National Westminster Bank in 1970; it continued to exist as a dormant registered non-trading company until 4 July 2017 when it ...

for many years, eventually becoming its chairman. He was a co-founder and later president of the

International Chamber of Commerce The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC; French: ''Chambre de commerce internationale'') is the largest, most representative business organization in the world. Its over 45 million members in over 100 countries have interests spanning every s ...

, and served as president of the

Institute of Bankers The London Institute of Banking & Finance is the oldest training and professional body for banking and financial services in England and Wales, and works internationally with partners to establish ethical and professional standards across the ...

, the

Hellenic Society The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, known as the Hellenic Society, was founded in 1879 to advance the study of Greek language, literature, history, art and archaeology in the Ancient, Byzantine and Modern periods. The first Presid ...

and the

Classical Association The Classical Association is a British learned society in the field of classics, aimed at developing classical study and promoting its importance in education. Constitution The association was founded on 19 December 1903, and its objects are def ...

. He married Charlotte Symonds, daughter of

John Addington Symonds John Addington Symonds, Jr. (; 5 October 1840 – 19 April 1893) was an English poet and literary critic. A cultural historian, he was known for his work on the Renaissance, as well as numerous biographies of writers and artists. Although m ...

. He was a

Cambridge Apostle The Cambridge Apostles (also known as ''Conversazione Society'') is an intellectual society at the University of Cambridge founded in 1820 by George Tomlinson, a Cambridge student who became the first Bishop of Gibraltar.W. C. Lubenow, ''The Ca ...

Academic career

Walter Leaf was born on 26 November 1852. In 1865 he won a scholarship to

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the ...

. However, his parents became concerned that living conditions at Winchester would be unacceptable so they rented a house at Harrow on the edge of London from where their boy enrolled in April 1866 at

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

as a day pupil. From Harrow he progressed to

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

. He won a scholarship to Trinity in 1870, became senior classic in 1874 and was elected to a fellowship the following year. He was concerned with uncovering the physical reality of the classical world, in contrast to the

Cambridge Ritualists The Cambridge Ritualists were a recognised group of classical scholars, mostly in Cambridge, England, including Jane Ellen Harrison, F.M. Cornford, Gilbert Murray (actually from the University of Oxford), A. B. Cook, and others. They earned this ...

, and was the foremost

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

scholar of his generation. His edition of the

was published in two volumes (1886–1888) and was regarded for several decades as the best English edition of Homer's epic poem. Leaf also translated works from Russian and Persian, and was fluent in several European languages, including French, Italian and German. He was president of the

and the

. He also took interest in ancient

geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

Banking

In 1877 he entered the family textile firm, becoming in 1888 chairman of Leaf & Company Ltd. In 1892 Leaf & Co merged with Pawson & Co to become Pawsons and Leafs Limited. Walter became a director of what would become

in 1891, and its chairman from 1918 until his death. From 1919 to 1921 he was president of the

. He worked tirelessly for the

, of which he was a co-founder in 1919 and elected president in 1925.

Psychical research

Leaf was a member of the

Society for Psychical Research The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a nonprofit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal. It describes itself as the "first society to condu ...

. He translated

Vsevolod Solovyov Vsevolod Sergeyevich Solovyov (russian: Всеволод Серге́евич Соловьёв; – ) was a Russian historical novelist. His most famous work is ''Chronicle of Four Generations'' (five volumes, 1881–86), an account of the fi ...

's ''A Modern Priestess of Isis'' (1895). Owen, Alex. (2004). ''The Place of Enchantment: British Occultism and the Culture of the Modern''. University of Chicago Press. p. 37. Leaf studied the medium

Leonora Piper Leonora Piper (née Leonora Evelina Simonds; 27 June 1857 – 3 June 1950) was a famous American trance medium in the area of Spiritualism. Piper was the subject of intense interest and investigation by American and British psychic research associ ...

. He did not believe that the personality of a person could survive death but came to the conclusion that "memories of the dead survive and are under special conditions accessible to us." Tanner, Amy. (1910). ''Studies in Spiritism''. Appleton. p. 96 This was in opposition to sceptics such as psychologist

G. Stanley Hall Granville Stanley Hall (February 1, 1846 – April 24, 1924) was a pioneering American psychologist and educator. His interests focused on human life span development and evolutionary theory. Hall was the first president of the American Psy ...

who described her mediumship as a case of secondary personality.

Death

It was his doctor who early in 1927 recommended him to visit

, in the south-west of England, for the sake of his health. After a few weeks he died there, however. His funeral ceremony was conducted by

the Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

Publications

*''The Iliad of Homer: Done into English Prose'' (1892, 1911) ith_Andrew_Lang_and_ ith_Andrew_Lang_and_Ernest_Myers_(author)">Ernest_Myers.html" ;"title="Ernest_Myers_(author).html" ;"title="Andrew_Lang.html" ;"title="ith Andrew Lang">ith Andrew Lang and Ernest Myers (author)">Ernest Myers">Ernest_Myers_(author).html" ;"title="Andrew_Lang.html" ;"title="ith Andrew Lang">ith Andrew Lang and Ernest Myers (author)">Ernest Myers*''A Companion to the Iliad for English Readers'' (1892) *''A Modern Priestess of Isis'' (1895) [with

] *''Versions from Hafiz, an essay in Persian metre'' (Alexander Moring, Ltd.) (1898) *''Troy: A Study in Homeric Geography'' (1912) *''Homer and History'' (1915) *''Quatrains From the Greek'' (1919) *''Little Poems From the Greek'' (1922) *''Strabo on the Troad'' (1923) *''Banking'' (1927) *''Walter Leaf, 1852–1927: Some Chapters of Autobiography'' (1932) ith Charlotte Mary Symonds Leaf

References

*T.E. Gregory, ''The Westminster Bank through a Century'', 2 vols, 1936 ith chapter on Leaf

External links

* *
Works by Walter Leaf
at

The Online Books Page The Online Books Page is an index of e-text books available on the Internet. It is edited by John Mark Ockerbloom and is hosted by the library of the University of Pennsylvania. The Online Books Page lists over 2 million books and has several feat ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Leaf, Walter 1852 births 1927 deaths Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge English bankers English businesspeople English translators Parapsychologists People educated at Harrow School Translators of Homer Presidents of the Classical Association