Sir William Spens,

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(31 May 1882 – 1 November 1962) was a Scottish educationalist, academic and Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

Life

Born in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

on 31 May 1882, one of four sons of John Spens and Sophia Nicol, Spens was educated at

Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

and

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...

, graduating in

natural sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

. Elected a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 1907, he spent the rest of his working life in Cambridge, apart from wartime service between 1915 and 1918 with the Foreign Office, for which he was awarded the

in 1919, was made a chevalier of the

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

by the French and appointed an officer of the Crown of Italy. Elected

Master Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

Corpus Corpus is Latin for "body". It may refer to: Linguistics * Text corpus, in linguistics, a large and structured set of texts * Speech corpus, in linguistics, a large set of speech audio files * Corpus linguistics, a branch of linguistics Music * ...

in 1927 he was

Vice Chancellor A chancellor is a leader of a college or university, usually either the executive or ceremonial head of the university or of a university campus within a university system. In most Commonwealth and former Commonwealth nations, the chancellor ...

of the University of Cambridge from 1931 to 1933 and then chaired the consultative committee of the Board of Education (known in retrospect as the Spens Report) which recommended the tri-partite split of secondary schooling into grammar, technical and modern varieties. During the Second World War he was Regional Commissioner for

Civil Defence Civil defense ( en, region=gb, civil defence) or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state (generally non-combatants) from man-made and natural disasters. It uses the principles of emergency operations: prevention, mit ...

for the Eastern Region, which prompted and exacerbated rumours that the cellars of

extend across (and indeed further than) the entire college campus and that the college was to be used as the centre of operations for East Anglia in the event of a German occupation. Spens wished to maintain the high moral ground in fighting the Nazis. He opposed the use of guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines to oppose any Nazi invasion as being contrary to international convention. He objected first to the plans of SIS in June 1940 and then to the operation of the Auxiliary Units - threatening to have them arrested! Spens retired in 1952.

Personal

Spens married Dorothy Teresa, daughter of

John Richardson Selwyn John Richardson Selwyn (20 May 1844 – 12 February 1898) was an Anglican priest who became the second Bishop of Melanesia and then the second Master of Selwyn College, Cambridge. Life Selwyn was born in Waimate North, New Zealand, the younge ...

in 1912; they had four children; a son and three daughters, one of whom died in infancy. Spens died on 1 November 1962.''Sir Will Spens – Servant of College and State ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

Friday, 2 November 1962; p. 15; Issue 55538; col A

Notes

Attribution: * {{DEFAULTSORT:Spens, William Alumni of King's College, Cambridge British educational theorists Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Knights Bachelor Members of HM Foreign Service Masters of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge People educated at Rugby School Vice-Chancellors of the University of Cambridge 1882 births 1962 deaths Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

Life

Personal

See also

Notes