Arthur Sampson Napier (1853–1916) was a British

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 ...

. He was

Merton Professor of English Language and Literature There are two Merton Professorships of English in the University of Oxford: the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature, and the Merton Professor of English Literature. The second was created in 1914 when Sir Walter Raleigh's chair was ...

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

, from 1885 and also Rawlinsonian Professor of Anglo-Saxon since 1903. Napier was appointed a fellow of Merton College, Oxford, in 1885 and of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars spa ...

in 1904. Born in

Wilmslow Wilmslow ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England, south of Manchester city centre. The population was 24,497 at the 2011 Census. History Toponymy Wilmslow derives its name from Old ...

on 30 August 1853, Napier studied at

Owens College Owens may refer to: Places in the United States * Owens Station, Delaware * Owens Township, St. Louis County, Minnesota * Owens, Missouri * Owens, Ohio * Owens, Virginia People * Owens (surname), including a list of people with the name * Ow ...

Exeter College, Oxford (Let Exeter Flourish) , old_names = ''Stapeldon Hall'' , named_for = Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter , established = , sister_college = Emmanuel College, Cambridge , rector = Sir Richard Trainor ...

, and the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

. Napier was also an avid collector of the Oxford college stamp issues and gave talks and displays on this subject. He also wrote many articles for ''Gibbons Stamp Monthly'' on the college stamp issues. He was Vice President of the Oxford Philatelic Society from 1892 onwards. Napier died on 10 May 1916.

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* * * * 1853 births 1916 deaths 19th-century philologists 20th-century philologists Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford Alumni of the Victoria University of Manchester British philologists Fellows of Merton College, Oxford Fellows of the British Academy Linguists from the United Kingdom Merton Professors of English Language and Literature People from Wilmslow Rawlinsonian Professors of Anglo-Saxon University of Göttingen alumni Writers from Cheshire {{UK-linguist-stub