Walter Ewing Crum (22 July 186518 May 1944) was a Scottish Coptologist, or scholar in Coptic language and literature. In 1939 he completed ''A Coptic Dictionary,'' a dictionary of translations from Coptic to English.

Early life and education

The eldest son of

Alexander Crum Alexander Crum (1828 – 23 August 1893) was a Scottish printer and Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 to 1885. Crum was the eldest son of Walter Crum FRS of Thornliebank and his wife Jesse Graham, daughter of Will ...

Thornliebank Thornliebank ( Scots: ''Thonliebank'', Scottish Gaelic: ''Bruach nan Dealgan'') is a suburban area in East Renfrewshire, in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. Part of the Greater Glasgow conurbation, it is located on the Auldhouse Burn about ...

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 popu ...

and Margaret Stewart, Crum was born in Capelrig, Renfrewshire. He attended Brighton and Eton, and graduated in 1888 from Balliol College, Oxford. He continued his studies of

Egyptology Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native relig ...

in Paris with

Gaston Maspero Sir Gaston Camille Charles Maspero (23 June 1846 – 30 June 1916) was a French Egyptologist known for popularizing the term "Sea Peoples" in an 1881 paper. Maspero's son, Henri Maspero, became a notable sinologist and scholar of East Asia ...

and in Berlin with Adolf Erman, who remained a lifelong friend. His grandfathers were the chemist Walter Crum and the

Scottish Episcopal Church The Scottish Episcopal Church ( gd, Eaglais Easbaigeach na h-Alba; sco, Scots Episcopal(ian) Kirk) is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion in Scotland. A continuation of the Church of Scotland as intended by King James VI, and ...

bishop Alexander Ewing.

Career

Early career

Crum's first publications in Coptic were in 1892, and his first monograph was published in 1893. From 1893 until 1910 he assisted Flinders Petrie in the teaching of ancient Egyptian and Coptic at University College, London.

Research

Crum spent much of his career cataloguing various Coptic materials, including the manuscript holdings of the John Rylands Library and the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. From 1910 until 1914, Crum and his partner Margaret Hart-Davis resided in Austria, where he edited texts from the Monastery of Saint Epiphanius and began work on his Coptic dictionary. With the outbreak of the First World War, he returned to England, where Thompson joined him in work on the dictionary. The dictionary was released in six parts between 1929 and 1939. While the dictionary was the crowning achievement of his career, Crum authored numerous other publications. The

Journal of Egyptian Archaeology The ''Journal of Egyptian Archaeology (JEA)'' is a bi-annual peer-reviewed international academic journal published by the Egypt Exploration Society. Covering Egyptological research, the JEA publishes scholarly articles, fieldwork reports, and re ...

published bibliographies totalling 142 monographs and articles.

Recognition

He received an honorary doctorate from the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...

and an honorary D.Litt. from

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. He was a Fellow 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 s ...

and was elected a Foreign Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

shortly before his death. A ''

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the ...

'', ''Coptic Studies in Honor of Walter Ewing Crum'', was published in 1950 as a special issue of the ''Bulletin'' of the

Byzantine Institute of America The Byzantine Institute of America is an organization founded for the preservation of Byzantine art and architecture. History Working with the Turkish government and President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, its greatest notable success is the preservatio ...

.''Coptic Studies in Honor of Walter Ewing Crum'', ''Bulletin of the Byzantine Institute'' 2 (1950),

Personal life

Crum married Ella Sieveking, daughter of Edward Henry Sieveking, in 1896. During his time at University College, he began a relationship with Margaret ("Madge") Hart-Davis. The exposure of their affair in 1910 led to his departure from the College. Ella Crum refused a divorce on religious grounds. Hart-Davis and Walter Crum remained partners until his death, but were never married. Crum had no children. Crum became a close friend of

Henry Francis Herbert Thompson Sir Henry Francis Herbert Thompson, 2nd Baronet (2 April 1859 – 26 May 1944) was a British Egyptologist. Henry Thompson was born in London on 2 April 1859, the son of Sir Henry Thompson, 1st Baronet and Kate Fanny Loder, the English compose ...

while the latter was a student at University College, and during Thompson's decline Crum served as his next of kin. During the First World War, Crum donated half his income to charities and volunteered with the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

Works

''Catalogue of the Coptic manuscripts in the British Museum''
British Museum (1905) * ''A Coptic Dictionary''. 6 vols. Oxford University/Clarendon Press, 1929–39. Repr. with introduction by

James M. Robinson James McConkey Robinson (June 30, 1924 – March 22, 2016) was an American scholar who retired as Professor Emeritus of Religion at Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California, specializing in New Testament Studies and Nag Hammadi S ...

. Ancient Language Resources. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock, 2005. .