Walter Horace Bruford, FBA (14 July 1894 – 28 June 1988) was a British scholar of German literature. Walter Horace Bruford was born in Manchester in 1894. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and then at

St. John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. The ...

and the

University of Zurich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...

. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he served with the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

cryptographic intelligence division in

Room 40 Room 40, also known as 40 O.B. (old building; officially part of NID25), was the cryptanalysis section of the British Admiralty during the First World War. The group, which was formed in October 1914, began when Rear-Admiral Henry Oliver, the ...

at the Admiralty. After the war he conducted research in Zurich, became a Lecturer in German at

Aberdeen University , mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , established = , type = Public research universityAncient university , endowment = £58.4 million (2021) , budget ...

in 1920, and then a Reader at Aberdeen in 1923. Bruford was then appointed Professor of German at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

in 1929. He was seconded to the Foreign Office during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, 1939–1943, to work at

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years followin ...

. From 1951 he was

Schröder Professor of German The Schröder Professorship of German is the senior professorship in the study of the German language at the University of Cambridge, and was founded in 1909 by a donation of £20,000 from Sir John Henry Freiherr von Schröder, Bt. of ''J. H. Schrö ...

at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

until 1961. His elder daughter was the British potter

Joan Brown Joan Brown (born Joan Vivien Beatty; February 13, 1938 – October 26, 1990) was an American figurative painter who lived and worked in Northern California. She was a member of the "second generation" of the Bay Area Figurative Movement.Glu ...

, and his son was the folkloris
Dr Alan Bruford
He lived at Abbey St. Bathans, Duns, Berwickshire. Professor Walter Horace Bruford died in 1988.

Works

*Germany in the eighteenth century: the social background of the literary revival (1935) *Chekhov and His Russia, a Sociological Study (1947) *Theatre, drama, and audience in Goethe's Germany (1950) *Literary Interpretation in Germany (1952) *Anton Chekhov (1957) *Fürstin Gallitzin und Goethe. Das Selbstvervollkommnungsideal und seine Grenzen (1957) *Culture and society in classical Weimar, 1775-1806 (1962) *First Steps In German Fifty Years Ago (1965) *The German Tradition of Self-cultivation: Bildung from Humboldt to Thomas Mann (1975) *Some German Memories 1911-1961 (1979)

References

*German studies. Presented to Walter Horace Bruford on his retirement by his pupils, colleagues, and friends (1962)
Memoirs of Room 40 (naval code-breaking unit) by Walter Horace Bruford
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruford, WH 1894 births 1988 deaths Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Academics of the University of Edinburgh Linguists from the United Kingdom Fellows of the British Academy People educated at Manchester Grammar School University of Zurich alumni Royal Navy personnel of World War I Academics of the University of Aberdeen Bletchley Park people Academics of the University of Cambridge 20th-century linguists