Desmond Lee (classical scholar)
Sir Henry Desmond Pritchard Lee (30 August 1908 – 8 December 1993) was an English classical scholar specialising in ancient philosophy who became a Fellow and tutor of Corpus Christi College at Cambridge University, a lecturer in the university, and then Headmaster successively of Clifton College and Winchester College, before ending his career back at Cambridge University as President of Hughes Hall.
Early life
Born in Nottingham, the son of the Rev. Canon Henry Burgass Lee, the young Lee was educated at Arden House,[1] then at Repton School, where he held the George Denman scholarship, before going on to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he was again a scholar and gained a Double First, with Firsts in Part 1 of the Classical Tripos in 1928 and in Part 2 in 1930. He also gained a Charles Oldham scholarship.[2]
While he was still an undergraduate at Cambridge, Lee became a friend of the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951), in 1930 staying with the Wittgenstein family in Austria. Many years later, in editing Wittgenstein's Lectures: Cambridge, 1930–1932, Lee wrote an account of their friendship, which came to an end after the focus of Lee's academic career turned to ancient philosophy.[3] His other friends during this period included William Empson.[4]
Career
Lee was elected a
In 1948, by which time he had become Senior Tutor of his college, Lee was persuaded to go to
In 1968 he returned to Cambridge as a Fellow of
Scholar
Lee published a study of the
In his edition of the Plato has been criticized for his Foundation Myth as if it were a calculated lie. That is partly because the phrase here translated 'magnificent myth' has been conventionally mistranslated 'noble lie'; and this has been used to support the charge that Plato countenances manipulation by propaganda. But the myth is accepted by all three classes, Guardians included. It is meant to replace the national traditions which any community has, which are intended to express the kind of community it is, or wishes to be, its ideals, rather than to state matters of fact."[7]
In 1971 Desmond Lee added an Appendix on Atlantis to his translation of Plato's Timaeus-Critias: While conceding a possible historical background for Atlantis Lee at the same time called the Atlantis story "imaginary history" and "science fiction" in the past.[8]
Private life
In 1935, Lee married Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel A. Crookenden CBE DSO, and they had one son and two daughters.[2][1]
An art collector, his paintings included an Ivon Hitchens landscape.[4] In an obituary, a Clifton colleague wrote of him:
Those who served under him found him either intellectually stimulating or maddeningly remote. He was very tall. His body was oddly but imposingly shaped, its silhouette unmistakable. His voice was mellow but decisive, full of odd emphases which were sometimes soporific but always vital to the sense.[4]
Lee died on 8 December 1993, after many years of retirement, with his mental powers failing.[4] At the time of his death he was living at 8, Barton Close, Cambridge.[2] He had become an active supporter of the parish church at Grantchester.[4]
Honours
- Knighthood, 1961[2]
- Honorary D. Litt, University of Nottingham, 1963[2]
Publications
- Zeno of Elea: a text and notes, 1935[2]
- Aristotle, Meteorologica, 1952[2]
- Plato, Republic, 1955, revised edition 1974[2]
- Plato, Timæus and Critias, with an appendix on Atlantis, 1971[2][9] (NB: The 2008 revised edition omits the Appendix on Atlantis)
- Entry and Performance at Oxford and Cambridge, 1966–71, 1972[2]
- Wittgenstein's Lectures 1930–32 (ed.), 1980[2]
See also
- John Thorn, a pupil of Lee's who also became headmaster of Winchester College
References
- ^ a b 'LEE, Sir Henry Desmond Pritchard, Kt.' in The International Who's Who: 1990–91 (Europa Publications Limited, 1990), p. 930: "b. 30 Aug. 1908, Nottingham; s. of Canon HB Lee; m. Elizabeth Crookenden 1935; one s. two d.; ed. Arden House, Repton School, Cambridge Univ."
- ^ ISBN 0-7136-5439-2)
- ^ Brian McGuinness, Wittgenstein in Cambridge: letters and documents, 1911–1951 (2008), p. 189
- ^ a b c d e f g John Thorn, 'Obituary: Sir Desmond Lee' in The Independent dated 21 December 1993, at independent.co.uk. Retrieved 11 August 2011
- ^ Register of admissions to the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, from the fifteenth century to the year 1944, vol. 3, p. 951: "HENRY DESMOND PRITCHARD LEE, Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, (25), eldest son of the Rev. Canon HB L., of Nottingham, Notts., clerk in Holy Orders."
- ^ Zeno of Elea: a text and notes, 1935
- ^ a b Desmond Lee, trans. & ed., Plato: The Republic (Penguin Classics), p. 177
- ^ Cf. Thorwald C. Franke: Sir Desmond Lee unexpectedly argues for the reality of Atlantis, May 2014
- ^ Robert L. Maxwell, Maxwell's guide to authority work (2002), p. 99