Harold Orton | |
---|---|
Born |
Byers Green, Durham, England |
23 October 1898
Died | 7 March 1975 Leeds |
(aged 76)
Occupation | Professor of English Language, Dialectologist |
Harold Orton (23 October 1898 – 7 March 1975) was a Dialectologist and Professor of English Language and Medieval Literature at the University of Leeds.
Orton was born in Byers Green, Co Durham on 23 October 1898 and educated at King James I Grammar School, Bishop Auckland and at the University of Durham. He left university in 1917 to enrol in the Durham Light Infantry in which he was commissioned as a Lieutenant. He was wounded severely in 1918, never regaining full use of his right arm, and was invalided out of the army in 1919.
Orton died in Leeds on 7 March 1975 following a stroke.
After leaving the army, Orton went to Merton College, Oxford and then spent several years on the staff of Uppsala University in Sweden until 1928 when he was appointed to a lectureship at King's College, Newcastle (now the University of Newcastle). He became Head of the Department of English Language at the University of Sheffield in 1939 but secondment to the British Council interrupted that work until the end of the war.
In 1946 he was appointed Professor of English Language and Medieval Literature at the University of Leeds, succeeding Bruce Dickins, where he taught until his retirement as Emeritus Professor in 1964.