W. J. M. Starkie

William Joseph Myles Starkie (10 December 1860 – 21 July 1920) was a noted Greek scholar and translator of Aristophanes. He was President of Queen's College, Galway (1897–1899) and the last Resident Commissioner of National Education for Ireland in the United Kingdom (1899–1920).

He was born at Rosses Point, Sligo, where his father was resident magistrate. He was the fifth son of William Robert Starkie JP (1824–1897) and Francis Powers Starkie. He spent his early years at Creggane Manor in Rosscarbery near Cork with his four older brothers and younger sister, Edyth Starkie, who became a painter and was married to Arthur Rackham. After a short time at Clongowes Wood College he entered Shrewsbury School, Shropshire in 1877 and was the only Roman Catholic in the school. He became one of the Shrewsbury (Rowing) crew and was also Head of School before he went to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1880. Three years later he took his First in the Classical Tripos, and then abandoned the chance of a Fellowship to set off and wander in Italy and Greece.

On his return to Ireland he chose to lead an academic career. Obliged to begin again as a freshman at Trinity College, Dublin, he won the first classical scholarship, the Berkeley gold medal for Greek and was later awarded the Madden Prize, which allowed him to travel in Palestine and Persia. In 1890, having obtained the highest recorded marks in classics, he became a Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College. In 1897 he published The Wasps of Aristophanes, or Vespae which became the first of the Aristophanic works which established his distinction in the field. That same year he resigned his Fellowship to become President of Queen's College in Galway. He received honorary degrees from Trinity College (1898) and the Royal University of Ireland (1909). In 1914 he became a member of the Privy Council of Ireland.

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