Walter Starkie

Walter Fitzwilliam Starkie CMG, CBE, Litt.D (9 August 1894 – 2 November 1976) was an Irish scholar, Hispanist, author and musician. His reputation is principally based on his popular travel writing: Raggle-Taggle (1933), Spanish Raggle-Taggle (1934) and Don Gypsy (1936).

He is known as a translator of Spanish literature, and as a leading authority on the Romani people (Gypsies). He spoke the Romani language fluently.

Born in Ballybrack, Killiney, County Dublin, he was the eldest son of William Joseph Myles Starkie (1860–1920) and May Caroline Walsh. His father was a noted Greek scholar and translator of Aristophanes, and the last Resident Commissioner of National Education for Ireland in the United Kingdom (1899–1920). His aunt, Edyth Starkie, was an established painter married to Arthur Rackham and his godfather was John Pentland Mahaffy, the tutor of Oscar Wilde. The academic Enid Starkie was his sister. Starkie grew up surrounded by writers, artists and academicians.

He was educated at Shrewsbury School and Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated in 1920, taking first-class honours in classics, history and political science. After winning first prize for violin at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in 1913, his father, wanting a more traditional career for his son, turned down an opportunity for Walter to audition for Sir Henry Wood, conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. His violin teacher was the celebrated Italian virtuoso and composer, Achille Simonetti, a master who had been taught by Camillo Sivori, the only pupil of Niccolo Paganini.

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