William Lindsay Renwick
| William Lindsay Renwick | |
|---|---|
| Born | 6 January 1889 Glasgow |
| Died | 25 November 1970 Edinburgh |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Occupation | Regis Professor of English Literature |
| Spouse(s) | Margaret Lang |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | English Literature |
| Notable works | Edmund Spenser: An Essay on Renaissance Poetry |
William Lindsay Renwick (6 January 1889 to 25 November 1970) was Professor of English Literature at the University of Durham from 1921 to 1945 and Regis Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature at Edinburgh University from 1945-1959.
William was born at 32 Kelvin Drive, Glasgow, on the 6th of January 1889, the youngest of five children of Jane Renwick (née Lindsay), a teacher of English, and William Kirkwood Renwick, a mercantile clerk.
Raised in the family home at 12 Arlington Street, Glasgow, William was educated at the local Woodside School. Although, William always maintained strong links with Glasgow, he had a strong affinity to the Borders where his paternal grandfather was a shepherd near Garvald. In October 1907, William enrolled at the University of Glasgow and graduated with an ordinary MA degree on 10 June 1910 undertaking classes in Mathematics, Logic, and Moral Philosophy.
William's contemporaries while he studied for an MA were Walter Elliot, John Boyd and George Buchanan Smith. He was active in Union discussions, contributed to debates, and in literary societies such as the Mermaid Club. He was also subeditor of the Glasgow University Magazine 1909-1910 and some of his contributions appear in two anthologies of Glasgow University verse.
In the 1910/11 session, William took up classes in English and History, obtaining First Class Honours in his English exam. In 1912, he was awarded the George A. Clark Scholarship which allowed him to study French & Italian at the Sorbonne, Toulouse and the British School in Rome.
Upon the outbreak of war, William joined the tenth battalion of the Cameronians (The Royal Scottish Rifles) on 27 September 1914. He experienced trench warfare with this regiment & rose quickly in the ranks to become a Captain, serving at home and in France where his battalion took part in the Battle of Loos. After experiencing this particularly devastating attack, acc ording to his entry on Glasgow University’s Roll of Honour, he felt ‘like a ghost, an old ghost, sceptical and disillusioned.’”
...
Wikipedia