Peter Giles

“ Peile was a man of moderate views who had the faculty of remaining on good terms with his most active opponents. He was an effective speaker and a good chairman. As a college officer he was very popular, and the college prospered under him. As a lecturer on classical subjects (most frequently on Theocritus, Homer, Plautus, and Lucretius) , and on comparative philology, he was able to put his views clearly and interestingly, and, like Charles Lamb, he sometimes found the slight hesitation in his speech a help in emphasising a point. ”

“ The history of Greek comedy, Pindar, and Plato were subjects on which Neil frequently lectured and on which he accumulated great stores of knowledge. He was also thoroughly familiar with all work done in the comparative philology of the classical languages, Sanskrit, and Celtic. ”

“ The changes in the classical tripos, which came into force in 1903, emphasised the importance of ancient philosophy, and the college hall was barely able to hold the numbers that flocked to Adam's lectures on Plato and Aristotle. ”

“ In 1874 Peile had been elected a member of the council of the senate, a position which he held uninterruptedly for thirty-two years. Along with Prof. Henry Sidgwick [q. v. Suppl. I] and Coutts Trotter [q. v.] he represented in the university the liberalising movement then perhaps at the zenith of its influence. He was long an active supporter of women's education and a member of the council of Newnham College, and in the university controversy of 1897 on the question of 'Women's Degrees' he advocated the opening to women of university degrees. ”

“ His father died in 1860, and in 1862 Shuckburgh entered Emmanuel College as an exhibitioner. He was shortsighted, which probably prevented his taking an active part in athletics, but he took the lead in the intellectual life of the college, and as a speaker at the Union Debating Society became widely known in the university. He was president of the Union in 1865, and graduated as thirteenth classic in the classical tripos of 1866. From 1866 to 1874 he was a fellow and assistant tutor of Emmanuel College. ”

“ At his death he left in manuscript a large Greek grammar treated on philological principles, which is not yet published. He gradually devoted himself, however, more and more to Celtic studies, and during the last few years of his life his distinction in this department was recognised by the university, which appointed him to a newly founded and unpaid lectureship in Celtic; in order to give him time for this work he was granted an additional assistant in Greek. His publications on Celtic were numerous and important ”

“ In 1883 he just missed the Craven scholarship, but in 1884 was awarded the first chancellor's medal and obtained a specially brilliant first class (only once equalled) in part ii. of the classical tripos with distinction in classics, ancient philosophy, and comparative philology. In Dec. 1884 he was elected a junior fellow and was soon appointed classical lecturer of Emmanuel College, where he settled down at once to his life's work as a teacher. ”

“ Peile was tutor of his college from 1871 to 1884, when, on his appointment to the newly constituted post of university reader in comparative philology, which was not tenable with a college tutorship, he resigned, but remained a college lecturer. On the death of Dr. Swainson in 1887 he was elected Master of Christ's, but continued to lecture for the university till his election as vice-chancellor in 1891. ”

“ Besides his work on Greek, comparative philology, and Celtic, Strachan also taught Sanskrit at Manchester. In 1900 Aberdeen University conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. No good portrait of Strachan exists, and the bronze bust in the possession of Manchester University only faintly resembles him. His Celtic books were purchased by Manchester University. ”

“ The increasing interest in Irish studies was fostered by the School of Irish Learning established in 1903 by Professor Kuno Meyer in Dublin, in which during several long vacations Strachan taught Old Irish with much enthusiasm. ”

“ In 1901 he was appointed by the Intermediate Education Board for Ireland to report on secondary education in Irish schools. He died suddenly on 10 July 1906, in the train between Berwick and Edinburgh, while on his way to examine at St. Leonard's School, St. Andrews, and was buried at Grantchester, where for some years he had lived. He left a family of two sons and three daughters. Shuckburgh was tall and in countenance resembled Cardinal Newman. A good photograph hangs in the parlour of Emmanuel College, and in the library there is a bronze relief by Mr. ”

“ In 1866 he married Annette, daughter of William Cripps Kitchener, and had by her, besides two children who died in infancy, two sons, and a daughter, Hester Mary, who married, in 1890, John Augustine Kempthome, since 1910 bishop-suffragan of Hull. ”

“ In the latter year, having vacated his fellowship by his marriage with Frances Mary, daughter of the Rev. Joseph Pullen, formerly fellow and tutor of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and Gresham professor of astronomy, he accepted an assistant mastership at Eton. ”

“ Adam, October 1901) ; British Weekly, 27 June 1901 (Sir W. Robertson Nicoll, a class mate at Aberdeen) ; Alma Mater, the Aberdeen University Mag., 20 Nov. 1901 (Dr. J. F. White) ; information from the family, and personal knowledge for nineteen years. ”