Obituary Professor Norman Davis

Press, 11 December 1989, Page 4

Obituary Professor Norman Davis

NZPA London “The Times” newspaper has paid tribute to a New Zealand-born academic who was once condemned to death for alleged conspiracy against the Bulgarian State. Professor Norman Davis, born and educated in Dunedin, died at the week-end at the age of 76. He was Merton professor of English literature and language at Oxford University from 1959 to 1980. The newspaper said he was one of the most distinguished of a succession of antipodean scholars who had devoted themselves to the study of the history of the English language and of medieval English literature. After graduating with first class honours in English at the University of Otago, Professor Davis went to Merton College, Oxford, as a New Zealand Rhodes Scholar in 1936 and took a first in English followed by a diploma in

comparitive philology. “The Times” said that at that time academic posts in English philology were few and hard to come by, even for the ablest, and Professor Davis was forced to go abroad for a time. He was a lecturer in English in the University of Kaunas (Lithuania) in 1937/38 and in the University of Sofia (Bulgaria) in 1938/39. At the outbreak of war, he became assistant press attache in the British legation in Sofia and in December, 1941, after Bulgaria had joined the war on the side of the Germans and Davis had left the country with the rest of the legation staff, he was placed on trial for alleged conspiracy against the Bulgarian State and condemned to death. “At the time he was a prisoner in the hands of the Italians, having been captured in Yugoslavia with other diplomatic

staff,” the newspaper said. “In spite of the Bulgarian death sentence, Davis was returned to this country, probably through an Italian oversight, under the exchange of diplomatic prisoners.” From 1941 to 1944 he served with' G.H.Q., Middle East, attaining the rank of major, and was awarded an M.B.E. (Military) on his release After a spell in the civil service. Professor Davis returned to academic life in 1946, eventually succeeding the famous author, J. R. R. Tolkien, as Merton professor of English language and literature in 1959. “The Times” said: “Professor Davis was a man of great industry and of unusually wide range in English and Germanic studies; and he had, unlike many philologists, an extensive knowledge and appreciation of- modern English literature.