Basil Willey

Basil Willey, FBA, FRSL (25 July 1897 – 3 September 1978) was a British scholar of English literature and intellectual history.

Having served in the British Army during the First World War, he rose to become King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at the University of Cambridge from 1946 and President of Pembroke College from 1958 to until his retirement in 1964.

He was born in London in 1897 and educated at University College School, Hampstead, and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he won a scholarship in 1915; conscripted into the West Yorkshire Regiment soon after, he eventually graduated in 1921 with a first-class degree in History and English.

He was appointed King Edward VII Professor of English Literature in 1946.

He retired from his position as King Edward VII Professor of English Literature in 1965.