[2] He taught at Birmingham University from 1951 to 1962, then at Queen Mary College, London, first as Reader and from 1964 as Professor in English Language and Literature.

In 1975 he took up a professorship at Yale University, in the United States, before being elected Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford beginning in 1977.

He became a devout Anglican, and right up until his death was a sidesman at the 8 o’clock BCP service of Holy Communion at St Giles’, Oxford.

The Leave Vote in 2016 shocked him deeply not only because he was committed to EU membership but also, given his early years as a refugee from Nazi Germany, because he was vehemently opposed to plebiscites.

Taught to drive by Robert Burchfield at the OED, he made many car trips to Europe, including annually to Italy, with his wife;[1][5] in 1959 he married Mary Bateman, a neurologist.