William Keith Chambers Guthrie FBA (1 August 1906 – 17 May 1981) was a Scottish classical scholar, best known for his History of Greek Philosophy, published in six volumes between 1962 and his death.
During the war, he exchanged scholarship for military service, serving in the Intelligence Corps between 1941 and 1945, based initially in London, then in St Albans and, from 1943, in Istanbul, achieving the temporary rank of major.
Returning to Cambridge after the war, Guthrie was much in demand in his capacity as Orator, called upon to deliver Latin encomia in honour of such dignitaries as Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, Jan Smuts, Nehru, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Viscount Slim and General Montgomery.
He oversaw a rewriting of the college statutes and introduced a maximum term for a master of fifteen years, by which he chose voluntarily to abide although it did not apply to him.
The venture remained unfinished at his death aged 74 in 1981 the year in which he published the sixth volume in the series, devoted to Aristotle.