William Morfill

[3] His Oxford MA was awarded in 1860, the same year in which he married Charlotte Lee and in which his first published translations from Russian appeared.

[3] Morfill had had an interest in foreign languages since school days, encouraged by a Tonbridge teacher who gave him a Russian grammar.

His interest in Slavonic languages was rewarded with his appointment in 1870 by Oxford to provide the first lectures of the Ilchester Foundation, endowed to encourage studies in this area.

[3] His publications included Slavonic Literature (1883), A history of Russia from the birth of Peter the Great to the death of Alexander II (1902) and various books on grammar in Polish, Serbian, Bulgarian and Russian, as well as translations.

[2] The Board's secretary said that the house had been like a "cultural embassy", where people came to learn languages, and that Morfill had been chosen for being a "great pioneer" who had spent his life establishing Russian and Slavonic languages in Oxford.