CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

A. S. L. Farquharson

British classicist, philosopher and translator (1871–1942)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 14, 2026
Entity authorityQ16943894 ↗
Source-derived summary

Arthur Spencer Loat Farquharson (1871–1942), usually cited as A. S. L. Farquharson, was a British classicist, translator, and Dean of University College, Oxford. His best-known work is the translation of Marcus Aurelius' book Meditations.

Biography

Arthur Farquharson was born in 1871. He studied at University College, Oxford from 1890 to 1894, where he "obtained a First both in Mods in 1892 and in Finals in 1894". He was a fellow of the college from 1899 to 1942. He was a Dean and read lectures in logic. He participated in revising A Greek–English Lexicon of Liddell and Scott. His best-known work is the translation of Marcus Aurelius' book, Meditations. His translations of Aristotle's Progression of Animals and Movement of Animals were published in 1913.

The Oxford-based writer C. S. Lewis described his encounter with Farquharson in a letter of 26 January 1930 to his friend Arthur Greeves:

On the strength of having done some office work at Whitehall during the war, and having been in the Territorials before, he has called himself Lieutenant Colonel ever since.

Editorial summary

“A. S. L. Farquharson” enters the record as british classicist, philosopher and translator (1871–1942). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Farquharson, British and classicist can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1871, 1942, 1890, 1894—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1871-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Farquharson, British and classicist.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“A. S. L. Farquharson” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Farquharson, British and classicist provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16943894. VIAF identifies the subject as 10232619. The Library of Congress control number is n88253157. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1871, 1942, 1890 and 1894.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “A. S. L. Farquharson”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow A. S. L. Farquharson primary sources, A. S. L. Farquharson archive and Farquharson research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “A. S. L. Farquharson”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “A. S. L. Farquharson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.