E. V. Gordon
Canadian philologist (1896–1938)
Eric Valentine Gordon (14 February 1896 – 29 July 1938) was a Canadian philologist, known as an editor of medieval Germanic texts and a teacher of medieval Germanic languages at the University of Leeds and the University of Manchester.
Early life
Gordon was born on Valentine's Day, 1896, on a frontier ranch in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, the third child of Annie McQueen Gordon, a Presbyterian Scot and a teacher, and her husband Jim; they nicknamed Eric "Dal".
At first, Dal was educated by his mother, but a move to Victoria at the age of eleven enabled him to attend Victoria College, British Columbia. In 1915 he was one of the eight Canadian Rhodes Scholars, in his case studying at University College, Oxford. He joined the Canadian Field Artillery in 1916 but was discharged for medical reasons (probably asthma). He worked for the rest of the First World War for the Ministries of National Service and of Food. He also attended McGill University.
Returning to Oxford in 1919, Gordon took a second-class BA in 1920, partly under the tutelage of J. R. R. Tolkien. He began a B Litt degree at Oxford. However, a job opportunity in the English Department at the University of Leeds came up.
“E. V. Gordon” enters the record as canadian philologist (1896–1938). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Gordon, Canadian and philologist can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “E. V. Gordon” 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.