W. K. C. Guthrie
British classical scholar and philosopher (1906–1981)
William Keith Chambers Guthrie (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. He served as Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1952 to 1973 and as master of Downing College, Cambridge from 1957 to 1972.
Early life and education
Guthrie was born on 1 August 1906. Although of longstanding Scottish stock on both his father's and mother's side, Keith Guthrie was born and brought up in London where his father, Charles James Guthrie, pursued a career with the Westminster Bank.
After attending Dulwich College, Guthrie went up to Cambridge University in 1925, winning the Eric Evan Spicer scholarship to Trinity College. He excelled in his studies, being supervised by, amongst others, Francis Cornford and A. S. F. Gow, and was placed in the first class of both Parts of the Classical Tripos, with distinction in Part II and the award of the Craven Prize.
After graduating he embarked on a postgraduate career at Trinity. He met his future wife, Adele Marion Ogilvy, while supervising her undergraduate studies in 1929–1930. She was an Australian, from Melbourne, then studying at Newnham College, Cambridge. They married in 1933 and went on to have two children (one daughter and one son).
“W. K. C. Guthrie” enters the record as british classical scholar and philosopher (1906–1981). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Guthrie, British and classical can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q725243. VIAF identifies the subject as 240642137. The Library of Congress control number is n50017531. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1906, 1981, 1962 and 1952.
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This entry incorporates text from “W. K. C. Guthrie” 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.