Professor Derek Brewer (1923-2008)

Derek Brewer was born in 1923 in Cardiff, educated at The Crypt Grammar School in Gloucester and at Magdalen College, Oxford 1941-2 and 1945-7. From 1942 to 1945 he was an infantry officer.

In 1949 he was appointed to an Assistant Lectureship in English at the University of Birmingham, where he stayed until 1964, apart from 1956-8 when he held a professorship in a Japanese university.

In 1951 he married Elisabeth Hoole and they had five children.

In 1965 he was appointed to a lectureship in English in the University of Cambridge and elected to a Fellowship in Emmanuel College. He lectured and supervised on most periods of English literature, though much of his work was on Chaucer. He was elected Master of Emmanuel in 1977 and Professor of English in 1983.

During Derek's Mastership, the College first admitted women, celebrated its Quatercentenary and purchased Park Terrace. He also founded the Emmanuel Society, to bring Members who have graduated into closer contact with the College. He retired in 1990 and became a Life Fellow of the College.

He wrote wrote many books and articles on medieval and later English literature, and won the Seatonian Prize in poetry a number of times. In retirement he continued academic work and travels. He founded a publishing firm for the publication of academic books, which became part of Boydell and Brewer Ltd.

He was an Honorary Fellow of the English Association, an Honorary Member of the Japan Academy, a Corresponding Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America and had several honorary degrees.