Tony Knowland

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Anthony Stephen Knowland (22 March 1919 – 10 December 2006) was a professor of English literature who specialised in W. B. Yeats, William Shakespeare, and classical Greek literature. He was a committed pacifist and a conscientious objector in World War II.

Born in Hove, Sussex, he was one of seven children of Albert James Knowland and Maria Maud Knowland. He attended Dulwich College and Frensham Heights, where he became head boy and studied Latin and Greek. In 1938 he won a place at Exeter College, Oxford, to study classics. War interrupted his studies, but he earned a wartime degree. In 1947 he returned to Exeter College and studied English, gaining a first‑class degree.

Knowland served as a captain in the Suffolk 3rd Division and helped plan the Second Front, but he became a conscientious objector. He was court-martialled in 1944, dismissed from service, and confined to Windsor Castle for two months because of his knowledge of invasion plans. After his release, he worked as a teacher at Frensham Heights. He was called up again as a civilian and argued his case at the Conscientious Objectors Tribunal in Reading, where it was allowed for him to stand down and return to teaching. His daughter Isabel described him as a committed pacifist.

In 1950 he went to the University of Toronto as a lecturer in English. In 1953 he became the chair of English at Magee University, Derry, where he directed Shakespeare productions and founded a music society that hosted many famous musicians. He insisted that Roman Catholics be allowed to join the society. In 1960 he joined St Clare’s, Oxford, directing the academic programme for external London degrees and a liberal arts program for visiting American students, and he became vice principal in 1972. He also had visiting professorships in Connecticut and Munich.

Knowland published on 17th‑century drama, translated Sophocles and Aristophanes, and was an authority on Yeats. His book W.B. Yeats – Dramatist of Vision was published in 1984. He had a strong interest in folk music, making many recordings of musicians on Ireland’s west coast from the 1950s, now held in Ireland’s national archives.

In December 1943 Knowland married Barbara Amy Morris, the eldest daughter of John Morris (co‑founder of Boriswood publishers) and Pamela Paramythioti, and granddaughter of the composer Amy Horrocks. They lived in Oxford and later Woodstock, Oxfordshire, and had five children. Knowland was also an accomplished pianist.