Colin Wilcockson

Colin Wilcockson (23 July 1932 – 1 March 2023) was a British medievalist and literary scholar.^[1]

Born in Leytonstone and raised in Loughton, Essex, Wilcockson attended Chigwell School, where he was head boy and later served as a governor.^[2][3] He studied English as a choral exhibitioner at Merton College, Oxford.^[2][3] After narrowly missing a first-class degree, he pursued a Diploma in Education rather than doctoral studies.^[2][3] During his teaching training at Harrow, he befriended the poet and artist David Jones, whose works became one of Wilcockson's scholarly interests.^[2] His correspondence with Jones forms an important archival resource at Pembroke College, Cambridge.^[2][4]

Wilcockson taught initially at Campbell College, Belfast, before becoming head of English at The Leys School in Cambridge in 1959.^[2][3] There he notably influenced the writer Christopher Hitchens, who acknowledged Wilcockson in his memoir, Hitch-22.^[2]

In 1973, Wilcockson joined Pembroke College, Cambridge, as a fellow, where he served as Director of Studies in English and Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic literature.^[2][5] His academic contributions included scholarly editions of medieval works such as William Langland's Piers Plowman, Geoffrey Chaucer's The Book of the Duchess (in The Riverside Chaucer), and a selection of The Canterbury Tales for Penguin Classics.^[2][6]

Wilcockson was a three-time recipient of Cambridge University's Seatonian Prize, awarded for poetry on sacred subjects.^[2][4] He participated actively in outreach efforts aimed at broadening university access and supported Pembroke College's transition to co-education during the 1980s.^[2]

In later years, Wilcockson taught courses in Cologne, Ghana, and at Pembroke College summer schools.^[2]