Univ Record 2018

Old Members
1935
HARRY BLAMIRES (Grange High School,
Bradford) died on 21 November 2017 aged 101.
He read English at Univ. In those days the College
had no English Fellow, and so Blamires went to
C. S. Lewis (Univ 1917) at Magdalen for his
tutorials. Blamires retained a lifelong admiration
for Lewis, recalling the excellence of his lectures,
always delivered to packed houses. Lewis in turn
was something of a mentor to Blamires in later
life: their correspondence is now in the Bodleian
Library.
At the outbreak of the Second World War,
Blamires became a conscientious objector. He had
been appointed a teacher at High Pavement School
in Nottingham, but had to leave when the local
education authority decided no longer to employ men refusing to enlist. Fortunately, he
quickly found a new post at Beltane School, a more progressive school, where he would
remain for eight years. In 1940, he married Nancy, his childhood sweetheart.
In 1948, Blamires joined the staff of the English department at King Alfred’s
College, Winchester, and remained there for the rest of his working life, rising to the
rank of Dean of Arts and Sciences by the time that he retired to Cumbria in 1976 to
devote himself fully to writing.
He published extensively on English literature: perhaps his most influential works
in this field were The Bloomsday Book (1966, with revised editions 1988 and 1996), a
commentary on James Joyce’s Ulysses, and Word Unheard (1969), a guide to T. S. Eliot’s
Four Quartets. He also wrote several books on English usage, such as The Penguin Guide
to Plain English.
However, just like his tutor C. S. Lewis, Blamires also published many theological
works. His most important such book was The Christian Mind, which was published
in 1963 and has remained in print ever since. In his theological writings, Blamires
attacked what he saw as the secularism which had affected so much of intellectual life,
and passionately defended a more traditional approach to Christianity. Blamires’ work
was very popular in America: he frequently lectured there, and his works are studied in
many American universities.
Blamires was a much respected teacher, and friends remember his sense of fun and
energy remaining with him all his life. He also had a deep of love of music: he was an
organist, and often played for services in local churches.
Nancy, who throughout their marriage had supported Blamires in his writing,
regularly commenting and discussing his books with him, died in 2011, but Blamires
is survived by their five sons, one of whom, Alcuin, followed his father to Univ in 1965.
[We are most grateful to Alcuin Blamires for his help in preparing this obituary.]
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