Arthur Clare Cawley

Cawley graduated from University College London in 1934. He went to the Education Department at the University of Hull for a year and in 1935 returned to UCL for three years as a part-time Lecturer whilst he completed his MA on John of Trevisa's version of Ralph Higden's Polychronicon.[1]

In 1938, Cawley went to Harvard on a Commonwealth Fellowship and, on his return to England, joined the British Council. He went as Professor of English to Iași in Romania until the German invasion forced him to leave and he spent 1941 to 1945 in Egypt and in Benghazi, Libya. Finally, still with the British Council, he taught in Reykjavík, Iceland.[1]

In 1946 Cawley returned to England and after a year at the University of Sheffield was appointed to a Lectureship at the University of Leeds in 1947. He completed his PhD in 1952.[1] His thesis for London University was a scholarly edition of six of the thirty-six Wakefield Pageants.[2]

In 1959 Cawley left Leeds to go to the Darnell Chair of English at the University of Queensland, Australia. He remained there for six years before returning to Leeds as Professor of English Language and Medieval English Literature in 1965. He retired from his chair in 1979 with the title Emeritus Professor.[1] The university currently offers a post-graduate scholarship in his name.[3][4]

A noted Mediaevalist, Cawley has commentated and edited numerous works including "Everyman",[5] mediaeval miracle plays,[5] the Canterbury Tales,[6] and the Wakefield Mystery Plays.[7][8]

In 1939 Cawley and fellow University College London postgraduate student Winifred Cawley were married.[9]

Arthur Clare Cawley died in 1993.[9]