Benjamin Bickley Rogers (11 December 1828 – 22 September 1919) was an English classical scholar. Rogers was born in

Shepton Montague Shepton Montague is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, United Kingdom. It is situated on the River Pitt in the South Somerset district midway between Wincanton, Bruton and Castle Cary. It is known for its dairy farming and one of th ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lor ...

in 1828. He was educated at

Highgate School Highgate School, formally Sir Roger Cholmeley's School at Highgate, is an English co-educational, fee-charging, independent day school, founded in 1565 in Highgate, London, England. It educates over 1,400 pupils in three sections – Highgat ...

and

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Doroth ...

, where he became

President of the Oxford Union Past elected presidents of the Oxford Union are listed below, with their college and the year/term in which they served. ''Iterum'' indicates that a person was serving a second term as president (which is not possible under the current Union rule ...

in 1853. He was elected a Fellow of the college in 1852 and was called to the bar in 1856. He gave up a successful legal practice when increasing deafness obliged him to retire. He then devoted himself exclusively to literature. He translated all the plays of

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion ( la, Cydathenaeum), was a comic playwright or comedy-writer of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his fo ...

, reproducing the Greek metres in the English version. Some of the comic verses use the metre of the Major-General's song in

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which '' H.M.S. ...

's ''

H.M.S. Pinafore ''H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor'' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, whi ...

.'' In March 1902 he was elected an

Honorary Fellow Honorary titles (professor, reader, lecturer) in academia may be conferred on persons in recognition of contributions by a non-employee or by an employee beyond regular duties. This practice primarily exists in the UK and Germany, as well as in m ...

of Wadham College. Rogers died in

Twickenham Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the borou ...

on 22 September 1919.

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1828 births 1919 deaths English classical scholars Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford Fellows of Wadham College, Oxford English barristers People educated at Highgate School Presidents of the Oxford Union 19th-century English lawyers {{England-law-bio-stub