Edwin Keppel Bennett, ''noms de plume'': Francis Bennett, Francis Keppel (26 September 1887 – 13 June 1958), was an English writer, poet, Germanist, and a prominent academic. He served as the president of

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, commonly known as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and ...

between 1948 and 1956.

Biography

Bennett was born at Wareham, Dorset, England, the son of Alfred Hockey Bennett, a confectioner, and his wife Emilie, ''née'' Keppel. He was educated at Elm House School, Wareham, under A.E. Skewes; and at the Universität Straßburg, Germany (now in France), under Professor Bartholdy. He entered

as a student on 1 October 1914, receiving his B.A. in 1919 ( Schuldham Plate, Gonville and Caius College's most prestigious undergraduate award, 1921); and M.A. in 1923. As Ramadge Student, 1921–1923, Bennett was the editor of the ''Caian'', a college magazine; during the Lent term of 1922 he delivered a lecture on 'Poetry and Pessimism'. In 1923 he became 'unofficial fellow' of the college and a Cambridge University lecturer in German. Official fellowship of the college was bestowed on him in 1926, together with the position of Tutor (Senior Tutor, 1931). Bennett resigned from the post of Senior Tutor in 1952, during his presidency of the college. During the First World War Bennett served in an intelligence unit of the British Army in the rank of second lieutenant (1916–1918), mainly in Palestine. Bennett's first book, ''Built in Jerusalem’s Wall: A Book in praise of Jerusalem'', was published under the pseudonym 'Francis Keppel' in 1920. His ''A History of the German "Novelle" from Goethe to Thomas Mann'' was brought out by

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

in 1934 (2nd ed., revised and continued by H.M. Waidson, London, Cambridge University Press, 1961); an important study of George, ''Stefan George: A Critical Study'', appeared under the imprint of in 1954, in a series edited by Erich Heller. Bennett was Erich Heller's doctoral guide at Cambridge; he died in 1958 leaving a large part of the residue of his estate to Gonville and Caius College. Some of Bennett's poems are published in Edward Davison, comp., ''Cambridge Poets, 1914–1920: An Anthology'' (Cambridge, W. Heffer & Sons, 1920). In the Michaelmas 1920 edition of the ''Caian'' (vol. 29, p. 29) there appears Bennett's poem entitled 'The Stranger': He is buried in the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge.

References

*John Venn, , ''Biographical History of Gonville and Caius '' (vols. 5–7). *''The Caian: The Magazine of Gonville and Caius College'', vol. 24, pp. 245–246; vol. 25, pp. 80, 150–151, 226–227; vol. 29, pp. 7, 29, 77, 183–184; vol. 30, pp. 71, 140, 189; vol. 32, p. 3; vol. 36, p. 40; vol. 37, p. 42; vol. 40, pp. 24, 32, 72. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Edwin Keppel 1887 births 1958 deaths Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Fellows of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge British Germanists People from Wareham, Dorset English male poets 20th-century English poets 20th-century English male writers British Army personnel of World War I British Army officers