Sir William Spens,

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(31 May 1882 – 1 November 1962) was a Scottish educationalist, academic and Master of

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Corpus Christi College (full name: "The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary", often shortened to "Corpus") is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th c ...

Life

Born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

on 31 May 1882, one of four sons of John Spens and Sophia Nicol, Spens was educated at

Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...

and

King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...

, graduating in

natural sciences Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

. Elected a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

in 1907, he spent the rest of his working life in Cambridge, apart from wartime service between 1915 and 1918 with the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United ...

, for which he was awarded the

in 1919, was made a chevalier of the

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

by the French and appointed an officer of the Crown of Italy. Elected

Master Master, master's or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles In education: *Master (college), head of a college *Master's degree, a postgraduate or sometimes undergraduate degree in the specified discipline *Schoolmaster or master, presiding office ...

Corpus Corpus (plural ''corpora'') is Latin for "body". It may refer to: Linguistics * Text corpus, in linguistics, a large and structured set of texts * Speech corpus, in linguistics, a large set of speech audio files * Corpus linguistics, a branch of ...

in 1927 he was

Vice Chancellor A vice-chancellor (commonly called a VC) serves as the chief executive of a university in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, other Commonwealth countr ...

of the University of Cambridge from 1931 to 1933 and then chaired the consultative committee of the

Board of Education A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional area, ...

(known in retrospect as the Spens Report) which recommended the tri-partite split of secondary schooling into grammar, technical and modern varieties. During the Second World War he was Regional Commissioner for

Civil Defence Civil defense or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state (generally non-combatants) from human-made and natural disasters. It uses the principles of emergency management: prevention, mitigation, preparation, response, ...

for the Eastern Region, which prompted and exacerbated rumours that the cellars of

extend across (and indeed further than) the entire college campus and that the college was to be used as the centre of operations for

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

in the event of a German occupation. Spens wished to maintain the high moral ground in fighting the Nazis. He opposed the use of guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines to oppose any Nazi invasion as being contrary to international convention. He objected first to the plans of SIS in June 1940 and then to the operation of the

Auxiliary Units The Auxiliary Units, Home Guard Shock Squads or GHQ Auxiliary Units were specially trained, highly secret quasi military units created by the British government during the Second World War with the aim of using irregular warfare in response to ...

- threatening to have them arrested! Spens retired in 1952.

Personal

Spens married Dorothy Teresa, daughter of John Richardson Selwyn in 1912; they had four children; a son and three daughters, one of whom died in infancy. Spens died on 1 November 1962.''Sir Will Spens – Servant of College and State ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

Friday, 2 November 1962; p. 15; Issue 55538; col A

Notes

Attribution: * {{DEFAULTSORT:Spens, William Alumni of King's College, Cambridge British educational theorists Knights of the Legion of Honour Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Knights Bachelor Members of HM Foreign Service Masters of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge People educated at Rugby School Vice-chancellors of the University of Cambridge 1882 births 1962 deaths Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

Life

Personal

See also

Notes