Anthony Cockshut, 1927-2021
8 November 2021
We are deeply saddened to share the news that Emeritus Fellow A. O. J. Cockshut died on Friday at the age of 94.
Tony was a tutorial fellow and G.M. Young Lecturer in 19th-century English Literature. His published works included books on Walter Scott, Charles Dickens and Anthony Trollope, as well as work on Victorian biography and religious controversies.
From 1992 to 1994 Tony was Hertford’s Senior Tutor, after which he was an Emeritus Fellow. He was married to award-winning children’s author and historian of children’s literature, Gillian Avery, whose first novel, The Warden’s Niece, was set in the Oxford of 1875. Tony is also remembered as an excellent cricketer who shared the record opening stand of 170 in a Winchester versus Eton match in the 1940s.
In 1995, the College Magazine reported that at his retirement dinner Tony “gave us a classic speech marked by characteristic wit and self-depreciation.” He spoke of the positive atmosphere which prevailed at Hertford, “rejoicing particularly in the general absence of gossip and of hard feelings: disagreements are all settled by dinner time.”
We hope that the preservation of this collegiality will help us to continue to follow Tony’s example.