Peter Davison

Peter Hobley Davison OBE (10 September 1926 – 16 August 2022) was a British professor of English and an authority on the life and works of George Orwell. Background Born in Newcastle upon Tyne on 10 September 1926, he worked in the Crown Film Unit and served in the Navy during the Second World War. He gained his bachelor's degree through correspondence and also had a master's degree in bibliography and palaeography. Career After time as a Fellow at the Shakespeare Institute, a lecturer at the University of Sydney, and as lecturer and senior lecturer at Birmingham University, he was appointed Professor of English at Saint David's University College (later University of Wales Trinity Saint David) and then at the University of Kent, De Montfort University, Leicester. He was later an emeritus professor of English at Glyndŵr University. In 1992, he was president of the Bibliographical Society and edited its journal, The Library, for 12 years. He received the Society's Gold Medal in 2003. From 1991 to 2005 he was Secretary of the Economic and Social Research Council in London. Between 1986 and 1998 he was also Honorary Steward of Westminster Abbey.