Dr Spooner

If you have ever tackled a cryptic crossword you will have probably come across the name Spooner or the term spoonerism.

William Archibald Spooner was born in London on 22 July 1844 and is remembered chiefly for his nervous tendency to transpose initial letters or half-syllables in speech. Many people mistakenly presume that the good doctor was a bumbling idiot, but in fact William Spooner was a classical scholar, a Doctor of Divinity and the Warden of New College, Oxford.

When he was only eighteen, he won a scholarship to New College, Oxford, through which he took two first-class degrees -  in classical moderations and humanities. His connections with the college lasted a lifetime as his career developed within the university bounds.

He became a fellow in 1867, a lecturer in 1868, a tutor in 1869, dean in 1876 (having been ordained a priest the previous year) and Warden in 1903, the year in which he completed his Doctor of Divinity degree. For almost seventy years he was a much loved character in the city if of Oxford with an opinion that was highly regarded.

His famous speech lapses are thought to have resulted from the difficulty he may have had reading. Spooner was an albino and as such, suffered from defective eyesight. As an eloquent and amusing lecturer on divinity, Aristotle’s Ethics, philosophy and ancient history, one of Spooner’s most famous remarks was “Kinquering congs their titles take.”

William died on 29 August 1930, the father of two sons and five daughters and the friend and esteemed citizen of a city who loved him. A portrait of Dr Spooner still hangs in New College to this day.