LAUSR

David Pattison, scholar of medieval Spanish letters, philologist, historian and teacher, died on 3 September 2018, after a debilitating illness endured with stoicism. Born inWakefield in 1942, David had a peripatetic childhood, as the Royal Navy posted his father round the country. A perceptive primary-school teacher encouraged him to apply for a scholarship to Peter Symonds College in Winchester, where he began to study Spanish. Reading French and Spanish at Exeter College, Oxford (1960–1963), he subsequently also undertook doctoral research at Oxford, supervised by Fred Hodcroft, on the forms and functions of nominal suffixes in Spanish up to 1300. That research was partly funded by his securing a De Osma studentship which enabled him to carry out work in Madrid. David and June Edwards married in 1964 and his first post was at Queen’s University Belfast (1965–1966), in the department of Spanish headed by Arthur Terry, to whom he became devoted. One other colleague in what was a very small and happy group, Nick Round, was also to remain a lifelong friend. In 1966 he was appointed to a lectureship in Oxford, assuming responsibility for tutoring students of Spanish at Merton, Lincoln, Oriel and St Hilda’s Colleges. Three years later there came election to a tutorial fellowship at Magdalen College, a post he held until retirement in 2005, whereupon he was elected Emeritus Fellow of the College. He taught widely in all aspects of Spanish, especially philology and medieval literature, although he also had a particular interest in the nineteenth-century novel. For David, teaching lay at the heart of academic endeavour, and his pupils always came first. Generations of Oxford undergraduates were grateful for his kindly guidance, his encouragement of them to think for themselves, and his continuing personal interest in them after they left university. He lovedMagdalen, where his talent for organization, skill at dealing with others, and unfailing good sense were soon recognized. He held several key posts in the College, including those of Senior Bursar and Vice-President.