Angus McIntosh

FRSE FBA
Born10 January 1914
Sunderland, England
Died25 October 2005(2005-10-25) (aged 91)
NationalityScottish
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom
Spouses
Barbara
​
​
(m. 1939; died 1988)​
    Karina
    ​
    (m. 1988)​
    Children3 children, 3 step-children
    AwardsSir Israel Gollancz Prize (1989)
    Academic work
    DisciplineLinguistics
    Sub-discipline
    Institutions

    Angus Mcintosh, FRSE, FBA (10 January 1914 – 25 October 2005) was a British linguist and academic, specialising in historical linguistics.

    McIntosh was born in 1914 near Sunderland, England, to Scottish parents. He was educated locally, at Ryhope Grammar School, and studied English at Oriel College, Oxford. He then studied comparative philology at Merton College, Oxford, and was a Commonwealth Fellow at Harvard University. He served in the British Army during the Second World War, including working in intelligence at Bletchley Park.

    Having taught at University College, Swansea, before the war, he moved to the University of Oxford after being demobbed. Only two years later, in 1948, he moved to the University of Edinburgh as its first Forbes Professor of English Language and General Linguistics. He remained at Edinburgh until retirement, and then served as director of the Middle English Dialect Atlas Project from 1979 to 1986. He was an honorary research fellow at the University of Glasgow until his death in 2005.

    Early life and education

    McIntosh was born on 10 January 1914 near Sunderland, England, to Scottish parents.[1][2] He was educated at Ryhope Grammar School, a state grammar school in Ryhope, County Durham.[3] Having received a state scholarship, he read English language and literature at Oriel College, Oxford.[4] He graduated with a first class honours Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1934: as per tradition, his BA was promoted to a Master of Arts (MA Oxon) degree in 1938.[5][2] Having received a Harmsworth Scholarship, he studied for a diploma in comparative philology at Merton College, Oxford, which he completed in 1936.[5] During this period, he played racket sports with J. R. R. Tolkien resulting in an ankle injury to Tolkien. Tolkien began sketching ideas for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings while recuperating.[2][3] Then, from 1936 to 1938, he studied at Harvard University as a Commonwealth Fellow.[2] He graduated from Harvard with a Master of Arts (AM) degree in 1937.[5]

    Military service

    In 1940, following the outbreak of the Second World War, McIntosh joined the Tank Corps as a trooper.[5][6] On 20 January 1941, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Intelligence Corps.[7] He was promoted to war substantive lieutenant and temporary captain on 1 June 1941.[8] As an intelligence officer, he worked at Bletchley Park's Station X.[1] With his linguistic training, he was involved in decrypting German military communication and helping crack Enigma codes.[3] He ended the war with the rank of major.[1]

    For his military service, McIntosh was awarded the France and Germany Star, Defence Medal, and the War Medal 1939–1945.[4]

    Academic career

    McIntosh began his academic career in 1938, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, as a lecturer in the Department of English, University College, Swansea.[5] In 1946, after a break in his career due to military service, he returned to the University of Oxford as a university lecturer in Mediæval English (Old and Middle English).[5][3] He additionally held a lectureship at Christ Church, Oxford for the 1946–47 academic year, and was a tutor at Jesus College, Oxford and Wadham College, Oxford.[5][6] He was elected a Student (i.e. Fellow) of Christ Church in 1947.[5]

    Rather than stay at Oxford, however, McIntosh moved to the University of Edinburgh as its first Forbes Professor of English Language and General Linguistics in 1948.[2][9] His research interests included philology and historical linguistics relating to both Middle English and Scots.[1] He stepped down from the renamed Forbes Chair of English Language in 1979.[5] He then served as director of the Middle English Dialect Atlas Project between 1979 and 1986,[5] which resulted in the publication of A Linguistic Atlas of Late Medieval English (1986).[10] In retirement, he was Professor Emeritus at Edinburgh and an honorary research fellow at the University of Glasgow.[11]

    Personal life

    In 1939, McIntosh married Barbara, an American and daughter of William Seaman Bainbridge. Together they had three children: two sons and one daughter. She died in 1988, and he remarried the same year to Karina, the widow of an Oxford scholar. This second marriage brought three stepchildren: a daughter and two sons.[5]

    McIntosh died on 25 October 2005, aged 91.[2] He was suffering from kidney failure and renovascular disease.[6] After a funeral service held at Canongate Kirk, he was buried in Grange Cemetery in Edinburgh.[6]

    Honours

    In 1978, McIntosh was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE), Scotland's national academy of science and letters.[5] In 1989, he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for social sciences and the humanities.[11] Also in 1989, the British Academy awarded him the Sir Israel Gollancz Prize, an award given to scholars of early English language and literature, English philology, or the history of English language.[12]

    Upon retirement from the University of Edinburgh, McIntosh had the unusual distinction of being presented with two Festschrifts.[1] One was titled So Meny People, Longages and Tonges: Philological Essays in Scots and Mediaeval English presented to Angus McIntosh (1981).[13] The other was titled Language Form and Linguistic Variation: papers dedicated to Angus McIntosh.[14] The Angus McIntosh Centre for Historical Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh is named in his honour.[3]

    Selected works

    • Mcintosh, Angus (1949). Wulfstan's Prose. London: Geoffrey Cumberlege.
    • McIntosh, Angus (1952). An Introduction to a Survey of Scottish Dialects. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press.
    • Halliday, M. A. K.; McIntosh, Angus; Strevens, Peter (1964). The Linguistic Sciences and Language Teaching. London: Longmans, Green and Co., Ltd.
    • McIntosh, Angus; Halliday, M. A. K. (1966). Patterns of language: papers in general, descriptive and applied linguistics. London: Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd.
    • McIntosh, Angus; Samuels, M. L.; Benskin, Michael (1986). A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press.

    References

    1. 1 2 3 4 5 Macleod, Norman (1 November 2005). "Professor Angus Mcintosh". The Independent. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
    2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Giegerich, Heinz J. (2 November 2005). "Obituary: Angus McIntosh". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
    3. 1 2 3 4 5 Giegerich, Heinz. "Angus McIntosh". Angus McIntosh Centre for Historical Linguistics. University of Edinburgh. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
    4. 1 2 Ancestry of William Seaman Bainbridge. Oxford: Scrivener Press. 1950. p. 51.
    5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "McIntosh, Prof. Angus, (10 Jan. 1914–25 Oct. 2005), consultant on linguistics problems; hon. consultant, Institute for Historical Dialectology (formerly Gayre Institute for Medieval English and Scottish Dialectology), University of Edinburgh, since 1986". Who Was Who. Oxford University Press. 1 December 2007. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
    6. 1 2 3 4 Laing, Margaret (8 January 2009). "McIntosh, Angus (1914–2005)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/96506. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
    7. ↑ "Intelligence Corps: Regular Army Emergency Commissions". The Quarterly Army List: April, 1945, corrected to 15th March, 1945. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1945. p. 435. McIntosh, A. (W.S./Capt. 5/3/45) (T/Maj. 5/3/45) 20/1/41
    8. ↑ "Intelligence Corps: Regular Army Emergency Commissions". The Quarterly Army List: January, 1945, corrected to 16 December, 1944. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1945. p. 429. McIntosh, A. (W.S./Lt. 1/6/41) (T/Capt. 1/6/41) 20/1/41
    9. ↑ Giegerich, Heinz. "Obituary: Professor Angus McIntosh (1914-2005)". School of Informatics. The University of Edinburgh. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
    10. ↑ "eLALME: A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English (electronic) – Angus McIntosh Centre for Historical Linguistics". Angus McIntosh Centre for Historical Linguistics. University of Edinburgh. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
    11. 1 2 "Professor Angus McIntosh FBA". The British Academy. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
    12. ↑ "Sir Israel Gollancz Prize". The British Academy. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
    13. ↑ Benskin, Michael; Samuels, Michael L., eds. (1981). So meny people longages and tonges: philological essays in Scots and mediaeval English presented to Angus McIntosh. Edinburgh: Middle English Dialect Project. ISBN 978-0950693828.
    14. ↑ Anderson, John M. (1982). Language Form and Linguistic Variation: Papers Dedicated to Angus McIntosh. Amsterdam: John Benjamins B. V.
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