1861–1922 · Oxford's first Professor of English Literature
Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh (1861–1922) was the first holder of the Chair of English Literature at Oxford, a post he held from 1904 until his death, and a fellow of Merton College from 1914. He wrote Style (1897), Milton (1900) and the well-received Shakespeare (1907) — the book whose reception prompted this remark — and was working on an official history of the war in the air when he died. His correspondence was gathered after his death and published as The Letters of Sir Walter Raleigh (1879–1922) in 1926, edited by Lady Raleigh; he shares a name, and constant credit-confusion, with the Elizabethan statesman who died in 1618.