June 19, 1898

Harold Greville Hanbury (June 19, 1898 to March 12, 1993) , an academic in the field of law, was, "the only child of Basil Hanbury (1862–1933), gentleman of independent means, and his wife, Patience, née Verney (1873/4–1965), younger daughter of Henry Verney, eighteenth Baron Willoughby de Broke....." The following is excerpted from his Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article. I as always reserve the privilege of rearranging quoted material according to narrative purposes which may differ from those of the original source. The information below is included partly because I am struggling to understand the niceties of the British academic world. If that topic bores you, feel free to skip to the last paragraph.

He ...[went] to Brasenose College, Oxford, on a classical scholarship in 1915. During the First World War his father served as a major in the Warwickshire yeomanry, and was made honorary lieutenant-colonel. Hanbury himself enlisted in 1916, serving first in the Artists' Rifles and then (as a lieutenant) in his father's regiment. In 1939, on the outbreak of the Second World War, he re-enlisted, and served as a staff captain until 1942 when he was discharged to run courses for allied troops. It was not surprising that patriotism was an important element in his life.

After the First World War Hanbury returned to Oxford, and took his degree in jurisprudence in 1920, being awarded the Vinerian scholarship. He then came top in the examination for bachelor of civil law in 1921. In that same year he was elected a fellow of Lincoln College. He remained there as a fellow for twenty-eight years, and was an honorary fellow thereafter. On 21 July 1927 he married Anna Margaret Geelmuyden Dreyer (d. 1980), daughter of Hannibal Dreyer of Copenhagen, and niece of Georges Dreyer, professor of pathology at Oxford.

At the time of Hanbury's election Lincoln College was less distinguished than it later became, and its poverty was renowned. Hanbury, however, became the archetypal Lincoln man, serving as dean, senior tutor, and sub-rector. His style fitted in well with the Oxford of the ‘Brideshead’ generation, with rather limited academic expectations of undergraduate commoners at a typical college. Expectations of college tutors were also modest, but this did not prevent Hanbury from publishing Essays in Equity (1934), Modern Equity(1935)—a textbook which ran to thirteen editions by 1989—and a brief history, English Courts of Law (1944; fifth edn, 1979).
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Hanbury was ...[the] literary executor of Sir William Holdsworth, the leading academic lawyer of the inter-war years, at a time when academic law in England was in the doldrums. He and A. L. Goodhart edited the last four volumes of Holdsworth's History of English Law (1952–66); the final volume was put together from boxes of notes found after Holdsworth's death. The newly created readership in equity was offered to Hanbury in 1948 and it seemed an appropriate reward for college and university service. When in the following year Hanbury was elected Vinerian professor and thus fellow of All Souls, there was considerable surprise, his success owing more to the dislike of more obvious candidates than to Hanbury's academic distinction. He held the chair until 1964 without producing any significant research, ..... His tall, ambling, spare figure was a familiar Oxford sight.

....Hanbury was immensely popular with his undergraduates. He and his wife entertained warmly and generously. Having no children of his own he took an especially keen interest in the lives and successes of his former pupils. He loved cricket, and also liked cats and was vice-president of the Oxford Cat Club. He was the model of a college man of [the latter part of the first half of the 20th century.]