Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb, OM, FBA (27 August 1841 – 9 December 1905) was a British classical scholar and politician.
He was born in Dundee, Scotland. His father was a well-known barrister, and his grandfather a judge. His sister was the social reformer Eglantyne Louisa Jebb, founder of the Home Arts and Industries Association; his niece, Eglantyne's daughter Eglantyne Jebb, co-founded the Save the Children Fund and wrote the Declaration of the Rights of the Child.
He was educated at Charterhouse School and at Trinity College, Cambridge.[1] He won the Porson and Craven scholarships, was senior classic in 1862, and became fellow and tutor of his college in 1863. From 1869 to 1875 he was public orator of the university; Professor of Greek at Glasgow from 1875 to 1889, and Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge from 1889 until his death. His successor was Henry Jackson. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1902.
In 1891 he was elected Member of Parliament for Cambridge University; he was knighted in 1900. Jebb was acknowledged to be one of the most brilliant classical scholars of his time, a humanist and an unsurpassed translator from and into the classical languages. A collected volume, Translations into Greek and Latin, appeared in 1873 (ed. 1909). He received many honorary degrees from European and American universities, and in 1905 was made a member of the Order of Merit. In 1874, he married the widow of General Adam J. Slemmer, of the United States army; she survived him.
The most important of Jebb's publications are:
His translation of the Rhetoric of Aristotle was published posthumously under the editorship of J. E. Sandys (1909). A selection from his Essays and Addresses, and a subsequent volume, Life and Letters of Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb (with critical introduction by A. W. Verrall) were published by his widow in 1907; see also an appreciative notice by J. E. Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship, iii. (1908).
He is buried at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge. The Archives and Special Collections at Amherst College holds a collection of his papers.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Henry Cecil Raikes Sir George Stokes |
Member of Parliament for Cambridge University 1891 – 1906 With: Sir John Eldon Gorst from 1892 |
Succeeded by Samuel Henry Butcher John Frederick Peel Rawlinson |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by Benjamin Hall Kennedy |
Regius Professor of Greek Cambridge University 1889 - 1905 |
Succeeded by Henry Jackson |