W. H. Walsh
W. H. Walsh FBA FRSE DLitt (/wɒlʃ/; 10 December 1913 – 7 April 1986) was a 20th-century British philosopher and classicist. He was an expert on Immanuel Kant.
Life
Born William Henry Walsh in Leeds on 10 December 1913, he was the son of Fred Walsh and his wife May Stephens. His father was Baptist and his mother was Catholic, but he was raised with no religion in his life. The family moved to Baildon near Bradford in his infancy.[1] Walsh was educated at Bradford and Leeds Grammar School on a scholarship.[2]
Walsh studied Classics at Oxford University under G. R. G. Mure, graduating MA in 1936. He was created a Fellow of Merton College.
In the Second World War, Walsh served in the Royal Signal Corps (1940–1941). then he was posted to the Cryptography School at Bedford then requested to do intelligence work with the Foreign Office (1941–1945), based at the Bletchley Park Code-Breaking Station.[3]
Walsh was made Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in the University of Edinburgh (1960–1979) later Emeritus; and one of the three Vice Principals of the University of Edinburgh (1975–1979).
In 1979, Walsh was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Steven Watson, Matthew Black, Norman Gash and Frank Gunstone.[4]
Walsh returned to Merton College in 1979.
Walsh died of melanoma of the brain on 7 April 1986.
Family
In 1938, Walsh married Frances Beatrix "Trixie" Ruth Pearson who studied French at Oxford.
They had three children, all of whom went to Oxford University.
Publications
- Reason and Experience (1947)
- An Introduction to Philosophy of History (1951)
- Metaphysics (1963)
- Hegelian Ethics (1969)
- Kant's Criticism of Metaphysics (1976)
References
- https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/72p511.pdf
- http://ourhistory.is.ed.ac.uk/index.php/William_Henry_Walsh_(1913-1986)
- http://ourhistory.is.ed.ac.uk/index.php/William_Henry_Walsh_(1913-1986)
- Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 978-0-902198-84-5.
- Leon Pompa, ‘Walsh, William Henry (1913–1986)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 .
- ‘WALSH, Prof. William Henry’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 accessed 18 Feb 2012 (subscription required).
- "Papers of William Henry Walsh (1913-1986)." Edinburgh University Archives. Accessed February 2012.