GREEN, Vivian (Hubert Howard) 1915-2005

OBITUARY NOTICE— See index for CA sketch: Born November 18, 1915, in Wembley, Middlesex, England; died January 18, 2005, in Shipton under Wychwood, England. Clergyman educator, and author. A religious historian who taught at Oxford, Green was one of the inspirations for the character of Smiley in several novels by John le Carré. Earning a B.A. from Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 1937, Green was ordained in the Anglican Church in 1940 and completed his master's degree the next year. In 1945 he received his B.D. from Cambridge University, followed by a second B.D. from Oxford University in 1951. It was at Oxford that he also earned his doctorate in divinity in 1957. Green had taught for two years at St. Augustine's College in the late 1930s, but after being ordained he served as a chaplain and lecturer at St. Luke's College for two years. Next, he was chaplain and master at Sherborne School in Dorsetshire from 1942 until 1951. It was here that le Carré was also a student, and the future author was inspired by the clergyman's intelligence and strength of spirit. Interestingly, the two met again at Lincoln College, Oxford, where le Carré was again a student and Green was a lecturer. Green taught at Lincoln through 1961 and was chaplain there from 1957 until 1969. From 1970 until 1983, he was subrector; and from 1983 until 1987 he served the college as rector. Green was made an honorary fellow in 1987 when he retired. Le Carré, who also borrowed Green's trademark thick eyeglasses for the character of Smiley, combined aspects of the don's personality with several traits of another man he knew, British intelligence officer John Bingham. Smiley, the highly intelligent English spy, is the hero in such books as Smiley's People and the trilogy Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Green was also a writer in his own right. An historian, he published such works as Renaissance and Reformation: A Survey of European History between 1450 and 1660 (1952; second edition, 1964), A History of Oxford University (1974), and A New History of Christianity (1996).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Daily Telegraph (London, England), January 26, 2005.

Los Angeles Times, January 27, 2005, p. B11.

Times (London, England), January 26, 2005, p. 62.