WICKHAM, Glynne (William Gladstone) 1922-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born May 15, 1922, in Capetown, South Africa; died January 27, 2004, in Bristol, England. Educator and author. Wickham, a longtime professor of drama at Bristol University, was largely credited with establishing the academic study of theater as an accepted discipline in British universities. A graduate of New College, Oxford, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1951 after serving in the Royal Air Force as a navigator, he began teaching drama at the University of Bristol in 1948. He soon built up the department, creating a respected program that expanded from stage into film and television by the early 1950s. By 1960, Wickham had been named the first professor of drama in England, and he remained in that position until his 1982 retirement. Although retired, he continued to lecture and teach widely, as well as write and edit books on the theater. Among these many works are Early English Stages, 1300 to 1600, Volumes 1-5 (1959-2001), The Medieval Theatre (1974; 3rd edition, 1987), and English Professional Theatre, 1530-1660 (2000). Widely recognized for his contributions to the study of theater and film, Wickham received many honors, such as the 1999 Sam Wanamaker Award. He was also made an honorary fellow of Bristol University in 1996, and the annual Wickham Lecture, sponsored by the Society for Theatre Research of which he had been president from 1976 to 1999, was established in his name in 2002. The Wickham Theatre at Bristol University is also named after him.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Bristol Evening Post (Bristol, England), February 12, 2004.

Guardian (London, England), February 25, 2004, p. 27.

Independent (London, England), February 11, 2004, p. 40.

Times (London, England), February 24, 2004.

Western Daily Press, February 12, 2004.