Alan Walker Tyson 1926–2000

Alan Tyson was a musicologist who made an outstanding contribution to understanding issues of authenticity and chronology in the works of Mozart and Beethoven often based on detailed study of the paper used in sketchbooks and manuscripts. Yet he had qualified as a psychoanalyst and clinical psychiatrist, and until 1969, when he obtained a visiting professorship at Columbia University, musicology was only a scholarly hobby. In 1971, Tyson was awarded a Senior Research Fellowship at All Souls College Oxford and thereafter pursued it as a full-time career. He was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 1978. Obituary by Oliver Neighbour FBA.

John Terence Coppock 1921–2000

Terry Coppock FBA was a pioneer in three areas of scholarship – agricultural geography, land-use management and computer applications – whose academic career was at University College London and the University of Edinburgh, where he was the first holder of the Ogilvie Chair in Geography. He received the Victoria Medal from the Royal Geographic Society and was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 1976. Coppock, who was Secretary and then Chair of the Commission on World Food Problems and Agricultural Productivity of the International Geographical Union, served as Secretary Treasurer of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland. Obituary by Hugh Clout FBA.

Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe 1919–2001

Elizabeth Anscombe, Fellow of the British Academy and an Honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, was a philosopher who worked at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Her published works include Intention (1957, 1963, 2000) and An Introduction to Wittgenstein's Tractatus (1959). Obituary by Jenny Teichman.

John Earl Varey 1922–1999

John Varey was one of the greatest of twentieth-century hispanists, specialising in the history of Spanish theatre. His undergraduate studies were interrupted by service as a naviagator in Bomber Command. Varey founded the Department of Spanish at Westfield College, University of London, and in 1984 was appointed Principal of the college. He also founded Tamesis, a publishing house dedicated to hispanic studies, in 1963, and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1985. Varey managed a prodigious output of scholarly work despite a heavy workload of university administration. Obituary by Alan Deyermond FBA and Melveena McKendrick FBA.

Donald Francis McKenzie 1931–1999

Don McKenzie, Professor of English Language and Literature at Victoria University of Wellington and later Professor of Bibliography and Textual Criticism at Oxford, argued for the place of bibliography at the centre of literary and historical understanding. The Cambridge University Press, 1696–1712: a bibliographical study (1966) led to a transformation of bibliographical studies. McKenzie edited the plays of Congreve and was elected Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy in 1980 while he was still living in New Zealand. After moving to Oxford, he was elected Fellow in 1986. Obituary by David McKitterick FBA.

Francis James Herbert Haskell 1928–2000

Publication of Patrons and Painters (1963), which dealt with art in 17th-century Rome and 18th-century Venice, established Francis Haskell as one of the leading art historians of his generation. He held posts at King's College Cambridge and was then appointed Professor of the History of Art at Oxford University with a Fellowship at Trinity College. Haskell turned to studying French painting of the 19th century. Rediscoveries in Art: Some Aspects of Taste, Fashion and Collecting in England and France (1976) won the Mitchell Prize for Art History. Haskell was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1971. Obituary by Charles Hope.

Donald Cuthbert Coleman 1920–1995

Donald Coleman was an outstanding economic historian, specialising in industrial history. ‘Labour in the English Economy of the Seventeenth Century’ (1956) was an early influential article by him. Coleman held professorships at LSE and then Cambridge, and was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 1972. He published many articles and books, among them a highly respected history of Courtaulds and was editor of the Economic History Review and the Records of Social and Economic History series published by the British Academy. Obituary by Peter Mathias FBA and F.M.L. Thompson FBA.

Anthony Cuthbert Baines 1912–1997

Anthony Baines was a music scholar and a Fellow of the British Academy who worked with the London Philharmonic Orchestra as bassoonist and Assistant Conductor. He was Lecturer/Curator of the Bate Collection, 1970–1982. In his writings, Baines advocated and popularised the playing of music on original instruments. Obituary by Helene La Rue.

Robert Henry Robins 1921–2000

Robert (Bobbie) Robins was a pioneer in the establishment of linguistics as an academic subject in Britain and the leading scholar throughout the world in the history of linguistics whose undergraduate career was interrupted by service in the RAF, in which he was required to learn Japanese and then teach it to service personnel. He joined the new Department of Phonetics and Linguistics at SOAS, University of London, in 1948 and became a professor in 1966. Robins published General Linguistics: an introductory survey in 1964 (4th edition 1989). His textbook, A Short History of Linguistics (1967), was the most comprehensive published, and he was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 1986. After his death, the Philological Society established an annual Robins Prize and the University of Luton has the R. H. Robins Memorial Prize for linguistics. Obituary by F. R. Palmer FBA and Vivien Law FBA.

Robert Manuel Cook 1909–2000

Robert Cook was Laurence Reader then Professor in Classical Archaeology at Cambridge University. His Greek Painted Pottery, first published in 1960, was a standard student text and his Greek Art (1972) was aimed at a general readership. Cook wrote widely on Ancient Greek archaeology and was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 1974. Obituary by John Boardman FBA.