Walter Hamilton Moberly


Sir Walter Hamilton Moberly was a British academic.

Life

The son of the Rev. Robert Campbell Moberly and the grandson of George Moberly, he was educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford. Moberly was later a lecturer in political science at the University of Aberdeen from 1905 to 1906. While Fellow and Lecturer in philosophy at Lincoln College, Oxford he contributed essays on "The Atonement" and "God and the Absolute" to the symposium Foundations: A Statement of Christian Belief in Terms of Modern Thought, published in 1912. He served in World War I with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, being twice mentioned in despatches.
After the war, he was professor of philosophy at the University of Birmingham from 1921 to 1924, Principal of the University College of the South West of England from 1925 to 1926, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester from 1926 to 1934, Chairman of the University Grants Committee from 1935 to 1949 and Principal of St Catherine's Foundation from 1949 to 1955.
Moberly was also an author, having written such books as The Crisis in the University and The Ethics of Punishment.
He was a great-uncle of the theologian R. W. L. Moberly.

Legacy

Winchester College's main library is named after him; Moberly Tower, a hall of residence at the Victoria University of Manchester was named after him. It was part of the refectory complex built in the 1960s; the tower was demolished ca. 2008.
The Walter Moberly Building is also named after him at Keele University. It was built in 1954 and originally named the Conference Hall; it was renamed the Walter Moberly Hall in May 1960. This recognised Moberly's contribution to the creation of the experimental University College of North Staffordshire, which received the Royal Charter as the University of Keele in 1962. A house in the former Duryard Hall of Residence at the University of Exeter was also named after him, but has since been demolished.

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