Denys Campion Potts Explained

Denys Campion Potts
Birth Date:17 March 1923
Education:St John's School, Leatherhead
Alma Mater:Brasenose College, Oxford
Occupation:Academic
Nationality:British

Denys Campion Potts (17 March 1923 – 11 May 2016) was a scholar and authority on French literature.[1] [2] [3] His obituary in The Daily Telegraph stated that he ‘shared with the authors he studied their belief in reason as well as their penchant for irony’.[1]

Early life

Denys Campion Potts was born in Salford on 17 March 1923,[2] the only child of Frank Potts, a Church of England clergyman, and his wife Constance,whose maiden name was Campion. They had married at Saddleworth in 1919,[4] soon after Frank Potts had been licensed as stipendiary curate at Christ Church, Blackburn.[5] During the First World War, he had served as a forces’ chaplain in British India.[6] In November 1927, when Potts was aged four, his parents left St Mary's Vicarage, Greenfield, near Oldham, and took him to Mombasa on the SS Matiana, on the way to settle in Uganda,[7] where his father became a missionary.[8] In 1931, the Potts family returned to England for Frank Potts to take up the benefice of Ruddington, Nottinghamshire, where he died in post in 1951.[9] [10]

Potts was educated at St John's School, Leatherhead, which then had the main purpose of educating the sons of poor clergymen. There, he was strong in mathematics and was introduced to classical music, a lasting pleasure in his life.[2] From 1941 he read mathematics at Brasenose College, Oxford, and remained at the university to complete his degree, graduating in 1944.[2]

Career

On the recommendation of C. P. Snow, after his graduation Potts was recruited by Rolls-Royce Limited for war service, working in applied mathematics.[2] He was not convinced that industry or mathematics were attractive career paths, so in 1947 he returned to Brasenose to read for a degree in Modern Languages, having taken a crammer in French.[2] His interview for the course was conducted by Robert Shackleton in a Paris café.[2] Potts subsequently completed his Modern Languages degree in two years, graduating with a First in 1949, and immediately began work for a doctorate as a Senior Hulme Scholar, spending a year as a lecturer at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris.[2]

Potts's doctoral thesis was on the work of Charles de Saint-Évremond, and later his specialism became the French Age of Enlightenment.[2] [11] Having gained his doctorate, Potts became a Besse Fellow at Keble College, Oxford, where he focussed on French authors of the 17th and 18th centuries.[2] Unusually, at the time, he also lectured on 20th-century French poetry and the Nouveau roman. He wrote French Thought Since 1600 with D. G. Charlton.[2]

Potts remained at Keble until his retirement in 1989, having served as Dean and Sub-Warden at the college.[2] He was also a visiting professor at the University of Michigan.[2]

Potts retained a lifelong interest in classical music and in 1950 he befriended the French composer Joseph Canteloube, and was present at the first recording of Chants d'Auvergne.[2] At Oxford he was President of the Gramophone Society.[2] After he retired, Potts travelled with his wife and enjoyed his love of opera. His enduring interest in Charles de Saint-Évremond led him to edit a further book of the essayist's letters.[12]

Private life

Potts married Doraine Truscott, and they had two sons and two daughters.[2]

His father having died in 1951, Potts’s mother, Constance Potts, joined him in Oxford and died there in April 1976, aged 84.[13]

Selected bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Obituary in The Daily Telegraph, Denys Potts, scholar - obituary, May 27, 2016
  2. News: Denys Potts, scholar – obituary. The Telegraph . May 27, 2016. www.telegraph.co.uk.
  3. Web site: Potts, Denys C. (Denys Campion) [WorldCat Identities]].
  4. https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=8753&h=65537628&tid=&pid=&queryId=8f09bb84c855cca7c866284e77d7ed94&usePUB=true&_phsrc=HRm2&_phstart=successSource "Frank Potts"
  5. Lancashire Evening Post, 18 February 1919, p. 4
  6. "St. James's School by the Rev. F. Potts. B.A. entitled A tour through India", Rochdale Times, Saturday 24 December 1921, p. 8
  7. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2997/images/40610_B001169-00397 SS Matiana passenger list
  8. "Preaches at Parish Church" in West Bridgford Times & Echo (Nottinghamshire), 12 November 1937, p. 8
  9. "POTTS the reverend Frank of The Vicarage Ruddington Nottinghamshire clerk died 6 December 1951… Administration to Constance Mary Potts widow and Denys Campion Potts university tutor. Effects £2608 11s 1d." in Wills and Administrations (England & Wales) 1952 (1953), p. 514
  10. https://southwellchurches.nottingham.ac.uk/ruddington/hclock.php "Ruddington St PeterClock"
  11. Book: Saint Evremond and seventeenth-century libertinage.. February 20, 1962. 1063559332.
  12. Book: Saint-Evremond: a voice from exile: newly discovered letters to Madame de Gouville and the abbé de Hautefeuille (1697-1701). Charles de Marguetel de Saint-Denis de. Saint-Évremond. Lucie de Cotentin de Tourville. Gouville. Jean de. Hautefeuille. Denys Campion. Potts. February 20, 2001. Legenda. 845889568.
  13. "Constance Mary Potts" in England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916–2007, ancestry.com, accessed 30 November 2021
  14. Book: French thought since 1600. Denys Campion. Potts. D. G. Charlton. 1974. Methuen. 1072518163.
  15. Book: Bayle. Élisabeth. Labrousse. Denys Campion. Potts. 1983. Oxford University Press. 898770100.
  16. Book: Potts, Denys C.. Eluard: capitale de la douleur: a selection of critical articles. n.d.. none. 863270556.