Wilfrid Lockwood 1949 to 1957

Wilfrid Lockwood was one of the most academically-gifted pupils at St Mary’s College. He arrived at the school, aged 11, in 1949 and, in 1958, was awarded a State scholarship to University College, London to read Classics before heading to Cambridge University for Part Two of the Classical Tripos.

In 1963, he joined GCHQ in Cheltenham as an Assistant Departmental Specialist and began learning Arabic, Persian and Russian. After four and a half years in Wilfrid went back to Cambridge to work in the University Library, where he stayed for fourteen years, in charge of Oriental books.

In 1982 he moved to the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, as Director where he spent seven years.

Returning to England he rejoined GCHQ, where he worked until retirement and enjoyed the happiest time of his working life. In retirement he taught Arabic and Turkish to soldiers and Civil Servants.

He had a number of publications to his name including Qirqisani on Jewish sects and latterly, he has been translating works by the Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwish.

His various contributions to the articles and Ph. D. theses of others, would, if collected together, fill a substantial volume.