[lit-ideas] What's in a Name: † Herbert Paul Grice, 1913–1988

From: jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:56:57 EST

When Strawson and Wiggins, as "Fellow of the Academy", respectively, were  
invited to provide the extended obituary in the British Academy they titled 
it,  as the norm goes,
 

† Herbert Paul Grice, 1913–1988 
 
It's Proc. Brit. Ac., vol. 111, 515–528. 
 
They note, amongst various other interesting things that Kathleen Watson  
(Grice's wife) was the daughter of George Watson, a naval architect, and  
sister of Steven Watson, a colleague of Grice's at St. John's. More relevantly, 
 she was also sister of J[ames] S. Watson.
 
Indeed, it was via J[ames] S.. -- both "research fellows" (Harmsworth) at  
Merton, that Kathleen and H. Paul met:
 
Chapman reminisces:
 
(and the Brit. Academy thing by Strawson and Wiggins fails to mention J.  
S.):
 
   "Kathleen [Watson] was from London, but
   [she and H. P.] had met through an Oxford
   connection. Her brother, J[ames] S. Watson had
   held a Harmsworth senior scholarship shortly
   after Grice and the two had become friends.
   James married during the war and, when
   
           his best man  was killed
 
    on active service shortly 
 
           before the  ceremony,
 
[R. Paul will nitpick here that 'he's no best man he who dies before  the 
performative ceremony] 
 
      called on [H.] Paul at short  notice
      to perform the duty. Paul and 
      Kathleen met at the wedding."
 
(p. 29).
 
There are a couple of names that get transfigured in bios of Grice. His  
father, Herbert (his son, Herbert Paul was indeed the elder, the non-elder 
being  Derek -- a cellist) was indeed a musician, a concert violinist. He had 
been a  businesman but the need of the mechanical contraption he invented 
during the  Great War was found to be useless in the aftermath. But his name is 
NOT  transfigured.

What _gets_ transfigured is "Birmingham". Grice is held to have  been born 
in Brum. Call me a conservative, but I think that should  read,
 
        Harborne, Staffs.
 
For some time, I was led to believe, wrongly, that Harborne is  
_Warwickshire_, which would be, indeed, like Brum, the 'heart of England' so  
called. 
But Staffs is where Harborne originated. Only in 1899 was it transferred  -- 
by some idiotic bureaucrat, no doubt -- to Warw. --. It is a lovely village  
-- 'affluent' as the word goes -- for those who have visited it, and for 
those  who have not.
 
While 'grice' means 'pig' in Scots, the online family crest notes it's from 
 French, gris, "surely to indicate a grey-haired ancestor". This online 
site has  as "noteworthy holders of the surname" H. P. Grice, who taught 
philosophy at  University of Oxford.
 
The Brit. Ac. notes that Grice was just in time named an Hon. Fellow of  
Corpus Christi. You see, Corpus Christi saw Grice as getting a first class  
honours in classical honours (if I may repeat myself) moderation  (1933) and 
literae humaniores (1935), not to mention that he played football for  the 
Pelicans. In 1988, Corpus Christi decided to name Grice an honorary Fellow  of 
Corpus Christi. He died in 1988. St. John's had proceeded with more 
prudence  by naming Grice an "Hon. Fellow" of St. John's in 1988. These things 
_are_  important. Being "hon. fellow" means you don't need to ring the bell. 
You 
get  the keys.
 
Cheers,
 
   J. L. Speranza
     The Swimming-Pool Library
        Bordighera
 
          Grice Studies for  the Study of Grice
 
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[lit-ideas] What's in a Name: † Herbert Paul Grice, 1913–1988

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