George Alfred Kolkhorst

George Alfred ('Colonel') Kolkhorst (1897–1958) was an Oxford don.

Kolkhorst was a member of Exeter College, Oxford. He was appointed University Lecturer in Spanish in 1921 and Reader in Spanish in 1931, holding office until his death in 1958. He used to wear a cube of sugar on a string around his neck "to sweeten my conversation", and was universally known among Oxford undergraduates as "Colonel" Kolkhorst — allegedly because he looked and behaved so utterly unlike a colonel.^[1]

His immortality is guaranteed by his friendship with John Betjeman, in whose verse autobiography Summoned by Bells Kolkhorst is affectionately recollected.

Bibliography

• Noel Annan, The Dons: Mentors, Eccentrics and Geniuses (London: HarperCollins, 1999), p. 138.

External links

• Kolkhorst and Arteaga Exhibitions in Spanish 2005–6, Oxford University Gazette (17 November 2005)
• Judith Priestman, 'The dilettante and the dons', Oxford Today vol. 18, no. 3 (Trinity 2006)
• Charles Saumarez Smith, 'Always from the heart', The Observer (Sunday August 6, 2006)
• Tournai Tapestry, Maritime Museum, Portugal
• 'Yarnton: Manor and other estates', A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 12: Wootton Hundred (South) including Woodstock (1990), pp. 475–478
• Brooke Allen, 'Betjeman: a "whim of iron"', The New Criterion, vol. 23, no. 7 (March 2005)
• R. M. Healey, 'Best Of British', Rare Book Review

References

1. John Betjeman: Summoned by Bells, p.84 says: "We called you 'Colonel' just because you were,/Though tall, so little like one."