Henry Darnley Naylor (1872-1945)
Papers ca. 1907-1926
MSS 824A N333
Biographical Note
Henry Darnley Naylor (1872-1945) was born on 21 February 1872 at Scarborough, Yorkshire, England. He was educated at St Peter's School, York, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he gained a first class in the classical Tripos in 1894 and the Walker prize. He also distinguished himself as a footballer and a mountaineer.
In 1895, for health reasons, he took up the post of lecturer at Ormond College in the University of Melbourne; from 1903 he was vice-master. In 1906 he was appointed Professor of Classics in the University of Adelaide. He resigned in 1927, and became Emeritus Professor on July 29th.
Naylor's natural charm was heightened by his voice and diction, by his humour, cheerfulness and friendliness, and by his wide interests, including music and the literature and history of England, France and Italy, as well as of the classical world (he knew five modern languages). An uncommonly stimulating teacher, he left a lifelong mark on his students, morally and socially as well as intellectually. He was also a founder and president of the South Australian Amateur Football League.
His specialist interests were Euripides, Horace, and Latin word order. He contributed frequently to the Classical Review and the Classical Quarterly as well as to the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1929).
On the creation of the League of Nations Naylor perhaps did more than anyone to make Australians aware of its existence, purpose and activities. At the time he was active as a member of the council of the University of Adelaide, as the founding chairman of Scotch College, Adelaide, as chairman of the Workers' Educational Association, and, soon, as a member of the council of St Mark's College, but the League of Nations Union, which he founded and guided in South Australia, took up a part of every day.
In 1927 Naylor retired to Cumberland in England to give his time mainly to public affairs, particularly the League of Nations Union. In 1929 he stood, unsuccessfully, as a Liberal Party candidate for Whitehaven. Naylor died on 8 December 1945 at Cockermouth, Cumberland.
Biographical note extracted and adapted from the Australian Dictionary of Biography entry by W.R. Crocker.
These papers were presented to the Library by his daughter, Miss Margaret Mary Darnley Naylor in 1972.
Contents Listing
Series A: Lectures
Anthropology, the mother of the muses. Delivered July 20th 1922. Handwritten [23] leaves (A5) + 8 leaves notes.
Discusses values of ethnology and comparative philology, with Classical references; also promotes the study of anthropology in Papua New Guinea and the establishment of a Chair of Anthropology at the University of Adelaide.
Blondes and brunettes in antiquity: lecture by Professor H. Darnley Naylor delivered before the Classical Association of SA, Adelaide, Aug. 16, 1926. Handwritten, corrected. 6, 13 leaves (foolscap)
Why I read Horace. Handwritten, notes for a lecture. [8] leaves (A5)
"Horatian model in English verse. Q to Camb. In 1918" Handwritten, notes for a lecture. 8, [3] leaves (A5 & foolscap)
"Plato, the literary artist: lecture by Professor Darnley Naylor." Typescript (foolscap) [5] leaves
Series B: Translations
Heroides Books 1-21. Typescript (foolscap, corrected in ms) 141 leaves, plus [14] leaves of notes
Sketch of a Latin translation of Gray's Elegy.
Series C: Notebooks containing student and extension lectures
Notebook 1. The Value of derivations. [Ms text of a lecture to students, dated Nov. 1, 1907] 30 leaves. Notebook inscribed inside front cover: H.Darnely Naylor, Adelaide University, October 1907
Notebook
Notebook 2. Medea. Notebook title and date on front cover: Medea, June 1909. [Ms text of a lecture dated Tuesday, July 6th, 1909. 9.40 pm] 31 leaves.
Notebooks 3-5. Thucydides I-III. [Ms text of lectures dated May 26, 1910. 5.45 pm (39 leaves); Sunday May 29th, 1910. 3.45 pm (32 leaves); June 1, 1910. 12.5 am (32 leaves)]
Notebooks 6-8. Euripides, the Rationalist I-III. [Ms text of extension lectures dated May 22, 1911. 10.16 pm (34 leaves); May 24, 1911. 12.25 pm (34 leaves); May 25, 1911. 10.20 pm (32 leaves)] Notebook 8 has typed list of ‘Lantern slides for professor Naylor's third extension lecture on Euripides the Rationalist' at end.
Listing updated March 2015
Cheryl Hoskin
