M. C. Bradbrook


Muriel Clara Bradbrook, known as M. C. Bradbrook, was a British literary scholar and authority on Shakespeare. She was Professor of English at Cambridge University, and Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge.

Biography

Born on 27 April 1909, Bradbrook was the eldest child of Annie Wilson and her husband Samuel Bradbrook, superintendent of HM Waterguard. She was educated at Hutcheson’s Girls’ School, Glasgow, and Oldershaw High School, Wallasey. Between 1927 and 1930 she studied English at Girton College, Cambridge, graduating with first-class honours in both parts of the Cambridge Tripos. She remained at Girton College as a Carlisle Scholar and subsequently as an Ottilie Hancock Research Fellow between 1930 and 1935, obtaining her PhD in 1933. She spent a year at Oxford before returning to Girton College as Lecturer in English and Fellow in 1936. She remained in Cambridge apart from a period working in London for the Board of Trade during the Second World War. By that time she had already published five major works of literary criticism and throughout the 1950s and 60s she continued to publish on Shakespeare and the Elizabethans.
In all, she wrote some 17 books, including works on Ibsen, Lowry and Conrad. She was appointed a University Lecturer by University of Cambridge in 1948, a Reader in 1962, and Professor of English in 1965. She held visiting professorships at numerous universities, including Santa Cruz, Tokyo, and Rhodes, South Africa, and received honorary degrees from many more. During her period of office as Mistress, Girton College celebrated its centenary and the decision was taken to admit men. She retired in 1976 and became a Life Fellow of Girton College. She died on 11 June 1993.

Recognition

In 2016 the Council of the University of Cambridge approved the use of Bradbrook's name to mark a physical feature within the North West Cambridge Development.

Works