Alfred Chilton Pearson

Alfred Chilton Pearson
A middle-aged man with a moustache, in the formal dress of the early 20th century
Chalk drawing of Pearson in the collection of Trinity College, Cambridge
Born(1861-08-08)8 August 1861
23 Campden Hill Square, London
Died2 January 1935(1935-01-02) (aged 73)
Occupations
  • Barrister
  • Schoolteacher
  • Classical scholar
Spouse
Edith Maud Green
(m. 1885; died 1930)
Academic background
Education
Alma materChrist's College, Cambridge
InfluencesJohn Peile
Academic work
Institutions

Alfred Chilton Pearson FBA (8 October 1861 – 2 January 1935) was an English classical scholar, noted for his work on Greek tragedy. Born and schooled in London, Pearson graduated with distinction from Christ's College, Cambridge, before pursuing a career in law, business and teaching. In 1919, having published several books on ancient Greek philosophy and tragedy, he was elected as the Gladstone Professor of Greek at the University of Liverpool, and he subsequently became Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge in 1921.

Porson was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1924, the year in which he released his Oxford Classical Text of the works of the fifth-century tragedian Sophocles, but was forced to resign his academic post in 1928 by increasing ill-health. Following the death of his wife, Edith, in 1930, he moved successively to Hunstanton in Norfolk and to Kensington in London, where he died in 1935.