Robert Alexander Neil | |
|---|---|
 Photographed by Ralph Herbert Lord in Cambridge | |
| Born | 26 December 1852 Glengairn, Aberdeenshire, Scotland |
| Died | 19 June 1901 (aged 48) |
| Resting place | Bridge of Gairn, Aberdeenshire |
| Occupation | Classical scholar |
| Academic background | |
| Education | |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Classical studies, Sanskrit, comparative philology |
| Institutions | Pembroke College, Cambridge |
| Notable students | |
Robert Alexander Neil (26 December 1852 – 19 June 1901), who published as R. A. Neil, was a Scottish classical scholar. He lectured in classics at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and was University Lecturer in Sanskrit. He was acknowledged as an authority on Greek literature and on comparative philology, and collaborated with scholars including Edward Byles Cowell and Jane Ellen Harrison, to whom he may have been engaged at the time of his death.
Neil was born near Ballater in Aberdeenshire, the second son of a parish minister, who taught him classics from a young age. He was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and received a scholarship to study classics at the University of Aberdeen, which he attended from the age of thirteen. After initially preparing himself for a medical career, he won a further scholarship in 1872 to read classics at Peterhouse, Cambridge. He graduated with a First, scoring the university's second-highest mark in tripos, in 1876.
Shortly after his graduation, he took a post at Pembroke to lecture in classics, and began studying Indian languages, particularly Sanskrit. Though he published little, Neil was a prolific lecturer and collaborator, particularly with Cowell and Harrison. He was made University Lecturer in Sanskrit in 1884, and examined both the classical tripos and that of Indian languages. In 1900, he became Pembroke's Senior Tutor. He also served on the senate of Cambridge University, on the council of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, and on the syndicate of Cambridge University Press.
Neil died in 1901 of appendicitis. His final scholarly work, an edition of The Knights by the Athenian playwright Aristophanes, was published posthumously in the same year.