McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Spooner, W. A. (William Archibald), 1844-1930
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1844-1930
History
Rev. William Archibald Spooner was born on July 22, 1844, in London, England.
He was a clergyman. He was educated at Oswestry School and New College, Oxford. He remained at New College, Oxford, for over sixty years, serving as a fellow (1867), lecturer (1868), tutor (1869), dean (1876–1889), and warden (1903–1924). He lectured on ancient history, divinity, and philosophy. He was most notable for his absent-mindedness and for supposedly mixing up the syllables in a spoken phrase with unintentionally comic effect. These phrases became known as spoonerisms.
In 1878, he married Frances (Frank) Wycliffe Goodwin (1852–1939). He died on August 29, 1930, in Headington, Oxfordshire, England.