People of Headington: Hugo Dyson
Henry Victor Dyson Dyson (1896–1975), generally known as Hugo Dyson (and who signed his writings H. V. D.Dyson) was one of the Inklings.
Dyson taught English at the University of Reading until 1924, and then came to Oxford after obtaining a Fellowship at Merton College, Oxford, which he held until he retired in 1969. He continued teaching modern literature after his retirement, and many of the writers discussed had been his personal friends.
With J. R. R. Tolkien, Dyson persuaded C. S. Lewis to become a Christian. Christopher Tolkien records how during his father’s reading of The Lord of the Rings, Dyson was “lying on the couch, and lolling and shouting and saying, ‘Oh God, not another elf’.”
In about 1963 Dyson moved from Rose Lane in central Oxford up to 32 Sandfield Road, where until 1968 Tolkien was his near neighbour at No. 76.
Dyson remained in Headington until his death in 1975, and is buried in Holywell Cemetery.
Wikipedia: Hugo Dyson
