Augustus Samuel Wilkins

Augustus Samuel Wilkins (1843–1905) was an English classical scholar. He held a professorship of Latin in Manchester for 34 years. Life He was born in Enfield Road, Kingsland, London, on 20 August 1843 into a Congregationalist family, the son of Samuel J. Wilkins, a schoolmaster in Brixton, and his wife, Mary Haslam, of Thaxted, Essex. Educated at Bishop Stortford collegiate school, he then attended the lectures of Henry Malden, professor of Greek and Francis William Newman, professor of Latin, at University College, London. Entering St John's College, Cambridge with an open exhibition in October 1864, he became a foundation scholar in 1866. He was President of the Cambridge Union for Lent term, 1868. In 1868 Wilkins graduated B.A. as fifth in the first class of the classical tripos. A nonconformist, Wilkins was at that point legally disqualified from a college fellowship; that changed after the Universities Tests Act 1871, but by then Wilkins was married, still an impediment. The same year he took the M.A. degree in the University of London, receiving the gold medal for classics, and was appointed Latin lecturer at Owens College, Manchester; in 1869 he was promoted to the Latin professorship there. At Manchester Wilkins promoted female education, and lobbied for a department of theology. He was a popular lecturer on literary subjects in Manchester and other towns of Lancashire, and chaired the Lancashire Independent College and the council of the Manchester High School for Girls. In 1903, after 34 years' tenure of the Latin professorship, a weak heart compelled him to resign, whereupon he became professor of classical literature.