Biography

Sir Sidney Lazarus Lee (1859-1926), knight and literary scholar, was born at 12 Keppel Street, Bloomsbury, London, on 5 December 1859. Lee was educated at the City of London School, then in Milk Street, Cheapside, under the headmastership of Dr Edwin Abbott. Lee matriculated at Oxford as a commoner of Balliol College in October 1878. In November 1879 he was proxime accessit for the Brackenbury (history) scholarship, and was awarded a compensatory exhibition. He was placed in the third class of classical moderations in 1880, and in the second class of modern history finals in 1882, graduating BA in the same year. Lee was appointed to the Dictionary of National Biography staff from March 1883. His historical study Stratford-on-Avon from Earliest Times to the Death of Shakespeare, illustrated with pleasing sketches by Edward Hull, was published in 1885. He was Clark lecturer at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1901-2. In four articles published in Scribner's Magazine during 1907 he explored the knowledge of America in Shakespeare's time and its influence in Spain and France as well as England. In 1913 a professorship of English language and literature was established at the East End College, Mile End Road, and Lee was appointed to it. He died at his home, 108A Lexham Gardens, Kensington, on 3 March 1926.

Found in 1 Collection or Record: