Adcock, Sir Frank Ezra (1886-1968), historian of Greece and Rome, was born on 15 April 1886 at Desford, Leicestershire. He was educated at the Wyggeston grammar school, Leicester, and as a scholar of King's College, Cambridge, where he obtained first-class honours in both parts of the classical tripos (1908-9) and won the Craven scholarship (1908), a chancellor's medal (1909), and the Craven studentship (1910). He was elected a Fellow of his college and appointed to a university lectureship in classics in 1911. From 1913 to 1919 he was Lay Dean of King's and Vice-Provost of King's from 1951 to 1955. He was knighted in 1954 , and received honorary degrees of LittD of Dublin and of Manchester (both in 1955) and of DLitt of Leicester (1961).