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Abstract. Lloyd Arthur Thompson (1932-97), one of the most respected classicists on the African subcontinent, devoted forty years of his life to the cause of classics in sub-Saharan Africa. The major events of his career and a list of his most important publications bear testimony to the immense influence he has had on scholarship both within and outside Africa.
This volume of Scholia is dedicated to Lloyd Arthur Thompson, one of Africa's most distinguished classicists of the twentieth century. Born in Barbados, West Indies, on 24th June 1932, Thompson was educated at Harrison College, Barbados, where he obtained an Oxford and Cambridge Higher Certificate with distinctions in Latin, Greek, Ancient History and Literature in 1950; the next year he achieved distinctions in the same subjects and was awarded the Hawkins Prize for Proxime Accessit, a competition for the prestigious Barbados Scholarship; and in 1952 he became the Barbados Scholar in Classics after obtaining his Oxford and Cambridge S-levels with distinctions in the aforementioned subjects. Thompson matriculated at St John's College, Cambridge, in 1953, winning a College Scholarship and College Prize in 1955 before being awarded his BA degree with distinction and a Thomas Exhibition in 1956; four years later he was awarded his MA degree.
After completing his BA degree Thompson married Alma Rosalind Platten on 1st September 1956. After marriage Thompson took up a position as an Assistant Lecturer in Classics at University College, Ibadan, Nigeria, an overseas college of London University, which later became the autonomous University of Ibadan in 1962. After a succession of promotions he was appointed Professor of Classics in 1967. During a career that spanned forty years at the University of Ibadan, Thompson held three Visiting Fellowships at St John's College and served as external examiner of Classics at the Universities of Ghana at Legon, Sierra Leone, the West Indies and Zimbabwe. He also held numerous administrative positions at the University of Ibadan, including three stints as Head of Classics and a period as Dean of the Faculty of Arts. He died in Cambridge on 28th August 1997 after a long illness; he is survived by his wife Alma, who lives in Cambridge, and children Kay, Nicholas and Richard.
It is for his achievements as a scholar...