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==Education and career==
==Education and career==
Allberry was born in [[Sydenham, London|Sydenham]] in 1911,<ref name=COrSt /> to Hilda and William Harry Allberry.<ref name=CWGC>[https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2617606/charles-robert-cecil-austin-allberry/ Flying Officer Charles Robert Cecil Austin Allberry], [[Commonwealth War Graves Commission]] (accessed 7 October 2022)</ref> He attended [[St Dunstan's College]], [[Catford]] and then went up to [[Christ's College, Cambridge]], graduating in 1933. He become a fellow of Christ's in 1935, and was the college's inaugural Lady Budge Fellow (1936–39).<ref name=COrSt>[https://web.archive.org/web/20061004083655/http://www.oriental.cam.ac.uk/archive/allberry.html CA Charles Robert Cecil Augustine Allberry (1911–43), Egyptologist], Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge, 2002</ref>
Allberry was born in [[Sydenham, London|Sydenham]] in 1911,<ref name=COrSt /> to Hilda and William Harry Allberry.<ref name=CWGC>[https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2617606/charles-robert-cecil-austin-allberry/ Flying Officer Charles Robert Cecil Austin Allberry], [[Commonwealth War Graves Commission]] (accessed 7 October 2022)</ref> His background was middle-class, his father being a manager, perhaps in the insurance industry.<ref name=Tredell>Nicolas Tredell. ''C. P. Snow: The Dynamics of Hope'', pp. 12, 20 (Palgrave Macmillan; 2012) {{isbn|978-1-137-27186-0}}</ref> He attended [[St Dunstan's College]], [[Catford]] and then went up to [[Christ's College, Cambridge]], graduating in 1933. He become a fellow of Christ's in 1935, and was the college's inaugural Lady Budge Fellow (1936–39).<ref name=COrSt>[https://web.archive.org/web/20061004083655/http://www.oriental.cam.ac.uk/archive/allberry.html CA Charles Robert Cecil Augustine Allberry (1911–43), Egyptologist], Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge, 2002</ref>


Allberry translated [[Manichaeism|Manichaean]] manuscripts into English,<ref name=COrSt /> and is particularly known for translating and editing the first edition of ''[[Manichaean Psalter|A Manichean Psalm-Book]]'', Part II, in 1938. This manuscript, a collection of psalms, dates from the 4th century and was discovered at [[Medinet Madi]], [[Faiyum]], Egypt in 1930, becoming part of the [[Chester Beatty Papyri|Chester Beatty Collection]]. In a contemporary review, W. E. Crum writes:
Allberry translated [[Manichaeism|Manichaean]] manuscripts into English,<ref name=COrSt /> and is particularly known for translating and editing the first edition of ''[[Manichaean Psalter|A Manichean Psalm-Book]]'', Part II, in 1938. This manuscript, a collection of psalms, dates from the 4th century and was discovered at [[Medinet Madi]], [[Faiyum]], Egypt in 1930, becoming part of the [[Chester Beatty Papyri|Chester Beatty Collection]]. In a contemporary review, W. E. Crum writes:
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==Model for Roy Calvert==
==Model for Roy Calvert==
A friend of the novelist [[C. P. Snow]], Allberry was a model for Roy Calvert in Snow's novels ''[[The Light and the Dark]]'' (1947) and ''[[The Masters (novel)|The Masters]]'', in the ''[[Strangers and Brothers]]'' series,<ref name=Gardner_Lieu /><ref name=Putt /><ref>[[Philip Snow]] (2006) C. P. Snow. ''Christ's College Magazine'' 231, 67–69</ref> although Calvert is a scholar of Manichaean Sogdian, rather than Coptic.<ref name=Gardner_Lieu /> The character was played by [[Nigel Havers]] in the television adaptation of the novels (1984).<ref name=Putt />
Allberry was a close friend of the novelist [[C. P. Snow]], who was devastated by his death.<ref name=Tredell /><ref name=Putt /> Allberry became the model for Roy Calvert in Snow's ''[[The Light and the Dark]]'' (1947) and several other novels in the ''[[Strangers and Brothers]]'' series,<ref name=Tredell /><ref name=Gardner_Lieu /><ref name=Putt /><ref>[[Philip Snow]] (2006) C. P. Snow. ''Christ's College Magazine'' 231, 67–69</ref> although Calvert is a scholar of Manichaean Sogdian, rather than Coptic.<ref name=Gardner_Lieu /> The character was played by [[Nigel Havers]] in the television adaptation of the novels (1984).<ref name=Putt />


Snow's use of an identifiable friend in ''The Light and the Dark'' raised controversy. [[Gorley Putt]], a friend of Allberry's from his undergraduate days, refutes the notions that Allberry was a Nazi sympathiser and subject to bouts of depression.<ref name=Putt /> J. Neville Birdsall writes that the Calvert's depicted promiscuity was not a reflection of Allberry, and that the portrayal distressed Allberry's widow and son.<ref name=Birdsall>James Neville Birdsall (1997). [http://epapers.bham.ac.uk/3303/1/CRCA_Allberry_and_CP_Snows_%27Roy_Calvert%27.pdf], [[University of Birmingham]] (downloaded 7 October 2022)</ref>
Snow's use of an identifiable friend in ''The Light and the Dark'' raised controversy. [[Gorley Putt]], a friend of Allberry's from his undergraduate days, refutes the notions that Allberry was a Nazi sympathiser and subject to bouts of depression.<ref name=Putt /> J. Neville Birdsall writes that the Calvert's depicted promiscuity was not a reflection of Allberry, and that the portrayal distressed Allberry's widow and son.<ref name=Birdsall>James Neville Birdsall (1997). [http://epapers.bham.ac.uk/3303/1/CRCA_Allberry_and_CP_Snows_%27Roy_Calvert%27.pdf], [[University of Birmingham]] (downloaded 7 October 2022)</ref>

Revision as of 11:26, 7 October 2022

Charles Robert Cecil Augustine Allberry (9 November 1911 – 3 April 1943) was an English Egyptologist and Coptic scholar.[1][2] He was best known during his lifetime for his 1938 partial translation of A Manichean Psalm-Book, and posthumously as the model for C. P. Snow's character, Roy Calvert, introduced in The Light and the Dark (1947). Allberry served in the Royal Air Force in the Second World War and was shot down and killed in 1943.

Education and career

Allberry was born in Sydenham in 1911,[1] to Hilda and William Harry Allberry.[3] His background was middle-class, his father being a manager, perhaps in the insurance industry.[4] He attended St Dunstan's College, Catford and then went up to Christ's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1933. He become a fellow of Christ's in 1935, and was the college's inaugural Lady Budge Fellow (1936–39).[1]

Allberry translated Manichaean manuscripts into English,[1] and is particularly known for translating and editing the first edition of A Manichean Psalm-Book, Part II, in 1938. This manuscript, a collection of psalms, dates from the 4th century and was discovered at Medinet Madi, Faiyum, Egypt in 1930, becoming part of the Chester Beatty Collection. In a contemporary review, W. E. Crum writes:

To have deciphered 230 pages of papyrus where many of them ... still show but a minority of indubitable letters, would in itself be a remarkable performance; to have produced plausible, often ingenious translations from such ruined materials, where lack of context and strangeness of subject-matter might well have discouraged more experienced scholars, is an achievement on which Mr. Allberry—whose first publication this is—deserves our congratulations and our thanks.[5]

According to Theodor Harmsen of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, Allberry's translation successfully realised the "lyrical character" of the material.[6] I. M. F. Gardner and S. N. C. Lieu considered in 1996 that the translation was "rightly hailed as a literary as well as a philological triumph"; they also note that Allberry's English translation made this text the most famous of the Medinet Madi Manichaean manuscripts among the English-speaking research community.[7]

Allberry also compiled a Coptic dictionary, unfinished at his death.[2] He served as editor of the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology from 1939.[1] In 1949, several years after his death, the library of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge, acquired part of his library, including unpublished manuscripts.[1][2] According to the Faculty of Oriental Studies, Allberry "did much to further the study of Coptic in Cambridge".[2]

Model for Roy Calvert

Allberry was a close friend of the novelist C. P. Snow, who was devastated by his death.[4][8] Allberry became the model for Roy Calvert in Snow's The Light and the Dark (1947) and several other novels in the Strangers and Brothers series,[4][7][8][9] although Calvert is a scholar of Manichaean Sogdian, rather than Coptic.[7] The character was played by Nigel Havers in the television adaptation of the novels (1984).[8]

Snow's use of an identifiable friend in The Light and the Dark raised controversy. Gorley Putt, a friend of Allberry's from his undergraduate days, refutes the notions that Allberry was a Nazi sympathiser and subject to bouts of depression.[8] J. Neville Birdsall writes that the Calvert's depicted promiscuity was not a reflection of Allberry, and that the portrayal distressed Allberry's widow and son.[10] Patricia Allberry (under her new married name of Lewis) published a memoir in 1984, containing her own recollections as well as those of John Plumb (the former Master of Christ's College) and others.[10]

Personal life and Second World War service

In addition to Snow and Putt, Allberry's circle included John Plumb and Harry Hinsley.[8] Allberry was Anglo-Catholic and converted to Roman Catholicism while in the Royal Air Force, adding the name "Augustine".[10]

On 27 August 1942, Allberry married Patricia Katherine Grace Sandbach from South Wootton in Norfolk.[1][3][11] They had a son, David[8] Charles Anthony Allberry, born on 31 July 1943, after Allberry's death.[citation needed]

During the Second World War, Allberry worked at Bletchley Park and then joined the Royal Air Force,[1] where he served as part of Bomber Command. Whilst a flying officer, Allberry and five other men were killed during a raid on Essen on 3 April 1943 when their Handley Page Halifax was shot down by Oberleutnant Eckart-Wilhelm von Bonin. The aircraft crashed near Weert in the German-occupied Netherlands. Navigator Allberry and air gunner Sergeant Thomas Henry Webb were found at the wreckage, the former dead, the latter alive, but fatally wounded.[12][13][14] Allberry is buried at Eindhoven (Woensel) General Cemetery, in the Netherlands.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h CA Charles Robert Cecil Augustine Allberry (1911–43), Egyptologist, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge, 2002
  2. ^ a b c d A New Orientation: the Origins of a Faculty Library, Cambridge Universities Libraries Information Bulletin 47, 2000
  3. ^ a b c Flying Officer Charles Robert Cecil Austin Allberry, Commonwealth War Graves Commission (accessed 7 October 2022)
  4. ^ a b c Nicolas Tredell. C. P. Snow: The Dynamics of Hope, pp. 12, 20 (Palgrave Macmillan; 2012) ISBN 978-1-137-27186-0
  5. ^ W. E. Crum (1939). Review: A Manichaean Psalm-Book by C. R. C. Allberry. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 71 (3): 473–78 JSTOR 25201974
  6. ^ Theodor Harmsen (27 October 2005) Mani and Manichaeism in the BPH, Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica/J. R. Ritman Library
  7. ^ a b c I. M. F. Gardner, S. N. C. Lieu (1996). From Narmouthis (Medinet Madi) to Kellis (Ismant El-Kharab): Manichaean Documents from Roman Egypt. The Journal of Roman Studies 86: 146–69 JSTOR 300427
  8. ^ a b c d e f Gorley Putt (September 1987). Charles Allberry and Roy Calvert. Encounter 72–78
  9. ^ Philip Snow (2006) C. P. Snow. Christ's College Magazine 231, 67–69
  10. ^ a b c James Neville Birdsall (1997). [1], University of Birmingham (downloaded 7 October 2022)
  11. ^ "Marriages: Allberry : Sandbach", The Times, no. 49343, p. 1, 17 September 1942
  12. ^ "Allberry C", internationalbcc.co.uk, retrieved 14 February 2020
  13. ^ "Charles Robert Cecil Austin Allberry", gravenstichtingbrabant.nl, retrieved 18 February 2020
  14. ^ Accident description for Halifax JB845 at the Aviation Safety Network

Further reading

  • Charles Allberry: A Portrait. Patricia K. G. Lewis (E. and L. Plumridge, Cambridge, 1984)
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