Name Eric Ceadel Role Librarian | Died June 1, 1979 | |
Eric Bertrand Ceadel (7 February 1921 – 1 June 1979) was a japanologist and university administrator. He was a University Lecturer in Japanese at the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge from 1962, and Librarian of the Cambridge University Library from 1967 until his death.
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War service
From September 1941 he served in the British Army until he was demobilized in 1945 with the rank of Captain. He was on the first of the twelve courses in Japanese which were run at the Bedford Japanese School, part of the Inter-Services Special Intelligence School in Bedford. The teacher was Captain Oswald Tuck. Most of the graduates of each 6-month course were sent to Bletchley Park to work on the decrypted Japanese signals, but Ceadel was retained as a teacher for all the subsequent courses.
Postwar career
After the war Ceadel returned to Cambridge as a research student at Christ's College, where he worked on the historical development of the Japanese literary language. In 1947 he was appointed to the first newly created lectureship in Japanese at Cambridge and in subsequent years he oversaw the development of Japanese studies at Cambridge. He first travelled to Japan in 1950 to buy books for the University Library. During the visit to Britain in 1953 of Crown Prince Akihito, who succeeded his father as emperor of Japan in 1989, he spent 26–28 May in Cambridge, visiting Trinity College, King's College, the University Library and the Fitzwilliam Museum: Ceadel's services during this visit were described as 'indispensable'. Subsequently, he was heavily involved in University administration, serving on the General Board, the Financial Board and the Council of the Senate. In 1967 he was appointed University Librarian.