Name Vivian H. | Role Author | |
Died January 18, 2005, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom Books The Madness of Kings, A New History of Christianity, From St Augustine to William, The European Reformation, John Wesley | ||
Vivian Hubert Howard Green (18 November 1915 – 18 January 2005) was a Fellow and Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford, a priest, author, teacher, and historian. He was also celebrated for his influence on his student John le Carré, who in 1995 acknowledged him as one of the models for his spymaster character George Smiley.
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Green was born in Wembley, Middlesex, England; his parents, Hubert and Edith Green, owned confectionery shops, first in Wembley, and then on the Isle of Wight. Strongly encouraged by his mother, Green attended Bradfield College, Berkshire, then won a Goldsmith's scholarship to Trinity Hall, Cambridge (1933), where he achieved a First in the Tripos. At Trinity Hall, he specialised in ecclesiastical history and became the Lightfoot Scholar. Postgraduate work was done on a Gladstone Scholarship to St Deiniol's Library, Hawarden followed by a period of lecturing on ecclesiastical history at St Augustine's College, Canterbury. When asked if he had considered sitting the exams for ordination, he noted that this would pose problems as he was responsible for marking them, but he was ordained in 1939 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Gordon Lang.
Green was the only Fellow of Lincoln to vote against the college accepting women, but remained in office after the vote in 1979, becoming Rector in 1983. He died in Oxfordshire and is buried in the churchyard of St. Oswalds Church, Widford, Oxfordshire.