The son of Bonamy Dobre and Violet Chase, Bonamy (the younger) was born in 1891 and educated at Haileybury and the RMA, Woolwich. Commissioned in the Royal Artillery in 1910, he served in France and Palestine, and in the Second World War attained to the rank of Lt.-Col. He graduated in 1921 from Christ's College, Cambridge, then lived mainly in France until 1925, when he was appointed a lecturer in English at Queen Mary College, London. There he was active in journalism and as theatre critic for the Nation & Athenaeum . Between 1926 and 1936 he was Professor of English at Cairo before coming to his professorship at Leeds. After retirement in 1955 he became Gresham Professor of Rhetoric in London. He died in 1974. Dobre is particularly remembered for his work on Restoration dramatists, eighteenth-century English literature, and Kipling. He was also a member of the Central Advisory Council for Education (England) and of the editorial board of Universities Quarterly .
From the guide to the Album of signatures of contributors to retirement testimonial fund of Professor Bonamy Dobre, 1955, (GB 206 Leeds University Library)
