Edmund Kerchever Chambers, born West Isley, Berkshire, 16 March 1866. Educated at Marlborough; Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Employed by the Education Department from 1892; served under Sir Robert Morant, permanent secretary to the newly constituted Board of Education, 1903-; became second secretary, 1921; resigned 1926. During his years as a civil servant he did much higher journalism and edited many editions of the English classics, especially Shakespeare. First president of the Malone Society (1906-1939). Chamber's services to education and scholarship led to many honours including honorary degree of D.Litt. from Durham, 1922, and Oxford, 1939; honorary fellowship at Corpus, 1934; F.B.A., 1924; C.B., 1912; K.B.E., 1925. He married Eleanor Christabel (Nora) in 1893. Died, Beer, Devonshire, 21 January 1954. Publications included:
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The Mediaeval Stage, 1903 (2 vols.)
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Early English Lyrics, 1907
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The Elizabethan Stage, 1923 (4 vols.)
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Arthur of Britain, 1927
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Shakespeare, 1930 (2 vols.)
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The Oxford Book of Sixteenth Century Verse, 1932
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Sir Thomas Wyatt and Some Collected Studies, 1933
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Sir Henry Lee, 1936
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Eynsham Under the Monks, (Oxfordshire Record Society, 1936)
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Shakespearean Gleanings, 1944
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English Literature at the Close of the Middle Ages, (in Oxford History of English Literature, 1945
Reference: Dictionary of National Biography, 1951-1960
From the guide to the Papers of Sir Edmund Kerchever Chambers, c1903-1948, (University of Birmingham Information Services, Shakespeare Institute Library)
