Born: London, 16th August, 1906. Married two daughters. Died on July 4th 1982
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Curriculum Vitae: DAVID SHILLAN BORN: London, 16th August, 1906. Married - two daughters. Died on July 4th 1982. EDUCATED: The Leys, 1919-1924., Christ's College, Cambridge, 1924-1928, M.A. Modern & Medieval Languages Tripos, Part I. (Class II, Division I, with Distinction in Oral French and Spanish). English, "Section A" (Class II, Division I). EXPERIENCE: The Edinburgh Academy, 1928-1934, Class Master and French and English specialist; special responsibilities in English; Editor of The Edinburgh Academy Chronicle for three years; Leith Technical College, 1928-1930, Lecturer in Spanish; Three months training in Educational Administration, (Staffordshire, 1934); Harrow School, temporary mastership; Grove Park School, Wrexham, Senior Modern Language Master;
Tutor and Supervisor of Teaching Practice, 1937-1939; City of London College, Lecturer in English to Foreigners; The British Council, 1939-1948: Director of the British Institute, Belgrade - Representative of the Council, for Yugoslavia - until driven out by enemy invasion, 1941; Deputy-Director of the British Institute in Portugal; Assistant-Director (Europe) Overseas Division, London; Special missions in connection with the re-opening of cultural relations, 1945; Middle East, Balkans, Poland; Attached to Education Division, London, 1946-1948; Director of Summer Schools for Norwegian teachers of English, at Sandane, 1946, and Voss, 1947; Lectures to German teachers of English, Cardiff and Bristol; Resigned 1948. Joint-Director of Summer School for Norwegian teachers of English, Oslo, 1948; Lectures to Italian teachers of English, 1948. Lectures to French teachers of English, 1949. PUBLICATIONS, etc. "Exercises in Criticism" (Bell) 1931; Selections from Milton (jointly with the late Orion Playfair) (Longmans) 1938; Articles on educational and sociological subjects; Special reports in archives of British Council.
Includes broadcasting (in Portuguese and Serbo-Croat language as well as in English), and addresses to Societies, e.g., Royal Institute of International Affairs, Le Play Society, New Europe Group, New Ideals in Education, etc. M. R. S. T. Member of the Central Committee, European Union of Federalists.
"Exercises in Criticism", Bell, 1931. Edition of Milton (P.L. I & II, Lycidas) with O.Playfair, Longmans, 1938. "Spoken English", Longmans, 1954 (with teaching tapes 1966) "Detecting Meaning through Speech", META (Montreal) XI, 3, 1966, "Metodo e Ragione per l'Analise melodiea del. Linguaggio", DELTA 6 (La Spezia) 1967. "Phrasing in teaching & in Translation", Report of International Language Conference of Institute of Army Education, Beltham Palace, London 1967. "An Articulatorj Unit for Speech & Text", English Language Teaching, O.U.P., 1967. XXI, 2. "Segmenting Natural Language "by Articulatory Features", 2nd International Conference on Computational Lingmisties", Grenoble, 1967. "Phrasing & Meaning", META XIII, 2, (Montreal) 1968. "An Application of Contrastive Linguistics", META XV, 3, 1970. "Contrastive Linguistics & the Translator", THE INCORPORATED LINGUIST, 10, 1, Jan. 1971. "A Diploma in Education for a Multicultural Society", NE Community, Oct. 1975.
Research papers at Cambridge Language Research Unit. BBC talks (World Service) e.g. "Testing the Skills of Spoken English"; "Spoken Prose & Written Prose; "Tone Groups, Breath Groups, & Sense Groups"; (further talks in preparation 1974). An Assessor for the practical teaching examination of the Royal Society of Arts Certificate in the Teaching of English as a Second or Foreign Language. An Academic Consultant to the Association of Recognized English Language Schools.
DAVID SHILLAN - An Appreciation David Shillan, who died on July 4th 1982, was named by Frederick Soddy, his friend and colleague of many years standing, as one of the Trustees of the Frederick Soddy Trust. From this followed David's 25 years of service to the Trust. This account of his life is partly based on an appreciation written by his wife Anne Shillan for Bulletin of the Atlantis Foundation, with kind permission of the Foundation's director. David was born at Loughton on 16th August 1906. He was educated at the Leys School in Cambridge from 1919 to 1924 and at Christ's College, Cambridge from 1924 to 1928, where he studied French and Spanish, as well as English literature. His ability to speak a number of languages fluently was one of his outstanding talents. In the course of his life he became fluent in Serbo-Croat and Portuguese as well as French and Spanish, and he could read and speak some German, Italian, Russian and Dutch. At Cambridge he also showed the wide range of his interests, not only in languages and literature but also in music, drama and current affairs, which he maintained throughout his life. During the years 1928 to 1937 David taught at schools in Edinburgh, Leith and Wrexham, as well as for a short time at Harrow school. During all that period he was continually widening his activities. He entered fully into all the school's activities, especially in music and drama. In particular he was concerned with educational theory and practice not only in Britain but throughout Europe. In the summer of 1933 while he was teaching at the Edinburgh Academy, David discovered the New Britain weekly. He took a strong interest in world affairs, but was sceptical of the main political parties. As a regular reader of Everyman, he particularly noticed the writings of C.B. Purdom, who then suddenly left Everyman and became editor of New Britain. There was in Edinburgh a New Britain Group in which David took part, but it does not seem to have been a lively affair, except for one occasion when Professor Soddy spoke at a public meeting, and was entertained by David and Anne, with Lady Geddes and some prominent New Britain members among their other guests. David's real acquaintance with the New Britain came when he attended the Glastonbury Conference in August 1934. From there he and Anne visited London where he first met Mitrinovic. After that his visits to London became more frequent. In 1938 David became a Tutor and Supervisor at the London University Institute of Education in the Department of Modern Languages. He also started his career of teaching English to foreigners at the City of London College. Soon after the beginning of the war (in 1939) he joined the British Council to set up the British-Yugoslav Institute in Belgrade as its first Director, which he did very successfully. Less than 18 months later, however, the Germans invaded Yugoslavia and Belgrade was bombed. During the ten days that followed in April 1941 the British Ambassador, the legation staff and members of the British Institute, as well as some other members of the British Comunity in Yugoslavia, had a most eventful and often dangerous journey to the Dalmatian coast where they were to be met by a British destroyer. It never came, however, and the whole party was captured by the Italians, flown to Italy, and after a time sent to different neutral destinations. David Shillan was in charge of a section of the convoy from Belgrade to the coast and was given the job of organising the welfare of the party as they waited on the Dalmatian coasts He was specially mentioned in a report to the Foreign Secretary by Sir Ronald Campbell for his 'excellent organising capacity and invention'. He also received personal commendation from the Secretary-General of the British Council for his work in the 'foundation and successful development of the Institute in Belgrade at a time that was particularly critical for the future of our work in that country'. He kept up his connections with Yugoslavia for the rest of his life. After the war he helped many Yugoslavs who wanted to come to this country and some who wanted to find jobs here. His fluency in Serbo-Croat and his good relations with many Yugoslavs was of the greatest value to the New Atlantis Foundation and will be much missed. He remained all his life an active member of the Anglo-Yugoslav Society. His next appointment was in Lisbon, where he had gone after leaving Italy, as Deputy Director of the British Institute in Portugal. After a time he was joined there by Anne and the children. After the war he went on several special missions for the British Council in connection with the re-opening of cultural relations in the Middle East, the Balkans and Poland. He resigned from the British Council in 1948. Soon after he joined Davies's School of English and started a branch of it at 96 Charlotte Street which later moved to Highgate. It was in this work that he assisted many young foreign students and gained the gratitude and affection of so many of them with his kindness and patience. Davies's was one of the first schools teaching English to foreigners to be recognised as efficient by the Ministry of Education in 1953 and was a founder member of ARELS (Association of Recognised English Language Schools). After he left Davies's, David continued right up to the end of his life to examine these schools on behalf of the Association and the Royal Society of Arts. There was, however, an interlude between 1964 and 1972 when he undertook quite a different work which was not directly educational, but came as a direct result of his educational work. In 1954 a book of his had been published by Longman's entitled Spoken English, in which he made use of the musical notion of phrasing. Margaret Masterman, who was head of the Cambridge Language Research Unit (C.L.R.U.), which was engaged in work on Mechanical Translation and Information Retrieval, saw the value of this idea of phrasing the work of the Unit and invited David to join it. His grasp and understanding both of English and of several other foreign languages, as well as his musical sense, proved of great value in the work. As well as working in England he spent time in the United States and Canada. With the latter country C.L.R.U. had a contract for computerising English-French translation. Finally, after this interlude, he joined the Southlands College of Education as a part-time Lecturer in the English Department, where he worked from 1970 to 1976. Here too, as in all his other professional appointments, he took a great interest in the life of the College and entered into many activities beyond the call of duty. Such was David Shillan's professional career. Yet this account covers only part of his many interests. Throughout the post-war years he was speaking, lecturing and writing on many different subjects, from Education generally to Linguistics, or European Federation. He played a prominent part after the war in organising New Europe Group lunches and meetings and other events. He was in regular communication with Alexandre Marc who has worked tirelessly in the cause of European Federation ever since the 1930s, when as a leading figure in L'Ordre Nouveau he was in close touch with New Britain. At the time when many people's careers are drawing to a close David Shillan blossomed out into ever new activities, all of a voluntary nature. The Frederick Soddy Trust was one of his greatest concerns. Others included the New Atlantis Music Club, of which he was Hon. Secretary. He became Chairman of the Barnes Music Club, and was in effect the first Chairman of the newly formed Richmond upon Thames Arts Council which he helped develop from small beginnings. He was Honorary Secretary of the New Atlantis Foundation from its beginning and in 1966 became a Trustee. He gave Foundation Lectures on Auguste Comte and Patrick Geddes and also one on Mitrinovic's view of the world as a developing organism. He was a Fellow both of the Institute of Linguistics and of the Royal Geographical Society. He did much to foster the close links between the Royal Geographical Society and the Frederick Soddy Trust. ln the end it is to his personal qualities that we must return. Throughout his persistent efforts and hard work and the very wide range of his cultural interests he always maintained his style of courtesy and consideration for the feelings and susceptibilities of others, and with great kindness and patience he helped many students and others on their way. We may say that his life was dedicated to education in its widest aspects, and that his devoted work for the Frederick Soddy Trust was a typical expression of his fine intellect and liberal humanity. As a token of affection and regard The Trustees have presented to the Royal Geographical Society as a gift in his memory a desk lamp for use in the Reading Room. The photograph of David with Frederick Soddy, published here by permission of our Trustee Margaret Lewis, recaptures one of many happy moments in a most fruitful collaboration and friendship. Copy: Professor Mead Download 52 Kb. Share with your friends:
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