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Bulletin of Spanish Studies: HispanicStudies and Researches on Spain,Portugal and Latin AmericaPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cbhs20

Laurence Keates (1929–2012)David Frier aa University of LeedsPublished online: 19 Feb 2013.

To cite this article: David Frier (2013) Laurence Keates (1929–2012), Bulletin of Spanish Studies:Hispanic Studies and Researches on Spain, Portugal and Latin America, 90:2, 257-258, DOI:10.1080/14753820.2012.756212

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14753820.2012.756212

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Laurence Keates (1929�2012)*

DAVID FRIER

University of Leeds

Laurence Keates, formerly Senior Lecturer in Portuguese at the Universityof Leeds, died at St James’ Hospital in Leeds on 27 May 2012.

He was born in Cheadle, in Staffordshire in 1929 and took a degree inSpanish with an optional course in Portuguese at the University ofBirmingham, graduating in 1952. After graduation he moved to Lisbon,where he continued with his studies of Portuguese, as well as teachingEnglish in the Portuguese army; it was also during this period that he methis future wife, Sita. He subsequently obtained a Portuguese governmentgrant to study for an MA on the work of Gil Vicente, which he completed atthe University of Birmingham in 1959. During the late 1950s he spent somethree years at Queen’s College in British Guyana, teaching French, Spanishand Portuguese and also becoming Head of the Modern Languages sectionthere, before returning to Europe to spend two years teaching English at theUniversity of Lisbon.

In 1961 he was appointed Assistant Lecturer in Portuguese at theUniversity of Leeds and spent the rest of his academic career there, beingpromoted to Senior Lecturer in 1972 and retiring in 1989. It was largely as aresult of Laurence’s efforts that Portuguese grew to become an independentdegree subject at Leeds, maintaining its place within the Department ofSpanish and Portuguese while also increasing the range of Joint Honourscombinations in which Portuguese could be taken as a programmeindependent from Spanish. The increasing popularity of the language andrelated culture(s) at Leeds owed much to his character, temperament andenthusiasm. Teaching in a very friendly and human way, he kindled hisstudents’ interest*his Head of Department once wrote that students ofPortuguese at Leeds radiated a real excitement about their subject. Theannual ‘Portuguese Week’ which he organized throughout the 1970s and1980s (and which continued as an annual event at Leeds until around 2004)included films, exhibitions and lectures and gave a wider audience an insightinto the riches and variety of Lusophone culture.

* I would like to thank Patricia McDermott, Penny Robinson, George Brassay and DroogRobinson for insights and information which have assisted me in writing this memoir

ISSN 1475-3820 print/ISSN 1478-3428 online/13/02/000257-02# 2013 Bulletin of Spanish Studies. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14753820.2012.756212

Bulletin of Spanish Studies, Volume XC, Number 2, 2013

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Laurence also oversaw the creation of the Leitorado funded by theInstituto de Alta Cultura Portuguesa (the predecessor of today’s InstitutoCamoes) and introduced a similar collaboration with the Braziliangovernment, which continued for many years. As a result of personalconnections to Goa, he also developed awareness at Leeds of Portuguese asa reflection of a truly global culture, displaying a particular interest in thePortuguese history of exploration, missionary work and contact with othercultures in Asia. In this way his efforts were instrumental in giving theUniversity of Leeds the status it has today as one of the main centres for thestudy of the language and its related cultures in the UK. He was a foundingmember (and later Vice-President) of the International Association ofLusitanists and helped to attract its second international conference toLeeds in 1987.

In 1962 Laurence published his highly regarded monograph The CourtTheatre of Gil Vicente (Lisboa: Livraria Escolar Editora), which wassubsequently translated into Portuguese in the 1980s. He also worked onthe novels of Eca de Queiroz, publishing a substantial article on O Mandarimin the Revue de Litterature Comparee (‘Mysterious Miraculous Mandarin:Origins, Literary Paternity, Implication in Ethics’, [1966], 40:4, 497�525)which demonstrated his wide-ranging knowledge across a variety ofEuropean literary traditions. His Manual of Spanish and Portuguese ProseComposition (London: Harrap, 1969) and his First Course in Portuguese(Leeds: Univ. of Leeds, 1969) were valuable and widely-used resources, andhe also contributed significantly to the Department’s provision in Spanishliterature (particularly in the area of the poets of the Spanish Generacion del27). This wide-ranging knowledge, the sensitivity of his response toliterature in general and his dry sense of humour made him a teachermuch appreciated by students and colleagues alike.

In 1989 Laurence took early retirement for health reasons, but for manyyears afterwards he continued to support lectures and cultural activities heldin the Department at Leeds. He was also active in the Liberal DemocratParty in Leeds for many years, as well as being an active member of theChurch of the Holy Name of Jesus in Leeds, where his funeral service washeld in June 2012, in the presence of friends, family, former colleagues, andstudents. He is survived by Sita, three children and six grandchildren.

258 BSS, XC (2013) DAVID FRIER

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