Hilda Lorimer

Elizabeth Hilda Lockhart Lorimer (30 May 1873 – 1 March 1954) was a British classical scholar who spent her career at Oxford University. Her best known work was in the field of Homeric archaeology and ancient Greece, but she also visited and published on Turkey, Albania and the area that later became Yugoslavia. She took the position of vice-principal of Somerville College during the Second World War. Family Lorimer was born on 30 May 1873 in Edinburgh, Scotland. She was the second of eight children born to Reverend Robert Lorimer and his wife. Her brother David Lockhart Robertson Lorimer was a lieutenant-colonel in the British Indian Army, a linguist and a political official in the British Indian government. Her brothers Gordon and Bert worked in the civil administration in the Indian Political Service. Another, William, became Professor of Classics at St Andrews. Her sister Emilia became a notable poet, and her other sister Florence served as personal secretary to Aurel Stein at the British Museum. It was said that she could speak ancient Greek and Latin by the age of five. She never used her first name; her family called her Hiddo; and at Oxford she came to be known as Highland Hilda because of her Scottish background.