My friend and former colleague Peter King, who has died aged 95, was one of Britain’s foremost scholars of Dutch studies.
After teaching Dutch at Cambridge University in the 1950s and 60s, in 1976 he moved to the University of Hull to lead its newly established Institute of Modern Dutch Studies. There, as professorial director, he set out what “modern Dutch studies” should constitute, and came up with a definition that went well beyond the study of language and literature. The institute began offering an undergraduate degree in 1980, and, taking inspiration from area studies rather than traditional philology, it fostered a profound knowledge of the speakers of Dutch in both the Netherlands and Flanders.
Those who took the degree not only studied Dutch language, literature and history; they spent a year abroad in a combination of university study and work placement. As such, Peter was in the vanguard of developments in university language studies which have now become commonplace.
Born in Wimbledon, south-west London, to Berkeley King, a bank clerk, and his wife, Beatrice (nee Bedwell), Peter was educated at King’s College choir school in Cambridge and Ardingly college, West Sussex. During the second world war he joined the Royal Navy, acting for a time as liaison officer on a Dutch submarine. This aroused his interest in Dutch language, literature and culture.
After the war he studied Dutch at Bedford College, London, and in Groningen, where he met his future wife, Margaret Leeflang. After an MA at Bedford College he joined Cambridge University, where he taught Dutch as a lecturer. At this time he also became a lay reader in the Church of England, and took an active part in preaching, leading confirmation classes, running a youth group and a choir in the parish in Suffolk where he and Margaret lived. He also gave guidance to people seeking ordination and served on both the Diocesan and the General Synod.
Peter was one of the movers behind the national William and Mary tercentenary celebrations in 1988, the year of his retirement from Hull, and was made Commander in the Order of Orange-Nassau.
Margaret died in 1995. Peter is survived by his daughters, Kate and Gabrielle, sons, Michael and Christopher, 13 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
