Walter Eric Harold CockleFSA (2 December 1939 – 6 December 2018) was a historian of the ancient world at University College London. He specialised in papyrology and is particularly known for his work on the Oxyrhynchus Papyri and his many entries for The Oxford Classical Dictionary. He produced a new edition of Euripides' partly-lost tragedy Hypsipyle based on a meticulous re-examination of the surviving papyrus fragments and was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1987.
Early life and family
Walter Cockle was born in Hendon,[1] Middlesex, on 2 December 1939.[2] He married Helen and they had a son, Christopher.[2]
Career
Cockle was a research fellow in Greek and Latin papyrology at University College London where he was particularly known for his work on the Oxyrhynchus Papyri.[3] He featured in a film Greek Papyri produced by the college's UCOLFILM unit at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1971.[4]
He completed his PhD in 1974 with a thesis on Euripides' tragedy Hypsipyle under the supervision of Eric Turner and Giuseppe Giangrande.[5] Cockle meticulously re-examined the fragments discovered in the Oxyrhynchus Papyri (P.Oxy. VI 852) to produce a new edition of the work which had been considered almost completely lost until its rediscovery at Oxyrhynchus in 1908.[6][7] His edition was published in Italy by Edizioni dell'Ateneo in 1987.[5]
Cockle died on 6 December 2018.[2] His funeral was at St Mary Magdalene church in Latimer, Buckinghamshire, where he was buried in the churchyard.[2][3] In his appreciation of Cockle's life, professor Tommy Wasserman described him as one of the most erudite scholars he had ever met and wondered if anyone else had edited as many New Testament papyri as Cockle had?[3]