Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Riddehough, Geoffrey B.
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1900-1978
History
Geoffrey Blundell Riddehough was born on March 18, 1900, in Bramhall, Cheshire, England. Educated in Penticton, B.C., he became a UBC Fairview graduate, earning a first-class honours B.A. (1924) in Latin and English and being awarded the Governor General's gold medal as head of his graduating class. Riddehough joined the UBC faculty in 1933 and remained a member of the Department of Classics for the next thirty-eight years. While at UBC, he pursued his education, obtaining an M.A. (1939) in classics and a Ph.D. from Harvard (1951) with a thesis on the medieval poet Joseph of Exeter. While studying at Harvard, his dissertation essay De Medeae In Iasonem Odio won the Bowdoin Latin Prize (1950). At UBC, Riddehough specialized in Medieval Latin and was noted for his satirical verse.
Riddehough was a prolific writer, and a number of his essays, poems, and short stories were published in various journals and newspapers. Two of his better-known works were his collection of verse, Dance to the Anthill (1972) and the posthumously published Rueful Rhymes: The Satirical Verse of a Couple of Antibodies (1994), co-authored by Geoffrey A. Spencer. Riddehough was familiar with several languages, including French and Cornish, and was versed in ancient Greek and Latin. An interest in the paranormal led Riddehough to participate in a Wicca witch naming ceremony on the Isle of Man. In addition, he wrote numerous short stories about his female witch persona, Anaitis, and the majority of the correspondence from Riddehough within the Pegeen Brennan and Doreen Nalos sousfonds are signed with the Anaitis symbol. Riddehough died suddenly on April 6, 1978, in London, England, returning to Vancouver after visiting Malta.