F. M. Cornford
Francis Macdonald Cornford (27 February 1874 – 3 January 1943) was an English classical scholar and translator known for work on ancient philosophy, notably Plato, Parmenides, Thucydides, and ancient Greek religion. Frances Cornford, his wife, was a noted poet. Due to the similarity in their names, he was known in the family as "FMC" and his wife as "FCC". Early life and family. Cornford was born in Eastbourne, Sussex, on 27 February 1874. He attended St Paul's School, London. In 1909 Cornford married the poet Frances Darwin, daughter of Sir Francis Darwin and Ellen Wordsworth Darwin, née  Crofts, and a granddaughter of Charles Darwin. They had five children: Academic career. Cornford was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was a Fellow from 1899 and held a teaching post from 1902. He became the first Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy in 1931 and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1937. He used wit and satire to propagate proposals for reforming the teaching of the classics at Cambridge, in "Microcosmographia Academica" (1908). Cornford coined the phrase "twin pillars of Platonism", referring to the theory of Forms on the one hand, and, on the other the  doctrine of immortality of the soul. He died on 3 January 1943 in his home, Conduit Head in Cambridge. He was cremated at Cambridge Crematorium on 6 January 1943.