Richard Ladborough (1908-1972)

Richard – or as he was usually known, Dick – Ladborough was a Fellow of French Literature and Pepys Librarian here at Magdalene for the greater part of the 20th Century.

He passed away in 1972, leaving a wealth of French books from the Enlightenment era to the Old Library. In his own words, talking about the Pepys collection of which he was particularly fond and protective, Ladborough mused that

‘…any collection of books on a considerable scale bears witness to the character, tastes, and interests of their collector.’[i]

In this spirit, then, it seems only reasonable to compare this smiling, mischievous portrait of Ladborough to a similar one found in all the busts and paintings of Voltaire, whose works constitute a portion of the Ladborough collection. Voltaire invited his fellow philosophes to ‘Always march forward along the highway of Truth […] grinning derisively.’ And so, it seems that Ladborough successfully embodied the satirical, good-humoured erudition of the period in which he immersed himself. According to the kind words in his obituary, given by Ralph F. Bennett:

‘One of the most striking things about Dick was an exuberant sense of fun, which he communicated to old and young alike. Laughter was never far away, and a cheerful grin always lighted up his face when one called at his rooms or met him in the street.’[ii]

A satirist at heart, Ladborough was equipped with ‘a vast repertoire of imitations […] poking unexpectedly sharp fun at their subjects’, which, just as with Voltaire, found a fair share of detractors.[iii] His obituary notes that, ‘At one time or another, all his acquaintance grew furious with Dick […] But affection regularly overcame fury, and Dick was always forgiven in the end.’[iv] Every court has its jester, every pantheon its Loki, and Magdalene, it seems, had Ladborough and his unwavering grin.

According to his student, Nicolas Boyle, now a Professor of German at the College, he ‘could not have been a kinder mentor’.[v] From Boyle, however, Ladborough was to taste his own medicine. In 2018, celebrating his 50 years as a Fellow, Boyle remembered how,

‘…amid the lamps and elegant furniture stood a tubby figure with his thumbs in his waistcoat and a watchchain across it, and on his round face a beaming smile of welcome. It could have been Bilbo Baggins, but it was Dick Ladborough…’[vi]

By turns a Voltaire and a Bilbo, Ladborough was nevertheless an exacting supervisor. Boyle relates how ‘his standards were severe, and he could be merciless to the inaccurate and slipshod.’[vii] He was also a devout Christian, collecting a considerable number of the collected sermons of Bossuet, Fléchier and Bourdaloue.

Known for the ‘serenity’ of his ‘private devotion’, it was notable that he ‘never forced his religion upon others’, no doubt schooled by Voltaire’s famous supplications for religious tolerance.[viii] This attribute he shared with his friend and colleague C.S. Lewis, whose conversations, according to Ladborough’s own account of him, ‘ranged widely and freely and even settled on religion if, but only if, they [students] introduced it.’[ix] The pair were close friends: in one particularly friendly letter between them, Lewis writes to ‘My dear Dick’ of Pepys Whiteley being ‘a very great Bore’.[x]

Accounts of Ladborough’s grinning playfulness, alongside his erudition, piety, and ‘old-fashioned outlook’[xi] conjure an eclectic image of Ladborough. But his collection bears out this variety of personality: setting Voltaire in conversation with Bossuet, Pascal, Aristophanes, Banville, Zola, and Montaigne, his collection certainly does ‘bear witness to the character, tastes, and interests of their collector’.

By Connor C. K. Johnston
Graduate Trainee Librarian

References

[i] Richard Ladborough, ‘The Library of Samuel Pepys’, History Today, Vol 17, Issue 7 July 1967

[ii] Magdalene College Magazine and Record, New Series No. 16: 1971-72, p. 3

[iii] Ibid, 3

[iv] Ibid, 4

[v] Magdalene College Magazine, No.62 2017-18, p.21

[vi] Ibid, 21

[vii] Magdalene College Magazine and Record, New Series No. 16: 1971-72, p. 4

[viii] Ibid, 3

[ix] C.S. Lewis at the Breakfast Table and Other Reminiscences, ed. James T. Como, (Macmillan, New York: 1979), p. 102

[x] C. S. Lewis, C.S. Lewis: collected letters, volume III, ed. Walter Hooper, (Harper Collins, London: 2006), p.1055

[xi] Magdalene College Magazine and Record, New Series No. 16: 1971-72, p. 4