The Times/1917/Obituary/James Bass Mullinger

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Death of Dr. Mullinger

Historian of Cambridge University

We regret to record the death of Dr. J. Bass Mullinger, the historian of the University of Cambridge, which took place yesterday afternoon at his residence in the Town.

Dr. Mullinger was born Bishop's Stortford and educated at University College, London, and St. John's College, Cambridge, whence he graduated in double honours, having take both the Classical and Moral Science Triposes. He also won the Le Bas, the Hulsean, and the Kaye Prizes.

For a time he was Lecturer at Bedford College, London. On his return to Cambridge he became Birkbeck Lecturer on Ecclesiastical History at Trinity College, and was a Lecturer to the Teachers' Training Syndicate on the "History of Education." For many years he held a University Lectureship in History and was Librarian of the beautiful Library of St. John's College.

He was an author of numerous books, the most important of which, and one which will keep his name alive, is his monumental "History of the University of Cambridge Down to the Decline of the Platonists." The first volume of this appeared in 1873, the third six years ago. The long interval of a quarter of a century between the publication of the second and the third volumes was partly due to his whole-heartedly devoting himself to the duties of Lecturer and Librarian, and partly to the fact that he was a frequent and valued contributor to the "Dictionary of National Biography" and many encyclopædias and learned journals. The three volumes of his History contain a mass of detailed information presented in an agreeable style, and rendered accessible by excellent indices. In conjunction with the late Professor S. R. Gardiner, Dr. Mullinger prepared an "Introduction to English History," and with Canon Masterman a treatise on "The Age of Milton," which passed through seven editions. He himself wrote on the Ancient African Church and the Old Catholic Movement, and he also wrote a history of his own college, reaching in all his works a standard of high scholarly attainment.

In recognition of the work he had done for Cambridge, the University in 1912 conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature.

Dr. Mullinger lived a live of a somewhat retired scholar. He was fond of travelling abroad, and had formed a collection of fine photographs of buildings of architectural value. Somewhat precise in his manner, he had an old-world courtesy; and his death has made a gap in the Historical School at Cambridge which will be difficult to fill.