Background
Frank Ezra Adcock was born on 15 April 1886, in Desford, United Kingdom. He was the son of Thomas Draper Adcock, the head of Desford Industrial School, and Mary Esther Coltman Adcock.
King's Parade, Cambridge CB2 1ST, United Kingdom
Adcock studied at King’s College, University of Cambridge.
(In Caesar as a Man of Letters, Adcock studied the form an...)
In Caesar as a Man of Letters, Adcock studied the form and style of Caesar’s literary works and provided commentaries with historical background. Herbert Cahoon wrote in Library Journal that “the fine scholarship and powers of persuasion in this volume should take many readers back to the original texts of Caesar.”
https://www.amazon.com/Caesar-Man-Letters-Frank-Adcock/dp/1258123185/?tag=2022091-20
1956
(This informal history traces battle tactics and military ...)
This informal history traces battle tactics and military strategy from the time of the city-states' phalanxes of spearmen to the far-reaching combined operations of specialized land and sea forces in the Hellenistic Age.
https://www.amazon.com/Greek-Macedonian-Art-War/dp/0520000056/?tag=2022091-20
1957
(The story unfolds against a background of wars, financial...)
The story unfolds against a background of wars, financial tangles, shifting foreign policy, and personal rivalries. Sir Frank finds the secret of Roman power in the dignity of its great men and the liberty of the small.
https://www.amazon.com/Roman-Political-Ideas-Practice-Adcock/dp/0472060880/?tag=2022091-20
1959
cryptographer engineer historian author
Frank Ezra Adcock was born on 15 April 1886, in Desford, United Kingdom. He was the son of Thomas Draper Adcock, the head of Desford Industrial School, and Mary Esther Coltman Adcock.
Adcock studied at Wyggeston School, a grammar school in Leicester. He went on to study classics at King’s College, University of Cambridge.
Adcock served as a cryptographer in both World War I, in Room 40, and World War II, from 1939 to 1943.
In 1911, Adcock was elected as a fellow and lecturer of King's College, Cambridge. He held the Chair of Ancient History at Cambridge from 1925 to 1951 when he retired.
With J. B. Bury and S. A. Cook, Adcock edited the Cambridge Ancient History, which was published from 1923 to 1939, and also wrote ten chapters of it.
(This informal history traces battle tactics and military ...)
1957(In Caesar as a Man of Letters, Adcock studied the form an...)
1956(The story unfolds against a background of wars, financial...)
1959Adcock was president of the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies from 1929 to 1931. In 1936 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA). Adcock was president of the Classical Association from 1947 to 1948.
Adcock's qualities of mind found a new and important field of activity during the First World War when he was engaged in the Intelligence Division of the Admiralty from 1915 to 1919. His powers of memory, his precision, dexterity, speed, and tenacity, coupled with his superb knowledge of German (he translated Thucidydes into German with immediate bilingual facility), enabled him to excel in deciphering the codes of the enemy as surely as he had done in matters of ancient history.
Nor was this solely an intellectual exercise. It carried heavy responsibility at times: for instance on one occasion at a small hour of the night when he had to decide whether or not the Home Fleet should be alerted to put to sea. From these experiences, he gained insight into practical affairs and appreciated the importance of prompt and efficient planning. He had the highest regard for his naval chief, Admiral Hall, of whom a large drawing held a conspicuous place in his room. And he had ever afterward an unrivaled skill in the solving of crossword puzzles.
His mind was as acute as ever, but in his mid-fifties, he had perhaps less of the intellectual stamina which had enabled him to maintain such unremitting zest and pace in the First World War. Once again, he had contact with the problems and the policies of war and politics, and he gave his mind closely to the course of events during and after his period of service. These matters provided food for exposition and sometimes for discussion during his afternoon walks in the post-war years. But to him, the events of both wars had registered rather on the intellectual than on the emotional plane. He had not himself suffered or seen suffering in others at close quarters, and his qualities of mind did not include a vivid imaginative insight into experiences outside his orbit.
Quotes from others about the person
"Adcock is one of the greatest interpreters of Roman history.” - A. E. R. Boak