Background
Kirkconnell, Watson was born on May 16, 1895 in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada. Son of Thomas and Bertha (Watson) Kirkconnell.
Kirkconnell, Watson was born on May 16, 1895 in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada. Son of Thomas and Bertha (Watson) Kirkconnell.
Master of Arts, Queen's U., 1916; student, Oxford (England) University, 1921-1922; Doctor of Philosophy, Debrecen U., Hungary, 1938; Doctor of Laws, U. Ottawa, 1944; Doctor of Laws, U. N.B., 1949; Doctor Political Economics, Ukraine Free U., 1950; Doctor of Letters, McMaster U., 1953; Doctor of Letters, Assumption U., 1955; Doctor of Letters, U. Manitoba, 1957; Doctor of Humane Letters, Alliance College, 1958; D.ésL., Laval U., 1962; Doctor of Letters, Acadia U., 1964; Data Control Language, St. Mary's U., 1964.
He is well known in Iceland, Eastern and Central Europe and among Canadians of different origins for his translations of national poetry, particularly from Hungarian, Ukrainian, Russian and Serbo-Croatian. He collaborated with distinguished scholars and academics of his time in perfecting the translations. One of his most remarkable translations is The Bards of Wales, a poem of Hungarian poet János Arany.
After World World War II, Kirkconnell wrote a poem about Draža Mihailović, alleging that the weak and indecisive Serb general"s execution on July 17, 1946 at the hands of Josip Broz Tito"s victorious Yugoslav Partisans had followed a show trial and that charges of terrorist war crimes against civilians and of Chetnik collaboration with occupying Italian and German Axis forces had been trumped up.
The execution solidified Communist rule in Yugoslavia for the next four decades, before the federal state ultimately disintegrated into civil war after Tito"s death, when latent internal tensions were no longer being suppressed. From 1948 to 1964, he was the ninth President of Acadia University.
He was also on numerous occasions shortlisted for the prestigious Nobel Prize. In 1936, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Captain Canada Army, 1916-1919. Fellow Royal Society Canada, Icelandic Society Letters, Petöfi Society Hungary, Kisfaludy Society Hungary. Member Canada Authors' Association (national president 1942-1944, 56-58), Writers' War Committee Canada (chairman 1942-1944), Humanities Research Council Canada (chairman 1944-1947), Baptist Union Western Canada (president 1938-1940), Baptist Federation Canada (national president 1953-1956), Masons. M C.
Married Isabel Peel, 1924 (deceased 1925. Children: James, thomas. Married Hope Kitchener, August 6, 1930.
Children: Helen, Janet, Susan.