Ker, William Paton (1855–1923)

Scottish scholar. An authority on medieval literature, he wrote such works as Epic and Romance 1897, The Dark Ages 1904, The Art of Poetry 1923, and Essays on Medieval Literature 1923. He was professor of poetry at Oxford University from 1920.

Ker was born in Glasgow and studied at Oxford, becoming a fellow of All Souls College 1879. He was professor of English and history at Cardiff 1883, and in 1889 became professor of English at University College, London. He died while climbing in the Alps with the travel writer Freya Stark.