Walter John Herbert Sprott (19 April 1897 – 2 September 1971), known to friends as 'Sebastian' Sprott, and also known as Jack Sprott, was a British psychologist and writer.

By Lady Ottoline Morrell (1873–1938), vintage snapshot print/NPG Ax142600. Dora Carrington; Stephen Tomlin; Walter John Herbert ('Sebastian') Sprott; Lytton Strachey, June 1926

Life

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Sprott was born on 19 April 1897 at Sillwood Place, Crowborough, Sussex, to Herbert Sprott and his wife, née Mary Elizabeth Williams.[1] He was educated at Felsted School and Clare College, Cambridge, where he became a member of the Cambridge Apostles. He was invalidated from serving in the military during the First World War and taught in preparatory schools. In the 1920s, he became acquainted with other members of the Bloomsbury Group. He was romantically involved with the economist John Maynard Keynes, who was at the time also seeing the ballerina Lydia Lopokova. Sprott's affair with Keynes ended after Keynes married Lopokova.[2][3] After a job as a demonstrator at the Psychological Laboratory in Cambridge, he moved to the University of Nottingham, where he eventually became professor of philosophy.[4]

He died on 2 September 1971 at Langham Road, Blakeney, Norfolk.[1]

Works

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Sprott, Walter John Herbert". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/62699. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ The unlikely Lydia LopokovaThe Telegraph, 25 April 2008, Rupert Christiansen
  3. ^ "The firebird of Gordon Square" Kathryn Hughes, The Guardian, 19 April 2008
  4. ^ Janus: The Papers of Walter John Herbert Sprott
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