Wilfrid Berridge

Wilfrid BerridgeWilfrid Berridge M.A., author of this translation of the Battle of Maldon, was born in London in 1906. He was the son of Canon Jesse Berridge, a priest in the parish of Colchester, then at Witham, also in Essex, and finally at Little Baddow where Wilfrid spent most of his childhood.


He was educated at boarding school at St John's, Leatherhead, in Surrey, from where he went on to study Classics at Wadham College, Oxford.

On leaving Oxford, he obtained a post as a teacher at Maldon Grammar School, where he remained for his entire teaching career until his retirement in 1972. He was head of both the Classics and English departments, and was well known for producing some remarkable Shakespearean school plays. Towards the end of his career, the Grammar School became comprehensive and was linked with the Secondary Modern School to form what is now the Plume School in Maldon: he was the first Headteacher of the Lower Plume School, and saw it through its early formative years.


He married Olive in 1939 whom he had met during his role in the A.R.P. during the war.
He died in 1987 and is buried in Little Baddow churchyard, a few miles from Maldon.



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