Arnold Wall

Arnold Wall (15 November 15, 1869 - March 29, 1966) was a New Zealand poet, academic, prose writer, and radio broadcaster.

Life
Wall was born in Nuwara Eliya, Ceylon, the sixth of nine children of Mary Ann (Dixon) and George Wall, a coffee planter and merchant. He was sent to live in England at a young age, and went to boarding school near London in 1879. As a young man he worked as a teacher while studying part-time at the University of London, graduating with an M.A. in 1893. He then taught at the University of Correspondence College in Cambridge, and in 1897 obtained a B.A.from the University of Cambridge. In 1899 he became the chair of English language and literature at the [[University of Canterbury College, where he would remain as an English professor for the next 25 years.

On November 13, 1901, he married Elsie Kent Monro (Curnow), who would bear him two daughers and a son. His wife died in 1924, and he never remarried.

After retiring from Canterbury in 1932, Wall achieved popular recognition through a series of articles in the Press under the title 'Our mother tongue', which established him as an authority on the pronunciation and use of English, and which he turned into an influential book, New Zealand English (1938). From 1955 through 1961 he hosted a popular radio show under the title, "The Queen's English." Forced to discontinue broadcasting due to failing eyesight, at the age of 91, he began another column, "The Jeweller's Window", which ran for another 5 years. In 1965 he published an autobiography, Long and Happy. He died in Christchurch the following year.

Writing
''The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography says of Wall: "His poetry is distinguished by its technical skill, its elegance of expression, and its close and witty observation of human and natural phenomena. Despite this, and his prolific output (he published 10 collections), Wall's work has been largely ignored by New Zealand critics."

Recognition
Wall became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1956. The University of New Zealand made him an honorary doctor of literature in 1960.