Philip Humphrey Vellacott (16 January 1907 – 24 August 1997) was an English classical scholar, known for his numerous translations of Greek tragedy.
He was born at Grays, Essex and educated at St Paul's School, London and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a double first in the Classics Tripos.[1]
During the 1930s, Vellacott taught at Liverpool University, and schools including Dulwich College, London. He carried on teaching through the Second World War, as he was a conscientious objector. It was during his time as a teacher that he completed most of his Penguin Books classical translations centred on the works of Aeschylus, Euripides and Theophrastus.
Vellacott lectured on Greek drama on four tours in the US and spent time as a visiting lecturer at the University of California at Santa Cruz.[2] He retired in 1967 to Radnorshire, where he carried on writing until his death in 1997.
In 1939 he married Nancy Agnew. The artist Elisabeth Vellacott was his sister.[1]
