Subject

Teacher, scholar and poet.
Born Devon as William Johnson. As assistant master at Eton College, 1845 - 1872, he composed the words for the Eton Boating Song.

In 1850 he published a collection of homoerotic Latin verse, "Ionica", inspired by particular boys and actually dedicated to one of them. 22 years later (!) he was sacked, suspected of improper behaviour with boys. That summer, on a trip with two of his pupils, one of them died of a fever in Germany. He changed his name to Cory, went to Madeira for his health, married a woman half his age and had a son. Returning from Madeira in 1882 the family moved to Hampstead where he died.