Oxford Dick

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH – THE SOURCE OF MERCY – THE MOST MERCIFUL

MURDER, MADNESS AND THE LOVE OF WORDS 

AT S THOMAS' COLLEGE IN THE SEVENTIES, MY BRILLIANT ENGLISH TEACHER MR DAVID HAD A FAVOURITE QUESTION:" DID YOU CONSULT THE OXFORD DICTIONARY?" 

"NO, SIR," I REPLIED. "I GUESSED THE MEANING BY READING." 

THE ANSWER SATISFIED MR DAVID WHO TOLD HIS PUPILS THAT A WORD SEEN IN CONTEXT WAS A ALWAYS AN ASSET. 

WITH A WORKING VOCABULARY MORE THAN 30,000 WORDS, I FELT THAT I HAVE HARDLY REFERRED TO A DICTIONARY AND THE 'OXFORD' TO BOOT, TO FIND THE MEANING OF LESS THAN A THOUSAND. 

IT TOOK FIFTY YEARS FOR THOUSANDS OF VOLUNTEERS TO HELP IN THE MAKING OF THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY. IT WAS WILLIAM CHESTER MINOR WHO PLAYED A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN COMPILING IT. 

W. C. MINOR WAS AN AMERICAN MILLIONAIRE CIVIL WAR SURGEON, WHO HAD TURNED INTO A LUNATIC, AND WAS IMPRISONED IN BRITAIN'S BROADMOOR ASYLUM FOR MURDER. IT WAS THERE THAT HE SPENT ALL HIS CELL BOUND DAYS WORKING ON THE OXFORD DICTIONARY. 

W.C. MINOR WAS BORN IN CEYLON. THE LUSHY OVERGROWN TROPICAL ISLAND WHICH SEEMS TO HANG FROM INDIA'S TIP LIKE A TEAR DROP, OR A PEAR OR A PEARL. IT IS A GARDEN OF EDEN FOR SINNERS, AND ISLAND LIMBO FOR THOSE WHO YIELD TO TEMPTATION. 

CEYLON IS REALLY A KIND OF POST LAPSARIAN TREASURE ISLAND, WHERE EVERY SENSUAL GIFT OF THE TROPICS IS AVAILABLE, BOTH TO REWARD TEMPTATION AND TO BEGUILE AND CHARM. A COUNTRY WITH RICH HOT SWEET MOIST BREEZE, SCENTED BY THE SEA AND SPICES. 

SOON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE WAS TO BE ENRICHED BY THE WORD SERENDIPITY. "THESE DAYS IT IS CALLED SRI LANKA, WHILST ONCE THE ARAB SEA TRADERS CALLED IT SERENDIB. THE INVENTOR OF THE WORD, WHO NEVER TRAVELLED TO THE EAST NEVER REALLY KNEW WHY." 

OF COURSE THE CINNAMON, COFFEE AND TEA, SAPPHIRES AND RUBIES, MANGOES AND CASHEWS, ELEPHANTS AND LEOPARDS.

HOWEVER, WE KNOW THAT MINOR WAS BORN IN JUNE 1834 AND THAT HIS PARENTS WERE AMERICAN MISSIONARIES, WHO ARRIVED ON A CARGO SHIP CARRYING ICE FROM SALEM TO CEYLON. THEY SETTLED IN THE NORTH EAST COAST IN MANIPAY. 

MINOR'S MOTHER HAD DIED OF CONSUMPTION WHEN HE WAS THREE YEARS OLD. HIS FATHER EASTMAN LEFT HIS SISTER WITH SINHALESE MISSIONARIES IN UDUVIL, AND TOOK HIM ON A JOURNEY TO FIND A WIFE. AT SINGAPORE HIS FATHER MET JUDITH TAYLOR. HE PERSUADED HER TO COME WITH HIM ON THE NEXT JAFFNA BOUND STEAMER. THEY WERE MARRIED BY THE AMERICAN CONSUL IN COLOMBO BEFORE CHRISTMAS 1839. 

YOUNG MINOR MADE GREAT USE OF THE MISSION LIBRARY AND READ PROFUSELY. HE SOON MASTERED HINDI, TAMIL AND VARIOUS CHINESE DIALECTS. 

AT 29 HE NEARLY DIE FROM SEPTICAEMIA, WHICH HE GOT WHEN HE CUT HIS HAND DURING A POST-MORTEM. 

MINOR JOINED THE US ARMY AS A SURGEON IN THE CIVIL WAR. HE SAW THE BLOODSHED AND THE HORRORS AND THE GANGRENE, PUS AND AMPUTATIONS FROM PAIN AND DISEASE. HE WAS APPALLED BY THE LOSS OF LIFE: 360,000 UNION TROOPS AND 258,000 CONFEDERATES. HE THOUGHT OF CEYLON AND IN 1864 HE READ WIDELY AND RESORTED TO PAINTING IN WATER COLOURS. 

SOON MINOR SAW 5000 SOLDIERS DESERTING EVERY MONTH, WHILST OTHERS FLED IN THE FACE OF GUNFIRE. MINOR WAS TAKEN ABACK WHEN ONE YOUNG IRISH DESERTER WAS BRANDED ON HIS FACE. 

MINOR WAS SOON DECLARED TO BE INCAPACITATED "BY CAUSES ARISING IN THE LINE OF DUTY AND SHOULD BE RETIRED WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT." 

ON 17TH FEBRUARY 1872 THREE GUNSHOTS WERE HEARD AT LAMBETH IN LONDON, WHERE ROADS AND RAILWAYS MEET. IT WAS NOT THE LAMBETH WALK OR THE PALAIS GLIDE. THE VICTIM WAS GEORGE MERRITT, A STOKER AT THE LOCAL BREWERY. HE WAS AN INNOCENT WORKING CLASS MAN, WITH A PREGNANT WIFE AND SIX CHILDREN, ALL LIVING IN DIRE POVERTY. 

A FEW MINUTES AFTER THE SHOOTING, CONSTABLE HENRY TARRANT ARRESTED THE MAN WHO FIRED THE SHOTS. HE WAS THE 37 YEAR OLD WILLIAM CHESTER MINOR, THE QUALIFIED AMERICAN SURGEON, WHO HAD BEEN IN LONDON FOR LESS THAN A YEAR. HE WAS TAKEN TO THE HORSE-MONGER LANE GAOL ON A MURDER CHARGE. 

HIS LONDON LANDLADY SAID THAT HER TENANT "WAS ODD AND FEARED THE IRISH". EVIDENCE WAS TO SHOW THAT MINOR WAS INSANE. AT BROADMOOR HE WAS "PATIENT NO. 742" HELD AS A CERTIFIED CRIMINAL LUNATIC. 

AT 38 SURGEON WILLIAM CHARLES MINOR, OF NO KNOWN RELIGION, WAS CHARGED WITH THE MURDER OF GEORGE MERRITT OF LAMBETH. HE WAS FOUND NOT GUILTY ON THE GROUNDS OF INSANITY. 

IT TOOK 70 YEARS TO CREATE THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY AND WALTER CHESTER MINOR PLAYED A SIGNIFICANT PART IN COMPILING THE BOOK. THE DICTIONARY DEPENDED ON QUOTATIONS FROM PUBLISHED WORKS. MINOR IN HIS CELL DID NOT GIVE UP HIS INTEREST IN 'WORDS'. AS A RICH MILLIONAIRE HE WAS ALLOWED TO PURCHASE BOOKS. 

MINOR EVENTUALLY DECIDED TO MEET THE WIDOW OF THE MAN HE MURDERED AND OFFERED TO HELP HER FINANCIALLY. ELIZA MERRIT WAS HAPPY TO ACCEPT THE MONEY HE GAVE HER, AND EVEN VISITED THE SURGEON IN THE ASYLUM. 

JAMES MURRAY WAS THE FAMOUS EDITOR OF THE OXFORD DICTIONARY. FROM HIS CELL WILLIAM CHESTER MINOR DID HIS PART IN THE COMPILATION OF THE OXFORD DICTIONARY. THE 70 YEAR PROJECT SAW 12 VOLUMES, 414,825 WORDS WERE DEFINED, THERE WERE 1,827,306 ILLUSTRATIVE QUOTATIONS. MINOR CONTRIBUTED THOUSANDS. THE DICTIONARY HAS 227,779,589 LETTERS AND NUMBERS. THERE WERE SUPPLEMENTS IN 1933, 1972 AND 1988. 

FOR TWENTY YEARS DR. JAMES MURRAY AND WALTER CHESTER MINOR HAD CORRESPONDENT ON THE FINER POINTS OF 'WORDS', BUT THEY HAD NEVER MET. MINOR DID NOT EXPLAIN WHY HE DID NOT COME TO OXFORD. MURRAY WAS SHOCKED WHEN HE HEARD THAT MINOR WAS THE LONGEST RESIDENT IN A LUNATIC ASYLUM: A MAD SURGEON AND A MURDERER. IN 1910 MINOR WAS DISCHARGED FROM BROADMOOR ASYLUM. HE DONATED ALL HIS BOOKS TO MURRAY. 

ON 28TH MARCH 1920 AT 85 WALTER CHESTER MINOR DIED. THERE WAS NO 'OBITUARY' AND THERE WAS A TWO LINE DEATH NOTICE. HE WAS BURIED IN AMERICA'S EVERGREEN CEMETERY. THE INSCRIPTION SAYS: "MY FAITH LOOKS UP TO THEE." 

AND SO, ONE OF THE GREATEST CONTRIBUTORS TO THE FINEST ENGLISH DICTIONARY IN ALL THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, DIED FORGOTTEN IN OBSCURITY AND IS BURIED NEAR A SLUM'. THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY WAS COMPLETED ON NEW YEARS EVE IN 1921. IT IS "ONE OF THE GREATEST ROMANCES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE."