John Sykes

John Bradbury Sykes (1929–1993) was a British physicist, lexicographer, and crossword champion. He is most well known as a general editor of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary and the Pocket Oxford English Dictionary as well as for his contributions to several other Oxford dictionaries. Early life John Sykes was born on January 26, 1929 in Folkestone, Kent to parents, Stanley William Sykes and Eleanor Sykes. He attended Wallasey Grammar School, Rochdale High School, and St. Lawrence College, Ramsgate. In 1947, he began attending Wadham College at Oxford University where he studied mathematics, eventually graduating with first-class honours in 1950. He then attended Balliol College from 1950 to 1952 as a Henry Skynner senior student and Merton College from 1952 to 1953 as a Harmsworth senior scholar while completing his DPhil thesis: “Some Problems in Radiative Transfer.” During this time, Sykes met his wife, a fellow physicist, Avril Barbara Hart. They married in 1955. Career After completing his DPhil, Sykes served as a senior scientific officer in the theoretical physics division of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell. He spent nine months working in astrophysics at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin from 1956 to 1957. After returning to England, he was appointed head of the translations office at Harwell library where he was responsible for translating and editing translations of scientific writings. Though he only spoke German and Dutch in addition to English, Harwell’s records attest that Sykes had scientific reading knowledge of fifteen languages, specializing in Russian translation. He developed his ability to read these languages by first learning the relevant scientific terminology and the grammar of the language without attending to the literature or spoken form. Notably, he collaborated on a translation of the ten-volume Course of Theoretical Physics (1958–81) by Russian authors, L. Landau and E. Lifshitz. In 1960, he was promoted to principal scientific officer and was elected a fellow of the Institute of Linguists. He edited the Institute’s journal, the Incorporated Linguist from 1980 to 1986. In 1967, Sykes began at the Oxford English Dictionary as a contributor, visiting Walton Crescent on Saturday mornings to write definitions for technical vocabulary, an area which editor Robert Burchfield felt was lacking in resources at the time.