William Johnson Cory

William Johnson Cory (1823–1892), born William Johnson, was an English schoolmaster and poet. Educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, he taught at Eton for more than a quarter of a century and was an influential, unconventional teacher; his pupils included future statesmen, among them Lord Rosebery. His small book of verse, Ionica, first published anonymously in 1858, contains "Heraclitus" and the lyric "Mimnermus in Church," and he wrote the "Eton Boating Song." He left Eton abruptly in 1872, changed his name to Cory and later lived in Madeira and Hampstead.