Laurence Adolphus Bisson
Laurence Adolphus Bisson
By Francis Corbett, A Biographical Dictionary of Jersey - Vol 2
Born in St Helier in 1898, the son of Adolphus Bisson and Lillian, nee Delorme, Laurence Adolphus Bisson was educated at Victoria College, where he won a scholarship to Pembroke College, Oxford.
His education was interrupted by military service in the Great War. He sustained serious wounds, as a a result of which he was eventually obliged to retire early in failing health.
He graduated in 1921, obtained his Master of Arts degree the following year, and used his language skills with the secretariat of the League of Nations in Geneva.
In 1933 he relinquished the professorial chair of French which he had held in Birmingtham for six years, married Isabella Smith, and began lecturing in French at Oxford.
From then until 1954 he was Reader in French, Levenhulme Fellow and visiting lecturer at the Universities of Geneva, Neuchatel and Lausanne.
After the award of a Doctorate of Literature (Oxon) in 1946 he was elected to the chair of French at the University of Belfast, holding this post until he retired in 1961.
