11 Facts About Walter Leaf

Sir Walter Leaf was an English banker, classical scholar, and psychical researcher.

Walter Leaf published a benchmark edition of Homer's Iliad and was a director of Westminster Bank for many years, eventually becoming its chairman.

Walter Leaf was a co-founder and later president of the International Chamber of Commerce and served as president of the Institute of Bankers, the Hellenic Society, and the Classical Association.

Walter Leaf married Charlotte Symonds, the daughter of John Addington Symonds.

Walter Leaf won a scholarship to Trinity in 1870, became a senior classic in 1874, and was elected to a fellowship the following year.

Walter Leaf was concerned with uncovering the physical reality of the classical world, in contrast to the Cambridge Ritualists, and was the foremost Homer scholar of his generation.

Walter Leaf was president of the Hellenic Society and the Classical Association.

Walter Leaf became a director of what would become Westminster Bank in 1891 and its chairman from 1918 until his death.

Walter Leaf worked tirelessly for the International Chamber of Commerce, of which he was a co-founder in 1919 and elected president in 1925.

Walter Leaf was a member of the Society for Psychical Research.

Walter Leaf translated Vsevolod Solovyov's A Modern Priestess of Isis.