Dadie Rylands

Who was Dadie Rylands?

George Humphrey Wolferstan Rylands CH CBE, known as Dadie Rylands, was a British literary scholar and theatre director. Educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge, he was a Fellow of King's from 1927 until his death.

As well as being one of the world's leading Shakespeare scholars, he was actively involved in the theatre. He directed and acted in many productions for the Marlowe Society, and was Chairman of the Cambridge Arts Theatre from 1946 to 1982.

Rylands' 1939 Shakespeare anthology Ages of Man was the basis of John Gielgud's one-man show of the same title. Though Rylands specialized in directing university productions at Oxford, he also directed Gielgud in professional productions of The Duchess of Malfi and Hamlet in London in 1945.

He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1961 and a Companion of Honour in 1987.