Walter A. Raleigh was born in London, the fifth child and only son of a local Congregationalist minister. Raleigh was educated at the City of London School, Edinburgh Academy, University College London, and King's College, Cambridge. He was Professor of English Literature at the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College in Aligarh (1885-87), Professor of Modern Literature at the University College Liverpool (1890-1900), Regius Professor of English Language and Literature at Glasgow University (1900-04), and Chair of English Literature at Oxford University and Fellow of Merton College, Oxford (1904-22).
