Languages were a part of the curriculum from the start of the Hartley Institution, which was opened by Lord Palmerston in Southampton in 1862. French was one of the first two subjects to be taught, followed soon after by German and then Spanish. Throughout the 19th century, most of the teaching was provided on a part-time basis by foreign nationals living locally. The first full-time post was held by Dr E. Du Bois, who was appointed in July 1896 as lecturer in French and German and subsequently promoted to professor.
In 1914, the University College, as it then was, created a Chair of Romance Languages, whose first occupant was Dr Vivian G. Starkey. By all accounts he was an inspiring teacher and enthusiastic researcher, but his career was cut short when he was among the first volunteers to enlist in the Great War. He was posted to France in August 1915, and was killed in action in the following October. His colleague in German Mr E.W. Patchett, was on vacation in Heidelberg when the war broke out and he was interned in Germany for the duration.
Professor Patchett, took up the Chair of Modern Languages on his return after the war and when he died in 1936, the department had become recognised as one of the best of its kind in English provincial universities. His successor, Professor Dr H.W. Lawton, was Head of Modern Languages throughout the difficult years of the Second World War, when Southampton was heavily bombed. He played a leading role in the Development Committee of Senate, set up in 1941 to plan the College’s post-war expansion and policy.
The University of Southampton received its Royal Charter in 1952. Shortly before this, separate departments of French and German were created, followed soon after by a department of Spanish. As the University grew, degrees in Italian and Russian were introduced, though they were later withdrawn during the retrenchment of the 1980s. A Language Centre was added in 1976 to meet the demand for languages among students in the sciences and social sciences and to provide support in the use of English language for the growing number of international students.
In 1983, the three departments and the Language Centre came together to form a federal School of Modern Languages, which became a unified department in 1996, when it moved to its present premises at the newly opened Avenue Campus. The Centre for Language Study was established within the department to provide professional language teaching for all students, both in languages degrees and in other subjects.
Research centres were established shortly afterwards in Transnational Studies and in Applied Language Studies, bringing together interdisciplinary research work. Southampton took a lead in promoting languages across the UK by hosting the government funded Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies (2000-11) and Routes into Languages programme (2006-16). A research Centre for Global Englishes was established in 2011.
