Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nettleship, Richard Lewis
NETTLESHIP, RICHARD LEWIS (1846–1892), fellow and tutor of Balliol College, Oxford, the youngest brother of Henry Nettleship [q. v.], was born on 17 Dec. 1846 at Kettering. He was educated first at a preparatory school at Wing, Buckinghamshire, and afterwards at Uppingham under Edward Thring [q. v.] Elected to a scholarship at Balliol in 1864, he came into residence at Oxford in October 1865, and won a long series of university distinctions, the Hertford scholarship in 1866, the Ireland in 1867, the Gaisford Greek verse prize in 1868, a Craven scholarship in 1870, and the Arnold prize in 1873. Like his brother, he disappointed expectations by taking only a ‘second’ in literæ humaniores in 1869. In the same year, however, he was elected to a fellowship, and some time after appointed to a tutorship at Balliol. As a tutor he eventually came to take the place of his friend, Thomas Hill Green [q. v.], in the philosophic teaching of the college. The strong and lasting impression he made on his pupils and friends was largely due to his extremely interesting personality—a strange combination of intellectual acuteness and singular modesty and diffidence in matters of opinion. With the exception of an essay on ‘The Theory of Education in Plato's Republic’ contributed to the volume entitled ‘Hellenica’ edited by Mr. Evelyn Abbott (London, 1880), and a valuable memoir of T. H. Green prefixed to the third volume of his ‘Works’ (London, 1880), he published nothing, not even his Arnold prize essay; for after working at the subject, ‘The Normans in Italy and Sicily,’ for several years, he ultimately handed over to another the large collection of materials he had made for a book on it.
Nettleship, besides possessing the family love of music, was fond of all outdoor exercises, and, as an undergraduate, rowed in his college boat. He died on 25 Aug. 1892 from exposure in the course of an attempt to ascend Mont Blanc, and was buried at Chamounix. A tablet in his memory was placed in the antechapel of Balliol College, and a scholarship tenable at the college by a student of music was founded by his pupils and friends.
[Uppingham School Magazine, November 1892; Oxford University Calendar; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Times, 27, 29, 30 Aug. 1892; Oxford Magazine, 19 Oct. 1892; private information and personal knowledge.]