thumb|An American edition of "The New Latin Primer"
John Percival Postgate, FBA (24 October 1853 – 15 July 1926) was an English classicist and academic. He was a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge from 1878 until his death, and also taught at Girton College, Cambridge (1877–1909), and University College, London (1880–1908). Having been passed over for the Chair of Latin at the University of Cambridge, he was Professor of Latin at the University of Liverpool from 1909 to 1920. He was a member of the Postgate family.
Biography
Postgate was born on 24 October 1853 in Birmingham, England, to John Postgate. He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, an independent all-boys school, where he became head boy. He matriculated into Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1872 as a sizar, where he read for the Classical Tripos. He was awarded a scholarship in 1874. He graduated from the University of Cambridge with a first-class Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1876. he held the post until his death. In 1909, he left Cambridge and was appointed Professor of Latin at the University of Liverpool. In 1907, he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.
He established himself as a creative editor of Latin poetry with published editions of Propertius, Lucan, Tibullus and Phaedrus. His major work was the two-volume , a triumph of editorial organisation. An influential work was his often reprinted "The New Latin Primer", 1888, much used in British schools over subsequent decades. While at Cambridge, he edited the Classical Review and the Classical Quarterly. He was the first honorary secretary (1903–1906) of the Classical Association, an educational organisation founded to promote the study of classical subjects in schools and universities, and was its president from 1924 to 1925.
He retired in 1920, and was made professor emeritus by the University of Liverpool. She was the sister of T. W. Allen, a classical scholar.
Postgate's relationship with his son Raymond and daughter Margaret were strained when they championed pacificism during the First World War. While he attempted to use his influence behind the scenes to support his son when he was prosecuted for his beliefs, he otherwise disowned him and refused to acknowledge his marriage to Daisy Lansbury. He also wrote Raymond and Margaret out of his will except for a £100 a year pension for each from the age of 55.