George Alfred Magee ('Colonel') Kolkhorst (1897–1958) was anOxford don, first a lecturer and then Reader in Spanish.^[1]

Kolkhorst was the son of an engineer, and was brought up inChile. His family then moved toPortugal. In the later part ofWorld War I he was inGalicia, Spain on official work.^[2]

A member ofExeter College, Oxford, he was appointedUniversity Lecturer inSpanish in 1921 and Reader in Spanish in 1931, holding office until his death in 1958. He used to wear a cube of sugar on a string around his neck "to sweeten my conversation", and was universally known among Oxford undergraduates as "Colonel" Kolkhorst — allegedly because he looked and behaved so utterly unlike a colonel.^[3] His home was at Yarnton Manor and he held salons in Beaumont Street.^[4]

His friendship withJohn Betjeman led to his inclusion inSummoned by Bells, Betjeman's verse autobiography. A poem about Kolkhorst's death is included in Betjeman's posthumous collectionHarvest Bells (pp. 99–101).

• Noel Annan,The Dons: Mentors, Eccentrics and Geniuses (London:HarperCollins, 1999), p. 138.

• Kolkhorst and Arteaga Exhibitions in Spanish 2005–6,Oxford University Gazette (17 November 2005)
• Judith Priestman, 'The dilettante and the dons',Oxford Today vol. 18, no. 3 (Trinity 2006)
• Charles Saumarez Smith, 'Always from the heart',The Observer (Sunday August 6, 2006)
• Tournai Tapestry, Maritime Museum, Portugal
• 'Yarnton: Manor and other estates',A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 12: Wootton Hundred (South) including Woodstock (1990), pp. 475–478
• Brooke Allen, 'Betjeman: a "whim of iron"',The New Criterion, vol. 23, no. 7 (March 2005)Archived 9 March 2005 at theWayback Machine
• R. M. Healey, 'Best Of British',Rare Book Review