Born in
Leytonstone and raised in
Loughton,
Essex, Wilcockson attended
Chigwell School, where he was
head boy and later served as a
governor. He studied English as a choral exhibitioner at
Merton College, Oxford. Wilcockson taught initially at
Campbell College, Belfast, before becoming head of English at
The Leys School in Cambridge in 1959. His academic contributions included scholarly editions of medieval works such as
William Langland's
Piers Plowman,
Geoffrey Chaucer's
The Book of the Duchess (in The Riverside Chaucer), and a selection of
The Canterbury Tales for Penguin Classics. Wilcockson was a three-time recipient of
Cambridge University's
Seatonian Prize, awarded for
poetry on sacred subjects. He participated actively in outreach efforts aimed at broadening university access and supported Pembroke College's transition to co-education during the 1980s. In later years, Wilcockson taught courses in Cologne, Ghana, and at Pembroke College summer schools. ==References==