Avril Henry

{{short description|British university teacher and activist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}} {{Use British English|date=September 2016}} thumb|Avril Henry

'''Avril K. Henry''' (5 April 1935 – 20 April 2016) was an English professor of medieval culture and activist for the legalisation of euthanasia. She died by suicide in 2016.

== Biography == Henry was born in Lincoln, Lincolnshire to Royal Air Force officer Robert Charles Henry and Eileen Florence Whattam Henry.{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}

Henry worked as a professor of English medieval culture at the University of Exeter. She researched the theory of typology.

Henry campaigned for the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia. She died by suicide at her home in Brampford Speke, Devon, near Exeter, on 20 April 2016, aged 81. Her home had been raided by police the previous week after they were tipped off by Interpol that she had bought a euthanasia kit from Mexico.<ref>{{cite news |author=Robert Mendick |date=21 April 2016 |title=Retired professor 'killed herself' days after police raid in search of imported drugs |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/21/retired-professor-killed-herself-days-after-police-raid-in-searc/ |newspaper=The Telegraph}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=Morris |first=Steven |date=21 April 2016 |title=Academic kills herself after importing 'euthanasia kit' illegally |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/21/academic-kills-herself-after-importing-euthanasia-kit-illegally |newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Minchin |first=Rod |date=22 April 2016 |title=Professor 'killed herself with euthanasia kit bought online' |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/professor-avril-henry-killed-herself-with-euthanasia-kit-bought-online-assisted-suicide-a6996656.html |work=The Independent}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=Davey |first=Melissa |date=22 April 2016 |title=Police raid pushed academic to end her life, says euthanasia advocate |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/22/police-raid-pushed-academic-to-end-her-life-euthanasia-advocate-philip-nitschke |newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref>

==Selected publications== *''Biblia Pauperum''. Scolar, Aldershot, 1987; {{ISBN|9780859675420}} *''The Mirour of Mans Saluacioune: a Middle English translation of Speculum humanae salvationis: a critical edition of the fifteenth-century manuscript illustrated from Der Spiegel der Meschen Behaltnis, Speyer, Drach, c. 1475;'' University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987; {{ISBN|0812280547|}} *''The Eton Roundels: Eton College MS 177 'Figurae Bibliorum' A Colour Facsimile With Transcription, Translation and Commentary''; {{ISBN|978-0859677561}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Henry, Avril}} Category:1935 births Category:2016 deaths Category:2016 suicides Category:Suicides in England Category:People from Lincoln, England Category:Euthanasia activists Category:Academics of the University of Exeter Category:Female suicides