{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2017}} {{Use British English|date=October 2017}} '''Ralph Alexander Leigh''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE|FBA}} (6 January 1915 – 22 December 1987) was a modern languages scholar, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Professor of French in the University of Cambridge from 1973 to 1982, later Sandars Readership in Bibliography, in 1986–87. He specialized in the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Born to Jewish parents, he was educated at Raine's School for Boys in Bethnal Green, Queen Mary College, London, and the University of Paris (Sorbonne). He served in the British Army during the Second World War from 1941, was commissioned as a Lieutenant in 1942, promoted Major, 1944, and returned to civilian life in 1946, when he was appointed a lecturer in the Department of French at the University of Edinburgh.

In 1967 he received a Fulbright Scholarship at Princeton. From 1969 to 1973 he was a Reader and Senior Research Fellow in the University of Cambridge, and in 1973 a visiting professor at the Sorbonne.<ref name=who>'LEIGH, Ralph Alexander', in ''Who Was Who'' (London: A & C Black)</ref>

Between 1965 and 1987 he edited more than forty volumes of the correspondence of Jean Jacques Rousseau, a work still in progress at his death.<ref name=who/> Leigh collected about 8000 books and manuscripts related to his work on Jean-Jacques Rousseau: his library was purchased by Cambridge University Library and now forms the Leigh collection<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cambridge University Library |title=Leigh Collection |url=https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/rare-books/rare-books-collections/leigh-collection}}</ref>. Leigh also edited the catalogue of the 1978 Rousseau exhibition held at Cambridge University Library<ref>{{Cite book |last=Leigh, R.A. |title=Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1712-1778: catalogue of an exhibition at Cambridge University Library July-September 1978. |year=1978 |location=Cambridge}}</ref>.

Leigh was a Leverhulme Fellow in 1959–1960, 1970, and 1982–1983. In 1978 he gave a Taylorian Lecture on 'Rousseau and the Problem of Tolerance in the Eighteenth Century'.<ref name=who/>

In 1945, Leigh married Edith Helen Kern, who died in 1972. They had one son and one daughter.<ref name=who/>

==Honours== *Litt. D. (Cambridge) 1968<ref name=who/> *Fellow of the British Academy, 1969<ref name=who/> *Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 1977<ref name=who/> *Hon. Doctor, University of Neuchâtel, 1978<ref name=who/> *''Médaille d'argent de la Ville de Paris'', 1978<ref name=who/> *''Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur'', 1979<ref name=who/> *Hon. Doctor, University of Geneva, 1983<ref name=who/> *D. Univ. Edinburgh, 1986<ref name=who/>

==Major publications== *''Correspondance Complète de Jean Jacques Rousseau'', vols. I-XLVI, 1965 to 1987<ref name=who/> *''Rousseau and the Problem of Tolerance in the Rousseau and the Problem of Tolerance in the Eighteenth Century'', (Taylorian Lecture for 1978), 1979<ref name=who/> *''Rousseau after 200 years'' (ed.), 1982<ref name=who/>

Contributor to ''Modern Language Review'', ''French Studies'', ''Revue de littérature comparée'', ''Annales Rousseau'', ''Revue d'Histoire littéraire'', ''Studies on Voltaire'' and other journals.<ref name=who/>

==Notes== {{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Leigh, Ralph}} Category:1915 births Category:1987 deaths Category:Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge Category:British Army personnel of World War II Category:Knights of the Legion of Honour Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Alumni of Queen Mary University of London Category:University of Paris alumni Category:Academics of the University of Edinburgh Category:Fellows of the British Academy Category:People educated at Raine's Foundation School