Henry Carrington Lancaster, eminent scholar and educator in the fields of French literature and history, was born in 1883 in Richmond, Va., the son of financier Robert Alexander Lancaster and Williamine Campbell Carrington Lancaster. Professor Lancaster attended private schools in Richmond before entering the University of Virginia where he was graduated with both B.A. and M.A. degrees in 1903. He spent a year in Montgomery, Ala. before coming to Baltimore to begin studies at Johns Hopkins University for his doctorate, which he took in 1907. He then joined the faculty of Amherst College as Professor of French Literature and Chairman of the Romance Languages Department. For many years it was his privilege at Johns Hopkins University to present the successful candidates for doctor's degree, an honor of high significance among scholars. Through decades of intense academic activity Dr. Lancaster continued his brilliant and meticulous studies of French drama, literature, and history. The most monumental of his works was A History of French Dramatic Literature in the 17th Century, in 9 volumes. In 1953 he published his French History in the Time of Louis XIV and the First Years of the Revolution. Shortly before his death he had completed his 26th book.

Lancaster received an honorary degree from the Sorbonne in 1946, two years after the University of Algiers had paid a similar tribute. Among the honors accorded him by the French was the rank of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. A number of American universities bestowed honorary degrees upon him and sought his services as visiting professor. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the American Philosophical Society, the Modern Language Association, and Editor of Modern Language Notes.

Henry Carrington Lancaster died after a short illness on January 29, 1954. He was survived by his wife of 41 years, the former Helen Converse Clark, daughter of a distinguished economist and educator who was on the faculty of Columbia University. Surviving children were a son, Henry Carrington Lancaster, Jr. of Baltimore, and two daughters, Mrs. Paul C. Rand of Falls Church, Va., and Mrs. Maria Lancaster Cameron of Wilton, Conn.