C. H. (Charles Harold) Herford

Charles Harold Herford (18 February 1853 – 25 April 1931) was an English literary scholar and critic, born in Manchester and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. He later became a leading academic voice in English literature and is especially associated with the University of Manchester, where he served as Professor of English Literature.

He is best remembered for his long-running scholarly work on Ben Jonson, including a major biography and an eleven-volume edition of Jonson's works published by Oxford University Press with Percy and Evelyn Simpson. That project became one of the achievements for which his name is still most often remembered.

Herford was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1926. His reputation rests on careful, serious literary scholarship, but his work also helped make English studies a more established university subject in Britain during his lifetime.