Sir John Frank Kermode (29 November 1919 - 17 August 2010) was a literary critic born in Douglas, the son of a ferry-company warehouseman, who became one of the most influential English-language critics of the 20th century. He held the King Edward VII Chair of English Literature at Cambridge (1974-1982) and is best known for The Sense of an Ending (1967) and his extensive studies of Shakespeare and modern literature. On his death his ashes were scattered at sea between Liverpool and Douglas.