Dr Mackerness graduated from the University of Cambridge, and completed a PhD at the University of Manchester before becoming University Research Fellow and Tutorial Assistant at the University of Nottingham. In 1954, he was appointed Assistant Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Sheffield, in which department he remained until his retirement (as Reader) in 1982. He had a very broad range of interests, including music, art, religion and history as well as literature. He was married to Margaret Shaw, a Sheffield painter and teacher at Sheffield Art College. Dr. Mackerness died on 30th October 1999.