   Prior was also fortunate in having a number of excellent students during these early years, among them Jonathan Bennett and Ronald Butler: for Prior they were oases in the desert. In 1952, he gained an assistant lecturer, Sandy Anderson, son of the Sydney philosopher John Anderson, and following Prior’s promotion to Professor later that year, Philosophy became a department in its own right. Prior argued successfully for a new permanent member of staff, and in 1954 J.M. (Michael) Shorter was appointed to a lectureship. The young, Oxford-educated Shorter worked previously at Aberdeen University, where Prior happened to be in touch with Polish logician Władysław Bednarowski.