Short answers, pulled from the story.
Hugo Dyson was an English academic and member of the Inklings literary group, born on the 7th of April 1896 and died on the 6th of June 1975. He is significant chiefly for his role, alongside J. R. R. Tolkien, in helping C. S. Lewis convert to Christianity during a long conversation on Addison's Walk at Oxford.
Dyson and J. R. R. Tolkien walked with Lewis on Addison's Walk at Oxford and engaged him in an extended conversation that proved pivotal to Lewis's acceptance of Christianity. Both Dyson and Tolkien were committed Christians and members of the Inklings group.
Dyson had a distaste for The Lord of the Rings and complained loudly when Tolkien read from it at Inklings meetings. His objections eventually caused Tolkien to stop reading the work to the group altogether.
Dyson published Poetry and Prose in 1933, a collection of works by Alexander Pope with his own notes and introduction, and Augustans and Romantics, 1689-1830 in 1940, a survey of English literature with a bibliography by Professor John Butt. He was not a prolific writer.
Dyson appeared in the 1965 film Darling in the role of Professor Walter Southgate, a major literary character in the story. He went uncredited in that role.
Dyson taught English at the University of Reading from 1924 before joining Merton College, Oxford, as a fellow in 1945. His Oxford students included Stuart Hall, who later became a prominent cultural theorist, tutored by Dyson in the early 1950s.