RHS News

RHS / Scouloudi grants for public history and conference panels, 2026-27: applications now invited

The Royal Historical Society is pleased to launch the latest round of grants supporting collaborative public history and panel conference formation. Both grants for 2026-27 are made possible thanks to a generous subvention from the Scouloudi Foundation.

This is the second year of the RHS / Scouloudi Public History Grants and Panel Grants.

Applications are now invited for the following:

Scouloudi Public History Grants: providing funds of £1000 per award to support innovative practice in public history for defined projects by historians working in higher education with practitioners from other sectors. One of the two lead applicants for this grant must be a current member of the Royal Historical Society. Next closing date: Friday 5 June 2026.
Scouloudi Panel Grants: providing funding of £1500 per award to enable the creation of panels to present, in-person, research on a shared historical theme at an academic conference, or equivalent event, in history or a cognate discipline. The lead applicant for this grant must be a current member of the Royal Historical Society. Awards will make possible participation by panellists with no alternative source of funding. Next closing date: Friday 5 June 2026.

Further details of these programmes and how to apply are available by following the links above.

The 2025-26 recipients of these awards were as follows:

Public History Grants

Rachel Dishington (University of Nottingham) and Sarah Colborne (University of Nottingham Archives) , ‘Living and Working Along the Leen’. More about this project.
Iqbal Singh (The National Archives) and Eleanor Newbigin (SOAS, University of London), ‘Participatory workshops on colonial history for historians in higher education, the GLAM sector and community history groups’
Kathleen McIlvenna (University of Derby) and Kate Crossley (Arkwright Society), ‘Re-interpreting Florence Nightingale in Derbyshire’
Rachel Delman (University of Oxford) and James Spellane (The Charterhouse), ‘London’s Watery Heritage: Co-producing New Knowledge about the Charterhouse Water Maps’

Panel Grants

‘Commons and Communities: Celebrating Professor Andy Wood’, with speakers Lily R. Chadwick, Mark Hailwood, Susannah Ottaway and Steve Hindle: to enable Lily Chadwick (Woodbrooke Centre, Birmingham) to participate in the panel, to take place at the 2025 meeting of the North American Conference on British Studies (NACBS) in Montreal in November.
‘Continuities and Challenges: Women’s Politics and Activism in 1970s Britain’, with speakers Jessica White, Caitríona Beaumont, Ruth Davidson, Lyndsey Jenkins, and Laura Beers: to support members of the panel without alternative means of institutional financial support to participate in the panel, to take place at the 2025 meeting of the North American Conference on British Studies (NACBS) in Montreal in November. More about this project.

For all current open funding programmes, please see the Research Funding pages of the Society’s website.

Forthcoming Society events in Warwick, Aberystwyth and Sheffield

We are pleased to announce that the Society’s next three public events take place at locations across the UK.

Booking is now open for in-person attendance at our forthcoming lectures:

‘The Haunting at the Rectory: Ghost Stories and Women’s Lives in Early Modern England’, with Professor Sasha Handley (University of Manchester) on Friday 1 May. Sasha’s lecture is part of the Society’s visit to the University of Warwick.

Booking for in-person and online attendance is now available.

‘Black/Beautiful: Meanings of Blackness in a Biblical Verse’, with Professor Miri Rubin (QMUL) at 6pm on Wednesday 13 May. Miri’s lecture is part of the Society’s visit to historians at Aberystwyth University and the National Library of Wales. Booking for in-person attendance is now available.

Lectures are open to all and we welcome especially Fellows and Members of the Society from the region. Both events will be followed by a reception and chance to meet the Society’s President, Professor Lucy Noakes, and members of the RHS Council.

On 16 April, the Society will be in Sheffield for its annual day conference, ‘History and Archives in Practice’, which is co-hosted with The National Archives and the Institute of Historical Research. HAP26 is organised with a fourth partner, the University Sheffield Library.

HAP26 takes as its theme ‘Shaping Societies, Improving Lives: the Impact of Archives and Historical Research’. This event is now fully booked.

Events at Warwick, Aberystwyth and Sheffield are part of the Society’s programme — as set out in its Strategy, 2026-28 — to ‘extend the activities the Society hosts beyond its London base, to ensure we better reflect and engage with the Society’s UK and international membership.’

Later this year, Society lectures will take place in Glasgow and Bristol. Recent events (2025-26) include public lectures in Penryn, Cornwall, Aberdeen, Ipswich and Sheffield.

IMAGE HEADER: Aberystwyth from Constitution Hill, postcard, c. 1910

Forthcoming publications from the Royal Historical Society

On 9 April, we publish the next in the Society’s New Historical Perspectives book series for early career historians: Organised Militarism in Interwar Britain. The Navy League and the Air League of the British Empire, by Rowan Thompson.

While militaristic and patriotic organisations formed an important part of Edwardian political culture, 1918 often marks a terminus for histories of organised militarism in Britain. Taking the end of the First World War as its starting point, Organised Militarism is the first full-length study of militarism and militaristic associational culture in interwar Britain.

Rowan Thompson argues that militarism was able to survive the 1914–1918 conflict, despite the competing rise of liberal internationalism, pacifism and anti-war sentiment. Focusing on the ideas, aims and activities of the Navy League and the Air League of the British Empire — two extra-parliamentary organisations established to promote naval and aerial supremacy — the book examines how the Leagues negotiated the trauma of the First World War and how they contributed to the societal and military preparation for a second global conflict as the clouds of war gathered in the late 1930s.

Organised Militarism in Interwar Britain explains how these Leagues mobilised broad public and political support and what the story of each organisation tells us about the impact of war on British society and culture, civil-military relations, political and private activism, military theatre and commemoration, youth, and the politics of disarmament, collective security, internationalism and national defence. In doing so, it demonstrates that martial and militaristic sentiment remained an important part of mainstream British political culture, despite the ravages of war.

Organised Militarism in Interwar Britain. The Navy League and the Air League of the British Empire is published by University of London Press on 9 April as a free Open Access volume and in a paperback print edition.

About the New Historical Perspectives series

Rowan Thompson’s new monograph will be the 26th title in the Society’s New Historical Perspectives series, published by University of London Press and supported by the Economic History Society.

All titles in the series are published in free Open Access editions as well as paperback print. The series offers monographs and edited collections from historians within 10 years of completion of their PhD. Details of all 26 titles, including other recent and forthcoming volumes, are available here (University of London Press, UK and Rest of World) and via University of Chicago Press for order in North America).

Society elects 250 new Fellows, Associate Fellows, Members and Postgraduate Members

At its latest meeting on 6 February 2026, the RHS Council elected 85 Fellows, 36 Associate Fellows, 47 Members and 82 Postgraduate Members, a total of 250 people newly associated with the Society, from today.

The majority of the new Fellows hold academic appointments at universities, specialising in a wide range of fields; but also include curators, librarians, heritage specialists, independent researchers and writers. The Society is an international community of historians and our latest intake includes Fellows from ten countries: Australia, Canada, China, France, India, Ireland, Italy, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The new Associate Fellows include not only early career historians in higher education but also historians with professional and private research interests drawn from heritage, learned societies, libraries and archives, teaching, and public and community history.

The new Members have a similarly wide range of historical interests, and include individuals working in universities, culture and heritage, education, the civil service and broadcasting – together with independent and community historians and genealogists.

Our new Postgraduate Members are studying for higher degrees in history, or related subjects, at 49 different universities in the UK, Australia, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Spain, Ukraine, Switzerland, and the United States.

All those newly elected to the Fellowship and Membership bring a valuable range of expertise and experience to the Society.

New Fellows and Members are elected at regular intervals through the year. The current application rounds are open and run to 9 March and 11 May 2026.

Those interested in applying to join the Society (as a Fellow, Associate Fellow, Member or Postgraduate Member) should consult the Join Us pages of the RHS website. Full details of the benefits of Fellowship and Membership are available in the Society’s new Guide for Members.

New Fellows, elected February 2026

Cindy Aalders
Natalie Adamson
Talat Ahmed
Tahaney Alghrani
Ross Anderson
Edward Anderson
Leah Astbury
Emma Barker
Cormac Behan
Péter Bokody
Lucy Bradnock
Michael Bresalier
Erica Buchberger
Marouf Cabi
Bruno Cianci
Tania Cleaves
Martin Comer
John Condren
Steven Cooke
David Cowan
Dennis Denisoff
Hope Doherty-Harrison
Steve Edwards
Mohamad El-Merheb
Jennifer Evans
Daniel Finkelstein
Gillian Glaes
Xavier Guégan
Joel Halcolmb
Aaron Hanlon
Barry Hazley
John Holton
Robert Houghton
Antonio Iodice
Arthur Keefer
Kathryn Lamontagne
Joseph Lawson
Rúben Leitão Serém
Cheng Li
Thom Loyd
Sirshendu Majumdar
Holly Maples
Russell Martin
Stephanie Mawson
Elizabeth McKellar
Narrelle Morris
Hannah-Rose Murray
Bob Nicholson
Alison Oram
Stephanie ORourke
Alison Pedley
Michelle Pfeffer
Rebecca Preston
Jessica Purdy
Benjamin Redding
Gordon Reynolds
Nicola Ring
Ojel Rodriguez Burgos
Nadine Rossol
Lucy Santos
Cathleen Sarti
Papia Sengupta
Fabio Simonetti
Holly Smith
Richard Sowerby
James Strong
Matthew Sweet
Filomena Viviana Tagliaferri
Derya Tarbuck
Ghoncheh Tazmini
Melanie Torrent
Ben Tosland
David J. Ulbrich
Lena Vosding
Ciarán Wallace
Owen Walsh
Sarah Walters
Phyllis Weliver
Hugh Willmott
Nicole Willson
Philip Withington
Susan Woodall
Tom Woodin
David Wright
Andrew Yu

New Associate Fellows, elected February 2026

Thomas Archambaud
Louise Bell
Henry Brown
Melissa Chim
Nelson Cummins
Thomas Dillon
Mathieu Gotteland
Kevin Hall
Timothy Hallett
Elizabeth Hines
William Jones
Yuna Lee
Shu Fung Leung
Di Liu
Igor Maver
Al Meggs
Neval Milanlioglu
Soren Steven Miller
James Miller
Kate Morris
Sarah Moxey
Clodagh Murphy
Matthew Payne
Adam Quibell
Rosie Ramsden
Andrea Rizzi
Ruadhán Scrivener-Anderson
Edwin Sheffield
Rhea Sookdeosingh
Yichang Sun
Barnabás Szabó
Brandon Taylorian
Camilo Uribe Botta
Bret Werner
Abby Whitlock
Verna Yu

New Members, elected February 2026

Alicia Bonar
Sasha Chiappe
Chen-yuan David Chuang
Shannan Claxton
Harry Cole
Joseph Andrew Collins
Yufan Dai
Wouter de Boer
Marine de Rocca Serra
Ruby Dunn
Adam Fenwick
Max Fontana-Reval
Joe Geldard
Martin Glen
Jon Gould
Caroline Green
Priyanka Guha Roy
Li-Chi Huang
Bernd Huppertz
Christian Alexander Brewster James
Farrah Janjua
Michelle Jimerson Morris
Janis Johnson
Nabil Khan
John Loffhagen
Harry Marson
Aaron Matthews
Andrew Mawson
Julian Millar
Chris Morton
Asif Nazir
Omedi Ochieng
Edward Oreilly
Paul Orourke-Walker
Aqsa Rajpoot
Richard Rawlinson
Helen Reynolds
Isabel Schöps Thiel
James Selwood
Misha Svarevskis
Nicholas Tanner
Deatra Thompson
Richard Vize
Joe Wasilewski
Christine Wise
Peter Wood
Fadilah Zaini

New Postgraduate Members, elected February 2026

Caspar Allen
Jameelah Almulad
Aishwarya Anam
Rachael Andrews
Mistura Bello
Mark Blundell
May Brown
Megan Buhr
Laura Calnan
Jessica Carey-Bunning
Lynne Charlesworth
Andrew Colquhoun
Greg Cotton
Reece Cox
Matheus Da Silva-Armson
Ali Daud Ul Rehman
Mathias Deuel
Caroline Devonport
David Dillard
Lisa Dudek
Jeanne Dufresne
Nilanjana Dutta
Zoe Edwards
Arvand Fata
Abbie Fray
Nat Gibbard
Lydia Gray
Lukasz Grzymski
Cameron Harrad
Chloe Heslip
Eilidh Megan Hornigold
Anne-Marie Hutchinson
Salomé Jacques
Lily Jeannin
Esther Jones
Rostyslav Kasyanenko
Cormac Keenan
Jude Kershaw
Musavvir Khan Noorpuri
Breanna Kubat
Aman Kumar
Eduard Kuzmenko
Davide Lamparelli
Antonis Leontiou
Caitlin Lewis
Joshua Locke
Eugene Luning
Anna Malczyk
Matthew McDaniel
Daniel McLean
Adam Melone
Vittorio Mirabile
Pranav Mohan
Robert Morse
Sakiru Olalekan
Nidanu O’Shea
Jason Palmer
Wing Pang
Lucas Radford
Miranda Rainbow
KK Aruna Rajeswari
Raphael Redmond
Dorna Shafieioun
Jill Shankleman
Adyan Sharda
Amrapalli Mohan Sharma
Robert St John Smith
Sophie Stanford
Alexander Stewart
Harry Stones
Aisha Tahir
Karl Taps
Caroline Tran Van
Alexandra Viencek
Simon Vincent
Pierre Waddoups
Haochen Wang
Rainey Warren
Sydni Zastre
Keyi Zhang
Ziquan Zhou
Alison Zilversmit

HEADER IMAGE: ‘The Garden of the Tuileries on a Spring Morning’, 1899, Camille Pissarro, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, public domain, detail.

Society visits historians at Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield

On 18 February, members of the Society’s Council visited historians at Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield in the first in the 2026 programme of visits to universities across the UK. This joint meeting was an opportunity to learn more about historical studies at both institutions; to discuss shared priorities and concerns; and to consider how the Society can best support the work of historians across a range of career stages.

Across a series of panels, participants discussed a wide range of concerns that will be common to many at this time: student enrolments; changes and cuts to PhD funding; the handling of institutional restructures; the training of researchers to undertake careers outside higher education; and the support of historians at mid-career and at the point at which academic careers end, be this through retirement or abruptly as part of enforced restructuring.

The Sheffield visit also brought together history school teachers and curators from the region. Panels considered the drop off of history students between A-Level, where our subject remains popular, and at university where choosing history is considered by some as limiting later career options. Members of the RHS Council also discussed findings of the Society’s 2024 briefing, The Value of History, which refutes these concerns with reference to employment data for history graduates.

This session also discussed closer working — between historians in schools and higher education, as well as in the field of history teacher training — to encourage more students to continue with the subject. Sessions in turn considered closer working between institutions in the same city, the benefits of this, and how barriers to shared experience as historians are best overcome.

The day concluded with a public lecture given by our guest speaker Professor David Stack from the University of Reading.

David’s lecture — ‘History and Well-being: a Historian’s Perspective’ — explored histories of well-being and the potential contribution of historical study for fostering well-being as personal and societal development and understanding. In the lecture, David argued for history’s unique contribution, both to the concept and the practice of well-being.

Our great thanks to David for his excellent lecture, and to Professor Matthew Stibbe (Sheffield Hallam) and Professors Adrian Bingham and Julie Gottlieb (Sheffield) for organising the visit and their welcome. Our thanks also to the many RHS Fellows and Members who attended David’s lecture and the reception which followed this.

Royal Historical Society visits in 2026

The Society’s next visit is to historians at Aberystwyth University (Wednesday 13 May), where our guest lecturer is Professor Miri Rubin (Queen Mary, University of London) who will speak on ‘Black/Beautiful: Meanings of Blackness in a Biblical Verse’.

RHS visits later this year will be to the University of Strathclyde (October) and the universities of the West of England / Bristol in December.

Recent visits in late 2025 include to the universities of Aberdeen and Suffolk, and a joint meeting with historians from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and UCL’s Institute of Education.

Vinita Damodaran gives the Society’s annual Global History Lecture

On 10 February the Royal Historical Society co-hosted its annual Global History Lecture with the German Historical Institute, London. The partnership between the Society and GHIL is now in its third year and invites historians working in the UK and Germany to present new global historical research.

This year’s speaker was Professor Vinita Damodaran (University of Sussex) who spoke on ‘Decolonising the Natural History Collections of Empire’.

In this lecture, Vinita focused on the forms and legacies of botanical collecting in India under empire. Her lecture examined neglected indigenous literatures that were crucial to what, in the imperial context, was an early modern scientific renaissance in natural history and environmental understanding.

Vinita’s lecture also framed this forgotten literature on and knowledge of the natural world—one collected and organised in the context of the empire—in the light of recent historiographies on botany and empire. This reclamation and restoration of indigenous Indian studies and classifications of the natural world now includes the digital repatriation of botanical specimens held primarily in British institutions. In addition, the lecture drew attention to current work, undertaken by Vinita, in the field of cultural remediation.

An audio recording of this year’s RHS / GHIL Global History Lecture will be available shortly.

Vinita Damodaran is Professor of South Asian History at the University of Sussex and a specialist in the history of modern India, with particular interests in environmental change, identity and resistance in Eastern India.

Her research ranges from the social and political history of Bihar to the environmental history of South Asia, including using historical records to understand climate change in the Indian Ocean World. At Sussex, Vinita is also director of the university’s Centre for World Environmental History, which partners with UK institutions such as Kew Gardens, and the Met Office as well as universities and research centres in India and Canada.

Our great thanks to Vinita for her fascinating lecture, to all who attended in person and online, and to colleagues at the German Historical Institute, London, for this event partnership.

Our next lecture: Sheffield, 18 February 2026

On Wednesday 18 February, the Society hosts the first of its 2026 Visits to historians in universities across the UK. February’s visit, to Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield, includes a public lecture by Professor David Stack (University of Reading) on ‘Well-being: a Historian’s Perspective’.

David’s lecture considers how historians might engage with contemporary discussions of well-being? What does history have to tell us about the term and its use? Does the study of history contribute to or detract from well-being?

This lecture argues that history can and should make a unique contribution, both to the concept and the practice of well-being. The study of history can deepen our understanding of the structural forces that shape well-being, and, by self-consciously integrating a well-being agenda into our research and teaching, we can simultaneously enhance the well-being of ourselves and our students and demonstrate the relevance of history to one of the most important public policy debates of our time.

This public lecture is part of the Society’s visit to historians at Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield.

In-person booking for this lecture, which takes place at Sheffield Hallam, is now available.

Queens and the Making of Medieval Europe: lecture recordings now available

On Friday 6 February the Society hosted the first lecture in its 2026 programme. Our great thanks to Professor Charles West (University of Edinburgh) who spoke on: ‘”Alike in Appearance but not in Scope”: Queens and the Making of Medieval Europe’.

Watch this lecture

Listen to this lecture

Charles’s lecture considered the mobility of queens in early medieval Europe. Whereas medieval kings tended to rule in the same place they were born, queens were routinely foreigners within their own realm.

This mobility ensured that queens, and their retinue, held a central place in the ‘making’ of post-Carolingian Europe, alongside that of the knights and clerics on whom historical attention has often focused.

Charles’s lecture explored the considerable extent of, and connections forged by, royal women travelling to become queens in realms outside those of their birth. Central to the lecture was the early medieval fascination with chess in which then, as now, it is the queen who possesses greater mobility on the board.

Through a set of case studies, Charles’s lecture looked at the role played by queens as cultural ambassadors in creating, both deliberately and unwittingly, a human network that transcended political borders.

Our great thanks to Charles for his lecture, and to all who attended this event in person and online. The recording of the lecture will be available shortly.

RHS Events Archive

Charles’s lecture is one of many recent Royal Historical Society events now available to watch or listen to again via the RHS Events Archive.

Recent speakers include the historians Jane Ohlmeyer on early modern Irish women, Yasmin Khan on empire and war, Peter Gatrell on refugees in the twentieth century, and Mark Stoyle on Tudor rebellion.

Charles West gives the Society’s annual medieval lecture on European queenship

Watch this lecture

Listen to this lecture

Our great thanks to Charles for his lecture, and to all who attended this event in person and online. The recording of the lecture will be available shortly.

RHS Events Archive

Charles’s lecture is one of many recent Royal Historical Society events now available to watch or listen to again via the RHS Events Archive.

Forthcoming RHS lectures in February 2026

On Tuesday 10 February the Society partners with the German Historical Institute, London, to host its 2026 Global History Lecture. Our speaker is Professor Vinita Damodaran (University of Sussex) whose subject is: ‘Decolonising the Natural History Collections of Empire’.

Vinita’s lecture, with a focus on India, seeks to understand this important archive of knowledge of the natural world collected and organised in the context of the empire in the light of recent historiography on botany and empire. It highlights the importance of creating an inventory and digitally repatriating botanical specimens held primarily in British institutions, and highlights efforts for cultural remediation.

The lecture will examine neglected literature and networks in the imperial scientific network, which were crucial to what was a prodigious scientific renaissance in natural history and environmental understanding in the imperial context from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century.

In-person and online booking for this lecture, which takes place at Mary Ward House, London, is now available.

This public lecture is part of the Society’s visit to historians at Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield.

In-person booking for this lecture, which takes place at Sheffield Hallam, is now available.

Calls for research funding from the Royal Historical Society: current programmes to March 2026

The Society currently invites applications for the following three schemes — open to historians across a range of career stages and backgrounds — with closing dates of 6 March 2026.

For further information on each programme, eligibility and how to apply please follow the links below.

The next rounds of research funding calls will be announced in February and March 2026. Calls will include for the following four programmes: Postgraduate Research Support Grants and Early Career Research Support Grants (opening in February), Scouloudi Public History Grants and Scouloudi Panel Grants (opening in March).

Applications are invited from current members of the Society. Applications to join the Society, as a Fellow, Associate Fellow, Member or Postgraduate Member, are welcome at any time.

Current funding programmes with closing dates in March 2026

David Berry Fellowship in the History of Scotland and the Scottish People* provides an annual award of up to £2,500 to undertake research on the history of Scotland and the Scottish people worldwide. This grant is available to members of the Royal Historical Society at any career stage. Next closing date: Friday 6 March 2026.
Early Career Fellowships Grants* provide funding of up to £2000 to historians to undertake discrete research projects lasting no more than six months. Applicants must be early career historians who are not in permanent full-time academic positions and within five years of submitting their PhD in a historical subject. These grants are available to members of the Royal Historical Society. Next closing date: Friday 6 March 2026.
Open Research Support Grants* provide funding of either £500 or £1000 to historians to undertake historical research. Activities include visiting archives and historical sites, and travel to academic conferences. Open Research Support Grants may also be used to support travel to academic conferences. These grants are available to members of the Royal Historical Society who are not postgraduate students or early career researchers (within 5 years of completing a PhD). Next closing date: Friday 6 March 2026.

*Applicants for these Royal Historical Society grants must be current members of the Society.

Becoming a member of the Society

If you wish to join the Society, as a Fellow, Associate Fellow, Member or Postgraduate Member please see here for details and the benefits of RHS membership. Applications are welcome at any time.

The next closing dates for receipt of applications are Mondays 9 March 2025 and 11 May 2026.

Details of current holders of Royal Historical Society Fellowships and Grants are available here.

All enquiries about Research Funding should be sent to the Society’s Membership and Programmes Manager at: [email protected].

HEADER IMAGE: Coffee cup (part of a service). Worcester factory, British, ca. 1770, Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain.

Memorial event for Peter Marshall (1933-2025), President of the Society between 1996 and 2000

On 27 January, the Royal Historical Society was honoured to co-host and take part in a memorial event for the historian of India and empire, Professor Peter Marshall (1933-2025). This was an opportunity for former students, colleagues and friends to remember and celebrate what one speaker described as Peter’s ‘kindness as a person and dignity as a scholar.’

The memorial was held at King’s College London (KCL), where Peter taught between 1957 and 1993, and where, from 1980, he was Rhodes Professor of Imperial History. Though officially retired from the early 1990s, Peter remained closely involved with King’s, teaching courses into the 2010s.

Between 1996 and 2000 Peter was President of the Royal Historical Society, having previous served as a member of the Society’s governing Council between 1983 to 1987, thereafter becoming Vice President until November 1991.

As President, Peter was active in modernisation of the RHS, bringing it into closer contact with history beyond higher education, developing the Society’s policy and advocacy roles, and establishing partnerships with archives, publishers and others who make historical research possible. An account of Peter’s Presidency of the RHS, published in September 2025, is available here.

The KCL memorial event included contributions on Peter’s work on the history of early modern India, the British empire, North America, the Caribbean, and Atlantic in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century.

Peter’s membership of the history working group for the UK national curriculum in the late 1980s and early 1990s was also discussed, as was his considerable support of the Institute of Historical Research, including his creation and funding of the ‘Marshall Fellowships’ (2005-25) managed jointly with the Society. Peter’s many and lasting contributions to the Royal Historical Society were described by the current President, Professor Lucy Noakes.

The KCL event concluded with publication of Peter’s final book, Slave Owner and Paternalist. Sir William Young (1749-1815) in England and the Caribbean (Boydell & Brewer), on which he had been working in the months before his death.