Showing 374 results

Edward Miller, known more commonly as Ted, was born in Northumbria on the 16th July 1915. He was the son of a farm steward, and was educated as a northern grammar school before coming up to Cambridge in 1934 to earn starred Firsts in both Parts of the Historical Tripos. In 1939, he was elected to a Research Fellowship, but took a six-year leave of absence in 1940 for war service; Miller served with the Durham Light Infantry, and then the British Control Commission in Germany.

After the war, Miller returned to Cambridge in order to teach. Throughout his time at the College, he was appointed as Director of Studies in History, Tutor, Assistant Lecturer, and Lecturer in History. He focused on the history of medieval England, publishing works such as The Abbey and Bishopric of Ely, The Agrarian History of England and Wales (drawing on his own youth) and the two-volume Medieval England. Miller also later became an Honorary Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, of which he was the second Master after a stint as Professor of Medieval History at the University of Sheffield.

Miller married Fanny Salinger in 1941, and their son John went on to become a Professor of history at Queen Mary and Westfield College London. Miller died in Cambridge on the 21st December 2000.

Obituary in the Eagle, vol. 83, 2001, p. 80

Born to Richard and Agnes Metcalfe of Askrigg, North Yorkshire, Nicholas Metcalfe studied at Cambridge (possibly at Michaelhouse) and graduated BA in 1495, MA in 1498, BTh in 1504, and DTh in 1507. He was released from lecturing duties in 1507 in order to conduct business on behalf of John Fisher, then Chancellor of England.

In 1512, Metcalfe became archdeacon of Rochester, one of many ecclesiastical positions he was to hold throughout his life. Other notable appointments include Rector of Henley, Oxfordshire (1510-1521); Rector of Woodham Ferrers, Essex (1517-1539); vicar of Southfleet, Kent (1531-1537); and canon and prebendary of Lincoln (1526-1539).

Metcalfe served as Master of St. John’s College, Cambridge from 1518 to 1537, following the resignation of his predecessor, Alan Percy. Working alongside John Fisher, Metcalfe greatly enhanced the College’s foundation during the course of his mastership, securing, for instance, properties such as Broomhall Priory in Berkshire and Higham Priory in Kent and acquiring a number of benefactions to support the fellows and scholars of the College. He was executor to Lady Margaret Beaufort.

Like Fisher, Metcalfe opposed the divorce of Henry VIII from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, in 1533. However, his religious views and proximity to Fisher meant that, following Fisher’s execution in 1535, Metcalfe was subject to suspicion and was eventually summoned to London, where he testified to Thomas Cromwell. In 1537, he was compelled to resign his mastership. He died two years later in 1539 and was buried at Woodham Ferrers.

Brother of Dr. Nicholas Metcalfe, Master of St. John's College from 1518 to 1537.

Agnes Metcalfe was the mother of Nicholas Metcalfe, Master of St John's College. She lived in the parish of Askrigg, near Aysgarth in the North Riding of Yorkshire.

John Clement Mead was an architect and designer based in London. Mead was the son of the London surveyor and designer Clement Mead. Mead trained at his father’s office and was admitted to the Royal Academy Schools in 1815. Between 1822 and 1824 he designed and built the Cambridge Observatory on Madingley Road. Mead submitted designs that were not adopted for new buildings at King’s College in 1823 and St John’s College in 1824. He died on 15 January 1839 after a long illness.

Joseph Bickersteth Mayor was born in the Cape of Good Hope, on October 24th 1828, to Rev. Robert Mayor and his wife Charlotte. He was educated at Rugby School—of which he would later become a Governor—before going up to Cambridge in 1847; following his two older brothers, Robert and John. All three Mayor brothers would become Fellows; Joseph was appointed Fellow in 1852, the year after he took his degree. He was also given the position of College Lecturer in Moral Science.

Mayor was ordained as a Deacon in 1859, and a Priest in 1860, the same year that he became a Tutor at Cambridge. Three years later, his marriage to Miss A.J. Grote made it necessary to give up his position at the College, and he instead became the Head Master of a school in London. This was later followed by his appointment as a Professor at King’s College, first in Classical Literature and then in Moral Philosophy. He left his post in 1883, and moved to live out the rest of his life in Kingston-on-Thames.

There, Mayor undertook important work with local schools, but most of his focus fell to writing. He published many different works, the most important of which include his translations of Cicero, De Natura Deorum, Epistle of St. James, Clement of Alexandria, and Epistle of St. Jude and Second Epistle of Peter.

Mayor died on the 29th of November, 1916.

Obituary in the Eagle, vol. 38, Easter 1917, p. 323

Son of Sir John Marney of Layer Marney, Essex, and Jane Throckmorton. Served as Privy Councillor for Henry VII in 1485-1487 and for Henry VIII in 1509. Fought for Henry VII at the Battle of Stoke Field, 1487, and in putting down the Cornish Rebellion in 1497. Fought for Henry VIII in France in 1513. He held positions of power in Essex, including J.P. and M.P., and by Henry VIII was given offices including Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1509), Vice-Chamberlain and Captain of the King's Guard, constable of Castle Rising, steward of the Duchy of Cornwall, and Lord Privy Seal (1523).

Younger son of Philip St George Mansergh and Mrs E. M. Mansergh, born on 27 June 1910 in Tipperary, Ireland. Mansergh was educated at Abbey School, Tipperary and St Columba's College, Dublin (1923-9). He then entered Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1929, where he read modern history. Despite not managing to obtain a first, he began postgraduate research under W.G.S Adams (Gladstone professor of political theory and institutions). He achieved his DPhil in 1936, and was subsequently appointed as a tutor (but not Fellow) in politics at Pembroke. This post enabled him to produce a major work, Ireland in the Age of Reform and Revolution (1940). At this time he was also secretary to the Oxford University Politics Research Committee. In 1939 Mansergh married Diana Mary Keeton (undergraduate at Lady Margaret Hall, daughter of the headmaster of Reading School) on 12 December 1939, and their marriage produced 5 children (3 sons and 2 daughters).

During the Second World War , Mansergh became the Irish expert and director of the empire division of the Ministry of Information, which led to his appointment as OBE in 1945, and then as an assistant secretary at the Dominions Office (1946-7). After this foray into the civil service, Mansergh returned to academic life in 1947 as a research professor at the Royal Institute of International Affairs. In 1953 he moved to Cambridge as the first Smuts Professor of the history of the British Commonwealth. From this position, which he held from 1953-1970, Mansergh was concerned to raise the profile of the study of both Irish and Commonwealth history. During this time, Mansergh also became an honorary fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford (1954), and Trinity College, Dublin (1971), obtained an Oxford DLitt in 1960, as well as a fellowship of the British Academy in 1973. He was Master of St John's College from 1969-1979, after which he returned to being a Fellow until his death in 1991. Perhaps his greatest work was the publication, as editor-in-chief, of the 12-volume, highly-acclaimed series Transfer of Power in India, 1942-7 (TOPI), which appeared from 1970 at the rate of one a year.

Mansergh died at Brookfields Hospital, Cambridge, on 16 January 1991, from pneumonia which set in at the end of a prolonged period of ill health which was unfortunately begun by a fall on an escalator of the London underground.

Sir Donald Macalister was born in Perth, Scotland, on the 17th May 1854, the son of another Donald Macalister. He was educated in Scotland for the first few years of his life, and then in Liverpool, before being admitted to St John’s College, Cambridge in 1874. He had won a scholarship from St John’s, but also from Balliol, Worchester, and Oxford. He was Senior Wrangler and a Smith’s prizeman in 1877, and was immediately elected as a fellow of the college.

Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, 1545-1552.

Roger Lupton was an English lawyer, Provost of Eton College, and chaplain to both Henry VII and Henry VIII of England. He was born in Sedbergh, Yorkshire and studied at Cambridge University. He was elected Fellow and Provost of Eton College in 1503/4, a position he retained until 1535. Lupton financed the foundation of Sedbergh School from 1525 and in 1527, established six scholarships at St. John’s College, Cambridge, to be awarded to students of Sedbergh School. He was an executor of Henry VII’s will. After his death in 1539/40, Lupton was buried at Eton College, in a side chapel commissioned by him.

Son of Ralph Lovell of Beachamwell, Norfolk. Studied Law at Lincoln's Inn and practised in Norfolk. Joined revolt against Richard III in 1483. In 1485 he served as Speaker of the House of Commons in Henry VII's first Parliament, and in the same year was made Treasurer of the King's Chamber and Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was a leading councillor of both Henry VII and Henry VIII. He fought for Henry VII and the Battle of Stoke Field (1487), in France (1492), and in putting down the Cornish Rebellion (1497). In Henry VIII's wars of 1511-1514 he supervised the procurement of artillery and the fortification of Calais. Other offices held included: Treasurer of the King's Household (1503); Lieutenant of the Tower of London (1513), and Steward of the Universities of Oxford (1507) and Cambridge (1509).

Richard Longworth matriculated as a pensioner in 1549. He graduated B.A. in 1553, M.A. in 1556, B.D. in 1563 and D.D. in 1567. Longworth was a fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge from 1553-1557 and a fellow of St John's from 1559. He was elected to the Mastership of St John's in 1564 but was deprived of the position by College's Visitor, the Bishop of Ely (Richard Cox) in 1569. Longworth was an enthusiastic Protestant and under his mastership the College had become a Protestant force in the university. Under Longworth, the Master and others refused to wear the surplice in chapel and Longworth was summoned to London to explain himself. The Visitor was called on to intervene as a result of internal feuding and dissension within the College.

William Longforth was Fellow and President of St. John’s College, and Vicar of Ospringe in Kent from September 1527. He also appears to have held positions as Vicar of St. James’s Church, Isle of Grain, Kent, between 1528 and 1530, and Vicar of St. Mary’s Church in Gillingham, Kent, from 1530. Prior to his ordination, Longforth was a student at Cambridge, graduating B.A. 1514-15; MA 1518. He died sometime in or during the years soon after 1530.