Robert Howard Hodgkin

Robert Howard Hodgkin[1] (24 April 1877 – 28 June 1951) was a historian of modern history at Queen's College in Oxford, and served as its provost from 1937 until 1946. In 1900 he was named a lecturer of modern history at the college, and from 1928 to 1934 was the "University lecturer" in that subject. His seminal work, A History of the Anglo-Saxons, was published in 1935, and in his retirement he also saw published Six centuries of an Oxford college: a history of the Queen's College, 1340–1940. Hodgkin was part of a family of historians; his father, Thomas Hodgkin, was a recognized historian of Europe in the Middle Ages in addition to a banker, while his son, Thomas Lionel Hodgkin, was a Marxist historian of Africa.[2][3][4]

Early life and education

Robert Howard Hodgkin, known as "Robin",[1] was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne on 24 April 1877.[2][3] His father, Thomas Hodgkin, was a banker and historian of Europe in the Middle Ages.[2][3] Robert Hodgkin was educated at Repton, Leighton Park School, and Balliol College at the University of Oxford, were in 1899 he obtained first-class honours in the Final School of Modern History.[2][3]

Career

After his graduation, Hodgkin was appointed lecturer in modern history in 1900 at Queen's College, Oxford, and later, from 1928 to 1934, was the university lecturer in the subject.[2][3][4] From 1904 until 1937 he served there as a fellow, and from 1910 to 1937 as a tutor; thereafter, from October 1937, he served as provost of the college, during which time it celebrated the six-hundredth anniversary of its founding.[2][3] Hodgkin retired in 1946, and was named an honorary fellow.[3]

Hodgkin was particularly known for two major works: A History of the Anglo-Saxons, which was first published in 1935, and Six Centuries of an Oxford College: a history of the Queen's College, 1340–1940, in 1949 while in retirement.[2][3][4]

Personal life

Hodgkin came from a Quaker family, but was forced to leave the society due to his military service; he held a commission in the 1st V.B. Northumberland Fusiliers, and during World War I returned to the regiment as a captain in the Seventh Battalion, in addition to serving in the General Staff for Operations in the War Office.[2]

According to a friend of a relative, "The Hodgkins are a Quaker dynasty with all that that implies".[5] Hodgkin's wife was Dorothy Forster Hodgkin (née Smith), with whom he had a son, Thomas Lionel Hodgkin, later a Marxist historian of Africa; in 1937 Thomas Hodgkin married Dorothy Crowfoot, who under her married name would win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.[1] Among others Robert Howard Hodgkin was also related to the painter Sir Howard Hodgkin, the namesake of Hodgkin's lymphoma Thomas Hodgkin, and Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, winner of the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.[5]

Hodgkin and his wife purchased an Illington home, Crab Mill, to retire to.[1] It eventually became used as a family retreat, and was taken over in turn as a retirement home by his son and daughter-in-law.[1] Robert Hodgkin died on 28 June 1951, at the age of 74, at his home in Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire;[3] his wife died in 1974.[1]

Publications

  • Hodgkin, Robert Howard (1949). Six centuries of an Oxford college: a history of the Queen's College, 1340–1940. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
  • Hodgkin, Robert Howard, ed. (1952). A History of the Anglo-Saxons. II (3rd ed.). London: Oxford University Press.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Catalogue of the additional papers of Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin, 1919–2003". Bodleian Library. University of Oxford. 2012. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Mr. R. H. Hodgkin". Nature. Nature Publishing Group. CXL (3546): 676. 16 October 1937. doi:10.1038/140676a0.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Obituary: Mr Robert H. Hodgkin". The Manchester Guardian. Manchester. 30 June 1951. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. 1 2 3 "Robert Howard Hodgkin (1877–1951), Provost (1937–1946)". Art UK. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  5. 1 2 Paul, Richard (11 October 1984). "Shining Light". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C.


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