Sir Brian Howard Harrison (born 9 July 1937) is a British historian and academic. From 1996 to 2004, he was Professor of Modern History at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. From 2000 to 2004, he was also the editor of the ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...

''.

Early life and education

Harrison was born on 9 July 1937. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood, an

independent school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

in London. From 1956 to 1958, between school and university, he undertook his national service with the Malta Signal Squadron. On 6 October 1956, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the

Royal Corps of Signals The Royal Corps of Signals (often simply known as the Royal Signals – abbreviated to R SIGNALS) is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield communications an ...

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

. On 19 June 1958, he transferred to the Territorial Army, thereby ending his active military service, and was promoted to

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

. He was transferred to the Regular Army Reserve of Officers on 1 September 1961, which fully ended his military service but signaled that he was a trained soldier who could be called up in an emergency. He studied modern history at

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its foun ...

, graduating with a first class honours

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(BA) degree in 1961: as per tradition, his BA was promoted to a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

(MA Oxon) degree. He remained at St John's College to undertake a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

(DPhil) degree, which he completed in 1966 with a doctoral thesis titled ''The temperance question in England, 1829-1869''. The thesis was supervised by Peter Mathias.

Academic career

Harrison was Professor of

Modern History The modern era or the modern period is considered the current historical period of human history. It was originally applied to the history of Europe and Western history for events that came after the Middle Ages, often from around the year 1500, ...

at the

from 1996 to 2004. He was additionally the editor of ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' from January 2000 to September 2004. Since 2004, he has been an emeritus fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Harrison has published extensively on British social and political history from the 1790s to the present. His first book was ''Drink and the Victorians. The Temperance Question England 1815–1872'', based on his doctoral thesis. His most recent publications are two volumes in the New Oxford History of England series covering British history from 1951. National Life Stories conducted an oral history interview (C1149/24) with Harrison in 2012 for its Oral History of Oral History collection held by the British Library. Harrison also did a video interview with the Cambridge historian and social anthropologist Alan Macfarlane in 2012, which was also published in prose format. Between 1974 and 1981 Harrison conducted a series of oral history interviews with surviving suffrage campaigners, their relatives and employees, known as ''The Suffrage Interviews'', or ''Oral evidence on the suffragette and suffragist movements: the Brian Harrison interviews.'' The recordings were deposited with The Women's Library in 1981, and are now available online via The British Library of Political and Economic Science. The Library is working on a Wikidata project, WikiProject LSESuffrageInterviewsProject, which seeks to explore connections between individuals and organizations mentioned within the collection, and make the resource accessible to researchers in new ways.

Personal life

In 1967, Harrison married Vicky Greggain. She is a retired administrator who worked in the public and charitable sectors, including as executive secretary/chief executive) of the

Wolfson Foundation The Wolfson Foundation is a British registered charity that awards grants to support science and medicine, health, education and the arts and humanities. It was established in 1955 and re-registered in 2014. , the endowment of the Wolfson Fo ...

(1997–2006).

Honours

Harrison was appointed

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised Order of chivalry, orders of chivalry; it is a part of the Orders, decorations, and medals ...

in the 2005 New Year Honours for "services to scholarship". He was elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

(FBA) on . He is also an elected fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS). A book of essays was published in his honour in 2022 titled ''Reform and its Complexities in Modern Britain: Essays Inspired by Sir Brian Harrison''.

Selected works

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Brian 1937 births Living people People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Editors of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Oxford Fellows of the British Academy British book editors Knights Bachelor Oxford University Press people Fellows of the Royal Historical Society 20th-century British historians 21st-century British historians 20th-century British male writers 21st-century British male writers Royal Corps of Signals officers Historians of the University of Oxford