William Arthur Speck (11 January 1938,

Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...

– 15 February 2017,

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

) was a British historian who specialised in late 17th and 18th-century British and American history. He was born in Bradford and was the son of a bookbinder. He was educated at Bradford Grammar School before winning a scholarship to The Queen's College,

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

, where he gained a BA in 1960 and a D.Phil. in 1966.Michael Broers, 'William Arthur Speck, 1938–2017', ''Northern History'', XX:XX, July 2017, pp. 1–2.Robin Smith, 'Obituary: William Arthur Speck, 1938–2017', ''The Historian'', Issue 133, Spring 2017, p. 31. He began his career in 1962, with a tutorial fellowship at the

University of Exeter The University of Exeter is a research university in the West Country of England, with its main campus in Exeter, Devon. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of ...

, before he moved to a lectureship in history at

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick university and a mem ...

the following year. In 1974, he was promoted to a readership. He was appointed to the G. F. Grant Professorship of History at the

University of Hull The University of Hull is a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1927 as University College Hull. The main university campus is located in Hull and is home to the Hu ...

in 1981 and in 1984 he became the Chair in Modern History at the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

, retiring in 1997 to become

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History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

. Speck moved to Carlisle in order to be closer to the source material for his biography of Robert Southey, which was published by Yale University Press in 2006. The book was well reviewed and resulted in Speck being appointed Honorary Professor in the School of English Studies at the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

, which he held from 2006 until 2012. Here, he co-convened an Interdisciplinary Eighteenth-Century Research Seminar. He was president of the Historical Association from 1999 to 2002. Speck was also chairman of the Carlisle branch of the RSPCA.

Works

*(co-authored with Geoffrey Holmes), ''Divided Society: Parties and Politics in England, 1694–1716'' (1967). *''Tory and Whig: The Struggle in the Constituencies 1701–1715'' (Macmillan, 1970). *''Stability and Strife: England, 1714-60'' (Edward Arnold, 1977). *''The Butcher: The Duke of Cumberland and the Suppression of the 45'' (Blackwell, 1981; second edition, 2013). *‘Whigs and Tories dim their glories: English political parties under the first two Georges’, in John Cannon (ed.), ''The Whig Ascendancy: Colloquies on Hanoverian Britain'' (Edward Arnold, 1981), pp. 51–70. *''The Reluctant Revolutionaries: Englishmen and the Revolution of 1688'' (

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 1988). *''The Birth of Britain: A New Nation, 1700–1715'' (Oxford: Blackwell, 1994) *''Literature and Society in Eighteenth-Century England, 1680–1820: Ideology, Politics and Culture'' (Longman, 1998). *''Cassell's Companion to Eighteenth-Century Britain'' (Cassell, 2002). *''James II'' (Longman, 2002). *''Colonial America: From Jamestown to Yorktown'' (Palgrave, 2002). *''A Concise History of Britain: 1707–1975'' (1993). *''Robert Southey. Entire Man of Letters'' (2006). *''Dictionary of British America, 1584–1783'' (Palgrave, 2007). *''A Political Biography of Thomas Paine'' (Routledge, 2016).

Notes

1938 births 2017 deaths British historians Writers from Bradford Alumni of the Queen's College, Oxford Academics of the University of Leeds Academics of the University of Nottingham People educated at Bradford Grammar School {{UK-historian-stub