Geoffrey Wallis Steuart Barrow (28 November 1924 – 14 December 2013) was a Scottish historian and academic. The son of Charles Embleton Barrow and Marjorie née Stuart, Geoffrey Barrow was born on 28 November 1924, at

Headingley Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingley ...

near

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

. He attended

St Edward's School, Oxford St Edward's School is a public school (English fee-charging boarding and day school) in Oxford, England. It is known informally as 'Teddies'. Approximately sixty pupils live in each of its thirteen houses. The school is a member of the Rug ...

, and

Inverness Royal Academy Inverness Royal Academy is a comprehensive secondary school in the city of Inverness in the Highland area of Scotland. A former grammar school with a history dating back to the 13th century, the academy became a comprehensive in the mid-1970s ...

, moving on to the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

and

Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located on Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England and VI of Scotland, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale ...

. While still a student at the University of St Andrews he joined the Royal Navy. After basic training he was sent to the Royal Navy Signals School near Petersfield in Hampshire, but he was then offered the chance to go on a Japanese course. He passed an interview in the Admiralty and, as a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, joined the seventh course at the secret Bedford Japanese School run by Captain Oswald Tuck in March 1944 for a six-month course. After completing the course he was sent to the Naval Section at the

Government Code and Cypher School The Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) was a British signals intelligence agency set up in 1919. During the First World War, the British Army and Royal Navy had separate signals intelligence agencies, MI1b and NID25 (initially known as R ...

, Bletchley Park. He was later sent to H.M.S. Anderson, a naval listening and decoding centre in

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

, Ceylon (Sri Lanka). He became lecturer in history at

University College, London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

in 1950, remaining there until 1961 when he became professor of medieval history at the

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

, and then in 1974, professor of Scottish history at the

. He was

Sir William Fraser Professor of Scottish History and Palaeography Sir William Fraser, (18 February 1816 – 13 March 1898) was a solicitor and notable expert in ancient Scottish history, palaeography, and genealogy. Life Fraser's family were farmers and craftsmen in The Mearns. He was the eldest of the ...

at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

from 1979 to 1992. He began his work by studying the nature of

feudalism Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...

in Anglo-Norman Britain, but moved on to specialize more thoroughly on Scottish feudalism. His work tended to focus on Normanisation in High Medieval Scotland, especially in reference to governmental institutions.

Personal life

He married, in 1951, Heather Elizabeth née Lownie, with whom he had one son and one daughter. His daughter is

Julia Barrow Julia Steuart Barrow, (born 5 December 1956) is an English historian and academic, who specialises in medieval and ecclesiastical history. Since 2012, she has been Professor in Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds and previously served (2 ...

, who also became an historian and academic.'BARROW, Prof. Julia Steuart', ''

Who's Who 2017 ''Who's Who'' is a reference work. It has been published annually in the form of a hardback book since 1849, and has been published online since 1999. It has also been published on CD-ROM. It lists, and gives information on, people from around ...

'', A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2017; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2016; online edn, Nov 201
accessed 27 Sept 2017
/ref>

Publications

Barrow's more notable publications include:

Books

* ''Feudal Britain'', (London, 1956). * ''Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland'', (Edinburgh, 1965; 4th edn., 2005). * ''The Kingdom of the Scots'', (London, 1973), a collection of his scholarly articles. * Editor of ''The Scottish Tradition'', (Edinburgh, 1974). * ''The Anglo-Norman Era in Scottish History'', (Oxford, 1980). * ''Kingship and Unity: Scotland, 1000–1306'', (London, 1981). * ''Scotland and its Neighbours in the Middle Ages'', (London, 1992) – another collection of his scholarly articles.

Editions of texts

* Editor of ''Acts of Malcolm IV, 1153–1165'', (Edinburgh, 1960) – ''Regesta Regum Scottorum'', vol. i. * Co-editor (with W.W. Scott) of '' Acts of William I, 1165–1214'' (Edinburgh, 1971) ''Regesta Regum Scottorum'', vol. ii. * Editor of ''The Charters of King David I'', (Woodbridge, 1999).

Papers

* Barrow, G.W.S. 'Earls of Fife in the 12th Century', (''Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland'', 1952–53), pp. 51–61. * Barrow, G.W.S. 'Religion in Scotland on the eve of Christianity' in ''Forschungen zur Reichs-, Papst- und Landesgeschichte'', ed. Borchardt and Bunz (Stuttgart 1998) 25–32.

References

'BARROW, Prof. Geoffrey Wallis Steuart'
Who's Who 2009, A & C Black, 2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2008. Retrieved 27 Jan 2009
Barrow's Profile on the UOE Website
__NOTOC__ {{DEFAULTSORT:Barrow, Geoffrey W. S. 1924 births 2013 deaths Academics of Newcastle University Academics of the University of Edinburgh Academics of the University of St Andrews Academics of University College London Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford Alumni of the University of St Andrews English medievalists English historians Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Historians of Scotland People educated at Inverness Royal Academy People educated at St Edward's School, Oxford