Mary Dorothy Rose Leys (8 October 1890''1939 England and Wales Register'' – 6 September 1967) was a British historian and academic, who was involved in the work of the Catholic Social Guild and the

Catholic Record Society The Catholic Record Society (Registered Charity No. 313529) is a scholarly society devoted to the study of peri- and post- Reformational Catholic Church in England and Wales founded in 1904. It has been described as "the premier Catholic histor ...

. Leys was born in

Tylers Green Tylers Green is a village in the Civil parishes in England, civil parish of Chepping Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. The village is adjoined on one side by Hazlemere and on the other by Penn, Buckinghamshire, Penn. "Penn and Tylers Green" ar ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

. Her obituary in ''The Times'' states that she was educated at home because her family were too poor to afford school fees. Her Scottish father, John Kirkwood Leys, was a lawyer and novelist and died in 1909.At the circulating library: a database of Victorian fiction, 1837-1901
Author: John Kirkwood Leys (1847–1909)
/ref> In 1911, she was awarded a scholarship to

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. It began admitting men in 1994. The colle ...

. She taught history at

St Anne's College, Oxford St Anne's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 and gained full college status in 1959. Originally a women's college, it has admitted men since 1979. ...

, from 1919 until her retirement in 1955.

Works

* ''An Introduction to Political Economy'', Catholic Social Guild, 1934. * ''Men, Money and Markets'', Cobden-Sanderson, 1936; reissued with a new chapter, Longmans, 1940. * ''European Catholics and the Social Question'', Catholic Social Guild, 1943; completely revised ed., 1956. * ''A History of the English People'', with R. J. Mitchell, Longmans, 1950; reissued by Pan Books, 1967. * ''Between Two Empires: a history of French politicians and people between 1814 and 1848'', Longmans, 1955. * ''A History of London Life'' with R. J. Mitchell, Longmans, 1958; reissued by Penguin, 1963. * ''Catholics in England, 1559-1829: a social history'', Longmans, 1961.

References

1890 births 1967 deaths Fellows of St Anne's College, Oxford English historians British women historians English Roman Catholics Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford {{UK-historian-stub