Stroud Francis Charles Milsom (2 May 1923 – 24 February 2016) was an English
legal historian
Legal history or the history of law is the study of how law has evolved and why it has changed. Legal history is closely connected to the development of civilisations and operates in the wider context of social history. Certain jurists and hist ...
, best known for his challenge to aspects of the works of
F. W. Maitland. He was Professor of Law at the University of Cambridge from 1976 to 1990 and Fellow of
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. Th ...
from 1976 until his death. He was President of the
Selden Society from 1985 to 1988.
Biography
Milsom was born in
Merton,
Surrey, in 1923. He was educated at
Charterhouse and
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...
, where he read Law. Between 1944 and 1945 Milsom worked for
Naval Intelligence
Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...
. He was
called to the bar by
Lincoln's Inn in 1947, but never practiced. The same year, he received a
Commonwealth Fund Fellowship to the
University of Pennsylvania Law School
The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is among the most selective and olde ...
. Milsom was a fellow of