Celebrating Hampshire Historians

Historian of the Month

As a part of our Celebrating Hampshire’s Historians project, we feature a Historian of the Month. They are chosen to illustrate the breadth of topics and approaches that we have discovered in building the profiles. The aim is to be as representative as possible and the list includes professional and amateur historians and archaeologists, antiquarians and others, with a cut-off date of 2000. The first profile was posted in April 2022. For any queries, please contact: celebrating@hantsfieldclub.org.uk.  

May 2025 - Edward King

Edward King - was born in Lymington ... and spent his early life in the town. (He) returned to Lymington in 1858 where he established his well known bookselling business. In 1876 he published Old Times Revisited in the borough and parish of Lymington.

April 2025 - Arthur C Bennett

Arthur Charles Bennett - was gifted musically...In 1901, inspired by the Andover incumbent, Revd Christopher Collier, Arthur Bennett contributed an article ‘The History of Music at Andover’ to a local newspaper: the Andover Advertiser, following it with ‘The Story of St Mary’s Church, Andover’, which was later expanded into a guidebook.

March 2025 - Alfred Oscroft

Alfred Oscroft was a place-names authority and polymath. Within a short period of retirement (in 1922), he began publishing articles about Hampshire place names in the Southampton Times and Hampshire Express.

February 2025 - Eleanor Cottrill

Eleanor Cottrill - took "...up the post of Hampshire County Archivist (1947–1970) and established a County Record Office.  Her success in attracting collections was such that, within a year, the Record Office was moved to more ample premises..."

January 2025 - John Bullar

John Bullar was a "schoolmaster for nearly four decades, he taught many of those who were to become the town’s civic leaders. As it was put in an obituary published in the Southampton Times "The life of Mr Bullar is in fact the life of Southampton during the past fifty years".

Historian of the Month for January-December 2024

Follow the above link to find out who was chosen as 'Historian of the Month' in 2024.

Historians of the Month for January-December 2023

Follow the above link to find out who was chosen as 'Historian of the Month' in 2023.

Historians of the Month for April-December 2022

Follow the above link to find out who was chosen as 'Historian of the Month' in 2022; the first ever 'HoM' - Dr. Joseph Stevens - was posted in April 2022.