Celebrating Hampshire Historians

Page, William

04.09.1861 - 03.02.1934

William was the fifth of six children of merchant Henry Page and his wife Georgina. Born in Paddington, his education at private schools was cut short by the death of his father in 1875. Subsequently articled to an engineer, between c.1881 and 1884 he was employed in this capacity by the Government of Queensland in Australia.

However, ‘his real interests were in history and archaeology’ and in 1885 he secured employment with his brother-in-law William John Hardy, an antiquarian. From then until his death, Page immersed himself in a wide variety of historical projects, the most important and extensive of which was the Victoria County History (VCH). Following the dissolution of the firm of Hardy and Page in 1902 he became joint editor of the VCH with H.A.Doubleday. After Doubelday retired in 1904 he was sole general editor and ‘personally supervised ... practically all the topographical articles’. As recorded in his ODNB entry: ‘His editorial work for the VCH display[ed] both immense energy and productivity and great tact in dealing with contributors.’

In 1886 he had married Kate Marion Rose with whom he had a son and a daughter. From 1896 they lived in St Albans for many years, subsequently moving to Hampstead until 1922 and finally Middleton near Bognor.

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Page_(historian)

• The Times, 5 February 1934, p.17.

• ODNB, profile by C.R.J Currie.

Portrait

Contribution to county’s history

Page was the joint editor of volume 2 and sole editor of volumes 3 to 5 inclusive of VCH History of Hampshire, colloquially known as the Red Books.  In this capacity it is difficult to assess fully his substantive contributions to these volumes. His editorial notes are essentially extensive lists of those who assisted him, in respect of research, proof reading etc. Nonetheless it can be surmised that without his encouragement and guiding hand, progress would have been much slower.

Relevant published works

• A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 2 (Victoria County History, London, 1903)

• A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 3 (Victoria County History, London, 1908)

• A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 4 (Victoria County History, London, 1911)

• A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 5 (Victoria County History, London, 1912)

• (with H. A. Doubleday) A guide to the Victoria history of the counties of England (n.d., 1903)

Critical Comments

Other Comments

Beyond his editorial contribution to the Hampshire Red Book, it would seem that Page made no other definitive contributions to the study of Hampshire’s history.

Contributor

Roger Ottewill (8 December 2023)

Key Words

Victoria County History, VCH,

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