Celebrating Hampshire Historians

Pelham, Reginald Arthur

30.08.1903 - 16.02.1981

Born in Kent, his father was a ‘miller’s clerk’ which probably explains one of Reginald’s subsequent academic interests, namely mills and milling. At the time of the 1911 census, aged 7, he was living with his parents in Dover. From 1915 to 1921 he attended Dover Grammar School for Boys, winning the geography prize in his final year.

From there he won a place at University College Wales, Aberystwyth. Subsequently, he moved to Birmingham where gained a Bachelor of Education Certificate in 1928 and became a Lecturer in Geography at the University. In 1929 he toured south, central and east Africa, funded by a travel grant from the British Association, and in 1934, the USSR with Sir John Russell. In 1942 he was seconded to the War Office to lecture to the Forces

He was also a stamp collector, reader, organist and singer and a passionate cricketer, both as a player and, later, a spectator. He wrote poetry, and won a prize for a poem on the accession of Edward VIII.

He married Pauline Mary Brentnall at Marlborough in 1948.

From the mid-1940s he had been on the staff of University College, Southampton (from 1952 University of Southampton), initially as a lecturer in geography, subsequently as a Senior Lecturer and finally, for the academic year 1967/8, as Reader in Historical Geography. By the mid 1960s he was a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

It seems likely that he retired in 1968 aged 65. At the time of his death, he was living in Midhurst, West Sussex.

Sources

• No obituary has been found. There is a small amount of information in:

  • https://oldpharosians.org.uk/newsletter/2001-july/

Portrait

None known.

Contribution to county’s history

Although Pelham’s contribution was a relatively modest one, given the importance of mills to the economy of Hampshire, its value was considerable.

Relevant published works

• The Old Mills of Southampton (Southampton: Southampton Corporation, 1963)

• ‘The Industrial Revolution in Hampshire’, Wessex Geographer, No.6, April 1965, pp.29-38.

Critical Comments

Other Comments

Pelham’s academic interests were quite extensive from local geography/history to international relations. For example, in 1952 he delivered a ten-week lecture course for the Portsmouth branch of the WEA on ‘A World in Transition: A Study of Conflicting Ideologies in World Affairs’ (Portsmouth Evening News, 24 January 1952, p.8).

Contributor

Roger Ottewill (20 November 2023)

Key Words

Hampshire mills

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