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Patrick Wormald | |
|---|---|
| Born | 9 July 1947 |
| Died | 29 September 2004(2004-09-29) (aged 57) |
| Occupation(s) | Historian and academic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent | Brian Wormald (father) |
| Academic background | |
| Education | Eton College |
| Alma mater | Balliol College, Oxford Merton College, Oxford |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | History |
| Sub-discipline | |
| Institutions | All Souls College, Oxford University of Glasgow Christ Church, Oxford Wolfson College, Oxford |
| Notable students | Stephen Baxter |
Charles Patrick Wormald (9 July 1947 – 29 September 2004) was a British historian born inNeston, Cheshire, son of historianBrian Wormald.
He attendedEton College as aKing's Scholar. From 1966 to 1969 he read modern history atBalliol College, Oxford, where he was tutored byMaurice Keen and farmed out for tutorials withMichael Wallace-Hadrill (at that time a Senior ResearchFellow atMerton College, Oxford) andPeter Brown (at that time a research fellow atAll Souls College, Oxford). Wormald's potential was subsequently recognised by both Merton and All Souls when those colleges awarded him, respectively, the Harmsworth Senior Scholarship and a seven-year Prize Fellowship.
Wormald taughtearly medieval history at theUniversity of Glasgow from 1974 to 1988, where his lectures drew huge enthusiasm from students.[1] There he also met fellow-historianJenny Brown, whom he married in 1980. They had two sons, but divorced in 2001. While at Glasgow, he became a participant in theBucknell Group of early medievalists, hosted byWendy Davies – the group taking its name from a village on the Welsh-English border where it often met. He delivered theJarrow Lecture in 1984.
Following aBritish Academy Research Readership (1987–89), Wormald returned to Oxford in 1989 as a college lecturer atChrist Church, where he was then appointed a fellow and university lecturer from 1990, tutoring students in medieval history. He delivered the Deerhurst Lecture in 1991 and the British Academy's Raleigh Lecture in History in 1995. In 1996 he gave the inaugural Richard Rawlinson Center Congress Lecture at the 31stInternational Congress on Medieval Studies inWestern Michigan University inKalamazoo, Michigan. His greatest work, which took many years to produce, wasThe Making of English Law, the first volume of which was published in 1999. Volume II was unfinished at the time of his death, although his extensive preparatory papers for the book have now been published online.[2] Following his early retirement from Christ Church in 2001, he was re-engaged as a lecturer by the History Faculty at Oxford, and enteredWolfson College, Oxford. He was elected a fellow of theSociety of Antiquaries of London in 2003, and that year also delivered theBrixworth Lecture.
In 2009, a collection of essays written by leading scholars in Wormald's honour was published under the titleEarly Medieval Studies in Memory of Patrick Wormald, edited byStephen Baxter et al. The book is introduced by articles on Wormald's person and his academic output.[3]
