Gordon Edmund Mingay (1923 – 3 January 2006) was a Britishhistorian.
He was born inLong Eaton,Derbyshire and grew up inChatham. His education was interrupted by theSecond World War and he entered theRoyal Navy in 1942. He served onHMSUganda, where he helped support thelanding in Sicily and atSalerno. In 1944, he became a cypher officer and was put in charge of shore bases during theNormandy landings. After serving in theFar East he was demobilised in 1946. Mingay married in 1945.[1]
After the war, Mingay worked for the Kent Education Department and studied part-time atChatham Technical College. In 1949, he entered theUniversity of Nottingham and was regarded by ProfessorJ. D. Chambers as a hard-working and talented student. Chambers, who became Mingay's mentor, encouraged him to studyagrarian history and his BA dissertation was an examination of the estates of theDuke of Kingston. He was awarded a BA first class degree in 1952 and the external examiner,H. J. Habakkuk, said Mingay's dissertation could have earned him a B.Litt. atOxford University.[1]
Mingay was awarded a teaching certificate with distinction and taught atBolton School during 1952–53 and atWoolwich Polytechnic from 1953 until 1957.[1] His doctoral dissertation,Land Ownership and Agrarian Change in the Eighteenth Century, was completed in 1958 and led to his first major published work,The English Landed Society in the Eighteenth Century (1963).[2]
Mingay was appointed Chair of Agrarian History at theUniversity of Kent in 1968. He edited theAgricultural History Review from part 2 of 1972 to part 2 of 1983. He also edited the sixth volume ofThe Agrarian History of England and Wales, which was published in 1989.[2]
