Christopher Robin Elrington

FRHistS The Royal Historical Society, founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the Histori ...

FSA (20 January 1930 – 3 August 2009) was an English historian, known primarily for his work with the ''

Victoria County History The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History or the VCH, is an English history project which began in 1899 with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of En ...

''.

Biography

Elrington was born in Farnborough, as the second of three sons of

Brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. In ...

Maxwell Elrington, and his wife Beryl. Christopher's father died in active service in Germany, while the son was 15. Elrington was educated at

Wellington College Wellington College may refer to: *Wellington College, Berkshire, an independent school in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England ** Wellington College International Shanghai ** Wellington College International Tianjin * Wellington College, Wellington, Ne ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

, before performing his military service. He later went to

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the univer ...

, where he took a BA. After this he did his MA in

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

history at Bedford College,

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. In 1954 Elrington started working for the ''

''. The projectan attempt to build a comprehensive history of all the

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

of Englandwas at this time in a phase of revival, after having been dormant since the time of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Initially he worked primarily on the history of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, as well as a history of the parish of Woodford, Wiltshire (published in 1962), that would serve as a model for the format that the new editions of the works would adopt. In 1960 work started on the county of Gloucestershire, and Elrington moved to the county to get closer to the sources. Over the course of eight years, he and his assistants completed two and a half volumes covering over sixty places, which was considered a good rate of work. In 1968 he returned to London, where he became deputy editor of the whole project. Then, in 1977, he was made general editor, succeeding

Ralph Pugh Ralph Bernard Pugh (1 August 1910 – 3 December 1982) was an historian and editor of the ''Victoria History of the Counties of England'' from 1949 to 1977. He was also a professor of English history at the University of London, a Fellow of St ...

, and remained in this post until 1994. As the coordinator of the work of over thirty professional historians, he had great influence on the work, and put greater emphasis on such things as the history of the landscape. Much of his effort was also focused on financing the project, which at the time was running into financial difficulties. From 1962 to 1972 he was the general editor of the Wiltshire Record Society, an honorary position. Elrington became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1964, and of the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society, founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the Histori ...

in 1969. The

gave him the title of professor in 1992, though he did not teach there. After he retired in 1994 he became an

emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

professor. While at Oxford he met and married Jean Margaret Buchanan, an architect. Together they had twins; a son and a daughter. Elrington died at home in London on 3 August 2009.

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elrington, Christopher Robin 1930 births 2009 deaths Military personnel from Hampshire People from Farnborough, Hampshire Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Alumni of University College, Oxford Alumni of Bedford College, London People educated at Wellington College, Berkshire 20th-century English historians English local historians Contributors to the Victoria County History