''For the newspaper editor Edward Guy Schofield, see

Guy Schofield Edward Guy Schofield (10 July 1902 – 14 February 1990) was a British newspaper editor. Born in Leeds, Schofield attended Leeds Modern School, then began his career in 1918 on the ''Leeds Mercury'', before moving to the ''Daily Dispatch'' an ...

'' Arthur Norman Edward Delsart Schofield, FRHS (26 June 1925 – 9 March 2009) was a curator and archivist at the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, and later the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

Early life

Edward Schofield was born in

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

in 1925, the son of Henry Schofield and his Belgian wife, Simone Delsart. In the 1930s, the family made annual summer visits to Belgium. He was educated at the schools of the Pallottine Missionary Sisters in Rochdale, and the Salesian Fathers in Bolton, before studying at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, which today forms part of

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

. In 1957, he obtained a doctorate from the

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 ...

with a dissertation on "England and the Council of Basel". He was a founder member of the

Ecclesiastical History Society The Ecclesiastical History Society (EHS) is a British learned historical society founded in 1961 to foster interest in, and to advance the study of, all areas of the history of the Christian Church through twice yearly conferences and publication ...

, and on the scholarly committee of the international journal ''Annuarium Historiae Conciliorum''. His scholarly articles were published under the name A.N.E.D. Schofield.

Intelligence work

From 1958 to 1961 he worked in intelligence, first at the Ministry of Defence and then at the Central Office of Information, where he compiled reference works on Middle Eastern countries.

Archivist

In 1961 Schofield moved to the British Museum, as a research assistant in the Department of Manuscripts. From 1974 to 1986 he was assistant keeper of manuscripts at the British Library. His catalogue of the papers of

Viscount Cecil of Chelwood A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a Title#Aristocratic titles, title used in certain European countries for a nobility, noble of varying status. In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-he ...

, completed in 1987 and published in 1991, was the first to be produced digitally. Schofield curated the British Library exhibition ''The English Country Parson'' (25 September 1980 to 4 January 1981) and edited the exhibition catalogue. After retirement he volunteered at the archive of the

Archdiocese of Westminster The Catholic Diocese of Westminster is an archdiocese of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church in England. The diocese consists of most of London north of the River Thames and west of the River Lea, the borough of Spelthorne (in Surrey), and th ...

, where he indexed the papers of

Cardinal Heenan John Carmel Heenan (26 January 1905 – 7 November 1975) was a senior-ranking English prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Westminster from 1963 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1965. Biography Ea ...

Sources

Edward Schofield: medievalist and curator
Obituary in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', 28 April 2009. {{DEFAULTSORT:Schofield, Edward 1925 births 2009 deaths People from Rochdale Alumni of the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Employees of the British Library Employees of the British Museum