Gordon Edmund Mingay (1923 – 3 January 2006) was a British

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

Early life

He was born in

Long Eaton Long Eaton is a town in the Erewash district of Derbyshire, England, just north of the River Trent, about south-west of Nottingham and some 8½ miles (13.7 km) south-east of Derby. The town population was 37,760 at the 2011 census. It has ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

and grew up in

Chatham Chatham may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Canada * Chatham Islands (British Columbia) * Chatham Sound, British Columbia * Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi * Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...

. His education was interrupted by the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

and he entered the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

in 1942. He served on HMS ''Uganda'', where he helped support the

landing in Sicily Landing is the last part of a flight, where a flying animal, aircraft, or spacecraft returns to the ground. When the flying object returns to water, the process is called alighting, although it is commonly called "landing", "touchdown" or ...

and at Salerno. In 1944, he became a cypher officer and was put in charge of shore bases during the

Normandy landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and ...

. After serving in the

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...

he was demobilised in 1946. Mingay married in 1945.W. A. Armstrong, 'Obituaries: Professor Gordon Mingay, 1923-2006', ''The Agricultural History Review'', Vol. 54, No. 2 (2006), pp. 338-339.

Academic career

After the war, Mingay worked for the Kent Education Department and studied part-time at Chatham Technical College. In 1949, he entered the

University of Nottingham , mottoeng = A city is built on wisdom , established = 1798 – teacher training college1881 – University College Nottingham1948 – university status , type = Public , chancellor ...

and was regarded by Professor J. D. Chambers as a hard-working and talented student. Chambers, who became Mingay's mentor, encouraged him to study agrarian history and his BA dissertation was an examination of the estates of the

Duke of Kingston Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain, with the title Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull being a title in the Peerage of England. The Earldom was created on 25 July 1628 for Robert Pierrepont, 1st Viscount Newark. Th ...

. 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. at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

. Mingay was awarded a teaching certificate with distinction and taught at

Bolton School Bolton School is an independent day school in Bolton, Greater Manchester. It comprises a co-educational nursery, co-educational infant school (ages 3–7), single sex junior schools (ages 7–11) and single sex senior schools including sixth fo ...

during 1952–53 and at Woolwich Polytechnic from 1953 until 1957. 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).Michael Turner, 'Obituaries: Gordon Mingay: An Appreciation, ''The Agricultural History Review'', Vol. 54, No. 2 (2006), pp. 340-343. Mingay was appointed Chair of Agrarian History at the

University of Kent , motto_lang = , mottoeng = Literal translation: 'Whom to serve is to reign'(Book of Common Prayer translation: 'whose service is perfect freedom')Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' ...

in 1968. He edited the ''

Agricultural History Review The ''Agricultural History Review. A Journal of Agricultural and Rural History'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published quarterly by the British Agricultural History Society. It was established in 1953. See also * Agriculture in the Un ...

'' from part 2 of 1972 to part 2 of 1983. He also edited the sixth volume of ''

The Agrarian History of England and Wales ''The Agrarian History of England and Wales'' is an academic work, published by Cambridge University Press, which in 8 volumes covers the period from the origins to 1939. Vols. 1, 5 and 7 are each in two parts. Joan Thirsk Irene Joan Thirsk, ...

'', which was published in 1989.

Works

*''The English Landed Society in the Eighteenth Century'' (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963). *(with J. D. Chambers) ''The Agricultural Revolution, 1730-1880'' (London: Batsford, 1965). *''Enclosure and the Small Farmer in the Age of the Industrial Revolution'' (London: Macmillan, 1968). *(with P. S. Bagwell) ''Britain and America, 1850–1939'' (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1971). *''Georgian London'' (London: Batsford, 1975). *''The Gentry: The Rise and Fall of a Ruling Class'' (London: Longman, 1976). *''Rural Life in Victorian England'' (London: Heinemann, 1977). *''The Transformation of Britain 1830–1939'' (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987). *''A Social History of the English Countryside'' (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1990). *''Land and Society in England, 1750–1980'' (London: Longman, 1994). *''Parliamentary Enclosure in England'' (London: Longman, 1997).

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mingay, Gordon 1923 births 2006 deaths Historians of agriculture People from Long Eaton Royal Navy personnel of World War II Alumni of the University of Nottingham British historians