Hilary Seton Offler, FBA (3 February 1913 – 24 January 1991) was an English historian and editor. The Professor of Medieval History at

Durham University , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills (Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_chan ...

from 1956 to 1978, he was an expert on medieval German history and the political works of

William of Ockham William of Ockham, OFM (; also Occam, from la, Gulielmus Occamus; 1287 – 10 April 1347) was an English Franciscan friar, scholastic philosopher, apologist, and Catholic theologian, who is believed to have been born in Ockham, a small vill ...

(which he edited for publication).

Early life and education

Offler was born in

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire ...

on 3 February 1913; his father Horace was the general manager of King's Acre Nurseries in

. He attended Hereford High School for Boys, before going up to

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...

; he had won a scholarship to Emmanuel College at the age of 15 in 1928, but continued at school until 1930. He placed in the first class in Parts I and II of the history

Tripos At the University of Cambridge, a Tripos (, plural 'Triposes') is any of the examinations that qualify an undergraduate for a bachelor's degree or the courses taken by a student to prepare for these. For example, an undergraduate studying mathe ...

, graduating in 1933. He then spent a year studying the

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

Tripos; placing in the first class in 1934, he won the Lightfoot Scholarship and was elected to a research studentship at Emmanuel; under C. W. Previté-Orton's supervision, he worked on the reign of the

Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans ( la, Imperator Romanorum, german: Kaiser der Römer) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period ( la, Imperat ...

Louis IV (the Bavarian) and visited Germany and France to study

archival An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...

sources. His

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

thesis on Louis was submitted in 1938, though he never took the degree.

Career and honours

In 1936, Offler was elected to a

research fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a pr ...

ship at his college; he held it for four years."Offler, Prof. Hilary Seton"
''

Who Was Who ''Who's Who'' is a reference work. It is a book, and also a CD-ROM and a website, giving information on influential people from around the world. Published annually as a book since 1849, it lists people who influence British life, according to i ...

'' (online ed.,

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2007). Retrieved 19 April 2021. During 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 opposin ...

, he fought in an

anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

regiment of the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

, initially in Scotland and Ireland but from 1942 in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

(including a period of secondment with the

Free French Army Free France (french: France Libre) was a political entity that claimed to be the legitimate government of France following the dissolution of the Third Republic. Led by French general , Free France was established as a government-in-exile ...

in 1943), Italy and France. On

demobilisation Demobilization or demobilisation (see spelling differences) is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or because a crisis has been peacefully resolved and militar ...

in 1946, he took up a

lectureship Lecturer is an academic rank Academic rank (also scientific rank) is the rank of a scientist or teacher in a college, high school, university or research establishment. The academic ranks indicate relative importance and power of individuals ...

at the

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

. In 1947, he was appointed

Reader A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to: Computing and technology * Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader * Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application * A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...

in Medieval History at

. He wrote ''A Short History of Switzerland'' (1952). He was promoted to

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

of Medieval History in 1956 and retired in 1978."Prof. H. S. Offler", ''

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 ...

'' (London), 31 January 1991, p. 14. Though he continued to write articles on medieval German history into the 1950s, Offler had already turned to editing

's political works, a project begun by J. G. Sikes, who bequeathed his papers to Offler (who had edited a text for the volume and continued R. H. Snape's version of another) and R. F. Bennett in 1941. The project published editions of Ockham's texts under the title ''Opera Politica''; the first volume had been completed by Sikes in 1940. Offler edited the third volume, which came out in 1956. Bennett had carried out a revision of his and Sike's earlier work on volume two, but left Offler to complete this after 1958; the edition came out in 1963. Offler revised the first volume (published in 1974) and then completed the final, fourth volume of the series, which was not published until 1997.See M. S. Kempshall's review unde
"Shorter Notices"
''

The English Historical Review ''The English Historical Review'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal that was established in 1886 and published by Oxford University Press (formerly Longman). It publishes articles on all aspects of history – British, European, and wo ...

'', vol. 114, no. 457 (1999), pp. 672–808 (at pp. 694–695). Alongside his work on Ockham, he was also interested in the medieval history of the

north of England Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...

, especially Durham and its bishops. He edited ''Durham Episcopal Charters, 1071–1152'' for the

Surtees Society The Surtees Society is a text publication society and registered charity (No. 1003812) based in Durham in northern England. The society was established on 27 May 1834 by James Raine, following the death (on 11 February) of the renowned County D ...

(1968), of which society he was president from 1980 to 1987. Offler was elected a

fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in the United Kingdom # C ...

in 1974. He died on 24 January 1991. A compilation of his writings was edited by A. J. Piper and A. I. Doyle and published as ''North of the Tees: Studies in Medieval British History'' (Aldershot:

Variorum A variorum, short for ''(editio) cum notis variorum'', is a work that collates all known variants of a text. It is a work of textual criticism, whereby all variations and emendations are set side by side so that a reader can track how textual deci ...

, 1996).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Offler, H. S. 1913 births 1991 deaths People from Hereford Military personnel from Herefordshire English historians Historians of Germany Medievalists Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Fellows of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Academics of the University of Bristol Academics of Durham University Fellows of the British Academy Surtees Society British Army personnel of World War II Royal Artillery personnel