Rowland Parker (1912–1989) was an author and

social historian Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

. His 1975 work ''The Common Stream'' has achieved recognition as a classic of social history. Parker was born in 1912 in

North Lincolnshire North Lincolnshire is a unitary authority area in Lincolnshire, England, with a population of 167,446 in the 2011 census. The borough includes the towns of Scunthorpe, Brigg, Haxey, Crowle, Epworth, Bottesford, Kirton in Lindsey and Barton ...

. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all farmers and his youth was spent in the country. He was educated at Louth Grammar School, won a scholarship to the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...

and then trained as a teacher. In 1935 he joined the staff of what was then the Central School, Cambridge, and, except for the war, remained there until his retirement in 1972. He enlisted in 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 ...

in 1940, serving 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 ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

and

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

, where he began to take an interest in

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and history. After the war, he moved to Foxton, and remained there until his death in 1989. He became known as a notable local figure after ''The Common Stream'' increased the village's national profile.

Works

*''Cottage on the Green'' (1973) *''The Common Stream'' (1975; new edition by Eland in 2015) *''On the Road: The Papworth Story'' (1977)See Papworth Industries. *''Men of Dunwich: The story of a vanished town'' (1979) *''Town and Gown: Seven hundred years' war in Cambridge'' (1983)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Rowland 1912 births 1989 deaths Social historians People educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth People from the Borough of North Lincolnshire People from South Cambridgeshire District 20th-century English historians 20th-century English male writers British Army personnel of World War II Royal Artillery personnel Military personnel from Lincolnshire