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Austin Woolrych
Austin Herbert Woolrych (May 18, 1918 - September 15, 2004) was a noted English historian and specialist in the period of the English Civil War.
He was educated at the Westminster school in London...view moreAustin Herbert Woolrych (May 18, 1918 - September 15, 2004) was a noted English historian and specialist in the period of the English Civil War.
He was educated at the Westminster school in London, which was interrupted due to the financial hardship the family suffered as a result of the 1929 stock market crash. He then worked as a salesman in Harrods for a number of years prior to serving in the British Army in World War II, where he was commissioned into the Royal Tank Regiment in 1940 and promoted captain in 1943. After the war he studied at Pembroke College, Oxford, graduating B.A. and B.Litt.
In 1949 he joined the history department at Leeds University, where he spent the next 15 years, during which time he published his enduring Battles of the English Civil War (1961) and Oliver Cromwell (1964), a military biography.
In 1964 he moved to Lancaster, where he planned a new university; he was instrumental in setting up the history department and establishing the university’s academic course. He became Professor of History at this newly founded University of Lancaster, and by 1980 the history department was the largest of all the Robbins universities.
Following his retirement he cared for his wife Muriel, with whom he had two children, until her death in 1991, and then spent time travelling all five continents, including the Amazon rainforests, China, Peru, Borneo, an African safari and all of northern and central Europe.
Woolrych passed away in 2004 at the age of 86.view less