Hampshire was the first county to complete, before the First World War, its Victoria County History, those large red volumes that are the first-look source for so many queries. They were orchestrated and edited by William Page, but the research and writing depended to a large extent on a cohort of young graduates – mainly…

Surgeon, soldier, politician and historian, Richard Harmon Luce, born at Halcombe, Malmesbury, gained a first in Natural Sciences at Christ’s College, Cambridge and then qualified as a surgeon at Guys Hospital.  In WW1 he served as Director of Medical Services of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force rising to rank of Major-General and was knighted in 1919. …

He was educated at Magdalen College and New College, Oxford, was ordained and became a Fellow of Magdalen. Between 1845 and 1905 he worked as a ‘special assistant’ in the manuscripts department of the Bodleian Library, and became known for writing its history or Annals, which was published in 1868 (2 ed. 1890). He was…

Charles Kingsley was born at Holne, Devon and educated at Kings College, London and Magdalene College, Cambridge.  He took holy orders and married Fanny Grenfell and in 1844 was given the living at Eversley, after being curate there for two years.  At that time Eversley was a remote village in the northeast Hampshire heathland fringed…

Sir Frederic Madden was born at Portsmouth and was keeper of manuscripts at the British Museum from 1837 to 1866. He was the supreme palaeographer of nineteenth-century  England and a researcher and editor of extraordinary energy and quality. He tackled the most arduous and difficult projects and brought them to fulfilment.

Kirby was educated at Eton 1848-1855 and then at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he stayed on as a fellow and assistant tutor 1861-1864. He then moved to London and was called to the Bar in 1866. He worked as a conveyancer and equity draftsman at Lincolns Inn, and acted as a reporter in the Rolls…

F.T. Madge, or Canon Madge, as he was usually known later in life, was in a line of Cathedral Librarians that recognized the historical importance of its holdings in the late 19th century. He was the son of Thomas Hellier Madge, rector of Kettering, Northants, whom he followed into the church, He was ordained priest…

Although history was one of Kitchin’s main interests, he was something of a polymath who followed a variety of activities, and in three different centres. Fortunately, during his two periods in Hampshire he left marks that can be readily identified and chronicled.

John Marsh was born in Adderbury, Oxfordshire, the son of George Marsh, a master carpenter, and his wife Catherine. It is unknown how or when he arrived in Hursley, Hampshire a distance of some 80 miles from his home. Nor do we know much about his education – he does not appear to have attended…

From 1944–1964 George Knapp was Vicar of East Worldham where his ashes are buried and he is commemorated in a memorial window. Coincidentally, it was the benefice held by the last surviving chantry priest of Selborne Priory during the mid-16th century.