Celebrating Hampshire Historians

Anderson, Roger Charles

23.07.1883 - 02.02.1976

Born in Southampton, Anderson’s father was John Ridgerson Anderson a partner in a ship brokerage firm involved with the Australian trade and sufficiently wealthy to be able to send his son to Winchester College. From there Roger went to Clare College Cambridge. Married in 1916, he and his wife Romola had no children. Described as ‘independently wealthy’ he was able to devote all his time and energy to his interests in naval history. Thus, he played a leading role in the early years and subsequent development of the Society of Nautical Research. In 1927 Anderson became a member of the National Naval Museum's first board of directors and in due course chairman of the board of trustees. He was living in Lymington when he died in 1976 aged 93. 

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._C._Anderson

Portrait

Royal Museums Greenwich

Contribution to county’s history

During the inter-war years Anderson edited no fewer than seven volumes for the Southampton Records Society (see below). In addition to transcribing the basic text from original sources in the town archives, Anderson added explanatory notes, and provided an introduction, an index and, in some instances, an appendix. Between 1931 and 1939 he served as Joint Hon. General Series Editor. Anderson is quoted as saying in 1936 that Southampton’s ‘collection of historical MSS is one of the finest in the South of England’ and that if the ‘Record Society worked steadily for another fifty years, material for further publications would not be exhausted’ (Hampshire Advertiser, 11 January 1936).

Relevant published works

• Vol 22. Letters of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries from the archives of Southampton (Southampton: Cox and Sharland, 1921).

• Vol 23. The Assize of bread book, 1477–1517 (Southampton: Cox and Sharland, 1923).

• Vol 26. The book of examinations, 1601–1602: with a list of ships belonging to Southampton in the years 1570–1603 (Southampton: Cox and Sharland, 1926).

• Vol 29. The book of examinations and depositions, Vol I 1622-1627 (Southampton: Cox and Sharland, 1929)

• Vol 31. The book of examinations and depositions, Vol II 1627-1634 (Southampton: Cox and Sharland, 1931)

• Vol 34 The book of examinations and depositions, Vol III 1634-1639 (Southampton: Cox and Sharland, 1934)

• Vol 36 The book of examinations and depositions, Vol III 1639-1644 (Southampton: Cox and Sharland, 1936)

Critical Comments

Like other publications in the Southampton Record Series, those listed above have provided the means whereby a wider audience has been able to engage with primary source material dating from the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Other Comments

Anderson authored an impressive number of books and articles about all aspects of naval history, particularly with respect to the early modern period. Some of his articles were published in the English Historical Review and others in the Mariner’s Mirror.

Contributor

Roger Ottewill, 16 July 2023

Key Words

Nautical research, Southampton Records Society

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