Celebrating Hampshire Historians

Sykes, Norman

17 May 1897 – 20 March 1961

The Very Reverend Norman Sykes was an academic historian and an Anglican priest  He held a succession of distinguished academic posts concluding with being the Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Cambridge from 1944 to 1958. His most important contribution was to bring an academic objectivity to the history of the Hanoverian Church of England. Until his Birkbeck lectures in 1930/31, published as Church and State in England in the Eighteenth Century, the majority of writing on that period came from either Evangelicals or Anglo-Catholics, written to justify their moving away from the mainstream church by criticizing its weaknesses. An obituary commented “… not many historians … reverse the traditional interpretation of a period of history” and this is just what Sykes did.

In parallel with his role as an historian he was ordained as a priest and was active in church matters, which lead to his being appointed as Dean of Winchester in 1958. He held the post  for only three years as he was struck with ill-health.

Sources

• Memorial in Winchester Cathedral

• Dr. Norman Sykes, Church Times, 24 March 1961, p.15

Portrait

Contribution to county’s history

Relevant published works

• Sykes, Norman (1932) Church and State in England in the Eighteenth Century, Cambridge University Press.

Critical Comments

Other Comments

Contributor

Dick Selwood - March 2024

Key Words

church history, Winchester cathedral.

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