Ollard, Richard 1923-2007 (Richard Laurence Ollard)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born November 9, 1923, in Bainton, Yorkshire, England; died January 21, 2007. Editor, historian, and author. A former editor at William Collins & Sons, Ollard was a respected historian especially noted for his works about the British Royal Navy. After attending Eton, he served in the Royal Navy aboard the HMS Victory and was a commissioned officer in 1943. He became an intelligence officer in Sri Lanka, where it was his job to translate Japanese communications. After World War II, he attended New College, Oxford, then became a lecturer at the Royal Naval College. Here he was promoted to senior lecturer in history and English, an occupation he enjoyed until budget cuts forced him to leave in 1959. William Collins & Sons hired him the next year, and Ollard embarked on an unexpected career in publishing. His love of naval history made him a natural champion of author Patrick O'Brian, whose novels put an end to the idea that no one could ever hope to match the "Hornblower" books by C.S. Forester. Ollard, who retired as a senior editor in 1983, was an accomplished author himself, though he stuck to nonfiction. He typically wrote on English—especially naval—history, including such titles as Man of War: Sir Robert Holmes and the Restoration Navy (1969), This War without Enemy (1978), and Fisher & Cunningham: A Study in the Personalities of the Churchill Era (1991). Ollard was highly praised for his biography Pepys: A Biography (1974; revised edition, 1993). He later followed this with Pepys and His Circle (2000) and also edited The Sayings of Samuel Pepys (1996); he was made an honorary member of the Samuel Pepys Club for such contributions. In addition, the historian completed two books on A.L. Rowse: A Man of Contradictions: A Life of A.L. Rowse (1999) and The Diaries of A.L. Rowse (2003), the later of which he edited. Ollard, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Society of Antiquaries of London, was awarded the Caird Medal from the National Maritime Museum in 1992, as well as the 1998 Heywood Hill Literary Prize.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Times (London, England), January 26, 2007, p. 69.