Woolrych, Austin 1918-2004

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Woolrych, Austin 1918-2004
(Austin Herbert Woolrych)

PERSONAL:

Born May 18, 1918, in London, England; died September 14, 2004, in Tias, Lanzarote, Spain; son of Stanley Herbert Cunliffe and May Gertrude Woolrych; married Muriel Edith Rolfe, 1941 (died, 1991); children: Jane Caroline, Richard Humphrey. Education: Pembroke College, Oxford, B.A., 1949, B.Litt., 1952, M.A., 1952.

CAREER:

University of Leeds, Leeds, England, began as lecturer, became senior lecturer, 1949-64; University of Lancaster, Bailrigg, Lancaster, England, professor of modern history, 1964-85, professor emeritus, 1985-2004, pro-vice chancellor, 1972-75. Oxford University, visiting fellow of All Souls College, 1981-82; Commonwealth visiting fellow at universities in Australia and New Zealand, 1983. Military service: British Army, Royal Tank Regiment, 1939-46; became captain.

MEMBER:

British Academy (fellow), Royal Historical Society (fellow), Historical Association, Association of University Teachers.

AWARDS, HONORS:

D.Litt., University of Lancaster, 1986.

WRITINGS:

Battles of the English Civil War: Marston Moor, Naseby, Preston, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1961, revised edition, Pimlico (London, England), 1991.

Oliver Cromwell, Oxford University Press (London, England), 1964.

Commonwealth to Protectorate, Clarendon Press (Oxford, England), 1982.

England without a King, 1649-1660, Methuen (New York, NY), 1983.

Soldiers and Statesmen: The General Council of the Army and Its Debates, 1647-48, Clarendon Press (Oxford, England), 1987.

Britain in Revolution, 1625-1660, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2002.

Author of historical introduction, Complete Prose Works of John Milton, Volume 7: 1659-60, edited by Robert W. Ayers, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1974, revised edition, 1980. Contributor of articles and reviews to historical journals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Austin Woolrych was best known for his expertise on the English Civil War. He was working as a clerk at Harrod's department store in London, having left school because of his family's financial troubles, when World War II began. He served in the Royal Tank Regiment as a captain, seeing action at El Alamein. When he returned home, he was able to take up his studies at Pembroke College. He lectured at the University of Leeds until 1964, when he joined the newly founded University of Lancaster. Because of his excitement with helping to establish a history program at Lancaster, Woolrich focused mostly on his teaching and did not turn greatly to research until his later years. However, he did publish notable books, especially Battles of the English Civil War: Marston Moor, Naseby, Preston. One of his most ambitious projects was also his last: Britain in Revolution, 1625-1660.

Woolrych once commented to CA that he had "entered academic life comparatively late, after four years in commerce and six and a half years in the army." He has done several programs on historical subjects for the British Broadcasting Corporation.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Gentles, Ian, John Morrill, and Blair Worden, editors, Soldiers, Writers, and Statesmen of the English Revolution (festschrift), Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1998.