Alan Everitt
local historian (1926-2008)
Alan Milner Everitt, (17 August 1926 – 8 December 2008) was a British local historian. He was a leading figure in the development of English provincial history in the forty years after the Second World War.
Life and career
Alan Milner Everitt was born on 17 August 1926, and grew up in the town of Sevenoaks. He earned his master's degree from the University of St Andrews in 1951 and a doctorate from the University of London in 1957, studying the prelude to the English Civil War under the supervision of R. C. Latham. That year, Everitt joined the University of Leicester as a research assistant to the economic and social historian Joan Thirsk. In 1968, he succeeded W. G. Hoskins as Hatton Professor of English Local History, a chair he held until 1982.
After his retirement, in 1989, Everitt was elected a Fellow of the British Academy.
Everitt died on 8 December 2008, at the age of 82. He is buried at All Saints Church, Kimcote, Leicestershire.
Books
Everitt was the author or editor of many books on English local history, including the ones listed below.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Alan Everitt” as local historian (1926-2008). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as local historian (1926-2008). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q87184202. VIAF identifies the subject as 18519389. The Library of Congress control number is n80053101. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1926, 2008, 1951 and 1957.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Alan Everitt”, its source revision and the description used here.
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Alan Everitt” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.