Prizes
The Royal Historical Society awards a number of prizes each year to recognize outstanding historical scholarship and achievement. The various awards embrace the whole range of the Society's engagement, and celebrate everything from the best performance by an 'A' level student to the best first book by an early career researcher.
The full list of awards is as follows. If you have any queries regarding prizes, please contact us
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2010 AwardsThe President anounced the winners of the Society's prizes for publication, and the winners of the Marshall and Centenary Fellowships, at a reception following the annual Prothero Lecture on Wednesday 29 June. Full details may be seen below.
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(From left to right: , Chris Wilson (RHS Centenary Fellow), Miles Taylor (Director, IHR), Graham Barratt (RHS Centenary Fellow), Siobhan Talbott (IHR Pollard Prize), Elizabeth Hunter (Rees Davies Prize), Richard Huzzey (Alexander Prize), Professor Colin Jones, President, Erika Hanna (Alexander Prize proxime), Arnold Hunt (Whitfield Prize)
The Alexander Prize
The Alexander Prize is awarded for a published scholarly journal article or an essay in a collective volume based upon original historical research. The value of the prize is £250 or a silver commemorative medal. The Prize has been reconfigured from 2006 to recognise and reward the research accomplishments of doctoral candidates and of early career historians. The Prize has also been altered from an award for unpublished research to an award in recognition of published scholarship.
Candidates must be doctoral students in History in a UK institution, or be within two years of having completed a doctorate in History in a UK institution. The article/essay submitted must have been published in a journal or edited collection during the period 1 January 2012 - 31 December 2012. In addition to the monetary prize, the winner will be invited to submit a further paper within nine months of the award for consideration by the Literary Directors, with a view to reading the paper before the Society and eventual publication in the Society's house journal Transactions of the Royal Historical Society.
Past Winners of the Alexander Prize
The Alexander Prize for 2010 was awarded to:
Richard Huzzey (University of Plymouth) for his article, ‘Free trade, free labour, and slave sugar in Victorian Britain’, Historical Journal, 53, 2 (2010).
Judges’ citation:
This is a sophisticated and impressively researched essay, which draws on a wide range of sources to re-examine the controversy over the sugar duties in the early Victorian period and what that debate reveals about attitudes towards slavery. The main focus of Huzzey’s attention is the relationship between religion – above all, evangelicalism – and political economy. This has hardly been a neglected theme in writing on nineteenth-century British history in recent years. What is really impressive about this essay, therefore, is not simply its understanding of the controversy or its ability to locate it within the current historiography, but rather the way in which it succeeds in taking the historical debate forward. Huzzey’s key argument is that the sugar duties debate needs to be understood as ‘a reckoning between two contradictory traditions within the movement for abolition and emancipation’. He has produced a remarkably mature and persuasive essay, which makes an important contribution to our knowledge of both free trade and abolitionism in the nineteenth century and will be a key point of reference in future debate.
The David Berry Prize
A prize of £250 will be awarded to the writer of the best essay on a subject, to be selected by the candidate, dealing with Scottish History, provided such a subject has been previously submitted to and approved by the Royal Historical Society. The essay submitted must be a genuine work of research based on original (manuscript or printed) materials. The essay should be between 6,000 and 10,000 words in length (excluding footnotes and appendices).
Past Winners of the David Berry Prize
The David Berry Prize for 2010 was awarded to:
Dr. Alasdair Raffe (Durham University) for his article ‘Presbyterians and Episcopalians: The Formation of Confessional Cultures in Scotland, c. 1660 – 1715’, English Historical Review, 125 (2010), pp. 570-98.
Judges’ citation:
‘Presbyterians and Episcopalians: The Formation of Confessional Cultures in Scotland, 1660-1715’ persuasively argues that the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries saw Scottish religious life coalesce around two increasingly divergent (and oppositional) confessional cultures. Rejecting the standard view that few fundamental theological differences divided Scottish Episcopalians and Presbyterians, the author deploys a wealth of material drawn from pamphlet debates, sermons and Scottish archival sources to identify widening disagreements over a range of issues that included predestination, conversion and liturgical worship. Further compounded by growing disparities in Presbyterian and Episcopalian approaches to church government, these debates served to consolidate opposing confessional cultures that in turn underpinned distinctive political identities. Clearly written and abundantly supported with evidence, the article makes a substantial and welcome addition to recent literature on religious adherence in a crucial period of Scottish history.
The Frampton and Beazley Prizes
The Royal Historical Society awards annually a prize of £100 for the best performance in the History A-level examinations of each of the examining boards in the United Kingdom.
Past Winners of the Frampton and Beazley Prizes
The Frampton Prize for 2011 was awarded to:
AQA: Helena Kipling (Parkstone Grammar School, Poole)
OCR: Kishan Koria (Kent College, Canterbury)
The Beazley Prize for 2010 was awarded to:
CCEA: Andrew Henderson (Banbridge Academy, Co. Down)
SQA: Alice Williamson (George Watson's College, Edinburgh)
The German History Society Essay Prize
The German History Society, in association with the Royal Historical Society, will award a prize of £500 to the winner of an essay competition. The essay can be on any aspect of German history, including the history of German-speaking people both within and beyond Europe. Any postgraduate student registered for a degree in a university in either the United Kingdom or the Republic or Ireland is eligible to enter the competition. All postgraduates who submitted their dissertation within the last twelve months are also eligible. The text of the essay must not exceed 10,000 words.
Electronic copy of the essay must be submitted as an e-mail attachment to Melanie Ransom, Administrative Secretary of the RHS (royalhistsoc@ucl.ac.uk), by Monday 4 June 2012, along with details of the author’s name, address (including e-mail address), institutional affiliation and degree registration.
Past Winners of the German History Society Essay Prize
The German History Prize for 2010 was awarded to:
Natalie Kwan (St Antony's College, Oxford) for her essay 'Woodcuts and witches: Ulrich Molitor's 'De lamiis et pythonicis mulieribus, 1489-1669'
The Gladstone History Book Prize
The Royal Historical Society offers an annual award of £1,000 for a history book published in Britain on any topic that is not primarily British history. To be eligible for the prize the book must be its author's first solely written book on a historical subject which is not primarily related to British history. The book must also be an original and scholarly work or historical research and have been published in English during the calendar year by a scholar normally resident in the United Kingdom.
Books are nominated by their publishers.
Further information and entry form
Previous Winners of the Gladstone Prize
The Gladstone Prize for 2010 was awarded to:
Dr. Natalie Zacek (University of Manchester) for Settler Society in the English Leeward Islands, c.1670-1776 (Cambridge University Press, 2010).
Judges’ citation:
The dominant tendency among the historiography of Britain’s West Indian colonies has been to depict the plantation societies of the Caribbean in dark, deeply negative hues. The sugar planters who settled in that region have been variously characterised as grasping capitalists, moral degenerates and cultural philistines, whose get-rich-quick mentality militated against the creation of stable societies committed to the preservation of a common English identity.
In her sparkling study of the Leeward Islands (Antigua, Montserrat, Nevis and St. Kitts) from their independence from Barbados in 1670 to the outbreak of the American Revolution, Natalie Zacek challenges the notion that the English colonies in the West Indies were in any way failed societies. While she in no way downplays the centrality of black slavery to the economy of the Leewards, Zacek is primarily interested in exploring the complex dynamics of settler society and in doing so engages with a wide range of themes, including topography, migration, slavery, religion, ethnicity, gender and the family. The picture that emerges is of colonists who while ready and able to adapt to an unfamiliar and sometimes hostile environment were equally determined to uphold English social and cultural ideals. Subtle, reflective and elegantly written, this enlightening analysis not only rescues the Leewards from the margins of colonial studies, but is an important contribution to the wider discussion about the character of British colonial settlement in America.
Rees Davies Prize
The Royal Historical Society's graduate essay prize is awarded in memory of its former President and distinguished medieval scholar, Professor Sir Rees Davies (1938-2005).
The prize is open to all graduates who have been awarded grants to attend conferences under the Society's research support scheme. The prize will be publication of the essay in the following year's edition of the Society's pretigious journal Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, three year's free membership of the Royal Historical Society (which includes subscription to the Transactions) and a cash prize of £100.
Previous Winners of the Rees Davies Prize
The Rees Davies Prize for 2010 was awarded to:
Elizabeth Hunter (University of Oxford) for her essay ‘“The Black Lines of Damnation”: Melancholia and Reprobation in Reformation England’.
Judges’ citation:
This elegant paper deftly negotiates the literature of Calvinist counsel and treatises on melancholy to tease out the varying positions on the relationship between despair, predestination, and melancholia. In doing so it contributes powerfully to our understanding both of godly pastoral counsel and of the confessional conflicts of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
Royal Historical Society / History Today Prize
This prize is intended to reward high-quality worl done by undergraduates in the dissertations that are now an integral part of most history courses. This prize is being jointly sponsored by the Society and by History Today, and is part of our close association with a magazine which does such invaluable service for the cause of history.
The potential entry for such a prize in any year is of course very large and to reduce numbers to manageable proportions for those who will assessing them it will be necessary to limit entries to one for every department in the United Kingdom. Accordingly history departments are invited to submit to the Society the name and home address of the candidate judged by the examiners to have presented the best dissertation, by 1 August 2012. The Society will then contact departmental nominees and invite them to enter the competition. The successful candidate will be awarded a prize of £250 and, at the discretion of the Editor of History Today, an article-length reduction of their dissertation will be published in a future issue of the magazine. The success of this venture depends very much on the willingness of departments to let us have th details of their best candidates in due course.
Royal Historical Society / History Scotland Prize
The Society has much pleasure in announcing a new prize intended to reward high-quality work done by undergraduates in dissertations on any aspect of Scottish history. This prize is being jointly sponsored by the Society and by History Scotland and represents a new partnership with a magazine which does invaluable service in promoting the cause of history. The potential entry for such a prize in any year is of course large and to reduce numbers to manageable proportions for those who will be assessing them it will be necessary to limit entries to one for every Higher Education institution in the United Kingdom.
Accordingly history departments are invited to submit to the Society by 1 August 2012 either a copy of the dissertation that they wish to nominate or the contact details of the candidate who would be able to supply such a copy. The successful candidate will be awarded a prize of £250 and, at the discretion of the Editor of History Scotland, his or her piece will be published in a future issue of the magazine.
Whitfield Book Prize
The Royal Historical Society annually offers the Whitfield prize (value £1,000) for a new book on British or Irish history. To be eligible for consideration the book must be on a subject within a field of British or Irish history and have been published in the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland during the calendar year. It must also be its author's first solely written book and be an original and scholarly work of historical research.
Books are nominated by their publishers.
Further information and entry form
Past Winners of the Whitfield Prize
The Whitfield Prize for 2010 was awarded to:
Dr. Arnold Hunt (British Library) for The Art of Hearing: English Preachers and their Audiences, 1590-1640 (Cambridge University Press, 2010).
Judges’ citation:
This book addresses a well-worn subject – the impact of protestant preaching in the latter stages of the Reformation - but does so with entirely new perspectives and intriguing findings. Hunt is interested in the sermon as performance, and demonstrates that printed texts are only an approximate and polished version of what would have been heard from the pulpit. He also explores the reception of sermons among the congregation, a crucial component of the dissemination of the new faith which hitherto has been largely ignored by historians, which he analyses through a careful study of sermon notes taken by hearers. It transpires that what preachers laboured to emphasise was not always that on which parishioners fastened. Three case-studies (in chapter 5) expose the crudity of our current understanding of the expectations of protestant congregations, and here he sets a new post-Haighian agenda. The final chapter also convincingly demonstrates the importance of the theology of Predestination at popular level, against historians who have claimed it was a rarified subject beyond the ken of most people. The book offers a series of sophisticated, linked arguments which will have a real impact on the field. It is also meticulously researched and written in clear, authoritative English.
Marshall and Centenary Fellowships
The Society's Marshall and Centenary Fellowships for 2011 were awarded as follows:
Marshall Fellow:
Jack Lord (SOAS) for research on "The History of Childhood in Colonial Ghana, c.1900-57"
Centenary Fellows:
Chris Wilson (University of Exeter) for research on "The Dissemination of Visions of the Otherworld in Thirteenth Century England and Northern France"
and
Graham Barrett (University of Oxford) for research on “The Function and Conception of the Written Word in Early Medieval Spain, 711-1031”