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.
2012 Awards - Shortlisted titles
The Society is pleased to announce the shortlisted volumes for the 2012 Gladstone Prize for a first volume on non-UK history. Read more.....
The Society is pleased to announce the shortlisted volumes for the 2012 Whitfield Prize for a first volume on non-UK history. Read more....
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(From left to right: , Roberta Cimino (RHS Centenary Fellow), Levi Roach (Alexander Prize), John Sabapathy (Alexander Prize proxime), Professor Colin Jones, President, Wendy Ugolini (Gladstone Prize), Jacqueline Rose (Whitfield Prize), Samantha Sagui (IHR Pollard Prize), Victoria Smith (IHR Neale Prize), Anish Vanaik (Marshall Fellow)
2011 Awards
The 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 4 July 2012, as follows:
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. 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 The Prize has also been altered from an award for unpublished research to an award in recognition of published scholarship.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 2013 - 31 December 2013. 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 2011 was awarded to Levi Roach (St John's College, Cambridge) for his article 'Public Rites and Public Wrongs: Ritual Aspects of Diplomas in Tenth- and Eleventh-Century England', Early Medieval Europe, 19 (2011), 182-203.
The proxime accesit was John Sabapathy for his article 'A Medieval Officer and a Modern Mentality? Podesta and the Quality of Accountability', The Medieval Journal, 1:2 (2011), 43-79.
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 2011 was awarded to Aaron M. Allen (University of Edinburgh) for his article 'Conquering the Suburbs: Politics and Work in Early Modern Edinburgh', Journal of Urban History, 37(3) (2011), 423-443.
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 2012 awards were made to:
AQA: jointly Nicholas Hudson (Notre Dame High School, Sheffield) and Georgia Perry (St Mary's Calne, Witshire)
OCR: Jack Barden de Lacroix (Hampton School, Middlesex)
WJEC: Angharad Gilbey (Penglais Comprehensive School, Aberystwyth)
SQA: Ruth Cameron (Dollar Academy, Clackmannanshire)
CCEA: Aaron Crossey (Bangor Grammar School)
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 3 June 2013, 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 2012 will be announced shortly.
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 2011 was awarded to Wendy Ugolini (University of Edinburgh) for Experiencing War as the 'Enemy Other': Italian Scottish Experience in World War II (Manchester University Press: 2011).
The proxime accesit was Tim Grady (University of Chester) for The German-Jewish Soldiers of the First World War in History and memory (Liverpool University Press: 2011).
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
Royal Historical Society / History Today Prize
This prize is intended to reward high-quality work 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 2013. 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 the details of their best candidates in due course.
The 2012 prize was awarded to Frederick Smith (University of Warwick) for his essay 'Discerning cheese from Chalke': Louvainist Propaganda and recusant identity in 1560s England'
Royal Historical Society / History Scotland Prize
The prize is 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 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 2013 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.
The 2012 prize was awarded to Felicity Loughlin (University of Edinburgh) for her essay 'The Saints of Scotichronicon: an insight into the Scottish cult of saints'
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 2011 was awarded to Jacqueline Rose (University of St Andrews) for Godly Kingship in Restoration England: The Politics of the Royal Supremacy, 1660-1688 (Cambridge University Press: 2011).
The proxime accesit was Helen Jacobsen (University of Buckingham) for Luxury and Power: The Material World of the Stuart Diplomat, 1660-1714 (OXford University Press: 2011).
Marshall and Centenary Fellowships
The Society's Marshall and Centenary Fellowships for 2012 were awarded as follows:
Marshall Fellowship to Anish Vanaik (University of Oxford) for research on 'Possessing the City: Urban Space and Property Relations in Delhi, 1911-47'.
Centenary Fellowship to Roberta Cimino (University of St Andrews) for research on 'Italian Queens in the 9th and 10th Centuries.'
