Norman Hampson was Professor of History at the University of York from 1974 to 1989. He was a leading authority on the history of the French Revolution and was known for challenging the orthodoxies of the dominant "French school" of revolutionary studies. He wrote the definitive work on the social history of the Revolution.
Career
Hampson was born in 1922 and educated at Manchester Grammar School and University College, Oxford. His service in the Royal Navy from 1941 to 1945 included two years as liaison officer with the Free French Navy. Late in life, he wrote a memoir of his wartime experiences with the characteristically modest title , which described the dilemmas of a poetic and essentially pacifist undergraduate who nonetheless felt it was his moral duty to serve. He wrote occasional poems at this time, some of which featured in a number of anthologies of Second World War poetry. After the war he studied history at University College, Oxford under J. M. Thompson and completed a doctorate at the Sorbonne University. From 1948 until 1967 he was on the staff of Manchester University. When his head of department urged him to drop the French Revolution and take up teaching of the Renaissance, he decided to leave and moved to Newcastle. In 1974, he was then persuaded by Gerald Aylmer to take up a position in York, where he became head of department in 1978. He was elected as a fellow of the British Academy in 1980. He was also made the first president of the Society for the Study of French History in 1987. He officially retired in 1989 but continued to teach at the university into his 70s. Throughout his career Hampson's chief historical focus was upon the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. In the case of the latter, he was one of a number of British historians who challenged the orthodoxies of previous scholarship regarding the revolution. In addition to his university teaching and books, Hampson also wrote book reviews and articles for publications such as the London Review of Books and The New York Review of Books.
Personal life
In 1948 Hampson married Jacqueline Gardin, the sister of one of his shipmates from his period with the Free French Navy. They were married until her death in 2007. They had two children together, Francoise and Michele.
