Valerie Pearl
Valerie Louise Pearl was a British historian who was noted for her work on the English Civil War. She was the second President of New Hall, Cambridge.Life
Pearl was the daughter of Cyril Bence, the former Labour Party Member of Parliament for East Dunbartonshire. She was educated at St Anne's College, Oxford, going up in 1946 and gaining a Second-Class degree in Modern History. She subsequently gained a D.Phil. for her thesis, supervised by Christopher Hill, on London and the outbreak of the Puritan Revolution, 1625–1643. This was published in revised form by the Oxford University Press in 1961.
Between 1965 and 1968, Pearl was a lecturer in History at Somerville College, Oxford. Having been offered a Fellowship at Somerville provided she resided in Oxford on a full-time basis, she reluctantly moved to University College, London, as Reader in London History, later holding a chair in the same subject. She was actively involved in the foundation of the London Journal in 1975, and served as editor of the first five numbers, until 1977. She served as president of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society in 1980–81.
In 1981 Pearl was appointed as the second President of New Hall, Cambridge, a position she held until 1995.Personal life
In 1949, Valerie Bence married Morris Pearl, with whom she had a daughter, Sara.Publications
