Joel Hurstfield


Joel M. Hurstfield was a British historian of the Tudor period. He held the Astor Chair in English History at University College London from 1962 to 1979.

Early life and career

He was educated at Dame Alice Owen's School in Islington and University College London, where he obtained a first class honours degree. He also won the Pollard and Gladstone Prizes and studied under J. E. Neale. Hurstfield was lecturer at University College, Southampton from 1937 until 1940. He planned to stand for Parliament but his adoption as a parliamentary candidate was prevented by the outbreak of the Second World War. Hurstfield worked for the civil service during the war and contributed to a volume of the official history of the war, The Control of Raw Materials.
In 1946 he was appointed a lecturer at Queen Mary University of London and held a joint seminar on Tudor history with J. E. Neale at the Institute of Historical Research. In 1962 he succeeded M. A. Thomson as the Astor Professor of English History at University College London, which he held until 1979. Hurstfield was also Public Orator at London University from 1967 until 1971. In 1979 he became a senior research associate at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California.

Personal life

Hurstfield married Elizabeth Valmai Walters and they had one son and one daughter.

Works