Jack Scarisbrick

The History Department is saddened to announce the death of former Head of Department (HoD)Jack Scarisbrick, aged 97. He was HoD from 1970 -1977.

Memories of Jack Scarisbrick from members of the Warwick History Department:

Bernard Capp, Emeritus Professor

Jack joined Warwick in 1970, becoming the sole professor in the department, and served as HoD for nearly a decade. For several years he was simultaneously a Pro-Vice-Chancellor. There was a lengthy gap between the resignation of John Hale, the founding professor, and Jack's arrival, during which we were a temporary 'republic', with Alistair Hennessy and then Henry Cohn (only a lecturer at the time) serving in succession as acting heads. Jack came to us from Queen Mary, London, and secured his chair and the job partly on the strength of his first book, Henry VIII, which made a big impact and has remained in print pretty well ever since. He had also spent a year lecturing in Ghana.

Jack was dedicated to undergraduate teaching, which he saw as our and the University's prime responsibility. Research might be a desirable addition, but very much a matter of individual choice. This was long before the days of RAE and REF, of course. He and Nuala were very hospitable, inviting colleagues for meals, hosting departmental research seminars, and inviting personal tutees on a regular basis. As HoD he had a sometimes challenging time, being a strong Conservative in a department predominantly left-wing, but he retained our practice of weekly or fortnightly staff meetings at which departmental issues were debated in full. The relationship with Edward Thompson was predictably difficult. I remember once finding them alone together, struggling awkwardly to find any common ground for small talk. The solution was cricket, which they both loved. Thompson's sideways move, to set up the postgraduate Centre for Social History, was a longer-term solution that suited them both.

Jack retired in 1994. Earlier, as a leading Tudor and Reformation historian, he had been invited to deliver the prestigious Ford lectures in Oxford, later turned into a book. Post-retirement, he had plans for a global history of the Jesuit movement, but instead became ever more heavily involved in running the LIFE movement. He was an occasional lay preacher too. He was awarded an MBE.

I always found Jack a kind and considerate colleague. He was a devoted family man, strongly committed to his religious and political principles, while also wanting and often able to maintain amicable relations with colleagues with very different temperaments and principles. A wry sense of humour, not least about academics and academia, must have helped. Jean Noonan, who as departmental secretary worked closely with him for years, probably knew Jack better than most of his academic colleagues, and always had a strong respect for him. That was equally true for many who might not share many of his views.

Chris Read, Emeritus Professor

Jack was very hospitable and I remember with pleasure various evenings at 35 Kenilworth Rd, not least for the sparring between him and Gwynne. Also a mini-cricket bat was usually produced and an impromptu game was set up in one of the corridors. I can remember that Roger Magraw also used to find common ground for conversation with him in cricket. As it was not my favourite sport I must say I struggled to find a shared conversational platform. Catholicism was only occasionally of help since we affiliated to opposite wings of the church. However, on one occasion he conveyed back to me that Frederick Copleston appreciated my review of of his book on Russian thought but that it sounded like an encomium. I am personally very grateful to him for not only welcoming me into the department but also very quickly upgrading my temporary appointment into a permanent one.

I remember being invited to his fiftieth birthday party which came just after I returned from my round the world study leave in Moscow and California linked, among other things, by means of the Transsiberian express and homeward via a Greyhound from San Francisco to Miami.

Jack was, as the cliches go, one of a kind and we will not see his like again.