Colin Matthew

Henry Colin Gray Matthew (15 January 1941 – 29 October 1999) was a British historian and academic. He was an editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and editor of the diaries of William Ewart Gladstone.

Early life

Matthew was born in Inverness on 15 January 1941. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy and later at the English public school, Sedbergh. He proceeded to Christ Church in the University of Oxford in 1960 to read Modern History. He graduated Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1963.

Academic career

In 1963, Matthew moved to work as a teacher in what is now Tanzania in East Africa, where he met his American wife Sue Ann Curry (born 1941).

When Oxford University Press proposed a revision of the Dictionary of National Biography in the early 1990s, Matthew's work on the Gladstone Diaries recommended him for the position. He began work in 1992 and devised the editorial structure and guidelines for the dictionary, as well as writing or revising several hundred articles for the work.

Matthew died from a heart attack in Oxford on 29 October 1999. The dictionary was published in 2004 following Matthew's plan.

The History Faculty building at the University of Oxford contains a room named after Matthew. St Hugh's College also maintains a travel fund in Matthew's name available to all students at the University of Oxford to undertake historical research.