J. M. Wallace-Hadrill

John Michael Wallace-Hadrill (29 September 1916 – 3 November 1985) was a British academic and one of the foremost historians of the early Merovingian period. He held the Chichele Chair in Modern History at the University of Oxford between 1974 and 1983.

Life and career Wallace-Hadrill was born on 29 September 1916 in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, where his father was a master at Bromsgrove School. He was Professor of Mediaeval History at the University of Manchester between 1955 and 1961. He then became a Senior Research Fellow of Merton College in the University of Oxford (where he held the office of Sub-Warden) from 1961 till 1974. He was Chichele Professor of Modern History at Oxford from 1974 to 1983 and, between 1974 and 1985, a Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford.

Wallace-Hadrill was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1969 and delivered the Ford Lectures in 1971. He was a Vice-President of the Royal Historical Society between 1973 and 1976. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1982. He is the father of the Roman historian Andrew Wallace-Hadrill and the brother of church historian, D.S. Wallace-Hadrill.