Mark Hovell

Mark Hovell (21 March 1888 – 12 August 1916) was a British military historian. He was a lecturer in history at the Victoria University of Manchester and the Workers Educational Association. He was an officer in The Sherwood Foresters during the First World War and was killed in action in only his second time in the trenches, after he fell down a shaft which had been used to explode a mine under the German lines. His book on Chartism, which he had begun before the war, was completed and published posthumously in 1918. It was one of the first scholarly works on the subject and one of the first to have been written by someone who was not a first-hand witness to events.

Early life Mark Hovell was born in Manchester on 21 March 1888, the son of William and Hannah Hovell, of Brooklands, Cheshire,

Career In 1910, Hovell was appointed assistant lecturer in history at Victoria University of Manchester with special responsibility for the Workers Educational Association (WEA) activities of the university. He took classes in Colne, Ashton and Leigh and won the confidence of his students by walking the moors on a Sunday with them. In the winter of 1913–14 he taught for the WEA in London and impressed his students with his sincere interest in the lot of the common man in the early nineteenth century.

Death

Hovell died in the evening of 12 August 1916 after going to the aid of a soldier who had been overcome by fumes from a shaft which had been used to explode a mine under the German trenches. Hovell's comrades believed that he too was overcome, causing him to fall into the shaft to his death. He is remembered at Vermelles British Cemetery at grave number 1112. His daughter, Marjorie, was born on 26 March 1917. It was one of the first scholarly works on the subject, and the first major work on Chartism written by someone who was not a first-hand witness to events.

Publications The Chartist movement. University Press, Manchester, 1918. (Completed and edited by T.F. Tout) (Historical Series No. XXXI) (2nd 1925, 3rd 1966 with a bibliographical introduction by W.H. Chaloner)