Olive Checkland

Olive Edith Checkland ( Anthony; 6 June 1920 – 8 September 2004) was an English historian and writer who specialised in post-19th-century cultural, economic and social relationships between Japan and the United Kingdom. After enrolling on a geography degree at the University of Birmingham, she assisted her husband Sydney Checkland in forming the University of Glasgow's School of Economic History and the couple edited a republication of the English Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 and she worked alone in researching the Scottish Poor Laws. As associate director of 19th-century East Asians, Checkland wrote five entries for Dictionary of National Biography published by Oxford University Press.

Biography Early life Checkland was born at 20 Lyndhurst Avenue in the Newcastle upon Tyne suburb of Jesmond on 6 June 1920. She was the only daughter of the process engraver's traveller and former Royal Navy cook Robert Fraser Anthony and the housewife Edith Anthony, née Philipson. As the Great Depression affected the country, the family relocated to Birmingham, and enrolled on a geography degree at the University of Birmingham in 1938, becoming the first member of her family to have a tertiary education. Checkland was active in student affairs at the university. Checkland and Bob Cage wrote about the St John's poor relief experiment brought about by Thomas Chalmers in Glasgow from 1819 to 1823. The University of Glasgow Archive Services holds a collection related to Olive Checkland. They include her personal papers and photographs relating to her work.