Valerie Pearl

Valerie Louise Pearl (née Bence; 31 December 1926 – 29 January 2016) was a British historian who was noted for her work on the English Civil War. She was the second President of New Hall, Cambridge.

Life Pearl was the daughter of Cyril Bence, the former Labour Party Member of Parliament for East Dunbartonshire. She was educated at St Anne's College, Oxford, going up in 1946 and gaining a Second-Class degree in Modern History. She subsequently gained a D.Phil. for her thesis, supervised by Christopher Hill, on London and the outbreak of the Puritan Revolution, 1625–1643. This was published in revised form by the Oxford University Press in 1961.

Between 1965 and 1968, Pearl was a lecturer in History at Somerville College, Oxford. Having been offered a Fellowship at Somerville provided she resided in Oxford on a full-time basis, she reluctantly moved to University College, London, as Reader in London History, later succeeding T. F. Reddaway in holding a chair in the same subject. She was actively involved (with H. J. Dyos) in the foundation of the London Journal: A Review of Metropolitan Society Past and Present in 1975, and served as editor of the first five numbers, until 1977.

Personal life In 1949, Valerie Bence married Morris Pearl, with whom she had a daughter, Sara.

Publications