Hugh Hale Bellot

Abstract

Hugh hale bellot, who died at the age of 79 on 18 February 1969, became a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1928, and served it as a member of Council, to which he was elected in February 1931, as Honorary Secretary (1934–52), and finally as President (1952–56), for more than twenty-five years. He was primarily responsible for the transformation of the library from the miscellaneous collection it was into the efficient tool for the student of British history it now is. Texts and Calendars: an analytical guide to serial publications, edited by E. L. C. Mullins, provided in 1958 the guide he had proposed to one of the re-organized sections of the library, and Council properly associated it with his name. He was wholly responsible for initiating and, in the face of great difficulties, for carrying through to completion, the series of bibliographies of Writings on British History from 1901 to 1945, devoting much of the last years of his life to editing the volumes for 1901 to 1933 and donating £1,000 to the Society in aid of their publication. It was a source of great satisfaction to him that the Institute of Historical Research should have agreed in 1965 to assume the task of continuing the series.