James Campbell (historian)


James Campbell, FBA was a British historian with a particular interest in the Medieval period and Anglo-Saxon studies. Although he never published a book himself, he was co-editor of The Anglo-Saxons, a collection of essays on Anglo-Saxon Britain, for which he wrote about the 4th to 7th centuries.

Biography

Campbell was born in Cheltenham on 26 January 1935. His birth father, John Henry Mogg was a teacher and his mother Barbara Hilda Brown was also a teacher and member of the Communist Party. After a period in foster care he was adopted by his maternal grandparents in 1938.
He studied at Lowestoft Grammar School, where he found an interest in history. He took early entry to Magdelen College, Oxford, at the age of 17 and graduated with a first in 1955. By 1957, at the age of 22, he became a fellow at Worcester College, University of Oxford, where he served as the University's Senior Proctor for 1973-74. He remained at Worcester College until his retirement in 2002. Campbell's particular interest in the Medieval period and Anglo-Saxon studies. Although he never published a book himself, Campbell was the editor of The Anglo-Saxons, a collection of essays on Anglo-Saxon England, for which he wrote the section on the period from AD 350 to 660.
He was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy in 1984. In the 1980's Campbell settled in Witney. At the age of 71, he married Dr Bӓrbel Brodt on 7 October 2006, although he was devastated by her death in October 2015. He died at his home on 31 May 2016.