Roy Porter (31 December 1946 to 3 March 2002) was a British historian noted for his work on the history of medicine. He grew up in South London and attended Wilson's School in Camberwell. He won a scholarship to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he studied under J. H. Plumb. His contemporaries included Simon Schama and Andrew Wheatcroft. He achieved a double starred first and became a junior Fellow in 1968, studying under Robert M. Young. In 1972, he moved to Churchill College as a tutor of History, later becoming Dean. He received his doctorate in 1974, publishing a thesis on the history of geology. In 1979 he joined the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine (part of the Wellcome Trust) as a lecturer. In 1993 he became Professor of Social History at the Institute. He retired in September 2001 and suffered a fatal heart attack five months later. One of his last books was The Enlightenment. Porter wrote or edited over 100 books. In addition to the history of medicine and other sciences, he specialised in the social history of eighteenth-century Britain and the Enlightenment. He also wrote and lectured on the history of London.
External links
- Roy Porter memorial page (includes bibliography) on the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine at UCL website.
- Roy Porter at the GuardianUnlimited Archive.
