Name Norman Gash | ||
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Books Politics in the age of Peel, Aristocracy and people, Reaction and Reconstr, Sir Robert Peel: The Life of Sir, Mr Secretary Peel | ||
Norman Gash CBE, FBA, FRSL, FRSE, FRHistS (16 January 1912, Meerut, British Raj – 1 May 2009, Somerset) was a British historian, notable for a two volume biography of British Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel. He was Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews from 1955–80 and specialised in the 19th century.
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Early life
Gash was born in Meerut, United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh) in 1912, the son of Frederick Gash, a soldier in the Royal Berkshire Regiment, and of Kate Gash, née Hunt. He attended Wilson Road School and Palmer School in Reading, before gaining a scholarship to Reading School. He then attended St John’s College, Oxford as a scholar, where he took a First in History in 1933. He subsequently completed a B.Litt. thesis on '‘The rural unrest in England in 1830 with special reference to Berkshire'.
Biography of Sir Robert Peel
The first volume of Gash's biography of Sir Robert Peel (Mr Secretary Peel 1961) followed his life up until 1830, including his successful period at the Home Office in the 1820s and up as far as Catholic Emancipation. The second volume (Sir Robert Peel 1972) covered his opposition to the Great Reform Act and his tenures as Prime Minister from 1834-5 and 1841-6. Gash argued that Peel's reforms were paramount in ending the "hungry forties" and bringing about Victorian prosperity. Though Gash's interpretations of Peel have been challenged in recent decades, by historians including Boyd Hilton, this work remains the definitive Peel biography.