Professor David Luscombe
The Department of History is greatly saddened to record that David Luscombe died on 30 August. A man of great personal charm, a committed and scrupulous teacher, and a scholar of great distinction, he played a formative role in our work for fifty years.
David took up the post of Professor of Medieval History in 1972. This was one of two established chairs in what was then the Department of Medieval and Modern History. He would work closely alongside successive Professors of Modern History, Kenneth Haley, Patrick Collinson, and Sir Ian Kershaw.
There were few years in which David did not serve the University in a senior administrative role. He was Head of Department (1973-76, 1979-84), Dean of the Faculty of Arts (1985-87), Pro-Vice-Chancellor, under the great Sir Gareth Roberts (1990-94), and Research Director for Arts and Humanities (1994-2003).
David served as the first Chairman of the Humanities Research Institute (HRI). The HRI was awarded the first of the University’s Queen’s Anniversary Prizes in 1998. The citation noted that ‘the HRI is making major landmarks in literary and cultural heritage directly available to both the academic community and to a much wider public audience’.
David was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy in 1986 and was its Publications Secretary, 1990-97. He had a particular responsibility for the publication of new editions of medieval texts. His doctoral work, under the Benedictine historian, David Knowles, had been on the school of Peter Abelard. He obtained major grants, from the Leverhulme Trust and the British Academy to facilitate the publication of new editions of all of Abelard’s works. His own edition of The Letter Collection of Peter Abelard and Heloise was published in OMT in 2013. It was described in the TLS as ‘a veritable Abelardian encyclopedia’, and was awarded the British Academy Medal in 2014.
In 2003, as he put it, his ‘retirement was required under the University’s Statute’. David’s emeritus years saw many highlights. In addition to the Letter Collection, he edited, along with Lisa Liddy and the late David Hey, the cartulary of Beauchief Abbey, an important Premonstratensian house, now in the Sheffield suburbs. He was awarded the degree of D.Litt., honoris causa, by the University in 2013. In 2011 a Festschrift was published in his honour, Knowledge, Discipline and Power in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honour of David Luscombe, edited by Joseph Canning, Edmund King and Martial Staub (Leiden: Brill). It was fitting that it was presented to him by one of our former students, Dr Sylvia Dunkley, then the Lord Mayor of Sheffield.
Members of the wider University community will remember David in a wide variety of contexts: as opening batsman of the Staff Cricket Club, keeping a careful eye out for the googly; as President of the University’s branch of the A.U.T. (now U.C.U.); as an active member of the Catholic Chaplaincy; and as a religious attender at University events, including degree congregations (at the presentation of the annual prize in medieval history, which will continue to bear his name).
Our departmental memories of David will take us a while to set in order. We remember him, well into his ninth decade, attending seminars, always ready with a good question, whether the topic was close to one of his specialisms or not. We remember his concern for our research and our professional development. This would most recently be expressed via email, but it was always made clear that the informality of the medium was not to be used to mask imprecision of thought. We remember David in particular in the context of his family, his wife, Megan, and their four children, Nicholas, Mark, Philip, and Amanda. We thank them for their support and hospitality over many years and send them our affection and condolences.
David’s funeral will be held at 12.30 p.m. on Friday, 24 September, in St Marie’s R.C. Cathedral, Norfolk Row, Sheffield S1 2JB.
May he rest in peace.
©Ian M. Spooner Photography, Sheffield