J. O. Prestwich facts for kids

John Oswald Prestwich (born June 26, 1914 – died January 25, 2003) was a famous historian who studied the Middle Ages. People often called him "Jop." He was a special teacher, known as a fellow, at Queen's College at the University of Oxford. During World War II, he used his skills to break secret codes at a place called Bletchley Park.

His Life Story

Prestwich was born on June 26, 1914, in a town called Leigh in England. He went to a private boarding school for boys called Sedbergh School. In 1933, he started studying at Hertford College, Oxford at Oxford University.

After he finished his studies, he received a special fellowship at Magdalen College, Oxford. In 1937, he became a fellow at Queen's College, Oxford. This meant he was a senior member of the college.

On November 2, 1940, he joined the British Army as a second lieutenant. This is a junior officer rank. Like many other smart people, he worked at Bletchley Park. He was a code breaker there because he was very good at German. He later remembered how exciting it was:

When the Battle of Alamein happened, it was amazing! We saw desperate messages from Rommel saying his army was tired, had little fuel, and almost no ammunition.

In 1938, Prestwich married Menna Roberts. She was also a historian, studying the 16th and 17th centuries. She was a fellow at St Hilda's College, Oxford. Menna passed away in 1990. John Prestwich retired in 1981 and lived in Old Headington. He died in 2003. His son, Michael Prestwich, also became a historian of the Middle Ages.

His Work as a Historian

John Prestwich mainly studied England in the 11th and 12th centuries. Even though he didn't write a huge number of books, he had a "towering influence" on other historians. Many people saw him as "one of the most influential medievalists in Britain" in the second half of the 1900s. He didn't start his own "school of history," but his ideas were very important.

In 1982 and 1983, he gave special talks at Oxford called the Ford Lectures. These talks were about "The Place of War in English History, 1066–1214." After he passed away, his son edited these lectures into a book. The book also included his strong arguments against the idea of "feudalism." He believed it wasn't a good way to describe how things worked in England after the Norman Conquest.