2009 News
- News Archive
St Mary's Mourns Loss of Dr Michael Partridge
It is with great sadness that the School announces the death of Dr Michael Partridge, Reader in History. Michael died suddenly on the morning of Tuesday 10th March at home.
Michael was a respected historian of British 19th century history. He wrote mainly on William Gladstone, on the British Navy and on Lord Palmerston.
Michael read History at the University of Birmingham and then completed a PhD in History at the London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London. He first lectured at the City of London Polytechnic and joined the Department of History at St Mary’s in 1985. He was a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a member and some time Council member of the Society for Nautical Research.
Michael published widely in local history society annals, in maritime and British history journals. In 1999 he published The Royal Naval College, Osborne: A History 1903-
21. In 2000 the book was awarded the Society for Nautical Research’s Anderson Medal. In 2003 he published Gladstone 1809-1898 in the Routledge Historical Biographies series.
From 1983 until the present, Michael was also General Editor, first with Ken Bourne and Donald K Watt and latterly with Paul Preston, of British Documents on Foreign Affairs: Reports and Papers from the Foreign Office Confidential Print Parts 1-5, a massive collection of some 450 volumes of diplomatic correspondence covering the period 1860-1956.
In this endeavour he had the support of his wife Karen, to whom his colleagues and friends in the School offer their sincerest condolences together with those of current and former students of history, all of whom Michael taught with unfailing enthusiasm and kindness.
