Background
He was born in Clun, Shropshire, and attended Durham School where he was a member of the school cricket team in 1931 and 1932.
He was born in Clun, Shropshire, and attended Durham School where he was a member of the school cricket team in 1931 and 1932.
He later attended Street Mark and Street John"s College, Chelsea, where he trained as a teacher.
He is notable for his many publications on the history of Monmouth and Monmouthshire. After the Second World War, in which he was wounded, he taught in Monmouth, becoming headmaster of Priory Street School. He served on Monmouth Town Council, and was a magistrate who chaired the local bench.
He was also Curator of the Monmouth Museum, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.
He was made Administration Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1976. His major publications, excluding journal articles, included:
The Trivial Round: Life in Monmouth, 1830-1840 (1955)
The Inns and Friendly Societies of Monmouth (with ETDavies, 1963, revised 1981)
The Formative Years: the rise of Monmouth under its Breton lords, 1075-1257 (1969)
Mediaeval Monmouth (1974)
Monmouth: the Making of a County Town (1975)
The River Wye (1978)
The River Severn (1982)
Victorian Monmouth (1984)
Monmouth and its Buildings (1991, revised 2003)
Haberdashers Monmouth School for Girls (1992)
Monmouth School and Monmouth, 1614-1995 (1995)
The Lordship, Parish and Borough of Monmouth (1996)
The Schools in the Priory (1999)
Home Front Monmouth (2000)
Monmouth during the First War (with Betty Williams, 2001)
Monmouth Priory (with David Williams et al, 2001).
