---

Home | Publications | Curriculum Vitae |

---

Barry Wintour

Honorary Fellow, Royal Holloway, University of London

Graduating in Mediaeval and Modern History at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1957, I pursued a career in librarianship until I retired in 1996. During this period I worked in the libraries of Birmingham University, Birkbeck College (University of London), Essex University, the New University of Ulster, and finally Royal Holloway (University of London) where I was the Librarian from 1977 to 1996 and with which I still retain close links as an Honorary Fellow [see further details in the section Curriculum Vitae]

Among my interests are the First World War and Local History. In relation to my interest in Local History I was for a number of years one of the Trustees of the S.A. Oliver Charitable Settlement for the Oliver Collection, part of which is housed in Chertsey Museum and mostly consists of paintings, engravings, and artefacts and the other part of which, consisting mostly of books, pamphlets, and documentary material, is housed in the University of London Library Depository, situated in the grounds of Royal Holloway (University of London) at Egham. During the period I was a Trustee I acted as the voluntary Curator of the latter part of the Collection and also maintain a website related to it.

My interest in the First World War was aroused when I was working in the New University of Ulster by that Library’s purchase from Kenneth Headlam-Morley of what became known as the Headlam-Morley Collection. Part of this collection consists of material relating to the approach of the Great War, the War itself and its aftermath, formerly in the possession of Sir James Headlam-Morley (1863-1929), who served during the war years as an historical adviser to the War Propaganda Bureau at Wellington House and, after the war ended, as a senior British delegate in the negotiations leading to the Peace of Versailles. It was this part of the Collection which fascinated me and gave me an enduring interest in the Great War. When I retired I took the opportunity afforded by increased leisure to indulge this interest further not only by extending my reading on the subject but also by working from time to time on the compilation of a bibliography (see entry for details in the section on Publications) of the British aspects of the Great War which have been of particular interest to me.