Bellot, Professor Hugh Hale

Correspondence and papers of Bellot. The papers represent and illustrate the activities of Bellot's academic life as well as his personal one. There are letters to his family describing his schooldays at Bedales School up to his involvement with University College, Ibadan and his appointment to the Vice Chancellorship of the University of London.

The papers can be divided into three series: papers relating to his involvement in teaching and governance at the University of London, his personal papers that document his relationship with his fellow historians and his family; and papers created in the process of his historical research.

The official papers include case-files relating to: academic policy, University College, Ibadan, Westfield College, Senate committees, Board of Study in History at the University of London, Higher Education in Africa, and Library Policy.

His personal papers include: correspondence (1898-1968) with fellow historians (such as Albert Frederick Pollard, Thomas Frederick Tout, Robert Arthur Humphreys and J.E. Neale), members of his family, and other friends and acquaintances; family photographs; newspaper-cuttings; domestic account-books; diaries, records of his activities at Lincoln College; curriculum vitae; and travel notebooks.

The papers documenting Bellot's academic activities and historical research include: drafts, off-prints and notes for various works, including some unpublished; correspondence with his publisher, The Athlone Press; bibliographical and lecture notes; and the obligatory historical notes on areas of American History, economics and obituaries.

Hugh Hale Leigh Bellot was born on 26 January 1890 and received his early education at Bedales School and then went to Lincoln College Oxford with a scholarship. He became master at the Battersea Polytechnical Secondary School and later at the Bedales School and then, in 1915, he was appointed a clerk at H. M. Customs and Excise where he remained until the end of the First World War.

In 1921, on being appointed an assistant in the department of History at University College London, Bellot began an association with the University of London that was to continue until the end of his life in 1969. He was promoted to senior lecturer in 1926 but moved to the University of Manchester in 1927 to become Reader in Modern History. In 1930, however, he returned to the University of London as Professor of American History, a post that he held until 1955. This period of tenure was broken occasionally as Bellot became Sir George Watson lecturer in 1938 at Birmingham and between 1940 and 1944 when he acted as Principal at the Board of Trade. He was finally given the title. 'Professor Emeritus of American History at the University of London', and awarded an honorary LL.D. by the University. He was a fellow of University College London and an honorary fellow of Lincoln College Oxford.

Bellot's involvement in the running of the University of London began with his election to the Senate in 1938 (until 1956). He was elected to the Court in 1948 (to 1953) and was Chairman of the Academic Council between 1948 and 1951. This promotion culminated with his election as Vice-Chancellor in 1951 for a two-year term. He was latterly a Member of Council for Westfield College, Charing Cross Hospital Medical School and University College, Ibadan.

Other positions held included being honorary secretary of the Royal Historical Society between 1934 and 1952 and President from 1952 to 1956

Access to the items in the collection is unrestricted for the purpose of private study and personal research within the controlled environment and restrictions of the Library's Palaeography Room. Access to archive collections may be restricted under the Freedom of Information Act. Please contact the University Archivist for details.

A word-processed box list of the deposit is available in the Palaeography Room or from the Archivist, Senate House Library.

University College London holds correspondence and papers relating to Bellot's centenary history of UCL (Ref: Mss Colls 1978 UCL History); the John Rylands University Library of Manchester contains family correspondence and papers; the Bodleian Library, Oxford University, holds correspondence with Henry Graham Pollard, 1933-1949 (Ref: Mss Pollard).

Copies may be made, subject to the condition of the original. Copying must be undertaken by the Palaeography Room staff, who will need a minimum of 24 hours to process requests.