Green John Richard

Green, John Richard (1837-83), historian, was born at Oxford, and received his education at Meigdalen College school and Jesus College. After leaving the university he became curate and afterwards vicar of St. Philip's, Stepney. In the midst of his labours among the East-end poor he found time to contribute historical articles to the Saturday Review. In 1868 he was appointed librarian at Lambeth, but an attack of consumption in the following year rendered him incapable of any but literary work. In spite of poverty, illness, and the discouraging advice of his friends, he laboured on at his Short History of the English People, which was published in 1874, and immediately established his fame. This work is even more remarkable for its insight into the social life of our forefathers than for its vivid narrative and its grasp of historical principles. The Making of England (1882) and the posthumous Conquest of England were to have formed part of a continuous history of England up to the Conquest, a project which was cut short by his death.