H.J. Dyos pioneered the study of urban history in Britain and promoted it through his contacts with leading urban, economic and social historians from around the world. Born in 1921, he left school at 15 and served in the Royal Artillery during the war, before going to the London School of Economics to study economic history in 1946. In 1952 he was appointed to a lectureship at University College, Leicester, a well-respected centre for the study of local history and Victorian studies. Dyos remained at Leicester for the rest of his career, becoming Professor of Urban History. In 1961 he published 'Victorian Suburb: A Study of the Growth of Camberwell'. His other principal writings include: 'The Study of Urban History' in 1968 (editor); 'British Transport: An Economic Survey from the Seventeenth Century to the Twentieth' in 1969 (with Derek H. Aldcroft); and 'The Victorian City: Images and Realities' in 1973 (editor with Michael Wolff). As part of the conference of the Economic History Society in 1963, he convened the first meeting of the Urban History Group, and he started and contributed frequently to the 'Urban History Newsletter', which was succeeded by the 'Urban History Yearbook' in 1974. He died suddenly and prematurely in 1978.
From the guide to the The Dyos collection, 1960-1978, (University of Leicester)
