Christophe) Roy Hudleston, 1905-1992

Roy Hudleston (1905-1992) was born in Stroud in Gloucestershire. He started work as a journalist on the Bristol Times and Mirror in 1923, and in 1932 transferred to the newly-formed Bristol Evening Post . His career in journalism was interrupted by war-time forestry work but in 1945 he was appointed editor of the Penrith Observer . In 1955 he moved to become Bursar of Hatfield College and part-time lecturer in Palaeography in the University of Durham. Although he retired from his college post in 1965 he remained in Durham until 1970 as a full-time lecturer in Palaeography, based in the Department of Palaeography and Diplomatic (now incorporated in Durham University Library Archives and Special Collections department). His retirement was spent first in Ambleside in Cumbria and then in Hove in Sussex.

Hudleston was also a distinguished genealogist and historian. In 1949 he was elected a Fellow of The Society of Antiquaries in recognition of his significant work in the fields of local history and genealogy, his life-long abiding interests. Spurred on by his fascination with the history of his own ancestors, particularly the Hudlestons of Millom Castle and Hutton John, Cumbria, he began writing local history articles at an early age, and some of these appeared in the Stroud News while he was still at school. He subsequently published many articles on Bristol's history in the local press, and was also a regular contributor to the Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, of which he later became President.

In Durham he arranged and catalogued substantial groups of the Howard of Naworth Papers and of the Durham Diocesan Records which were deposited with the University, and from 1966 until 1979 he was editor of the publications of the Surtees Society, the chief records-publication society for the North-East of England. He was also a long-standing member of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, serving as editor of its Transactions from 1956 to 1974 and as its President from 1960 to 1963. He did a great deal of work for that Society's parish-register section, as well as himself writing many articles for its Transactions over the years. Much of his research came to fruition with the publication in 1975 of a book entitled An armorial for Westmorland and Lonsdale, prepared with Robert Boumphrey and J. (Fred) Hughes and followed in 1978 by the appearance of a companion volume on Cumberland families and heraldry . He was elected as the first President of the Cumbria Family History Society and only retired as editor of that society's newsletter shortly before his death.

From the guide to the Hudleston Papers, Chiefly 18th - 20th centuries, (Durham University Library, Archives and Special Collections)