Historical Association Honorary Fellows 2025

We are delighted to announce the Honorary Fellows for 2025. 

Each year the Historical Association awards Honorary Fellowships to a small group of people. These awards are to recognise and celebrate outstanding services to history and to the Historical Association. The awards cover services to the Historical Association Branches (of which there are over 45 across the country), our committees and the work we are carry out in schools, higher education and in lifelong learning. 

Over the years the fellows have come from many different walks of life, including accountants who run a branch, librarians who promote history to schools and community groups, teachers, university lecturers and museum curators. 

The 2025 Honorary Fellows are also drawn from different areas of the history community, and all have volunteered their time and expertise in some way to help support others with their lives and study of history. 

A few comments explain just how important these awards are: 

Receiving this award is deeply moving. The HA has shaped my thinking, supported my growth, and connected me with a community I admire enormously. While it’s a personal honour, it also feels like a reflection of the shared ideas, support, and collaboration that have shaped my journey. I’m truly grateful to be part of something as special as the HA. Catherine Priggs - teacher 

It’s such an honour and a privilege to be recognised in this way and by such a force for good in the world of spreading the love for, and understanding of history. My only regret is that my parents are not here to celebrate with me. They both came from very humble backgrounds but always encouraged me to work hard at school and instilled in me a love of reading, stories and the past too. I know they’d be as thrilled as I am. Ally Sherrick - author 

Receiving this award is deeply humbling and affirming. As an educator who has championed diversity, inclusion and equity throughout my career, being recognised by the Historical Association strengthens my belief in the importance of embedding diverse narratives within history education. Coming shortly after being named Primary Citizenship Teacher of the Year at the Houses of Parliament (on 2nd June 20250), it feels especially meaningful. It honours the work not only of myself, but of so many others striving to make our curriculum more inclusive, representative, and empowering for all learners. Shubnam Aziz - teacher

I'm both delighted and honoured to be recognised in this way. Not least because the H.A. has been, for me and thousands more, the platform on which I've engaged a wider public about important issues which had shaped my historical career. Heeding the voice and opinions of a remarkably wide cross-section of British life has been one of my career's most enjoyable features. Professor James Walvin - historian 

I’ve belonged to the Beckenham and Bromley Branch of the HA since the late 70’s and for over fifty years it has been the most wonderful source of facts, friendship and fun. Anthea Hopkins - Beckenham and Bromley Branch committee member.  

There will be a fuller story on the Honorary Fellows in the next edition of HA News and online in the autumn.  

The Honorary Fellows for 2025 are:

• Shubnam Aziz
• Nathanael Arnott-Davies
• Glenn Carter
• Alex Fairlamb
• Steven Frank
• John Harries
• David Hibbert
• Mike Hill
• Anthea Hopkins
• Iryna Kostyuk
• Catherine Priggs
• Kate Rigby
• Vera Schaufeld
• Elizabeth McSloy
• Ally Sherrick
• Mala Tribbich
• James Walvin

The Honorary Fellowships will be awarded at the Historical Association Awards Evening on Wednesday 2 July, with Christine Counsell, who is this year’s Medlicott Medal awardee.