Historical Association Honorary Fellows 2026

We are delighted to announce the Honorary Fellows for 2026.  

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 2026 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:  

I feel very honoured to be receiving this award. In all honesty, it was totally unexpected and my first reaction was probably a healthy dose of imposter syndrome! Having got over that, I feel really thankful to the person who nominated me and very proud to have been given this Fellowship. It is wonderful to be recognised by an organisation that I have learned so much from throughout my career. Daisy Horsley 

I am greatly honoured to receive this award of honorary fellowship not least because I am conscious that, in doing so, I am joining a group whose services to history, its teaching and its dissemination, considerably exceed my own limited contribution. Unlike Groucho Marx, I am humbled to join a club that would ask me to join it! Michael Brooks 

There will be a full story on this year’s Honorary Fellows following the awards ceremony on 24 November which will also include the presentation of the Medlicott Medal, which is being awarded to Anne Curry. Limited places are available for HA members by emailing: ceo@history.org.uk

The Honorary Fellows for 2026 are:

• Phil Arkinstall
• Mike Brooks
• Rosalind Crone
• Mary Garside 
• Emma Griffin
• Gemma Hargraves
• Daisy Horsley
• Katie Hunter
• Steve Illingworth
• Steve Kenyon
• Matthew Laban
• Claire Langhamer 
• Vivienne Larminie
• Jamie Wood