Hugh Brogan

Hugh Brogan

Denis Hugh Vercingetorix Brogan, known as Hugh Brogan, is a British historian and biographer.

The son of Sir Denis Brogan and Olwen Phillis Francis (Lady Brogan), OBE, archaeologist and authority on Roman Libya, he was educated at St Faith’s School before heading to Repton School and then St John’s College, graduating with a BA in 1959 and an MA in 1964. As a schoolboy he was apparently interested in Hobbits, as evidenced by a letter in reply to him from J.R.R. Tolkien, dated 7 April 1948.

Brogan was on the staff of The Economist from 1960 to 1963, and was elected a Harkness Fellow in 1962. Hugh was also a fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge, from 1963 to 1974. After all of this he was then part of the department of history at the University of Essex from 1974 to 1998, first as a lecturer, then a reader, and finally as Professor of History from 1992 to 1998.

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