In memoriam – Dr Eric Taplin

The University regrets to report the death of Dr Eric Taplin, an Honorary Fellow in the Department of History from 1992.

The department has sent the following tribute:

The recommendation to appoint Eric as an Honorary Fellow in the Department of Economic and Social History was an extremely astute decision. It was a post which he held up until his death and the benefits to the staff and students in the Department (and subsequently in the School of History) were very considerable indeed.

Eric had always been an outstanding educator and his (unpaid) seminars for first-year students were incredibly successful. He was also involved in supervising third-year dissertations and providing specialist support for postgraduates who were undertaking research in labour history. There was a flourishing exchange at that time with the Department of Economic History at Stockholm University and a number of their students benefited considerably from Eric’s expertise.

In fact, he became a close friend of some of them; visited Sweden on a number of occasions and was already impressed by the fact that the majority of the population, irrespective age, had an excellent command of the English language.

In many ways Eric became a key member of staff – he attended seminars on a regular basis; he provided excellent, convivial company at departmental events (such as the annual Christmas dinner or the reunion for former students which was held in July last year); and he was always prepared to engage in intellectual and political debates.

In the course of time, he became an active member of the association for former members of staff in Economic and Social History (ESHGOM) where his contributions to collegiality and friendship remained as important as ever.