Professor Peter D.G. Thomas (G 43-47). We have received the following notice from the family:
The members of the Department of History and Welsh History are sad to record the loss of Professor Peter David Garner Thomas, who died on 7th July 2020; we extend our deepest sympathies to Peter’s family. Peter was a long-standing colleague and member of the Department, having joined Aberystwyth as a lecturer from Glasgow University in 1965. He was appointed to a chair in 1976 and retired in 1997, remaining an emeritus professor of the university until his death.
Peter’s principal study area was the American Revolution. He began his university studies in London and was the last doctoral student of Sir Lewis Namier, the noted scholar of Eighteenth-century Parliamentary history and especially known for his prosopographical investigation of parliamentarians. Peter’s doctoral thesis, on Parliamentary practice, was later published as The House of Commons in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford, 1971). He remained committed to the history of the eighteenth-century Parliament throughout his career and, following the lead of his supervisor, Namier, was greatly interested in exploring the Parliamentarians themselves, men such as the London radical, John Wilkes, and Frederick North, Lord North, British Prime Minister during the American War of Independence. He completed monographs on both men. His final major study, an account of the reign and person of George III, published by Manchester University Press in 2002, also held true to his Namierite principles, offering a close chronology of the first decade of that reign.
The British political backdrop to the American Revolution especially dominated his research and writing, resulting, most notably, in a major three-volume history of the political events surrounding the American Revolution, published by Oxford University Press between 1976 and 1991. Peter’s work was also published in a large number of articles and books, to which he continued to add until very recently, and his contribution to eighteenth-century political history was immense; a tribute by colleagues at the Institute of Historical Research’s History of Parliament on-line (http://www.histparl.ac.uk/news/professor-peter-dg-thomas) notes that his latest work for the journal Parliamentary History, published in 2018, ‘exemplified the virtues of thorough research and scrupulous scholarship that characterize all his historical writings’. Peter Thomas’ work on political cartoons of the eighteenth century, published as The English Satirical Print, 1600–1832: The American Revolution (1986), provided another important outlet for this prodigious research and ability to engage with eighteenth-century politics on more than one level and making use of different media. It is striking that this foray into political cartoons remained an important feature of departmental teaching and research for many years after Peter’s retirement, a reflection of academic legacy and his inspiration to his doctoral supervisees. Professor Martin Fitzpatrick, a former colleague of Peter’s, writes that ‘Peter was a great asset to the department of History and Welsh History. He made a major contribution to the research profile of the department through his own publications and, for many years, as almost the sole teacher and supervisor at postgraduate level.  He was a terrific scholar. His prize-winning trilogy on the American Revolution is a magnificent combination of sustained research fine argumentation and felicitous prose. I often need to consult his work. As I take his books off my shelves, I feel a real sense of pride that their author was a friend and colleague.’ Peter was also very active in the Aberystwyth community. A keen tennis player, he chaired the Dyfed Lawn Tennis Association for twenty years; he was also closely involved in local politics and acted as chair for the local Liberal Democrats for a decade. A small private service was held at Aberystwyth Crematorium on Friday, 24 July 2020 at 2pm.

 

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