The Dickson-Holmes History Fund


The Dickson-Holmes History Fund was established in recognition of two of the finest tutorial fellows of history at St. Catherine's College. Peter George Muir Dickson began his affiliation with St. Catherine's in 1954, when he was teaching part-time for the St. Catherine's Society. He became a Tutor of the Society in 1956, a Fellow of the College in 1960, Reader in Modern History in 1978, and Professor of Early Modern History in 1989. George Arthur Holmes was Tutor of the Society from 1954 to 1962, Tutorial Fellow in History of the College from 1962 to 1989, and Chichele Professor of Medieval History and Fellow of All Soul's College from 1989 to 1994. Both men have been elected fellows of the British Academy.

Professors Dickson and Holmes are very different personalities, but both men were committed to the view that all tutors should be researchers, for the understanding of a subject is limited if one is not at one of the frontiers of investigation. As such, they treated their students as colleagues in the pursuit of truth and a better understanding of the human condition. Together with Alan Bullock, they initiated a tradition at St. Catherine's, which has made it one of the premier educational institutions in the world for the study of history.

Contributions to the Dickson-Holmes History Fund are used to establish an endowed fellowship in bearing the names of Peter Dickson and George Holmes and to support the instruction of history at St. Catherine's College.