Historian mourned
The University, St Hugh's and the History Faculty has lost one of its finest with the death of Professor Colin Matthew, 58, fellow and tutor of history. He died suddenly of a heart attack last Thursday.
Matthew was Editor of the monumental New Dictionary of National Biography. Accolades have flowed in from all over the academic community.
Robert Evans, Regius Professor of History said, " he edited Gladstone diaries which was a monumental achievement. He was a very relaxed man who led a very busy life. At the time of his death, he was at the height of his career. He will be very hard to replace."
Dr David Robertson, tutor in politics at St. Hugh's commented, " Colin Matthew represented the very best of Oxford's more traditional side. Even though we were not close, I am genuinely shocked by his death. His death is a great loss."
This was reiterated by Derek Wood, principal of St. Hugh's, who said, "he will be badly missed here; he was one of our most effective fellows.'' Wood said it was sad Professor Matthew would not live to see the completion of the Dictionary, which was probably one of the biggest projects in the humanities in the country
Katherine Manville, who was Matthew's personal assistant at the Oxford University Press, the publishers of the Dictionary, commented "the research for the new dictionary project was almost two-thirds complete. The status of all the graduate students who worked with Professor Matthew remains the same." She said there is no replacement for him at the moment but the estimated time of completion of the dictionary remains at 2004.
According to OUP, Professor Matthew's funeral will take place at 3pm this Thursday at Christ Church.
28th Oct 1999