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OBITUARY
REGINALD BROCKLESBY (1924-2024)
Reg was elected fellow of the Royal History Society and subscribed to many learned Societies including the Thoroton Society.
Born in Yorkshire in 1924 he started down the pit at the age of 14, working there until he was 40. During that time he taught himself without a formal education - Latin, Middle English, and Anglo-Saxon. The ability to read original scripts served as his entrance to University at the age of 40, where Philip Larkin once told him to be quiet in the Library. After graduating he secured the post of Assistant Archivist and then Senior Archivist at the Nottinghamshire Archives Office, working there until his retirement in 1989.
A voracious and passionate student, reader, and seeker of knowledge, over his lifetime he amassed a massive collection of books, journals, and documents. Only a few weeks before his death he took delivery of some new books and was even picking out future titles from a Bennett & Kerr catalogue! However, his advanced age, a combination of cataracts and age-related macular degeneration, and diminished concentration deprived him of reading for long periods, and truly broke his heart over these last six months of his life. Your Society brought in the past much joy to him.
Andrew Brocklesby (Reginald’s Grandson)