Barbara Bradby Hammond

Born Lucy Barbara Bradby on July 25, 1873, she was educated at St Leonards School and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She later became known as Barbara Hammond after marrying the journalist and historian John Lawrence Hammond in 1901.

Working closely with her husband, she researched and wrote a series of widely read books on British social history, especially the experience of laboring people during enclosure and the Industrial Revolution. Their best-known works include The Village Labourer, The Town Labourer, and The Skilled Labourer, books that made a lasting impression on the study of working-class history.

Barbara Hammond died on November 16, 1961. She is still remembered as one of the early writers who treated ordinary workers, not just political leaders, as central figures in the story of Britain’s past.