Letters and Papers of Professor Sir John Knox Laughton, 1830-1915

Born 31 December 1956 in Norfolk. Attended Hamond’s Grammar School, Swaffham, and then studied for his degree in law at City of London Polytechnic. Read for an MA and PhD in naval history at King’s College, London in the War Studies Department. Between 1983 and 1987 he was a lecturer in international history at Bristol Polytechnic (now Bristol West of England University) and moved to become a consultant in the department of History and International Affairs at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, where he stayed until 1989. 1989-1991 he was a senior lecturer in war studies at RMA Sandhurst, and since 1996 has been based in the War Studies department at King’s College London, initially senior lecturer, then professor of naval history, and since 2001 Laughton Professor of Naval History, and Director of the Laughton Naval History Research Unit. He was Hon. Secretary of the Naval Records Society 1996-2005 and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.