13 Facts About Peter Laslett

Peter Laslett began a degree course in history at St John's College, Cambridge, in 1935 and graduated with a double first in 1938.

Peter Laslett stayed in Cambridge for some time, conducting historical research, then in 1940 joined the Fleet Air Arm.

Peter Laslett was stationed first at Bletchley Park and later, after VE Day, in Washington, DC.

Pocock, was the work by which Peter Laslett provided the initial inspiration for the "Cambridge School" of the history of political thought, the methods of which are now widely practised.

Peter Laslett combined such academic activity with a lifelong concern to engage a wider audience.

Peter Laslett worked simultaneously as a BBC radio producer for the Third Programme.

Simon Mitton credits Peter Laslett with having launched in 1948 the radio broadcasting career of the astronomer Fred Hoyle.

In 1953, having earlier discovered and begun research into a substantial proportion of the library of John Locke, privately held at a shooting lodge in the Scottish Highlands, Peter Laslett earned an appointment as a university lecturer in history at Cambridge and was elected a fellow Trinity College; thereafter, his involvement with the BBC declined and in 1960 ended.

Peter Laslett worked with the philanthropist Paul Mellon and various institutions to negotiate the purchase and transfer of the library to the more suitable and accessible environs of the Bodleian in Oxford.

Peter Laslett took up an entirely different line of historical research from the early 1960s.

Peter Laslett was Reader in Politics and the History of Social Structure at Cambridge University from 1966 until retirement in 1983.

Peter Laslett played a pivotal role in founding the University of the Third Age in 1982.

Peter Laslett died on 8 November 2001, aged 85, and was buried in Wolvercote Cemetery in Oxford, and was survived by his wife, Janet, and two sons.