Joan Wake

Joan Wake CBE (29 February 1884 – 15 January 1974) is best known as a historian who led a successful campaign to save Delapré Abbey from destruction. Background Joan Wake was born at Courteenhall, a daughter of Sir Hereward Wake, the 12th baronet, and his wife Catherine St Aubyn. Historian and activist Whilst studying at the London School of Economics and Political Science, she developed contacts with the historians Eileen Power, Frank Stenton and Doris Mary Stenton. Her own earliest major historical project was the full transcription of hundreds of medieval charters in the Hesketh Collection at Easton Neston. In 1918, she became a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and two years later was one of the founders of the Northamptonshire Record Society. Her activities during the rest of her life focused on promoting the preservation, safe custody and publication of the records of Northamptonshire. She was also active in the British Records Association, founded in 1932.