Michael Maclagan

Michael Maclagan (14 April 1914 – 13 August 2003) was a British historian, antiquary and herald. He was Fellow and Tutor in Modern History at Trinity College, Oxford, for more than forty years, a long-serving officer of arms, and Lord Mayor of Oxford 1970–71. Career Maclagan was born in London and educated at Winchester College and Christ Church, Oxford. He graduated from Christ Church with a first class degree in 1935, and was awarded the Gladstone Memorial Exhibition. After two years as a lecturer at Christ Church, he was elected a Fellow of Trinity College in 1939 (the last Fellow to be so elected before the outbreak of World War II). At both Winchester and Oxford he was a member of the Officer Training Corps; and he served as president of the Oxford University Archaeological Society. World War II In February 1941, Maclagan was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 16th/5th Lancers, Royal Armoured Corps. He spent much of the war in staff and intelligence jobs: for a period he was in Cairo, but he was subsequently posted to Military Operations in the War Office in London, where his proficiency in Italian and Serbo-Croat stood him in good stead. He ultimately reached the rank of major. Post-war In 1946, Maclagan returned to Trinity College, where he remained as Fellow and Tutor in Modern History until his retirement in 1981. For many years he shared teaching duties with the early modern scholar John Phillips Cooper (1920–1978). He held various college offices (including Dean, Librarian, Senior Tutor, Vice-President, and steward of the Senior Common Room); was Senior Proctor for the University in 1954–5; and he also served as Senior Librarian (1960–70) and Trustee (1970–99) of the Oxford Union.