Richard Ollard

Richard Ollard (1923–2007) was an English historian and biographer. He is best known for his work on the English Restoration period. Life Richard Laurence Ollard was born in Yorkshire on 9 November 1923, the son of Rev Dr S. L. Ollard, an Anglican clergyman. He was educated at Eton College where he was a King's Scholar. He joined the Navy during the Second World War and won an exhibition to New College, Oxford at its conclusion. For twelve years from 1948 to 1959 Ollard taught history at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich in London. In 1960 he joined the publisher Collins as a senior editor, where he worked until his retirement in 1983.'One might not guess from his otherwise comprehensive obituaries of Penelope Fitzgerald or Carlo Cipolla, or his articles on Fernand Braudel or Patrick O'Brian, Ollard's pioneering role in publishing such authors. That his identification and retention of the best of them was of such a long-term benefit to Collins was largely due to his encouragement of a younger generation of editors who thus maintained continuity.' After his retirement from Collins he continued to research and publish widely and lived in Morecombelake, Dorset. He died of leukaemia on 21 January 2007.