Southern, Richard (William) (1912–2001)

British medieval historian. Southern's most distinguished work was concerned with the study of medieval thought and learning, and his exceptional gifts of exposition were notably displayed in The Making of the Middle Ages (1953).

Southern was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Balliol College, Oxford University. He was fellow and tutor at Balliol (1937–61), Chichele professor of modern history at Oxford University (1961–69), and was been president of St John's College, Oxford, from 1969. Among his other publications are St Anselm and His Biographer (1963), Western Views of Islam in the Middle Ages (1962), Memorials of St Anselm (1969), Medieval Humanism and Other Studies (1970), and Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages (1970).