Trevor-Roper, Hugh Redwald (1914–2003)

English historian, professor of modern history at Oxford (1957–80), and master of Peterhouse College, Cambridge (1980–87). He established a widespread and popular reputation for his work, particularly on the 17th and 20th centuries. In 1983, he was the victim of an elaborate hoax, when he was deceived into authenticating a set of forged notebooks as the diaries of Adolf Hitler.

Trevor-Roper was educated at Charterhouse School and Christ Church College, Oxford. During World War II, as a British Army intelligence officer, he investigated the death of Adolf Hitler and other Nazi leaders. Among his many publications are The Last Days of Hitler (1947), The Gentry, 1540–1640 (1953), The Rise of Christian Europe (1965), The European Witch-Craze of the 16th and 17th Centuries (1970), The Goebbels Diaries (1978), Catholics, Anglicans and Puritans (1988), Renaissance Essays (1989), and From Counter-Reformation to Glorious Revolution. (1992). He was made a life peer in 1979.