John Michael Wallace-Hadrill, CBE, FBA, FRHistS (29 September 1916 – 3 November 1985) was a British academic and one of the foremost historians of the early Merovingian period.

Life and career

Wallace-Hadrill was born on 29 September 1916 in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, where his father was a master at Bromsgrove School.^[1] He was Professor of Mediaeval History at the University of Manchester between 1955 and 1961. He then became a Senior Research Fellow of Merton College in the University of Oxford (where he held the office of Sub-Warden) from 1961 till 1974.^[2] He was Chichele Professor of Modern History at Oxford from 1974 to 1983 and, between 1974 and 1985, a Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford.

He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1969 and delivered the Ford Lectures in 1971. He was a Vice-President of the Royal Historical Society between 1973 and 1976. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1982. He is the father of the Roman historian Andrew Wallace-Hadrill and the brother of church historian, D.S. Wallace-Hadrill.^[3]