Rosalind Mitchison

Rosalind Mitchison

Rosalind Mary Mitchison (11 April 1919–19 September 2002) was a historian of Scotland who specialised in social history.

Rosalind Mary Wrong was born in Manchester. Her father, Edwin Wrong, and his father, George Wrong, were both historians. Rosalind studied history at Lady Margaret Hall and came to Manchester University as an assistant lecturer, working under Sir Lewis Namier, in 1943. In 1947, while Tutor at Lady Margaret Hall, she married zoologist John Murdoch Mitchison, son of Naomi Mitchison and Dick Mitchison. They had four children, one son and three daughters.

In 1953 John was appointed to a professorship at Edinburgh University and the Mitchisons moved to Scotland. Rosalind Mitchison taught history, initially part-time, at Edinburgh until 1957. In 1962 she began teaching at Glasgow University where she remained until 1967, latterly as a full-time lecturer. Her first work, Agricultural Sir John (1962), broke new ground in the history of 18th century Scotland, hitherto mainly studied, when studied at all, from the perspective of the Acts of Union 1707 or the Scottish Enlightenment. She returned to Edinburgh in 1967 as a Reader, and was by 1981 Emeritus Professor of Social History, a post she held until 1986.