Professor Sir Rick Trainor KBE, FAcSS, FRHistS
A graduate of Brown University, Professor Sir Rick Trainor, who was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, completed a second undergraduate degree at Merton College (of which he is an Honorary Fellow), secured a Distinction in the Preliminary Examination of the History PhD at Princeton, was a research student at Nuffield College, a junior research fellow at Wolfson College, and a lecturer at Balliol College, and took his Oxford doctorate in Victorian social history.
Born and raised in the US, Rick’s career as a historian and academic leader has taken place in the UK, of which he is now a dual citizen. In 1979 he became a lecturer in the Department of Economic History at the University of Glasgow, where he later was awarded a personal chair in social history, became Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, and was appointed Vice Principal. At Glasgow he taught the economic and social history of modern Britain and continental Europe and published on the social history of British elites, especially on the origins and impact of the middle-class and aristocratic leaders of industrial towns and cities, including their involvement in universities.
In 2000 Rick became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Greenwich, and four years later was appointed Principal and Professor of Social History at King’s College London. Between 2007 and 2009 he was also President of Universities UK, the representative organisation for the heads of all UK universities. He was knighted in 2010 for his services to higher education.
Sir Rick was Rector of Exeter between 2014 and 2024. During that period Cohen Quadrangle was completed and opened, the College Library was restored and renovated, the Fellowship was expanded, the undergraduate intake of the College became significantly more diverse, the Exeter College Summer Programme was launched, and Exeter initiated a thriving sustainability programme. Between 2017 and 2019 he was also Chair of Oxford’s Conference of Colleges, and between 2016 and 2024 he was a Pro Vice Chancellor of the University.
Sir Rick, who is Professor Emeritus of Social History at King’s College London, is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and of the Royal Historical Society and is a Vice President of the leading learned society in his field, the Economic History Society, of which he was President 2013-16. He remains active in research and is writing a book on the social and cultural history of the British middle class since 1850. He is also a Non Executive Director of Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, Chair of the Academic Panel of the London Museum, and a member of the Council of Reference of Westminster Abbey Institute.
