Each summer the HA holds an awards evening. The awards cover a number of important areas of the Association’s outreach work, its values and the roles of its members and supporters.

Mary Beard awarded Medlicott Medal

Newly-appointed HA President Professor Tony Badger introduced one of the high points of the HA awards evening, the Medlicott Medal for History and the awardee’s talk.

The idea of a medal for outstanding contributions to history originated late in 1983 with a proposal from Professor Donald Read, then President of the HA. The trustees of the Association decided the medal should be named in recognition of Professor William Norton Medlicott, an outstanding historian and distinguished former President of the HA.

This year the recipient of the Medal was Professor Mary Beard, the renowned Classicist. She provided an extremely enjoyable talk that covered a diverse range of idea and thoughts from 5th century Athenian Society to which Emperor Donald Trump would be and her recent evening out with Peter Stringfellow. 

Find out more about the Medlicott Medal

Young Quills Award

First up was the nationally recognised Young Quills Award for Historical Fiction 2017. The Young Quills competition is held annually, to acknowledge good historical fiction writing and also to encourage youngsters to develop a love of history and a feel for the period they are studying.

Each year a growing list of publishers submit books to the HA to be judged in schools. The Young Quills is, we think, unique in that it is the readers – young people – who decide the shortlist.

The lead judges for the 2017 Young Quills were Hilary Robinson and Martin Impey, author and illustrator of Flo of the Somme, last year’s winner. The winners were:

• Under 12s category: Black Powder by Ally Sherrick (Chicken House books)
• 12s and over: The Hypnotist by Laurence Anholt (Corgi Childrens)

Find out more about the Young Quills award

Quality Mark and Teacher Fellowships

Celebrated next was the HA’s work in schools and with teachers to build excellence.

HA Education Manager Mel Jones reported on the Quality Mark which is an HA programme to recognise quality history teaching in schools. She congratulated and named those schools who have achieved the Quality Mark this year. Find out more about the award: Find out more about the Quality Mark

Maheema Chanrai, HA Education officer, congratulated those teachers who have taken part in the specialist Teacher Fellowship programmes over 2016/17 to become experts in aspects of teaching subject knowledge and delivery. Find out more about the Teacher Fellowship programme

Honorary Fellowships

Rebecca Sullivan introduced the section that celebrated some of those who support and enrich the work of the Historical Association and the history community. Each year the HA awards a select number of Honorary Fellowships to people who support the work of the HA as volunteers as speakers and with expert advice. The Fellowships are an important way to recognise the important work that people across the UK do to support history, heritage and teaching. Those awarded an Honorary Fellowship for 2017 are:

• Ilona Aronovsky
• Carmel Bones
• Jean Evans
• Colin Haydon
• Ali Messer
• Kathleen Morris
• June Palmer
• Jules Wooding
• Elizabeth Yarker
• Barbara Yorke

The evening finished with a book signing and some very enjoyable chatter amongst the illustrious guests and those passionate about history who had descended on a hot Foyles book shop for the evening.