It was a joy to bring together so many people to celebrate the study of history at our annual ‘Medlicotts’ awards evening on 12 July.

Originally formed around awarding the Medlicott Medal for History to that year’s recipient it is now also an opportunity to celebrate all the awards, honours and benchmarks of success that the Historical Association and its standards meet. The evening is opened and hosted by the HA CEO, Rebecca Sullivan.

One of the winners of this year’s Young Quills for Historical Fiction, Tony Bradman, was there to receive his award as winner of the Early readers category for his book Bruno and Frida. Tom Palmer, who won the intermediate category for Resist, was sadly unable to attend but was represented by his publisher Jane Walker of Barrington Stoke. The 14+ years category was won by Bill Konigsberg who lives in New York and sent messages of thanks. His book Destination Unknown is set in 1980s New York and explores the impact of the AIDS epidemic, events that for many in the HA audience felt a little too recent to be history but of course are. More on this year’s winners and highly commended entries here.

Next up were the announcements of the schools that had achieved the Gold and Silver Quality Mark since July last year. The HA Quality Mark is a rigorous programme for a school to follow in order to be acknowledged as delivering outstanding History provision in schools. This year’s list will be in autumn edition of HA News. Find out more about Primary Quality Mark and Secondary Quality Mark.

A number of teachers were congratulated on achieving Chartered Teacher status, another programme initiated and managed by the HA to develop high standards of history eduction in schools and to support the personal development of teachers to achieve excellence in their profession. Find out more about Primary Chartered Teacher and Secondary Chartered Teacher awards.

After congratulating those who have attended the recent Teacher Fellowships and the resources that they are producing, on subjects around ‘Broadcasting and Social Change in 1960s Britain’ and ‘The People of 1381’, upcoming Teacher fellowships were also announced – further details when ready!

Next came the awards to the Honorary Fellows: each year the HA awards a small number of Honorary Fellowships to recognise individuals who have given a high level of support to the aims and work of the HA in many ways. This year’s Honorary Fellows are: Dale Banham, Geoff Bisson, Victoria Crooks, Mick Crumplin, Ken Fincham, Sophie Henderson, Sandra Kirkland, Laura London, Dan Lyndon-Cohen, Emily Miller, Miri Rubin, Joseph Smith, John Stead, Stuart Tiffany and Susie Townsend. Find out more here.

The final section of the evening is for the Medlicott Medal itself, awarded for outstanding services and contributions to history. This year the Medal went to renowned historian and author Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch who is currently Professor of the Church at Oxford. His 2008 book History of Christianity: the first three thousand years is the leading authority on the history of the Christian Church and was followed up with a TV series. He was introduced and awarded the medal by former HA President Professor Tony Badger.

Those awarded the medal are required to give a lecture or talk on an area of their historical scholarship or an area of issue in history that they feel is worthy of special attention. Professor MacCulloch gave a lecture titled ‘Reminding Historians about the Church, reminding the Church about its History’.

And what a lecture it was! It kept the audience spellbound with its insight, depth and wit. A nearby church mouse even crept in, determined not to be robbed of listening to one of the most significant presentations on modern Christian faith in this decade.

Fortunately for us at the HA, Professor MacCulloch has given us the whole script of his talk which will be published in full in the next edition of HA News. For now we have prepared a short taster film for you, available below.

Overall, a marvellous night was had by all – till next year!