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Meet our graduate scholars: Henry Brown

Photograph of Henry Brown, a young man in black tie, in a group of other students

Henry Brown

  • Guest Author

Henry Brown - Lord Crewe Graduate Scholarship

Although I frequently moved around as a child (even spending 18 months in New Zealand), I largely grew up in Rutland, just over the border from Leicestershire, and took my A-levels at Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College in Leicester. I then read for a BA in War Studies at King’s College London, a course which gave me an enduring fascination for the history of war which has continued to propel me through a postgraduate degree and on into a thesis examining education and organisational culture in the Republican Army during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).

I cannot overstate how important the Lord Crewe Graduate Scholarship has been to my postgraduate research. Without its financial support, I would simply not have had the opportunity to undertake my doctoral research, build on the academic networks I established during my MSt in History, and take full advantage of Oxford’s peerless resources. So far this year, I have established the Edinburgh-Oxford Modern Spanish History Doctoral Seminar, an international forum for fellow researchers to share and discuss their findings. We have just concluded our first term of nine talks which included speakers and guests from across the UK, Spain, the United States and as far afield as China. For myself, these talks provided a great opportunity not only to hear from fellow doctoral students but to present a research seminar paper for the first time, an experience which I have since repeated for the Newcastle Postgraduate Forum and for Oxford’s History of War Seminar. Earlier this year, I was also privileged to appear, with my research partner, as a paid lecturer for the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society, during which we detailed our findings on our home county’s International Brigades’ volunteers and antifascist activism.

The Lord Crewe scholarship has also allowed me to experience Lincoln College for the first time (albeit under strange circumstances) and I have found its environment and graduate community to be exceptionally welcoming. For this reason, I opted to get more involved with the Middle Common Room (MCR) by supporting its great range of events as a social rep. Despite the obstacles caused by Covid-19, this has been a great experience in which I have met a great range of people. I also took on part-time work as a casual assistant for Lincoln College Library, a role which allowed me close contact with, in my opinion, one of Oxford’s most impressive learning spaces.

If you are eligible for any of the graduate scholarships, I wholeheartedly recommend applying. When I did so, I had low hopes that I would be able to continue to a research degree, but the Lord Crewe Scholarship made a decisive financial difference and I consider myself incredibly privileged to have been given this opportunity. My advice for applicants is to make sure that your statement shows your genuine enthusiasm for the subject and why you are best placed to make an original contribution through your research.

This is one of a series of blog posts featuring current graduate scholarship holders at Lincoln College. For more information about graduate scholarships, please see this dedicated finance and funding page. The deadline for applications is 7 June 2021. 

Where next?

  • Explore the graduate scholarships on offerRead more
  • Read more graduate profiles on the blogRead more
  • Find out more about life at LincolnRead more