Origins

The Richard III Society was founded during the summer of 1924 by a Liverpool surgeon, Saxon Barton, and a small group of friends. They were all enthusiastic amateur historians with a particular interest in the life and times of Richard III. Their motivation was a belief that history had not dealt justly with the King's posthumous reputation and they wanted to encourage and promote a more balanced view. In Saxon Barton's own words "in my view historical belief must be founded on facts where possible and on honest conviction". They called themselves "The Fellowship of the White Boar" and remained a relatively small and informal grouping. Their activities inevitably declined with the onset of the Second World War.

The 1950s saw a number of key events which raised the level of interest in the controversies surrounding Richard III. Of most significance was the publication in 1951 of Josephine Tey's classic crime detective novel The Daughter of Time. This brought the controversy to the attention of a wide reading public. The mid 1950s saw the release of Lawrence Olivier's film of Shakespeare's Richard III and the publication of Paul Murray Kendall's sympathetic biography of the king.


All these events contributed to a growth of potential members for an organisation whose primary focus was Richard III.
One individual, introduced to the subject by reading Tey's novel was Isolde Wigram. She discovered the existence of the Fellowship and tracked down Saxon Barton. He appointed her secretary and she became the key driving force in re-activating the Fellowship to meet the new challenges. At a meeting in London in 1956 the Fellowship was formally reconstituted on a wider membership basis. Saxon Barton died in 1957, but the Fellowship lived on and in 1959 was renamed The "Richard III Society".


During the next four decades the Society grew at a steady rate, helped by events such as the 1973 National Portrait Gallery exhibition "The Age of Richard III" and the 1983 to 1985 quincentenary celebrations of Richard III's reign . As membership increased so did the range of the Society's activities, in particular its contribution to historical research. In 1980 the Society received the honour of Royal Patronage when HRH The Duke of Gloucester agreed to become its patron.

Today the Society is an international organisation with a membership approaching 3,500. It has a formidable range of achievements to its name and its contribution to 15th century scholarship is widely recognised. A comprehensive review of these achievements is to be found on this website.

 
A talk on the history of the Society was given by John Saunders on 19 May 2006 at Barnard's Inn Hall. Click here to read it online.