John Hiden

A prolific author and leading authority on the history of the Baltic states in the 20th century.

1940, february- Born in London, Prof Hiden spent his early years at his grandparents’ home in Evesham, Worcestershire, after Nazi bombing destroyed the family flat in Acton.

1959 After excelling at Acton County Grammar School, he went to Hull University  to study history.

On graduating, he enrolled at the School of Slavonic and European Studies in London to study for a doctorate, where his search for an appropriate topic led him to the Baltic states in the first half of the 20th century – an area in which little research work had been done.

1974 The first historical book, The Weimar Republic, went into print in 1974 and became a standard textbook for those studying Germany in the years following the Armistice in 1918.

Subsequently, he focused more closely on the Baltic states, winning an award for his profile of Paul Schiemann (1876-1944), the Latvian politician and journalist who figured prominently in the struggle for independence in the first half of the 20th century.

He took up a lectureship in European History at the University of Bradford in 1979 where he was instrumental in 1988 in setting up the Baltic Research Centre.

In all, he wrote 15 histories.

Prof Hiden took early retirement from the university in the early 1990s, but his output on his pet subject only increased.

His credits include articles in scores of magazines, newspapers and academic publications across Europe, Scandinavia and the United States, and he was a frequent guest of the ambassadors of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia at their respective London embassies.

Latterly, he received state awards from the Presidents of Estonia and Lithuania.

As Emeritus Professor at Bradford from 2001, John Hiden also continued his long-standing collaborative work with Martyn Housden on German and Baltic History.

A 2008 co-authored work, Neighbours or Enemies?, drew together both strands, looking at the relationship between the German state and German minorities of Central and Eastern Europe in all of its historical manifestations. It was fitting that the two institutions, Bradford and Glasgow, should collaborate to produce a co-edited Festschrift (Forgotten Pages in Baltic History) in honour of John’s career, which was presented at the Latvian Embassy in London in October 2011.

In his spare time he played clarinet and saxophone and enjoyed cinema.

Shortly before his death on August 10, he completed his first novel, Town And Gown. It went on sale last week.

Prof Hiden met his wife Juliet at an amateur theatre production of the show The King And I while studying in Hull. They married in 1964 and had two children, Hugo and Jessica. As well as his wife and children, he leaves a grandson, Theo.

A funeral service took place at Lawnswood Cemetery, Leeds.

From Source: Bradford Telegraph and Argus