Over a three-decade career, my friend the historian Donald MacRaild, who has died suddenly aged 60 after a short illness, held posts at the universities of Sunderland, Northumbria, Ulster and Roehampton, at the Victoria University of Wellington, and at London Metropolitan University, where he served as pro-vice-chancellor for research and innovation before his retirement in 2025. He also held honorary fellowships at Edinburgh and Ulster.
Don was, like many of the people he studied, peripatetic: in each institution he built circles of collaborators, reinvigorated history and humanities departments, and left lasting marks on all those who worked alongside him. Across his career, advancing social inclusion was the hallmark of everything he did, and everywhere he worked.
