The Cartulary of Bushmead Priory

Dr G. Herbert Fowler (1861-1940) was a zoologist working in London before he retired to Bedfordshire, where he became a county councillor and chairman of the county’s Records Committee in 1913.  He immediately reformed the existing record room, established standard procedures and ran it as a public service, the first in the country. He was a founder member of BHRS in 1912 and its Secretary, General Editor and principal contributor to the annual volumes until his death.  He also published extensively on sources in Buckinghamshire and elsewhere.

Joyce Godber (1906-1999) was Bedfordshire-born.  Following a history degree, she spent a few years teaching, then worked at Oxford University Press.  She was  assistant secretary at the Institute of Historical Research before becoming clerk of the records, then County Archivist of Bedfordshire (1946-68).  She was general editor of BHRS (1946-76) and an active member of the Society of Archivists and the British Records Association.  She planned the transfer of the record office to its new premises, which took place in 1969, the year in which her History of Bedfordshire was published.