J. F. C Harrison, who is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Sussex, was born in Leicester in 1921 and educated at City Boys' School, Leicester, and Selwyn College, Cambridge. He served as an infantry captain in the Second World War before becoming a lecturer, and then Deputy Director, in the Department of Adult Education at Leeds University. From 1961 until 1970 he was Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin.