Lorna Walker
Lorna Esmé Margery Walker MBE was a British historian and an Honorary Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of St Andrews. She retired in 1991 and lived in St Andrews until her death in 2023.
She was born in London and lived in Cape Town, South Africa, from 1940 to 1943, where she attended Micklefield School. She later went to Wimbledon High School for Girls in London.
In 1948 she began studying History and French at the University of St Andrews, living in University Hall. She won several prizes, including the Miller and Low prizes, during her studies. In her final year she worked as a research assistant to Robin Adam on the historic papers of Dunrobin Castle.
After graduation, she won a Carnegie Scholarship in Medieval History and began a Master’s degree at the Institute of Historical Research in London. Her research looked at the relationship between local and central courts in England in the 12th and 13th centuries, supervised by John Goronwy Edwards and Theodore Plucknett. She earned an MA with distinction.
In 1958 she joined University College London as a research assistant at the Goldsmiths’ Livery Company. Later she sought a joint position as lecturer in Medieval History and Warden of University Hall at St Andrews and began teaching there in 1961.
She became a Freeman of the City in 1976 and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths in 1986. In 1985 she was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and was also a member of the Selden Society and the London Record Society. She retired as Warden of University Hall in 1991, but continued teaching Medieval History for three more years, retiring in 1994.
Walker remained in St Andrews as an Honorary Senior Lecturer in Medieval History. In 2013 she received the St Andrews University Medal for her exceptional and dedicated contribution to the university over many years. She was awarded the MBE in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to higher education.
She contributed to The North Sea World: Studies in the Cultural History of North-Western Europe in the Middle Ages and to Early History of the Goldsmiths’ Company, 1327-1509. Her own publications include At the Feet of St Stephen Muret: Henry II and the Order of Grandmont redivivus; Fighting Knights and Sirens: Monreale and the Art of the Cloister; and Culture and Contacts in the Scottish Romanesque. She also published articles in English and French on the Order of Savigny, its records and its holy men.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 18:49 (CET).