Author Tout Thomas Frederick

T. F. Tout arrived at the college. With his friend, C. H. Firth, who was an external examiner for St David's for a number of years, Tout rescued the collection from neglect, arranging for seventy-two volumes to be rebound, rearranging the contents of some, and bringing together, for example, all the Civil War and Commonwealth newspapers scattered throughout the collection, into four volumes arranged in chronological order. Tout was the most distinguished member of the Lampeter staff at this time, and was soon styled Professor of History. In 1890, Tout left Lampeter and become Professor of History at the Victoria University in Manchester, where he stayed until 1925 (this changed to the University of Manchester in 1903). In 1894 he failed to gain the chair at Glasgow. Tout was, with James Tait, one of the two leading figures of the `Manchester History School' and is best known for his 6-volume "Chapters in the Administrative History of Medieval England", whose influence still remains and was for 40 years magisterial in the shaping of late medieval English History scholarship. Concentrating, through close study of the Crown's administrative records, on how changes of government-method reflected changes in the nature of power and politics, the work bridged from 19th century constitutional history to mid-20th century socio-political emphasis with very few fundamental criticisms of Tout's methods and conclusions. Other works, which stood the test of time much less well, included "The Political History of England, 1216–1377" (1905), and the notoriously-unpersuasive "The Place of the Reign of Edward II in English History" (1914), which were the Ford Lectures at Oxford University in 1913. Tout published a heavily-revised second edition in 1926. Tout was also prolific in writing short, sharp articles about the significance of particular documents he had found, most of which still stand up impressively. Tout also introduced original research into the undergraduate programme, culminating in the production of a Final Year thesis based on primary sources. This horrified Oxbridge, where college tutors had little research capacity of their own and saw the undergraduate as an embryonic future gentleman, liberal connoisseur, widely-read, and mainstay of country and empire in politics, commerce, army, land or church, not an apprentice to dusty, centuries-old archives, wherein no more than 1 in 100 could find even an innocuous career. As to which, they had a fair case, given the various likelihoods and opportunities for their charges. Tout's ally Firth fought a bitter war to persuade Oxford to follow Manchester and introduce scientific study of sources into the History programme, but failed. So, too, at Cambridge. Other universities, however, followed Tout, and Oxbridge - very slowly - had to face up to the fact, with fundamental changes to the selection of college fellows across all disciplines. Notwithstanding, the older view of undergraduate life and purpose has remained strong and perhaps now, in the 21st century, has come to disprove Tout's hypothesis of best value after all, especially in Oxbridge. Tout was actively involved in the life and running of Manchester University, but, apart from letters from A. W. Ward, his papers (nearly all in-coming correspondence), now housed in the John Rylands Library, contain more information on general academic affairs elsewhere around the country and about his own historical research (which rarely has depth) than the afirs of his won University. The collection is greater in quantity than quality, and his wife's supplementary files might actually be of greater interest. Letters from former pupils serving in World War I are noteworthy, as are those from their bereaved relatives. He married Mary Johnstone and lived in Mauldeth Road, Fallowfield, Withington, and latterly at 1 Oak Drive, Fallowfield. He and his wife, Mary, moved south to 3 Oak Hill Park, Hampstead, shortly before his formal retirement. He was a devout Anglican[1] and died in 1929. Their daughter Margaret was also a historian. James Tait said of Tout: "Tout comprendre, c'est Tout pardonner".[2]