Edward James Cowan FRSE[1] (15 February 1944 – 2 January 2022) was a Scottish historian.
Cowan was born on 15 February 1944 in Edinburgh, Midlothian.
[2] Educated at Dumfries Academy, in his sixth year he was Head Boy and played Petruchio in a production of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.
A fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, he was also a visiting professor in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States.
Cowan died from lung cancer on 2 January 2022, at the age of 77.