G. W. S. Barrow

Geoffrey Wallis Steuart Barrow FBA, FRSE (28 November 1924 – 14 December 2013) was an English historian and academic.

After basic training he was sent to the Royal Navy Signals School near Petersfield in Hampshire, but he was then offered the chance to go on a Japanese course.

He passed an interview in the Admiralty and, as a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, joined the seventh course at the secret Bedford Japanese School run by Captain Oswald Tuck in March 1944 for a six-month course.

He was Sir William Fraser Professor of Scottish History and Palaeography at the University of Edinburgh from 1979 to 1992.

His work tended to focus on Normanisation in High Medieval Scotland, especially in reference to governmental institutions.