Sir George Walter Prothero KBE FBA (14 October 1848 – 10 July 1922) was an English historian, writer, and academic who served as president of the Royal Historical Society from 1901 to 1905.

[2] During his time in Edinburgh he spent a year as a Council member of the local influential conservationist body, the Cockburn Association.

[3] After five years as Professor of Modern History in Edinburgh, Prothero moved to London to take the place of his brother, Lord Ernle, as the editor of the Quarterly Review,[2] a political periodical.

In 1903 he was invited to give the Rede Lecture, on which occasion he spoke on the topic of Napoleon III and the Second French Empire.

[2] Following the outbreak of World War I, Prothero worked as Historical Advisor to the Foreign Office, and in this capacity attended the Paris Peace Conference of 1919.