Roy Sydney Porter FBA (31 December 1946 – 3 March 2002) was a British historian known for his work on the history of medicine.
He achieved a double starred first[1][3] and became a junior Fellow in 1968, studying under Robert M. Young and lecturing on the British Enlightenment.
He retired in September 2001, moving to St Leonards-on-Sea, where he wanted to learn to play the saxophone, cultivate his allotment and engage in some travelling.
He was an original presenter of BBC Radio 3's Night Waves,[1] a programme on which he was scheduled to appear, discussing doctors in literature, at the point of his death.
[3][4][5] A plaque for the memory of Porter was unveiled by the Mayor of Lewisham in a ceremony that took place on Thursday 5 June 2008 at 13 Camplin Street, New Cross Gate, London.
[8] Starting with the publishing of his PhD thesis, as The Making of Geology in 1977, Porter wrote or edited over 100 books,[3][4] an academic output that was, and is, considered remarkable.
[1][5] In 2007 Roberta Bivins and John V. Pickstone edited Medicine, Madness and Social History: Essays in Honour of Roy Porter (Palgrave Macmillan).