Valerie Louise Pearl (née Bence; 31 December 1926[1] – 29 January 2016) was a British historian who was noted for her work on the English Civil War.
Pearl was the daughter of Cyril Bence, the former Labour Party Member of Parliament for East Dunbartonshire.
[2] She was educated at St Anne's College, Oxford, going up in 1946 and gaining a Second-Class degree in Modern History.
Having been offered a Fellowship at Somerville provided she resided in Oxford on a full-time basis[citation needed], she reluctantly moved to University College, London, as Reader in London History, later holding a chair in the same subject.
She was actively involved (with H. J. Dyos) in the foundation of the London Journal (a "Review of Metropolitan Society Past and Present") in 1975, and served as editor of the first five numbers, until 1977.