John Boyle

John Boyle was born in Leeds and educated at Rossall School and Leeds University where he graduated with first-class honours in law. He served in local government in York, Hartlepool, Kingston-upon-Hull and Rotherham before moving to Canterbury as town clerk. Boyle retired in 1976 after holding this office for thirty years and, by then, he had become an honorary freeman of the city and was as devoted to his adopted county as any native of Kent. He was intimately concerned with the rebuilding of Canterbury after the war and served as honorary secretary of Canterbury Excavation Committee, responsible for the archaeological excavation of the war-damaged areas. History appealed to him as much, if not more, than archaeology and he published various guide books as well as Portrait of Canterbury, Rural Kent. His best work, In Quest of Hasted (1984), was the result of eight years' research and led to a revision of established opinion regarding the character and work of Kent historian, Edward Hasted. The book was based on Hasted's correspondence files and working papers for his History of Kent, published in two editions between 1778 and 1801, which had come to light in the 1970s. Boyle had been invited by Anne Oakley, F.S.A., then cathedral and city archivist of Canterbury, to examine and report on certain documents deposited in Canterbury Cathedral Library, which he identified as Hasted's. He always acknowledged Miss Oakley's generosity in allowing him to study the material, which she might easily have saved for herself, and also the encouragement he received from the two Kentish historiographers, Frank and Ronald Jessup, FF.S.A. Much as he loved Kent, and remained a resident of Canterbury in retirement, Boyle was an indefatigable traveller and made long trips with his caravan to France, Italy and Greece as well as lengthy visits to Africa and North America. He died on 19 October 1996.