I first met John Field when he was at Northern College and I was at the nearby Sheffield City Polytechnic, and we were working together to explore how we could better support adult learning. He was a regular visitor to my house in the early days of the miners strike where we had regular meetings to review and reflect on what was happening in our communities.
I kept in touch with him as he filled several roles; indeed I was one tor his successors at the University of Bradford. He was always active in adult learning forums both domestically and internationally, but more importantly he was a really supportive colleague who would question, critique and help, always with a wonderful cheeky grin. He was a colossus in our field of study and a person you always wanted around you and the shaper of many an academic career.
This is a really sad loss and we will all miss him
Geoff Layer, Formerly Vice Chancellor at the University of Wolverhampton
Northern College, the 'Ruskin of the North', was first mooted sixty years ago - 1964 - in 'The Royal Oak' pub at Millthorpe in North Derbyshire, just across the road from where Edward Carpenter had his socialist commune until the early 1920s, his house now being called 'Carpenter House'. So said Michael Barratt Brown, first Principal of Northern College, twenty five years after it opened to adult students in October 1978. I was one of the first year of students, and John Field was one of the tutors. After the first intake came to an end in June 1980, I subsequently saw John at several revived CND events in Sheffield, one notably being addressed by Edward Thompson at Sheffield City Hall, until a bomb scare caused the building to be evacuated. I next saw John at the Northern College twenty fifth anniversary in July 2003.
Earlier in 2024 I read Michael Barratt Brown's autobiographical book (2013), 'Seekers', and I came across a review by John Field which was appreciative, though critical of Michael's tendency to name-drop. I agreed entirely with that criticism, and I found John's e-mail address and, early in March 2024, I told him of this agreement. I was amazed when he not only promptly replied, but said he had a flat at Hangingwater in Sheffield, not far from where I live. He'd lived in Whitby for many happy years but found it a bit hard on his knees of late. At the same time he mentioned 'family' in Edinburgh. Coffee seemed to be a good idea, so I arranged a meeting on Thursday morning, 14th March - myself, Linda Whitehead (another Northern College 1978er who lives in Sheffield), and my partner, Leah, who John crossed paths with during Sheffield Peace Movement days when both lived in Pitsmoor. He didn't turn up - he said he got stuck in traffic whilst travelling south from Edinburgh that morning. We rearranged for the following Tuesday morning, 19th March, this time at a cafe called 'Marmaduke's' on Ecclesall Road, Sheffield. Leah absented herself because of a cough, so it was just me and Linda - and this time John turned up. We all had a good chat about Northern College days and Northern College people. Subsequently, on Sunday 24th March I sent out a general e-mail to Northern College contacts, including John, to try to arrange another meeting. This was a slightly tongue-in-cheek e-mail titled,' The Northern College Corresponding Society', a play on the corresponding societies discussed in Edward Thompson's 'The Making of the English Working Class'. I found it odd that John didn't reply, after his prompt e-mail responses previously.
Sadly and shockingly, I now know why he didn't reply. My condolences go out to all his friends, family and colleagues.
I had the privilege of working with John at the University of Stirling. John was a supportive and respectful colleague. He wore his considerable scholarship lightly with good humour. He also never missed an opportunity to puncture any pomposity he detected, often with a degree of hilarity that still brings a smile. Aside from the work he is well known for, John was also an incredibly well read and astute social historian. Typically, in my last conversation with him, I discovered that, many years ago, he had written a systematic comparison of E.P.Thompson’s 1950s biography of Willam Morris with the substantially rewritten 1980 edition. I was hoping to talk to him about that again. However, crucially, John was not just interesting, he was also interested in people from all walks of life and communities. For all these reasons, John will be greatly and fondly missed in the many communities he moved in, not just as a scholar, but also as a man.
It is very sad to hear that John Field, Emeritus Professor at the University of Stirling, Visiting Professor at the University of Warwick, and Gastprofessor at the Universität zu Köln, born 6th of July 1949, passed away on 25th of March 2024. He was a trained and dedicated historian with research focused in inter-organisational conflicts and settlements in wartime adult education, adult education and active citizenship, the educational ideas and practices of utopian movements, and the relationship between skills, work, and masculinities. His PhD was on Learning through Labour: training, unemployment and the state, 1890-1939, published by Leeds University in 1992, which he had defended at Warwick University much earlier. He also was a founding member of Continuing Education Department at Warwick together with Tom Schuller, of which Chris Duke was professor. John returned to Warwick, after many other appointments, to become Professor of Lifelong Learning.
Chris Duke introduced to me both John and Tom in the 1985, as I recall. From that time on our paths as colleagues crossed many times. We were attending the same conferences, I visited University of Warrick several times, and Chris Duke and his family in Lemington Spa, which provided occasions to see John. A long lasting friendship between John and me begun. We could follow our careers, and also our family lives closely. Therefore, it is extremely sad that John, whom I knew for most of my professional life, is gone.
John contributed 155 academic articles, and was active to his last day. His recent publications include Working Men’s Bodies: Work Camps in Britain 1880-1940, Manchester University Press, 2013. One of the mains issue of his research was an understanding of social capital and social movements. Professor Mieczyslaw Malewski from Wroclaw University invited Chris Duke and John Field from University of Warwick (and I also came there from Sweden) to a conference on Adult Education as a Social Movement in Karpacz in 1992, and a long lasting friendship and research co-operation began between four of us. This conference became an embryo for the ESREA network on Active Democratic Citizenship. All four of us were founding members of ESREA in 1992. We were also sitting on the ESREA interim steering committee. John Field was known by Polish researchers and some of them were working with him in EU research projects coordinated by Barbara Merrill. Professor Ewa Kurantowicz and Dr Adriana Nizinska represented Poland.
John Field came to Sweden several times. I especially remember when he visited me and Bernt Gustavsson in 1992 at Linköping University, as we were interested in residential adult education, and discussed Swedish folk high schools. We were also involved in research on social movements. From 2008-2014, we collaborated in two European projects about non-traditional students in Higher Education; RANLHE and EMPLOY in which we could contributed a lot to European perspectives on access, retention, drop-out and employability together. In both projects Professor Camilla Thunborg was also involved. (See Finnegan, F., Merrill, B. & Thunborg, C. (2014). Student Voices in Inequalities in European Higher Education. London: Routledge).
John Field was closely associated with the UNESCO Institute of Lifelong Learning in Hamburg. On their website the Institute writes: “It is with deep sadness that the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) notes the passing of John Field, a giant of adult education scholarship who also made a significant contribution to national and international policy advocacy in lifelong learning, and the work of UIL over the past decades”. He was a real international scholar who knew German and French.
John was a brilliant researcher, reliable colleague and a very good friend. He was energetic and quick in both speech and thought, and he was a very good mountain hiker, but most of all he had a positive mood or spirit, which he could spread to his colleagues, friends and students. I admired him for his humour, intellect and friendship, and will never forget his love of life, generosity and jokes.
Agnieszka Bron, Emeritus Professor, Stockholm University, Sweden
Like others I am deeply saddened by John's death. I will remember how much he enjoyed his regular Wednesday with myself and others followed by a meal and a beer at the Sherrifmuir Inn.
I first met John Field when he was at Northern College and I was at the nearby Sheffield City Polytechnic, and we were working together to explore how we could better support adult learning. He was a regular visitor to my house in the early days of the miners strike where we had regular meetings to review and reflect on what was happening in our communities.
I kept in touch with him as he filled several roles; indeed I was one tor his successors at the University of Bradford. He was always active in adult learning forums both domestically and internationally, but more importantly he was a really supportive colleague who would question, critique and help, always with a wonderful cheeky grin. He was a colossus in our field of study and a person you always wanted around you and the shaper of many an academic career.
This is a really sad loss and we will all miss him
Geoff Layer, Formerly Vice Chancellor at the University of Wolverhampton
Northern College, the 'Ruskin of the North', was first mooted sixty years ago - 1964 - in 'The Royal Oak' pub at Millthorpe in North Derbyshire, just across the road from where Edward Carpenter had his socialist commune until the early 1920s, his house now being called 'Carpenter House'. So said Michael Barratt Brown, first Principal of Northern College, twenty five years after it opened to adult students in October 1978. I was one of the first year of students, and John Field was one of the tutors. After the first intake came to an end in June 1980, I subsequently saw John at several revived CND events in Sheffield, one notably being addressed by Edward Thompson at Sheffield City Hall, until a bomb scare caused the building to be evacuated. I next saw John at the Northern College twenty fifth anniversary in July 2003.
Earlier in 2024 I read Michael Barratt Brown's autobiographical book (2013), 'Seekers', and I came across a review by John Field which was appreciative, though critical of Michael's tendency to name-drop. I agreed entirely with that criticism, and I found John's e-mail address and, early in March 2024, I told him of this agreement. I was amazed when he not only promptly replied, but said he had a flat at Hangingwater in Sheffield, not far from where I live. He'd lived in Whitby for many happy years but found it a bit hard on his knees of late. At the same time he mentioned 'family' in Edinburgh. Coffee seemed to be a good idea, so I arranged a meeting on Thursday morning, 14th March - myself, Linda Whitehead (another Northern College 1978er who lives in Sheffield), and my partner, Leah, who John crossed paths with during Sheffield Peace Movement days when both lived in Pitsmoor. He didn't turn up - he said he got stuck in traffic whilst travelling south from Edinburgh that morning. We rearranged for the following Tuesday morning, 19th March, this time at a cafe called 'Marmaduke's' on Ecclesall Road, Sheffield. Leah absented herself because of a cough, so it was just me and Linda - and this time John turned up. We all had a good chat about Northern College days and Northern College people. Subsequently, on Sunday 24th March I sent out a general e-mail to Northern College contacts, including John, to try to arrange another meeting. This was a slightly tongue-in-cheek e-mail titled,' The Northern College Corresponding Society', a play on the corresponding societies discussed in Edward Thompson's 'The Making of the English Working Class'. I found it odd that John didn't reply, after his prompt e-mail responses previously.
Sadly and shockingly, I now know why he didn't reply. My condolences go out to all his friends, family and colleagues.
I had the privilege of working with John at the University of Stirling. John was a supportive and respectful colleague. He wore his considerable scholarship lightly with good humour. He also never missed an opportunity to puncture any pomposity he detected, often with a degree of hilarity that still brings a smile. Aside from the work he is well known for, John was also an incredibly well read and astute social historian. Typically, in my last conversation with him, I discovered that, many years ago, he had written a systematic comparison of E.P.Thompson’s 1950s biography of Willam Morris with the substantially rewritten 1980 edition. I was hoping to talk to him about that again. However, crucially, John was not just interesting, he was also interested in people from all walks of life and communities. For all these reasons, John will be greatly and fondly missed in the many communities he moved in, not just as a scholar, but also as a man.
It is very sad to hear that John Field, Emeritus Professor at the University of Stirling, Visiting Professor at the University of Warwick, and Gastprofessor at the Universität zu Köln, born 6th of July 1949, passed away on 25th of March 2024. He was a trained and dedicated historian with research focused in inter-organisational conflicts and settlements in wartime adult education, adult education and active citizenship, the educational ideas and practices of utopian movements, and the relationship between skills, work, and masculinities. His PhD was on Learning through Labour: training, unemployment and the state, 1890-1939, published by Leeds University in 1992, which he had defended at Warwick University much earlier. He also was a founding member of Continuing Education Department at Warwick together with Tom Schuller, of which Chris Duke was professor. John returned to Warwick, after many other appointments, to become Professor of Lifelong Learning.
Chris Duke introduced to me both John and Tom in the 1985, as I recall. From that time on our paths as colleagues crossed many times. We were attending the same conferences, I visited University of Warrick several times, and Chris Duke and his family in Lemington Spa, which provided occasions to see John. A long lasting friendship between John and me begun. We could follow our careers, and also our family lives closely. Therefore, it is extremely sad that John, whom I knew for most of my professional life, is gone.
John contributed 155 academic articles, and was active to his last day. His recent publications include Working Men’s Bodies: Work Camps in Britain 1880-1940, Manchester University Press, 2013. One of the mains issue of his research was an understanding of social capital and social movements. Professor Mieczyslaw Malewski from Wroclaw University invited Chris Duke and John Field from University of Warwick (and I also came there from Sweden) to a conference on Adult Education as a Social Movement in Karpacz in 1992, and a long lasting friendship and research co-operation began between four of us. This conference became an embryo for the ESREA network on Active Democratic Citizenship. All four of us were founding members of ESREA in 1992. We were also sitting on the ESREA interim steering committee. John Field was known by Polish researchers and some of them were working with him in EU research projects coordinated by Barbara Merrill. Professor Ewa Kurantowicz and Dr Adriana Nizinska represented Poland.
John Field came to Sweden several times. I especially remember when he visited me and Bernt Gustavsson in 1992 at Linköping University, as we were interested in residential adult education, and discussed Swedish folk high schools. We were also involved in research on social movements. From 2008-2014, we collaborated in two European projects about non-traditional students in Higher Education; RANLHE and EMPLOY in which we could contributed a lot to European perspectives on access, retention, drop-out and employability together. In both projects Professor Camilla Thunborg was also involved. (See Finnegan, F., Merrill, B. & Thunborg, C. (2014). Student Voices in Inequalities in European Higher Education. London: Routledge).
John Field was closely associated with the UNESCO Institute of Lifelong Learning in Hamburg. On their website the Institute writes: “It is with deep sadness that the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) notes the passing of John Field, a giant of adult education scholarship who also made a significant contribution to national and international policy advocacy in lifelong learning, and the work of UIL over the past decades”. He was a real international scholar who knew German and French.
John was a brilliant researcher, reliable colleague and a very good friend. He was energetic and quick in both speech and thought, and he was a very good mountain hiker, but most of all he had a positive mood or spirit, which he could spread to his colleagues, friends and students. I admired him for his humour, intellect and friendship, and will never forget his love of life, generosity and jokes.
Agnieszka Bron, Emeritus Professor, Stockholm University, Sweden
Like others I am deeply saddened by John's death. I will remember how much he enjoyed his regular Wednesday with myself and others followed by a meal and a beer at the Sherrifmuir Inn.