Anthony Peter William Malcomson (born 12 March 1945) is an archivist and historian specialising in the history of the Anglo-Irish ascendancy. He was educated at Campbell College, Belfast, and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He completed his post graduate studies at Queen's University and was awarded his Ph.D. in history in 1970. Most of his working life was spent in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, of which he was director from 1988 until his retirement in 1998.[1]
He is a prolific author. Professor Cormac Ó Gráda has said: "Anthony Malcomson produces erudite books almost as fast as Joseph Haydn produced symphonies or Donizettibel canto operas.[2]
In January 2023 he was conferred with an honorary doctorate of letters by the University of Limerick. The citation recorded:
"Dr. Malcomson led a vital effort in recovering and locating archival material across Ireland and Britain as a substitute for what had been lost in 1922 when the records of the Irish state going back to the twelfth century were destroyed as the result of the occupation of the Four Courts by anti-treaty insurgents...His travels around Ireland rescuing vulnerable collections happened at a time when Ireland's underfunded national archival institutions were unable or unwilling to take on the task."[4]
Publications include
Malcomson, A.P.W., The Maxwells of Finnebrogue and the gentry of Co. Down, c. 1600-1963: a resident and responsible elite, Ulster Historical Foundation (2023).
Malcomson, A.P.W., Nathaniel Clements, 1705-77: Politics, Fashion and Architecture in Mid-Eighteenth Century Ireland, Four Courts Press (2015).
Malcomson, A.P.W., John Foster (1740-1828): The Politics of Improvement and Prosperity. Four Courts Press (2011).
