Richard Henry Tawney (1880-1962), born in Calcutta, was educated at Rugby School and Balliol College, Oxford, of which he was elected a fellow in 1918. During World War I, he was severely wounded during the Battle of the Somme (1916). After a period of social work in the East End of London, he became tutor, executive (1905-47) and president (1928-44) of the Worker's Educational Association. He was Professor of Economic History at London (1931-49), and wrote studies in English economic history, particularly of the Tudor and Stuart periods, of which the best known are The Acquisitive Society (1926), Equality (1931) and Business and Politics Under James I (1958).
