Stephen Roberts, who has died aged 64, was a political, social and cultural historian of Victorian Britain whose focus over more than four decades was on Chartism and the city of Birmingham, two topics on which he was both expert and passionate.

Stephen was born in Sutton Coldfield, and his commitment to and fascination with his home town was life long. He first encountered Chartism while studying for a BA in medieval and modern history (1980) at the University of Birmingham, where he was taught by Dorothy Thompson, the leading historian of the Chartist movement of the time. Under her guidance, he would go on to complete an M.Lit (1986) on the Chartist and radical poet Thomas Cooper, and would remain close to his mentor for the rest of her life.

Stephen taught history and law at Hagley Catholic High School in Worcestershire for more than thirty years. But alongside the day job, he was a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Research in Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Birmingham, and a visiting fellow at the Australian National University. He also published extensively and his interest in recovering the life stories of lesser known figures in Victorian Birmingham and Chartist politics found a ready outlet in academic publications and popular local history books. He was also a contributor to the multi-volume Dictionary of Labour Biography.

Stephen’s first book was Radical Politicians and Poets in Early Victorian Britain. The Voices of Six Chartist Leaders (Edwin Mellen, 1993). With Owen Ashton and Robert Fyson, he edited a festschrift for Dorothy Thompson titled The Duty of Discontent (Mansell, 1995). And in 1998, he and Dorothy Thompson co-edited Images of Chartism (Merlin Press, 1998). His final book on Chartism was as editor of The Dignity of Chartism: Essays by Dorothy Thompson (Verso, 2015).

Stephen remained intimately involved in the local history of his home town, and continued to live there until his death in July 2022. He was an active member of the Sutton Coldfield Local History Research Group and often gave talks to local groups. Many of his more recent articles about the town’s history can be found here.