Denis Hugh Vercingetorix Brogan (20 March 1936 – 26 July 2019)[1] known as Hugh Brogan, was a British historian and biographer.
The son of Sir Denis Brogan and Olwen Phillis Francis (Lady Brogan), OBE, archaeologist and authority on Roman Libya, he was educated at St Faith's School,[2] Cambridge, Repton School, and St John's College, Cambridge, graduating BA in 1959 and MA in 1964.[3] From his schooldays, he was a frequent correspondent of J.R.R. Tolkien regarding the latter's works. The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien published in 1981 includes five addressed to Brogan; these are dated 7 April 1948, Christmas 1948, 18 September 1954, 11 September 1955, and 14 December 1955. A draft of an unsent letter addressed to Brogan is also included.
Brogan was on the staff of The Economist from 1960 to 1963, and was elected a Harkness Fellow in 1962, then was a fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, from 1963 to 1974.[3] He was then part of the department of history at the University of Essex from 1974 to 1998, first as a lecturer, then a reader, and finally as Professor of History from 1992 to 1998.[3]