Professor Mary Doreen Lobel, OBE (1900–1993) was an historian who edited several volumes of the Victoria County History

Victoria County History

The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History or the VCH, is an English history project which began in 1899 and was dedicated to Queen Victoria with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of...

and a three-volume British Atlas of Historic Towns.

Life

Lobel was born Mary Doreen Rogers in Bristol on 25 June 1900. She went to Clifton High School

Clifton High School (Bristol)

Clifton High School is an independent school in Clifton, Bristol, England, founded as Clifton High School for Girls in 1877 by visionaries including John Percival, the first Headmaster of Clifton College...

 and during a school vacation she helped the coptologist

Coptology

Coptology is most commonly defined as the science of Coptic studies, the study of Coptic language and literature.-Origin:The European interest in Coptology may have started as early as the 15th century AD. The term was used in 1976 when the First International Congress of Coptology was held in...

 W.E. Crum

Walter Ewing Crum

Walter Ewing Crum was a Coptologist. He wrote A Coptic Dictionary which was published in 1939 and is considered to be the definitive dictionary of translations from Coptic to English....

 to prepare his A Coptic Dictionary. Mary Rogers graduated from St Hugh's College, Oxford

St Hugh's College, Oxford

St Hugh's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. It is located on a fourteen and a half acre site on St Margaret's Road, to the North of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 as a women's college, and accepted its first male students in its centenary year in 1986...

 in the 1920s and spent a short period teaching in Norwich

Norwich

Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...

. In 1927 she married Edgar Lobel (1888–1982), a papryrologist

Papyrology

Papyrology is the study of ancient literature, correspondence, legal archives, etc., as preserved in manuscripts written on papyrus, the most common form of writing material in the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, and Rome...

 and future editor of Greek lyric poetry whom she had met through Crum. They were married for 55 years, until Edgar Lobel's death in 1982.

Mary Lobel worked on the Victoria County History

Victoria County History

The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History or the VCH, is an English history project which began in 1899 and was dedicated to Queen Victoria with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of...

as a contributor to A History of Oxfordshire from the 1930s and as its Oxfordshire county editor from the 1950s until 1972. Thereafter she concentrated on editing the three-volume British Atlas of Historic Towns. While editing the Victoria County History, Lobel was also a librarian at Somerville College, Oxford

Somerville College, Oxford

Somerville College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, and was one of the first women's colleges to be founded there...

.

Lobel was made an OBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 in 1990.

Victoria County History

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Atlas of Historic Towns

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