Community researcher – Diane Blake
William George Hoskins, known as W.G, was born in May 1908 at his grandmother’s house, 28, St David’s Hill. A month after his birth, his father rang the tenor bell in a quarter peal of Grandsire Triples at St David’s Church. W.G. went on to become a historian of Exeter, Devon and the English landscape, known internationally from his books and his appearances on television.
W.G.’s family had lived in Devon for over 500 years. His father and grandfather were Exeter Master Bakers and W.G. spent his childhood in St David’s. He lived first at 8 Little Silver, just off St David’s Hill, with his parents and three younger brothers before the family moved to St David’s Hill in 1916. W.G. was predominately educated in Exeter. Firstly, attending the Hoopern Street Infants and Girls School in St David’s from the age of three.
Then the Episcopal School, Mount Dinham during the First World War, before he won a scholarship to Heles Grammar School for Boys at the age of ten in 1918. W.G. then went to the University College of South West England where he gained a BSc and a MSc in economics.
Hoskins went on to work as an academic and lecturer, first in Bradford and then at Leicester University. He never lost his love for his roots. He wrote his doctoral thesis at the University of London in 1938 on the history of Devon. From 1948, he returned to Exeter outside of term time to work in the archives, and to visit all four hundred and fifty Devon parishes. He became a reader in economic history at Oxford University in 1951 which enabled him to move back and live once more in Exeter to continue his research and writing. He published his well-known book Devon in 1954.
During the 1960s, as a member of the recently formed Exeter Civic Society, W.G. felt very strongly about plans to demolish and regenerate parts of the city, in particular the Guildhall area. He was instrumental in saving ‘The House that Moved’ by ensuring that it became a listed building and therefore could not be demolished to make way for a bypass. His passion for the local area spurred him on to become elected as an Exeter City Councillor in 1963 and in 1971 W.G. was awarded a CBE for services to Local History.
William George Hoskins died in January 1992. As a supporter of local history groups, it was a fitting tribute for the Devon History Society to put up a plaque outside his birthplace, the site of the family bakery, in St David’s in 2003. In 2008, one hundred years after his birth, the same peal was rung again at St David’s Church in his memory.