David Vaisey
David Vaisey
David Vaisey (left) with his great friend Alan Bennett
David Vaisey was born in 1935 in Tetbury and died in January 2025. Son of a gardener, he won a scholarship to Rendcomb College, near Cirencester, and then an exhibition to study Modern History at Exeter College, Oxford.
In 1960 he qualified as an archivist at the Bodleian, the main library of the University of Oxford. Three years later he joined the Bodleian, first as Assistant Librarian; he subsequently became Senior Assistant Librarian and then, in 1975, Keeper of Western Manuscripts; that same year he was made a Fellow of Exeter College.
In addition he was Deputy Keeper of the Oxford University Archives between 1966 and 1975. (After retirement, between 1995 and 2000, he was Keeper of the Archives.)
In 1986 David was appointed Bodley’s Librarian, the head of the Library. When he retired in 1996 he was awarded the title ‘Bodley’s Librarian Emeritus’ and appointed a CBE.
Amongst his other achievements David Vaisey held a visiting professorship in Library Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, was a member of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts and, from 1999 to 2002, was President of the Society of Archivists. He was made an Honorary Fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford, in 1996 and is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Historical Society. He also wrote several books and various journal articles.
As an undergraduate David met the author Alan Bennett; they were to become lifelong friends. It was therefore appropriate that Alan Bennett should present the first David Vaisey Library Prizes at The Times & The Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival in 2017, commenting:
“Libraries are for all ages – it is how my reading began and how my friend David’s did too. The David Vaisey Prize is well named, celebrating as it does a life dedicated to libraries.”
Alan Bennett’s remarks at the initial awards presentation are available in full here.
Thanks to the David Vaisey Award, we successfully combined creativity and literacy to bring families together, foster a love for learning, and expand the reach of library services into underrepresented and isolated areas. Planning for next year’s festival is already underway, promising even greater impact.
Thank you so much for your recognition of the importance of this and the opportunities winning this award has given us: even after several months and a lot of work we are still so excited and passionate about the project.
Marianne Sweet talks to David Vaisey
When David Vaisey talks about books he comes alive. You can sense in his voice that very passion he first felt nearly six decades ago at the Bodleian Library. He was completing a year-long course in archiving after finishing his degree and was helping someone who was researching probate inventories of the 16th and 17th centuries. “I was jobbed in to transcribe some of the documents. I got terribly excited sitting in the library late at night transcribing this 16th and 17th century handwriting and thinking who had handled these documents before me.”
David’s love of learning, of history and of books unlocked opportunities for an Oxford education; it also led to his meeting his wife and the beginning of a friendship with celebrated author Alan Bennett that continues to this day.
How apt that a new prize dedicated to the nurturing of Gloucestershire’s libraries is named in honour of a Gloucestershire man who dedicated his life to libraries and archiving the information they hold in safekeeping.
A scholarship from Gloucestershire County Council and the Rendcomb Foundation led to David attending Rendcomb College as a boarder. An Oxford exhibition a BA and subsequent MA in Modern History at Exeter College followed. When he first met Alan Bennett, “He was two years ahead of me and we did the same subject, the reign of Richard II. He helped me with the work as he’s cleverer than I,” says David.
The David Vaisey Prize was the brainchild of Gloucestershire-based Jonathan Taylor CBE, a friend of both David and Alan. Like those two men, Jonathan’s life has been steeped in books. Until 2015 Jonathan was Chair of the Booker Prize Foundation and is now President of the Foundation.
All these men believe passionately in libraries. David says he is touched to have the prize named in his honour and argues that libraries continue to have a role in 21st century society. “Technology has changed libraries and more information is available online but gathering information is very different from reading a book and being intrigued and moved by it,” he says.
“Information and knowledge are very different things. During my last year at university, I realised that history is all about discovering evidence, questioning it and forming your own opinion about it rather than just taking someone else’s opinion for granted.” Moreover, “Libraries are about knowledge. To have a book in your hand or an original document in front of you is so exciting. It fires you up.”
