Christopher Allan Whatley FRHistS

Royal Historical Society

The Royal Historical Society was founded in 1868. The premier society in the United Kingdom which promotes and defends the scholarly study of the past, it is based at University College London...

, FRSE

Royal Society of Edinburgh

The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity, operating on a wholly independent and non-party-political basis and providing public benefit throughout Scotland...

 is a well-known and widely published Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

. He has been Professor of Scottish History at the University of Dundee

University of Dundee

The University of Dundee is a university based in the city and Royal burgh of Dundee on eastern coast of the central Lowlands of Scotland and with a small number of institutions elsewhere....

 since 1997.

Whatley left school at 16 years of age, and worked as a shop assistant and semi-skilled machine operator before attending night classes and taking Highers

Higher (Scottish)

In Scotland the Higher is one of the national school-leaving certificate exams and university entrance qualifications of the Scottish Qualifications Certificate offered by the Scottish Qualifications Authority. It superseded the old Higher Grade on the Scottish Certificate of Education...

 at Clydebank College

Clydebank College

Clydebank College is a further education college in Clydebank, to the west of Glasgow, Scotland. It offers a wide range of courses, including, admin, business, computing, child care, media, social sciences, beauty therapy, hairdressing, art and science....

 in order to obtain a place at the University of Strathclyde. He graduated with a BA

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 in Economic History in 1972, and completed his PhD

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 there in 1975 on the process of industrialisation in Ayrshire. He lectured at Ayr College

Ayr College

Ayr College is a community college in Ayr, Scotland, situated on the banks of the River Ayr, Dam Park.-Courses 2008/09 :Ayr College offer a range of courses in various curriculum areas including:* Access to Further & Higher Education* Social Sciences...

 from 1975 until 1979, when he joined the Department of History at Dundee, where lectured on economic history. Between 1988 and 1992, he taught Scottish History at the University of St Andrews

University of St Andrews

The University of St Andrews, informally referred to as "St Andrews", is the oldest university in Scotland and the third oldest in the English-speaking world after Oxford and Cambridge. The university is situated in the town of St Andrews, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It was founded between...

, before returning to Dundee as Bonar Professor of Modern History, and was Head of the Department of History from 1995 until 2002. He was appointed Professor of Scottish History in 1997, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in 2002, and Vice Principal and Head of the College of Arts and Social Sciences in 2006.