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Sir Allen Mawer, (8 May 1879 − 22 July 1942) was an English philologist. A notable researcher of Viking activity in the British Isles, Mawer is best known as the founder of the English Place-Name Society, and as Provost of University College London from 1929 to 1942.
Mawer's parents were of strong religious feeling who valued education. Through them, he acquired an abiding love for literature and history, and early knowledge of Ancient Greek and Latin.
Mawer entered Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in October 1901 as a foundation scholar, residing there for three years, obtaining a double mark of distinction in the English sections of the Medieval and Modern Languages Tripos. Supported by a Research Studentship given to him by the college, he spent the next year studying Viking activity in England, in particular the subject of Old Norse place-names.
In 1908 he was elected to the Joseph Cowen Professorship of Language and Literature in Armstrong College, Newcastle, where he would remain for thirteen years. During his years at Armstrong College, Mawer continued his research on Viking influence and Old Norse place-names in England. In 1913, he published his celebrated The Vikings, which for many years served as the standard English-language work on Vikings. By this time, Mawer had become convinced that the place-names of England contained the key to understanding the extent of Scandinavian influence in medieval England. The same year as his publishing of The Vikings, he also published two papers on Scandinavian place-names in England.
The year 1920 saw the publishing of his Place-Names of Northumberland and Durham, which was the product of eight years of research. It established him as one of the major experts in this field of study.. " The Place-Names of Northumberland and Durham (1920) established him as one of the leading scholars in the field of name study.". " The Place-Names of Northumberland and Durham... placed Mawer in the very first rank of English place-name students." In the preface to this work, Mawer laid down his principle that "no single county can be dealt with satisfactorily apart from a survey of the field of English place-nomenclature as a whole".
Mawer was awarded the Biennial Prize for English Studies of the British Academy in 1929 in recognition of his work for the Society. During this time, he also authored two chapters on early Scandinavian history for the Cambridge Medieval History (Vol. III, 1922), and the article "The Redemption of the Five Boroughs", which was published in the English Historical Review in 1923. In the latter article, which has been described as his most important work on history, Mawer convincingly argued that the ethnic distinction between Danes and Norwegians was a significant political factor in tenth-century England. His Place-Names and History (1922) and Problems of Place-Name Study (1929) gained a wide circulation.
Combined with his responsibilities at University College London, Mawer served as president of the Modern Language Association from 1929 to 1939, president of the Philological Society in 1936, and vice-president of the Viking Society. He was a contributor to the Encyclopædia Britannica on articles about Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavian subjects.
With the outbreak of World War II, the college was dispersed to various parts of England and Wales. Although a man of great physical energy, Mawer suffered from an irregular heart.. "Mawer possessed great physical energy... The action of his heart was irregular." His strenuous efforts to hold the college together during wartime took a heavy toll on Mawer's health, and on 22 July 1942 he collapsed and died suddenly on a train in Broxbourne while on his way to a meeting of a committee in London.
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