It is with deep regret that we share the news that our good friend, supporter and Deputy President Helen Snelson passed away at the end of August. After her cancer recurred, she spent her final few days with her husband David, close family and friends.

Helen was a passionate history teacher and first came to the notice of the Historical Association while she was at Harrogate Grammar School. A regular at HA events, she became a contributor to Teaching History, to HA Conference workshops and our Teacher Fellowships.

She became a trustee of the HA in 2016, chair of the Secondary Committee in 2018, and became an Honorary Fellow of the HA in 2019. She only stepped down from the Secondary Committee in May as she was made Deputy President.

In recent years she moved from full-time teaching into teacher training, where she was no less passionate and her enthusiasm for history as a subject only seemed to increase.

Over the years the HA has been a beneficiary of Helen’s knowledge, hard work, dedication, wit, guidance, immense organisational skills and her friendship – all of which we will miss enormously. We have promised along with others to continue some of the areas of history education that she was most keen to see grow and develop.

Our deepest condolences are with David and her family. As friends we will all miss her.

From two of those who worked closely with her:

“Helen’s passion for history and for teaching history and her friendship has had a lasting impact on so many of us. Her ability to welcome anyone who wanted to be part of the History teaching community, that was so important to her, was second to none and so many of us can say that we are better history teachers and better people because of our time spent with Helen. Her ability to get to the heart of the issues that needed to be dealt with and then her ‘can do’ approach in finding ways to tackle them will provide inspiration to us all to continue her work. She would want us to continue her work and to do so with determination and with kindness.” – Sally Burnham, Chair, Secondary Committee.

“It was an enormous joy and privilege to work alongside Helen within Secondary Committee and on the HA Executive. She had an extraordinary capacity to identify the changing needs of new (and experienced) history teachers and find effective ways of meeting them. She led by example, showing how new kinds of blog or webinar or Teaching History feature could work and encouraging new contributors to share their expertise for the good of us all. Her TH articles were inspirational, addressing urgent issues (climate change and the representation of marginalized groups in history) in accessible ways and her rich experience shone through the ‘What’s the Wisdom On’ webinars.” – Dr Katharine Burn, Honorary Secretary and former Deputy President of the HA.

There will be a full obituary that will reach all our membership in the spring edition of HA News 2025.