John Gurney obituary

My son-in-law, John Gurney, who has died aged 54 of cancer, was an early modern historian and leading expert on Gerrard Winstanley and the Diggers, a radical agrarian movement of the late 1640s.

The son of Joyce (nee Wilkins) and Dick Gurney, who was working for the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, John spent his childhood there, and in Geneva, before attending Highgate school in London. He studied history as an undergraduate at the University of Sussex in the late 1970s, and later went on to do a PhD there. That institution was then in its early prime, offering a stimulating interdisciplinary environment, with many inspiring teachers – Willie Lamont and Stephen Yeo were particularly important for John.