The CCS Team

Meet our Executive Committee

Stewart Ross
Chair

Stewart is a writer and historian who has lived in Canterbury for over 45 years. When moving to the city, he was astonished to find so little of city’s rich history commemorated in public monuments and works of art. He joined the Commemoration Society to try and rectify this.

chair@cantcommsoc.co.uk
Charlotte Cornell
Vice-chair

Charlotte has lived in and around Canterbury for 15 years. She taught secondary English Literature and Drama in the city and is currently doing a PhD at the University of Kent in Medieval and Early Modern Studies. Her key areas of interest are the Renaissance and Restoration, Early Modern Theatre, and women's education across the centuries.

vice-chair@cantcommsoc.co.uk
Brian McHenry
Secretary

Brian’s first degree was in Modern History at Oxford. History is his passion. He brings to the Society his experience as a government lawyer, a member of the Church of England Synod, and a Vicar. He was awarded the CBE in 2008 for public and voluntary service.

secretary@cantcommsoc.co.uk
Alan Turner
Treasurer

Alan Turner is a retired chartered accountant who worked for many years as a partner in an international firm of accountants. He has, during his career and since his retirement, acted as treasurer for many charities and other organizations. Although a relatively new resident in Canterbury has become fascinated by its history.

treasurer@cantcommsoc.co.uk
Andrew Webster
Trustee

Andrew moved to Canterbury in 1979 to become the Director of Finance at the Cathedral. He has always been involved in historical and archaeological matters. He was for many years a trustee of the Canterbury Archaeological Trust and Chairman of the Canterbury World Heritage Site Committee and is a trustee of ICOMOS-UK.

Carolyn Oulton
Trustee

Carolyn Oulton is Director of the International Centre for Victorian Women Writers at Canterbury Christ Church University, and Project Lead for https://kent-maps.online/in collaboration with JSTOR Labs. She is fascinated by bad behaviour at the seaside and neglected nineteenth century authors. Also Dickens, who gets quite enough attention already. 

Hilary Brian
Trustee
My background is healthcare – clinical, recruitment, management, and specialist IT. I have Trustee experience as Chair, Kent MS Therapy Centre, and with the Canterbury Society and Kent College, Canterbury. My voluntary work also includes visits to India and Tanzania, and doing all I can for the History and Heritage of our beautiful City.
Stephanie Rudgard-Redsell
Trustee
Stephanie was born and brought up in Kent, and currently runs a local farming business. She has a degree in Land Economy from the University of Cambridge and an MA and PhD in English Literature from the University of Kent. Her particular interests include women’s history, nineteenth-century material culture, and the environment.
Connie Nolan
Trustee

Meet our Presidents

Jenny Uglow OBE
Honorary Vice-President

Sometime Chair of the Royal Society of Literature and one of Britain’s best-loved authors, Jenny is well known for her inciteful biographies of figures such as Elizabeth Gaskell, William Hogarth and Edward Lear, and pioneering historical studies on topics ranging from the Restoration to gardening. She reviews widely and has been a historical consultant on several BBC serials and films.

Professor Elaine Hobby
Honorary Vice-President

One of the country’s foremost experts on 17th century literature, notably on Aphra Behn and other women writers of the era, Elaine’s distinguished academic career has earned her numerous awards, fellowships and scholarships. The support of so distinguished and enthusiastic a scholar for the Society’s Aphra Behn Project, especially the national tour of the maquettes and the preparation of play texts for reading, has been invaluable.