Robson History Prize

The Robert Robson Prize for essays in History is a competition that can be entered by students in Year 12 or the Lower 6th. Candidates are invited to submit an essay on a topic to be chosen from a list of general questions announced in March each year, and to be submitted in August.

The Prize is organised by Trinity College Cambridge. It was established by a generous bequest from the estate of a dedicated former teacher of History at Trinity, Dr Robert Robson.

The objectives of the Robson Prize are to encourage school students with an interest in modern politics and world affairs to think about undertaking university studies in History or a related discipline. It further seeks to recognise the achievements both of high-calibre students and of those who teach them.

The Prize is for students in the penultimate year of their school when the questions are released in March. For students in England and Wales, that means you would be eligible if you are in Year 12 in March 2025; for Scotland, the eligible year is S5. Students from any country are most welcome to participate. The general rule is that to be eligible for the 2025 competition, you should be expecting to receive your final school results in the year from September 2025 to August 2026. This condition is held to strictly and, to be fair to the participants, no exceptions are made. Each entrant to the competition is allowed to submit only one essay.

The list of questions for the 2025 competition can be found here.

Answer one of the questions. You are encouraged to go beyond material that might be taken from school courses and undertake your own reading in historiographical and historical sources. Essays should be no longer than 3,000 words, including any footnotes.

All words submitted must be written by you, without the assistance of generative artificial intelligence.

Submissions must be made by 12 noon (UK time) on 1 August 2025. Please submit essays using the form below. Results of the competition will be announced as soon as they have been finalised.

The competition carries a First Prize of £600, to be split equally between the candidate and their school or college (the school or college’s portion of the prize to be issued in the form of book tokens with which to buy history books), and a Second Prize of £400, which again is to be shared equally between the candidate and their school or college. In addition, further outstanding essays will be highly commended.

Queries from students or teachers of students intending to submit an essay may be directed by e-mail to robson.prize@trin.cam.ac.uk.

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1. I hereby agree that for educational/non-commercial purposes the College may use the Recordings (transcribed or otherwise) and may use the essay I submit (‘Essay’) (with due acknowledgement of my authorship) throughout the world for the full period of copyright, including all renewals, reversions, extensions and revivals of such period, in the following ways: a) storing, publishing or transmitting the Recordings and/or the Essay in College internal archives and databases; and b) exhibiting, publishing or transmitting the Recordings and/or the Essay in print, on DVD or other digital media and on the Internet at College websites and College-affiliated websites; and c) distributing the Recordings and/or the Essay to the press, media organisations and other interested parties for publication, transmission or broadcast.] 2. The information provided in this form is used for the administration of the Robson History Prize and is managed and stored in accordance with UK Data Protection regulations http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/information/dpa/. 3. This agreement shall be governed in all respects by English law.

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Past Robson Prize-winners

2024

No competition held

2023

1st Prize: Phoebe Clayton (Wimbledon High School)
2nd Prize: Erin Macrae (Epsom College)

2022

1st Prize: Niall Fitzgibbon (Ermysted’s Grammar School)
Joint 2nd Prize: Maya Heuer-Evans (Colyton Grammar School)
Joint 2nd Prize: Angelina Morosan (Saint Sava National College, Romania)

2021

1st Prize: Mr Vicente Vildoso (Markham College, Peru)
2nd Prize: Jack Jacobs (Radley College)

2020

1st Prize: Miss Phoenix Woolnough (The Mount School, York)
2nd Prize: Mr Samuel Vosper (Sandringham School, St Alban’s)

2019

1st Prize: Miss Geena Dhillon (The Heathland School)
2nd Prize: Miss Phoebe Hall (Ripon Grammar School)

2018

1st Prize: Miss Jennifer Smith (Aldridge School)
2nd Prize: Mr Dylan Clarke (Lutterworth College)

2017

1st Prize: Mr Alex Vinen (Westminster School)
2nd Prize: Miss Anna Brady (Sheringham Sixth Form)

2016

1st Prize: Miss Alexa Stanger (St Paul’s Girls’ School)
2nd Prize: Mr Luke Hallam (Durham Johnston Comprehensive School)

2015

1st Prize: Mr Patrick Hudson (The King’s School, Chester)
2nd Prize: Miss Kathleen Mitchell-Fox (The Marlborough Science Academy, St Albans)

2014

1st Prize: Miss Poppy Freeman-Cuerden (Finham Park School)
2nd Prize: Miss Eleanor Smith-Hahn (Westminster School)

2013:

1st Prize: Mr M Rees (St John the Baptist High School, Aberdare)
2nd Prize: Miss H Gass (The Queen’s School, Chester)

2012:

1st Prize: Mr S Galimberti (International School, Milan)
2nd Prize: Mr S Lock (King’s College School, Wimbledon)

2011:

1st Prize: Mr C. Easton (Newcastle College)
2nd Prize: Mr D. MacDonald (Sgoil Lionacleic, Isle of Eriskay)

2010:

1st Prize: Mr P. Hoffman (Stonyhurst College)
2nd Prize: Mr C. Humphreys (Bolitho Sixth Form College)

Four others were commended: Mr T. Gibbs, Miss N. Rainey, Mr R. Smith and Mr C. Wilson.
There were 134 applicants.

2009:

1st Prize: Mr Aaron Taylor (Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys School)
2nd Prize: Ms Louisa Caines (Cheltenham College)

2008:

1st Prize: Mr Josh Mills (Nottingham High School)
2nd Prize: Mr Christopher Bond (Cheltenham College)

2007:

1st Prize: Mr Ben Slingo (Bedford School)
2nd Prize: Ms Nisadha Bandara (Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Girls)