The Chairman and Executive Committee of Kent FHS are pleased to announce that Peter Ewart has accepted the role as the Society's 5th Honorary President. Peter will officially take on the role at the 49th AGM on 22nd October 2023.
Peter joined the Society in 1978 with his wife Lynne, who preceded him on the Executive Committee as Hon Treasurer for eight years and was Hon Auditor for some years afterwards.
While Chairman of the Canterbury branch for several years during the 1980s, Peter was elected Vice Chairman of the Society itself and subsequently served as Chairman from 1990 to 1992. While Chairman, Peter visited each branch of the Society regularly to deliver a series of talks on specific sources and research procedures, later expanding these activities across the branches during a 20 year period as a freelance genealogist. Peter took over the chairmanship at a moment when the microfiche distribution service required an urgent overhaul, and he and Lynne assumed the storage and distributor’s role for a year. He was elected a Vice President of the KFHS in 2001 and has been a member of the judging panel for the KFHS Alan Neame Award since its inception.
Outside the KFHS, Peter has been Chairman and Journal Editor of the Folkestone & District FHS; founder member, Hon Secretary and Journal Editor of the Rye Local History Group; founder member, Hon Secretary and Trustee of the Ash Heritage Group and served for six years on the Canterbury Cathedral Archives & Library committee and latterly on its User Group. While working as a freelance researcher Peter also ran the genealogical research service at Canterbury Cathedral Archives for eleven years.
Between the 1980s and 2022 Peter has delivered more than 1,200 talks across Kent on local, social, military and family history. Peter’s other interests include researching and writing about the history of his home town of Rye, where he has over 500 years of ancestry; cricketing history from the 18th century, which has led him to research the archives and history of Ash CC; the history of St Augustine’s College, Canterbury and 19th century Anglican missionary activity in southern Africa.
Peter and Lynne live between Canterbury and the Cinque Port of Sandwich, just outside Ash, where Peter is assistant churchwarden at the parish church of St Nicholas.