Randal Bingley, patron of the Thurrock Local History Society and pre-eminent historian of the Thurrock area died on the 11th August, 2014.

Randal was born on 23rd November, 1937. He came to Thurrock from Surrey as Museum Assistant in 1966 after serving as Junior Lecturer with the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. He was appointed the Borough's first Curator in 1975 and was editor of our journal 'Panorama' for ten years. He contributed to periodicals such as 'Country Life', 'Farmers' Weekly' and 'Essex Countryside' and was the author of several books of family and social history such as Fobbing - Life and Landscape and The Nightingales were Singing - the diary of Martha Randall of Heath Place, Orsett, 1858-61. His last full length book was Behold the Painful Plough: Country Life in West Tilbury, Essex 1700 - 1850, although he continued to contribute to Panorama up to his death.

After he retired, he pursued a lifelong interest in Mesolithic and later Stone Age archaeology through fieldwork along several local side-valleys of the Thames.

An obituary of Randal was published in Your Thurrock.

A full appreciation of Randal and his contributions to the history of Thurrock, written by Jonathan Catton, appeared in Panorama 53, which also contained memories of Randal from many society members.

The Society will be re-publishing a number of his articles on the web - click here.