Paul Langford, renowned former Professor of Modern History at Oxford University, has died age 70.

Professor Langford arrived as an undergraduate in Oxford in 1964 and after becoming a Junior Research Fellow he worked his way up to one of the most senior positions in the university.

He was also Rector of Lincoln College for 12 years.

Prof Langford was born in Bridgend, Wales, on November 20, 1945, to Frederick Wade Langford and Olive Myrtle Langford.

He had one brother who passed away some years ago.

Prof Langford was a pupil at Monmouth School and then a history undergraduate at Hertford College from 1964.

After completing his degree, he arrived at Lincoln College as a graduate student and then became Junior Research Fellow in 1969. At the age of 25 he became full Tutor in History from 1970.

In the same year, he married his wife Margaret Langford, nee Edwards.

The couple lived together in Oxford while Prof Langford worked at the university.

They had one son, Hugh, soon after they married.

Prof Langford left his position as History Tutor to become chairman of the Arts and Humanities Research Council in 1998 but returned to be Rector of Lincoln in 2000, a post he held for 12 years.

He was Professor of Modern History at the University from 1996-2012, chairman of the Editorial Board of the History of Parliament,an Honorary Fellow of Hertford College and Lincoln College, and received an Honorary Doctorate in Letters from the University of Sheffield in 2002.

He was elected to the Fellowship of the British Academy in 1993 and to the Royal Historical Society.

His published works include The First Rockingham Administration 1765-66 in 1973 and The Excise Crisis: Society and Politics in the age of Walpole, which was published two years later, Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke, Vol. II: Party, Parliament and The American Crisis 1766–74 in 1981, A Polite and Commercial People 1727–83, in 1989, Public Life and the Propertied Englishman 1689–1789 in 1991, and Englishness Identified: Manners and Character 1650–1850 in 2000.

A Polite and Commercial People is widely regarded as a classic.

He died on July 27, at the age of 70. The cause of his death has not yet been made public.

Details of his funeral are being kept private, but a memorial service is due to be arranged by Lincoln College.