Methodist historian, son of the Rev. John S. Walsh (1895-1977; e.m. 1918). He was educated at Kingswood School and Cambridge University, where his PhD was awarded for a thesis on 'The Yorkshire Evangelicals in the eighteenth century with especial reference to Methodism'. He was a Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford and wrote extensively on the social, cultural and religious setting of eighteenth century Methodism. With G.V. Bennett he edited Essays in modern English church history in memory of Norman Sykes (1966) and with Colin Haydon and Stephen Taylor, The Church of England c. 1689 - c.1833: from toleration to Tractarianism (1993). His Friends of Dr Williams's Library Lecture on John Wesley (1995) was a magisterial study. By a combination of learning, insight and charity, he effectively resisted the attempts of sociological reductionists to rewrite church history and generously made available to others the ample resources of his own scholarship. Revival and Religion since 1700: Essays for John Walsh (ed Jane Garnett and Colin Matthew, 1993) paid a deserved tribute to his merits. He died in Oxford on 8 November 2022.