When the distinguished bibliographer Robert Latham died in 1995, his obituary in The Times (London) went directly to the achievement by which his name will survive in the annals of English literature: "The magisterial edition of The Diary of Samuel Pepys, which appeared in eleven volumes between 1970 and 1983, is likely to stand as one of the triumphs of English historical scholarship." As The Times explained, "Matthews was the linguist and transcriber, Latham the historian and interpreter of the content."

Born in Audley, Staffordshire, on 11 March 1912, Robert Clifford Latham was the son of Edwin Latham, a miner, and his wife, Alice. After attending Wolstanton Grammar School on a scholarship, he competed for a history scholarship at Queen's College, Cambridge, at the same time as Philip Allen, the future Lord Allen of Abbeydale. The university elected both candidates rather than choosing between them.

Latham won a first place in the final...