John Clare scholars worldwide are reminded that the John Clare Society operates an annual bursary scheme under the Ronald Blythe Fellowship. The closing date for the current year is 30 October 2026.

The bursaries provide up to £1,000 for full-time or part-time PhD students researching in the field of John Clare studies and registered at a university.

The bursary will fund essential archive or library research that applicants are unable to undertake due to absence of funds. The bursary can also support access to online/digitised material. This may include, for example, digitisation/copying costs of material provided to individual researchers or individual subscriptions to online archival databases (where there is no access through the applicant’s institution).

Full details of how to apply, the references required etc. and the appropriate forms for application can be found on the Society’s website at https://johnclaresociety.org/about/ronald-blyth-fellowship/. The key requirements for bursary successful applicants are shown at the end of the form.

Note: The distinguished writer Ronald Blythe CBE (1922–2023) was the John Clare Society’s founding President from 1982 and served for some thirty-five years. He left a bequest to the Society which is being fully used for the purposes of the bursary scheme.