Edward Elton Young Hales (October 8, 1908 – July 1, 1986) was an English Catholic historian. Born in Nottingham, England, he was a son of James Elton Hales (born July 23, 1872) and Ethel Burbidge. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, "Teddy" Hales (as he was called by his friends) worked as an inspector in the British Ministry of Education in London, and was influential in promoting the study of world history in secondary schools in the UK. Hales compared his conversion to the Catholic Church with St. Paul's conversion experience, arguing that although "revelations such as Paul had were not to be expected by ordinary people like myself...moments of special illumination are granted, just very occasionally, to most of us in the course of our lives, and we do well to heed them when they com