English historian and teacher who specialized in medieval studies and, with James Tait, was a founder of the Manchester school of historiography, which stressed the importance of records and archives.

Tout taught history at St. David's College, Lampeter (1881–90), and at Owens College, later the University of Manchester, until 1925. After 1908 he devoted himself to the specialty in which he made his principal contribution, the study of administrative history. His reputation rests chiefly on The Political History of England, 1216–1377 (1905), The Place of the Reign of Edward II in English History (1914), and his comprehensive Chapters in the Administrative History of Medieval England, 6 vol. (1920–33).