David Dilks | |
---|---|
6th Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hull | |
In office 1991–1999 | |
Preceded by | Sir William Taylor |
Succeeded by | David Drewry |
Personal details | |
Born | Foleshill,Warwickshire,England | 17 March 1938
Alma mater | Hertford College,Oxford (BA) |
David N. Dilks,FRHistS,FRSL (born 17 March 1938) is a British historian and former professor of International History at the University of Leeds.
Dilks was born in Foleshill,a suburb of Coventry,and attended The Royal Grammar School Worcester before winning a scholarship to Hertford College,Oxford,to read history.
Dilks remained in Oxford to do research at St Antony's College before becoming research assistant to Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan. [1] He was the official biographer of the latter as well as producing a two-volume biography of the viceroy of India,George Curzon,1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, [2] and an incomplete biography of Neville Chamberlain. [3]
Dilks was Professor of International History at the University of Leeds from 1970 to 1991.
In 1977 he became a Visiting Fellow of All Souls College,Oxford.
Professor Dilks became Vice Chancellor of the University of Hull in 1991,serving until 1999. [4]
Arthur Neville Chamberlain,was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940 and Leader of the Conservative Party from May 1937 to October 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeasement,and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement on 30 September 1938,ceding the German-speaking Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany led by Adolf Hitler. Following the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939,which marked the beginning of the Second World War,Chamberlain announced the declaration of war on Germany two days later and led the United Kingdom through the first eight months of the war until his resignation as prime minister on 10 May 1940.
George Nathaniel Curzon,1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston,,styled Lord Curzon of Kedleston between 1898 and 1911 and then Earl Curzon of Kedleston between 1911 and 1921,was a British Conservative statesman who served as Viceroy of India from 1899 to 1905.
Appeasement,in an international context,is a diplomatic policy of making political,material,or territorial concessions to an aggressive power to avoid conflict. The term is most often applied to the foreign policy of the British governments of Prime Ministers Ramsay MacDonald,Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain towards Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy between 1935 and 1939. Under British pressure,appeasement of Nazism and Fascism also played a role in French foreign policy of the period but was always much less popular there than in the United Kingdom.
Edward Frederick Lindley Wood,1st Earl of Halifax,,known as The Lord Irwin from 1925 until 1934 and The Viscount Halifax from 1934 until 1944,was a senior British Conservative politician of the 1930s. He held several senior ministerial posts during this time,most notably those of Viceroy of India from 1926 to 1931 and of Foreign Secretary between 1938 and 1940. He was one of the architects of the policy of appeasement of Adolf Hitler in 1936–1938,working closely with Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. However,after Kristallnacht and the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 he was one of those who pushed for a new policy of attempting to deter further German aggression by promising to go to war to defend Poland.
The Curzon Line was a proposed demarcation line between the Second Polish Republic and the Soviet Union,two new states emerging after World War I. It was first proposed by The 1st Earl Curzon of Kedleston,the British Foreign Secretary,to the Supreme War Council in 1919 as a diplomatic basis for a future border agreement.
Arthur Greenwood was a British politician. A prominent member of the Labour Party from the 1920s until the late 1940s,Greenwood rose to prominence within the party as secretary of its research department from 1920 and served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health in the short-lived Labour government of 1924. In 1940,he was instrumental in resolving that Britain would continue fighting Nazi Germany in World War II.
Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett Amery,also known as L. S. Amery,was a British Conservative politician and journalist. During his career,he was known for his interest in military preparedness,British India and the British Empire and for his opposition to appeasement. After his retirement and death,he was perhaps best known for the remarks he made in the House of Commons on 7 May 1940 during the Norway Debate.
Walter Elliot was a British politician of Scotland's Unionist Party prominent in the interwar period. He was elected to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in 1918,and besides an interval of months in 1923–24 and 1945–46,remained in parliament until his death. His Cabinet roles were as the Minister of Agriculture,Fisheries and Food in the National Government (1931–1935) of Ramsay MacDonald;as the Secretary of State for Scotland in the National Government (1935–1937) of Stanley Baldwin;and as Minister of Health in Neville Chamberlain's National Government (1937–1939) and the short-lived Chamberlain war ministry.
Lawrence John Lumley Dundas,2nd Marquess of Zetland,,styled Lord Dundas until 1892 and Earl of Ronaldshay between 1892 and 1929,was a British Conservative politician. An expert on India,he served as Secretary of State for India in the late 1930s.
Oliver Lyttelton,1st Viscount Chandos,was a British businessman from the Lyttelton family who was brought into government during the Second World War,holding a number of ministerial posts.
Liberal David Lloyd George formed a coalition government in the United Kingdom in December 1916,and was appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom by King George V. It replaced the earlier wartime coalition under H. H. Asquith,which had been held responsible for losses during the Great War. Those Liberals who continued to support Asquith served as the Official Opposition. The government continued in power after the end of the war in 1918,though Lloyd George was increasingly reliant on the Conservatives for support. After several scandals including allegations of the sale of honours,the Conservatives withdrew their support after a meeting at the Carlton Club in 1922,and Bonar Law formed a government.
Sir Martin John Gilbert was a British historian and honorary Fellow of Merton College,Oxford. He was the author of eighty-eight books,including works on Winston Churchill,the 20th century,and Jewish history including the Holocaust. He was a member of the Chilcot Inquiry into Britain's role in the Iraq War.
The Chanak Crisis,also called the Chanak Affair and the Chanak Incident,was a war scare in September 1922 between the United Kingdom and the Government of the Grand National Assembly in Turkey. Chanak refers to Çanakkale,a city on the Anatolian side of the Dardanelles Strait. The crisis was caused by Turkish efforts to push the Greek armies out of Turkey and restore Turkish rule in the Allied-occupied territories,primarily in Constantinople and Eastern Thrace. Turkish troops marched against British and French positions in the Dardanelles neutral zone. For a time,war between Britain and Turkey seemed possible,but Canada refused to agree as did France and Italy. British public opinion did not want a war. The British military did not either,and the top general on the scene,Sir Charles Harington,refused to relay an ultimatum to the Turks because he counted on a negotiated settlement. The Conservatives in Britain's coalition government refused to follow Liberal Prime Minister David Lloyd George,who with Winston Churchill was calling for war.
George C. Peden is an emeritus professor of history at Stirling University,Scotland.
John Denis Charmley is a British academic and diplomatic historian. Since 2002 he has held various posts at the University of East Anglia:initially as Head of the School of History,then as the Head of the School of Music and most recently as the Head of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Humanities. Since 2016 he has been Pro-Vice Chancellor for Academic strategy at St Mary's University,Twickenham. In this role he has been responsible for initiating the University's Foundation Year Programme,reflecting Professor Charmley's commitment to widening educational access.
Robert Alexander Clarke Parker was a British historian who specialised in Britain's appeasement of Nazi Germany and the Second World War. Fellow historian Kenneth O. Morgan called him "perhaps the leading authority on the international crises of the 1930s,appeasement and the coming of war".
Richard John Toye is a British historian and academic. He is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. He was previously a Fellow and Director of Studies for History at Homerton College,University of Cambridge,from 2002 to 2007,and before that he taught at University of Manchester from 2000.
David Reynolds,is a British historian. He is Emeritus Professor of International History at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Christ's College,Cambridge. He attended school at Dulwich College on a scholarship and studied at Cambridge and Harvard Universities. He has held visiting posts at Harvard,Nebraska and Oklahoma,as well as at Nihon University in Tokyo and Sciences Po in Paris.
The early life,business career and political rise of Neville Chamberlain culminated on 28 May 1937,when he was summoned to Buckingham Palace to "kiss hands" and accept the office of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Chamberlain had long been regarded as Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin's political heir,and when Baldwin announced his retirement,Chamberlain was seen as the only possible successor.
Stuart Ryan Ball,CBE,FRHistS,is a political historian who retired in 2016 as professor of Modern British History at the University of Leicester,having taught there for 37 years;he is now emeritus professor of Modern History there. He specialises in the history of the Conservative Party.