H. W. C. Davis

Last updated

H. W. C. Davis
Born(1874-01-13)13 January 1874
Ebley, Gloucestershire, England, United Kingdom
Died28 June 1928(1928-06-28) (aged 54)
Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Education Weymouth College
Alma mater Balliol College, Oxford
OccupationHistorian
Known forEditor of the Dictionary of National Biography
Title Regius Professor of Modern History
Term1925–1928
Predecessor Charles Harding Firth
Successor Maurice Powicke

Henry William Carless Davis CBE FBA (13 January 1874 – 28 June 1928) was a British historian, editor of the Dictionary of National Biography , and Oxford Regius Professor of Modern History.

Contents

Early career

Davis was born in Ebley, near Stroud, Gloucestershire the eldest of five children of Henry Frederick Alexander Davis, a solicitor, and his wife, Jessie Anna. The children were brought up by their mother, who moved to Weymouth in 1884 to open a school for young children including her own, and was successful enough to be appointed first headmistress of Weymouth College preparatory school in 1903. Davis attended Weymouth College from 1886 and went up to Balliol College, Oxford on a Brackenbury history scholarship, where he attained first classes in classical moderations in 1893 and literae humaniores in 1895 as well as the Jenkiyns exhibition. He was elected to a fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford, maintaining residence there from 1895 until 1902, and spending time teaching at University College, Bangor between 1896 and 1897. Davis won the Lothian Prize in 1897 and was appointed to a lectureship at New College, Oxford, and in 1899 exchanged lectureships and moved to Balliol, where on the expiration of his All Souls fellowship in November 1902 he was appointed a fellow of Balliol. [1]

In 1899 Davis published Balliol College, a work in the College Histories series, and in 1900, Charlemagne, in the Heroes of the Nations series, as well as articles in the English Historical Review in 1901. In 1903 he published the article The Anarchy of Stephen's Reign in the same journal, which presented the idea that the use of the term 'waste' in the Pipe Rolls indicated a much wider devastation resulting from the Anarchy than had been thought, fuelling the belief that a great anarchy occurred during Stephen's reign, although the 'waste' theory was later discredited. His first widely regarded book was England under the Normans and Angevins, published in 1905, it became a standard authority and reached a tenth print edition in 1930. It was, however, his only substantial contribution to narrative medieval history. In 1911 he wrote the summary Medieval Europe, in the Home University Library series, but from 1905 was more focused on editorial work, preparing an edition of Benjamin Jowett's translation of Aristotle's Politics , a revision of William Stubbs' Select Charters and starting the calendar of royal charters, Regesta regum Anglo-Normannorum.

His academic presence inspired genuine respect and regard, and his lectures were well attended.[ citation needed ] Davis was junior dean of Balliol from 1906 until 1910, and an examiner in the final school of modern history between 1907 and 1909, and again from 1919 to 1921. In 1912 Davis married Jennie Rosa, the daughter of Walter Lindup, of Bampton Grange in Oxfordshire. In 1913 he took the Chichele lectureship in foreign history, and became a curator of the Bodleian Library in 1914.

War years

The First World War drew Davis' attention away from academia, and he assisted in the production of a series of Oxford Pamphlets on the war and published a dispassionate analysis, The Political Thought of Heinrich von Treitschke. In early 1915 Davis moved to London and assisted the organization of the Trade Clearing House, a body sponsored by the Admiralty and Board of Trade to pool intelligence on commercial trade gathered from the postal censorship. When the Trade Clearing House grew and became the War Trade Intelligence Department and part of the Ministry of Blockade, under the Foreign Office, Davis became the vice-chairman. He later wrote of the department's workings in History of the Blockade, but left the work unfinished.

On 7 October 1918 Jennie Rosa gave birth to Ralph Henry Carless Davis, who became a historian of the Middle Ages.

In December 1918 at the conclusion of the war Davis served on the British delegation to the Paris Peace Conference until March 1919, and then spent a few weeks as the acting director of the Department of Overseas Trade at the invitation of Sir Arthur Steel-Maitland and in the New Years Honours of that year, Davis was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Return to Oxford

In April 1919 Davis returned to Oxford and resumed his usual college and university work. He took up the editorial directorship of the Dictionary of National Biography , for which the previous editor, Sir Sidney Lee, had conveyed responsibility to the University of Oxford in 1917. The names for inclusion in the dictionary and list of contributors were chosen by Davis and his co-editor J. R. H. Weaver, in consultation with a committee from Oxford and outside advisors. The volume of which Davis was in charge was published in 1927, and covered 1911 to the end of 1921. Davis accepted the chair of modern history at Manchester University in 1921, and he moved to Bowdon, spending three and a half years in the post. Davis was elected Ford's lecturer at Oxford for 1924–25; his posthumously printed The Age of Grey and Peel was his chosen subject material. During Hilary term 1925, Davis was appointed to succeed Sir Charles Firth as Regius Professor of Modern History, making him a fellow of Oriel College. Before the end of the year, Davis was elected an honorary fellow of Balliol and a fellow of the British Academy.

In addition to his duties in Oxford, Davis took up a post on the unemployment insurance committee under fellow Balliol man Robert Younger, Baron Blanesburgh, and in 1927 he went to Geneva as British representative on a committee set up by the International Labour Organization to investigate and report on factory legislation in Europe. While in Edinburgh for the University of Edinburgh's examinations, Davis died of pneumonia after a few days' illness, at 19 Great King Street. His body was interred at Wolvercote cemetery, Oxford.

Works

Related Research Articles

The Regius Professorships of Divinity are amongst the oldest professorships at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. A third chair existed for a period at Trinity College Dublin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. R. M. Butler</span> British politician and academic

Sir James Ramsay Montagu Butler, was a British politician and academic. He was a member of parliament for Cambridge University from 1922 to 1923. He was Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge from 1947 to 1954, and vice-master of Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1954 to 1960. He also saw military service during both the First and Second World Wars.

Sir George Norman Clark, was an English historian, academic and British Army officer. He was the Chichele Professor of Economic History at the University of Oxford from 1931 to 1943 and the Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge from 1943 to 1947. He served as the provost of Oriel College, Oxford, from 1947 to 1957.

Sir Frederick Maurice Powicke was an English medieval historian. He was a fellow of Merton College, Oxford, a professor at Queen's University, Belfast, and the Victoria University of Manchester, and from 1928 until his retirement Regius Professor at the University of Oxford. He was made a Knight Bachelor in 1946.

The Regius Professor of History at the University of Oxford is a long-established professorial position. Holders of the title have often been medieval historians. The first appointment was made in 1724. The term "Regius" reflects the origins of the post as a royal appointment, itself a recognition of the important influence of history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lyndal Roper</span> Australian historian (born 1956)

Lyndal Anne Roper is a historian. She was born in Melbourne, Australia. She works on German history of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, and has written a biography of Martin Luther. Her research centres on gender and the Reformation, witchcraft, and visual culture. In 2011 she was appointed to Regius Chair of History at the University of Oxford, the first woman and first Australian to hold this position.

The White's Chair of Moral Philosophy was endowed in 1621 by Thomas White, Canon of Christ Church as the oldest professorial post in philosophy at the University of Oxford.

Ralph Henry Carless Davis was a British historian and educator specialising in the European Middle Ages. Davis was born and died in Oxford. He was a leading exponent of strict documentary analysis and interpretation, was keenly interested in architecture and art in history, and was successful at communicating to the public and as a teacher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Inn Hall, Oxford</span> Former hall of the University of Oxford

New Inn Hall was one of the earliest medieval halls of the University of Oxford. It was located in New Inn Hall Street, Oxford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernest Barker</span> British political scientist (1874–1960)

Sir Ernest Barker was an English political scientist who served as Principal of King's College London from 1920 to 1927.

Vivian Hunter Galbraith was an English historian, fellow of the British Academy and Oxford Regius Professor of Modern History.

The Ford Lectures or the James Ford Lectures in British History, are an annual series of public lectures held at the University of Oxford on the subject of English or British history. They are usually devoted to a particular historical theme and usually span six lectures over Hilary term. They are often subsequently published as a book.

Henry Maria Robert Egmont Mayr-Harting is a British medieval ecclesiastical historian. From 1997 to 2003, he was Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Oxford and a lay canon of Christ Church, Oxford.

William Holmes D.D. was an English academic, Vice-Chancellor and Regius Professor of Modern History of the University of Oxford. He was also Dean of Exeter between 1742 and 1748.

John Reginald Homer Weaver was a British historian, academic and architectural photographer. He was president of Trinity College, Oxford, from 1938 to 1954.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Gloag (lawyer)</span>

William Murray Gloag was a Scottish lawyer and academic. His The Law of Contract, first published in 1914, is considered one of the most authoritative texts on Scots contract law. His two immediate successors in the Regius Chair of Law at Glasgow University described him as "the outstanding jurist of the century" and "the most remarkable legal scholar who has ever held this Chair".

Leopold George Wickham Legg was an English academic historian specializing in diplomatic history.

References

  1. ↑ "University intelligence". The Times. No. 36920. London. 8 November 1902. p. 12.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.