Maurice Ashley (historian)
Maurice Percy Ashley | |
---|---|
Born | 4 September 1907 |
Died | 26 September 1994 | (aged 87)
Education | editor |
Maurice Percy Ashley
Background and education
Ashley was educated at
Career
In 1929 he was appointed literary assistant to Winston Churchill, who had just begun work on his biography Marlborough: His Life and Times. Ashley provided Churchill with original material from archives in Britain and Europe,[6] earning £300 a year for this half-time employment.[7] Although he was unimpressed by Ashley's socialistic views, Churchill praised his "competence and industry as an historical investigator".[5] Ashley later wrote Churchill as Historian (1968), a perceptive analysis of Churchill's methods.[1]
Ashley's career as a journalist began when he joined the staff of the
After World War II, he joined the BBC's weekly publication, The Listener, as Deputy Editor and was appointed Editor in 1958, in which job he remained until retiring in 1967.[1] He broadened the range of the journal, which had been a vehicle for the text of selected broadcasts and criticism of radio and then television programmes. Under Ashley, The Listener's book reviews played a leading role in killing off the 19th-century tradition of anonymous reviewing.[4]
Among a number of books, Ashley's publications in this period included his The Greatness of Oliver Cromwell (1957), a substantial revision of his earlier view of Cromwell, and The Glorious Revolution of 1688 (1966). After retiring from The Listener, the rate of his publications increased, helped by a two-year research fellowship at Loughborough University. This period saw the publication of his studies of Charles II, James II, Prince Rupert, and his General Monck (1977), regarded as one of his best books. His last book, The Battle of Naseby and the Fall of King Charles I (1992), appeared when he was 85.[4]
He died on 26 September 1994 and was buried in a family grave in Highgate Cemetery.
Awards
Ashley was awarded a CBE in 1978 and a DLitt from Oxford in 1979. He was President of the Cromwell Association from 1961 to 1977.
Personal life
He married twice, first in 1935 to Phyllis Mary Griffiths, with whom he had a son and a daughter, and second in 1988 to Patricia Entract.[4]
References
- ^ a b c d e f "Maurice Ashley Obituary". The Times, 1 October 1994.
- ^ Oxford University Calendar 1932, Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1929, pp. 160, 167
- ^ Oxford University Calendar 1932, Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1929, p. 278
- ^ a b c d e Woolrych, Austin. "Obituary: Maurice Ashley", The Independent, 4 October 1994. Retrieved 2010-08-17.
- ^ a b Gilbert, Martin. In Search of Churchill (1994), pp. 137–9.
- ^ Gilbert, Martin. Churchill, A Life (1991), p. 491.
- ^ Jenkins, Roy. Churchill (2001).