Robert Rhodes James

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Sir Robert Vidal Rhodes James (10 April 1933 – 20 May 1999) was a British historian and

Foreign Office (1979–1982). He was knighted in 1991 and stepped down as an MP the following year. During his time as an MP, he continued to author multiple books and maintained his academic standing through visiting professorships
and his Oxford fellowship.

From 1991 to his death, he was a Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge.[1][2]

Family and early life

Rhodes James was born in

Chindit
which chronicled his wartime experiences.

His sister, Iris, also became a writer, as an historian and translator of Gaelic and Assamese folk tales. Having begun his education in private schools in India, Rhodes James returned to England to attend

Oxford University
. In 1956, he married Angela Robertson. They had four daughters.

Early career

Between 1955 and 1964, Rhodes James worked in the Clerk's Department of the

J. C. C. Davidson
from 1965 to 1968.

In 1968, he became Director of the Institute for the Study of International Organisation at the

Secretary General of the United Nations, Kurt Waldheim, in 1973. While at Sussex, he wrote a revisionist biography of Winston Churchill
's years between 1900 and 1939 which argued that there were substantial reasons for Churchill's judgement to be questioned by his contemporaries. He also edited eight volumes of Churchill's speeches (published 1974).

Member of Parliament

In 1976, Rhodes James became a Conservative Member of Parliament after winning the by-election for the marginal seat of Cambridge vacated by David Lane. Despite strong challenges from the Social Democratic Party in the subsequent 1983 and 1987 general elections, he held the seat until his retirement at the 1992 general election.

A self-described[

Foreign Office. He came to resent[citation needed] his lack of promotion and, using the subtitle of his Churchill biography, dubbed his political career "a study in failure".[citation needed] He was knighted
in 1991.

After Westminster

After standing down from Parliament in 1992, he held several visiting professorships at American universities before his death, aged 66, in 1999.

Works

Among his works written and published while an MP, Rhodes James wrote two more highly praised biographies, both with official and exclusive access to private papers: Anthony Eden (1986), a sympathetic biography of

the maverick backbencher
.

However, several of his biographies, and particularly his edition of the diaries of Sir Henry 'Chips' Channon, have been criticised for suppressing their subject's homosexuality or bisexuality.[3]

  • Lord Randolph Churchill (1959)
  • Introduction to the House of Commons (1961)
  • Rosebery: A Biography of Archibald Philip, Fifth Earl of Rosebery (1964)
  • Gallipoli (1965)
  • Chips: The Diaries of Sir Henry Channon (editor; 1967)
  • Standardization and Common Production of Weapons in NATO (1967)
  • Suez Ten Years After (contributor; 1967)
  • Essays from Divers Hands (contributor; 1967)
  • Memoirs of a Conservative: J.C.C. Davidson's Memoirs and Papers, 1910–37 (editor; 1969)
  • Churchill: Four Faces and the Man (contributing editor; 1969)
  • Churchill: A Study in Failure, 1900–1939 (1970)
  • Staffing the United Nations Secretariat (1970)
  • United Nations (1970)
  • International Administration (contributor; 1971)
  • Ambitions and Realities; British Politics, 1964–70 (1972)
  • Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches 1897–1963 (editor; 1974, in eight volumes)
  • The Prime Ministers, Volume II (contributor; 1975)
  • The British Revolution: British Politics, 1880–1939 (1976; originally published in two volumes, later reprinted as one)
  • Victor Cazalet: A Portrait (1976)
  • Britain's Role in the United Nations (1977)
  • Albert, Prince Consort: A Biography (1983)
  • Anthony Eden (1986)
  • Robert Boothby: A Portrait of Churchill's Ally (1991)
  • Henry Wellcome (1994), London: Hodder & Stoughton
    ISBN 978-0-340-60617-9
  • A Spirit Undaunted: The Political Role of George VI (1998)

References

  1. Who Was Who
    . Oxford University Press. 1 December 2007. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
  2. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/72307. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  3. ^ Bloch, Michael "Closet Queens: Some 20th Century British Politicians"London: Little, Brown, 2015

External links

Obituaries

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Cambridge
1976–1992 		Succeeded by
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