Piers Mackesy

Piers Gerald Mackesy , D.Phil. and D.Litt. (Oxon.), FBA (15 September 1924 – 30 June 2014) was a British military historian who taught at the University of Oxford.

Piers Mackesy was born in Cults, near Aberdeen in Scotland, the son of Major-General Pierse Joseph Mackesy and Leonora Cook. Growing up in an army family, he followed his father's assignments and lived on a number of army posts, including Quetta, Chatham, and Borden. Mackesy was educated at Wellington College and was commissioned into the Royal Scots Greys in 1944, serving until 1947. Subsequently, he became a scholar of Christ Church, Oxford, obtaining his bachelor's degree in 1950. As a graduate student, Mackesy studied for his D.Phil. degree at Oriel College, Oxford, where he wrote his thesis on British Strategy in the Mediterranean, 1803–1810.

Mackesy's daughter is the novelist Serena Mackesy.

Upon completion of his doctorate, Mackey was appointed Harkness Fellow at Harvard University, and in the following year he was appointed tutor in modern history and Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford in 1954, remaining there until he retired in 1988. While at Pembroke, he became senior tutor and vicegerent of the College. For many years, he taught the special subject in military history at Oxford with Professor N. H. Gibbs. This course of study involved using the War of the Second Coalition as a case study for examining the theories of Carl von Clausewitz. He was an Emeritus Fellow of Pembroke College from 1988 until his death in 2014.

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