Sir Raymond Carr | |
---|---|
Born |
Bath, Somerset, England |
11 April 1919
Died | 19 April 2015 | (aged 96)
Education | Brockenhurst School |
Alma mater | Christ Church, Oxford |
Occupation | Historian |
Spouse(s) | Sara Ann Mary Strickland |
Children | Adam Henry Maillard Carr Matthew Xavier Maillard Carr Alexander Rallion Charles Carr Laura Selina Madeline Carr |
Parent(s) | Reginald Henry Maillard Carr and Marion Maillard Carr |
Sir Raymond Albert Maillard Carr, FBA, FRHS, FRSL (11 April 1919 – 19 April 2015) was an English historian specializing in the history of Spain, Latin America, and Sweden. From 1968 to 1987, he was Warden of St Antony's College, Oxford.
Carr was born on 11 April 1919 in Bath, Somerset, to Reginald Henry Maillard Carr and Marion Maillard Carr. He was educated at Brockenhurst School, then a state secondary school in the New Forest, Hampshire. He then studied at Christ Church, Oxford, where he was elected Gladstone Research Exhibitioner in 1941.
Carr was briefly a lecturer at University College, London, in 1945–1946, before returning to Oxford as a Fellow of All Souls College, 1946–1953. He was next a Fellow of New College, 1953–1964, then Director of Oxford's Latin American Centre, 1964–1968 and the University's Professor of the History of Latin America, 1967–68.
He became a Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford, in 1964, Sub-Warden of the college in 1966 and Warden in 1968, a position he held until his retirement in 1987. After his retirement from Oxford, he was King Juan Carlos Professor of Spanish History at New York University in 1992.
Carr's successor as Warden of St Antony's, Ralf Dahrendorf, has described Carr's tenure of the post as the College's 'Fiesta days'.
As a historian and Hispanist, Carr's main interest lay in the vicissitudes of 19th and 20th century Spain, and he was also a specialist in Latin American and Swedish history. In the words of Sir John Elliott, " his book on Spain between 1808 and 1939 is basic to a better understanding of the era, and the later generation of historians, both within Spain and abroad, have followed up the leads that Carr gives in his book to great benefit."