Robert Rhodes James

Sir Robert Vidal Rhodes James (10 April 1933 – 20 May 1999) was a British historian and Conservative Member of Parliament.

Rhodes James was born in India as the third son of Colonel William and Violet Rhodes James. His father's cousin was the ghost-story writer M. R. James and the family had links to clergy, lawyers, diplomats, soldiers and sailors who had served across the British Empire.

Having begun his education in private schools in India, Rhodes James returned to England to attend Sedbergh School and then Worcester College at Oxford University. In 1956, he married Angela Robertson. They had four daughters.

Between 1955 and 1964, Rhodes James worked in the Clerk's Department (the internal civil service) of the House of Commons, first as a Clerk and then, from 1961, as a Senior Clerk. During this time, his first book, a biography of Lord Randolph Churchill, was published in 1959. His next book, An Introduction to the House of Commons (1961) was awarded the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. Following two more books – Rosebery (1964), a biography of Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery; and Gallipoli (published 1965), a reappraisal of the ill-fated World War I campaign – he became a fellow of All Souls College in Oxford. There, having left his Commons post, in 1964, he engaged in researching the papers of J. C. C. Davidson full-time between 1965 and 1968.

In 1968, he became Director of the Institute for the Study of International Organisation at the University of Sussex, before moving to work as Principal Officer in the Executive Office of the then 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, arguing that there were substantial reasons why Churchill's judgement was questioned by his contemporaries. He also edited eight volumes of Churchill's speeches (published 1974).

...
Wikipedia