Dacre

LORD DACRE OF GLANTON (1914 - 2003)

Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper was born in Glanton, Northumberland, the son of a doctor. Redwald, of course, was the name of an Anglo-Saxon chieftain (later conjectured to be the occupant of the Sutton Hoo burial). During a solitary childhood, Trevor-Roper developed a love of literature and the feeling for language which was to inform everything he wrote and said. He was educated at Charterhouse and Christ Church, Oxford. and became arguably the leading historian of his generation.

From 1937-39, he was a research fellow at Merton College, Oxford, where he wrote his first book Archbishop Laud (1940). During World War II, Trevor-Roper served in Radio Security Service and Secret Intelligence Service, working on the penetration and deception of the German secret service. Later he drew on that experience in The Philby Affair (1968). In 1947, he produced the classic that made his name, The Last Days of Hitler. He had been commissioned to discover what happened to Hitler, whom Stalin was claiming was still alive.

Trevor-Roper's post-war interests in Oxford reverted to the 17th century and he was prominent in the heated and fruitful controversy surrounding the origins of the English Civil War. His interests ranged widely, however, and in 1957 he published the stimulating Historical Essays for the general reader. In the same year he became Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford. His inaugural lecture called for the engagement of historical studies with large issues of importance to the intellectual laity. This established the guiding principles of his tenure of the chair, which he held until 1980.

He was often in the news, taking issue with his rival A.J.P. Taylor over the causes of World War II. Preferring the essay to the fat tome on a single subject, Trevor-Roper published perhaps the most remarkable of his collections Religion, The Reformation and Social Change. The breadth of scholarship reflected the influence of Fernand Braudel and his rejection of closed systems and historical determinism. The Rise of Christian Europe (originally a series of television lectures) followed in 1965. His interest in Nazi Germany persisted, and his irritation with over-specialisation prompted him to write about Edmund Backhouse (q.v.) the extraordinary black sheep of the Darlington family in A Hidden Life, also published as The Hermit of Peking.

He took the name of Lord Dacre of Glanton in 1979, and it was in 1983 that he made an error which has marred his reputation. As a director of Times Newspapers, he examined the fake Hitler diaries and was taken in by them.

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
LORD DACRE OF GLANTON (1914 - 2003) Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper was born in Glanton, Northumberland, the son of a doctor. Redwald, of course, was the name of an Anglo-Saxon chieftain (later conjectured to be the occupant of the Sutton Hoo burial). During a solitary childhood, Trevor-Roper developed a love of literature and the feeling for language which was to inform everything he wrote and said. He was educated at Charterhouse and Christ Church, Oxford. and became arguably the leading historian of his generation. From 1937-39, he was a research fellow at Merton College, Oxford, where he wrote his first book Archbishop Laud (1940). During World War II, Trevor-Roper served in Radio Security Service and Secret Intelligence Service, working on the penetration and deception of the German secret service. Later he drew on that experience in The Philby Affair (1968). In 1947, he produced the classic that made his name, The Last Days of Hitler. He had been commissioned to discover what happened to Hitler, whom Stalin was claiming was still alive. Trevor-Roper's post-war interests in Oxford reverted to the 17th century and he was prominent in the heated and fruitful controversy surrounding the origins of the English Civil War. His interests ranged widely, however, and in 1957 he published the stimulating Historical Essays for the general reader. In the same year he became Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford. His inaugural lecture called for the engagement of historical studies with large issues of importance to the intellectual laity. This established the guiding principles of his tenure of the chair, which he held until 1980. He was often in the news, taking issue with his rival A.J.P. Taylor over the causes of World War II. Preferring the essay to the fat tome on a single subject, Trevor-Roper published perhaps the most remarkable of his collections Religion, The Reformation and Social Change. The breadth of scholarship reflected the influence of Fernand Braudel and his rejection of closed systems and historical determinism. The Rise of Christian Europe (originally a series of television lectures) followed in 1965. His interest in Nazi Germany persisted, and his irritation with over-specialisation prompted him to write about Edmund Backhouse (q.v.) the extraordinary black sheep of the Darlington family in A Hidden Life, also published as The Hermit of Peking. He took the name of Lord Dacre of Glanton in 1979, and it was in 1983 that he made an error which has marred his reputation. As a director of Times Newspapers, he examined the fake Hitler diaries and was taken in by them.
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