WEBSTER, Sir Charles Kingsley (1886-1961)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0370 CW
Held at	: Queen Mary, University of London   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.library.qmul.ac.uk/ ›
Full title	: WEBSTER, Sir Charles Kingsley (1886-1961)
Date(s)	: 1902-1960
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 1 box
Name of creator(s)	: Webster | Sir | Charles Kingsley | 1886-1961 | Knight | historian and diplomat
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Sir Charles Kingsley Webster was born in 1886 and educated Merchant Taylors' School in Crosby and King's College, Cambridge, where he studied diplomatic history, and remained until 1914. His career as historian involved research, teaching and advisory work concerning international and current affairs. He married Nora Violet in 1915 and was made KCMG in the new year's honours list in 1946.

During the First World War Webster served as a Subaltern in the Royal Army Service Corps, 1915-1917 and on the General Staff of the War Office, 1917-1918. After the war he continued his involvement with diplomatic and current affairs and undertook various advisory roles. These included; Secretary, Military Section, British Delegation to the Conference of Paris, 1918-1919; Foreign Research and Press Service, 1939-1941; Director, British School of Information, New York, 1941-1942; Foreign Office, 1943-1946; Member of British Delegation, Dumbarton Oaks and San Francisco Conferences, 1944-1945; Member, Preparatory Commission and General Assembly, United Nations, 1945-1946.

Webster's academic career included the following posts; Professor of Modern History, Liverpool University, 1914-1922; Wilson Professor of International Politics, University of Wales, 1922-1932; Ausserordentlich Professor, University of Vienna, 1926; Nobel Lecturer, Oslo, 1926; Reader, University of Calcutta, India, 1927; Professor of History, Harvard University, USA, 1928-1932; Ford Lecturer, Oxford University, 1948; Stevenson Professor of International History, London School of Economics and Political Science, 1932-1953.

He also worked to promote international co-operation between scholars, as President, 1950-1954, and Foreign Secretary, 1955-1958, of the British Academy. As President (1950-1954) he represented the British Academy in the Union Académique Internationale from 1948 to 1959. He was also energetic in the International Congress of Historical Sciences, with which he had been associated since 1913, presiding at the Stockholm meeting in 1960.

He retired from full time academia in 1953 and died in 1961.

Publications: The European alliance, 1815-1825 (University of Calcutta, 1929). The Congress of Vienna, 1814-1815 (Foreign Office Historical Section, London, 1919). Editor of Britain and the Independence of Latin America, 1812-1830 (Ibero-American Institute of Great Britain, London, 1938). The art and practice of diplomacy (LSE, London, 1952). British Diplomacy, 1813-1815 (G Bell and Sons, London, 1921). British Foreign Policy since the Second World War; The Congress of Vienna, 1814-15, and the Conference of Paris, 1919 (London, 1923). The foreign policy of Castlereagh, 1815-1822 (G Bell and Sons, London, 1925). The foreign policy of Palmerston, 1830-1841 (G Bell and Sons, London, 1951). The founder of the national home (Weizmann Science Press of Israel, 1955). The League of Nations in theory and practice (Allen and Unwin, London, 1933). The pacification of Europe, 1813-1815 (1922); Palmerston, Metternich and the European system, 1830-1841 (Humphrey Milford, London, 1934). Sanctions: the use of force in an international organisation (London, 1956). Some problems of international organisation (University of Leeds, 1943). What the world owes to President Wilson (League of Nations Union, London, 1930). The strategic air offensive against Germany, 1939-1945 (London, 1961). Editor of British diplomatic representatives, 1789-1852 (London, 1934). Editor of Some letters of the Duke of Wellington to his brother, William Wellesley-Pole (London, 1948).

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Memorabilia and collected ephemera of Sir Charles Webster, 1902-1960, including: school cap with crest 1902-1903; official British delegation pass to the Peace Congress in Paris 1919; passports, 1928-1931, 1937-1942, 1957-1962; 3 medals, c 1960; 2 United Nations badges, San Francisco and London 1945; Unesco badge, 1950; Badge, XI Congrès International des Sciences Historiques, 1960; 2 medals in box, Order of St.Michael and of St George; certificates for war service 1915; postcard to Charles Webster from R Dyloski 1915 and 1950; 2 letters from Clement Attlee dated 7th and 12th August 1947, offering Webster the post of Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge, and draft reply from Webster respectfully declining. Various other certficates.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English.

System of arrangement:

Original order.

Conditions governing access:

The Archives are available for access in the Archives Reading Room located on the 2nd Floor of the Mile End Library. The Archives Reading Room is open Mondays to Fridays 9am-4pm by appointment only. Contact the Archives for more information: Archives, Main Library QMUL, 328 Mile End Rd, London E1 4NS, telephone: 020 7882 3873, email: archives@qmul.ac.uk. For more information about the Archives see the website: www.library.qmul.ac.uk/archives.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Applications for copies for research or publication should be made to the Archivist: Main Library QMUL, 328 Mile End Rd, London E1 4NS, telephone: 020 7882 7873, email: archives@qmul.ac.uk.

Finding aids:

None.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Donated to Queen Mary College.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Lorraine Screene.

Rules or conventions:

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
November 2008.