BOXER, Professor Charles Ralph (1904-2000)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0100 KCLCA K/PP78
Held at	: King's College London College Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/library/archivespec/ ›
Full title	: BOXER, Professor Charles Ralph (1904-2000)
Date(s)	: 1904-2000
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 1 box (outsize).
Name of creator(s)	: Boxer | Charles Ralph | 1904-2000 | Professor of History

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born 8 March 1904; educated Wellington College and Royal Military College, Sandhurst; commissioned Lincolnshire Regt, 1923; language officer, interpreter and intelligence officer, travelling in Japan, China, Dutch East Indies, Manchuria and Korea, 1930-1939; served World War Two, 1939-1945 (wounded, POW in Japanese hands, 1941-1945); married Emily Hahn, 1945; retired from Army with rank of Major, 1947; appointed Camões Professor of Portuguese, King's College London, 1947-1951; Professor of the History of the Far East, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1951-1953; re-appointed Camões Professor, 1953-1967; elected Fellow of the British Academy 1957; Trustee of the National Maritime Museum, 1961-1968; Fellow of King's College London, 1967; Emeritus Professor of Portuguese, University of London, 1968; Professor of the History of Expansion of Europe Overseas, Yale, 1969-1972; Visiting Research Professor, Indiana University, 1967-1979; Emeritus Professor of History, Yale, 1972; Honorary Fellow, SOAS, 1974; Foreign Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, 1976; Honorary doctorates of the Universities of Utrecht (1950), Lisbon (1952), Bahia (1959), Liverpool (1966), Hong Kong (1971), Peradeniya (1980); Gold Medal, Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, 1986; Order of Santiago da Espada (Portugal, 1990); Grand Cross of the Order of the Infante Dom Henrique (Portugal); Kt Order of St Gregory the Great, 1969; died 27 April 2000.

Publications: (selection of principal works only), The commentaries of Ruy Freyre de Andrade (Routledge, London, 1930); The journal of Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp, Anno 1639 (Cambridge University Press, London, 1930); A true description of the mighty kingdoms of Japan and Siam (Argonaut Press, London, 1935); Jan Compagnie in Japan, 1600-1817 (M Nijhoff, The Hague, 1936); Fidalgos in the Far East, 1550-1770, (M Nijhoff, The Hague, 1948); The Christian century in Japan, 1549-1640 (University of California, Berkeley, 1951); Salvador Correia de Sá and the struggle for Brazil and Angola (Athlone Press, London, 1952); South China in the 16th Century (Hakluyt Society, London, 1953); The Dutch in Brazil, 1624-1654 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1957); The tragic history of the sea, 1589-1622 (Hakluyt Society/Cambridge University Press, London/Cambridge, 1959); The great ship from Amacon (CEHU, Lisbon, 1959); Fort Jesus and the Portuguese in Mombasa (Hollis and Carter, London, 1960); The golden age of Brazil, 1695-1750 (University of California, Berkeley, 1962); Race Relations in the Portuguese Colonial Empire, 1415-1825 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1963); The Dutch seaborne Empire, 1600-1800 (Hutchinson, London, 1965); Portuguese Society in the Tropics (University of Wisconsin Press, London, 1966); Further selections from the tragic history of the sea, (Hakluyt Society/Cambridge University Press, London/Cambridge, 1969); The Portuguese seaborne empire, 1415-1825, (Hutchinson, London, 1969); Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th Century (National Maritime Museum, London, 1974); Mary and Misogyny (Duckworth, London, 1975); A descriptive list of the State Papers Portugal, 1661-1780, in the Public Record Office 3 vols (ACL/British Academy, Lisbon/London, 1979, 1983); João de Barros: Portuguese humanist and historian of Asia (Concept, New Delhi, 1981); From Lisbon to Goa 1500-1750 (Variorum reprints, London, 1984); Portuguese Conquest and Commerce in Southern Asia 1500-1750 (Variorum reprints, London, 1985); Portuguese Merchants and Missionaries in Feudal Japan 1543-1640 (Variorum reprints, London, 1986); Dutch Merchants and Mariners in Asia 1602-1795 (Variorum reprints, London, 1988).

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Copies of papers and photographs relating to Boxer's life and military and academic careers, 1904-2000, including correspondence and cuttings from the Portuguese press, 1963-1964, relating to the criticism by Dr António Oliveira Salazar, Prime Minister of Portugal, and Professor Armando Cortesão, of Boxer and his book Race Relations in the Portuguese Colonial Empire, 1415-1825, for proposing that Portugal had practised racial discrimination during its colonial expansion; letter of goodwill from Hisaakira Kano, Chairman of Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai (Japanese Society for International Cultural Relations), 4 Jan 1949; letter to Amanda Boxer from Richard Laurence Ollard, author, 8 May 2000, on Boxer declining the award of CBE; Homenagem ao Professor Charles Ralph Boxer. A tribute to Professor Charles Ralph Boxer (Centro de Estudos do Mar and Associão Fernão Mendes Pinto, Figueira de Foz/Montemor -o-Velho, 1999); Charles Ralph Boxer, 1904-2000 (commemorative booklet published by King's College London, 2000); 'In memoriam Charles Ralph Boxer' by Dr Frank Lequin, offprint from Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia and Oceania, vol 156.4, Leiden, 2000; obituaries on Boxer from The Guardian, The Independent, and the Jornal de Coimbra and obituary of Emily Hahn, [The Guardian], Feb 1997; copies of pages from the 'Codex Lynch' and Marsden Mss, held by King's College London Archives, relating to the Portuguese East India Company, 1629-1633, and to the Jesuit mission in the Moghul Empire, 1668; copies of dustjackets of a selection of books written by Boxer; photographs, 1904-[1999], including Boxer in China, Japan, Siam, 1938, as a POW in Hong Kong [1942], his marriage to Emily Hahn, 1945, and his receiving honorary degree at Liverpool, 1966, and Order of Santiago da Espada, Portugal, 1990; copy of speech given by José Gregório Faria, Ambassador of Portugal, at a memorial reception for Boxer held at King's College London on 11 Jul 2000, with commemorative booklet.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English and Portuguese.

System of arrangement:

1 file

Conditions governing access:

Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Director of Archive Services.

Finding aids:

Summary guide entry on-line and available in hard copy in the College Archives reading room.

Archival Information

Archival history:

The collection was assembled by Professor Malyn Newitt, Charles Boxer Professor of History, Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, King's College London, and Patricia Methven, Director of Archive Services, King's College London, for an exhibition at a memorial reception for Boxer, held at the College on 11 Jul 2000.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Following the memorial reception for Boxer of 11 Jul 2000, the collection was deposited in the College Archives.

Allied Materials

Related material:

King's College London Archives holds the papers of Professor Gerald Sandford Graham, Professor of Imperial History, which contains correspondence with Boxer (KCLCA K/PP 43).

The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA, holds the bulk of Boxer's correspondence and papers, 1923-1975, which includes drafts, articles and reviews of his books, lecture notes, student papers, conference papers and research materials, as well as original manuscripts, 16th Century-19th Century, collected by Boxer relating to Dutch and Portuguese colonialism (ref Boxer Mss and Boxer Mss II); the Department of Special Collections and Western Manuscripts, Bodleian Library, Oxford University holds correspondence of Boxer, 1937-1954, relating to the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning.

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Sources:Who's Who; British Library OPAC. Compiled by Robert Baxter.

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:
July 2000.