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Charles Perry Stacey

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Charles Perry Stacey

OCOBECDFRSC
Born(1906-07-30)30 July 1906
Toronto, Ontario
Died17 November 1989(1989-11-17)(aged 83)
Toronto, Ontario
Buried
Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto
AllegianceCanada
Service/branchCanadian Army
Years of service1924–1959
RankColonel
UnitHistorical Section, General Staff
Alma materUniversity of Toronto(B.A., 1927)
Oxford University(B.A., 1929)
Princeton University(A.M., 1931, Ph.D., 1933)
Spouse(s)
Doris Newton Shiell
​
​
(m.1939; died 1969)​

ColonelCharles Perry StaceyOCOBECDFRSC(30 July 1906 – 17 November 1989) was a Canadianhistorianand universityprofessor.He served as the official historian of theCanadian Armyin theSecond World Warand published extensively on military and political matters.

Early life and education

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Stacey was born inToronto,Ontario to Dr Charles Edward Stacey (1860–1927) and Pearl Perry (1878–1964). The Stacey family was ofAnglo-Irish,Church of Irelandorigin. After attending theUniversity of Toronto Schools,he received aBachelor of Artsdegree in history from theUniversity of Torontoin 1927.[1]In 1924 he joined theCanadian Militia.[2]

Stacey received a secondbachelor's degreein history fromCorpus Christi College, Oxford,in 1929. He received aDoctor of Philosophydegree fromPrinceton Universityin 1933.

Career

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From 1933 to 1940, Stacey was a member of the history department atPrinceton University.[3]With the advent of theSecond World War,he was given the rank of major and appointed as historical officer to theCanadian Army.He served in theUnited Kingdomfor most of the war, headed a team dedicated to collecting and collating information for future historians, and wrote contemporary reports. His reports provided factual details about many military operations, including theDieppe RaidandOperation Spring.[4][5]

Visit of Prince Philip (seated) to the Royal Society of Canada. Officers of the Society (standing left to right): Dr. Charles Camsell, Dr. Loris Shano (L.S.) Russell, Dr. T.W.N. Cameron, president Leon Marion and Colonel C.P. Stacey in 1957.
Visit ofPrince Philip(seated) to the Royal Society of Canada. Officers of the Society (standing left to right): Dr.Charles Camsell,Dr. Loris Shano (L.S.) Russell, Dr. T.W.N. Cameron, president Leon Marion and Colonel C.P. Stacey in 1957.

After the war, Stacey worked with a team to create an official history of the Canadian military operations during the conflict. He benefited from his access to the major Canadian military and political figures involved in the war, both during the conflict and afterwards, when the official histories were being finalized.[6][7]The three volume set was published in 1955.

A comment he made after the war regardingwar brides,whom he called "Most excellent citizens," became the title of a book on the subject byEswyn Lyster.

Stacey eventually attained the rank of colonel. In total, he served in the militia and the army for 35 years (1924–1959).

From 1959 to 1975, Stacey was a professor of history at the University of Toronto. He continued to research and write analysis of Canadian military operations.[8][9] He published anautobiography,A Date With History,which presented much background information regarding the writing of theOfficial History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War.He extended those themes in volumesThe Half Million(dealing with the Canadian forces stationed in Britain) andArms, Men, and Government(concerning the government in Canada) during the war.

Stacey also wrote a critical analysis of the writing process of theOfficial History of World War I(only one of the projected eight volumes by the original author ever appeared in print). His book,Arms, Men, and Governments: The War Policies of Canada, 1939-1945also won theAlbert B. Corey Prize,awarded jointly by theCanadian Historical AssociationandAmerican Historical Association,in 1972.[10]

He died in Toronto in 1989. His personal and research papers are in theUniversity of Toronto Archives.

Since 1988, an award called theC.P. Stacey Prizehas been given by the Canadian Committee for the History of the Second World War "for distinguished publications on the twentieth-century military experience."[11]

Personal life

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On 26 August 1939 Stacey married Doris Newton Shiell, daughter of R. T. Shiell. Doris was born in Toronto in 1903. After Colonel Stacey's retirement from the Army in 1959, the couple lived in a house at 89 Tranmer Avenue in Toronto. Doris died in Toronto on 5 December 1969. Colonel Stacey died in Toronto on 17 November 1989 at age 83. He is buried inMount Pleasant Cemeteryin Toronto.

Selected bibliography

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  • A Very Double Life: The Private World ofMackenzie King(1976)
  • Canada and the Age of Conflict Vol. 1(1977), (Toronto:University of Toronto Press),ISBN0-8020-6560-0.
  • Canada and the Age of Conflict Vol. 2(1981), (Toronto: University of Toronto Press),ISBN0-8020-2397-5.
  • (with Barbara M. Wilson)The Half-Million: The Canadians in Britain, 1939-1946(1987), (Toronto: University of Toronto Press).
  • A Date With HistoryISBN0-88879-086-4

See also

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References

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  1. ^Nicolaas van Rijn, "Col. Charles Stacey was army historian,"Toronto Star,Nov. 19, 1989, A31.
  2. ^David Twiston Davies (1996).Canada from Afar: The Daily Telegraph Book of Canadian Obituaries.Dundurn. p. 109.ISBN978-1-55002-252-0.
  3. ^Jeffrey Grey (2003).The Last Word?: Essays on Official History in the United States and British Commonwealth.Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 11–.ISBN978-0-313-31083-6.
  4. ^David J. Bercuson; Wise (22 September 1994).Valour and the Horror Revisited.McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. p. 84.ISBN978-0-7735-6513-5.
  5. ^David O'Keefe (5 November 2013).One Day in August: The Untold Story Behind Canada's Tragedy at Dieppe.Knopf Canada. p. 16.ISBN978-0-345-80771-7.
  6. ^J. L. Granatstein (2005).The Generals: The Canadian Army's Senior Commanders in the Second World War.University of Calgary Press. p. 16.ISBN978-1-55238-176-2.
  7. ^Tim Cook (1 November 2011).Clio's Warriors: Canadian Historians and the Writing of the World Wars.UBC Press. p. 277.ISBN978-0-7748-4125-2.
  8. ^Robert Jervis; Seweryn Bialer (1991).Soviet-American Relations After the Cold War.Duke University Press. p.341.
  9. ^Editorials on File.Vol. 16, Part 1. Facts on File, Incorporated. January 1985. p. 536.
  10. ^"Albert B. Corey Prize | AHA".www.historians.org.Retrieved2022-10-12.
  11. ^"Contact US".January 2001.
  12. ^"Past GGBooks winners and finalists".Governor General's Literary Awards.Retrieved2022-11-24.
[edit]
Archives at
LocationUniversity of Toronto Archives & Records Management ServicesEdit this on Wikidata
SourceCharles Perry Stace fonds
How to use archival material
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