H. W. C. Davis

H. W. C. Davis
Born	(1874-01-13)13 January 1874 Ebley,Gloucestershire,England, United Kingdom
Died	28 June 1928(1928-06-28)(aged 54) Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Education	Weymouth College
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford
Occupation	Historian
Known for	Editor of theDictionary of National Biography
Title	Regius Professor of Modern History
Term	1925–1928
Predecessor	Charles Harding Firth
Successor	Maurice Powicke

Henry William Carless DavisCBEFBA(13 January 1874 – 28 June 1928) was a British historian, editor of theDictionary of National Biography,andOxford Regius Professor of Modern History.

Early career

Davis was born in Ebley, nearStroud, Gloucestershirethe eldest of five children of Henry Frederick Alexander Davis, asolicitor,and his wife, Jessie Anna. The children were brought up by their mother, who moved toWeymouthin 1884 to open a school for young children including her own, and was successful enough to be appointed first headmistress ofWeymouth College preparatory schoolin 1903. Davis attended Weymouth College from 1886 and went up toBalliol College, Oxfordon a Brackenbury history scholarship, where he attained first classes in classicalmoderationsin 1893 andliterae humanioresin 1895 as well as the Jenkiyns exhibition. He was elected to a fellowship atAll Souls College, Oxford,maintaining residence there from 1895 until 1902, and spending time teaching atUniversity College, Bangorbetween 1896 and 1897. Davis won the Lothian Prize in 1897 and was appointed to a lectureship atNew College, Oxford,and in 1899 exchanged lectureships and moved to Balliol, where on the expiration of his All Souls fellowship in November 1902 he was appointed a fellow of Balliol.

In 1899 Davis publishedBalliol College,a work in the College Histories series, and in 1900,Charlemagne,in the Heroes of the Nations series, as well as articles in theEnglish Historical Reviewin 1901. In 1903 he published the articleThe Anarchy of Stephen's Reignin the same journal, which presented the idea that the use of the term 'waste' in thePipe Rollsindicated a much wider devastation resulting fromthe Anarchythan had been thought, fuelling the belief that a great anarchy occurred during Stephen's reign, although the 'waste' theory was later discredited. His first widely regarded book wasEngland under the Normans and Angevins,published in 1905, it became a standard authority and reached a tenth print edition in 1930. It was, however, his only substantial contribution to narrative medieval history. In 1911 he wrote the summaryMedieval Europe,in the Home University Library series, but from 1905 was more focused on editorial work, preparing an edition ofBenjamin Jowett's translation ofAristotle'sPolitics,a revision ofWilliam Stubbs'Select Chartersand starting the calendar of royal charters,Regesta regum Anglo-Normannorum.

His academic presence inspired genuine respect and regard, and his lectures were well attended.Davis was junior dean of Balliol from 1906 until 1910, and an examiner in the final school ofmodern historybetween 1907 and 1909, and again from 1919 to 1921. In 1912 Davis married Jennie Rosa, the daughter of Walter Lindup, of Bampton Grange in Oxfordshire. In 1913 he took theChichelelectureship in foreign history, and became a curator of theBodleian Libraryin 1914.

War years

TheFirst World Wardrew Davis' attention away from academia, and he assisted in the production of a series of Oxford Pamphlets on the war and published a dispassionate analysis,The Political Thought of Heinrich von Treitschke.In early 1915 Davis moved to London and assisted the organization of the Trade Clearing House, a body sponsored by theAdmiraltyandBoard of Tradeto pool intelligence on commercial trade gathered from thepostal censorship.When the Trade Clearing House grew and became the War Trade Intelligence Department and part of the Ministry of Blockade, under theForeign Office,Davis became the vice-chairman. He later wrote of the department's workings inHistory of the Blockade,but left the work unfinished.

On 7 October 1918 Jennie Rosa gave birth toRalph Henry Carless Davis,who became a historian of theMiddle Ages.

In December 1918 at the conclusion of the war Davis served on the British delegation to theParis Peace Conferenceuntil March 1919, and then spent a few weeks as the acting director of the Department of Overseas Trade at the invitation ofSir Arthur Steel-Maitlandand in theNew Years Honoursof that year, Davis was madeCommander of the Order of the British Empire.

Return to Oxford

In April 1919 Davis returned to Oxford and resumed his usual college and university work. He took up the editorial directorship of theDictionary of National Biography,for which the previous editor,Sir Sidney Lee,had conveyed responsibility to theUniversity of Oxfordin 1917. The names for inclusion in the dictionary and list of contributors were chosen by Davis and his co-editorJ. R. H. Weaver,in consultation with a committee from Oxford and outside advisors. The volume of which Davis was in charge was published in 1927, and covered 1911 to the end of 1921. Davis accepted the chair of modern history atManchester Universityin 1921, and he moved toBowdon,spending three and a half years in the post. Davis was elected Ford's lecturer at Oxford for 1924–25; his posthumously printedThe Age of Grey and Peelwas his chosen subject material. DuringHilary term1925, Davis was appointed to succeedSir Charles FirthasRegius Professor of Modern History,making him a fellow ofOriel College.Before the end of the year, Davis was elected anhonorary fellowof Balliol and a fellow of theBritish Academy.

In addition to his duties in Oxford, Davis took up a post on theunemployment insurancecommittee under fellow Balliol manRobert Younger, Baron Blanesburgh,and in 1927 he went toGenevaas British representative on a committee set up by theInternational Labour Organizationto investigate and report on factory legislation in Europe. While inEdinburghfor theUniversity of Edinburgh's examinations, Davis died ofpneumoniaafter a few days' illness, at 19 Great King Street. His body was interred atWolvercotecemetery, Oxford.

Works

• Balliol College'(London: F.E. Robinson and Company, 1899)
• Charlemagne (Charles the Great): The Hero of Two Nations(London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1900)
• The Anarchy of Stephen's Reign(English Historical Review, 1903)
• England Under the Normans and Angevins, 1066-1272(London: Methuen and Company, 1905; 10th ed. 1930)
• Medieval Europe(London: Williams and Norgate, 1911)
• The Political Thought of Heinrich von Treitschke(London: Constable and Company, 1914)
• Ernest Barker,H. W. Carless Davis,C. R. L. Fletcher,Arthur Hassall,L. G. Wickham Legg,F. Morgan,Why We Are at War: Great Britain's Case, by Members of the Oxford Faculty of Modern History(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1914)
• Davis, H. W. C.;Clark, G. N.(ed.),Europe from 800 to 1789(London: Methuen & Co., 1930) posthumously published

References

• Weaver, J. R. H.;Matthew, H. C. "Davis, Henry William Carless (1874-1928)".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32746.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)search online

External links

• Works by or aboutHenry William Carless DavisatWikisource
• Works by Henry William Carless DavisatProject Gutenberg
• Works by or about H. W. C. DavisatInternet Archive