Antony R. H. Copley (1 July 1937 – 18 July 2016) was a British historian. He was an honorary professor at the

University of Kent at Canterbury A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

, and specialised in nineteenth century French history and modern Indian history. He was born on 1 July 1937 in Hertfordshire, the son of Alan Copley, a solicitor, and Iris Copley, and educated at

Gresham's School Gresham's School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Independent school (United Kingdom), independent Day school, day and boarding school) in Holt, Norfolk, Holt, Norfolk, England, one of the top thirty International Bac ...

and

Worcester College, Oxford Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms w ...

. In 1967, he joined the staff at the

, and was granted an honorary professorship when he retired. In 1959 Copley was found by the police in a public lavatory and arrested for importuning with immoral purposes. On the advice of his solicitor father, he pleaded guilty. At the time of his death he was looking forward to a general pardon for men who like himself had been convicted of homosexual acts.

Publications

* "Sexual Moralities in France 1780-1980", Routledge (1989) * ''Gandhi: Against the Tide'', Oxford University Press (1996) * ''Religions in Conflict: Ideology, Cultural Contact and Conversion in Late-Colonial India'', Oxford India Paperbacks, 2000 * ''Gandhi, Freedom, and Self-Rule'' (Global Encounters: Studies in Comparative Political Theory) by Anthony J. Parel, Judith M. Brown, Antony Copley and

Fred Dallmayr Fred Reinhard Dallmayr (born October 18, 1928) is an American philosopher and political theorist. He is Packey J. Dee Professor Emeritus in Political Science with a joint appointment in philosophy at the University of Notre Dame (US). He holds a D ...

(2000) * ''Gurus and their followers: New religious reform movements in Colonial India'', Oxford University Press, (2000) * ''A Spiritual Bloomsbury: Hinduism and Homosexuality in the Lives and Writings of Edward Carpenter, E.M. Forster, and Christopher Isherwood'', Lexington, (2006) * ''Hinduism in Public and Private Reform, Hindutva, Gender, and Sampraday'', Oxford India Paperbacks, 2009 * ''Music and the Spiritual: Composers and Politics in the 20th Century'', Ziggurat, (2012) * ''A Memoir: Historian and Homosexual: Search for a Postwar Identity: Edited Diaries and Journals'', Fastprint publishing, (2016)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Copley, Antony 1937 births 2016 deaths Academics of the University of Kent Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford British LGBT historians People educated at Gresham's School 21st-century British LGBT people 20th-century British historians 21st-century British historians 20th-century British LGBT people