C.R. Boxer
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Sir Charles Ralph Boxer FBA GCIH (8 March 1904 – 27 April 2000) was a British historian of
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
and
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
maritime and colonial history, especially in relation to
South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth descr ...
and the
Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...
. In
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
he was the chief spy for the British army intelligence in the years leading up to
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.


Early life

Charles Ralph Boxer was born at
Sandown Sandown is a seaside resort and civil parish on the south-east coast of the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom with the resort of Shanklin to the south and the settlement of Lake in between. Together with Shanklin, Sandown forms a built-up area of ...
on the
Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...
in 1904. On his father's side, he was a descendant of an illustrious British family that had served in command positions in every British war since the
French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
. Boxer's father Colonel Hugh Edward Richard Boxer served in the
Lincolnshire Regiment The Royal Lincolnshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army raised on 20 June 1685 as the Earl of Bath's Regiment for its first Colonel, John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath. In 1751, it was numbered like most other Army regiments ...
and had been killed at the
Second Battle of Ypres During the First World War, the Second Battle of Ypres was fought from for control of the tactically important high ground to the east and south of the Flemish town of Ypres in western Belgium. The First Battle of Ypres had been fought the pr ...
in 1915. While his father's family may have been of Huguenot origin, the family of his mother, Jane Patterson, hailed from Scotland. Her forebears became successful pastoralists in 19th century
Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...
and in Australia.


Education and military career

Charles Boxer was educated at
Wellington College Wellington College may refer to: *Wellington College, Berkshire, an independent school in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England ** Wellington College International Shanghai ** Wellington College International Tianjin * Wellington College, Wellington, Ne ...
and the
Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infant ...
, Boxer was gazetted a second lieutenant in the Lincolnshire Regiment in 1923 and served in that regiment for twenty-four years until 1947. He served in
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
, then, following language and intelligence training, Charles Boxer was seconded to the
Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...
in 1930 for three years as part of an exchange of Japanese and English officers. He was assigned to the 38th Infantry Regiment based at
Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It ...
,
Nara Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the northwest, Wakayam ...
, Japan. At the same time, he was assigned to the non-commissioned officers school at
Toyohashi is a city in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 377,453 in 160,516 households and a population density of 1,400 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . By area, Toyohashi was Aichi Prefecture's second-lar ...
. His housekeeper concubine was a northerner from
Hakodate is a city and port located in Oshima Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the capital city of Oshima Subprefecture. As of July 31, 2011, the city has an estimated population of 279,851 with 143,221 households, and a population density of 412.8 ...
on the island of
Hokkaido is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The lar ...
. In 1933, he qualified as an official interpreter in the Japanese language. It was in Japan that he expanded his interest in Portuguese imperial history, concentrating his attention on the first disastrous experiment of European incursion into Japan and its catastrophic ending when Tokugawa closed off the country to outside influence in the 1640s. The Japanese
crucified Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagin ...
hundreds of Christian missionaries and converts and for good measure executed a delegation of anxious envoys sent out from the Portuguese enclave of
Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a p ...
to make it entirely clear to the European outsiders that they meant what they said. This was the subject of Boxer's book ''The Christian Century of Japan''. Boxer also took up the traditional Japanese sport of kendo, becoming one of only four British nationals recorded to have done this up until that time. Joining the regimental team he became proficient in the art to the level of being awarded the rank of nidan. He would later use his skill as a method of subterfuge in his profession as a spy when he was sent to
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
in 1936. On visits to the occupied territories he would often have a kendo bout, eat, drink scotch and then pump the various Japanese officers and officials that he was socialising with for information in the true nature of a secret service agent. Boxer returned to
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
for a two-year posting from 1935–36 to the military intelligence section of the
War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...
. Posted to Hong Kong in 1936, he served as a General Staff Officer 3rd grade (GSO3) with British troops in China at Hong Kong, doing intelligence work. Between 1937 and 1941, Boxer, promoted from captain to major, became one of the key members of the
Far East Combined Bureau The Far East Combined Bureau, an outstation of the British Government Code and Cypher School, was set up in Hong Kong in March 1935, to monitor Japanese, and also Chinese and Russian (Soviet) intelligence and radio traffic. Later it moved to Sing ...
, a British intelligence organisation that extended from
Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
to
Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
. By 1940, most of its Hong Kong office had been transferred to Singapore, leaving Boxer as the army's chief intelligence officer in the colony. In 1940, he was advanced to General Staff Officer 2nd grade (GSO2). Wounded in action during the Japanese attack on Hong Kong on 8 December 1941, he was taken by the Japanese as a prisoner of war and remained in captivity until 1945. After his release, Boxer returned to Japan in February 1946 as a member of the British
Far Eastern Commission The Far Eastern Commission (FEC) was an Allied commission which succeeded the Far Eastern Advisory Commission (FEAC), and oversaw the Allied Council for Japan following the end of World War II. Based in Washington, D.C., it was first agreed on at ...
, a post that he served until the next year. During his military career, Boxer published 86 publications on Far Eastern history with a particular focus on the 16th and 17th centuries.


Academic career

As a major in the British Army, Boxer had resigned from the service in 1947, when King's College London offered him its ″ Camões Chair of Portuguese″, a post founded and co-funded by Lisbon, and, at the time, the only such chair in the English-speaking world. During this period, the
School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury a ...
of the
University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
also appointed him as its first Professor of the History of the Far East, serving in that post for two years from 1951 to 1953. On retiring from the University of London in 1967, Boxer took up a visiting professorship at
Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...
, where he also served as an advisor to the
Lilly Library The Lilly Library, located on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, is an important rare book and manuscript library in the United States. At its dedication on October 3, 1960, the library contained a collection of 20,000 boo ...
located on its campus in
Bloomington, Indiana Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the central region of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the seventh-largest city in Indiana and the fourth-largest outside the Indianapolis metropolitan area. According to the Mo ...
. From 1969 to 1972, Boxer held a personal chair in the history of European Overseas Expansion at
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
. Charles R. Boxer died at St. Albans, Hertfordshire at the age of 96. Kenneth Maxwell wrote after his death: ″To generations of historians of the Portuguese-speaking world C.R. Boxer was a true colossus. His highly original, pithy, and path-breaking books, monographs, and articles flowed forth with seeming effortlessness. Boxer's works covered the history of early European intrusions into Japan and China during the sixteenth century, and splendid accounts of the opulence and decline of
Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...
, seat of Portugal's empire in Asia. In over 350 publications, all of the highest order of scholarship, Boxer wrote on sixteenth-century naval warfare in the
Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bod ...
, the tribulations of the maritime trading route between Europe and Asia, a sparkling overview of Brazil during the eighteenth century in the age of gold strikes and frontier expansion, magnificent syntheses of both Dutch and Portuguese colonial history, as well as many pioneering comparative studies of local municipal institutions in Asia, Africa, and South America, race relations, and social mores. Famously in the 1960s at the height of Portugal's colonial wars in Africa, he took on the " Luso-tropicalist" propaganda of the Salazar dictatorship by unravelling its roots in
Gilberto Freyre Gilberto de Mello Freyre (March 15, 1900 – July 18, 1987) was a Brazilian sociologist, anthropologist, historian, writer, painter, journalist, congressman born in Recife, Pernambuco, Northeast Brazil. He is commonly associated with other ...
's assertion of Portuguese colonial
non-racialism Non-racialism, aracialism or antiracialism is a South African ideology rejecting racism and racialism while affirming liberal democratic ideals. History Non-racialism became the official state policy of South Africa after April 1994, and it is en ...
and was thoroughly vilified for it by the regime and its apologists.″


Personal life

He was married to Ursula Norah Anstice Tulloch, a woman commonly called the most beautiful in Hong Kong, when he met and had an affair with
Emily Hahn Emily "Mickey" Hahn (, January 14, 1905 – February 18, 1997) was an American journalist and writer. Considered an early feminist and called "a forgotten American literary treasure" by ''The New Yorker'' magazine, she was the author of 54 books a ...
, the ''New Yorkers China correspondent, who herself was involved with one of China's leading intellectuals,
Zau Sinmay Shao Xunmei (; Shanghainese: Zau Sinmay; 1906–1968) was a Chinese poet and publisher.Sun and Swindall, p133 He was a contributing writer for '' T'ien Hsia Monthly'', and also was the owner of ''Modern Sketch''.Jones, Andrew F. ''Developmental ...
. In 1945, he married Hahn, with whom he had two daughters, Carola and Amanda Boxer.


Awards and honours

*Honorary doctorate,
University of Utrecht Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...
, 1950 *Honorary doctorate,
University of Lisbon The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; pt, Universidade de Lisboa, ) is a public research university in Lisbon, and the largest university in Portugal. It was founded in 2013, from the merger of two previous public universities located in Lisbon, th ...
, 1952 *Fellow of the
British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars spa ...
, 1957 *Honorary doctorate,
Universidade Federal da Bahia The Federal University of Bahia ( pt, Universidade Federal da Bahia, UFBA) is a public university located mainly in the city of Salvador. It is the largest university in the state of Bahia and one of Brazil's most prestigious educational institu ...
, 1959 *Honorary doctorate,
University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...
, 1966 *Member of the China Academy,
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
, 1966 *Papal Knight of the
Order of St. Gregory the Great The Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great ( la, Ordo Sancti Gregorii Magni; it, Ordine di San Gregorio Magno) was established on 1 September 1831, by Pope Gregory XVI, seven months after his election as Pope. The order is one of ...
, 1969 *Honorary doctorate,
University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. HKU was also the f ...
, 1971 *Honorary doctorate,
University of Peradeniya The University of Peradeniya ( si, පේරාදෙණිය විශ්වවිද්‍යාලය, ta, பேராதனைப் பல்கலைக்கழகம்) is a public university in Sri Lanka, funded by the University ...
, 1980 *Gold Medal, Instituto Historico e Geografico Brasileiro, 1986. *
Caird Medal The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the Unite ...
of the
National Maritime Museum The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the Unite ...
, 1989 *Distinguished Service Award,
Conference on Latin American History Conference on Latin American History, (CLAH), founded in 1926, is the professional organization of Latin American historians affiliated with the American Historical Association. It publishes the journal ''The Hispanic American Historical Review''. ...
1987 Other awards: *Knight of
Military Order of Saint James of the Sword The Military Order of Saint James of the Sword ( pt, Ordem Militar de Sant'Iago da Espada) is a Portuguese order of chivalry. Its full name is the Ancient, Most Noble and Enlightened Military Order of Saint James of the Sword, of the Scientif ...
(Portugal) *Grand Cross of the Order of Infante D. Henrique (Portugal)


Published works

Bibliographies * S. George West, ''A List of the Writings of Charles Ralph Boxer Published Between 1926 and 1984, Compiled for his Eightieth Birthday'' (London: Tamesis Books Ltd, 1984). * “The Charles Boxer Bibliography,” ''Portuguese Studies'', vol. 17, 2001, pp. 247–276. Selected works * ''A Portuguese Embassy to Japan (1644-1647). Translated from an Unpublished Portuguese Ms. etc.'' (Kegan Paul, 1928); republished 1979 * ''Jan Compagnie in Japan, 1660-1817. An Essay'' (Martinus Nijhoff, 1936); republished 1950 & 1968 * ''Fidalgos in the Far East, 1550-1770. Fact and Fancy in the History of Macao'' (Martinus Nijhoff, 1948); republished 1968 * ''The Christian Century in Japan, 1549-1650'' (University of California, 1951); republished 1967, 1974 & 1993 * ''Salvador de Sá and the Struggle for Brazil and Angola, 1602-1686'' (Athlone Press, 1952) * ''South China in the Sixteenth Century (1550-1575)'' (Hakluyt Society, 1953); editor * ''The Dutch in Brazil, 1624-1654'' (Clarendon Press, 1957) * ''The Great Ship from Amacon: Annals of Macao and the Old Japan Trade, 1555-1640'' (Centro de Estudos Historicos Ultramarinos, 1959) * ''The Tragic History of the Sea, 1589-1622'' (Hakluyt Society, 1959); editor * ''The Colour Question in the Portuguese Empire, 1415-1825'' (OUP, 1961) * ''The Golden Age of Brazil, 1695-1750: Growing Pains of a Colonial Society'' (University of California, 1962) * ''The Dutch Seaborne Empire, 1600-1800'' (Hutchinson, 1965); The "History of Human Society" series * ''Portuguese Society in the Tropics: Municipal Councils of Goa, Macao, Bahia and Luanda, 1510-1800'' (University of Wisconsin, 1965) * ''Francisco Vieira de Figueiredo: A Portuguese Merchant-Adventurer in South-East Asia, 1624-1667'' (Martinus Nijhoff, 1967) * ''Some Literary Sources for the History of Brazil in the Eighteenth Century. The Taylorian Lecture delivered 9 May 1967'' (Clarendon Press, 1967) * ''Further Selections from The Tragic History of the Sea, 1559-1565'' (Hakluyt Society, 1968); editor * ''The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 1415-1825'' (Hutchinson, 1969); The "History of Human Society" series * ''Mary and Misogyny: Women in Iberian Expansion Overseas 1415-1815. Some Facts, Fancies and Personalities'' (Duckworth, 1975) * ''The Church Militant and Iberian Expansion, 1440-1770'' (Johns Hopkins University, 1978) * ''Portuguese India in the Mid-Seventeenth Century'' (OUP, 1980) * ''From Lisbon to Goa, 1500-1750: Studies in Portuguese Maritime Enterprise'' (Routledge, 1984) * ''Portuguese Merchants and Missionaries in Feudal Japan, 1543-1640'' (Routledge, 1986) * ''Dutch Merchants and Mariners in Asia, 1602-1795'' (Routledge, 1988)


See also

*
Boxer Codex The ''Boxer Codex'' is a late sixteenth century Spanish manuscript that was produced in the Philippines. The document contains seventy-five colored illustrations of the peoples of China, the Philippines, Java, the Moluccas, the Ladrones, and Sia ...


References


Further reading

* Boyd, Kelly, ed. ''Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writers'' (Rutledge, 1999) 2:110-11 * Budden, ed. ''A Truly British Samurai, the Exceptional Charles Boxer (1904 -2000).'' Published by Bunkasha, 2015


Obituaries

*''The Guardian'
Magisterial historian of Portugal and its dark imperial past
*''Renaissance Studies'
Obituary Professor C. R. Boxer
*''The Asia Society of Japan'

*''Reminiscences'


External links


The Christian Century in Japan, by Charles Boxer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boxer, C.R. 1904 births 2000 deaths British maritime historians Royal Lincolnshire Regiment officers British Army personnel of World War II World War II prisoners of war held by Japan Indiana University faculty Yale University faculty Academics of the University of London Fellows of the British Academy People from Sandown People educated at Wellington College, Berkshire Academics of King's College London Brazilianists 20th-century British historians Historians of colonialism Historians of Portugal Historians of the Dutch East India Company