Otto Pierre Nicolas Berkelbach van der Sprenkel (1906

Bussum Bussum () is a commuter town and former municipality in the Gooi region in the south east of the province of North Holland in the Netherlands near Hilversum. Since 2016, Bussum has been part of the new municipality of Gooise Meren. Bussum had a ...

– 1978 Canberra) was a Dutch bibliographer, political scientist, and historian of China.

Early life

Born in the Netherlands, van der Sprenkel was raised in the UK and earned First-Class Honours at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

Career

He held academic positions at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

and

SOAS 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 are ...

. At

Nankai University Nankai University (NKU or Nankai; ) is a national public research university located in Tianjin, China. It is a prestigious Chinese state Class A Double First Class University approved by the central government of China, and a member of the fo ...

on a

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

appointment. He experienced the

Chinese Communist Revolution The Chinese Communist Revolution, officially known as the Chinese People's War of Liberation in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and also known as the National Protection War against the Communist Rebellion in the Republic of China (ROC ...

, an experience that contributed to the book he co-authored (with Michael Lindsay, 2nd Baron Lindsay of Birker and Robert Guillain) ''New China, Three Views'' (1950). He returned to SOAS before moving to Australia to teach at the

Canberra University College Canberra University College was a tertiary education institution established in Canberra by the Australian government and the University of Melbourne in 1930. At first it operated in the Telopea Park School premises after hours. Most of the initi ...

in 1956 and continued at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...

when the college was amalgamated. He was a Foundation Fellow of the

Australian Academy of the Humanities The Australian Academy of the Humanities was established by Royal Charter in 1969 to advance scholarship and public interest in the humanities in Australia. It operates as an independent not-for-profit organisation partly funded by the Australia ...

in 1969. He retired in 1971. His attempt at compiling a comprehensive bibliography of Chinese history in Western languages was incomplete at his death, though held in manuscript form at the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

, to which he also donated or bequeathed numerous rare books. His work on late imperial China was noted for his work on the bureaucratic system, which was also the topic of his 1957

Morrison Lecture The George Ernest Morrison Lecture in Ethnology is given annually at the Australian National University in honour of George Ernest Morrison. The Lectures, founded by the Chinese community in Australia "to honour for all time the great Australian ...

Religion

A convert to the

Society of Friends Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...

in 1956, he gave the 1973

James Backhouse Lecture The Backhouse Lecture series has been given annually since 1964 as a presentation at Quakers Yearly Meeting in Australia. It is similar in themes and structure to the Swarthmore Lecture series in Britain. Also known as the ''James Backhouse Lecture' ...

, "Friends and Other Faiths."

References

1906 births 1978 deaths Dutch bibliographers Dutch political scientists 20th-century Dutch historians Historians of China Alumni of the London School of Economics Dutch expatriates in Canada Dutch expatriates in China Dutch expatriates in Australia Dutch expatriates in the United Kingdom 20th-century political scientists Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities {{Historian-stub