Robert Howard "Robin" Hodgkin (24 April 1877 – 28 June 1951) was an English historian. He taught at
Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...
, from 1900 to 1937 and served as its
provost from 1937 until 1946. He was particularly known for his 1935 work, ''A History of the Anglo-Saxons'', and for his 1949 book, ''Six Centuries of an Oxford College''.
Born at the family house
Benwell Dene
Benwell Dene is a Victorian building in the suburb of Benwell, Newcastle Upon Tyne, England. It was designed by Alfred Waterhouse for Dr Thomas Hodgkin and was built in 1865. Hodgkin donated the house to the Royal Victoria Home in 1894, and beq ...
in
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...
, Hodgkin was the son of the banker and historian
Thomas Hodgkin
Thomas Hodgkin RMS (17 August 1798 – 5 April 1866) was a British physician, considered one of the most prominent pathologists of his time and a pioneer in preventive medicine. He is now best known for the first account of Hodgkin's disease, ...
, and was part of a so-called "Quaker dynasty" with
many accomplished relatives.
[ From 1896 to 1899, he attended ]Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...
, graduating with first-class honours in the Final School of Modern History. The following year, he volunteered to serve in the Northumberland Fusiliers
The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers was an infantry regiment of the British Army. Raised in 1674 as one of three 'English' units in the Dutch Anglo-Scots Brigade, it accompanied William III to England in the November 1688 Glorious Revolution an ...
—which he would rejoin during the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
—ultimately leading to him being forced to leave 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 ...
.
Hodgkin was appointed a lecturer of modern history
The term modern period or modern era (sometimes also called modern history or modern times) is the period of history that succeeds the Middle Ages (which ended approximately 1500 AD). This terminology is a historical periodization that is applie ...
at Queen's in 1900. He was made a fellow in 1904, a tutor in 1910, and, from 1928 to 1934, he held the post of university lecturer in modern history. From 1936 to 1937, he filled two terms as pro-provost when B. H. Streeter
Burnett Hillman Streeter (1874–1937) was an English Anglican theologian, biblical scholar, and textual critic.
Life
Streeter was born in Croydon, London, on 17 November 1874 and educated at The Queen's College, Oxford. He was ordained in 1 ...
fell ill, resumed teaching in April, and retired towards the end of the year. Retirement lasted less than a week, however, for Streeter (now returned to his duties) died in a plane crash, and Hodgkin was asked to take on the role permanently. He served for nine years, all during the Second World War
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 opposin ...
or its prelude.
As a teacher, Hodgkin was remembered by a student for being "suggestive rather than purely instructive", offering signposts for "the roads and tracks" but "leav nghis pupils to explore for themselves". As provost, he was remembered for his dedication, for shepherding it through the wartime years, and for two important works: the reconstruction of the college's grand library, and his book on the college's history.
Early life and education
Robert Howard Hodgkin was born in Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...
on 24 April 1877,[ at the family house ]Benwell Dene
Benwell Dene is a Victorian building in the suburb of Benwell, Newcastle Upon Tyne, England. It was designed by Alfred Waterhouse for Dr Thomas Hodgkin and was built in 1865. Hodgkin donated the house to the Royal Victoria Home in 1894, and beq ...
.[ His mother was Lucy Hodgkin (born Lucy Anna Fox), and his father ]Thomas Hodgkin
Thomas Hodgkin RMS (17 August 1798 – 5 April 1866) was a British physician, considered one of the most prominent pathologists of his time and a pioneer in preventive medicine. He is now best known for the first account of Hodgkin's disease, ...
, a banker and historian of Europe in the Middle Ages.[ Robert Hodgkin was the sixth of seven surviving children, following Violet (b. 1869), John (b. 1871, but died the year after), Edward (b. 1872), Elizabeth ("Lily," b. 1873), Ellen ("Nelly," b. 1875), and followed by George (b. 1880). "The Hodgkins", said a friend of a relative, "are a ]Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
dynasty with all that that implies".[ Among others, Robert Hodgkin was related to the painter Sir ]Howard Hodgkin
Sir Gordon Howard Eliott Hodgkin (6 August 1932 – 9 March 2017) was a British Painting, painter and printmaker. His work is most often associated with Abstract art, abstraction.
Early life
Gordon Howard Eliot Hodgkin was born on 6 August 1 ...
, the namesake of Hodgkin's lymphoma
Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a type of lymphoma, in which cancer originates from a specific type of white blood cell called lymphocytes, where multinucleated Reed–Sternberg cells (RS cells) are present in the patient's lymph nodes. The condition wa ...
Thomas Hodgkin
Thomas Hodgkin RMS (17 August 1798 – 5 April 1866) was a British physician, considered one of the most prominent pathologists of his time and a pioneer in preventive medicine. He is now best known for the first account of Hodgkin's disease, ...
, and Alan Hodgkin
Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin (5 February 1914 – 20 December 1998) was an English physiologist and biophysicist who shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Andrew Huxley and John Eccles.
Early life and education
Hodgkin was bo ...
, winner of the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accord ...
.[
Hodgkin left Benwell Dene in 1887, aged ten, to spend the first of four years at the preparatory Seabank School, in ]Alnmouth
Alnmouth () is a coastal village in Northumberland, England, situated east-south-east of Alnwick. The population of the civil parish at the 2001 Census was 562, reducing to 445 at the 2011 Census.
Located at the mouth of the River Aln, the vill ...
, though several months of his first year were spent at home recovering from bronchitis. By all accounts, Hodgkin's first years at school were unhappy. "School at Alnmouth was not a bit a happy time", one sister later recalled; "when he was old he used to say that it did seem strange that the hardest lessons you had to learn came at the very beginning of life." Another noted that "he hated it too much to talk about it", and that when older, he stated "The one thing to be said for it was that all later miseries seemed nothing by comparison". Hodgkin's wife, meanwhile, termed him a "home lover" for whom the time at Seabank was "more or less unhappy". Hodgkin would pray for the school to burn down, and one year his prayers were answered, in a fashion, when an outbreak of scarlet fever
Scarlet fever, also known as Scarlatina, is an infectious disease caused by ''Streptococcus pyogenes'' a Group A streptococcus (GAS). The infection is a type of Group A streptococcal infection (Group A strep). It most commonly affects childr ...
led to all the boys being sent home. The situation improved slightly when Hodgkin's brother George, three and a half years his junior, entered Seabank, and (as his sister wrote), "Robin became resigned".
Around 1890, Hodgkin's father rented Chollerton Farmhouse
Chollerton is a village in Northumberland, England, on the A6079 road about to the north of Hexham, on the River North Tyne. Nearby villages include Low Brunton and Humshaugh. The village has a fine example of a mounting block standing at the ...
[ in ]Chollerton
Chollerton is a village in Northumberland, England, on the A6079 road about to the north of Hexham, on the River North Tyne. Nearby villages include Low Brunton and Humshaugh. The village has a fine example of a mounting block standing at the c ...
, Northumberland, as a holiday home. The following September, Hodgkin enrolled at Repton
Repton is a village and civil parish in the South Derbyshire district of Derbyshire, England, located on the edge of the River Trent floodplain, about north of Swadlincote. The population taken at the 2001 Census was 2,707, increasing to 2,8 ...
, where he spent two terms, much of it in the school's sanatorium
A sanatorium (from Latin '' sānāre'' 'to heal, make healthy'), also sanitarium or sanitorium, are antiquated names for specialised hospitals, for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments and convalescence. Sanatoriums are often ...
. The frequent ill health, one sister wrote, was possibly one reason for Hodgkin's unhappiness at school. In any event, his doctor advised that he attend a school further south. This brought Hodgkin (as well his younger brother) to the Quaker Leighton Park School
Leighton Park School is a co-educational Independent school (United Kingdom), independent school for both day and boarding pupils in Reading, Berkshire, Reading in South East England. The school's ethos is closely tied to the Quaker values, havin ...
, where he stayed from 1892 until 1895. In 1894, meanwhile, Hodgkin and his sisters Lily and Ellen were taken by their father to Italy and Austria, where they spent time in Milan, Florence, Rome, Naples, Ravenna, and Vienna. Their homes, too, were changing: at the end of 1893, the family sold Benwell Dene and took a five-year lease on the keep at Bamburgh Castle
Bamburgh Castle is a castle on the northeast coast of England, by the village of Bamburgh in Northumberland. It is a Grade I listed building.
The site was originally the location of a Celtic Brittonic fort known as ''Din Guarie'' and may have ...
, and from 1900 to 1913, resided at Barmoor Castle
Barmoor Castle ( ) is a privately owned 19th-century country house built on an ancient site in Northumberland. It is a Grade II* listed building. As at 2008 the decaying building is officially listed on the English Heritage Buildings at Risk R ...
. Hodgkin's wife later suggested that the time spent along the Northumbrian coast while at Seabank and Bamburgh influenced Hodgkin's interest in England and English history.
In Hodgkin's first year at Bamburgh, his father became acquainted with Arthur Smith, a teacher at Balliol College
Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...
at the University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
who had his holiday home nearby. It was arranged for Hodgkin to live and be coached by Smith for a term before taking the Balliol entrance exam. He attended Balliol from 1896 to 1899. His friends there included his cousins Ted Backhouse and Henry (Tommy) Hodgkin, James (Jimmy) Palmer, later the Bishop of Bombay, F. F. Urquhart, A. W. Pickard-Cambridge, a poet named Carré, and others by the names of Tawney and Beveridge. His best friend was Richard Denman
Sir Richard Douglas Denman, 1st Baronet (24 August 1876 – 22 December 1957), was a radical British Liberal Party politician and Labour Party then National Labour MP.
Background
Denman was the son of Richard Denman, a court clerk and Helen M ...
, and at one point, along with two others, they worked their way on a cargo steamer to Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
before travelling along the Volga
The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the List of rivers of Europe#Rivers of Europe by length, longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Cas ...
and exploring the Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...
, stopping in Tiflis
Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million pe ...
in Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
, and eventually leaving for home from Odessa
Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...
in Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
. Hodgkin, Denman, and Urquhart were members of the Balliol hockey
Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...
team, which Hodgkin captained. Hodgkin and another friend, Kenneth Swan, were part of the short-lived "Romance Society" at Balliol, which met once a fortnight to hear and discuss short stories written by its members; they also played hockey and tennis, and enjoyed Sunday teas at the home of the Smiths. In 1899, Hodgkin was ''proxime'', or runner-up, for the Stanhope essay prize
The Stanhope essay prize was an undergraduate history essay prize created at Balliol College, Oxford, by Philip Henry Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope in 1855.
Notable winners
Notable Stanhope Prize winners:
* John Richard Magrath, 1860
* Francis J ...
, behind Robert Rait
Sir Robert Sangster Rait (10 February 1874 – 25 May 1936) was a Scottish historian, Historiographer Royal and Principal of the University of Glasgow.
Early life
Rait was born in 1874 in Narborough, Leicestershire to Scottish parents, although ...
, and in Trinity term obtained first-class honours in the Final School of Modern History.[
Hodgkin took a free year upon leaving Balliol.][ During the year he wrote a biography of ]Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia
Elizabeth Stuart (19 August 159613 February 1662) was Electress of the Palatinate and briefly Queen of Bohemia as the wife of Frederick V of the Palatinate. Since her husband's reign in Bohemia lasted for just one winter, she is called the Wi ...
, which was published in Rait's 1902 book ''Five Stuart Princesses''.[ He also spent time studying German in Dresden.][
]
Second Boer War
Despite his Quaker roots, Hodgkin supported the Second Boer War
The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...
, volunteering as a lieutenant with the 1st V.B. Northumberland Fusiliers
The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers was an infantry regiment of the British Army. Raised in 1674 as one of three 'English' units in the Dutch Anglo-Scots Brigade, it accompanied William III to England in the November 1688 Glorious Revolution an ...
from 1900 to 1906.[ That year, he wrote to the Quaker magazine '' The Friend'', claiming many members of the movement—known as the Society of Friends—shared his views but hid behind the Quakers' pacifist stance, "bringing on the Society the shadow of hypocrisy". His father also supported the war, rankling other Quakers, and causing ]John Wilhelm Rowntree
John Wilhelm Rowntree (4 September 1868 – 9 March 1905) was a chocolate and confectionery manufacturer and Quaker religious activist and reformer.ODNB article by Edward H. Milligan, ‘Rowntree, John Wilhelm (1868–1905)accessed 20 Janua ...
to write to Rufus Jones in indignation, claiming that " u would hardly believe your eyes if you came over here. Thos. Hodgkin's son a Lieutenant, though still a nominal Quaker, heads a procession to burn Kruger Krüger, Krueger or Kruger (without the Umlaut (diacritic), umlaut Ü) are German surnames originating from '':de:Krüger, Krüger'', meaning tavern-keeper in Low German and Pottery, potter in Central German and Upper German.
The last name Krüger ...
in effigy, T. Hodgkin makes the speech and Lily ucy?Hodgkin lights the faggots ... the spirit of war, stalks the land naked, unashamed & our leading Quaker gives his benediction!" Not all agreed; Caroline Stephen
Caroline Emelia Stephen (8 December 1834 – 7 April 1909), also known as Milly Stephen, was a British philanthropist and a writer on Quakerism. Her niece was Virginia Woolf.
Life
Stephen was born on 8 December 1834 at Kensington Gore on Hyde Pa ...
wrote to Robert Hodgkin's mother that there was "much of nobleness ... much that appeals to all one's best feelings" in what he had done. Hodgkin was ultimately forced to leave the Society of Friends in 1903 because of his military service in the Second Boer War.[ The severance was "a blow to him and to all of us", his sister later wrote, since he had been "a loyal if not an enthusiastic Friend" since his time at Leighton Park.
]
Career
After school, Hodgkin competed unsuccessfully for various prize fellowships, and was considering a business career when, in 1900, Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...
offered him a lectureship in modern history
The term modern period or modern era (sometimes also called modern history or modern times) is the period of history that succeeds the Middle Ages (which ended approximately 1500 AD). This terminology is a historical periodization that is applie ...
.[ On 19 May 1904, he was elected to a fellowship at the college,][ and, in 1910, had also become a ]tutor
TUTOR, also known as PLATO Author Language, is a programming language developed for use on the PLATO system at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign beginning in roughly 1965. TUTOR was initially designed by Paul Tenczar for use in co ...
.[ Though second in command to Edward Armstrong as a tutor, Hodgkin was responsible for much of the history teaching. ]George William Rendel
Sir George William Rendel (23 February 1889 – 6 May 1979) was a British diplomat.Eid Al Yahya, ''Travellers in Arabia'', (Stacey International, 2006).
Early years
Rendel, the son of the engineer George Wightwick Rendel was educated at Downs ...
, a pupil of Hodgkin from 1908 to 1911, credited Hodgkin with a pedagogical approach that was "suggestive rather than purely instructive", and that would "signpost[] the roads and tracks" and then "leave his pupils to explore for themselves".
First World War
Before the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Hodgkin did not have a large number of students, and would socialise with them over meals, tennis, and walks on Shotover
Shotover is a hill and forest in Oxfordshire, England. The hill is east of Oxford. Its highest point is above sea level.
Early history
The toponym may be derived from the Old English , meaning "steep slope". Shotover was part of the Wychwood ...
. After Britain declared war in August 1914, Hodgkin began volunteering at a YMCA
YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...
embarkation camp in the New Forest
The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, featu ...
; over Michaelmas term
Michaelmas term is the first academic term of the academic year in a number of English-speaking universities and schools in the northern hemisphere, especially in the United Kingdom. Michaelmas term derives its name from the Feast of St Micha ...
, he watched the college population gradually dwindle as its members were accepted for service, while awaiting the result of his own application to rejoin the Northumberland Fusiliers. Accepted on 11 December and commissioned a temporary captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
in the Seventh Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers,[ he was posted to the battalion headquarters in ]Alnwick
Alnwick ( ) is a market town in Northumberland, England, of which it is the traditional county town. The population at the 2011 Census was 8,116.
The town is on the south bank of the River Aln, south of Berwick-upon-Tweed and the Scottish bor ...
. Because Hodgkin was deemed medically unfit for foreign service, his four years of service were primarily spent in coastal defence,[ split nearly equally between Northumberland (1915), ]Herne Bay
Herne Bay is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in South East England. It is north of Canterbury and east of Whitstable. It neighbours the ancient villages of Herne and Reculver and is part of the City of Canterbury local government ...
in Kent (1916–1917), and (from 1917 to 1919) 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 ...
in London,[ where he served in the General Staff for Operations.][ Other than the first year, he was able to spend the time with his family. Following the war, Hodgkin was a staunch supporter of the ]League of Nations Union The League of Nations Union (LNU) was an organization formed in October 1918 in Great Britain to promote international justice, collective security and a permanent peace between nations based upon the ideals of the League of Nations. The League of N ...
.
Return to Queen's College
Demobilised in January 1919, Hodgkin returned with his family to Oxford, where he found substantially more students and consequentially more demands on his time. Norman Sykes
Norman A.J. Sykes (16 October 1936 – 9 December 2009) was a professional association football, footballer who played in The Football League for Bristol Rovers F.C., Bristol Rovers, Plymouth Argyle F.C., Plymouth Argyle, Stockport County F.C., ...
, who joined Queen's as a student in 1920, recalled that " e protracted tenure of the Provostship by Magrath meant the disappearance of hospitality from the Provost's lodgings"; he looked instead to Hodgkin for "generous and hospitable entertainment". Hodgkin's health, meanwhile, never particularly robust, also became more of an issue, with frequent colds and flu during the winters, and recurring migraines that would last for several days. For years, Hodgkin spent vacations working on a history of Anglo-Saxon England; his initial idea had been to write a life of Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who bot ...
for the ''Heroes of the Nations'' series, but it quickly blossomed into something larger. In October 1927, a month after the death of his daughter, he began a sabbatical
A sabbatical (from the Hebrew: (i.e., Sabbath); in Latin ; Greek: ) is a rest or break from work.
The concept of the sabbatical is based on the Biblical practice of ''shmita'' (sabbatical year), which is related to agriculture. According to ...
year with time spent at the British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
and at libraries and museums in Germany and Denmark. The sabbatical "spared the ordeal", his wife later wrote, "of living for that first year of our loss in an empty house". Upon his return, in 1928 Hodgkin was appointed university lecturer in modern history, a post he held until 1934.[ Owing in large part to the sabbatical, Hodgkin finally finished ''A History of the Anglo-Saxons'', his first major work, in 1933; the following two years were spent refining it and collecting illustrations, leading to the book's publication in the spring of 1935.
From 1935 to 1936, Hodgkin took a second sabbatical. Most of the time was spent in a cottage in ]Broad Campden
Broad Campden is a small village in Gloucestershire, England, with a church and pub, and notable for its beauty and fine walking trails.
History
The village is the site of the listed partly 12th century Norman Chapel House that was renovated by C ...
, although two spring months were spent in Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
, where his eldest son was working, and his second son visiting during a break between graduation and work. Among others, Hodgkin met Arthur Grenfell Wauchope
General Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope (1 March 1874 – 14 September 1947) was a British soldier and colonial administrator.
Military career
Educated at Repton School, Wauchope was commissioned into the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in 189 ...
and George Antonius
George Habib Antonius, CBE (hon.) ( ar, جورج حبيب أنطونيوس; October 9, 1891May 21, 1942) was a Lebanese author and diplomat who settled in Jerusalem. He was one of the first historians of Arab nationalism. Born in Deir al Qamar ...
. Once returned to Queen's College following the 1936 summer vacation, Hodgkin spent two terms as pro-provost, filling in for an ill B. H. Streeter. Hodgkin's diligence and success in the role came as a surprise to some of his colleagues, who had understood him to prefer the human side of college work to the business side; his disapproval of those who were distracted during meetings caused some comparisons to poacher
Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights.
Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set a ...
s turned gamekeepers. In February 1937, Hodgkin was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and in April he stepped down from the provostship upon Streeter's return.
Hodgkin had spent around two years looking for a retirement home; his wife later wrote "the country within a forty mile radius of Oxford is dotted with houses that we looked over, and in several cases came near to buying". During his 1935–1936 sabbatical he received a notice in the morning post that an Ilmington
Ilmington is a village and civil parish about north-west of Shipston-on-Stour and south of Stratford-upon-Avon in the Cotswolds in Warwickshire, England. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 712. Ilmington is the hi ...
house, Crab Mill,[ would be auctioned "unless previously disposed of", and upon looking it over Hodgkin purchased it outright, along with eleven surrounding houses and cottages, for some £11,250 (). Hodgkin retired around August 1937 (effective 29 September), moving to Crab Mill.
]
Provostship
Shortly before Hodgkin's retirement was set to go into effect, Streeter died in a plane crash.[ The fellows of the college had only three weeks to pick a successor. Hodgkin was seen as a logical choice as the senior official fellow at the time, and had demonstrated his abilities when filling in the previous year. Although he supported electing ]Oliver Franks
Oliver Shewell Franks, Baron Franks (16 February 1905 – 15 October 1992) was an English civil servant and philosopher who has been described as 'one of the founders of the postwar world'.
Franks was involved in Britain's recovery after the S ...
, Hodgkin let colleagues know that he would be unable to refuse if chosen. Hodgkin was unofficially selected at a meeting on 22 September, his retirement went into effect on the 29th, and he was officially elected provost on 5 October; his six days spent as an ordinary fellow set a record for brevity, Crab Mill went from retirement home to weekend retreat, and the Hodgkins moved into the provost's lodgings.[ The new post interrupted plans for a second volume of ''A History of the Anglo-Saxons'', which contemporaries such as F. M. Powicke and V. J. K. Brook][ either lamented or justified by Hodgkin's contributions as provost.
Only the first two of Hodgkin's nine years as provost were not during the ]Second World War
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 opposin ...
, and even then, the first two years were spent under its encroaching shadow. Much of the first two years was spent socialising, with guests, and in committees. He also began collecting material for a work on the history of the college. Britain's declaration of war on Germany created a dual life for the college, with students conscripted and buildings requisitioned. It also added the duties of the Ilmington Home Guard
Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense.
The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting wi ...
, with Hodgkin doing drills and spending some nights in makeshift dugouts in the hills, watching for Germans. Hodgkin also joined the Hebdomadal Council
The Hebdomadal Council was the chief executive body for the University of Oxford from its establishment by the Oxford University Act 1854 until its replacement, in the Michaelmas term of 2000, by the new University Council. Chaired by the Vice- ...
during the war years. The college celebrated the six-hundredth anniversary of its founding in 1940, with more muted celebrations than had first been planned.[
Hodgkin's time as provost was remembered for two major works, and for his dedication to the college. First, he began the reconstruction of the library, which, the fellow Ughtred Shuttleworth Haslam-Jones wrote,][ was "one of the finest buildings in Oxford" once "restored to its former glory". Haslam-Jones termed Hodgkin a "wise ruler" in his oversight of the project, as of the university, setting general principles and delegating authority, while investing himself neither too much nor too little in the details. Hodgkin's second major work was his undertaking of a written history of the college, finished in retirement. Especially during the war years, too, when the college was missing much of its population, Hodgkin—who probably saw his office as a trusteeship—was credited with preserving the continuity and traditions of the college.
]
Retirement
Hodgkin retired for the second time in 1946, and was named an honorary fellow.[ He was 68 at the time and could have held the post for another two years, but was at least partially spurred on to retire by the desire to have Franks replace him. "The College has never had a more devoted or self-effacing Head", wrote Brook, " d even at the end, he timed his resignation to suit what he thought were the interests of the College." Hodgkin was disappointed when Franks left only two years later, to take up the post of ]British ambassador to the United States
The British Ambassador to the United States is in charge of the British Embassy, Washington, D.C., the United Kingdom's diplomatic mission to the United States. The official title is His Majesty's Ambassador to the United States of America.
T ...
.
Hodgkin returned to Crab Mill in retirement, spending time with his family, and completing his book on the history of Queen's College. The book came "into being more rapidly that his ''Anglo-Saxons''", wrote Godfrey Elton
Godfrey Elton, 1st Baron Elton (29 March 1892 – 18 April 1973), was a British historian, academic and Labour Party politician. Having served in the British Army during the First World War, he was elected a fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford ...
, "partly perhaps because he had shed his early inhibitions, but chiefly no doubt because, even more than the ''Anglo-Saxons'', it was a labour of love". It was in press in the spring of 1949, when Hodgkin received news that the sole manuscript had been destroyed in a fire at the printers. A week later, Hodgkin—who had declared "I can never re-write it" but also been offered help by a former pupil to do so—burst into tears upon finding out that the book had been set up in type before the fire, and had thus survived. He also continued to have thoughts of writing a second volume of ''A History of the Anglo-Saxons'' and, more so, a family history, although he started neither.
Personal life
On 6 August 1908, Hodgkin proposed to Dorothy Forster Smith, the daughter of Hodgkin's Balliol instructor. The engagement was facilitated by Hodgkin's sister Violet, who invited the unsuspecting Smith, summering at the nearby family house, to Barmoor. Astonished by the proposal, Smith responded with tears; only three days later did she agree to a trial engagement, although the two married on 15 December. The service was held at St Cross Church and conducted by Albert David
Albert Leroy David (July 18, 1902 – September 17, 1945) was an officer in the United States Navy during World War II and a recipient of two Navy Crosses as well as the Medal of Honor. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his role in help ...
. Hodgkin had continued living at Barmoor for the past seven years, but the family moved to Oxford in February 1909, purchasing Mendip House[ on ]Headington Hill
Headington Hill is a hill in the east of Oxford, England, in the suburb of Headington. The Headington Road goes up the hill leading out of the city. There are good views of the spires of Oxford from the hill, especially from the top of South Park ...
following "a twenty-four hour dash south and frantic interviews with house agents and the owner". The family remained at Mendip for eight years, although Hodgkin spent only leaves there during the war years. Upon their return to Oxford in 1919, they purchased 20 Bradmore Road
Bradmore Road is a residential road in North Oxford, England.
At the northern end of the road is a junction with Norham Road and at the southern end is a junction with Norham Gardens, with the University Parks opposite. Halfway along the ...
, formerly the home of the scholar and historian Henry Francis Pelham
Henry Francis Pelham, FSA, FBA (10 September 1846 in Bergh Apton, Norfolk – 13 February 1907) was an English scholar and historian. He was Camden Professor of Ancient History at the University of Oxford from 1889 to 1907, and was also Pr ...
, a friend of Hodgkin's father;[ the Hodgkins kept the house until 1936, although they kept a place in Oxford by signing a three-year lease on a flat in ]Belsyre Court
Belsyre Court is a listed early 20th-century block of flats in Oxford, England.
The building is located on the south side at the east end of St Bernard's Road, the west side of Woodstock Road, and the north side at the east end of Observator ...
.
The Hodgkins had three children, all born at Mendip. Their first son, Thomas Lionel Hodgkin
Thomas Lionel Hodgkin (3 April 1910 – 25 March 1982) was an English Marxist historian of Africa "who did more than anyone to establish the serious study of African history" in the UK. He was married to the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Dorothy H ...
(b. 1910), became a Marxist historian
Marxist historiography, or historical materialist historiography, is an influential school of historiography. The chief tenets of Marxist historiography include the centrality of social class, social relations of production in class-divided so ...
of Africa.[ In 1937, he married Dorothy Crowfoot, who under her married name would win the ]Nobel Prize in Chemistry
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...
.[ A second son, Edward Christian Hodgkin ("Teddy," b. 1913), became a deputy and foreign editor at '']The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
''; a younger daughter, Elizabeth ("Betty," b. 1915), died at the age of eleven, during an emergency operation on her appendix.[ The death particularly affected both Robert and Edward Hodgkin; for the former, wrote his wife, "I think there was never a time in the years that followed when the joy of her lovely life and the sorrow of her loss were not as present to him as all the happiness that came to him from his two sons and from his grandchildren." For Edward Hodgkin, meanwhile, who went from being a "devoted" brother to being told of her death "awkwardly and curtly, in his first term at ]Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England.
Eton may also refer to:
Places
*Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England
* Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States
* Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...
", and left to grieve away from his family, the death left what his obituary termed "a wound that was never completely healed".[
Hodgkin's father died suddenly in 1913, aged 81. The lease at Barmoor also over, his mother moved to Treworgan, a house along the coast near ]Falmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth ( ; kw, Aberfala) is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,797 (2011 census).
Etymology
The name Falmouth is of English or ...
.[ Hodgkin's younger brother George died in 1918, and his elder brother Edward in 1921. The latter death left Hodgkin "the only 'man of the family'", in his wife's words, and the family's "protector", in his sister's; he subsequently took on responsibility for the family affairs, quipping that " counts are a nice change from Alfred". Following the First World War and until his mother's death in 1934, Hodgkin, who had spent time in Cornwall during holidays as a child (including at ]Glendurgan
Glendurgan Garden ( kw, Glynn Dowrgeun, meaning ''deep valley of otters'') is a National Trust garden situated above the hamlet of Durgan on the Helford River and near Mawnan Smith, in the civil parish of Mawnan, Cornwall, England, United Kin ...
), visited Treworgan two or three times a year with his children.
Hodgkin lost sight in one eye in November 1943, which he discovered upon waking; his wife attributed this, and other health ailments, to his frequent bicycling when wartime petrol rationing prevented the use of a car. He died on 28 June 1951, at the age of 74, at Crab Mill;[ his wife died in 1974.][ Crab Mill later became a retirement home for his son and daughter-in-law.][
]
Publications
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''A History of the Anglo-Saxons''
''A History of the Anglo-Saxons'' was first published in 1935. The two-volume work traced the Anglo-Saxons from their first mentions to the death of Alfred the Great in 899. Noting Hodgkin's father, Charles Wendell David
Charles Wendell David (1885–1984) was a noted American bibliophile, medievalist and librarian. He worked tirelessly both to reconstruct Europe's war-torn repositories and to establish new libraries in the United States.
Biography
David went to ...
wrote that " ing of the present generation, obert Hodgkin'swork necessarily rests more largely on the researches of specialists and is correspondingly more solidly based, but it still has the sweep and roominess and charm with which the elder Hodgkin has made his readers familiar." Reviewers praised Hodgkin's use of archaeological and philological
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as the ...
developments, as well as studies of aerial photography
Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography.
Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wing aircra ...
and toponymy
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
. T. D. Kendrick
Sir Thomas Downing Kendrick (1 April 1895 – 2 November 1979) was a British archaeologist and art historian.
Life Early life
Kendrick was born on 1 April 1895 in Handsworth, a suburb of Birmingham, England to Fanny Susan (nee Downing, bor ...
praised Hodgkin's "enviable skill in writing", and how the "volumes tell their tale with such
clarity, such vigour, and such humour that the reader finds himself anxious to compliment him on the sustained interest of this very long book before paying tribute to the soundness of the author's judgement and the vast trustworthy knowledge that he possesses of all aspects of his subject".
Though it was intended for the more general reader, Francis Peabody Magoun
Francis Peabody Magoun, Jr. MC (6 January 1895 – 5 June 1979) was one of the seminal figures in the study of medieval and English literature in the 20th century, a scholar of subjects as varied as soccer and ancient Germanic naming practi ...
wrote that it "becomes overnight the first history to put in the hands of the serious beginning student of ''any'' aspect of English life before the death of Alfred". This balance was criticised by one reviewer, however, who suggested that the book created "a real danger" that it would be used by students as "a heaven-sent labour-saving device", without necessarily doing "full justice to the theories
and opinions which he summarises and discusses". Kemp Malone
Kemp Malone (March 14, 1889 in Minter City, Mississippi – October 13, 1971) was a prolific medievalist, etymologist, philologist, and specialist in Chaucer who was lecturer and then professor of English Literature at Johns Hopkins Universit ...
claimed that Hodgkin "writes a somewhat pedestrian but a readable prose", but added " l in all, his is by far the best general work that we have on the earliest centuries of English culture." According to another reviewer, "Hodgkin deals fearlessly—it might be said ruthlessly—with much of the interpretation of historians treating of this period, who wrote so late as two generations ago."
A second edition, predominantly a corrected version of the first, followed in 1939. Reginald Ralph Darlington wrote that "the appearance of a second edition within four years bears witness to its wide appeal", and Kendrick wrote that the work "is now to be regarded as one of the established great books of our age".[ A year after Hodgkin's 1951 death, a third edition was published. It was little changed, except for a 48-page appendix on the ]Sutton Hoo
Sutton Hoo is the site of two early medieval cemeteries dating from the 6th to 7th centuries near the English town of Woodbridge. Archaeologists have been excavating the area since 1938, when a previously undisturbed ship burial containing a ...
ship-burial
A ship burial or boat grave is a burial in which a ship or boat is used either as the tomb for the dead and the grave goods, or as a part of the grave goods itself. If the ship is very small, it is called a boat grave. This style of burial was pr ...
authored by Rupert Bruce-Mitford
Rupert Leo Scott Bruce-Mitford, FBA, FSA (14 June 1914 – 10 March 1994) was a British archaeologist and scholar, best known for his multi-volume publication on the Sutton Hoo ship burial. He was a noted academic as the Slade Professor of F ...
, the assistant keeper of British and Medieval Antiquities of the British Museum. The appendix, Magoun wrote, "is in effect a second interim report which summarizes material scattered through the literature of the intervening years" since Bruce-Mitford's 1946 publication of a report on the find.
''Six Centuries of an Oxford College''
Hodgkin's second book, ''Six Centuries of an Oxford College: A History of the Queen's College, 1340–1940'', was published in 1949. The book, wrote one reviewer, told "every thing that is of real significance for the college, from the issue of the Founder's cumbrous statutes to some considerations of the effects of the war of 1939–1945 on the collegiate ideal". Another reviewer wrote that Hodgkin linked "skilfully, and always in close relationship to national history, the varying fortunes of the university and the college and tells of the great men, from John Wyclif
John Wycliffe (; also spelled Wyclif, Wickliffe, and other variants; 1328 – 31 December 1384) was an English scholastic philosopher, theologian, biblical translator, reformer, Catholic priest, and a seminary professor at the University of O ...
to Oliver Franks, whom it has produced or harboured. It is not every college which can boast of two cardinals, one of whom was poisoned by his own chaplain!" According to the first reviewer, the work included "pleasant anecdotes, some shrewd personal judgements and a slight air of nostalgia in the later chapters".
Notes
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hodgkin, Robert Howard
1877 births
1951 deaths
Academics of the University of Oxford
Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
Anglo-Saxon studies scholars
Royal Northumberland Fusiliers officers
British Army personnel of World War I
British historians
English Quakers
Fellows of The Queen's College, Oxford
Robert
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
People from Newcastle upon Tyne
People educated at Repton School
People educated at Leighton Park School
Provosts of The Queen's College, Oxford
Quaker writers
British Army personnel of the Second Boer War