The Vere Harmsworth Professorship of Imperial and Naval History is one of the senior

professorships Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

in history at the University of Cambridge. After the Beit Professorship of Colonial History at

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

(founded in 1905) and the Rhodes Professorship of Imperial History at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

(founded in 1919), it is the third oldest chair in its subject in the world. In 1919

Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere, (26 April 1868 – 26 November 1940) was a leading British newspaper proprietor who owned Associated Newspapers Ltd. He is best known, like his brother Alfred Harmsworth, later Viscount Northcl ...

endowed a "Professorship of Naval History" at Cambridge with a donation of £20,000, in memory of his son Vere who was killed at the

Battle of Ancre The Battle of the Ancre was fought by the British Fifth Army ( Lieutenant-General Hubert Gough), against the German 1st Army (General Fritz von Below). The Reserve Army had been renamed the Fifth Army on 30 October. The battle was the last ...

in November 1916. In 1932 the Royal Empire Society successfully campaigned for Cambridge to accept the renaming of the chair to "The Professorship of Imperial and Naval History", under which rubric a new professor was appointed in 1934. Among the holders of this prestigious chair, only Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond has specialized in naval history, while the others have tended to be scholars of imperial history.

Vere Harmsworth Professors

John Holland Rose John Holland Rose (28 June 1855 – 3 March 1942) was an influential English historian who wrote famous biographies of William Pitt the Younger and of French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. He also wrote a history of Europe, entitled ''The Developm ...

(1919–1933) * Admiral Sir

Herbert Richmond Admiral Sir Herbert William Richmond, (15 September 1871 – 15 December 1946) was a prominent Royal Navy officer, described as "perhaps the most brilliant naval officer of his generation." He was also a top naval historian, known as the "Briti ...

(1934–1936) * Eric Anderson Walker (1936–1951) * Edwin Ernest Rich (1951–1971) *

John Andrew Gallagher John Andrew Gallagher (1 April 1919 – 5 March 1980), known as Jack Gallagher, was an historian of the British Empire who between 1963 and 1970 held the Beit Professorship of Commonwealth History at the University of Oxford and from 1971 until ...

(1971–1981) *

David Kenneth Fieldhouse David Kenneth Fieldhouse, FBA (7 June 1925 – 28 October 2018) was an English historian of the British Empire who between 1981 and 1992 held the Vere Harmsworth Professorship of Imperial and Naval History at the University of Cambridge. Arguabl ...

(1981–1992) * Sir

Christopher Alan Bayly Sir Christopher Alan Bayly, FBA, FRSL (18 May 1945 – 18 April 2015) was a British historian specialising in British Imperial, Indian and global history. From 1992 to 2013, he was Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History at t ...

(1992–2013) *

Alison Bashford Alison Caroline Bashford, (born 1963) is an historian specialising in global history and the history of science. She is Laureate Professor of History at the University of New South Wales and Director of the Laureate Centre for History & Popul ...

(2013–2017) *

Samita Sen Samita Sen is an Indian historian and academic. Having previously taught at the University of Calcutta and Jadavpur University, she has been Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History at the University of Cambridge since 2018. Early ...

(2018–Present)

References

Imperial and Naval History, Harmsworth, Vere Imperial and Naval History, Harmsworth, Vere, Cambridge * 1919 establishments in England School of the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Cambridge {{hist-stub