Philip Nicholas Seton Mansergh (27 June 1910 – 16 January 1991) was an Anglo-Irish historian. His focus was on Ireland and the

British Commonwealth The Commonwealth of Nations, often referred to as the British Commonwealth or simply the Commonwealth, is an international association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire The B ...

. He was Master of

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

(1969-1979). He was chair of British Commonwealth relations at

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(1945-1953). Then in 1953 the Smuts Professor of Commonwealth History at

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, where he trained many of the specialists in the field of Irish, Indian, and Commonwealth studies. He played the central role in assembling and editing the "monumental" 12-volume edition of historical documents associated with the independence of India.

Early life and education

Nicholas Mansergh was born at Greenane House,

County Tipperary County Tipperary () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary (tow ...

, Ireland. He maintained lifelong ties there. He was the second son of Philip St George Mansergh (1863–1928), a railway engineer, and Ethel Marguerite Otway Louise Mansergh (1876–1963). His forefathers were part of the

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the State rel ...

Protestant Ascendancy The Protestant Ascendancy (also known as the Ascendancy) was the sociopolitical and economical domination of Ireland between the 17th and early 20th centuries by a small Anglicanism, Anglican ruling class, whose members consisted of landowners, ...

and arrived in Ireland with

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially ...

. One of his earliest memories was of trains leaving the town carrying soldiers destined for service on the Western Front in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. After a short period at school in the north, Mansergh attended the Erasmus Smith (Abbey) School in

Templemore Templemore () is a town in County Tipperary, Ireland. It is a Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish in the historical Barony (Ireland), barony of Eliogarty. It is part of the Ecclesiastical parish, parish of Templemore, Clonmore and Killea i ...

in his native Tipperary, which was founded in 1760. He was the youngest boy there when the school suddenly closed in 1922; he also attended The Abbey School, Tipperary. After the

Irish Civil War The Irish Civil War (; 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923) was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United Kingdom but within the British Emp ...

, Mansergh attended

St. Columba's College, Dublin St Columba's College is a co-educational independent day and boarding school founded in 1843 located in Whitechurch, County Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Among the founders of the college were Edwin Wyndham-Quin, 3rd Earl of Dunraven an ...

with his elder brother, then he went up to

Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located on Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England and VI of Scotland, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale ...

to read modern history. There he came under the influence of R. B. McCallum and was later supervised by W. G. S. Adams.Hyam, 2004. He gained a Second in 1932.

Career

After graduation, Mansergh was a tutor in the school of Modern Greats at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

and secretary to the

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Politics Research Committee. His first book, ''The Irish Free State: Its Government and Politics'' (1934), fuelled his subsequent interest in the Commonwealth, one that he would pursue for the remainder of his academic career. In an interview a half century later, Mansergh noted:

The Commonwealth for my generation had something in common with the Common Market nowadays. I was interested in the Commonwealth to see if it would provide a way forward in Ireland itself. An inherent weakness in the Anglo-Irish Treaty was that the Dominion settlement was not consistent with Partition rom Northern Ireland I felt that Dominion status wouldn't work, which was obvious enough by 1934, but I wasn't sure whether any alternative to Dominion status would work in Ireland's case."The Saturday Interview by Tom McGrath, ''The Irish Times'', June 11, 1983''

Mansergh followed this up in 1940 with ''Ireland in the Age of Reform and Revolution'', which critically analysed the Marxist dialectic as it had been applied to Ireland, noting later that this led to his frequent misidentification as a Marxist historian. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Mansergh worked in the British Ministry of Information, where after working on Anglo-Irish information services and cultural relations he was appointed head of the Empire division in 1944. He was made an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in the 1946

New Year Honours The New Year Honours is a part of the British honours system, with New Year's Day, 1 January, being marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of other Commonwealth realms also mark this ...

. After the war, Mansergh was appointed Abe Bailey Professor of British Commonwealth relations at

(1945-1953). He also began visiting India as an observer at the

Asian Relations Conference The Asian Relations Conference was an international conference that took place in New Delhi from 23 March to 2 April, 1947. Organized by the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), the Conference was hosted by Jawaharlal Nehru, then the Vice-P ...

. Upon his return, Mansergh gave a lecture on "The Implications of Éire's Relations with the British Commonwealth of Nations", which helped influence Commonwealth relations during the late 1940s. In 1953 Mansergh was appointed to the newly created position of Smuts Professor of the History of the British Commonwealth at

. There he supervised several research students studying Irish history and he ran a special subject on the Anglo-Irish settlement which was taken by numerous students reading for Part II of the Historical

Tripos TRIPOS (''TRIvial Portable Operating System'') is a computer operating system. Development started in 1976 at the Computer Laboratory of Cambridge University and it was headed by Dr. Martin Richards. The first version appeared in January 1978 a ...

.Harkness, `1993. W. K. Hancock states:

"In the departments of history in nearly every British university Ireland had remained for too long a forgotten country, except as an irritating intruder into British party politics. Cambridge had been in some degree an exception to that bad rule.. But Mansergh was the first member of the faculty to make specific provisions for the teaching of Irish history both to undergraduates and graduates.... For as far ahead as anybody can foresee, Mansergh's contribution to Irish historiography will remain an enlightening and civilized influence upon intelligent teachers, students and men of affairs both in Ireland and in Britain."

In 1967 he was appointed editor-in-chief by the prime minister,

Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx (11 March 1916 – 23 May 1995) was a British statesman and Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, from 1964 to 1970 and again from 197 ...

, of a multi-volume collection of documents from the

India Office The India Office was a British government department in London established in 1858 to oversee the administration of the Provinces of India, through the British viceroy and other officials. The administered territories comprised most of the mo ...

on the transfer of power to India in the 1940s. Two years later, he published one of his most important works, ''The Commonwealth Experience'', and was elected Master of

(1969-1979). In 1971 he was made an honorary fellow of

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

. He served as Master until 1979, and continued there afterwards as a fellow, and he was also three times Visiting Professor at the Indian School of International Studies in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

. Historian Margaret O'Callaghan said "Nicholas Mansergh...was one of the finest historians of high political relations between successive British governments and those of the two parts of the island of Ireland." He was a member of the British Academy, where the obituary by David Harkness praised his distinguished work. A festschrift from his students honoured his memory.

Personal life

In December 1939 at St. Mary the Virgin Church, Oxford University, Nicholas Mansergh married Diana Mary Keeton (1919–2001), the daughter of George Keeton of Fleet, Hampshire, an English public school headmaster and former England Rugby international. Diana Keeton had studied languages at

Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, located on a bank of the River Cherwell at Norham Gardens in north Oxford and adjacent to the University Parks. The ...

and was a women's squash and lawn tennis

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

. Nicholas Mansergh was himself a former Irish senior men's tennis champion and met Keeton on an Oxford tennis court. She later edited two collections of his papers after her husband's death in 1991. She died in 2001. They had 5 children (Philip, Daphne, Martin, Nicholas and Jane).

Martin Martin may refer to: Places Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Europe * Martin, Croatia, a village * Martin, Slovakia, a city * Martín del Río, Aragón, Spain * M ...

is a former Irish politician and historian. Daphne Gilbert (her married name) became a mathematician.

Legacy

A travel bursary at St. Columba's, his old school, was donated by him.

Published works

* * * (reissued as ''The Irish Question, 1840–1921'', 1965, 1975 ) * *''Documents and Speeches on Commonwealth Affairs, 1952–1962'' (1963) 804p
online
* (revised 1982) * (12 volumes) ** Mansergh, Nicholas, and E. W. R. Lumby, eds. ''India: The Transfer of Power 1942-7. Vol. II. 'Quit India' 30 April-21 September 1942'' (London:

Her Majesty's Stationery Office The Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) is the body responsible for the operation of His Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO) and of other public information services of the United Kingdom. The OPSI is part of the National Archives of the U ...

, 1971), 1044p
onlineVolumes are available from the Internet Archive
* * *

Tributes

St John's College awards an annual Mansergh Prize in his honour to the best short dissertation or essay (under 10,000 words) on history.