Geoffrey Best
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Geoffrey Francis Andrew Best FBA (20 November 1928 – 14 January 2018) was an English historian known for his studies of warfare and works about
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...
.


Early life and family

Geoffrey Best was born in
Osterley Osterley ( ) is an affluent district of Isleworth in west London, England, from Charing Cross in the London Borough of Hounslow. Most of its land use is mixed agricultural and aesthetic parkland at Osterley House (National Trust), charity-r ...
, Middlesex, on 20 November 1928. He was educated at St Paul's School, London. He undertook his
national service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...
in the
Royal Army Educational Corps The Royal Army Educational Corps (RAEC) was a corps of the British Army tasked with educating and instructing personnel in a diverse range of skills. On 6 April 1992 it became the Educational and Training Services Branch (ETS) of the Adjutant Ge ...
teaching illiterate Scottish soldiers to read and write.Geoffrey Best.
''The Times'', 16 February 2018. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
Best married Marigold Davies in 1955 and they had three children together. Marigold later became involved in Quakerism and the
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nucl ...
(CND) and she and her husband went on CND marches together.


Career

Best studied at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge, becoming a fellow from 1955 to 1961 and an assistant lecturer at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 1956 to 1961. From 1961 to 1974 he was lecturer, reader, and finally Sir Richard Lodge Professor of History at the
University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...
. From 1974 to 1982 he was professor of history at the University of Sussex. He then spent six years as an academic visitor at the
London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...
before in 1988 becoming a member of
St Antony's College St Antony's College is a colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1950 as the result of the gift of French merchant Sir Antonin Besse of Aden, St Antony's specialises in intern ...
, University of Oxford. He was elected a fellow of the
British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies 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 sa ...
in 2003.Dr Geoffrey Best.
British Academy. Retrieved 23 February 2018.


Writing

In 1974, Best became series editor of the Fontana History of European War and Society for which he wrote ''War and Society in Revolutionary Europe 1770-1870'' (1982). He wrote two books on Winston Churchill, ''Churchill: A Study in Greatness'' (2001) and ''Churchill and War'' (2005).


Death

Best died on 14 January 2018.


Selected publications


Authored

* ''Shaftesbury''. Batsford, London, 1964. * ''Temporal Pillars. Queen Anne's Bounty, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and the Church of England''. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1964. * ''Bishop Westcott and the Miners''. Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, London, 1967. (Bishop Westcott memorial lecture) * ''History, Politics and Universities: Inaugural Lecture Delivered on Tuesday 4th March 1969''. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1969. * ''Mid-Victorian Britain, 1851-1875.'' Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1971. * ''Humanity in Warfare: the Modern History of the International Law of Armed Conflict''. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1980.War and Peace.
A.J.P. Taylor. ''London Review of Books''. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
* ''Honour among Men and Nations: Transformations of an Idea''. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1981. * ''War and Society in Revolutionary Europe 1770-1870''. Leicester University Press, Leicester, 1982. * ''Nuremberg and After: The Continuing History of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity''. University of Reading, Reading, 1984. (Stenton lecture) * ''War and Law since 1945''. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1994. * ''Churchill: A Study in Greatness''. Bloomsbury, London, 2001. * ''Churchill and War''. Hambledon Continuum, 2005. * ''A Life of Learning: Selective Memoirs of Geoffrey Best.'' Matador, Kibworth Beauchamp, 2010.


Edited

* Church, R.W. ''The Oxford Movement: Twelve Years, 1833-1845''. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1970. (Edited and introduced) * ''War, Economy and the Military Mind''. Croom Helm, London, 1976. (With Andrew Wheatcroft) * ''History, Society and the Churches: Essays in Honour of Owen Chadwick''. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1985. (with Derek Beales) * ''The Permanent Revolution: The French Revolution and its Legacy, 1789-1989''. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1988.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Best, Geoffrey 1928 births 2018 deaths 20th-century English historians 21st-century English historians 21st-century English memoirists Fellows of the British Academy Academics of the University of Sussex People from Osterley Royal Army Educational Corps soldiers People educated at St Paul's School, London Academics of the University of Edinburgh Fellows of Trinity Hall, Cambridge Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Members of the University of Cambridge faculty of history Historians of warfare English biographers 20th-century British Army personnel Military personnel from the London Borough of Hounslow