Christopher Allan Whatley is a well-known and widely published Scottish

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

. He has been Professor of Scottish History at the

University of Dundee The University of Dundee is a public research university based in Dundee, Scotland. It was founded as a university college in 1881 with a donation from the prominent Baxter family of textile manufacturers. The institution was, for most of its ...

since 1997. He is a prominent opponent of

Scottish independence Scottish independence (; ) is the idea of Scotland regaining its independence and once again becoming a sovereign state, independent from the United Kingdom. The term Scottish independence refers to the political movement that is campaignin ...

and chaired the inaugural meeting of the local Better Together campaign in

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

during the

2014 Scottish independence referendum A independence referendum, referendum on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom was held in Scotland on 18 September 2014. The referendum question was "Should Scotland be an independent country?", which voters answered with "Yes" or ...

. Whatley left school at 16 years of age, and worked as a shop assistant and semi-skilled machine operator before attending night classes and taking Highers at Clydebank College in order to obtain a place at the

University of Strathclyde The University of Strathclyde () is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal charter in 1964 as the first techn ...

. He graduated with a BA in Economic History in 1972, and completed his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

there in 1975 on the process of industrialisation in Ayrshire. He lectured at Ayr College from 1975 until 1979, when he joined the Department of History at Dundee, where lectured on economic history. Between 1988 and 1992, he taught Scottish History at the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

, before returning to Dundee as Bonar Professor of Modern History, and was Head of the Department of History from 1995 until 2002. He was appointed Professor of Scottish History in 1997. He served as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences from 2002 until 2006 and was Vice Principal and Head of the College of Arts and Social Sciences from 2006 until 2014. He was appointed

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 ...

(OBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to Scottish history education. He became a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

in 2003. His papers are held by Archive Services at the University of Dundee, along with a collection of material relating to the Act of Union that he compiled with Derek Patrick during the writing of ''The Scots and the Union'' (published 2006).

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Alumni of the University of Strathclyde Academics of the University of Dundee Academics of the University of St Andrews Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Officers of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Historical Society 20th-century Scottish historians 21st-century Scottish historians {{UK-historian-stub