Peter Nicholas Tarling (1 February 1931 – 13 May 2017) was a historian, academic, and author. He specialised in Southeast Asian history, and wrote on 18th- and 19th-century Malaysia,

North Borneo North Borneo (usually known as British North Borneo, also known as the State of North Borneo) was a British Protectorate, British protectorate in the northern part of the island of Borneo, (present-day Sabah). The territory of North Borneo wa ...

, Philippines, and

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

, especially regarding foreign involvement in those countries.

Biography

Early life

Nicholas Tarling was born on 1 February 1931 in

Iver Iver is a civil parishes in England, civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England. In addition to the central nucleated village, clustered village, the parish includes the residential neighbourhoods of Iver Heath and Richings Park and the hamlets o ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

, England, and obtained his secondary education at St Albans School. As an undergraduate at

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

, he was supervised by, among others, Sir John H. Plumb. He also earned his PhD at Cambridge, supervised by Dr Victor Purcell.

Career

In 1957 he took up a teaching post at the

University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...

in Gordon Greenwood's Department of History and Political Science. There, he taught courses in both European and Asian history. During those years he visited Southeast Asia and the US, and published three books: a revised version of his thesis; ''Anglo-Dutch Relations in the Malay World''; ''Piracy and Politics in the Malay World''. In 1965 Tarling was appointed

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

at the

University of Auckland The University of Auckland (; Māori: ''Waipapa Taumata Rau'') is a public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. The institution was established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. Initially loc ...

in New Zealand, and in 1968 he became a

full professor 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 ...

, still as a European and Asian history teacher. He also held posts as Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Chairman of the Deans Committee, and Deputy Vice-Chancellor. He also served on a number of inter-university and government committees. He was the founder and president of the New Zealand Asian Studies Society (NZASIA) and also had two terms as President of the Association of University Teachers of New Zealand. His interest in the arts led to his appointment to Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, to the chairmanship of the Symphonia of Auckland, and to a directorship of Opera New Zealand. He was a busy amateur actor and served for many years as University Orator. He retired in 1996. He was a Fellow of the New Zealand Asia Institute and served for a while as director of the institute and later of the International Office. He was also a visiting professor at University of Brunei Darussalam and honorary professor at

University of Hull The University of Hull is a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1927 as University College Hull. The main university campus is located in Hull and is home to the Hu ...

. He was awarded the Cambridge Litt.D. in 1974 and given an honorary Litt.D. by the

in 1996. In the 1996 Queen's Birthday Honours, Tarling was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to historical research and the arts.

Death

Tarling died on 13 May 2017 while swimming at Narrow Neck beach on Auckland's North Shore.

Publications

Tarling published some 45 books and edited fifteen. Those in Asian history include ''Britain, the Brookes and Brunei'' (1971), ''Sulu and Sabah'' (1978), ''The Burthen'', ''The Risk and the Glory'' (1982), and ''The Fourth Anglo-Burman War'' (1987). He also edited '' The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia''. In retirement he has completed a trilogy on British policy in Southeast Asia during the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...

, the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

and the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

, and also published a book on the Japanese interregnum, ''A Sudden Rampage''. A second trilogy, on imperialism, nationalism and regionalism in Southeast Asia, is almost complete. He also published books on university policy, including one on overseas students, and on opera.

Selected publications

*Tarling, Nicholas. ''Anglo-Dutch rivalry in the Malay world, 1780–1824''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962. * Tarling, Nicholas. ''Sulu and Sabah : a study of British policy towards the Philippines and North Borneo from the late eighteenth century''. Kuala Lumpur ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1978. * * Tarling, Nicholas. ''Historians and Southeast Asian history''. Auckland, N.Z.: New Zealand Asia Institute, University of Auckland, c2000. (pbk.)
Tarling, Nicholas. ''History Boy : a memoir''. Wellington, N.Z.: Dunmore Publishing, 2009.
*Tarling, Nicholas. ''The State, Development and Identity in Multi-ethnic Societies: Ethnicity, Equity and the Nation''. London: Routledge, 2010. *Tarling, Nicholas. ''Orientalism and The Operatic World''. 2015.