Ivor Bulmer-Thomas

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Ivor Bulmer-Thomas (born November 30, 1905 in Cwmbran , Monmouthshire , † October 7, 1993 in London ) was a British politician, journalist, author and mathematician.

Life

His original name was Thomas, and he took the surname Bulmer in 1952 after the last name of his second wife. Bulmer-Thomas was a brilliant student at Oxford , where he studied mathematics, theology and classical languages ​​and also excelled in sports (cross country running). He then wrote biographies of one of William Ewart Gladstone's sons , Henry Gladstone , and Lord Birkenhead . From 1930 he was a journalist with The Times and from 1937 to 1939 the News Chronicle as Chief Leader Writer. From 1942 he was for a time for the Labor Party in the British Parliament (for the Keighley constituency ) and held posts at the Ministry of Aviation as Parliamentary Secretary (1945/46) and as Undersecretary for the Colonies in 1946/47 under the government of Clement Attlee . In 1948 he switched to the Conservative Party. In the 1950 election he lost his constituency and left parliament - in the same year he crossed the Sahara with friends . He returned to work for The Times (for which he wrote obituaries) and The Times Literary Supplement. 1953/54 he was deputy editor of the Daily Telegraph. At the same time he began to be active as a layman in the Church of England , where he belonged to the Anglo-Catholic wing (he had converted to the Anglican Church in his youth, his father was a Baptist) and took care of the preservation of old churches. He made sure that the churches were inspected every five years for necessary repairs. For this commitment to old churches he received a CBE in 1984 . This also brought him into conflict with the bishops of the Church, as he advocated the preservation of every old church, and he founded a Redundant Churches Fund, of which he was President (Chairman) from 1969 to 1976, and the Friends of Friendless Churches (1957) who also take care of maintaining churches in Great Britain. From 1958 he was secretary of the Ancient Monuments Society and from 1975 to 1990 its chairman.

He wrote other books such as B. on propaganda (during the Second World War he was engaged in propaganda against Mussolini in Italy on behalf of the British government), on his disillusionment with the left-wing parties in the late 1940s, the biography of the Welsh industrialist David Davies Llandinam (1818–1890) and the history of the British parties. After his wife died in childbed, he wrote the book Dilysia - a threnody in 1938 to deal with his grief , which was influenced by his reading by Dante .

He was an honorary fellow of St. John's College, Oxford and an honorary doctorate from the University of Warwick (1979). In 1970 he became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

In 1940 his Selections illustrating the history of greek mathematics (Loeb Classic Library) appeared and he wrote biographies of mathematicians for the Dictionary of Scientific Biography .

He was married to Dilys Llewelly Jones since 1932, who died in 1938 and with whom he had a son, and since 1940 to Joan Bulmer, with whom he had a son and two daughters.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gladstone of Hawarden. A memoir of Henry Neville, Lord Gladstone of Hawarden , Murray 1936
  2. ↑ Our Lord Birkenhead. An Oxford appreciation , Putnam 1930
  3. ↑ Warfare by words , Penguin 1942
  4. ^ The socialist tragedy , Latimer House 1949, Macmillan 1951
  5. ↑ Top Sawyer: David Davies of Llandinam , Golden Grove, Carmarthen, 1988
  6. ^ Growth of the British Party System , 2 volumes, London 1965
  7. ↑ Reissued 1987
personal data
SURNAME Bulmer-Thomas, Ivor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British journalist, mathematician and politician
DATE OF BIRTH November 30, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Cwmbran
DATE OF DEATH October 7, 1993
Place of death London