John Ehrman

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John Patrick William Ehrman (born March 17, 1920 in London , † June 15, 2011 in Taynton , Oxfordshire ) was an English historian , university professor and book collector. He is best known for a three-volume biography about William Pitt the Younger , a former British Prime Minister of the 18th century.

Life

Ehrman was the son of the Jewish London businessman Alfred Ehrman (1890-1969), who traded in industrial diamonds. He attended Charterhouse School near London and then went to Trinity College , Cambridge . He interrupted his studies because he was called up for military service in the Royal Navy and served during the Second World War on corvettes in the Mediterranean and on escort ships to protect convoys in the North Atlantic .

Ehrman continued his history studies at Trinity College after 1945. He became a fellow of the college in 1947. In the years that followed, he worked in the Cabinet Office , drafting two volumes (Volume V and Volume VI) of the official history of British warfare from the perspective of the High Command. The two volumes of the Grand Strategy series were dedicated to the period from April 1943 to August 1945 and were completed by Ehrman in 1956. He then left the Cabinet Office and went back to Cambridge for a year.

Since 1957 Ehrman devoted himself as an independent scholar to other historical subjects. His main work is the three-volume representation The Younger Pitt , the last volume of which was printed in 1996. Among other things, he devoted himself to expanding his father's book and incunabula collection, the Broxbourne Library , which he left in 1978 to the major libraries in Cambridge, Oxford and London. He became a Fellow of the British Academy and has held various honorary positions in the British museum, archival and library sectors.

Ehrmann was married to the daughter of a Vice Admiral in the Royal Navy. The couple have four sons.

Honors

  • Fellow of the British Academy, London

Publications

  • The Navy in the War of William III, 1689-1697 its State and Direction. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England 1953.
  • as co-editor: Grand Strategy. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London 1956.
    • Volume V: April 1943 to September 1944.
    • Volume VI: October 1944 to August 1945.
  • Cabinet Government and War, 1890-1940. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England 1958.
  • Lloyd George and Churchill as War Ministers. In: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. Fifth Series, Volume 11. London 1961, pp. 101-115.
  • The British Government and Commercial Negotiations with Europe 1783–1793, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England 1962.
  • The Younger Pitt
    • The Years of Acclaim, Constable, London 1969.
    • The Reluctant Transition, Constable, London 1983.
    • The Consuming Struggle, Constable, London 1996.

literature

  • Daniel Baugh: John Patrick William Ehrman, 1920–2011 . In: Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy . tape XIII , 2014, p. 145-175 ( thebritishacademy.ac.uk [PDF]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pitt's life shows how the sea power gained land in FAZ June 30, 2011, p. 36
personal data
SURNAME Ehrman, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ehrman, John Patrick William (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British historian, university professor and book collector
DATE OF BIRTH March 17, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH London , England
DATE OF DEATH June 15, 2011
Place of death Taynton , Oxfordshire , England