Charles Oman - Misplaced Pages

(Redirected from C.W.C. Oman) British military historian (1860–1946) For the American economist, see Charles P. Oman.

Sir Charles Oman KBE, FBA
Oman in 1940
Born	(1860-01-12)12 January 1860 Muzaffarpur district, India
Died	23 June 1946(1946-06-23) (aged 86) Oxford, United Kingdom
Occupation	Historian
Alma mater	University of Oxford

Sir Charles William Chadwick Oman, KBE, FBA (12 January 1860 – 23 June 1946) was a British military historian. His reconstructions of medieval battles from the fragmentary and distorted accounts left by chroniclers were pioneering.

Early life

Oman was born in Muzaffarpur district, India, the son of a British planter, and was educated at Winchester College and at the University of Oxford, where he studied under William Stubbs. Here, he was invited to become a founding member of the Stubbs Society, which was under Stubbs's patronage.

Career

In 1881 he was elected to a Prize Fellowship at All Souls College, where he remained for the rest of his academic career. He was elected the Chichele Professor of Modern History at Oxford in 1905, in succession to Montagu Burrows. He was also elected to the FBA that year, and served as president of the Royal Historical Society (1917–1921), the Numismatic Society and the Royal Archaeological Institute.

Among his teaching activities at Oxford, he taught the special subject in military history with C. T. Atkinson of Exeter College that focused on the Peninsular War.

Oman's academic career was interrupted by the First World War, during which he was employed by the government's Press Bureau and the Foreign Office.

Oman was the Conservative Member of Parliament for the University of Oxford constituency from 1919 to 1935, and was knighted KBE in the 1920 civilian war honours list.

The parody history book 1066 and All That, published in 1930, includes the dedication "Absit Oman", a distortion of the Latin phrase "Absit omen". It can be translated as "may Oman be absent", reflecting the prominence of Oman among English historians at the time.

Honours

He became an honorary fellow of New College in 1936, and received the honorary degrees of DCL (Oxford, 1926) and LL.D (Edinburgh, 1911 and Cambridge, 1927). He was awarded the Medal of the Royal Numismatic Society in 1928. He died at Oxford aged 86.

Children

Two of Oman's children became authors. His daughter Carola Oman CBE was a writer of history, biography, and fiction for adults and children, including a retelling of the Robin Hood legend and biographies of Admiral Lord Nelson and Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore. His son Charles C. Oman wrote several volumes on British silverware and similar houseware, worked as a Keeper of the Department of Metalwork in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and was active in the Folklore Society (and was in turn father to Julia Trevelyan Oman).

Works

1880s

The Art of War in the Middle Ages (1885)
"The Anglo-Norman and Angevin Administrative System (1100–1265)", in Essays Introductory to the Study of English Constitutional History (1887)
A History of Greece From the Earliest Times to the Death of Alexander the Great (1888; 7th ed., 1900; 8th ed., rev., 1905)

1890s

Warwick the Kingmaker (1891)
The Byzantine Empire (1892)
The Dark Ages 476–918, Period I of Periods of European History (1893; 5th ed. 1905)
A History of England (1895; 2nd ed. 1919)
A History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages, Vol. I: A.D. 378–1278 (1898; 2nd ed. 1924)
A History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages, Vol. II: A.D. 1278–1485 (1898; 2nd ed. 1924)
England and the Hundred Years War, 1327–1485 A.D. (1898), No. III of The Oxford Manuals of English History, Charles Oman, ed.
"Alfred as a Warrior", in Alfred The Great, Alfred Bowker, ed. (1899)
Reign of George VI, 1900-1925. A Forecast Written in the Year 1763 (preface and notes) (1763; republished 1899)

1900s

England in the Nineteenth Century (1900)
A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. I: 1807–1809 (1902)
Seven Roman Statesmen of the Later Roman Republic (1902)
A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. II: Jan. 1809-Sep. 1809 (1903)
"The Peninsular War, 1808–14", in The Cambridge Modern History, Vol. IX, Napoleon (1906)
"The Hundred Days, 1815", in The Cambridge Modern History, Vol. IX, Napoleon (1906)
"Inaugural lecture on the study of history" (1906), in Oxford Lectures on University Studies, 1906–1921 (1924)
The Great Revolt of 1381 (1906) (See The Great Revolt of 1381.)
The History of England from the Accession of Richard II. to the Death of Richard III. (1377–1485), Vol. IV of The Political History of England (1906), William Hunt & Reginald Poole, ed.
A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. III: Sep. 1809 – Dec. 1810 (1908)

1910s

A History of England Before the Norman Conquest (1910; 8th ed. 1937), Vol. I of A History of England in Seven Volumes (1904–), Charles Oman, ed.
A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. IV: Dec. 1810 – Dec. 1811 (1911)
Wellington's Army, 1809–1814 (1912)
A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. V: Oct. 1811 – Aug. 1812 (1914)
The Outbreak of the War of 1914–18: A Narrative Based Mainly on British Official Documents (1919)

1920s

A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. VI: Sep. 1812 – Aug. 1813 (1922)
The Unfortunate Colonel Despard & Other Studies (1922)
Castles (1926)
"The Duke of Wellington", in Political Principles of Some Notable Prime Ministers of the Nineteenth Century, Fossey John Cobb Hearnshaw, ed. (1926)
Studies in the Napoleonic Wars (1929)

1930s

A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. VII: Aug. 1813 – Apr. 1814 (1930)
The Coinage of England (1931)
Things I Have Seen (1933)
"The Necessity for the Reformation" (1933) (public lecture)
A History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century (1937)
The Sixteenth century (1937)
On the Writing of History (1939)

1940s

Memories of Victorian Oxford and of Some Early Years (1941)
The Lyons Mail (1945)

References

"OMAN, Charles William Chadwick". Who's Who. Vol. 59. 1907. p. 332.
"No. 31840". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 March 1920. p. 3759.
"The Royal Numismatic Society-The Society's Medal". The Royal Numismatic Society. 23 May 2014. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
"Society Meetings, 18 June 1958". Folklore. 69 (3): 216. 1958. JSTOR 1258870.
"Minutes of Meeting: June 15, 1949". Folklore. 60 (3): 305–306. 1949. doi:10.1080/0015587X.1949.9717940. JSTOR 1256648.
- "Minutes of Meeting. Wednesday, 20th November, 1929". Folklore. 41 (1): 1–3. 1930. JSTOR 1256028.
- Hutton, J. H. (1944). "Report of the Council for 1943". Folklore. 55 (2): 50–53. doi:10.1080/0015587X.1944.9717715. JSTOR 1256901.
Tait, James (October 1892). "Review of Warwick the Kingmaker by Charles W. Oman". The English Historical Review. 7: 761–767.
"Review of A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. II, January–September 1809 by Charles Oman". The Athenæum (3953): 145–146. 1 August 1903.
Tait, James. (January 1907). "Review of The Great Revolt of 1381 by Charles Oman". The English Historical Review. 22: 161–164. doi:10.1093/ehr/XXII.LXXXV.161.

External links

Works by or about Charles Oman at Wikisource
Works by Charles Oman at Project Gutenberg
Works by or about Charles Oman at the Internet Archive
Works by Charles Oman at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded byLord Hugh Cecil Rowland Prothero	Member of Parliament for Oxford University 1919 – 1935 With: Lord Hugh Cecil	Succeeded byLord Hugh Cecil A. P. Herbert
Academic offices
Preceded byCharles Harding Firth	President of the Royal Historical Society 1917–1921	Succeeded byJohn William Fortescue

v t e Presidents of the Royal Historical Society
1871–1872 George Grote 1873–1878 John Russell, 1st Earl Russell 1878–1891 Henry Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare 1891–1899 Sir M. E. Grant Duff 1899–1901 Sir Adolphus Ward 1901–1905 Sir George Prothero 1905–1909 William Hunt 1909–1913 William Cunningham 1913–1917 Sir Charles Firth 1917–1921 Sir Charles Oman 1921–1925 Sir John Fortescue 1925–1929 Frederick Tout 1929–1933 Sir Richard Lodge 1933–1937 Sir F. M. Powicke 1937–1945 Sir Frank Stenton 1946–1949 Robert William Seton-Watson 1949–1953 Theodore Plucknett 1953–1957 Hale Bellot 1957–1961 David Knowles 1961–1965 Sir Goronwy Edwards 1965–1969 Robin Humphreys 1969–1973 Sir R. W. Southern 1973–1977 Sir Geoffrey Elton 1977–1981 Sir John Habakkuk 1981–1985 Sir J. C. Holt 1985–1989 Gerald Aylmer 1989–1993 Michael Thompson 1993–1997 Sir Rees Davies 1997–2001 Sir P. J. Marshall 2001–2005 Dame Janet Nelson 2005–2008 Martin Daunton 2009–2012 Colin Jones 2012–2016 Peter Mandler 2016–2020 Margot Finn 2020-present Emma Griffin

Presidents of the Royal Historical Society

1871–1872 George Grote
1873–1878 John Russell, 1st Earl Russell
1878–1891 Henry Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare
1891–1899 Sir M. E. Grant Duff
1899–1901 Sir Adolphus Ward
1901–1905 Sir George Prothero
1905–1909 William Hunt
1909–1913 William Cunningham
1913–1917 Sir Charles Firth
1917–1921 Sir Charles Oman
1921–1925 Sir John Fortescue
1925–1929 Frederick Tout
1929–1933 Sir Richard Lodge
1933–1937 Sir F. M. Powicke
1937–1945 Sir Frank Stenton
1946–1949 Robert William Seton-Watson
1949–1953 Theodore Plucknett
1953–1957 Hale Bellot
1957–1961 David Knowles
1961–1965 Sir Goronwy Edwards
1965–1969 Robin Humphreys
1969–1973 Sir R. W. Southern
1973–1977 Sir Geoffrey Elton
1977–1981 Sir John Habakkuk
1981–1985 Sir J. C. Holt
1985–1989 Gerald Aylmer
1989–1993 Michael Thompson
1993–1997 Sir Rees Davies
1997–2001 Sir P. J. Marshall
2001–2005 Dame Janet Nelson
2005–2008 Martin Daunton
2009–2012 Colin Jones
2012–2016 Peter Mandler
2016–2020 Margot Finn
2020-present Emma Griffin

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