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Sir Christopher Alan Bayly, FBA, FRSL (18 May 1945 – 18 April 2015) was a British historian specialising in British Imperial, Indian and global history. From 1992 to 2013, he was Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History at the University of Cambridge.

Early life

Bayly was from Tunbridge Wells, England, where he attended The Skinners School. He studied at Balliol College, Oxford and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree. He then remained at the University of Oxford and undertook post-graduate study at St Antony's College, Oxford. He completed his Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree in 1970 with a thesis titled The development of political organisation in the Allahabad locality, 1880–1925 under John Andrew Gallagher.

Academic career

Bayly was the Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History at the University of Cambridge from 1992 to 2013. He was also a trustee of the British Museum.

In 2007, he succeeded Sir John Baker as President of St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Bayly also became the Director of Cambridge's Centre of South Asian Studies. He was co-editor of The New Cambridge History of India and sat on the editorial board of various academic journals. He also served on the inaugural Social Sciences jury for the Infosys Prize in 2009.

Death

Bayly died in Hyde Park, Chicago, on 18 April 2015, a month before his 70th birthday. He was in his second and last year as the Vivekananda Visiting Professor when he died.

Honours

In 1990, Bayly was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA). In 2004 he was awarded the Wolfson History Oeuvre Prize for his many contributions to the discipline. In the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours, it was announced that he had been appointed a Knight Bachelor 'for services to History'. Upon being informed of the knighthood, he stated: "I regard this not only as a great personal honour but, as an historian of India, as recognition of the growing importance of the history of the non-western world."

In 2016, Bayly became the first person to be posthumously awarded the Toynbee Prize for global history.

After Bayly's death, the Royal Asiatic Society established in his honour the annual Bayly Prize for a distinguished doctoral thesis in an Asian subject.

Family

Bayly was married to Susan Bayly, a professor of historical anthropology at the University of Cambridge.

Selected bibliography

• The Local Roots of Indian Politics: Allahabad, 1880–1920 (1975)
• Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion, 1770–1870 (1983)
• Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire (1988)
• Imperial Meridian: The British Empire and the World, 1780–1830. London and New York: Longman (1989)
• Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780–1870 (1996)
• Origins of Nationality in South Asia: Patriotism and Ethical Government in the Making of Modern India (1997)
• The Birth of the Modern World: Global Connections and Comparisons, 1780–1914 (2004)
• Bayly, Christopher; Harper, Timothy (2005). Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia, 1941–1945. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01748-1.
• Bayly, Christopher; Harper, Timothy (2007). Forgotten Wars: Freedom and Revolution in Southeast Asia. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-02153-2.
• Bayly, Christopher Alan (2012). Recovering Liberties: Indian Thought in the Age of Liberalism and Empire. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-50518-5.
• Remaking the Modern World, 1900-2015: Global Connections and Comparisons (2018)

References

1. "Scroll.in – News. Politics. Culture". scroll.in. 20 April 2015.
2. ^ Drayton, Richard (23 April 2015). "Sir Christopher Bayly obituary". The Guardian.
3. "Professor Sir Christopher Bayly". Staff. Queen Mary, University of London. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
4. "The development of political organisation in the Allahabad locality, 1880–1925". Search Oxford Libraries Online. Bodleian Libraries. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
5. ^ Alavi, Seema (10 January 2019). Bayly, Sir Christopher Allan (Chris) (1945–2015). doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.110372. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
6. "Professor Sir Christopher Bayly historian obituary". telegraph.co.uk. The Telegraph. 23 April 2015. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
7. "No. 58358". The London Gazette (Supplement). 16 June 2007. p. 1.
8. Wojtas, Olga (22 June 2007). "Fright for knight as good news lost in post". Times Higher Education. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
9. "Grants and Awards". The Seeley: History Faculty Newsletter (7). History Faculty, University of Cambridge. August 2016.
10. "The Bayly Prize Applications and Nominations".

External links

• Interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 24 July 2014 (video)

• 1945 births
• 2015 deaths
• People from Royal Tunbridge Wells
• Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
• Alumni of St Antony's College, Oxford
• Fellows of St Catharine's College, Cambridge
• Fellows of the British Academy
• Fellows of the Royal Historical Society
• Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
• Historians of South Asia
• Knights Bachelor
• People educated at The Skinners' School
• Trustees of the British Museum
• Historians of India
• Institute directors
• 20th-century British writers
• 20th-century British historians
• 21st-century British writers
• 21st-century British historians
• 20th-century British male writers
• Vere Harmsworth Professors of Imperial and Naval History
• World historians