Hugh Thomas, Baron Thomas of Swynnerton explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Right Honourable
The Lord Thomas of Swynnerton
Office:Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Term Start:16 June 1981
Term End:7 May 2017
Life Peerage
Birth Date:21 October 1931
Birth Place:Windsor, Berkshire, England
Party:Crossbench (1999–2017)
Otherparty:Labour (until 1974)
Conservative (1979–1997)
Liberal Democrats (1997–1999)
Spouse:Hon. Vanessa Jebb
Children:3

Hugh Swynnerton Thomas, Baron Thomas of Swynnerton (21 October 1931 – 7 May 2017)[1] [2] was an English historian and writer, best known for his book The Spanish Civil War.[3]

Early life

Thomas was born on 21 October 1931 in Windsor, England, to Hugh Whitelegge Thomas, a colonial commissioner, and his wife Margery Augusta Angelo, née Swynnerton.[4] Sir Shenton Thomas was his uncle.[1] He was educated at Sherborne School in Dorset, before going up to Queens' College, Cambridge,[1] where he was a major scholar and later an Honorary Fellow. Thomas gained a first class in Part I of the History Tripos in 1952, and the following year was president of the Cambridge Union Society. He also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Career

From 1954 to 1957, Thomas worked in the Foreign Office partly as secretary of the British Delegation to the sub-committee of the UN Disarmament Commission. From 1966 to 1975, he was Professor of History at the University of Reading, and chairman of the European committee. He was then chairman of the neoliberal Centre for Policy Studies in London from 1979 to 1991.

Politics

Until 1974, Thomas was a member of the Labour Party.[5] He was created a life peer as Baron Thomas of Swynnerton, of Notting Hill in Greater London by letters patent dated 16 June 1981, and sat as a Conservative, before he joined the Liberal Democrats in late 1997. He later sat as a crossbencher.

He wrote political works favouring European integration, such as Europe: the Radical Challenge (1973), as well as histories. He was also the author of three novels: The World's Game (1957), The Oxygen Age (1958), and Klara (1988). Thomas's 1961 book The Spanish Civil War won the Somerset Maugham Award for 1962. A significantly revised and enlarged third edition was published in 1977; further editions were published in 1999 and 2012. Cuba, or the Pursuit of Freedom (1971) is a book of over 1,500 pages tracing the history of Cuba from Spanish colonial rule until the Cuban Revolution. In 1985, he signed a petition against the Sandinista National Liberation Front of Nicaragua,[6] in support of the Contras, an anti-Sandinista paramilitary group.

In 1990 he was one of the leading historians behind the setting up of the History Curriculum Association. The Association advocated a more knowledge-based history curriculum in schools. It expressed "profound disquiet" at the way history was being taught in the classroom and observed that the integrity of history was threatened.[7]

Personal life

Thomas was married to Hon. Vanessa Jebb, a painter and daughter of Gladwyn Jebb, the first Acting United Nations Secretary-General and British Ambassador to France. They had three children: Inigo, Isambard and Isabella.[1]

Awards

Thomas won the Somerset Maugham Award (1962), the Nonino Prize (2009), the Boccaccio Prize (2009), the Gabarrón Prize (2008) and the Calvo Serer Prize (2009). The French Government appointed him Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2008.

Thomas also received the Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Isabella the Catholic[8] from Spain, as well as the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle, the Joaquín Romero Murube Prize in Seville (2013) and the Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise (2014).[9]

Works

Arms

Coronet:Coronet of a Baron
Escutcheon:Quarterly Argent and Or, a Cross formée flory Sable, surmounted by a Dragon’s Head erased Gules.
Crest:Upon a Chapeau Gules, turned up Ermine, issuant from a representation of the Torre d’Arnolfo on the Palazzo Vicariale at Scarperia in Italy Argent, a Bull’s Head Sable, armed Or.
Supporters:On either side a Falcon wings expanded and addorsed Argent, beaked, armed and belled Or, legged Gules, gorged with a Torse Or and Gules, and holding in the beak a Quill Argent, penned Or.
Compartment:A Grassy Mound proper, thereon a Bar embowed Or, charged with a Barrulet embowed wavy Azure.
Motto:LATE BUT IN TIME

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. News: Preston . Paul . Paul Preston . 9 May 2017 . Lord Thomas of Swynnerton . . 10 May 2017.
  2. News: Guimón . Pablo . 8 May 2017 . Obituary: Hugh Thomas, author of seminal book on the Spanish Civil War . . 9 May 2017.
  3. Web site: Hugh Thomas (Baron Thomas of Swynnnerton) . Portal del hispanismo . es . 8 May 2017 . bot: unknown . https://web.archive.org/web/20110720171502/http://hispanismo.cervantes.es/Hispanistas_ficha.asp?DOCN=7538 . 20 July 2011.
  4. News: Cowell . Alan . Hugh Thomas, Prodigious Author of Spanish History, Dies at 85 . 15 May 2017 . . 11 May 2017 . B14.
  5. Web site: Former Head of Conservative Think-Tank Joins The Liberal Democrats /Pr Newswire Uk/ . Prnewswire.co.uk . 2017-01-15.
  6. Web site: Quand Bernard-Henri Lévy pétitionnait contre le régime légal du Nicaragua . 1 October 2009 . Le Monde diplomatique. 10 December 2017.
  7. Daily Telegraph 19 March 1990
  8. News: 7 April 2001 . Otras disposicions . es . . 8 May 2017 . bot: unknown . https://web.archive.org/web/20141229221014/http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2001/04/07/pdfs/A13169-13169.pdf . 29 December 2014.
  9. News: 27 December 2014 . Otras disposiciones. es . Boletín Oficial del Estado. 8 May 2017 . bot: unknown . https://web.archive.org/web/20141229221320/http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2014/12/27/pdfs/BOE-A-2014-13550.pdf . 29 December 2014.
  10. The Spanish Civil War: Revised Edition (Modern Library Paperbacks), Modern Library,