C. T. Atkinson

Christopher Thomas Atkinson (born on 6 September 1874 - died 18 February 1964) was a British military historian of the first half of the twentieth century. An obituary of him noted "His knowledge of British military history was immense, his ready and unselfish response to any genuine appeal for help in his own particular fields and the width and scope of his interests in military matters were unique. He was also a man brisk in criticism, impatient of anything pretentious or poorly founded in knowledge. To many, he was a great "character"..

Early Life, Education, and Family

Atkinson attended Clifton College in Bristol, England, before going on to study at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he obtained a first class degree in modern history in 1896, then gained second in "Greats" in 1898. Also in 1898, he won the Lothian Prize Essay with his 200-page study on the sixteenth-century French statesman Michel de l'Hôpital. In 1912, he married Cosette Maurice, a member of a distinguished military family. She died in 1924.

Academic Career

In 1898, Exeter College, Oxford elected him a Fellow. from 1909 to 1920, he was an active officer in the Oxford University Officer Training Corps. He remained at Exeter for his entire career, except for wartime service between 1914 and 1918, when he served on the General Staff at the War Office in London. From 1928 to 1949, he served as a member of the Oxford University Delegacy for Military Instruction. During the Second World War, he was a dedicated member of the Home Guard. He retired at Exeter in 1941, becoming an Emeritus Fellow of the College.

Known by his pupils as "Atters," he was still teaching as late as 1954.

Among his notable pupils were K.B. McFarlane, S.G.P. Ward, Piers Mackesy, and David G. Chandler.

He was an active member of the Society for Army Historical Research, becoming a regular contributor to its Journal to which he contributed 91 articles between 1927 and 1960. He served many years on its Council, later becoming a vice-president of the Society.

Publications

• Michel de L'Hospital: being the Lothian prize essay, 1899 (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1900).

• History of Germany: 1715-1815 (Pennsylvania: Jacobs, 1908).

• Marlborough and the rise of the British Army (New York ; London : G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1921).

• Letters and papers relating to the First Dutch War, 1652-1654 Publications of the Navy Records Society. 6 vols. (London: Navy Records Society, 1989-1930). [Vols 1-2 edited by Samuel Rawson Gardiner. Volume 3 edited by Samuel Rawson Gardiner and C. T. Atkinson; vols 4-6 by C. T. Atkinson.]

• The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment - 1914-1919 (London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, 1924).

• The Devonshire Regiment, 1914-1918 (Exeter: Eland Brothers; London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, 1926).

• The Seventh Division, 1914-1918 (London: John Murray, 1927).

• The South Wales Borderers, 24th Foot, 1689-1937 (Cambridge : Printed for the Regimental History Committee at the University Press, 1937).

• A Royal Dragoon in the Spanish Succession War-- A Contemporary Narrative, edited with introduction and notes by C.T. Atkinson. Special Publication no. 5 (London: Society of Army Historical Research, 1938).

• Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Supplementary report on the manuscripts of Robert Graham Esq. of Fintry edited by C. T. Atkinson (London: HMSO, 1940).

• The Dorsetshire Regiment: the Thirty-Ninth and Fifty-Fourth Foot and the Dorset Militia and Volunteers (Oxford : Privately printed at the University Press, 1947).

• A history of the 1st (P.W.O.) Battalion: the Dogra Regiment 1887-1947, 37th Dogras, 1887-1923, 1st (P.W.O.) Bn., 17th Dogra Rgt., 1922-1945 (Southampton : printed for the subscribers by the Camelot Press, 1950).

In addition, he contributed articles to the Cambridge Modern History and the Encyclopedia Britannica (twelfth edition).