Philip Mason

This article is about the English civil servant and writer. For the American archivist, see Philip P. Mason. For the English scientist and atheism activist, see Phil Mason.

Philip Mason OBE CIE (19 March 1906 – 25 January 1999) was an English civil servant and author. He is best known for his two-volume book on the British Raj, The Men Who Ruled India (written under the pseudonym 'Philip Woodruff'), and his study of the Indian Army, A Matter of Honour (1974).

Mason was educated at Sedbergh School and Balliol College, Oxford. In 1978 he published a volume of autobiography, A Shaft of Sunlight: memories of a varied life (Deutsch, ISBN 0233969551), and in 1984 a sequel, A Thread of Silk.

Race and decolonisation

Having served the Empire in both India and Africa, Mason became the first director of the UK Institute of Race Relations. He was strongly influenced by Octave Mannoni's use of The Tempest to illuminate the colonial situation - Propsero as imperialist - and in his own book of 1962, Prospero's Magic: Some Thoughts on Race and Colour, he extended Mannoni's symbolism to cover the Third World in general, noting how "in my country until a generation ago we liked Prospero...some of us are beginning not to like him".

See also

3

Further reading

• Short Biography
• Biography
• Books / Writings
• Tinker, Hugh (3 February 1999). "Last witness to the Raj". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 October 2012. Obituary
• "Philip Mason: obituary". Daily Telegraph. 29 January 1999. Retrieved 1 October 2012. Transcribed copy at Rootsweb
• Documents about the History of the Institue of Race Relations written by Philip Mason can be found at the Borthwick Institute, University of York