Asa Briggs: Difference between revisions

| honorific_prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]

| name = The Lord Briggs

| image = Asa Briggs.jpg

| alt =

| caption =Asa Briggs

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1921|5|7}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/b/7412/Asa+Briggs.aspx |title=The Rt Hon the Lord Briggs, FBA |work=Debretts |deadurlurl-status=yesdead |archiveurlarchive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224094950/http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/b/7412/Asa+Briggs.aspx |archivedatearchive-date=24 December 2013 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>

| birth_place = [[Keighley]], [[West Riding of Yorkshire]], England

| death_date = = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2016|03|15|1921|5|7}}

| death_place = [[Lewes]], [[East Sussex]], England

| branch = [[Royal Corps of Signals]] [[Intelligence Corps (United Kingdom)|Intelligence Corps]]

| rank = [[FlightWarrant LieutenantOfficer]]

'''Asa Briggs, Baron Briggs''' (7 May 1921 – 15 March 2016) was an English historian. He was a leading specialist on the [[Victorian era]], and the foremost [[historian of broadcasting]] in Britain. HeBriggs wasachieved international recognition during his long and prolific career for examining various aspects of modern British history.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of the City|last=Caves|first=R. W.|publisher=Routledge|year=2004|pages=55}}</ref> He madebecame a [[life peer]] in 1976.

Asa Briggs was born in [[Keighley]], [[West Riding of Yorkshire]] in 1921 to William Briggs, an engineer, and his wife Jane.<ref name="The Guardian 15 March 2016"/> He was educated at [[Oakbank School, Keighley#Grammar school|Keighley Boys' Grammar School]] and [[Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge]], graduating with a BA (first class) in History, in 1941, and a BSc in Economics (first class) from the [[University of London External Programme]], also in 1941.<ref>{{cite web| last=Bridges| first=Sophie| title=The Papers of Asa Briggs| url=http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0014%2FBRIG| publisher=Janus| accessdateaccess-date=11 September 2011}}</ref><ref name="The Guardian 15 March 2016"></ref>

From 1942 to 1945 duringDuring the [[World War II|Second World War]], from 1942 to 1945, Briggs served in the [[Intelligence Corps (United Kingdom)|Intelligence Corps]] and worked at the British wartime codebreakingsignals intelligence station, [[Bletchley Park]]. He was a member of "the Watch" in [[Hut 6]], the section deciphering [[Enigma machine]] messages from the German Army and Luftwaffe.<ref>Asa Briggs, foreword to Gwen Watkins, ''Cracking the Luftwaffe Codes'', 2006, Greenhill Books, p. 12, {{ISBN|978-1-85367-687-1}}</ref> ThisThat posting had arisen because at college Briggs had played chess at college with Cambridge mathematician [[Howard Smith (diplomat)|Howard Smith]] (who was to become the [[Director general of MI5|Director General of MI5]] in 1979), and Smith had written to the head of Hut 6, [[Gordon Welchman]], who was also a Cambridge mathematician, recommending Briggs to him.<ref name="The Guardian 15 March 2016"/>

After the war, he was elected a Fellowfellow of [[Worcester College, Oxford]] (1945–55), and was subsequently appointed [[University of Oxford|Universityuniversity]] [[Reader (academic rank)|Readerreader]] in Recentrecent Socialsocial and Economiceconomic Historyhistory (1950–55). Whilst a young Fellowfellow, Briggs proofread [[Winston Churchill]]'s ''[[A History of the English-Speaking Peoples]]''.<ref name="The Guardian 15 March 2016">{{cite news |last= Jones |first= Nigel |title= Asa Briggs obituary |url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/15/lord-briggs-of-lewes-asa-briggs-obituary| date= 15 March 2016 |newspaper= [[The Guardian]] |location=London| accessdateaccess-date=15 March 2016 }}</ref> He was later Facultyfaculty Fellowfellow of [[Nuffield College, Oxford|Nuffield College]] (1953–55) and a member of the [[Institute for Advanced Study]], [[Princeton, New Jersey]], United States (1953–54).

From 1955 until 1961, he was Professorprofessor of [[Modernmodern Historyhistory]] atin [[University of Leeds|Leeds University]] and between 1961 and 1976 he was Professorprofessor of Historyhistory atin [[University of Sussex|Sussex University]], whilewhilst also serving as Deandean of the School of Social Studies (1961–65), [[Pro-Vice-Chancellor|Propro Vicevice-Chancellorchancellor]] (1961–67) and Vicevice-Chancellorchancellor (1967–76). On 4 June 2008, the University of Sussex Arts A1 and A2 lecture theatres, designed by [[Basil Spence]], were renamed in his honour. In 1976, he returned to Oxford to become [[Provost (education)|provost]] of [[Worcester College, Oxford|Worcester College]], retiring from the post in 1991.

Between 1961 and 1995, Briggs wrote a five-volume textseries on the history of broadcasting in the UK from 1922 to 1974 —– essentially, the history of the [[BBC]], who commissioned the work.<ref name="The Guardian 15 March 2016"/> Briggs' other works ranged from an account of the period that [[Karl Marx]] spent in London to the [[corporate history]] of British retailer [[Marks and Spencer]].<ref name="The Guardian 15 March 2016"/> In 1987, Lord Briggs was invited to be President of the [[Brontë Parsonage Museum#Brontë Society|Brontë Society]], a literary society established in 1893 in [[Haworth]], near [[Keighley, Yorkshire]]. He presided over the Society's centenary celebrations in 1993 and continued as President until he retired from the position in 1996.<ref>{{cite journal| last=Lemon| first=Charles| title=A Centenary History of The Brontë Society, 1893–1993| journal=Brontë Society Transactions| year=1993| volume=Supplement to Volume 20|page=105}}</ref> He was also President of the [[William Morris Society]] from 1978 to 1991 and President of the UK's [[Victorian Society (UK)]] from 1986 until his death.<ref>Martin Crick, ''The History of the William Morris Society 1955–2005'' (London, 2011); Paul Thompson, 'Asa Briggs 1921–2016', ''The Victorian: The Magazine of the Victorian Society'', 52 (July, 2016), p. 5.</ref>

::# ''The Birth of Broadcasting'' – (1961)

::# ''The Golden Age of Wireless (- 1927–1939) –'' (1965)

::# ''The War of Words (- 1939–1945) –'' (1970)

::# ''Sound and Vision (- 1945–1955) –'' (1979)

::# ''Competition (- 1955–1974) –'' (1995)

* ''[[Toynbee Hall]]: The First Hundred Years'' (London: Routledge, 1984,) {{ISBN|0-7102-0283-0}})

* {{cite book|authoreditor=Taylor, Miles, ed.|title=The Age of Asa: Lord Briggs, Public Life and History in Britain since 1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uMQaBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT5|year=2014|publisher=Springer|isbn=9781137392596}}, 12 scholarly essays about Briggs.

| after = [[BillyEllen Hughes (educationist)|Billy HughesMcCullough]]?

[[Category:Alumni of the University of London International ProgrammesWorldwide]]

[[Category:BritishEnglish historians]]

[[Category:People associated with Bletchley Park people]]