Aylmer, G.E. 1926-2000 (Gerald Edward Aylmer)

views updated

Aylmer, G.E. 1926-2000 (Gerald Edward Aylmer)

PERSONAL:

Surname is pronounced Ale-mer; born April 30, 1926, in Ludlow, England; died December 17, 2000, in Oxford, England; married; wife's name Ursula (a part-time author), 1955; children: Bartholomew, Emma. Education: Balliol College, Oxford, B.A. and M.A., 1950, D.Phil., 1955; Princeton University, graduate study, 1950-51.

CAREER:

Writer, educator. Oxford University, Balliol College, Oxford, England, junior research fellow, 1951-54; University of Manchester, Manchester, England, assistant lecturer, 1954-57, lecturer in history, 1957-62; University of York, York, England, 1963-78, became professor of history and chairman of history department; Oxford University, St. Peter's College, master, 1978-91. Member of Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts. Military service: British Navy, 1944-47.

MEMBER:

Historical Association, Past and Present Society, Economic History Society.

WRITINGS:

The King's Servants: The Civil Service of Charles I, 1625-1642, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1961.

(Editor) The Diary of William Lawrence, Toucan Press (Bedminster, Dorset, England), 1961.

The Struggle for the Constitution, 1603-1689, Mentor Books (New York, NY), 1963, revised edition, Blandford Press (London, England), 1975.

(Editor) The Interregnum, 1646-1660, Macmillan (London, England), 1972.

The State's Servants: The Civil Service of the English Republic, 1649-1660, Routledge & Kegan Paul (London, England), 1973.

The Levellers in the English Revolution, Thames & Hudson (London, England), 1975.

(Editor, with R. Cant) A History of York Minster, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1977.

(Coeditor and coauthor of introduction, with J.S. Morrill) J.P. Cooper, Land, Men, and Beliefs: Studies in Early-Modern History, Hambledon Press (London, England), 1983.

Rebellion or Revolution? England 1640-1660, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1987.

(Coeditor, with John Tiller) Hereford Cathedral: A History, Hambledon Press (London, England), 2000.

The Crown's Servants: Government and Civil Service under Charles II, 1660-1685, Oxford University Press (Oxford; New York), 2002.

Contributor of articles and book reviews to scholarly journals, weeklies, and newspapers. Member of editorial board, History of Parliament.

SIDELIGHTS:

British historian and author G.E. Aylmer, who died in 2000, focused his academic work on seventeenth-century England and on the Stuart court. He wrote numerous books, including The King's Servants: The Civil Service of Charles I, 1625-1642, The State's Servants: The Civil Service of the English Republic, 1649-1660, and the posthumously published 2002 work, The Crown's Servants: Government and Civil Service under Charles II, 1660-1685. Aylmer also had a distinguished career as an academic in England, helping to found the University of York and thereafter serving as that university's first professor of history. In 1978, he left York to become the master of Oxford's St. Peter's College. In addition to his administrative duties, Aylmer oversaw the operation of the Bodleian Library and its archives. He retired from these duties in 1991, devoting himself to writing and research, as well as chairing the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts.

The core of Aylmer's work were his three volumes on the civil service during the seventeenth century. According to a writer for London's Daily Telegraph, the first two of these, The King's Servants and The State's Servants, were popular historical works on two accounts: "Full as they are of delightful stories and conjunctions, they are also among the most respected of all works written on the 17th century." Aylmer's third volume and his final work, The Crown's Servants, continues this study. It is, in the words of Humanities and Social Sciences Online contributor Tim Harris, "both testimony to a life-time's work and the final legacy of a great historian who remained dedicated to scholarship until the very end." Harris further noted that the book "is certainly well researched, well organized, and packed with useful information." Here Aylmer examines the men who served under Charles II, "by and large, more upper class, less puritan, less self-made, and less committed to the ideals of public service than had been those of 1649-60," according to Harris. Writing in the English Historical Review, John Miller noted, "The approach taken in this volume is similar to that of the other two, looking at the structure of government, terms and conditions of service and at the office-holders themselves; each chapter is subdivided into short sections, making the book easy to use." Miller further observed that the work "concludes with a general discussion of bureaucracy and state formation in England and Europe, which serves in some ways as a conclusion to all three volumes." For Miller, this work and its two predecessors display "Aylmer's strengths as a historian: careful scholarship, meticulous use of sources and balanced and nuanced conclusions." Similar praise came from History Today critic Mark Goldie, who wrote, "The book is Oxford empiricism at its best, a deep mine of information." Goldie also felt that "the bulk of the book comprises deft pen portraits of selected officials." And a writer for the Contemporary Review concluded, "This study will stand as a fitting monument to one of Oxford's best historians."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Albion, January 1, 2004, Robert Bucholz, review of The Crown's Servants: Government and Civil Service under Charles II, 1660-1685, p. 651.

Contemporary Review, October 1, 2002, review of The Crown's Servants, p. 255.

English Historical Review, September 1, 2001, A.K. McHardy, review of Hereford Cathedral: A History, p. 942; April 1, 2003, John Miller, review of The Crown's Servants, p. 440.

History Today, October 1, 2002, Mark Goldie, review of The Crown's Servants, p. 60.

Journal of Ecclesiastical History, October 1, 2002, Tim Tatton-Brown, review of Hereford Cathedral, p. 784.