Professor David Fieldhouse (1925-2018)

It is with much regret that the College reports the death of Emeritus Fellow Professor David Fieldhouse on 28 October 2018.

Professor Fieldhouse LittD FBA was a prominent historian of the British Empire. Between 1981 and 1992 he held the Vere Harmsworth Professorship of Imperial and Naval History at the University of Cambridge.

He was best known for his book Economics and Empire 1830-1914 which argued that political and strategic factors, rather than economic impulses, drove European imperial expansion.

During his career he held academic posts at the University of Canterbury, the University of Oxford, and then the University of Cambridge. When he retired in 1992 his former students and colleagues published a collection called Managing the Business of Empire: Essays in Honour of David Fieldhouse. After retiring from the University, Professor Fieldhouse remained an active Emeritus Fellow of Jesus College.