William Munro Tapp

Colonial Investor and Caius College Philanthropist, 1925–1937

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8957286
AutoresNicolas Bell-Romero (0000-0002-1917-8234, SOAS University of London, autor correspondente)
Ano2023
Volume66
Fascículo5
Páginas1100-1128
Data de publicação2023-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe Historical Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0018246x23000420
OpenAlexW4386372963
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas42

William Munro Tapp, the largest post-foundation benefactor to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, was a prominent lawyer who directed multiple businesses interested in water utilities, motor car manufacturing, and brewing. That much is acknowledged at Caius today. Yet Tapp was also a director of the sugar refiners Manbré & Garton Limited, and he helped establish a sugar plantation in Kenya. Alongside his involvement in an African estate, he held investments in other plantations and colonial enterprises. He was part of a class of gentlemanly capitalists who participated in imperial expansion and then donated their wealth to British cultural institutions, including colleges and universities. While much public attention has been paid to Cecil Rhodes, this article argues that both Tapp and Rhodes were members of a larger group of men and women who provided their wealth to educational institutions, thereby entrenching the financial legacies of colonialism in universities. By focusing on more minor figures in the British empire, like Tapp, historians can better address the continuities of universities’ financial connections to coerced labour and colonialism across time and understand that private connections and affective attachments between individuals and institutions were as significant as governmental policies in directing the spoils of empire

Colonialism · Corporation · Economic history · Economics · Empire · Estate · Management · Political science · Sociology · African history and culture studies · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Australian History and Society · History · Law