The Life and Hard Times of an Official Historian
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20605459 |
|---|---|
| Authors | C P Stacey (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1970 |
| Volume | 51 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 21-47 |
| Publication date | 1970-03-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Canadian Historical Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0008-3755 • E-ISSN: 1710-1093 |
| Publisher | University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.3138/chr-051-01-03 |
| OpenAlex | W1990128042 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 2 |
I BECAME AN OFFICIAL HISTORIAN -of a sort, at least suddenly and unexpectedly in October 1940. As a reserve officer of the Ganadian Militia I had been awaiting since September I939 the day when the army might have a place for me, and had been assuming that I would ultimately be found functioning somewhere as an inefficient brigade signal officer. Since nobody seemed to want my valuable military services in the autumn of 1939, I went back to my teaching post at Princeton, and in fact I went back again in September 1940. It was there that the lightning struck in the following month. The credit or discredit for bringing me into the army historical picture belongs to the late General H. D.G. Grerar. I had got to know him as the result of writing a little book (The Military Problems of Canada, not published until after I was in uniform) for the Ganadian Institute of International Affairs. General Grerar was (as he later told me) determined that in this second great war there would be no repetition of the historical misfortunes which followed the first (Volume I of what was planned as an eight-volume Canadian history was finally published in 1938, twenty years after the Armistice). When he became Ghief of the General Staff, Ganada, in the summer of 194 o, he set the wheels in motion. Ministerial consent was I believe obtained, and the result was a letter which I received from the cas, dated I I October, offering me the appointment of historical officer, General Staff at Ganadian Military Headquarters, London, in the rank of major. I accepted at once, reported to General Grerar, and was taken into the army, in Ottawa on, I think, eo October. The whole thing had happened so quickly as to seem a little unreal. There was even a sense of adventure about it, and people looked at me as if I were going into the front line; for London, in that fall of 194 o, was under fire. Before going overseas I was to spend a few weeks in Ottawa, to familiarize myself with the existing historical organization. The director of the historical
| Citations per year | 0.1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1984 - 2002 (19) |
| Highly cited | No |