Nicholas Mansergh

Philip Nicholas Seton Mansergh (born 27 June 1910 in Tipperary, † 16 January 1991) was an Irish historian.

Mansergh was the son of a railway engineer and studied at Oxford University (Pembroke College) Modern History. After that, he was a tutor at Oxford. During World War II he worked first in the department Ireland and the Commonwealth of the British Ministry of Information. After the war, he was Professor of British Commonwealth Relations at Chatham House. In 1953 he was Smuts Professor of the History of the British Commonwealth ( a newly established Chair ) at the University of Cambridge. 1969 to 1979 he was Master of St. John 's College.

He had been a guest professor at the Indian School of International Studies in New Delhi.

He dealt with Irish history and history of the Commonwealth, about which he wrote a standard work. From 1967 he was commissioned by the British Government out the files of the transition from India to independence.

He was OBE since 1946.

He was married to Diana Mary Keeton since 1939 and had five children. His son Martin Mansergh ( born 1946 ) became a politician, journalist and historian in Ireland.

Writings

• The Irish Free State: Its Government and Politics, Allen and Unwin 1934
• The Government of Northern Ireland: A Study in Devolution, Allen and Unwin 1936
• Ireland in the Age of Reform and Revolution, Allen and Unwin 1940, new edition as The Irish Question, 1840-1921, 1965, 1975
• The Commonwealth Experience, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969, 1982 German edition: The British Commonwealth. Origin, history, structure. Kindler's cultural history 1969