Robert Rhodes James

rdf:langString Robert Rhodes James

rdf:langString Member of Parliament for Cambridge

rdf:langString Sir Robert Vidal Rhodes James (10 April 1933 – 20 May 1999) was a British historian, and Conservative Member of Parliament. Born in India, he was educated in England and attended the University of Oxford. From 1955 to 1964, he was a clerk of the House of Commons. During this time, he wrote a number of biographical and historical books. He then moved to academia, having been elected a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford in 1965. He was Director of the Institute for the Study of International Organisation at the University of Sussex (1968–1973), and then Principal Officer in the Executive Office of the Secretary General of the United Nations (1973–1976). He moved out from behind the scenes when he was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Cambridge in the 1976 by-election. He spent most of his parliamentary career on the backbenches, apart from serving as a Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Foreign Office (1979–1982). He was knighted in 1991, before stepping down as an MP in the following year. During his time as an MP, he continued to author multiple books, and maintained his academic standing through visiting professorships and his Oxford fellowship. From 1991, until his death, he was a Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge.