Collection K/PP78 - BOXER, Professor Charles Ralph (1904-2000)

Key Information

Reference code

K/PP78

Title

BOXER, Professor Charles Ralph (1904-2000)

Date(s)

  • 1904-2000 (Creation)

Level of description

Collection

Extent

1 box (outsize).

Scope and content

Copies of papers and photographs relating to Boxer's life and military and academic careers, 1904-2000, including correspondence and cuttings from the Portuguese press, 1963-1964, relating to the criticism by Dr António Oliveira Salazar, Prime Minister of Portugal, and Professor Armando Cortesão, of Boxer and his book Race Relations in the Portuguese Colonial Empire, 1415-1825 , for proposing that Portugal had practised racial discrimination during its colonial expansion; letter of goodwill from Hisaakira Kano, Chairman of Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai (Japanese Society for International Cultural Relations), 4 Jan 1949; letter to Amanda Boxer from Richard Laurence Ollard, author, 8 May 2000, on Boxer declining the award of CBE; Homenagem ao Professor Charles Ralph Boxer. A tribute to Professor Charles Ralph Boxer (Centro de Estudos do Mar and Associão Fernão Mendes Pinto, Figueira de Foz/Montemor -o-Velho, 1999); Charles Ralph Boxer, 1904-2000 (commemorative booklet published by King's College London, 2000); 'In memoriam Charles Ralph Boxer' by Dr Frank Lequin, offprint from Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia and Oceania , vol 156.4, Leiden, 2000; obituaries on Boxer from The Guardian , The Independent , and the Jornal de Coimbra and obituary of Emily Hahn, [ The Guardian ], Feb 1997; copies of pages from the 'Codex Lynch' and Marsden Mss, held by King's College London Archives, relating to the Portuguese East India Company, 1629-1633, and to the Jesuit mission in the Moghul Empire, 1668; copies of dustjackets of a selection of books written by Boxer; photographs, 1904-[1999], including Boxer in China, Japan, Siam, 1938, as a POW in Hong Kong [1942], his marriage to Emily Hahn, 1945, and his receiving honorary degree at Liverpool, 1966, and Order of Santiago da Espada, Portugal, 1990; copy of speech given by José Gregório Faria, Ambassador of Portugal, at a memorial reception for Boxer held at King's College London on 11 Jul 2000, with commemorative booklet.

System of arrangement

1 file

General Information

Name of creator

(1904-2000)

Biographical history

Born 8 March 1904; educated Wellington College and Royal Military College, Sandhurst; commissioned Lincolnshire Regt, 1923; language officer, interpreter and intelligence officer, travelling in Japan, China, Dutch East Indies, Manchuria and Korea, 1930-1939; served World War Two, 1939-1945 (wounded, POW in Japanese hands, 1941-1945); married Emily Hahn, 1945; retired from Army with rank of Major, 1947; appointed Camões Professor of Portuguese, King's College London, 1947-1951; Professor of the History of the Far East, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1951-1953; re-appointed Camões Professor, 1953-1967; elected Fellow of the British Academy 1957; Trustee of the National Maritime Museum, 1961-1968; Fellow of King's College London, 1967; Emeritus Professor of Portuguese, University of London, 1968; Professor of the History of Expansion of Europe Overseas, Yale, 1969-1972; Visiting Research Professor, Indiana University, 1967-1979; Emeritus Professor of History, Yale, 1972; Honorary Fellow, SOAS, 1974; Foreign Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, 1976; Honorary doctorates of the Universities of Utrecht (1950), Lisbon (1952), Bahia (1959), Liverpool (1966), Hong Kong (1971), Peradeniya (1980); Gold Medal, Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, 1986; Order of Santiago da Espada (Portugal, 1990); Grand Cross of the Order of the Infante Dom Henrique (Portugal); Kt Order of St Gregory the Great, 1969; died 27 April 2000.

Publications: (selection of principal works only), The commentaries of Ruy Freyre de Andrade (Routledge, London, 1930); The journal of Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp, Anno 1639 (Cambridge University Press, London, 1930); A true description of the mighty kingdoms of Japan and Siam (Argonaut Press, London, 1935); Jan Compagnie in Japan, 1600-1817 (M Nijhoff, The Hague, 1936); Fidalgos in the Far East, 1550-1770 , (M Nijhoff, The Hague, 1948); The Christian century in Japan, 1549-1640 (University of California, Berkeley, 1951); Salvador Correia de Sá and the struggle for Brazil and Angola (Athlone Press, London, 1952); South China in the 16th Century (Hakluyt Society, London, 1953); The Dutch in Brazil, 1624-1654 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1957); The tragic history of the sea, 1589-1622 (Hakluyt Society/Cambridge University Press, London/Cambridge, 1959); The great ship from Amaco n (CEHU, Lisbon, 1959); Fort Jesus and the Portuguese in Mombasa (Hollis and Carter, London, 1960); The golden age of Brazil, 1695-1750 (University of California, Berkeley, 1962); Race Relations in the Portuguese Colonial Empire, 1415-1825 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1963); The Dutch seaborne Empire, 1600-1800 (Hutchinson, London, 1965); Portuguese Society in the Tropics (University of Wisconsin Press, London, 1966); Further selections from the tragic history of the sea , (Hakluyt Society/Cambridge University Press, London/Cambridge, 1969); The Portuguese seaborne empire, 1415-1825 , (Hutchinson, London, 1969); Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th Century (National Maritime Museum, London, 1974); Mary and Misogyny (Duckworth, London, 1975); A descriptive list of the State Papers Portugal, 1661-1780, in the Public Record Office 3 vols (ACL/British Academy, Lisbon/London, 1979, 1983); João de Barros: Portuguese humanist and historian of Asia (Concept, New Delhi, 1981); From Lisbon to Goa 1500-1750 (Variorum reprints, London, 1984); Portuguese Conquest and Commerce in Southern Asia 1500-1750 (Variorum reprints, London, 1985); Portuguese Merchants and Missionaries in Feudal Japan 1543-1640 (Variorum reprints, London, 1986); Dutch Merchants and Mariners in Asia 1602-1795 (Variorum reprints, London, 1988).

Archival history

The collection was assembled by Professor Malyn Newitt, Charles Boxer Professor of History, Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, King's College London, and Patricia Methven, Director of Archive Services, King's College London, for an exhibition at a memorial reception for Boxer, held at the College on 11 Jul 2000.

Custodial history

Following the memorial reception for Boxer of 11 Jul 2000, the collection was deposited in the College Archives.

Conditions governing access

Open, subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of two forms of identification, to include one photographic ID.

Conditions governing reproduction

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied from open material for research purposes only.

Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Archives.

Language of material

  • English
  • Portuguese

Script of material

Finding aids

Summary guide entry online and available in hard copy in the College Archives reading room.

Existence and location of originals

Off-campus collection

Please note: We require 7 days notice to retrieve this collection as part, or all of it, is held off-campus. Read more ›

Copies of photographs and some papers were taken from material held by Boxer's daughter, Amanda Boxer. Copies of other papers came from sources held by Professor James S Cummins of the Department of Spanish and Latin American Studies, University College London, and by Professor Helder Macedo, Camoens Professor of Portuguese, Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, King's College London. Copies of cuttings came from the Press Cuttings collection of King's College Archives (KCLCA Q/PC).

Related materials

King's College London Archives holds the papers of Professor Gerald Sandford Graham, Professor of Imperial History, which contains correspondence with Boxer (KCLCA K/PP 43). The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA, holds the bulk of Boxer's correspondence and papers, 1923-1975, which includes drafts, articles and reviews of his books, lecture notes, student papers, conference papers and research materials, as well as original manuscripts, 16th Century-19th Century, collected by Boxer relating to Dutch and Portuguese colonialism (ref Boxer Mss and Boxer Mss II); the Department of Special Collections and Western Manuscripts, Bodleian Library, Oxford University holds correspondence of Boxer, 1937-1954, relating to the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning.

Related descriptions

Alternative identifier(s)

Genre access points

Rules and/or conventions used

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000.

Script(s)

Archivist's note

Sources: Who's Who; British Library OPAC. Compiled by Robert Baxter.

Accession area