Christopher Bayly


Sir Christopher Alan Bayly, FBA, FRSL was a British historian specialising in British Imperial, Indian and global history. From 1992 to 2013, he was Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History at the University of Cambridge.

Early life

Bayly was from Tunbridge Wells, England, where he attended The Skinners School. He studied at Balliol College, Oxford and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He then remained at the University of Oxford and undertook post-graduate study at St Antony's College, Oxford. He completed his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1970 with a thesis titled The development of political organisation in the Allahabad locality, 1880–1925. His doctoral supervisor was John Andrew Gallagher.

Academic career

Bayly was the Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History at the University of Cambridge from 1992 to 2013. He was also a trustee of the British Museum.
In 2007, he succeeded Sir John Baker as President of St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Bayly also became the Director of Cambridge's Centre of South Asian Studies. He was co-editor of The New Cambridge History of India and sat on the editorial board of various academic journals.

Death

Bayly died in Hyde Park, Chicago, on 18 April 2015, a month before his 70th birthday. He was in his second and last year as the Vivekananda Visiting Professor when he died.

Honours

In 1990, Bayly was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. In 2004 he was awarded the Wolfson History Oeuvre Prize for his many contributions to the discipline. In the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours, it was announced that he had been appointed a Knight Bachelor 'for services to History'. Upon being informed of the knighthood, he stated: "I regard this not only as a great personal honour but, as an historian of India, as recognition of the growing importance of the history of the non-western world."
In 2016, Bayly became the first person to be posthumously awarded the Toynbee Prize for global history.

Selected bibliography