Hugh Thomas

Hugh Swynnerton Thomas, Baron Thomas of Swynnerton (21 October 1931 – 7 May 2017), was an English historian, writer, diplomat and political adviser known best for his book The Spanish Civil War.

Early life Hugh Swynnerton Thomas was born on 21 October 1931 in Windsor, Berkshire, England, to Hugh Whitelegge Thomas (1887–1960), a colonial commissioner in the Gold Coast and Cambridge cricketer, and his wife, Margery Augusta Angelo (née Swynnerton). Sir Shenton Thomas was his uncle. He was educated at Sherborne School in Dorset, before going up to Queens' College, Cambridge,

Career From 1954 to 1957, Thomas worked in the Foreign Office, partly as secretary of the British Delegation to the sub-committee of the UN Disarmament Commission, and in the British embassy in Paris under his future father-in-law Gladwyn Jebb. He lectured briefly at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in 1957. He was created a life peer as Baron Thomas of Swynnerton, of Notting Hill in Greater London by letters patent dated 16 June 1981, and sat as a Conservative, before he joined the Liberal Democrats in late 1997, declaring concerns about Euroscepticism in the Conservative ranks. in support of the Contras, an anti-Sandinista paramilitary group.

In 1990, he was one of the leading historians behind the setting up of the History Curriculum Association. The Association advocated a more knowledge-based history curriculum in schools. It expressed "profound disquiet" at the way history was being taught in the classroom and observed that the integrity of history was threatened.

Personal life Thomas was married to Vanessa Jebb, a painter and a daughter of Gladwyn Jebb, the first Acting United Nations Secretary-General and British Ambassador to France. They had three children: Inigo, Isambard and Isabella. from Spain, as well as the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle, the Joaquín Romero Murube Prize in Seville (2013) and the Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise (2014).

Works Disarmament – The Way Ahead (1957); a Fabian Society tract. The World's Game; a novel (1957). The Oxygen Age; a novel (1958). The Establishment: A Symposium (edited, 1959). The Spanish Civil War (1961); Penguin Books Ltd (1968); 2nd revised edition (1977); 4th revised edition (2003). A new revised edition in 2011 commemorated the book's reaching 50 consecutive years in print; it was published in 15 languages. The Story of Sandhurst (1961). The Suez Affair (1967; revised 1970); an analysis of the Suez Crisis of 1956. Crisis in the Civil Service (1968). Cuba or the Pursuit of Freedom (1971; revised 1998, 2002, 2010). Selected Writings by Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera (edited, 1972). Goya: The Third of May 1808 (1972). A History of Wales, 1485–1660 (1972). Europe: The Radical Challenge (1973). John Strachey (1973). An Unfinished History of the World (1979); published in the United States as A History of the World, then as World History (1998); and under the original title in London (by Hamish Hamilton) in 1979, and with revised editions in 1981 and 1982. The Revolution On Balance (1983), Washington, DC; Cuban American National Foundation 1983 (CANF pamphlet #5). online Havannah; a novel (1984). Armed Truce: The Beginnings of the Cold War, 1945–46 (1986). online Central America: Can Europe Play a Part? (1987); an Institute for European Defence and Strategic Studies paper. Klara; a novel (1988). Madrid: A Travellers' Companion (1988; revised 2005). Ever Closer Union: Britain's Destiny in Europe (1991). The Conquest of Mexico (1993); published in the United States as Conquest: Montezuma, Cortés and the Fall of Old Mexico. The Slave Trade: The History of the Atlantic Slave Trade 1440–1870 (1997); Simon & Schuster. Who Is Who of the Conquistadors (2000). A study of those who fought for Cortés. Rivers of Gold (2003); the first book in a trilogy about the Spanish Empire. Beaumarchais in Seville (2006). Eduardo Barreiros and the Recovery of Spain (2009); a biography of Eduardo Barreiros. The Golden Age: The Spanish Empire of Charles V (2010); the second book in a trilogy about the Spanish Empire. Published in the United States as The Golden Empire: Spain, Charles V, and the Creation of America (2011). World Without End: The Global Empire of Philip II (2014); the third volume in a trilogy about the Spanish Empire.

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