Childhood

Abstract

He was very erudite — ‘the most learned man in England to-day’, as Harold Laski wrote in 1923.¹ Lord Acton, a man of rare culture even in the well-educated upper class of his day, befriended him, as did scholar-politicians like Lord Morley and Lord Haldane. The number of his works has been equalled by few historians. Yet G. P. Gooch was not ‘just’ a historian. He found time for active social work, for politics and for a spell in the House of Commons, for editing a famous journal for about half a century, for presiding over the National Peace Council in Britain in the 1930s, and for interesting himself in a considerable number of worthy causes of a varied nature. Last, but not least, he was a man of great personal warmth, who gave his friendship to many, including the present writer. He inspired true affection and commanded a natural respect. His historical work can only be fully understood within his life as a whole, and forms part of the manifold contribution he felt it right to make to the community, together with his other activities. His historical, political, social and editorial work were all inter-related. The roots of this remarkable man, who died during the fourth year of Harold Wilson’s first period as Prime Minister of a Labour Government, reach well back into the Victorian era.