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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. He meanwhile wrote a number of biographical and historical books. He then moved to academia and had 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 from behind the scenes by being 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 and stepped down as an MP 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 to his death, he was a Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge.[1][2]
- ^ "Rhodes James, Sir Robert (Vidal), (10 April 1933–20 May 1999), DL; Chairman, History of Parliament Trust, 1983–92". Who Was Who. Oxford University Press. 1 December 2007. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
- ^ Robert, Blake. "James, Sir Robert Vidal Rhodes (1933–1999)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/72307. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)