Philip Mason

Philip Mason OBE CIE (19 March 1906 – 25 January 1999) was an English civil servant and author. He is best known for his two-volume book on the British Raj, The Men Who Ruled India (written under the pseudonym 'Philip Woodruff'), and his study of the Indian Army, A Matter of Honour (1974).[1]

Mason was educated at Sedbergh School and Balliol College, Oxford. In 1978 he published a volume of autobiography, A Shaft of Sunlight: memories of a varied life (Deutsch, ISBN 0233969551), and in 1984 a sequel, A Thread of Silk.[2]

Race and decolonisation

Having served the Empire in both India and Africa, Mason became the first director of the UK Institute of Race Relations.[3] He was strongly influenced by Octave Mannoni's use of The Tempest to illuminate the colonial situation - Prospero as imperialist - and in his own book of 1962, Prospero's Magic: Some Thoughts on Race and Colour, he extended Mannoni's symbolism to cover the Third World in general, noting how "in my country until a generation ago we liked Prospero...some of us are beginning not to like him".[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ferdinand Mount, The Tears of the Rajas (2016) p. 76 and p. 568
  2. ↑ Olive, Roland (2 February 1999). "Obituary: Philip Mason". The Independent. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  3. ↑ A. Vaughan, Shakespeare's Caliban (1991) p. 160-1
  4. ↑ Quoted in A. Vaughan, Shakespeare's Caliban (1991) p. 162

Further reading

  • Short Biography
  • Biography
  • Books / Writings
  • Tinker, Hugh (3 February 1999). "Last witness to the Raj". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 October 2012. Obituary
  • "Philip Mason: obituary". Daily Telegraph. 29 January 1999. Retrieved 1 October 2012. Transcribed copy at Rootsweb
  • Documents about the History of the Institute of Race Relations written by Philip Mason can be found at the Borthwick Institute, University of York


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