Edward Acton | |
---|---|
Vice-Chancellor of the University of East Anglia | |
In office 2009–2014 | |
Chancellor | Brandon Gough Rose Tremain |
Preceded by | Bill MacMillan |
Succeeded by | David Richardson |
Personal details | |
Born | Salisbury,Southern Rhodesia | 4 February 1949
Spouse | Stella Lyon-Dalberg-Acton (m. 1972) |
Children | 2 |
Parent | |
Alma mater | University of York (BA) St Edmund's College, Cambridge (PhD) |
Profession | Historian |
Edward David Joseph Lyon-Dalberg-Acton FRHistS (born 4 February 1949) is a British academic and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of East Anglia. [2] His title from birth is The Honourable but is never referred as such professionally or on the university website.
Born in Zimbabwe, Edward Acton is the 4th son of John Lyon-Dalberg-Acton, 3rd Baron Acton and great-grandson of the historian John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton. Through his maternal line he is also the great-grandson of the Nobel Prize-winning scientist John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh. He was educated at St George's College, Harare, the University of York (BA) and at St Edmund's College, Cambridge (PhD). [3] He worked at the Bank of England, and then held academic posts at Liverpool and Manchester, before becoming Professor of Modern European History at the University of East Anglia in 1991. He was appointed Dean of the School of History at UEA in 1999, and served as Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic) from 2004 until 2009, when he was appointed Vice-Chancellor. He is an Honorary Fellow of St Edmund's College, Cambridge and now lives in Cambridge. [4] He was portrayed by Ade Edmondson in The Trick , BBC One's 2021 dramatisation of the Climategate crisis. [5] [6]
John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, 13th Marquess of Groppoli,, better known as Lord Acton, was an English Catholic historian, politician, and writer. He is best remembered for the remark he wrote in a letter to an Anglican bishop in 1887:
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men…"
Granville George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville,, styled Lord Leveson until 1846, was a British Liberal statesman and diplomat from the Leveson-Gower family. He is best remembered for his service as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Robert Monsey Rolfe, 1st Baron Cranworth, PC was a British lawyer and Liberal politician. He twice served as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain.
St Edmund's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. Founded in 1896, it is the second-oldest of the four Cambridge colleges oriented to mature students, which accept only students reading for postgraduate degrees or for undergraduate degrees if aged 21 years or older.
Baron Acton, of Aldenham in the County of Shropshire, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 11 December 1869 for Sir John Dalberg-Acton, 8th Baronet, a prominent historian and Liberal Member of Parliament.
Richard Gerald Lyon-Dalberg-Acton, 4th Baron Acton, Baron Acton of Bridgnorth was a British Labour Party politician and peer.
Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk,, styled Lord Maltravers until 1856 and Earl of Arundel and Surrey between 1856 and 1860, was a British Unionist politician and philanthropist. He served as Postmaster General between 1895 and 1900, but is best remembered for his philanthropic work, which concentrated on Roman Catholic causes and the city of Sheffield.
St Mary's College in New Oscott, Birmingham, often called Oscott College, is the Roman Catholic seminary of the Archdiocese of Birmingham in England and one of the three seminaries of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.
Dalberg is the name of an ancient and distinguished German noble family, derived from the hamlet and castle of Dalberg or Dalburg, near Kreuznach in Rhineland-Palatinate.
John Emerich Henry Lyon-Dalberg-Acton, 3rd Baron Acton, was a British peer and soldier.
Richard Maximilian Lyon-Dalberg-Acton, 2nd Baron Acton, was a British peer and diplomat, ultimately Britain's first Ambassador to Finland in 1919–20.
Sir Ferdinand Richard Edward Dalberg-Acton, 7th Baronet was a British baronet.
John Worthington (1618–1671) was an English academic. He was closely associated with the Cambridge Platonists. He did not in fact publish in the field of philosophy, and is now known mainly as a well-connected diarist.
Frank Thistlethwaite CBE was an English academic who served as the first vice-chancellor of the University of East Anglia.
Derek Clissold Burke was a British academic who served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of East Anglia from 1987 to 1995.
John Charles Harold Ferdinand Lyon-Dalberg-Acton, 5th Baron Acton, is a British author and peer.
Acton is an English surname. Notable people with the surname include:
John Douglas Woodruff (1897–1978) was the editor of the Tablet and later chairman of the Catholic publishers Burns & Oates.