BOXER, Charles Ralph. Sandown, Isle of Wight 8.3.1904 — St.Albans, Hertfordshire 27.4.2000 (when 96). British Historian of Early Colonial Asia. Son of Colonel Hugh Edward Richard Boxer (d. in war 1915) and Jane Patterson, a naval military family. Grew up in Dorset. Educated at Wellington College and Sandhurst. In 1923-47 served in Lincolnshire Regiment, first in Northern Ireland. He interested early in Japan and eastern history and was in 1930-33 in exchange in Japan (qualified there as official interpreter). After a time in London, in 1936-41 in Hong Kong, now worked as a spy in British Military Intelligence Service advancing to Major, travelled widely in East and South-East Asia. When Japanese took Hong Kong in 1941 he became a prisoner of war, until 1945. In 1946-47 member of British Far Eastern Commission in Japan. Resigned in 1947 to become Camões Professor of Portuguese at King’s College, London. In 1951-53 Professor of the History of the Far East at S.O.A.S., the returned to King’s. Retired from London University in 1967 and went as visiting Professor to Indiana University. In 1969-72 Professor of the History of European Overseas Expansion at Yale. First married 193? with Ursula Norah Anstice Tulloch (divorce), then in 1945 with Emily Hahn (1905–1997), an American journalist, two daughters with the second wife. Six hon. doctorates (Utrecht 1950, Lisbon 1952, Bahia 1959, Liverpool 1966, Hong Kong 1971 and Peradeniya 1980) and other honours (Fellow of British Academy 1957).

Boxer had no formal academical training or degree. His main field of interest was the early Portuguese and Dutch intrusion in China and Japan, but also in Indonesia and Brazil and often he also included the same period of India in his studies. He was not interested in theories and underlying motives, but in what actually happened. “History for him was simply original sources telling their story, not theories into which historical events had to be squeezed like feet into shoes of the wrong size” (M. Newitt).

Publications: A number of books and articles (beginning 1926, altogether over 350 publications), especially on Far Eastern history, e.g. The Christian Century in Japan. 15+397 p. 139 pl. L. 1951; edited several old accounts.

– The Tragic History of the Sea, 1589-1622: Narratives of the Shipwrecks of the Portuguese East Indiamen. 341 p. Cambridge 1959.

– Race Relations in the Portuguese Colonial Empire, 1415–1825. 7+136 p. Oxford 1963

– The Dutch Seaborne Empire 1600–1800. 26+326 p. L. 1965; The Portuguese Seaborne Empire 1415–1825. 26+456 p. 1969.

– Reviews and articles on South Asian history; Portuguese India in the mid-17th Century. 57 p. O.U.P. 1980; Portuguese Conquest and Commerce in Southern Asia, 1500–1750. 312 p. 9 fig. Collected Studies Series 208. L. 1985.

Sources: *Bibliography, Portuguese Studies 17, 2001, 247-276; *D. Alden, Charles R. Boxer: an uncommon life; soldier, historian, teacher, collector, traveller. Macau 2001; *Budden (ed.), A Truly British Samurai, the Exceptional Charles Boxer (1904 -2000). 2015; *J.S. Cummins, Oxford D.N.B. 2007; *F. Lequin, BRLV 156, 2000, 671-685; *M.D.D. Newitt, Proc. Br. Acad. 115, 2002, 75-99; J. Villiers, JRAS 2001, 249-252; Wikipedia with photo.