SIR JOHN PLUMB. Prof Neil McKendrick

by Plumb to have done and as David Starkey was felt by Elton to have done) were rare, and never wholly forgiven.

      Elton espoused ever more strongly the pre-eminent claims of constitutional history, Plumb moved ever more decisively towards the history of social realism. To those who thought that “true” history was to be found only in the archives of Church and State, such an approach was anathema, and Elton was very ready to lead the battle against it.

      Elton might be said to have won the battle (after all he did eventually become Regius Professor), but Plumb has surely won the war. The study of history has marched irresistibly in the direction he predicted and led.

      Others have used the same metaphor when describing the Plumb-Elton feud. Peter Richards wrote to the Cambridge alumni “Plumb ultimately lost the battle with Elton, retreating – not without rancour – to his elegant rooms in Christ’s, where he became Master in 1978. But he won the bigger war for hearts and minds. Over the last twenty years history has become a broader church than ever before, acknowledging the dangers that flow from professionals knowing more and more about less and less”.

      One must not overstress the levels of personal enmity. They heartily disliked each other but there were limits to their mutual antagonism. Behind the parade of everyday animosity there lurked a basic respect for each other’s professional skills and achievements. When Chadwick got the Regius Chair, Elton said openly that, for all their well-known rivalry, he would much rather that Plumb had been given it. That, he thought, would have been a much fairer outcome. It would more properly reflect the quality and importance of their published work. Cynics, on hearing this magnanimous judgment, reflected that such an appointment would also have left a longer period for Elton to inherit after Plumb’s retirement.

      Plumb showed a similar qualified respect for his old rival when asked by the Patronage Secretary for his recommendation for who should succeed Chadwick. Plumb had no doubt that the obvious internal candidate was Geoffrey Elton and said so.

      There were, however, limits to his magnanimity because his first choice was the “external”, the Cambridge educated John Elliott then at Oxford, to whom Margaret Thatcher offered the post. Indeed she spent a surprisingly long time trying to persuade him to take it. When Elliott declined, Thatcher reluctantly offered it to Plumb’s second choice – Elton.

      By then, in 1983, Plumb was increasingly detached from the Cambridge History Faculty. He had in every sense moved on. It had been a very different matter fifteen years earlier when Chadwick was appointed in 1968. Then Plumb knew that he was a very serious contender. Then he had what many of his colleagues thought was a very strong chance of being elected. Then he had high hopes of succeeding. Then, when those hopes were dashed from such an unexpected quarter, the defeat was very painful.

      Interestingly, the Cambridge Junior Historians (Faculty historians under the age of forty) had met before the result was announced and drawn up their own shortlist. It was confidently expected that it would be an internal appointment, and Plumb and Elton were thought to be the clear front-runners chosen from a very strong Cambridge field of contenders including Harry Hinsley, Walter Ullmann and Moses Finley (in spite of the fact that the latter was hardly eligible for a Chair in Modern History). If it were to go “outside” then Asa Briggs was regarded as the strongest threat to Elton and Plumb, with Denis Mack Smith regarded as a youthful “dark horse”. Chadwick did not even make the top ten. His only backer was Dr Margaret Bowker who presciently said that the junior historians were all completely wrong and that Owen Chadwick would certainly be chosen.

      When we incredulously asked “Why?”, she replied, “Partly because the Patronage Secretary has already offered him two Bishoprics and, by turning them down, he has impressed the powers that be that he is a dedicated scholar; partly because he was thought to be a far safer bet than either Elton or Plumb; partly because, although Plumb and Elton had far more devoted pupils supporting their claims, that would cut no ice with the Patronage Secretary who talked only to the great and good. Their powerful and influential voices would be far more inclined to support Chadwick”. She turned out to be absolutely right, the Junior Historians were proved to be wildly inaccurate in their predictions, and Plumb was left to realise that one of his most cherished ambitions was forever beyond his reach.