Gerald S . Graham Gerald Sandford Graham ( born 27 April 1903 in Sudbury , Ontario - died 5 July 1988 St Leonards - on - Sea , East Sussex ) was Rhodes Professor of Imperial History at King ' s College London from 1949 until his retirement in 1970 . He earned a world reputation for his series of in - depth studies of the interrelationship between sea power and the development of the British empire . In 1929 , Graham married Winifred Emily Ware ( 1907 – 1990 ) , with whom he had a son . They divorced in 1950 and he married Constance Mary Greey , with whom he had two daughters and a son . Academic , Military , and Naval Career . On his return from Germany in 1930 , Graham was appointed instructor and tutor in history at Harvard University , where he remained until 1936 , when he received an appointment as assistant professor of history at Queen ' s University . There , he was quickly promoted to associate professor , and then full professor . For 1940 - 41 , he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship that resulted in Graham ' s first major book that showed his shift of research interests to British naval history : " Sea Power and British North America , 1783 - 1820 " . Toward the end of 1941 , he joined the Canadian Army , but quickly shifted to the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve and was appointed an instructor lieutenant commander to teach entering officers at Royal Roads Military College . While teaching there , Graham was able to get first - hand experience of the war at sea , by spending time during academic breaks on board Canadian destroyers in the Atlantic and in torpedo boats at Dover . Following the allied landings in northern France in 1944 , Graham was returned to the Canadian Army as a major , and served with the historical section of the Canadian Army Overseas in London . Graham ' s military assignment to London was the event that led him to stay in Britain for the remainder of his career . After demobilization , he was appointed lecturer in history at Birkbeck College , London , and in 1949 was elected to succeed Professor Vincent Harlow as Rhodes Professor of Imperial History at King ' s College London . Gerald Graham served as Rhodes Professor for 29 - years until his retirement at the age of 67 in 1970 , when he was appointed professor emeritus . While in that academic post , Graham specialized in teaching the history of the British Empire in the period 1880 - 1932 and in British colonial history . He traveled and lectured widely through the Commonwealth . In addition to his teaching , he worked closely with the Royal Commonwealth Society , to which he had initially been elected in 1928 , later becoming a Life Fellow and Vice - President . He was a member of its Library Committee from 1948 – 1955 , its Imperial Studies Committee in 1952 - 57 , and chairman of its Academic Committee , which awarded the Walter Frewen Lord Prize for the best postgraduate essay in imperial history . In addition , revived the Society ' s monograph series , " Imperial Studies " , and he edited volumes XXII ( 1961 ) through XXIX ( 1970 ) of the series . Similarly in working with the Oxford University Press , Graham served as general editor of its " West African History series " , most of which became the standard works on this field . In 1963 - 64 , Queen ' s University , Belfast honoured Graham by inviting him to deliver the Wiles Lectures , which were published the next year by Cambridge University Press as " The Politics of Naval Supremacy " . In 1967 , Graham delivered the Reid Lectures at Acadia University , which were published as " Tides of Empire : Discursions on the Expansion of Britain Overseas " . Immediately after Graham ' s retirement in London , he returned to Canada for two years as to serve as visiting professor of military and strategic studies at the University of Western Ontario in 1970 - 1972 . After this appointment , Graham returned to his permanent home in England at St Leonards - on - Sea , where he died at the age of 85 in 1988 . Published works . A complete bibliography of Graham ' s historical writings for the years 1930 to 1972 was compiled by George Metcalf and published in Graham ' s festschrift : Flint and Williams , eds . , " Perspectives of Empire " ( 1973 ) . The list included the following books : Sources . K . O . Dike , ' Gerald S . Graham : teacher and historian ' , in J . E . Flint and Glyndwyr Williams , eds . , " Perspectives of Empire : Essays presented to Gerald S . Graham " ( 1973 ) , pp . 1 – 8 . John Flint , ' Graham , Gerald Sandford ( 1903 – 1988 ) ' in " Oxford Dictionary of National Biography " ( 2006 ) .