Henry William Carless Davis Henry William Carless Davis , CBE , FBA ( 13 January 1874 – 28 June 1928 ) was a British historian , editor of the " Dictionary of National Biography " , and Oxford Regius Professor of Modern History . Early career . Davis was born at Ebley , near Stroud , Gloucestershire , the eldest of five children of Henry Frederick Alexander Davis , a solicitor , and his wife , Jessie Anna . The children were brought up by their mother , who moved to Weymouth in 1884 to open a school for young children including her own , and was successful enough to be appointed first headmistress of Weymouth College preparatory school in 1903 . Davis attended Weymouth College from 1886 and went up to Balliol College , Oxford on a Brackenbury history scholarship , where he attained first classes in classical moderations in 1893 and " literae humaniores " in 1895 as well as the Jenkiyns exhibition . He was elected to a fellowship at All Souls College , Oxford , maintaining residence there from 1895 until 1902 , and spending time teaching at University College , Bangor between 1896 and 1897 . Davis won the Lothian prize in 1897 and was appointed to a lectureship at New College , Oxford and in 1899 exchanged lectureships and moved to Balliol , where on the expiry of his All Souls fellowship in 1902 he was appointed a fellow of Balliol . In 1899 Davis published " Balliol College " , a work in the College Histories series , and in 1900 , " Charlemagne " , in the Heroes of the Nations series , as well as articles in the " English Historical Review " in 1901 . In 1903 he published the article " The Anarchy of Stephen ' s Reign " in the same journal , which presented the idea that the use of the term ' waste ' in the Pipe Rolls indicated a much wider devastation resulting from the Anarchy than previously was thought , fuelling the belief that a great anarchy occurred during Stephen ' s reign , although the ' waste ' theory was later discredited . His first widely regarded book was " England under the Normans and Angevins " , published in 1905 , it became a standard authority and reached a tenth print edition in 1930 . It was , however , his only substantial contribution to narrative medieval history . In 1911 he wrote the summary " Medieval Europe " , in the Home University Library series , but from 1905 was more focused on editorial work , preparing an edition of Benjamin Jowett ' s translation of Aristotle ' s " Politics " , a revision of William Stubbs ' " Select Charters " and starting the calendar of royal charters , " Regesta regum Anglo - Normannorum " . His academic presence inspired genuine respect and regard , and his lectures were well attended . Davis was junior dean of Balliol from 1906 until 1910 , and an examiner in the final school of modern history between 1907 and 1909 , and again from 1919 to 1921 In 1912 Davis married Jennie Rosa , the daughter of Walter Lindup , of Bampton Grange in Oxfordshire . In 1913 he took the Chichele lectureship in foreign history and became a curator of the Bodleian Library in 1914 . War years . The First World War drew Davis ' attention away from academia , and he assisted in the production of a series of Oxford Pamphlets on the war and published a dispassionate analysis , " The Political Thought of Heinrich von Treitschke " . In early 1915 , Davis moved to London and assisted the organization of the Trade Clearing House , a body sponsored by the Admiralty and Board of Trade to pool intelligence on commercial trade gathered from the postal censorship . When the Trade Clearing House grew and became the War Trade Intelligence Department and part of the Ministry of Blockade , under the Foreign Office , Davis became the vice - chairman . He later wrote of the department ' s workings in " History of the Blockade " , but left the work unfinished . On 7 October 1918 , Jennie Rosa gave birth to Ralph Henry Carless Davis . Later that year , at the conclusion of the war , Davis served on the British delegation to the Paris Peace Conference between December 1918 and March 1919 , and then spent a few weeks as the acting director of the Department of Overseas Trade at the invitation of Sir Arthur Steel - Maitland and in the New Years Honours of that year , Davis was made Commander of the British Empire . Return to Oxford . In April 1919 , Davis returned to Oxford and resumed his usual college and university work . He took up the editorial directorship of the " Dictionary of National Biography " , for which the previous editor , Sir Sidney Lee , had conveyed responsibility to the University of Oxford in 1917 . The names for inclusion in the dictionary and list of contributors were chosen by Davis and his co - editor J . R . H . Weaver , in consultation with a committee from Oxford and outside advisors . The volume of which Davis was in charge was published in 1927 , and covered 1911 to the end of 1921 . Davis accepted the chair of modern history at Manchester University in 1921 , and he moved to Bowdon , spending three and a half years in the post . Davis was elected Ford ' s lecturer at Oxford for 1924 - 25 ; his posthumously printed " The Age of Grey and Peel " was his chosen subject material . During Hilary term 1925 , Davis was appointed to succeed Sir Charles Firth as Regius Professor of Modern History , making him a fellow of Oriel College . Before the end of the year , Davis was elected an honorary fellow of Balliol and a fellow of the British Academy . In addition to his duties in Oxford , Davis took up a post on the unemployment insurance committee under fellow Balliol man Robert Younger , Baron Blanesburgh , and in 1927 he went to Geneva as British representative on a committee set up by the International Labour Organization to investigate and report on factory legislation in Europe . While in Edinburgh for the University of Edinburgh ' s examinations , Davis died of pneumonia after a few days ' illness , at 19 Great King Street . His body was interred at Wolvercote cemetery , Oxford .