Geoffrey Best
Geoffrey Francis Andrew Best FBA (20 November 1928 – 14 January 2018) was an English historian known for his studies of warfare and works about Winston Churchill. Early life and family. Geoffrey Best was born in Osterley, Middlesex, on 20 November 1928. He was educated at St Paul's School, London. He undertook his national service in the Royal Army Educational Corps teaching illiterate Scottish soldiers to read and write. Best married Marigold Davies in 1955 and they had three children together. Marigold later became involved in Quakerism and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and she and her  husband went on CND marches together. Career. Best studied at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge, becoming a fellow from 1955 to 1961 and an assistant lecturer at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 1956 to 1961. From 1961 to 1974 he was lecturer, reader, and finally Sir Richard Lodge Professor of History at the University of Edinburgh. From 1974 to 1982 he was professor of history at the University of Sussex. He then spent six years as an academic visitor at the London School of Economics before in 1988 becoming a member of St Antony's College, University of Oxford. He was  elected a fellow of the British Academy in 2003. Writing. In 1974, Best became series editor of the Fontana History of European War and Society for which he wrote "War and Society in Revolutionary Europe 1770-1870" (1982). He wrote two books on Winston Churchill, "Churchill: A Study in Greatness" (2001) and "Churchill and War" (2005). Death. Best died on 14 January 2018.