Kenneth Wheare

{{Short description|Historian and academic administrator}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}} {{Use Australian English|date=August 2011}} {{Infobox academic | honorific_prefix =  | name = Sir Kenneth Wheare | honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CMG|FBA}} | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name =  | birth_date = 26 March 1907 | birth_place = | death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|7 September 1979|26 March 1907}} | death_place = | death_cause = | citizenship =  | other_names = | occupation = | period = | known_for = | title = | boards =  | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | relatives = | awards =  | website = | education = | alma_mater =  | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | school_tradition = | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | influences =  | era = | discipline = [[Political science]] | sub_discipline = {{hlist|[[Government]]|[[constitutions]]|[[British Commonwealth]]}} | workplaces = {{plain list| * [[Christ Church, Oxford]] * [[University College, Oxford]] * [[All Souls College, Oxford]] * [[Exeter College, Oxford]] }} | doctoral_students =  | notable_students = | main_interests = | notable_works = | notable_ideas = | influenced =  | signature = | signature_alt = | signature_size = | footnotes = }} '''Sir Kenneth Clinton Wheare''', {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|CMG|FBA}} (26 March 1907 – 7 September 1979)<ref name="ADB">{{cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |id2=wheare-sir-kenneth-clinton-12005 | title=Wheare, Sir Kenneth Clinton (1907–1979) | access-date=14 July 2011 | last=Poynter | first=J. R. }}</ref> was an Australian academic, who spent most of his career at [[Oxford University]] in England.<ref>{{cite ODNB| title=Wheare, Sir Kenneth Clinton (1907–1979) (subscription required) | first=Max | last=Beloff | doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/31822 |year=2004 |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-31822|access-date=9 January 2020}}</ref> He was an expert on the constitutions of the [[British Commonwealth]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Markwell |first=Donald |author-link=Donald Markwell | title=Constitutional Conventions and the Headship of State: Australian Experience |publisher=Connor Court | year=2016 | isbn=978-1925501155 }} Appendix 3: Two Constitutional Scholars: Sir Kenneth Wheare and Dr [[Eugene Forsey]].</ref> He advised constitutional assemblies in former British colonies.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Getachew|first=Adom|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv3znwvg|title=Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination|date=2019|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-17915-5|pages=122|doi=10.2307/j.ctv3znwvg |jstor=j.ctv3znwvg }}</ref>

==Early life and family== Wheare was educated at [[Scotch College, Melbourne]]<ref name="ADB" /> and was later a student at [[Ormond College]], [[Melbourne University]] and [[Oriel College, Oxford]], gaining a [[first class degree]] in [[Philosophy, Politics and Economics]] and also undertaking postgraduate study. He met his wife Joan (1915–2013) when he was her tutor.<ref>{{cite news|title=Joan Wheare: Rebel with many causes|url=http://www.fordmail.co.uk/news/community/obituaries/obits/10789899.Rebel_with_many_causes_who__was_Oxford___s____urban_guerilla___/|access-date=22 March 2015 | newspaper=[[Oxford Mail]] | date=7 November 2013 }}</ref> One of their sons is [[Tom Wheare]]. Another son is [[Henry Wheare]], the champion British rower who later became a leading intellectual property lawyer in Hong Kong.

==Career== In 1934, Wheare was made a university lecturer in colonial history at the University of Oxford, and joined [[Christ Church, Oxford]] with a research lectureship. During his four years at Christ Church, he concentrated his research on the effects of the [[Statute of Westminster 1931]] and the first edition of his ''The Statute of Westminster and Dominion Status'' was published in 1938. In 1939, he was elected [[Fellow (Oxbridge)|fellow]] of [[University College, Oxford]] to fill the post of [[Tutorial system|tutor]] in politics that had been vacated by [[John Redcliffe-Maud, Baron Redcliffe-Maud|John Maud]].<ref name="PBA">{{cite journal |last1=Marshall |first1=Geoffrey |author1-link=Geoffrey Marshall (constitutionalist) |title=Kenneth Clinton Wheare, 1907-1979 |journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy |date=1982 |issue=67 |pages=490–507 |url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/1205/67p491.pdf |access-date=26 May 2024 |publisher=The British Academy}}</ref>

In 1944, Wheare was elected the first [[Gladstone Professor of Government]] at [[All Souls College, Oxford]].<ref name="PBA" /> He was Chairman of the Departmental Committee on Children and the Cinema from 1947 to 1950 and chaired a committee to examine [[film censorship in the United Kingdom]].<ref name="ADB" /><ref name=screen>{{cite web|website=Screenonline|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/592670/index.html|title=Wheare Report, The (1950)|access-date=12 November 2022}}</ref> The Wheare committee's findings published in 1950 led to the introduction of a compulsory certificate, [[X rating|X (Explicit Content)]], allowing only those aged 16 and older to enter.<ref name=screen/> Another outcome of the Wheare report was the creation of the [[Children's Film Foundation]].<ref name=guardian>{{cite news|url=http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/sep/09/childrens-film-foundation|title=How the Children's Film Foundation once dominated Saturday morning cinema|first=Andrew|last=Roberts|date=September 9, 2010|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>

In 1956, he became [[Rector (college)|Rector]] of [[Exeter College, Oxford]]. A [[gargoyle]] of his likeness is carved on the Bodleian Library, visible from the Exeter College Fellows' Garden.<ref name="ADB" />

Wheare was Chairman of the [[Rhodes Trust]] (1962–69), President of the [[British Academy]] (1967–71), Chancellor of the [[University of Liverpool]] from 1972. He was also a [[Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford]] from 1964 to 1966.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/vc/position/previousvice-chancellors/ | title=Previous Vice-Chancellors | publisher=[[University of Oxford]] | location=UK | access-date=14 July 2011 }}</ref>

In 1948 he had contributed ''Abraham Lincoln and the United States'' to the "Teach Yourself History" series.

In June 1973, Wheare was shortlisted for appointment as [[Governor-General of Australia]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kelly |first=Paul |title=The Dismissal: A Groundbreaking New History |publisher=Penguin Random House Australia |year=2015 |isbn=9781760142032 |location=Melbourne |pages=69 |language=English}}</ref> but was overlooked by then-prime minister [[Gough Whitlam]] in favour of Sir [[John Kerr (governor-general)|John Kerr]].

==Honours== Kenneth Wheare was appointed [[Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George]] (CMG) in 1953 and was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in 1966.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}<ref name="ADB"/> In 1952, he was elected a [[Fellow of the British Academy]] (FBA), the United Kingdom's [[national academy]] for the humanities and social sciences.<ref name="PBA" /> He gave the British Academy's 1974 Master-Mind Lecture.<ref>{{cite web|title=Master-Mind Lectures|website=The British Academy|url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/lectures/listings/master-mind-lectures/}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Wheare, K. C.|title=Walter Bagehot|journal=Proceedings of the British Academy|year=1975|volume=60|pages=173–197|url=http://publications.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/pubs/proc/files/60p173.pdf}}{{Dead link|date=December 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref>

In 2017, [[Oxford Brookes University]] named a newly rebuilt lecture hall after Wheare.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.brookes.ac.uk/about-brookes/news/new-hall-named-in-honour-of-sir-kenneth-wheare/ | title=New hall named in honour of Sir Kenneth Wheare | publisher=[[Oxford Brookes University]] | location=UK | date=23 June 2017 | access-date=9 January 2019 | archive-date=10 July 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190710123330/https://www.brookes.ac.uk/about-brookes/news/new-hall-named-in-honour-of-sir-kenneth-wheare/ | url-status=dead }}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{s-start}} {{s-aca}} {{succession box | title=[[Exeter College, Oxford|Rector of Exeter College, Oxford]] | years=1956–1972 | before=[[Eric Arthur Barber]] | after=[[Greig Barr]] }} {{succession box | title=[[Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University]] | years=1964–1966 | before=[[Walter Fraser Oakeshott]] | after=[[Kenneth Turpin]] }} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wheare, Kenneth Clinton}} [[Category:1907 births]] [[Category:1979 deaths]] [[Category:People educated at Scotch College, Melbourne]] [[Category:Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford]] [[Category:Australian Rhodes Scholars]] [[Category:20th-century Australian historians]] [[Category:Rectors of Exeter College, Oxford]] [[Category:Vice-chancellors of the University of Oxford]] [[Category:People associated with the University of Liverpool]] [[Category:Knights Bachelor]] [[Category:Fellows of the British Academy]] [[Category:Presidents of the British Academy]] [[Category:Gladstone Professors of Government]] [[Category:Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford]] [[Category:Australian political scientists]] [[Category:Scholars of constitutional law]] [[Category:20th-century political scientists]] [[Category:Fellows of Nuffield College, Oxford]] [[Category:Fellows of University College, Oxford]]