# Philip Mason > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Philip_Mason > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Philip_Mason.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Mason > Source revision: 1269990508 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|British historian (1906–1999)}} {{about|the British civil servant and writer|the American archivist|Philip P. Mason|the English scientist and atheism activist|Phil Mason}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}} {{Use British English|date=January 2025}} '''Philip Mason''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CIE|OBE|FRSL|sep=,|size=100%}} (19 March 1906 – 25 January 1999), was a British civil servant in India and writer. After a career in the [Indian Civil Service](/source/Indian_Civil_Service) which was cut short by [Indian independence](/source/Indian_Independence_Act_1947), he returned to England to take up farming and writing, later becoming involved in the nascent field of [race relations](/source/race_relations). He is best known for his two-volume book on the [British Raj](/source/British_Raj), ''The Men Who Ruled India'' (written under the pseudonym 'Philip Woodruff', the latter being his mother's maiden name), and his study of the [Indian Army](/source/Indian_Army), ''A Matter of Honour'' (1974).[Ferdinand Mount](/source/Ferdinand_Mount), ''The Tears of the Rajas'' (2016) p. 76 and p. 568 ==Early life and education== Philip Mason was one of three children – two sons and a daughter – of Herbert Alfred Mason (1876–1968), a [general practitioner](/source/general_practitioner) at [Duffield](/source/Duffield%2C_Derbyshire), Derbyshire, and his wife Ethel Addison (1880–1956), daughter of Herbert Addison Woodruff, an engineer and manager of a [Cammell Laird](/source/Cammell_Laird) steel factory.A Shaft of Sunlight, Philip Mason, Andre Deutsch Ltd, 1978, p. 3{{Cite ODNB | url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/abstract/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-71993 | doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/71993| title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography| year=2004}} The Mason family had been farmers for several generations at [Barrowden](/source/Barrowden) in [Rutland](/source/Rutland), [East Midlands](/source/East_Midlands); his great-grandfather Henry brewed beer and sold malting barley to brewers, and his grandfather George Mason "grew first-class malting barley and reared Leicester lambs".A Shaft of Sunlight, Philip Mason, Andre Deutsch Ltd, 1978, p. 3, 8 On the basis that "Woodruff" struck him as "a prettier, a more unusual, and a more romantic name than plain ordinary Mason", he "decided very early to be Philip Woodruff Mason and was known by that name until (he) was thirteen and had to produce a birth certificate."A Shaft of Sunlight, Philip Mason, Andre Deutsch Ltd, 1978, p. 4 Mason was educated at [Sedbergh School](/source/Sedbergh_School) and [Balliol College, Oxford](/source/Balliol_College%2C_Oxford), taking a first-class degree in [Modern Greats](/source/Philosophy%2C_Politics_and_Economics).{{Cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/1999/feb/03/guardianobituaries1 |title = Philip Mason obituary|work = The Guardian|date = 3 February 1999|last1 = Tinker|first1 =Hugh}} He published two volumes of autobiography, ''A Shaft of Sunlight: Memories of a Varied Life'' (Andre Deutsch, 1978) and a sequel, ''A Thread of Silk: Further Memories of a Varied Life'' (Michael Russell, 1984).{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-philip-mason-1068169.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-philip-mason-1068169.html |archive-date=26 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Obituary: Philip Mason |last=Olive |first=Roland |date=2 February 1999 |work=[The Independent](/source/The_Independent) |accessdate=1 October 2012}} ==Career with the Indian Civil Service== Mason worked for the [Indian Civil Service](/source/Indian_Civil_Service) from 1928 to 1947. He was an under-secretary in the War Department from 1933 to 1936, in that year being appointed [Deputy Commissioner](/source/District_magistrate_(India)) at [Garhwal](/source/Garhwal_District) and remaining in this position until 1939. During the [Second World War](/source/Second_World_War), he held appointments in the Defence and War Departments at Delhi (Deputy Secretary, Defence Co-ordination and War Departments 1939–42; Secretary of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, India and Head of Conference Secretary, South-East Asia Command 1942–4, Joint Secretary, War Department 1944–7), retiring in 1947 intending to take up farming.A Raj Collection, ed. Saros Cowasjee, Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 1023 ==Race and decolonisation== With his farming efforts, even supplemented by the income from his writing, proving insufficiently remunerative for the needs of his growing family, Mason took the part-time position as the first Director of Studies of the Royal Institute of International Affairs at [Chatham House](/source/Chatham_House), serving in this capacity from 1952 to 1958.A. Vaughan, ''Shakespeare's Caliban'' (1991) p. 160-1 Mason's role was to both undertake research and seek out scholarly work on disciplines relating to racial problems; he first went to [Southern Rhodesia](/source/Southern_Rhodesia), at the time when it was embarking upon a union with [Northern Rhodesia](/source/Northern_Rhodesia) and [Nyasaland](/source/Nyasaland). Three volumes, ''The Birth of a Dilemma'' (1958), ''The Two Nations'', and ''The Year of Decision'' (the second undertaken by a junior colleague, but the first and third by Mason) resulted from this research. By 1958, his position at Chatham House translated into directorship of the independent [Institute of Race Relations](/source/Institute_of_Race_Relations_(United_Kingdom)); during this time, Mason focused on Latin America, producing ''Patterns in Dominance'' (1970), the last book he wrote before retiring in 1969. Mason was strongly influenced by [Octave Mannoni](/source/Octave_Mannoni)'s use of ''The Tempest'' to illuminate the [colonial situation](/source/Colonization) – Prospero as imperialist – and in his own book of 1962, ''Prospero's Magic: Some Thoughts on Class and Race'', he extended Mannoni's symbolism to cover the Third World in general, noting how "in my country until a generation ago we liked Prospero{{nbsp}}... some of us are beginning not to like him".Quoted in A. Vaughan, ''Shakespeare's Caliban'' (1991) p. 162 ==Marriage and later life== In retirement, Mason wrote nine more books, before encroaching blindness ended his literary endeavours (he had previously suffered temporary blindness in 1941 after a shooting accident). These works included a biography of [Rudyard Kipling](/source/Rudyard_Kipling) and two autobiographical volumes. In 1935, Mason had married (Eileen) Mary, daughter of Courtenay Hayes, of [Charmouth](/source/Charmouth), Dorset, and niece of senior Indian Army officer Major-General [Sir William Twiss](/source/William_Twiss_(Indian_Army_officer)). They had two sons and two daughters.{{Cite book | url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540891.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-180324 |title = Mason, Philip, (19 March 1906 – 25 January 1999), writer | Who's WHO & WHO WAS WHO| doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U180324 | isbn=978-0-19-954089-1 }}A Shaft of Sunlight, Philip Mason, Andre Deutsch Ltd, 1978, p. 123 Mason lived at Mulberry House, Church Street, [Fordingbridge](/source/Fordingbridge), Hampshire{{citation needed|date=September 2019}} (formerly at Hither Daggons, Brock's Hill, [Cripplestyle](/source/Cripplestyle), in the parish of [Alderholt](/source/Alderholt), near Fordingbridge),Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, 1973, Kelly's Directories, p. 2839 where he died.A Thread of Silk: Further Memories of a Varied Life, Philip Mason, M. Russell, 1984, p. 188 He had been appointed [OBE](/source/Officer_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire) in 1942{{London Gazette |issue=35399 |supp=y |date=30 December 1941 |page=24}} and [CIE](/source/Companion_of_the_Order_of_the_Indian_Empire) in 1946.{{London Gazette |issue=37407 |date=28 December 1945 |page=11}} ==See also== *[Wind of Change](/source/Wind_of_Change_(speech)) ==References== {{Reflist}} ==Further reading== *[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=193-104&cid=-1#-1 Documents about the History of the Institute of Race Relations written by Philip Mason] can be found at the [Borthwick Institute, University of York](/source/Borthwick_Institute_for_Archives) {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Mason, Philip}} Category:Historians of South Asia Category:Indian Civil Service (British India) officers Category:20th-century Indian historians Category:Economic history of India Category:Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:Institute directors Category:1999 deaths Category:1906 births Category:20th-century British historians Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Category:People educated at Sedbergh School Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Philip Mason](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Mason) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Mason?action=history)). 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