J. C. Beckett

James Camlin Beckett (1912 – 12 February 1996) was an Northern Irish historian.^[1]

Beckett was a native of Belfast, where he received his education at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Queen's University. He received First Class Honours in Modern History at his graduation from Queen's University in 1934.^[1]

From the time his graduation until 1945, he taught at Belfast Royal Academy and completed an MA degree. His MA dissertation was published as a book entitled Protestant Dissent in Ireland 1687–1780. In 1945 he joined the history faculty of Queen's University, where he was to spend the majority of his career. Initially a Lecturer, he received a promotion to Reader in 1952. During 1955 and 1956, he was at Cambridge as a Fellow Commoner at Peterhouse College in 1955–1956. In 1958 Queen's University awarded him a personal chair in Irish History, which he held until retiring and assuming emeritus status in 1975. Other universities where he held short appointments included McGill University in Montreal, where he was a Cummings Lecturer in 1976, and Tulane University in New Orleans, where he was a Mellon Professor in 1977.^[1]

Works

• A Short History of Ireland (1952).
• Ulster since 1800: A Political and Economic Survey (1954).
• Ulster since 1800: A Social Survey (1957).
• Queen's, Belfast 1845–1949: The History of a University (with T. W. Moody, 1959).
• The Making of Modern Ireland (1965).
• Belfast: Origins and Growth of an Industrial City (1967).
• The Anglo-Irish Tradition (1976)
• The Cavalier Duke: a life of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond, 1610–1688 (1990).

Notes

1. Richard Froggatt, 'James Camlin Beckett (1912–1996)', Dictionary of Ulster Biography.