Author hugh thomas biography

British historian (1931–2017)

Hugh Swynnerton Thomas, Baron Thomas of Swynnerton (21 October 1931 – 7 May 2017)^[1][2] was an English historian and writer, best known for his book The Spanish Civil War.^[3]

Early life

Thomas was born on 21 October 1931 in Windsor, England, to Hugh Whitelegge Thomas (1887-1960), a colonial commissioner and Cambridge cricketer, and his wife Margery Augusta Angelo, née Swynnerton.^[4] Sir Shenton Thomas was his uncle.^[5] He was educated at Sherborne School in Dorset, before going up to Queens' College, Cambridge,^[1] where he was a major scholar and later an Honorary Fellow.

Thomas gained a first class in Part I of the History Tripos in 1952, and the following year was president of the Cambridge Union Society. He also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris.^[6]

Career

From 1954 to 1957, Thomas worked in the Foreign Office partly as sec