Thomas Hodgkin

Thomas Hodgkin was born on 3rd April, 1910. He was educated at Dragon School, Winchester College and Oxford University. After obtaining a first class degree he taught at Manchester University.

In 1934 Hodgkin joined the Colonial Office. His first post was in Palestine. This experience made him highly critical of Britain's foreign policy. He wrote: "Truly, all imperialism is fundamentally alike - imposed by force and maintained by the fear of force and from time to time by actual force." In May 1936 Hodgkin resigned because he found it "morally impossible to participate in government's repressive measures."

Hodgkin returned to England and became a school teacher in London. He wrote a pamphlet on Palestine for the Labour Monthly. Hodgkin also joined the Communist Party and took part in the campaign against the growth of Anti-Semitism organized by Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists.

In 1939 Hodgkin became organising tutor in the North Staffordshire district of the WEA. He worked under George Wigg who later recruited Hodgkin to help him provide adult education in the armed forces during the Second World War. Other friends during this period included Stephen Swingler and Harold Davies, who like Wigg, went on to be a Labour Party MPs. Hodgson also became the editor of the Association of Tutors in Adult Education newsletter.

After the war Hodgkin was involved in setting up adult education classes in Africa. He was also a member of the Union of Democratic Control (UDC) that at that time was led by Kingsley Martin, the editor of the New Statesman.

Now recognized as one of the world's leading experts on colonialism he taught at a variety of different university. This included the publication of Nationalism in Colonial Africa (1957) and African Political Parties (1961). In 1962 he was appointed as head of the Institute of African Studies in Ghana. Other books by Hodgkin include Vietnam: The Revolutionary Path.

Thomas Hodgkin died in 1982.