ColonelCharles Perry StaceyOCOBECDFRSC (30 July 1906 – 17 November 1989) was a Canadianhistorian and universityprofessor. He served as the official historian of theCanadian Army in theSecond World War and published extensively on military and political matters.
From 1933 to 1940, Stacey was a member of the history department atPrinceton University.[3] With the advent of theSecond World War, he was given the rank of major and appointed as historical officer to theCanadian Army. He served in theUnited Kingdom for most of the war, headed a team dedicated to collecting and collating information for future historians, and wrote contemporary reports. His reports provided factual details about many military operations, including theDieppe Raid andOperation Spring.[4][5]
Visit ofPrince Philip (seated) to the Royal Society of Canada. Officers of the Society (standing left to right): Dr.Charles Camsell, Dr. Loris Shano (L.S.) Russell, Dr. T.W.N. Cameron, president Leon Marion and Colonel C.P. Stacey in 1957.
After the war, Stacey worked with a team to create an official history of the Canadian military operations during the conflict. He benefited from his access to the major Canadian military and political figures involved in the war, both during the conflict and afterwards, when the official histories were being finalized.[6][7] The three volume set was published in 1955.
A comment he made after the war regardingwar brides, whom he called "Most excellent citizens," became the title of a book on the subject byEswyn Lyster.
Stacey eventually attained the rank of colonel. In total, he served in the militia and the army for 35 years (1924–1959).
From 1959 to 1975, Stacey was a professor of history at the University of Toronto. He continued to research and write analysis of Canadian military operations.[8][9] He published anautobiography,A Date With History, which presented much background information regarding the writing of theOfficial History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War. He extended those themes in volumesThe Half Million (dealing with the Canadian forces stationed in Britain) andArms, Men, and Government (concerning the government in Canada) during the war.
Stacey also wrote a critical analysis of the writing process of theOfficial History of World War I (only one of the projected eight volumes by the original author ever appeared in print). His book,Arms, Men, and Governments: The War Policies of Canada, 1939-1945 also won theAlbert B. Corey Prize, awarded jointly by theCanadian Historical Association andAmerican Historical Association, in 1972.[10]
Since 1988, an award called theC.P. Stacey Prize has been given by the Canadian Committee for the History of the Second World War "for distinguished publications on the twentieth-century military experience."[11]
On 26 August 1939 Stacey married Doris Newton Shiell, daughter of R. T. Shiell. Doris was born in Toronto in 1903. After Colonel Stacey's retirement from the Army in 1959, the couple lived in a house at 89 Tranmer Avenue in Toronto. Doris died in Toronto on 5 December 1969. Colonel Stacey died in Toronto on 17 November 1989 at age 83. He is buried inMount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto.
(An updated version was published in 2001 with new material byDonald E. Graves.)
Records of the Nile Voyageurs, 1884-1885: The Canadian Voyageur Contingent in the Gordon Relief Expedition (Toronto: Champlain Society Publications, 1959)
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