Stace, W.T. (Walter Terence), 1886-1967

Walter Terence Stace (1886-1967) first went out to Ceylon as a young civil servant in 1910, accompanied by a wife (Adelaide) considerably older than himself. Beginning as a cadet in Galle, he gradually rose in the administrative hierarchy to become a police magistrate, private secretary to the Governor (Sir Robert Chalmers), district judge at Negombo, and an official (ultimately, the head) of the Land Settlement Department. During his last ten years in the colony, while working on land settlement, Stace divorced his first wife (who had returned to Britain) and married Blanche Beven; and he spent an increasing amount of time writing on philosophy which from an early age had been a significant personal interest. He resigned from the civil service in 1932 to become a teacher of philosophy at Princeton University, USA. Stace published several works on philosophy, including A critical history of Greek philosophy (1920), The philosophy of Hegel: a systematic exposition (1924), The meaning of beauty: a theory of aesthetics (1929), The theory of knowledge and existence (1932), The concept of morals (1937), The destiny of western man (1942), and Mysticism and philosophy (1961).

From the guide to the STACE, Walter Terence (1886-1967), 1964, (Institute of Commonwealth Studies)