William Ranulf Brock was born on 16 May 1916 and was educated at Trinity College, University of Cambridge where he graduated MA and PhD. He was the Senior Scholar in 1936 and was the Earl of Derby Research Student in 1937 ; in 1940 he became the Prize Fellow (in absentia). He undertook his military service in the Army from 1939-1945. Following this he took up the post of Assistant Master at Eton College from 1946-1947. He was a Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge from 1947-1967 . From 1952-1953 and also in 1958, he was the Commonwealth Fund Fellow at Berkeley University, California and at the universities of Yale and Johns Hopkins. In 1967 he became Professor of Modern History, at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. He became the Visiting Professor of Michigan University in 1968 and at Washington University in 1970. He was also the Charles Warren Fellow at Harvard University in 1976. His publications include: Lord Liverpool and Liberal Toryism, 1941; The Character of American History ,1960; The Evolution of American Democracy, 1970 and Politics and Political Conscience, 1978.
From the guide to the Papers of William Ranulf Brock, b.1916, Professor of Modern History, University of Glasgow, Scotland, 1942-1989, (Glasgow University Library, Special Collections Department)
