Hugh Russell Tinker was born in 1921 in Essex, and educated in Taunton School and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He served in the Indian Army 1941-1945, and was then employed in the Indian civil administration until 1946. Thereafter he followed an academic career as a historian, as Lecturer, Reader and Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, 1948-1969; Director of the Institute of Race Relations, 1970-1972; Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, 1972-1977; and Professor of Politics, University of Lancaster, 1977-1982, of which he was Emeritus Professor until his death. In addition, he held brief overseas professorships, at Rangoon in 1954-1955, and Cornell, USA, 1959. As an active member of the Liberal Party, Tinker stood as a candidate in general elections, for Barnet in 1964 and 1966, and for Morecambe and Lonsdale in 1979. He was involved in the party's immigration and race relations panel in the early 1970s. He was also Vice-President of the Ex- Services Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Tinker wrote numerous books, mainly on topics reflecting his academic interests: the history and politics of the Indian subcontinent, and Indians overseas. His publications included: The Foundations of Local Self-Government in India , Pakistan and Burma (1954); The Union of Burma: A Study of the First Years of Independence (1957); India and Pakistan: A Political Analysis (1962); Ballot Box and Bayonet: People and Government in Emergent Asian Countries (1964); Reorientations: Studies on Asia in Transition (1965); South Asia: A Short History (1966); Experiment with Freedom: India and Pakistan 1947 (1967); (Ed) Henry Yule: Narrative of the Mission to the Court of Ava in 1855 (1969); A New System of Slavery: The Export of Indian Labour Overseas 1830-1920 (1974); Separate and Unequal: India and the Indians in the British Commonwealth 1920-1950 (1976); The Banyan Tree: Overseas Emigrants from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (1977); Race, Conflict and the International Order: From Empire to United Nations (1977); The Ordeal of Love: CF Andrews and India (1979); A Message from the Falklands: The Life and Gallant Death of David Tinker (1982); (Ed) Burma: The Struggle for Independence (1983-1984); Men who Overturned Empires: Fighters, Dreamers, Schemers (1987); Viceroy: Curzon to Mountbatten (1997). A Message from the Falklands was based on the letters of Tinker's son David, who was killed there while serving as a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy. Hugh Tinker died in 2000, survived by his wife Elizabeth and their two elder sons.
From the guide to the TINKER, Hugh Russell (1921-2000), 1972-1982, (Institute of Commonwealth Studies)
