John Ashley Soames Grenville (11 January 1928 - 7 March 2011) was a historian of the modern world.

Biography

Grenville was born Hans Guhrauer in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 on 11 January 1928. In 1939, escaped the Holocaust via Kindertransport

Kindertransport

Kindertransport is the name given to the rescue mission that took place nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. The United Kingdom took in nearly 10,000 predominantly Jewish children from Nazi Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and the Free City of Danzig...

 with his brothers Julian and Walter. He officially changed his name in 1949 to John Ashley Soames Grenville upon receiving British citizenship. His Mother died in a concentration camp, and his father had limited means to support the family. He attended preparatory school in Essex. He attended Cambridge Technical School,and than took a gardening job in Peterhouse, Cambridge

Peterhouse, Cambridge

Peterhouse is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the oldest college of the University, having been founded in 1284 by Hugo de Balsham, Bishop of Ely...

. he given access to the Library at the college, but only if he promised not to apply to the college. Thus, he began to study on his own during the day and take classes at Birkbeck College in the evening. Grenville was given the London County Council Grant, so he was then able to attend University of London. He then attended Birkbeck College, University of London

Birkbeck, University of London

Birkbeck, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It offers many Master's and Bachelor's degree programmes that can be studied either part-time or full-time, though nearly all teaching is...

 and the London School of Economics

London School of Economics

The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...

, where he was awarded a First Class Honors Degree in History and later a PhD. He studied under Sir Chalres Webster and received his Honors Degree in 1951. He was awarded the Hutchinson Medal for his PhD in 1953. His PhD was later entitled Lord Salisbury and Foreign Policy: The Close of the 19th Century in 1964, and he was recognized as a true historian. He was later a Commonwealth Fund Fellow at Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

.

Grenville was a professor and head of the Department of Modern History at Birmingham University from 1969 to 1994. He later worked at Hamburg University and London's Leo Baeck Institute

Leo Baeck Institute

The Leo Baeck Institute-New York in Manhattan is a library, archive, and exhibition centre devoted to the study of the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry. The Institutes's offices and collections are housed in Center for Jewish History in New York City...

.

Grenville focused on portraying himself as an Englishman with German roots; thus, most of his studies revolved around this. He developed the international studies degree at in Leeds, which focused on the use of film as a tool for understanding history.

Grenville married twice. He met Betty Anne Rosenberg through a Harkness Fellowship at Yale; they had three sons together. However, she soon died, and left Grenville with three sons to raise on his own. Patricia Carnie comforted him throughout the loss, and they married in 1975 and continued to have children.

Grenville died on the 7 March 2011;Patricia, his sons, Murray, Edward and George, his daughters, Claire and Annabel, and Walter all survive him.

Memorial

John A. S. Grenville PhD Studentship in Modern Jewish History and Culture awarded by the Leo Baeck Institute.

Publications

• The Jews and Germans of Hamburg. The Destruction of a Civilization 1790 – 1945. Taylor & Francis, London 2011, ISBN 978-0415665865
• Preface to Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook LV (2010)
• Year Book of the Leo Baeck Institute, Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2007, (Co-Ed. with Raphael Gross)
• A history of the world from the 20th to the 21st century . Routledge, London 2005, ISBN 0415289548
• The Collins history of the world in the twentieth century . London 1994, ISBN 0002551691
• The major treaties since 1945 : a history and guide with texts. with Bernard Wasserstein, London 1987 ISBN 0416380808
• A World History of the 20th Century. London 1980, ISBN 0006352081
• Europe reshaped: 1848-1878 . Hassocks 1976, ISBN 085527106X
• Nazi Germany. Together with Ruth Barker, History through the newsreel. the 1930's, Basingstoke 1976, ISBN 0333185544
• Film as history : the nature of film evidence. Birmingham 1971, ISBN 0850572711
• The major international treaties, 1914-1945 : a history and guide with texts. London 1974, ISBN 0416080928
• The major international treaties, 1914-1973 : a history and guide with texts. London 1974, ISBN 041609080X
• The coming of the Europeans : a history of European discovery and settlement, 1415-1775 with G.J. Fuller, London 1966
• Politics, Strategy, and American Diplomacy: Studies in American Foreign Policy 1873-1917. ( Co-Author G.B. Young), 1966
• Lord Salisbury and Foreign Policy: The Close of the Nineteenth Century Lord Salisbury and Foreign Policy. University of London 1964, later edition Athlone press, London 1970