Charles Perry Stacey

Stacey, Charles Perry

Charles Perry Stacey, historian (b at Toronto 30 July 1906; d there 17 Nov 1989). Stacey was a Princeton PhD and taught there 1934-40. He had been a committed part-time soldier since his student days at U of T and Oxford, and he served as the Canadian Army's historical officer in London 1940-45 and chief army historian 1945-59. A lively teacher possessed of a mischievous wit, he was a professor at U of T, 1959-76, briefly returning to preside over National Defence's newly unified triservice directorate of history 1965-66. Canada's first historical craftsman, a superb researcher and easy stylist, Stacey wrote, among other books, Canada and the British Army, 1846-71 (1936); The Military Problems of Canada (1940); The Canadian Army, 1939-45 (1948); Six Years of War (1955); Quebec, 1759 (1959); The Victory Campaign (1960); Arms, Men and Governments (1970); A Very Double Life (1976); Canada and the Age of Conflict (2 vols, 1977-81); The Half Million: Canadians in Britain 1939-1946 (1987, with Barbara Wilson); and his memoirs, A Date with History (1983).