| Admin/Biog History | Sir Stuart Newton Hampshire 1914 -2004 was an English philosopher, literary critic and university administrator. He was one of the antirationalist Oxford thinkers who gave a new direction to moral and political thought in the post-World War II era.
Nicolson met Hampshire at Oxford. They socialised in the same group, forming lasting friendships with Isaiah Berlin, Jeremy Hutchinson, Philip Toynbee and many other intellectual forces of the day. Nicolson and Hampshire remained friends until Nicolson's death in 1978. |
| Description | Includes correspondence of a personal nature concerning, friends at Oxford (in particular, Isaiah Berlin and Jeremy Hutchinson); their respective activities during the Second World War and government investigations concerning espionage, following the unmasking of Burgess and Philby as spies.
Of particular note:
-letter, dated 22 September 1941, giving advice on how to survive in the army when stationed in a hot climate
-letter, dated 18 November 1941, concerning his experiences in the army, in particular being stationed in Sierra Leone. Also writes about the effects of Imperialism on the country.
-letter, dated 31 October 1969, concerning interviews about Guy Burgess and Kim Philby, communism in Oxford and Cambridge in the 1930s and Nicolson's diaries from the period. [A digital copy of this letter can be found below]
-letter, dated 5 July 1977, congratulating Nicolson on his election to the British Academy, and remarking on the various internal politics and personalities dominating the institution
-letter, undated, in which Hampshire defends himself against the claim that he is a Marxist and a socialist |
| Image Caption | Letter from Stuart Hampshire to Nicolson, dated 31 October 1969, concerning interviews about Burgess and Philby and communism in Oxford & Cambridge in the 1930s (2pp) |