John Holland Rose (28 June 1855 – 3 March 1942 ) was an influential English historian who wrote famous biographies of William Pitt the Younger and of French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. He also wrote a history of Europe, entitled The Development of the European Nations among other historical works. He was Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History at the University of Cambridge between 1919 and his retirement in 1934.

Career

Holland Rose was born in Bedford in 1855. He was educated at Bedford Modern School where he was an exhibitioner, at Owens College, Manchester, and at Christ's College, Cambridge. In 1911–1919, Holland Rose was a reader in modern history at the University of Cambridge. He was the first Vere Harmsworth Professor of Naval History at the University of Cambridge between 1919 and his retirement in 1933. He was an honorary member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. Holland Rose was the basis for C. P. Snow's fictional character M. H. L. Gay (see "Years of Hope: Cambridge, Colonial Administrator in the South Seas, and Cricket" by Philip Snow).

Family life

In 1880, Holland Rose married Laura K. Haddon; they had one son and two daughters. He died on 3 March 1942.

Selected works