Charles Perry Stacey


Charles Perry Stacey was a Canadian historian and university professor. He was the official historian of the Canadian Army in the Second World War, and has been published extensively on matters both military and political.

Early life, education

Stacey was born in Toronto, Ontario. After attending the University of Toronto Schools, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Toronto in 1924. That year he joined the Canadian Militia.
Stacey received a second bachelor's degree in history from Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in 1929. In 1933, he received a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Princeton University.

Career

From 1933 to 1940, Stacey was a member of the history department at Princeton University. With the advent of World War II, he was given the rank of Major and appointed as historical officer to the Canadian army. He served in the United Kingdom for the majority of World War II, heading a team dedicated to collecting and collating information for future historians, as well as writing contemporary reports. Stacey's reports provided factual details about many military operations, including the Dieppe Raid and Operation Spring.
After the war Stacey worked with a team to create an official history of Canadian military operations during the conflict. He benefited from his access to the major Canadian military and political figures involved in the War, both during the conflict and afterwards, when the official histories were being finalized. The three volume set was published in 1948.
A comment he made following World War II regarding war brides, calling them "Most excellent citizens," became the title of a book on the subject by Eswyn Lyster.
Stacey eventually attained the rank of Colonel; in total he served in the Militia and Army for thirty-five years.
From 1959 to 1975, Stacey was a Professor of History at the University of Toronto. He continued to research and write analysis of Canadian military operations. He published an autobiography entitled A Date With History, which presented much background information regarding the writing of the Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War. He extended these themes in volumes The Half Million, and Arms, Men, and Government during World War II.
Stacey also wrote a critical analysis of the writing process of the Official History of World War I.
He died in Toronto in 1989. His personal and research papers are in the University of Toronto Archives.
Starting in 1988, the C.P. Stacey Prize is given by the Canadian Committee for the History of the Second World War "for distinguished publications on the twentieth-century military experience."

Selected bibliography