Biography
Colonel Stacey, in the uniform
of the Royal Canadian Corps
of Signals
Colonel Charles Perry Stacey
O.C., O.BE., C.D., B.A., A.M., Ph.D., LL.D,
D.Litt., D.Sc. Mil, F.R.S.C.,
1906-1989
Colonel Charles Perry Stacey was born at Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1906. He was educated at the University of Toronto, where he received a B.A. in History in 1924, and at the Corpus Christi College of Oxford University, where he took a second Bachelor's degree in history in 1929. Graduate studies at Princeton University led to a doctorate in 1933. He was a member of the Department of History at Princeton , 1933-1940.
Colonel Stacey first joined the Canadian Corps of Signals in 1924. In November, 1940, he was promoted to Major and appointed Historical Officer, Canadian Military Headquarters in London, England. He served oversees until 1945, when he was appointed Director of the Historical Section of the General Staff. During his tenure, he won the Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit (1948).
He remained as Director until his retirement from the Army in 1959. Colonel Stacey was Professor of History at the University of Toronto, 1959-1975, and later Emeritus Professor at that University. In 1965-1966, he answered the call to return to the Department of National Defence in order to oversee the first year of operations of the integrated Directorate of History.
A fine historical craftsman, exhaustive researcher, and elegant stylist, Colonel Stacey was for decades Canada's foremost military historian. He wrote four Official volumes on the Second World War along with several other major contributions to Canadian History, and his memoirs, A Date with History. The Minister of National Defence said on the occasion of Colonel Stacey's eightieth birthday that “history, in no small measure because of years of achievements, continues to be a vital part of the Department of National Defence's commitment to Canada”.
Charles Perry Stacey passed away on 17 Nov 1989 in Toronto, Canada.
