Discover the Best Books Written by Charles Oman

Sir Charles William Chadwick Oman was a British military historian. His reconstructions of medieval battles from the fragmentary and distorted accounts left by chroniclers were pioneering. Occasionally his interpretations have been challenged, especially his widely copied thesis that British troops defeated their Napoleonic opponents by firepower alone. Paddy Griffith, among modern historians, claims that the British infantry's discipline and willingness to attack were equally important.

Oman was born in Muzaffarpur district, India, the son of a British planter. He was educated at Winchester College and at the University of Oxford, where he studied under William Stubbs. Here, he was invited to become a founding member of the Stubbs Society under Stubbs's patronage. In 1881 he was elected to a Prize Fellowship at All Souls College, where he remained for the rest of his academic career. 

He was elected the Chichele Professor of Modern History at Oxford in 1905, in succession to Montagu Burrows. He was also elected to the FBA that year and served as President of the Royal Historical Society (1917–1921), the Numismatic Society, and the Royal Archaeological Institute. Among his teaching activities at Oxford, he taught the special subject of military history with C.T. Atkinson of Exeter College, which focused on the Peninsular War. 

Oman's academic career was interrupted by the First World War, during which he was employed by the government's Press Bureau and the Foreign Office. Oman was the Conservative Member of Parliament for the University of Oxford constituency from 1919 to 1935 and was knighted KBE in the 1920 civilian war honors list.

The parody history book 1066 and All That, published in 1930, includes the dedication "Absit Oman," a distortion of the Latin phrase "Absit omen." It can be translated as "may Oman be absent," reflecting the prominence of Oman among English historians at the time.

He became an honorary fellow of New College in 1936 and received the honorary degrees of DCL (Oxford, 1926) and LL.D (Edinburgh, 1911 and Cambridge, 1927). He was awarded the Medal of the Royal Numismatic Society in 1928. He died at Oxford aged 86.

Two of Oman's children became authors. His daughter Carola Oman CBE was a writer of history, biography, and fiction for adults and children, including a retelling of the Robin Hood legend and biographies of Admiral Lord Nelson and Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore. His son Charles C. Oman wrote several volumes on British silverware, and similar houseware worked as a Keeper of the Department of Metalwork in the Victoria and Albert Museum and was active in the Folklore Society (and was, in turn, father to Julia Trevelyan Oman).