Neville Masterman (1912-2019)

Neville Masterman was the son my favourite Edwardian Liberal Charles Masterman and his wife Lucy. He died earlier this year at the age of 106.

His son-in-law Richard Pepper has written an obituary of him for the Guardian.

Masterman lectured in English at a Hungarian university in the 1930s, returning to England in 1940. He passed through Paris just before the Germans arrived and later worked on Japanese codes at Bletchley Park.

After the war he lectured in history at Swansea until his retirement in 1978.

Martyn Shrewsbury posted his memories of Neville Masterman last month:

I remember Neville Masterman very clearly. He was my personal tutor in the Autumn term of 1977. Neville taught a course called the ‘Crisis of Liberalism” I was 19 at the time. I was an arrogant 19 year old who thought that he knew everything. Neville was very patient with me and told me I would think in many different ways by the time I was sixty. 

He told me of a certain Liberal MP warning the party against coalition with the Tories. Neville said that the words were “You will be used like plump cattle and then slaughtered”. I am sad that in his long life he saw that happen three times. I remember quoting these words to Peter Black in 2010. Peter laughed but Neville was right…

I wrote an article on Charles Masterman for Liberator in 2014.