Owen Chadwick

William Owen Chadwick, OM, KBE, FBA, FRSE (born 20 May 1916) is a British professor, writer and prominent historian of Christianity. He is a former Master of Selwyn College, University of Cambridge. Elder brother of the Very Reverend Professor Henry Chadwick, also a distinguished historian of the early Church and a former Dean of Christ Church, University of Oxford, younger brother of Sir John Chadwick KCMG, a diplomat whose senior posting was as British Ambassador to Romania.

Chadwick attended Tonbridge School and St John's College, Cambridge, where he received a Blue in rugby and a First in History; he then attended Cuddesdon College (a theological college) and was ordained to the diaconate and priesthood of the Church of England.

After the War, (during which he was chaplain of Wellington he was made Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 1947. He was elected Master of Selwyn College, Cambridge in 1956, retiring in 1983. In 1958 he was named Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History, during which time he chaired the Archbishops' Commission on Church and State (1967-1971).

In 1968 he was elected Regius Professor of Modern History, a chair which he held until 1982, and was President of the British Academy during the early 1980s. As Vice-Chancellor he guided Cambridge through turbulent times in the late 1960s; and was Chancellor of the University of East Anglia between 1984 and 1994.

He was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 1982 New Year Honours. As a clergyman he did not receive the accolade and so remained the Revd Owen Chadwick rather than Sir Owen. He was appointed to the Order of Merit (OM) on 11 November 1983.

He has written many books, on the formation of the Papacy in the modern world; on Lord Acton; on the secularisation of European thought and culture; on the Reformation; on the Church of England in England and elsewhere.

He served as a member of the Historical Manuscripts Commission for a period prior to 1992.