Oxford Influences

'He had previously been educated at the Royal School, Dungannon and Trinity College Dublin. He was given the status of Senior Affiliated Student on account of his previous attendance at TCD and was thus able to complete his degree in two years. He was awarded first class honours in Literae Humaniores in Trinity Term 1912; the degree of BA was conferred on him on 10 October 1912.

'The records of the University's Lodging Houses Delegacy reveal that Johnston lived at 14 St John Street in Hilary and Trinity Terms 1912; other lodgers at the same address with him were Mallampally Narasimham, a non-collegiate student, and Samuel Thomas of Jesus College.

'Mallampally Narasimham matriculated on 3 November 1908 as a non-collegiate student. He was the first son of M Muttaaih (deceased), landed proprietor of Rajahmundry, India and was born on 2 November 1887 at Narsapur, Kristna District. He had previously attended Rajahmundry College. He passed the first Public Examination in Holy Scripture in Hilary Term 1912 but no further examinations.

'Samuel Thomas matriculated as a non-collegiate student on 9 October 1909 and migrated to Jesus College on 2 May 1911. He was the fourth son of Joseph Thomas, mechanical engineer of Ashville House, Treharris, Glamorganshire and was born on 28 May 1887 at Treharris. He had previously attended Gwynfryn Academy Ammanford. He passed the first Public Examination in Latin and Greek Literature in Michaelmas Term 1911 and in Holy Scripture in Trinity Term 1913. He passed Group A1 (Greek Philosophy and Greek or Latin History) of the Final Pass School in Trinity Term 1916 and was exempted from further examination, on account of his war service, under the University war decrees then in force. The degree of BA was conferred on him (in absence) on 19 June 1919.'

In the attempt to piece together my father's intellectual environment during his Oxford period, which the situation leading up to the Ulster crisis was in gestation, my first step was to see with whom he might have been 'in digs'. The foregoing suggests the probability of interaction with Welsh and Indian culture. The Indian influence would also have been exerted via contact with his elder brothers James and John, who by then had had some years experience of the Indian Civil Service, and with William who by 1910 was committed in this direction.

There were other Oxford influences, such as his participation in student debating societies; I have gone into this in the background to his political formation in the lead-up to his writing 'Civil War in Ulster' in 1913.

Paradoxically the most significant influences were those which pushed JJ towards the Albert Kahn Travelling Fellowship, turning him towards political economy and away from classics and ancient history, where he would have had initially some academic momentum. I suspect that a key influence here was HAL Fisher.

It follows that JJ's first decade or so of academic life was dedicated to making the transition from his classics and ancient history background towards some level of credibility in applied economics. There is a dearth of published material in his papers. The political situation was also undergoing rapid change, and he was concerned with this. However if I do find evidence of early academic publication I will reference it here.

His earliest publication in Hermathena, the TCD scholarly journal, is dated 1931. The 20s were dedicated to economic popularisation and outreach via the Barrington lectures. Much of the content of these was distilled into his 1925 'Groundwork of Economics' and he used this in support of his application for membership of the Royal Irish Academy (May 1942).

Some navigational notes:

Copyright Dr Roy Johnston 1999