J. P. Carswell


John Patrick Carswell CB FRSL was an English civil servant and author who served as Secretary of the British Academy from 1978 to 1983. Professionally and as an author, he was known as J. P. Carswell.

Early life

The son of Donald Carswell, a barrister and author, and of Catherine Carswell, also an author, he was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood, and St John's College, Oxford.

Career

Carswell completed his degree course at Oxford in 1940, during the Second World War, and then joined the British Army. He served from 1940 to 1946, when he decided to enter HM Civil Service. His first significant appointment was as Joint Secretary to the Committee on Economic and Financial Problems of Provision for Old Age, from 1953 to 1954, and he was promoted Assistant Secretary in 1955. He became Principal Private Secretary to the Minister of Pensions and National Insurance in 1955 and was at HM Treasury from 1961 to 1964, when he became Under-secretary in the Office of the Lord President of the Council and Minister for Science. Later the same year he transferred to become Under-secretary at the Department of Education and Science and Ministry of Health, remaining until 1974. He was Secretary to the University Grants Committee from 1974 until 1977, and his last appointment was as Secretary of the British Academy for five years, 1978 to 1983.
He was a member of the Garrick Club.

Publications

Books

He also contributed to the Times Literary Supplement and other periodicals.

Honours

In 1944, Carswell married Ianthe Elstob, and they had two daughters. Ianthe Elstob was the daughter of a naval officer and his wife Ivy Elstob and the stepdaughter of Irving Davis, author of the posthumous A Catalan Cookery Book: a Collection of Impossible Recipes. Ianthe Carswell died in 2001. In 1957, with Sheila Jones, she had formed the National Committee for the Abolition of Nuclear Tests, which evolved into the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.