Charles Arnold-Baker (1918–2009)

Charles Arnold-Baker was a British historian, reference author, and specialist in British constitutional and local government history. He is best known as the sole author and compiler of The Companion to British History, a monumental single-volume reference work covering the full chronological span of British history.

Arnold-Baker’s work combined rigorous historical scholarship with an idiosyncratic and highly individual authorial voice, placing him in a tradition of large-scale, single-author reference writing that had become increasingly rare by the late twentieth century.

Life and background

Charles Arnold-Baker was born in Imperial Berlin in 1918 and educated in Britain. Educated at Winchester and Oxford, he repudiated Nazi Germany and joined the British Army. During the Second World War he served in British intelligence (MI6), primarily in London, Belgium, and Norway.

After the war he was called to the Bar and for twenty-five years led the National Association of Local Councils, for which he wrote the definitive guide in this field, Local Government Administration. He was a key figure in the United Kingdom’s local government reforms of the 1970s. His professional background in administration and public law informed much of his later historical and reference writing, particularly in the fields of constitutional practice, local government, and public administration.

Alongside his historical and constitutional work, Arnold-Baker maintained a long-standing interest in lineage, institutional continuity, and the historical foundations of British public life.

The Companion to British History

Arnold-Baker devoted many years to the compilation of The Companion to British History, which was conceived as a comprehensive, alphabetically arranged reference work covering British history from earliest times to the modern period. Written entirely by a single author, the work comprises approximately 1.3 million words and around 1,400 pages in its most recent edition.

On its initial publication, The Daily Telegraph described the Companion as “probably the last one-man reference work in the tradition of Dr Johnson,” emphasising both its scale and its distinctive authorial character (Elizabeth Grice, Daily Telegraph, 30 May 2006). The same article noted that “almost any historical query… is likely to have its answer here,” highlighting the book’s practical value as a reference tool.

Earlier editions of the Companion were widely acquired by academic and research libraries in Britain, North America, and elsewhere, and the work was later reissued by Routledge before returning to independent publication by Longcross Press.

Style and approach

Unlike multi-author encyclopaedias, Arnold-Baker’s Companion reflects a single, consistent historical voice. This, together with the author’s distinctive method—whereby he first wrote a continuous narrative of the whole history of Britain and only then reorganised it alphabetically—accounts for the work’s remarkable lack of repetition and consistency of outlook.

Entries range from concise factual definitions to more expansive interpretative summaries, often enlivened by sharp judgements, dry humour, and carefully chosen asides. Contemporary commentators noted the work’s combination of scholarly seriousness and stylistic independence, describing it as both authoritative and “mischievously unorthodox” in tone. This blend of rigour and personality contributed significantly to its distinctive place within British historical reference publishing.

Other works and influence

In addition to The Companion to British History, Arnold-Baker authored Everyman’s Dictionary of Dates and edited a number of works on British government and administration. Among these, Local Government Administration became a standard reference text for the structure and terminology of British local government.

Arnold-Baker’s technical writings on local government later acquired an unexpected cultural afterlife. J. K. Rowling has acknowledged consulting Local Government Administration while writing The Casual Vacancy, whose title and chapter epigraphs draw on terminology and formulations found in British local government practice. In correspondence, Rowling remarked on the irony that her novel should draw on the the seemingly quintessially English work of a Prussian-born British historian.

This use of Arnold-Baker’s work illustrates the wider reach of his writing beyond academic and professional circles, particularly in shaping the approach through which British public institutions are understood.

Legacy

Charles Arnold-Baker occupies a distinctive place in modern British historiography as one of the last historians to produce a large-scale, single-author national reference work. His writing bridged academic history, institutional practice, and public reference, combining depth of knowledge with a strongly individual perspective.

The Companion to British History remains his principal scholarly legacy and continues to be consulted as a durable reference work in academic, legal, and institutional contexts.