Professor Tony Badger Appointed Chair of Kennedy Memorial Trust

The Prime Minister’s Office will announce the appointment of Professor Tony Badger, Master of Clare College and Paul Mellon Professor of American History, as a Trustee and Chair of the Kennedy Memorial Trust this morning.

He will become a Trustee immediately and will assume the Chair when Professor Emma Rothschild retires from the role on 7th July.

The Trust, which was established to administer the Memorial Fund set up to commemorate President John F. Kennedy in 1964, awards scholarships to British postgraduate students to study at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is also responsible for the memorial to President Kennedy at Runnymede.

The Trustees include a representative from both Harvard and MIT and the US ambassador to the UK. Scholarships are awarded annually, following a national competition. The number awarded each year is dependent upon the funds available and some 450 have been awarded to date.

There is a distinguished list of former scholars, which includes Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank Of England, judge Dame Mary Arden and well known contemporary British historian Professor Peter Hennessy as well as three members of the current Cabinet.

Professor Hennessy is a former Chair of the Trustees and other former Trustees include Lord Martin Rees, Master of Trinity College, and Mervyn King. The Chair’s role is to oversee the scholarship process and to act as the Trust’s public face.

Professor Badger is a specialist in post-World War II US Southern political history. His most recent book, FDR: The First Hundred Days, was described by Prime Minister Gordon Brown as “a classic example of how a work of history can illuminate the issues we’re dealing with today”.

Barack Obama's regime is said to be using FDR's New Deal as a possible model for economic regeneration and, selecting Professor Badger's book as his book of the year in 2008, Brown commented: "The imagination and humanity at the heart of some of the great New Deal innovations changed American politics for ever and shaped the future of progressive politics across the world."

Professor Badger did his undergraduate and masters degrees at Cambridge and taught for 20 years at Newcastle University, before returning to Cambridge as Paul Mellon Professor in 1992. He was the Andrew Mellon Visiting Professorship at Tulane University from January to May 2000. Among his books on modern US history are "The New Deal: The Depression Years, 1933-1940' and 'New Deal/New South'. He is currently writing a biography of Albert Gore Sr, father of former vice-president Al Gore.

Professor Badger said: "It is an honour to be asked to chair the Kennedy Memorial Trust. The Kennedy scholarships are a most fitting legacy to the late President and recognise the long-standing ties of the Kennedy family with Britain. They have enabled some of the very best students in Britain to experience world-class graduate education in the US."

Professor Rothschild said: "The Trustees are absolutely delighted to welcome Professor Badger, and look forward to the Trust's continuing success under his leadership."