Ivor Jennings

Sir William Ivor Jennings
Vice Chancellor University of Ceylon
Term	1942 – 1954
Predecessor	None
Successor	Sir Nicholas Attygalle
Born	16 May 1903(1903-05-16)
Died	19 December 1965(1965-12-19) (aged 62)
Profession	Lawyer, academic

Sir William Ivor Jennings, KBE, (16 May 1903 - 19 December 1965) was a British lawyer and academic. He was a prominent educator who served as the Vice Chancellor of University of Cambridge (1961–63) and University of Ceylon (1942–55). Jennings was sent to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) by the Government of United Kingdom in 1942, as the Head of the University College, Colombo with a mandate to create a university for that land, then a Crown colony.^[1] The institution, on the model of University of London, was dubbed the University of Ceylon and was first established in Colombo, the capital city, then transferred in 1952 to a purpose-built campus in Peradeniya.^[2]

Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Work 3 Partial bibliography 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

Early life and education

Sir William Ivor Jennings was educated at the Queen Elizabeth's Hospital, Bristol, a spartan boarding school and Bristol Grammar School. In 1955, Jennings received an honorary doctorate by vote of the senate of the University of Ceylon to recognize his work in creating and building the institution. During World War II he was the Deputy Civil Defense Commissioner.^[3]

Work

In the same year (1955) he returned to Britain to take up the post of Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He subsequently served at term as Vice-Chancellor at the University of Cambridge, a position which at that time rotated among the heads of the colleges.

Jennings was an authority on constitutional law and is author of a definitive book on the workings of the then British constitution. He was a member of the Reid Commission from June 1956 to 1957, which was responsible for drafting the Constitution of the Federation of Malaya (now Malaysia).

Partial bibliography

• The Road to Peradeniya
• Constitutional Laws of the British Empire (1938), later reissued as Constitutional Laws of the Commonwealth (1957)
• Parliament (1939)
• A Federation for Western Europe (1940)
• The Law and the Constitution (5th Edition) (1959)
• Principles of Local Government Law (4th Edition) (1960)
• The British Commonwealth of Nations (4th Revised Edition) (1963)
• Cabinet Government (3rd Edition) (1965)
• The British Constitution (5th Edition) (1966)

See also

• University of Ceylon
• List of Vice-Chancellors of the University of Cambridge

References

External links

• Sir Ivor: First Vice Chancellor of University of Ceylon

Academic offices
Preceded by None	Vice Chancellor of the University of Ceylon 1942–1945	Succeeded by Sir Nicholas Attygalle
Preceded by Henry Roy Dean	Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge 1955–1965	Succeeded by William Alexander Deer
Preceded by Herbert Butterfield	Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge 1961–1963	Succeeded by John Sandwith Boys Smith

Persondata
Name	Jennings, Ivor
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	16 May 1903
Place of birth
Date of death	19 December 1965
Place of death