James Parkes died on 10 August 1981, aged 84. An Anglican clergyman, historian and campaigner, he had spent much of his working life investigating antisemitism and relations between Christianity and Judaism.

Parkes had served in the British Army during the First World War and was ordained in the Church of England in 1926. His subsequent work with international Christian and student organisations took him into continental Europe, where he encountered discrimination against Jewish students and the growth of racist nationalism.

He began studying the origins of antisemitism. His research led him to argue that Christian teaching and the historical treatment of Jews by Christian churches had contributed to anti-Jewish hostility. He regarded Judaism as a valid religion in its own right and opposed attempts to convert Jews to Christianity. These positions were controversial within Christian circles at the time.

Parkes combined research with campaigning. During the 1930s he helped Jewish refugees and continued to speak against antisemitism. During the Second World War, he campaigned for European Jews and helped establish the Council of Christians and Jews.

His research also produced a large collection of books, pamphlets and other material concerning Jewish history, antisemitism and relations between Jews and non-Jews. In 1964, the University of Southampton received the collection.

It became the Parkes Library and provided the foundation for what developed into the University’s Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations.

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Parkes’s death on 10 August 1981 is explicitly recorded by the University of Oxford, while his ordination, campaigning against antisemitism, refugee work and the transfer of his library to Southampton are supported by the University of Southampton’s Parkes Institute records. The main point to check before publication is whether ‘Council of Christians and Jews’ already exists in that exact form as an Associated Subject.