ABSTRACT
Robert Charles Oliver (Robin) Matthews was born in Edinburgh in 1927, son of a solicitor who was a Writer to the Signet.1 He attended Corpus Christi College, Oxford (1944-47), graduating with First Class Honours in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. He remained at Oxford for the ensuing two years, first as a postgraduate student at Nuffield College and then as Lecturer in Economics at Merton College. In 1949 he moved to Cambridge as Assistant Lecturer in Economics, became Lecturer in 1951 and Fellow of St John’s College in 1950. He returned to Oxford in 1965 when he was elected as Drummond Professor of Political Economy, succeeding his former supervisor, Sir John Hicks, and also became Fellow of All Souls College. Again at Cambridge, from 1975 to 1993 he was Master of Clare College, and also Professor of Political Economy from 1980 until 1991. Robin Matthews has devoted a good deal of his career to academic public service. Among other appointments, he has served as Chair of the Social Science Research Council (1972-5), President of the Royal Economic Society (1984-6) and as Chairman of the Bank of England Panel of Academic Consultants (1977-93). He was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 1968, was made CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1975, was elected Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1985, and was made Foreign Honorary Member of the American Economic Association in 1993. Matthews is less well known for his achievements in chess composition: he is author of two books on the subject (1963, 1995) and was named International Master of Chess Composition in 1965 by the World Chess Federation (Fédération Internationale des Échecs – FIDE). He retired in 1993 and now lives in Norfolk. The interview took place at the British Academy in London, 25th August 2004, and was conducted by a former student and colleague,
N T of the University of Sussex, and by M T of the University of Virginia.
