Francis James West (1927-2025) was born in East Yorkshire, and was educated at the University of Leeds and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was initially a medievalist specialising in the Norman administration of Anglo-Saxon England, before departing Cambridge in 1952 to join the Research School of Pacific Studies at the newly established Australian National University in Canberra where he worked on colonial administration in the Pacific. He also held posts at Victoria University, Wellington, Deakin University and the University of Buckingham. His major works were on the origins of the justiciarship during the reign of William I, biographies of Hubert Murray, Lieutenant-Governor of Papua, and his brother, the classicist Gilbert Murray, and a comparative analysis of political systems in the Pacific. He retired to Cambridge in 1990, and remained academically active continuing to publish articles on a range of themes and interests. Sources: Margaret Rose; biographical information at RCMS 419/4/7; obituary by Conal Condren (Churchill Review, v. 62, 2025, pp. 239-240). Further information is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_James_West.