Lunchtime Talk: Creating the Commonwealth

Today’s Commonwealth was formally established in 1949 via the London Declaration, which acknowledged that all member states were free and equal.

However, the origins of this familiar organisation go back further. In this talk, Professor Philip Murphy will trace the complex origins of the Commonwealth and explore how the First and Second World War had profound and distinct implications for the way Britain perceived and interacted with her colonies and dominions.

This event is part of our monthly Lunchtime Talk series. On the second Wednesday of every month, join us at St Margaret’s Church for an in-depth exploration of part of the Abbey’s history.

About Philip Murphy

Philip Murphy is Professor of British and Commonwealth History at the University of London and director of History & Policy at the Institute of Historical Research. From 2009 to 2022 he was Director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICwS). He has written extensively on British withdrawal from Empire including, Party Politics and Decolonization (1995), Alan Lennox-Boyd: a biography (1999), the Central Africa volume in the series British Documents on the End of Empire (2005) and Monarchy and the End of Empire (2013). His latest book, The Empire’s New Clothes: The Myth of the Commonwealth, was published by Hurst in 2018 and republished in paperback in an updated form in 2021. Between 2021 and 2024 he was principal investigator on an AHRC-funded research project ‘The Windrush Scandal in a Transnational and Commonwealth Context’.

Host or Publisher Westminster Abbey