My friend and colleague of 50 years, Robin Okey, who has died aged 81, was emeritus professor of history at the University of Warwick. He was a remarkable person in so many ways.
In 1966, Robin was one of the first appointments to the history department at the newly founded University of Warwick, holding the positions of lecturer, senior lecturer and professor of history until he retired in 2007. He established himself as a much-loved teacher; an endearing colleague who could, very effectively, dig his heels in where he thought it necessary; and a first-rate authority on the modern history of south-eastern Europe.
Robin had already become fascinated by the charm, complexity, romanticism and entanglements of the Balkans, especially in the later years of the Habsburg empire. It provided a testing ground for his own developing ideas of nationalism that had been nurtured by his lifelong commitment to the cause of Welsh independence.
It was only in retirement, around 2010, that his work moved to a higher dimension. A Slovene colleague innocently asked Robin why he thought Slovenia had managed to achieve independent nationhood but Wales had not. The answer was a decade in maturing. It led him into the unprecedented sphere of comparing Wales with Slovenia. Hitherto, no one had thought to make such a link, but in Robin’s hands it seemed the most natural thing in the world: two countries of comparable size, a similar topography, yet a fundamentally different historical and cultural experience.
The outcome was a brilliant comparative analysis, Towards Modern Nationhood: Wales and Slovenia c1750-1918, published just two months before his death by the University of Wales Press. It has added a creative new dimension not only to the study of Welsh nationalism but also to analysis and understanding of nationalism in general, providing a fitting culmination to a life of deep intellectual inquiry.
Born in Cardiff, Robin was the son of Olive (nee Littlewood Jones), a housewife, and Cyril Okey, a bank employee.At the age of seven he not only invented a country in his imagination, but also endowed it with a language and history. After a stellar performance as a pupil and head boy at Whitchurch grammar school in Cardiff, he obtained a scholarship to Jesus College, Oxford, followed by a doctorate at Nuffield.
Outside his professional interests, Robin enjoyed hill and mountain walking, travelling and exploring islands, cricket, poetry and going to his book club.
He is survived by his sister, Janet, his nephew, Christopher, and his niece, Kirsten.
