King's College London

This short essay is a tribute to a significant scholar of the Versailles Treaty who did not live to see its centenary, Michael Lawrence Dockrill (1936-2018). It contains biographical information and the perspective of a long-standing friend and colleague who first met him in 1976. Dockrill's work on the Versailles Treaty sustained the more favourable view of it that had gained ground during the 1970s. Nonetheless, Dockrill held that the Versailles Treaty represented a ‘peace without promise’ from which Britain could not benefit over the long run.