Dr John Oliphant

History, Tutor Councillor

BA (University of Adelaide), MA (Birkbeck, University of London), Ph.D. (Queen Mary, University of London)

Dr Oliphant joined Cambridge Tutors College with over 25 years of teaching in both Australia and the UK already under his belt. He is the Subject Leader for History at CTC London and an authority on 18th century American, British Empire and European History.

Australian-born, the first teaching role for Dr Oliphant came in Adelaide before moving to Britain. It was whilst teaching at a school in Sussex where John pioneered the use of coursework (mode 3) for A-Level, well before it was introduced into the mainstream curriculum. Since his move from Australia, Dr Oliphant has boosted his impressive personal academic record even further – adding an MA and Ph.D. from Birkbeck and Queen Mary University’s, respectively, to his BA from the University of Adelaide.

Up until recently, he was also a lecturer at The Open University. He now dedicates all his tutoring time to CTC London, where he loves working with such enthusiastic and talented students. Alongside the programme of study, Dr Oliphant supports a weekly History Society, engaging student across all historical genres.

Dr Oliphant is also an accomplished academic author and lecturer. His study of John Forbes, a British General in the French and Indian War, is widely recognised as the first full-length biography of this highly significant figure in British-American history. Further works include Peace and War on the Anglo-Cherokee Frontier (2001) and a contribution to The Seven Years’ War: Global Views (2002).

Throughout his career Dr. Oliphant has lectured at many conferences and seminars on a range of topic, below is a list of events he has presented at:

 Institute of Historical Research Imperial History Seminar
On James Grant and the 1762 Cherokee embassy to London

 National Maritime Museum Seminar 1997
On the inland implications of the trans-Atlantic Indian trades.

 Anglo-American Conference of Historians, London 1999
Native American Visitors to London 1710-1762

 The Museum of the Cherokee Indian 2006
The Cherokee Embassy to London 1762

 Braddock Road Preservation Association Seminar 2007
The Cherokee Embassy to London

 Fort Loudoun. Pennsylvania June 2007
John Forbes and the Cherokee: mismanaging Indian relations

 Braddock Road Preservation Association Seminar 2008
John Forbes, family and friends: a biography in progress

 University of Memphis Guest Lecture 2012
The Anglo-Cherokee War 1756-1763

 Dunfermline Heritage Trust 2012
Climbing Laurel Mountain: the life and death of John Forbes

 Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Virginia 2012
The Cherokee embassy to Williamsburg and London 1762

 Dunfermline Heritage Trust (Dynamic Dunfermline) April 2014
John Forbes and his friends: networking, comradeship and a touch of madness

 Braddock Road Preservation Association November 2015
John Forbes: Identities and Ideologies

 “Cambridge Tutors College is an excellent institution where students can really progress their education to the next level. Teaching in classes of around six students really helps us develop these young students in on an individual level. I only wish I found CTC London 30 years ago!”