James Wightman Davidson (1 October 1915 – 8 April 1973) was a New Zealand historian and constitutional adviser.
Professor of Pacific History at the Australian National University from 1950 to 1973,[1] Davidson was the "founding father of modern Pacific Islands historiography as well as constitutional adviser to a succession of Island territories in the throes of decolonisation".
He gained his PhD in 1942 with a thesis on European penetration of the South Pacific, 1779-1842.
After wartime work for the Naval Intelligence Division, Davidson returned to a fellowship at St John's, becoming university lecturer in colonial studies in 1947.
[1] While advising chiefs in Western Samoa in 1949, Davidson accepted the new chair of Pacific History at the newly established Research School of Pacific (and Asian) Studies at the Australian National University.