Thomas Arnold (13 June 1795 – 12 June 1842) was an English educator and historian. He was an early supporter of the Broad Church

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

movement. As headmaster of Rugby School from 1828 to 1841, he introduced several reforms that were widely copied by other noted

public schools Public school may refer to: *State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government *Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England and ...

. His reforms redefined standards of masculinity and achievement.

Early life and education

Arnold was born on the Isle of Wight, the son of William Arnold, a

Customs Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out of a country. Traditionally, customs ...

officer, and his wife Martha Delafield. William Arnold was related to the Arnold family of gentry from Lowestoft. Thomas was educated at Lord Weymouth's Grammar School, Warminster, at

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

, and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He excelled in Classics and was made a fellow of Oriel in 1815. He became headmaster of a school in Laleham before moving to Rugby.

Career as an educator

Rugby School

Arnold's appointment to the headship of Rugby School in 1828, after some years as a private tutor, turned the school's fortunes around. His force of character and religious zeal enabled him to make it a model for other public schools and exercise a strong influence on the education system of England. Though he introduced history, mathematics and modern languages, he based his teaching on the classical languages. "I assume it as the foundation of all my view of the case, that boys at a public school never will learn to speak or pronounce French well, under any circumstances," and so it would be enough if they could "learn it grammatically as a dead language." Physical science was not taught because, in Arnold's view, "it must either take the chief place in the school curriculum, or it must be left out altogether." Arnold was also opposed to the materialistic tendency of physical science, a view deriving from his Christian idealism. He wrote that "rather than have physical science the principal thing in my son's mind, I would gladly have him think that the sun went round the earth, and that the stars were so many spangles set in the bright blue firmament. Surely the one thing needful for a Christian and an Englishman to study is Christian and moral and political philosophy." Arnold developed the '' praepostor'' ( prefect) system, in which sixth-form students were given powers over every part of the school (managed by himself) and kept order in the establishment. The 1857 novel by Thomas Hughes, '' Tom Brown's School Days'', portrays a generation of boys "who feared the Doctor with all our hearts, and very little besides in heaven or earth; who thought more of our sets in the School than of the Church of Christ, and put the traditions of Rugby and the public opinion of boys in our daily life above the laws of God." Arnold was no great enthusiast for sport, which was permitted only as an alternative to poaching or fighting with local boys and did not become part of Rugby's curriculum until 1850. He described his educational aims as being the cure of souls first, moral development second, and intellectual development third. However, this did not prevent Baron de Coubertin from considering him the father of the organized sport he admired when he visited English public schools, including Rugby in 1886. When looking at Arnold's tomb in the school chapel he recalled that he felt suddenly as if he were looking on "the very cornerstone of the British empire". Coubertin is thought to have exaggerated the importance of sport to Thomas Arnold, whom he viewed as "one of the founders of athletic chivalry". The character-forming influence of sport, with which Coubertin was so impressed, is more likely to have originated in the novel ''Tom Brown's School Days'' than exclusively in the ideas of Arnold himself. "Thomas Arnold, the leader and classic model of English educators," wrote Coubertin, "gave the precise formula for the role of athletics in education. The cause was quickly won. Playing fields sprang up all over England."''Physical exercises in the modern world''. Lecture given at the Sorbonne, November 1892.

Oxford University

Arnold was involved in not a few controversies, educational and religious. As a churchman he was a decided Erastian and strongly opposed to the High Church party. His 1833 ''Principles of Church Reform'' is linked with the beginnings of the Broad Church movement. In 1841, he was appointed Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford.

Works

Arnold's chief literary works are his unfinished ''History of Rome'' (three volumes, 1838–1842) and his ''Lectures on Modern History''. Far more often read were his five books of sermons, which were admired by a wide circle of pious readers, including Queen Victoria.

Family

Arnold married Mary Penrose, daughter of the Rev. John Penrose of Penryn, Cornwall. They had five daughters and five sons, including the poet Matthew Arnold, the literary scholar

Tom Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

, the author

William Delafield Arnold William Delafield Arnold (7 April 1828 – 9 April 1859) was a British author and colonial administrator. He was the fourth son of Thomas Arnold who was the headmaster of Rugby School. His older brothers included the poet and critic Matthew Ar ...

and Edward Penrose Arnold, an inspector of schools.David Hopkinson (1981), ''Edward Penrose Arnold, A Victorian Family Portrait''. One daughter died in infancy. The eldest daughter, Jane Martha, married William Edward Forster. Both enjoyed mountaineering; they climbed Mont Blanc in 1859 and in 1860 Jane was one of the first women to stand on the summit of Monte Rosa, which had not been climbed by a woman until 1857. When William Delafield Arnold died in 1859 leaving four orphans, the Forsters adopted them as their own, adding their name to the children's surname. One of them was Hugh Oakeley Arnold-Forster, a Liberal Unionist MP, who eventually became a member of

Balfour Balfour may refer to: People Earls of Balfour * Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour (1848–1930), British Conservative politician, Prime Minister of the UK (1902-1905), made the public statement of Balfour Declaration * Gerald Balfour, 2n ...

's cabinet. Another was

Florence Vere O'Brien Florence Vere O'Brien (3 July 1854 – 8 July 1936) was a British diarist, philanthropist, and craftswoman. She set up The Limerick Lace School and Clare Embroidery. Early life Florence Vere O'Brien was born Florence Mary Arnold in Bayswater, ...

, a diarist, philanthropist and craftswoman who lived in Ireland. Frances Bunsen Trevenen Whateley Arnold, the youngest daughter, never married and died at Fox How in 1923. Arnold had bought the small estate of Fox How near Ambleside in the

Lake District The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...

in 1832, and spent many holidays there. On 12 June 1842 he died there suddenly of a heart attack "at the height of his powers", a day before his 47th birthday. He is buried in Rugby School chapel. Thomas the Younger's daughter

Mary Augusta Arnold Mary Augusta Ward (''née'' Arnold; 11 June 1851 – 24 March 1920) was a British novelist who wrote under her married name as Mrs Humphry Ward. She worked to improve education for the poor and she became the founding President of the Women' ...

, became a well-known novelist under her married name, Mrs. Humphry Ward. His other daughter, Julia, married Leonard Huxley, the son of Thomas Huxley. Their sons were

Julian Julian may refer to: People * Julian (emperor) (331–363), Roman emperor from 361 to 363 * Julian (Rome), referring to the Roman gens Julia, with imperial dynasty offshoots * Saint Julian (disambiguation), several Christian saints * Julian (give ...

and Aldous Huxley. Julia Arnold founded in 1902

Prior's Field School Prior's Field is an independent girls' boarding and day school in Guildford, Surrey in the south-east of England. Founded in 1902 by Julia Huxley, it stands in 42 acres of parkland, 34 miles south-west of London and adjacent to the A3 road, w ...

for girls in

Godalming, Surrey Godalming is a market town and civil parish in southwest Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, at the confluence of the Rivers Wey and Ock. The civil parish covers and includes the settleme ...

.''Prior's Field School – A Century Remembered 1902–2002'' by Margaret Elliott, published by Prior's Field School Trust Ltd, .

Reputation

''The Life of Doctor Arnold'', published two years after his death by one of Arnold's former pupils, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, is seen as one of the best works of its class in the language and added to his growing reputation. A popular life of Arnold by the novelist

Emma Jane Guyton Emma Jane Guyton or Worboise (née Worboys; 1825–1887) was an English novelist, biographer and editor. Her more than 50 novels feature strong Christian values and were popular in their time. Life Guyton was born Emma Jane Worboys in Birmingham ...

also appeared. In 1896 his bust was unveiled in Westminster Abbey alongside that of his son,

Matthew Matthew may refer to: * Matthew (given name) * Matthew (surname) * ''Matthew'' (ship), the replica of the ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497 * ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith * Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the Ch ...

. '' The Times'' asserted, "As much as any who could be named, Arnold helped to form the standard of manly worth by which Englishmen judge and submit to be judged." However, his reputation suffered as one of the '' Eminent Victorians'' in Lytton Strachey's book of that title published in 1918. A more recent public-school headmaster, Michael McCrum of Tonbridge School and Eton College in the 1960s to 1980s, also a churchman and Oxbridge academic (Master of

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Corpus Christi College (full name: "The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary", often shortened to "Corpus"), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th century through to the early 19th century ...

and Vice-Chancellor), wrote a biography and reappraisal of Arnold in 1991. He had briefly been a master at Rugby and was married to the daughter of another former headmaster. More recently, a biography entitled ''Black Tom'' was written by

Terence Copley Terence Copley (19 August 1946 – 17 January 2011) was a British academic and author. Terence Copley was Professor of Educational Studies (Religious Education) at the University of Oxford, England and also Emeritus Professor of Religious Educati ...

. Both McCrum and Copley seek to restore some lustre to the Arnold legacy, which had been under attack since Strachey's sardonic appraisal.

A. C. Benson Arthur Christopher Benson, (24 April 1862 – 17 June 1925) was an English essayist, poet and academic, and the 28th Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. He wrote the lyrics of Edward Elgar’s '' Coronation Ode'', including the words of th ...

once observed of Arnold, "A man who could burst into tears at his own dinner-table on hearing a comparison made between St. Paul and St. John to the detriment of the latter, and beg that the subject might never be mentioned again in his presence, could never have been an ''easy'' companion."J. A. Gere and John Sparrow, eds, ''Geoffrey Madan's Notebooks'', Oxford University Press, 1981.

Depictions on screen

Arnold has been played several times in adaptations of '' Tom Brown's School Days'', including by Sir Cedric Hardwicke in the 1940 film version, Robert Newton in the 1951 film version, Iain Cuthbertson in the 1971 television version, and Stephen Fry in the 2005 television version.

Works

*''The Christian Duty of Granting the Claims of the Roman Catholics'' (pamphlet) Rugby, 1828 *''Sermons Preached in the Chapel of Rugby School'', London: Fellowes, 1850 (first edition, 1832) *''Principles of Church Reform'', Oxford: Fellowes,1833 *''History of Rome'', London: Fellowes, 1838 *''Introductory Lectures on Modern History'', London: Longmans, Green & Co, 1842 *''Sermons: Christian Life, its Hopes, Fears and Close'', London: Fellowes, 1842 *''Sermons: Christian Life, its Course'', London: Fellowes, 1844 *As translator: ''The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides'', (3 vols.) London: Fellowes, 1845 *''The Interpretation of Scripture'', London: Fellowes, 1845

Notes

External links

* * * *Archival material at {{DEFAULTSORT:Arnold, Thomas Huxley family Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford Fellows of Oriel College, Oxford 19th-century English Anglican priests Head Masters of Rugby School People from Cowes People educated at Winchester College People educated at Lord Weymouth's Grammar School 1795 births 1842 deaths Regius Professors of History (University of Oxford)

Early life and education

Career as an educator

Rugby School

Oxford University

Works

Family

Reputation

Depictions on screen

Works

Notes

Further reading

Primary sources

External links