John Edward Bromby (23 May 1809 – 4 March 1889) was an Australian schoolmaster and Anglican cleric. Bromby was born in Hull, England, the son of the Reverend John Healey Bromby and his wife Jane, ''née'' Amis. His brother was Charles Henry Bromby, later Bishop of Tasmania. Bromby was educated at

Hull Grammar School Hull Grammar School was a secondary school in Hull, England, founded around 1330 and endowed in 1479 by the prelate John Alcock. In 1988, as part of a restructure by the Local Education Authority, the site was renamed William Gee School. Meanw ...

and

Uppingham Uppingham is a market town in Rutland, England, off the A47 between Leicester and Peterborough, south of the county town, Oakham. It had a population of 4,745 according to the 2011 census, estimated at 4,853 in 2019. It is known for its ep ...

. At 18 he entered

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

, where he graduated ninth wrangler and third in the second class of the Classics

tripos At the University of Cambridge, a Tripos (, plural 'Triposes') is any of the examinations that qualify an undergraduate for a bachelor's degree or the courses taken by a student to prepare for these. For example, an undergraduate studying mathe ...

in 1832. He was elected a fellow of St John's College. Bromby was ordained deacon in 1834 and priest in 1836. He was appointed second master at Bristol College in 1836 and then for some years conducted a private school at Clifton. From 1847 to 1854 he was Principal of

Elizabeth College, Guernsey The Royal College of Elizabeth, better known as Elizabeth College, is a co-educational independent school in Saint Peter Port, Guernsey. One of the earliest members of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC), it is a public school ...

, was university preacher at Cambridge in 1850, obtaining the degree of D.D., and after 1854 was curate for two or three years to his father at Hull. He was then appointed headmaster of the newly founded

Church of England Grammar School The Anglican Church Grammar School (ACGS), formerly the Church of England Grammar School and commonly referred to as Churchie, is an independent, Anglican, day and boarding school for boys, located in East Brisbane, an inner suburb of Brisbane, Q ...

in Melbourne, Australia, where he arrived in February 1858 with his wife and nine children. The school opened on 7 April 1858 with 86 students and the number of boys soon began to grow rapidly. There were 195 at the school in 1861 and it prospered for many years. He was appointed a member of a Royal Commission to report on the working of the educational system on 4 September 1866. About 1871 the number of students at the Grammar school began to fall off, partly because of the foundation of other secondary schools, and in 1874, feeling that it might be for the benefit of the school to have a younger headmaster, Bromby resigned and was succeeded by

Edward Ellis Morris Edward Ellis Morris (25 December 1843 – 1 January 1902) was an English educationist and miscellaneous writer and latterly in colonial Australia. Biography Morris was born in Madras, British India, fourteenth child of John Carnac Morris, ac ...

. He was appointed incumbent of St Paul's, Melbourne, in 1877 a position he held until his death. On the completion of his seventy-fifth year in 1884 he was presented with an address and £1,000. He died at his parsonage at

East Melbourne East Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. East Melbourne recorded a population of 4,896 at the 2021 ...

and was buried in the

Melbourne General Cemetery The Melbourne General Cemetery is a large (43 hectare) necropolis located north of the city of Melbourne in the suburb of Carlton North. The cemetery is notably the resting place of four Prime Ministers of Australia, more than any other nec ...

. He was married twice and was survived by his second wife and two sons and three daughters of the first marriage. He was the author of a volume of ''Sermons and the Earlier Chapters of Genesis'', and several of his lectures and sermons were published as pamphlets. Bromby as a headmaster encouraged games and relied more on a good moral tone than strict discipline. He was for many years a member of the council of the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

, and was its first Warden of the Senate. As a clergyman, though he claimed to belong to no school, he was in sympathy with the broad church section of the Church of England, and was one of the best preachers of his period, scholarly and fearless in his independence of thought, with a pleasant voice and delivery. Though apparently somewhat reserved and austere, he was really thoroughly kindly in his disposition, and was a good conversationalist, with much appreciation of wit and humour.

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