Julia Huxley (née Arnold) (1862–1908) was a British scholar. She founded

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 ...

in 1902. She came from and had an exceptional family.

Life

Born Julia Arnold in 1862 to Julia Sorell Arnold, the granddaughter of

William Sorell William Sorell (1775 – 4 June 1848) was a soldier and third Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land. Early life Sorell was born probably in the West Indies, the eldest son of Lieutenant-general William Alexander Sorell and his wife Jane. So ...

, and

Thomas Arnold Thomas Arnold (13 June 1795 – 12 June 1842) was an English educator and historian. He was an early supporter of the Broad Church Anglican movement. As headmaster of Rugby School from 1828 to 1841, he introduced several reforms that were wide ...

, a literary scholar, she was the niece of critic

Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the celebrated headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, lite ...

and author and colonial administrator

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 the sister of

Mary Augusta Ward Mary Augusta Ward (''née'' Arnold; 11 June 1851 – 24 March 1920) was a British literature, 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 Pres ...

(Mrs Humphry Ward), the writer and journalist

William Thomas Arnold William Thomas Arnold (1852–1904) was an Australian-born, English writer and journalist. He was a writer for ''The Manchester Guardian'' for seventeen years. Biography Arnold was born at Hobart, Tasmania, on 18 September 1852, eldest son and ...

, and the suffrage campaigner

Ethel Arnold Ethel Margaret Arnold (bapt. 26 May 1865 – 5 October 1930) was an English journalist, author, and lecturer on female suffrage. Life left, Julia and Ethel Arnold in 1872 by Lewis Carroll Arnold was born in 1865, the youngest of eight surviv ...

. She met

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...

as a child and she and her sister Ethel featured in a number of his photographs. Ethel later reported that she enjoyed the attention as a break from her less than happy home life. Ethel was to remain friends with Lewis Carroll as an adult. For Christmas in 1877, Lewis Carroll devised the word game of Doublets for Julia and Ethel. The game was later published by Vanity Fair and by Carroll. file:Julia and Ethel Arnold.jpg, left, Julia and her sister

in 1872 by

She went to Somerville College, Oxford where she was awarded a First in English Literature in 1882.Clark, Ronald W. (1968). The Huxleys. Heinemann. Julia married Leonard Huxley (writer), Leonard Huxley in 1885. Priors-Field-School-1904-300x209

In January, 1902, Julia Huxley founded a remarkable school which was

for girls, in

.''Prior's Field School: A Century Remembered, 1902–2002'' by Margaret Elliott, published by Prior's Field School Trust Ltd., . The school started with a five-acre (2 ha) plot and a moderately sized house designed by

C.F.A. Voysey Charles Francis Annesley Voysey (28 May 1857 – 12 February 1941) was an English architect and furniture and textile designer. Voysey's early work was as a designer of wallpapers, fabrics and furnishings in a Arts and Crafts style and he ma ...

, Julia Huxley opened her school with herself as head with one boarder, five day girls, Miss English, Mademoiselle Bonnet, a wire-haired terrier and her -year-old son, Aldous. As head she taught her charges to enjoy culture and solitude and to be bibliophiles. She was a clever and talented teacher who had a relaxed discipline.

Death and legacy

She died, at the age of 46, of cancer in 1908. At that time she had been headmistress for six years. In June 1908 her school had 85 pupils and 86 "Old Girls". She was succeeded as headmistress by Ethel Burton-Brown, who had been her manager. Huxley's funeral service took place in the

Watts Cemetery Chapel The Watts Cemetery Chapel or Watts Mortuary Chapel is a chapel in an Modern Style (British Art Nouveau style) version of Celtic Revival in the village cemetery of Compton in Surrey. While the overall architectural structure is loosely Romanesqu ...

and she was buried close to one of it walls. The pupils from the school attended the service. Leonard Huxley and her son Aldous's ashes would also be buried there. In March 2017 the school she founded opened a new Science, Technology and Music Centre, named the Arnold Building, in memory of her.

Private life

Julia and Leonard Huxley married in 1885 and had four children together:

Julian Sorell Huxley Sir Julian Sorell Huxley (22 June 1887 – 14 February 1975) was an English evolutionary biologist, eugenicist, and internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century modern synthesis. ...

(1887-1975), Noel Trevenen (or Trevelyan) Huxley (1889-1914), the novelist Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894-1963) and Margaret Arnold Huxley (1899-1981). Julia wrote a letter to Aldous as she was dying and he carried this with him for the rest of his life. It included the thought "Judge not too much and love more". Scholars of Aldous's works can see his mother's death in his cynical attitude and his books including Eyeless in Gaza,

Brave New World ''Brave New World'' is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hierarch ...

and the Utopian

Island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huxley, Julia Heads of schools in England Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford

Julia Julia is usually a feminine given name. It is a Latinate feminine form of the name Julio and Julius. (For further details on etymology, see the Wiktionary entry "Julius".) The given name ''Julia'' had been in use throughout Late Antiquity (e.g. ...

1862 births 1908 deaths Founders of British schools and colleges