William Haig Brown
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William Haig Brown (1823–1907) was an English cleric and reforming headmaster of
Charterhouse School (God having given, I gave) , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , president ...
.


Life

Born at Bromley by Bow,
Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...
, on 3 December 1823, he was third son of Thomas Brown of Edinburgh and his wife Amelia, daughter of John Haig, of the Haigs of Bemersyde. At age nine he went to
Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552 and received its first royal charter in 1553 ...
, where he remained, first in the junior school at
Hertford Hertford ( ) is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. The parish had a population of 26,783 at the 2011 census. The town grew around a ford on the River Lea, ne ...
, and later on in London, until 1842. In 1842 Haig Brown entered
Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College (officially "The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College or Hall of Valence-Mary") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 ...
, graduating B.A. in 1846 as second in the first class in the classical tripos. Elected a fellow in October 1848 (M.A. 1849), and taking holy orders (deacon 1852 and priest 1853), he was engaged in college work until 1857, when he was appointed headmaster of
Kensington School The Kensington Proprietary Grammar School, colloquially referred to as the Kensington School,''William Haig Brown of Charterhouse : a short biographical memoir'' (1908) - London : Macmillan was an educational establishment founded in 1830 that is ...
. In 1863, on the resignation of Dr. Richard Elwyn, the Schoolmaster of Charterhouse School, Haig Brown was appointed his successor on 12 November, against tradition that the Schoolmaster should have been educated at the school. In 1864 he proceeded LL.D. at Cambridge. That year the Public Schools' Commission recommended the school's removal from central London, a suggestion opposed by
Acton Smee Ayrton Acton Smee Ayrton (5 August 1816 – 30 November 1886) was a British barrister and Liberal Party politician. Considered a radical and champion of the working classes, he served as First Commissioner of Works under William Ewart Gladstone between ...
. By circulating old Carthusians, Haig Brown gained support for the move, and also won over
Lord Derby Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, (29 March 1799 – 23 October 1869, known before 1834 as Edward Stanley, and from 1834 to 1851 as Lord Stanley) was a British statesman, three-time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom ...
, an influential Charterhouse governor, and
W. E. Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...
, another. In May 1866 the Charterhouse governors decided on the removal, and a private bill in parliament, was passed in August. The new site at
Godalming 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 ...
, the Deanery Farm estate, was found by Haig Brown. The governors bought 55 acres: the first sod was turned on Founder's Day 1869, and on 18 June 1872 the new school was occupied by 117 old and 33 new boys. In accordance with the Public Schools Act of 1868, the school had its own governors, and Haig Brown became a conventional headmaster. Among the transferred pupils was
Robert Baden-Powell Lieutenant-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, ( ; (Commonly pronounced by others as ) 22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941) was a British Army officer, writer, founder and first Chief Scout of the worl ...
, not academic, but a participant in football and competition shooting. Haig Brown encouraged the future founder of the scouting movement in his explorations of the nearby woods. Within a few years, in addition to the three houses originally built by the governors, eight others were erected by various masters, until by September 1876 the number of boys had grown to 500, when it was limited. In 1874 the school chapel was consecrated, and additions were then made to the school: class-rooms, a hall, a museum, and new playing-fields. Haig Brown retired in 1897: he had neither sought nor received ecclesiastical preferment. Haig Brown died at the Master's lodge at the London Charterhouse hospital on 11 January 1907, and was buried in the chapel at Charterhouse School.


Awards and honours

On his retirement from Charterhouse School in 1897 Haig Brown was appointed master of the
London Charterhouse The London Charterhouse is a historic complex of buildings in Farringdon, London, dating back to the 14th century. It occupies land to the north of Charterhouse Square, and lies within the London Borough of Islington. It was originally built ( ...
. As a memorial of his work at Charterhouse, a seated statue in bronze by Harry Bates, A.R.A. (who died before the work was wholly finished), was set up in front of the school chapel in 1899. His portrait by
Frank Holl Francis Montague Holl (London 4 July 1845 – 31 July 1888 London) was an English painter, specializing in somewhat sentimental paintings with a moment from a narrative situation, often drawing on the trends of social realism and the prob ...
was placed in the great hall in 1886. He became honorary canon of Winchester in 1891, and honorary fellow of Pembroke, his old college at Cambridge, in 1898. He was also made officier de l'Académie in 1882, and officier de l'Instruction publique in 1900. Throughout life he maintained a connection with Christ's Hospital, of which he became a "donation governor" in 1864.


Works

Haig Brown's published works included: *''Sertum Carthusianum'' (1870); *''Charterhouse Past and Present'' (Godalming, 1879); and *''Carthusian Memories and other Verses of Leisure'' (with portrait, 1905), a collection of various prologues, epilogues, epigrams, and other fugitive pieces. He was author, in 1899, of ''The Christ's Hospital Carmen'' in Latin and ''The School Song'' in English; with versions in Greek, French, and German. Three of his hymns were ''O God, whose Wisdom made the Sky'', ''God, Thy Mercy's Fountains'', and ''Auctor omnium bonorum''.


Family

Haig Brown married, in 1857, Annie Marion, eldest daughter of the Rev. Evan Edward Rowsell, rector of
Hambledon, Surrey Hambledon is a rural scattered village in the Waverley borough of Surrey, situated south of Guildford. It is dominated by a buffer zone of fields and woodland, mostly south of the Greensand Ridge escarpment between Witley and Chiddingfold, havi ...
, the elder brother of Canon Thomas J. Rowsell. They had five sons and seven daughters. Rosalind Mabel Haig Brown who was headmistress of Oxford High School for 30 years, was their daughter.
Alan Haig-Brown Alan Roderick Haig-Brown (born 1941) is a Canadian novelist and non-fiction writer. He specializes in commercial marine and commercial fishing writing and photography. He is a regular contributor to a number of marine publications including Profe ...
was their son.


Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Haig Brown, William 1823 births 1907 deaths 19th-century English Anglican priests Fellows of Pembroke College, Cambridge Heads of schools in London