classical scholar
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
, educator and writer known for his authorship of paedagogical materials, his controversial headmastership of
Victoria College, Jersey
Victoria College is a Government-run, fee-paying, academically selective day schoolcorporal punishment, and his subsequent death by
drowning
Drowning is a type of suffocation induced by the submersion of the mouth and nose in a liquid. Most instances of fatal drowning occur alone or in situations where others present are either unaware of the victim's situation or unable to offer as ...
.
Education and career
Farnell was educated at the
City of London School
, established =
, closed =
, type = Public school Boys' independent day school
, president =
, head_label = Headmaster
, head = Alan Bird
, chair_label = Chair of Governors
, chair = Ian Seaton
, founder = John Carpenter
, special ...
and gained a scholarship to
Wadham College, Oxford
Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road.
Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...
in 1879. He graduated BA in 1883 and incepted MA 1886. He served as assistant master at
St Paul's School, London
(''By Faith and By Learning'')
, established =
, closed =
, type = Independent school Public school
, religion = Church of England
, president =
, h ...
, where he published a guide to
Ancient Greek grammar
Ancient Greek grammar is morphologically complex and preserves several features of Proto-Indo-European morphology. Nouns, adjectives, pronouns, articles, numerals and especially verbs are all highly inflected.
A complication of Greek grammar is th ...
and syntax based on methods traditionally used at St Paul's. He remained there until taking up the headmastership of Victoria College in 1892.
Victoria College Headmastership and Controversy
In November 1893 headmaster George Stanley Farnell was arrested and charged with assault following an incident in which he beat, by means of a cane, a 17-year-old student. On 5 December 1893 the magistrate heard evidence from the prosecuting
Centenier
There is an Honorary Police ( French: Police Honorifique) force in each of the twelve parishes of Jersey. Members of the Honorary Police are elected by the voters of the parish in which they serve, and are unpaid.
Honorary Police officers have ...
, a doctor, the student's father, and the student himself, among others. The doctor gave evidence of the severity of the beating. The magistrate decided that since the student's father had been assured that corporal punishment would not be inflicted, there could be no justification in law for the caning, especially given that the student was not a child but of military age. He reprimanded the defendant, bound the headmaster over to act with less severity in future and released him. The headmaster's cane was confiscated by the court. This case sparked controversy. The use of corporal punishment at the college was represented among French speakers as an imposition of English culture and an attack on the liberties of the Jerseyman as enjoyed up until then at the college. The introduction of corporal punishment to Jersey on the model of English public schools was contrasted with the absence of such punishments in French schools.
The magistrate's decision was attacked by the Solicitor-General. The governing body (of which the Solicitor-General was a member) supported the headmaster, who was able to produce a petition signed by his students, supporting the continued use of corporal punishment. All this was in contrast to the tradition established by the first headmaster, Dr Henderson, who had never resorted to the cane. The Constable of Saint Helier (also a member of the governing body) immediately lodged an amendment to the law on compulsory education then under debate, to outlaw corporal punishment in schools subsidised by the States. On 8 January 1894 the States debated the amendment. The Constable of Saint Helier stated that he had felt obliged to put forward the amendment in the light of the recent incident at Victoria College, and that corporal punishment was a barbaric relic. The amendment was rejected by 14 votes to 12.
Death
On 4 November 1895 Farnell went out for a coastal walk in the west of Jersey, it being half-term holiday at the College. The alarm was raised when he had not returned home by midnight, and at 7 a.m. the next morning search parties were sent out, including boys from the College. Farnell's disfigured body, showing signs of having been in the water for a length of time, was discovered in Saint Ouen below Plémont by late morning. The body was discovered by two Victoria College students, Charles Organ and Reginald Beale. The inquest returned a verdict of accidental death.''Jersey Express'', 6 November 1895 Farnell was thirty-four.
He was commemorated by his brother
Lewis Richard Farnell
Lewis Richard Farnell FBA (1856–1934) was a classical scholar and Oxford academic, where he served as Vice-Chancellor from 1920 to 1923. George Stanley Farnell in the inscription of the 1896 edition of the first volume of the first edition of ...
in the inscription of the 1896 edition of the first volume of the first edition of ''The Cults of the Greek States''. The inscription read, "''In memoriam fratris dilectissimi et nuper amissi'', which means, "In memory of a most beloved and recently lost brother".
Works
*''Greek Lyric Poetry: A Complete Collection of the Surviving Passages from the Greek Song-Writers'', Longmans, Green & Co.:London & New York, 1891.
*''Rules and Exercises on Greek Conditional and Relative sentences'', Steely & Co., Ltd.:London: 1892.
*''Cornelius Nepos: Selections Illustrative of Greek and Roman History'', Macmillan & Co.:London & New York, 1895.
*''Tales from Herodotus: with Attic Dialectical Forms Selected for Easy Greek Reading, ''Macmillan & Co.:London & New York, 1895.