Matilda Sharpe - founder of Channing School Matilda Sharpe (4 April 1830 – 30 April 1916)"Sharpe, Matilda (1830–1916)"
by Ruth Watts in ''

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'', online edition,

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, 2004. Retrieved 31 May 2014. was a British writer, teacher, educational reformer and painter. She founded what is now Channing School.

Life

She was the daughter of Sarah Sharpe, an artist, and Samuel Sharpe who was a banker and an

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religiou ...

. Her parents were Unitarian, rich and cousins. She was a talented artist, exhibiting at the Royal Academy, but her vocation was teaching. During the 1870s she volunteered her time and money to several schools. She was an inspiring teacher and the leading New South Wales politician,

William Holman William Arthur Holman (4 August 1871 – 5 June 1934) was an Australian politician who served as Premier of New South Wales from 1913 to 1920. He came to office as the leader of the Labor Party, but was expelled from the party in the split o ...

, attributed his success to her teaching. In

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, she founded Channing House School (after Robert Spears' idea) and a Unitarian Chapel in Despard Road. She devoted most of her energy and her money to the school. She believed in education for all and taxing the rich to pay for it. She was keen on homilies and published books of these and a book of poetry. She died at her home in Highgate in 1915. Several of her portraits are in the National Portrait Gallery, London.Matilda Sharpe (1830-1915)
National Portrait Gallery, 2014. Retrieved 31 May 2014.

Selected publications

*''Old favourites from the elder poets, with a few newer friends. A selection by M. Sharpe.'' Williams and Norgate, London, 1881. Second revised edition, Methuen, 1912. An anthology of nine women poets, particularly

Anna Laetitia Barbauld Anna Laetitia Barbauld (, by herself possibly , as in French, Aikin; 20 June 1743 – 9 March 1825) was a prominent English poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, and author of children's literature. A " woman of letters" who published in mu ...

. *''Never forget: A collection of precepts.'' Griffith & Farran, London, 1890. *''The journey to paradise, or, flight of the soul to its maker. A heavenly day dream set down by Matilda Sharpe.'' Christian Life Office, London, 1899.

Life

Selected publications

References

Further reading