The Reverend Edward Thring - Uppingham School

THE REVEREND

EDWARD THRING 29th November 1821 to 22nd October 1887

THE REVD EDWARD THRING 1853–1887 Edward Thring was born in Alford, Somerset, on 29 November 1821. His father John was squire and Rector at Alford.

Edward was Educated at Ilminster Grammar, and Eton College, where he was Senior Colleger and Captain of School. He went up to King’s College, Cambridge in 1841 and was a Fellow of King’s from 1844-1853. In 1846 he was ordained.

Thring was the author of many publications. Theory and Practice of Teaching was published in numerous editions.

On 10 September 1853, aged 31, he became Headmaster of Uppingham School.

He married Marie Koch on 20 December 1853. Edward and Marie went on to have five children, three daughters and two sons.

Edward Thring died on 22 October 1887

Revd Edward Thring late 1850s. Taken

by R Faulkner Bayswater.

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Thring proved to be a man of genius, full of ideas for the future development of Uppingham. By his death, after 34 years at the School, he had won a national and transatlantic reputation as an original thinker and writer on education. He turned a small local grammar school into a well-known public school.

His own unpleasant memories of his first school:

“made me long to try if I could not make the life of small boys happier and brighter.”

This engraving shows the house where Edward Thring was born. The engraving was made from a painting provided by Edward Thring. The following words were written on the back: ‘The Cottage, Alford, where I was born, the scene of many happy recollections - E Thring’.

Artist: Charles Rossiter. School Magazine January 1888 Vol 26, No 200 Ps8/9.

German influences Thring’s wife, Marie Koch, from Bonn, was to take a full part in the life of the School. The musical evenings she began in her drawing room encouraged Thring in his great innovation in establishing music as a school activity. Marie’s sister Anna became Thring’s secretary and may have been even more important in the introduction of music. The other obvious German influence was the introduction of a school cap, of distinctly Teutonic shape like those worn by German students, to replace the traditional mortar board, deemed by Thring to be a dangerous weapon when it was skimmed like a Frisbee.

Thring’s philosophy of education This was set down in the preface to his diary, written in 1858, in several articles, and in his 1864 book Education and School.

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Every boy must receive full and equal attention. He mustn’t be neglected in the classroom or boarding quarters – a reaction against the over-large classes and “the unlicensed debauchery of Long Chamber” (David Newsome) that Thring had experienced at his old school, Eton.

2. An ordinary boy should have as much time spent on him in class as a brilliant boy. Thring denies Dr Arnold of Rugby’s belief in getting rid of unpromising subjects.

Teaching the less gifted was to be seen not as a chore but as a matter for professional pride. “To teach an upper form requires more knowledge, a lower one more skill in the teacher.” When in 1865 Uppingham was inspected by the Schools Inquiry Commission it was emphasised that the teaching of the intelligent boys did not suffer because of the careful teaching of the less intelligent.

3. Those not intellectually gifted should have opportunities to succeed in other occupations. In an era when classics and maths dominated the curriculum, this was a revolutionary concept, though it may seem obvious to us now. Thring encouraged many ‘extra’ subjects and allotted time for them - French, German, Science, History, Art, and especially Music and Carpentry. (Thring himself was a keen woodworker, and invented an ingenious self-closing gate, one of which was at the top of the ‘cinder track’, and another at The Upper.) To support these subjects he built workshops, laboratories, an aviary, gardens, and a gymnasium.

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4. “Life power!” or “True Life”. Thring believed that education must be concerned with the whole of life, not just brains and physique, but also the whole moral and spiritual well-being of the boys.

He also wrote in 1867, “If a school professes to teach, then every boy must have his share of teaching. If a school professes to train, then every boy must be really known, his wants supplied, his character consulted - or untruth will make itself felt. If a school professes to board boys, then every boy must find proper food and proper lodging and no meanness, or untruth will make itself felt.”

Boarding Houses Thring believed that these should be scattered about the town. “Scattered boarding houses are not only better but enshrine a different life and a higher life.” He believed that such an arrangement encouraged house spirit and rivalry, and thereby invigorated the life of the whole school.

Studies and ‘partitions’ or ‘tishes’ He believed in studies and ‘partitions’, small spaces in a dormitory partitioned or curtained off from the main dormitory. The study was seen by him as a refuge, a check to bullying, and a safeguard for academic concentration.

“In every great school each boy must either have a small study to himself and a compartment in a small dormitory, or a single room in which to sleep and live.”

Thring would always knock before he entered a boy’s study.

“He was always a gentleman - treated us like one and expected to be treated like one.”

E W Hornung in his book ‘Fathers of Men’ (1912), a thinly disguised Uppingham novel, recalled the studies: “They were undeniably cosy and attractive, as compact as a captain’s cabin; as private as a friar’s cell, but far more comfortable than either...with a table and two chairs, a square of carpet as big as a bath-sheet, a book-shelf and pictures, and photographs and ornaments to taste, fretwork and plush to heart’s content, a flower box for the summer term, hot water pipes for the other two, and above all a door of (one’s) own to shut at will against the world.”

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Factors in the 1850s conducive to the growth of the School • The growing demand for secondary education from an

increasing middle class, wealthy because of the

economic prosperity of the Victorian industrial revolution.

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The reforms of Butler at Shrewsbury and Arnold at Rugby had improved the tainted reputation of boarding schools as barbaric places. In 1818 two companies of soldiers with fixed bayonets had to be called to quell a rebellion at Winchester!

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Physical access to Uppingham improved with the opening of a railway station in 1848 at Manton, four miles away, and in 1851 at Seaton, three miles away.

1853 Thring establishes his authority Rev Coker Adams, who had filled in as Headmaster between Holden and Thring, had been unable to keep order (the boys had even put gunpowder in the keyholes of his room and ignited it) and therefore Thring was faced with rebellious pupils. They let off fireworks at prayer-time and turned up late for first lesson saying they thought it didn’t matter. He quelled this rebellion, but it took him a year or two to impose his will.

Thring used a mixture of patience and ruthlessness. He made the whole School responsible for any large-scale indiscipline. If one or two erred seriously, then he penalised everyone. When he found some of his Praepostors smoking, drinking and playing cards he punished the whole School. In doing so, he intentionally courted a revolt from some Praepostors, and when this happened he expelled the ringleaders. On 4 September 1856 he made the remaining Praepostors sign a promise not to smoke and drink, and to prevent others doing so. Thereafter, although there were plenty of incidents, there were no more total insurrections.

1853 Names of Houses At first called by names of Housemasters eg Mr Thring’s House and initials used in sports, such as T=Thring’s (School House), E= Earle’s. ‘Half’ Houses - The House Adjoining the Old Post Office (now the Garden Hotel) and the House at the Corner of School Lane, combined for sports competition purposes and the combination was known as ‘United.’ The mix of names - Housemaster’s surnames and specific names - continued throughout Thring’s Headmastership. His successor, Selwyn, was keen that all the Houses were called by specific names, and not by the names of Housemasters.

Constable’s name survived.

1853 Uppingham Football Dr. Malcolm Tozer Uppingham Staff 1966-1989. Author of ‘The Ideal of Manliness -The Legacy of Thring’s Uppingham (2015), Edward Thring’s Theory, Practice and Legacy -Physical Education in Britain since 1800 (2019), and editor of Puddings, Bullies & Squashes -Early Public School Football Codes (2020) writes: Football was probably introduced to the school in Thring’s first winter, 1853; it was certainly played the following year. Robert Rice’s prize Latin essay, “On Football”, composed in December 1854 provides the earliest reference to the game. A match was described in the style of a classical epic: the scene was carefully set and several forbidding omens were exacted. Thring by implication played and an umpire was appointed. This new game, the author inferred, was devised by Thring to serve as a modern counterpart to the battles of Homeric times: ‘And then they all snatched at the ball to move it forwards in various ways.

(For recently the Master in Charge had taught them how the peoples of old had often had contests with races that were fierce.) In the same way now they all ran together in throngs: then again in flight they made different patterns as they ran, imitating the epic battles of old as they charged.’

Other sources refer to the game, soon to be called Uppingham Football, being “invented” by Thring but an examination of the first set of printed rules of 1857 shows that it was similar to the codes played at other schools.

Uppingham football owed most to the Eton Field Game with additions from the early Rugby game.

The game was played on an oval pitch that tapered towards goals at each end; each goal was about twenty feet wide and seven feet high, the top marked by a rope; a large leathercovered oval ball was used. The object of the game was to kick the ball

through the opponents’ goal. A strict off-side rule demanded that all players had to be behind the ball, and the ball could only be handled if it had been caught cleanly or off its first bounce.

The catcher could run with the ball or kick it but he was forbidden from passing it to a team-mate. Long fly-kicks, rather than lengthy dribbling of the ball along the ground, were a notable feature of the game.

Prolonged “bullies” resulted when a player was tackled by the opposition; these were similar to the modern Rugby football scrum, with players stooping to drive the opposition towards their own goal, except that the ball could not be heeled backwards. A bully could result in a goal if the ball was forced under the rope.

As The Football Song suggests Thring intended the game to be a hearty “free fight”; “it was an opportunity devised by Providence to enable small boys to work off their original sin”. The rough and tumble of the game tested the boys to channel their pugnacity and it taught them to give and receive hard knocks in “good temper”. The whole school used to play at once as “two great opposing armies”; fifty each side by the late 1850s, distinguished by red and white bands tied around the waist.

Thring and some assistant masters joined in. In 1862, when he had “given up regular playing”, Thring was asked to join in the match between the Sixth Form and the rest of the School. That evening he wrote in his diary: ‘I could not help thinking with some pride, what Head Master of a great school ever played a match at football before.

Would either dignity or shins suffer it? I think not.’ He played again the following week!

From 1863 games were now played twice a week, on the Tuesday and Saturday half holidays, on the recently acquired field behind William Earle’s house, Brooklands. Every boy had to have a copy of the printed rules, “which

may be obtained from the Captain of Games, at the small charge of 2d.”, and was compelled to attend one game a week: a 6d. fine was imposed for non-attendance. Two football clubs were formed: the Upper for boys in the top three forms, and the Lower for the remainder. After 1863 membership of the Upper Club was limited to boys taller than 5 foot 3 inches. Red and white caps were introduced for the opposing sides (before this date boys often played wearing their mortar boards) and the teams began to change into “jerseys and flannel trousers” before play. Almost all the masters played, including the foreigners Beisiegel, a “tower of strength”, and Benguerel, “full of dash and enthusiasm”. Masters never changed out of their ordinary dress.

Many pick-up games were played: Sixth v the School, Pickwick Club v Rest of the School, North v South (with the line drawn at Cambridge), and so on. A match against the Old Boys was proposed in 1863 but had to wait a few more years. Early goal posts were not particularly rigid; the “inconvenience of the cross-bars coming down when the posts are violently pushed against” eventually led to the replacement of the wooden bar by a rope or tape.

In 1864 football moved from the field behind Brooklands to Van Diemen’s Land and this became the home of the Upper Club for football for the next fourteen years. The same year witnessed the recording of the names of football “XVs”, the introduction of house matches, and a call for matches against “foreign” teams. Charles Thring had previously applied to the Football Association for membership on behalf of the school, but without consulting his brother. The headmaster withdrew the application thus preventing Uppingham from becoming a soccer school and denying the possibility of foreign matches. The boys were now grouped by the Captain of Football in to three Hundreds: Upper, Middle and

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Lower Clubs; each of about 100 boys.

Games with unlimited players were arranged in each club at the start of the season and then, after a few weeks’ play, the captain of each club drew up the lists of the ranked XVs. These XVs were created to give “increased interest and spirit to the game”. The 1st XV on the Upper Club wore blue caps, the 2nd XV red or white ones, and the 3rd XV black. From 1865 all matches, other than pick-up games, were played at fifteen a side.

The introduction of house matches was also “to promote more spirit” by increasing “the rivalry among different houses”. “Rules for the Football House-Matches” were published in November 1864, and they included the introduction of “Umpires”, one for each competing house. The rules stated: 1. That they be played in the Christmas Examination, and if not played out, be continued in the following half-year.

2. That each game last one hour and a half.

3. That unless some advantage be gained within that time, the game be continued some other day until some advantage be gained.

4. That each house nominate its own umpire, subject to the disapproval of the other house.

5. That the number playing for each side be left to the discretion of the captain of the side. (This was amended to fifteen a side in the following year.)

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No matches with “foreign” teams could be adopted but the Old Boys, who should have remembered the rules of the game, were persuaded to play.

They supplied their first team to compete against the School in February 1865. The boys won the match against “an adverse fifteen … picked up by hunting for representatives of the old school from all quarters”. The Old Boys did not, alas, take this innovation very seriously.

The following year just eight travelled to Uppingham and had to be supplemented with recruits from the school’s 2nd XV and, for the next match in 1870, only three Old Boys arrived.

Between 1864 and 1868 there was a steady reform of the rules of Uppingham Football; the changes gradually eliminated the aspects from Rugby Football that were “thoroughly opposed to the general principles of our play”. The oval ball, which made the dribbling game so difficult, was the subject of much discussion but was retained for a few more years, and the goal was widened to forty feet.

Charging with the head lowered was prohibited in open play but allowed in the bullies, and “creeping” offside around the bullies was strongly condemned. Some penalty bullies for irregular play were also introduced.

The same period saw more masters taking part in the games and their ladies beginning to watch them.

Masters played in cricket house matches but this did not happen in football; presumably these games were too physical and too competitive. Boys were still compelled to play just once a week but the pressure to join in began to increase. “Shirkers” were condemned and an article “Concerning Non-Football Players” was published in the school magazine in 1870. These were the “unfortunate few, who cannot, and a contemptible few, who will not join the game”. The

unfortunate few were those who suffered from ill-health; the contemptible included the “lazy” (for the most part), the “swells”, the “glutton” and the “funk”, the last who “hates Football, because he thinks he would get hurt”.

Despite the poor attendance of Old Boys at their matches with the school, there were proposals in the 1860s to form an Old Boys’ Football Club. At this period Old Boys of Eton, Harrow, Winchester and Rugby had formed their own football clubs at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

Soon, in March 1868, the “Uppingham Football Club” was founded at Cambridge, with branches in Oxford and London.

Uppingham Football as it was played in the 1880s: Leslie Howard Gwyther (WD 1882) records the game in the School Magazine November 1947.

The game was peculiar to Uppingham, the rules varied from time to time but the following describes how it was played in the 1880s. 15 players on each side, consisting of 10 forwards, 2 outside, 2 half-backs and a goalkeeper. The shape of the field was oblong, about 100 yards in length and 46 yards in breadth. The goals consisted of two wooden upright posts, 7 feet high and 40 feet apart, and between the tops of these posts was stretched a white tape. Red flags were placed at the corners of the field of play 16 yards from each side of each goal. These flags were called “quarter flags”. Flags were also placed on each touch line at the halfway. The object of the game was to kick a ball (a round one) between the posts and under the tape, the ball to be kicked below the knee only except if it went off one of the defending side. Each goal counted as one point.

The captain of the side winning the toss (say ‘A’ side) chose from which end his team would play. His forwards and outsides lined up at the half-way, the half-backs a little behind them, and the goalkeeper in goal. The other team (say ‘B’ team) stood on the goal line to the left of the goal, and close to the quarter flag. The game was started by the ball being dribbled by ‘B’ team from there and taken up the field by the forwards in a body, whereupon ‘A’ side rushed to meet them and tried to get possession of the ball. Play then became general, and in a mix up a bully (scrum) was formed anyhow with no set places. The opposing outsides stood opposite each other on either side of the bully and tried to dribble the ball away if it came out at the side. Otherwise the respective forwards tried to take the ball at their feet right through their opponents.

There was no heeling, and the off-side rule was exactly the same as in rugby football. One endeavoured to keep the ball in play and out of touch, but if it did go into touch then the forwards lined up as in rugby, but with a clear span between the two side and not nearer than ten paces from the touch line.

Then an outside of the side that had not kicked the ball into touch threw the ball along the ground between the two sets of forwards, and the aim of the forward was to trap the ball with his feet, lower his head and charge through the opposing rank with the ball at his feet. If one did not lower his head at once he was apt to crash his skull against that of his opposite number. If the forward with the ball could not get through a natural bully formed. One could run with the ball only if he caught it full pitch or first bounce off an opponent, when he could be tackled in Rugby style.

Otherwise nobody but the goal-keeper could handle the ball. Free kicks (placed) were given for off-side or hands. One could not catch the ball as above from a free kick.

The ball could not be passed, and on being tackled a runner had to put the ball down and a natural bully formed. If the ball was kicked over the goal line on either side of the goal or over the tape it was called ‘getting quarters’.

Thereupon a set bully was formed in front of the goal and about five paces from it. The umpire put the ball in. This gave the attacking half-backs a chance to kick a goal if the ball came out of the bully. And it sometimes happened that the attacking forwards shoved their opponents and the ball clean through the goal. The function of the half-backs was to try and stop forward rushes or to get the ball and kick it up the field. This was called ‘heaving’.

The period of play was one hour, thirty minutes each way, and was controlled by an umpire with a whistle. There were two touch judges, and the game was played in the Christmas term only.

Football was compulsory, and every boy had a red and white jersey and played in white flannel trousers tucked into the socks. At the beginning of the Christmas term a boy joined the ground he was best fitted for by age or physique.

There were five grounds, viz: the Upper, played on the Upper. The Lower Upper and the Upper Middle played on the Leicester. The Lower Middle and the Lower Middle both played on the Middle. The ground games were played on the half-holidays (Tuesdays and Saturdays), and the House Cup ties (All Ages and Under Sixteen) took place on the days most convenient.

The captains of each ground were, except on the Upper, chosen at the beginning of term, and all the boys belonging to each ground played, however big the number. The sides were posted up at mid-day in the colonnade, such as: Town Houses (red) v. Hill Houses (white). Even Mathematical forms v. The Odd ditto.

Those born from January to June v. The Rest, North v. South, Dissyllables v. The Rest etc. Towards the end of term the

1st and 2nd XV’s on each ground (except the 1st XV on the Upper to whom colours were given on the ground) were chosen by the captains and posted in the colonnade, the second team on the Upper being called the XX. At the beginning of term the houses were paired off by lot to play together (not against each other) on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The sides were selected as in the ground games. The colours were as follows: Upper, 1st XV –blue trimming round neck and at the end of short sleeves of red and white jerseys. In matches the XV played in red jerseys and blue above red or white socks.

Those who had been given their colours wore a blue silk sash round their waist and were entitled to have hunting crops which, during matches, were handed to praepostors who kept touch lines clear. The XX colours: white trimmings on red jerseys and red trimming on white jerseys, and red above white socks and white above red socks. Lower Upper 1st XV colours: yellow trims; 2nd XV black trims, ordinary socks. Upper Middle 1st XV colours: blue Maltese cross on left breast; 2nd XV, white cross on red jersey and red cross on white jersey.

Lower Middle 1st XV colours: yellow cross; 2nd XV, black cross. Lower: no colours for either XV. Long sleeved jerseys on the last three games.

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1855 Rev Robert J Hodgkinson Hodgkinson was Thring’s most important early appointment.

He sank his money and career into Uppingham – moving into The Lodge and transforming it with the addition of dining-hall, dormitories and studies. His descendant J C Hodgkinson (OU) was Housemaster of Constables 1982-1988, and then became Headmaster of Aysgarth Preparatory School.

1855 First Music Master appointed In 1855 Thring appointed Herr Schȁäfer, who taught piano and was in charge of the small choir. He also taught German.

In 1856 he was replaced by Herr Christian Reimers, who also taught drawing. He composed the first School songs – The Uppingham Chorus, The Cricket Song and The Fives Song.

It was at Uppingham in the mid-1850s that music was first established as an acceptable, even popular, part of the School’s activities. Thring was a pioneer in his introduction of music into the regular system of education.

1855 First cricket match against Oundle This was the first match with a school other than Oakham.

Uppingham won, as they did at the next meeting in 1862.

After this, another 70 years were to elapse before Uppingham and Oundle became regular opponents at cricket and rugby.

1856 First School songs These date from 1855 and may be the first with English words to be used at an English School. There are 16 songs, including five relating to Borth, and the collection was complete by 1881. Thring wrote the words for nearly all the School songs, and they were set to music by his music staff.

The earliest were the Uppingham Chorus, and the Cricket and Fives Songs.

‘Uppingham Cricket Song’ The wickets are set, The field is met, Oh the royal game and free, The School shall win, ‘Short out, long in, ‘Tis a goodly companie, Merry England, merry England, Let foes say what they will, whilst cricket we play Each Summer day, ‘Tis merry England still. (plus six more verses!)

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‘The Uppingham Fives Song’ Oh the spirit in the ball Dancing round about the wall, In your eye and out again Ere there’s time to feel the pain, Hands and fingers all alive, Doing duty for each five.

Oh the spirit in the ball, Dancing round about the wall. (plus two more verses) 1856 Lorne House Rev J R Blakiston moved into what is now called Lorne House with a few boys – a later Housemaster, Rev William Campbell, gave it the name Lorne House after an area of Scotland owned by the Chief of his Clan. The building had previously been, at least since 1854, an academy for young ladies. Thring called Lorne House, “his nest egg, the first venture out of which it all grew.” That is, it was the first House created outside of the original School property, and therefore marked the start of the major growth of the School that defined Thring’s Headmastership.

1857 Thring in debt By 1857, Thring was £2,750 in debt (a very large sum at that time), mainly as a result of paying the salaries of the additional Masters he appointed.

1857 Committee of Games First Committee of Games formed. First Rules published.

1857 Numbers in the School This year saw the start of real and continued growth in numbers, until Thring capped them at 330. He believed 23 the best size for a class, 31 for a boarding house, and 300 for a school. He said a Headmaster could not know more than 300 boys well at one time and resisted all pressure to go above 330 pupils.

1858 Edward Thring publishes his first book of sermons 1858-72 House by the Old Post Office The Usher, Rev William J Earle, took over and altered an old grocer’s shop next to the Post Office, on the site of what is now the Garden Hotel, in order to set up a new boarding house. At that time his neighbours were Mrs Jane Leake, the widowed Postmistress and her family on the left, and on the right the Uppingham branch of the Stamford, Spalding and Boston Bank, which became Barclays Bank. In 2021 the School Shop took over the site. In 1861 Earle left this House to take over Brooklands which he had built. Between 1861 and 1866 Howard Candler was Housemaster, before moving into West Bank,which he built. Rev Bennet Hesketh Williams was the last Housemaster of this House, from 1866-1872.

At the time of the First World War the building became a hostel for nurses working at the workhouse, which had been converted to an auxiliary hospital. Anecdotes have been passed on that the School and the Hospital Authorities were put to some trouble to keep the young and dashing senior boys apart from some of the more encouraging nurses.

The House became the Central Hotel sometime after the First World War. It was acquired by Mrs Ada Glenn, the wife of the proprietor of Glenn Coaches and the Central Garage in Uppingham. There were a number of subsequent owners, and it was renamed the ‘Garden Hotel’. The present owner, Christine Hackney, has had the hotel since 1991. Some of the smaller bedrooms in the hotel are formed from studies that Earle had built 155 years ago.

1858-94 Red House Rev John Baverstock took over a small house in front of Lorne House (where the lawn and tree are now) and called it Red House. Between 1858 and 1894 there were eight different Housemasters. The House was closed in August 1894 and replaced by Meadhurst 1894. The house was purchased by W H Ellis (1874-1878 WD) in 1914 and presented to the School. It was in very poor repair and was demolished in January 1915.

1858 R L Nettleship Entered Highfield. A Classicist and the greatest of scholars, he won all the major Classics prizes at Oxford and became a Fellow of Balliol College. He might have become Master of Balliol had he not, aged 46, died of exposure on Mont Blanc - he had a considerable reputation as an Alpine mountaineer.

His portrait hangs in the School library.

Richard Lewis Nettleship. 1846-1892.

Scholar, Oxford Don, Mountaineer.

Oil painting.

‘The House Next to the Old Post Office’.

Photograph From David Hunter (B 1948), great-grandson of Rev Bennet Hesketh Williams, Housemaster of this House 1866-1872.

Photograph scanned from the copy held at The Garden Hotel.

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1859 (Old) Constables Rev Robert Hodgkinson bought the Horse and Trumpet Inn on the north side of the High Street, opposite Baines the bakers, and built, in white limestone, what is now called Old Constables. In the event, Hodgkinson decided to stay in The Lodge and another master moved into Old Constables. The House gained its name from the Rev W J Constable, Housemaster 1888-1916. This is no longer School property, but a shield and the date 1859 can still be seen above the entrance doorway.

1858 Photograph of Uppingham School Eleven (above) This photograph originally belonged to John Whitehead Moore who was at Uppingham from 1857 to 1861. The photograph was presented to the School in January 1955 by Brigadier Moore, son of John. Thring often played cricket with the boys. He bowled a ‘fast, underhand ball, with spin’. He usually played in black trousers, braces and his wide hat.

Thring can be seen seated in the picture wearing the wide brimmed hat.

The others in the picture are: standing, from left to right, Selby, O’Brien, Althorpe, Fowler, Green, Revd W Earle, (with the sideburns) Bell, Moore.

Seated Revd E Thring, Wicks and Willis (arm on Wicks’s shoulder).

1858 First Issue of School Songs 1858 Number in School 102 1859 West Deyne Baverstock left Red House and built a full-sized boarding house, called, when completed, West Deyne – the first Uppingham boarding house to be newly built right from the foundations.

Rev G H Mullins, known as ‘Jugger’ took over in 1866. The house was extended and modernised in the 1930s.

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1859 Plans for new Chapel and Schoolroom Thring and the masters bought the site of the old Cross Keys Inn to the west of the School House, to gain an area for a new chapel and schoolroom. He invited the eminent architect G E Street to draw up plans, in the fashionable Gothic Revival style. An appeal was launched to fund the Chapel, and one new master, Rev W F Witts, gave £1,000 - equivalent to £88,000 in 2021.

Mr Rowe’s House (Old Constables). Rowe was the Second Housemaster 1861-1875. Rev W J Constable was the fourth Housemaster 1888-1916. Photograph: 1868. Archive collection. An extension to Constables was made after this date which sadly meant the destruction of Mrs Foster’s cottage and the grocer’s shop.

1859 First Athletics Sports Instituted by Thring, mainly to fill the gap between the end of the football season in February and the start of the cricket season at the end of March.

There were eight events in 1859 – two steeple chases, two height and two width jumps, a 100-yard race, and throwing the cricket ball (Thring joined in, high-jumping 4’5” and long-jumping 16’1”.) Later additions were a mile and a quarter-mile race on roads, and a hurdle race on Van Diemen’s Land (see 1860). In 1864 it was expanded to 20 events, including one event peculiar to Uppingham – the vault (not pole vault), “we ran to it, leapt into the air, seized the bar and by arm-work, learned in the gymnasium, raised our bodies above it”. (W F Rawnsley OU)

The 1859 Gymnasium. Herr Georg Beisiegel with hat leaning against the pole.

Beisiegel had been in charge of the gymnasium since 1861. This photograph dates from the 1890s, only a few years before the new gymnasium along Stockerston Road was built.

Sadly, Beisiegel never saw that as he died in 1904. Photograph:1890s Green Album.

1860 Number in School 150 1860 Medal: ‘For good work and unblemished character’ Thring has the medal struck for the first time. ‘For those boys who leave my division for good work and unblemished character as a permanent testimonial. To be a premium on character, not a matter of course gift.’

Diary, Monday 13 February 1860.

1859 The Gymnasium In November, the first gymnasium in an English school was opened, on the site of what is now the Buttery and New Music School. It was little more than a brick shed fitted with wall bars and with an earth floor into which some of the equipment was anchored. with a foot of sand covering the earth. Amongst other apparatus there were parallel bars, horizontal bars, a vaulting bar, twp pairs of rings, climbing poles and ropes, horizontal and slanting ladders, a trapeze, Indian Clubs and dumbbells, and fencing material. Sadly, the contents of this early gymnasium were thrown away when the interior was converted to a buttery sometime after 1905.

The first gymnastics competition was held in 1860. The first prize was a goose, the second a large pork pie and the third a pot of jam.

1860 Herr Georg Beisiegel appointed In charge of the Gymnasium; he also taught music and was Paul David’s number two after 1865.

1860 Van Diemen’s Land A shortage of games fields led to the temporary hiring of a field a mile south of the town – so far away that it was called Van Diemen’s Land (the original name for Tasmania).

1860 Bathing Place This, the forerunner of the swimming baths, was formed by damming a stream at the foot of Station Road, just below the Upper. It was originally a tar pit and W F Rawnsley (OU) remembered it in these terms, “...though the water was anything but perfect, and always smelt somewhat of gas tar (it took its rise near the gas works), we all used it daily, and everyone learnt to swim. It was paved in the shallow part with rough flag-stones, and shelved from two to six or seven feet in depth.”

1861 Uppingham Town described by Howard Candler Howard Candler was appointed a master by Thring in 1860 but took up his post in 1861. There were a total of 12 masters in 1861. (He built West Bank and opened it in 1866). He recalls his first impression of Uppingham. “I alighted at the Falcon Inn from the Manton bus. The Uppingham of old days was more picturesque than it is now, (he was writing in 1913) but it was ill-drained, dirty, with cobbled streets and old-fashioned thatched houses and cottages. The rambling street of a painter rather than an in-dweller. On Market days the evil smelling street was crowded with pens of sheep, and cattle were attached to hooks in the house-walls, appropriating such pavement as there was.” By 1897 Candler, known as ‘Tolly’ (meaning candle), was Senior Master and wore a silk gown, like the Headmaster. He sported shadowy side whiskers and gleaming steel rimmed eyeglasses.

Candler taught maths in the old School House Hall.

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1861 The “Jackson Row” This caused a short-term halt in the steadily increasing numbers in the School. Having threatened to do so, Thring caned George and Richard Jackson and a few other boys who were late in returning from a half-term.

Their father demanded an apology and an admission that the punishment was wrong; Thring refused, and Jackson withdrew his sons. Jackson then wrote to the Governors and sent violent letters to the press attacking Thring. To Thring’s satisfaction ‘Punch’ in 1862 tore to pieces one of Jackson’s attacks, concluding; ‘We don’t know whether Mr Thring trains the boys’ minds; but he makes them mind their trains’. Even so, for a time Uppingham was infamous, and numbers stuck at 160. In the end, friends and parents rallied round Thring and numbers began to increase again.

1862 (March) First School concert for townspeople 1863 Uppingham School Gateway The School Lane entrance to the School. The bunting around the gate was to celebrate the marriage of Prince Edward to Alexandra in 1863. The cottage on the left was demolished in

1863 School Magazine The boys persuaded the Headmaster to allow the publication of a magazine ten years after the demise of The Hospitaler. Thring wrote the preface in the first issue which began: Magazines are born. This is the birthday of one. Philosophers will tell you they also die. What of it? Is man a developed ostrich that he must swallow all the philosophic old iron?

Some magazines, doubtless, do die.

Yes, old ones of course. But a school is always young, ergo a school magazine will always be young.

1861 Brooklands Built by the Rev William J Earle, member of staff. It is built in brick with stone facings, in a Gothic revival style.

The garden at Brooklands covers an area of 4.20 acres.

‘Brooklands, now the residence of the Usher and Sub-Warden, was built in 1861, from an improved design by a Birmingham architect. It is a large and commodious building of red brick, the monotonous colour of which is relieved with black, and with dressings and portico of Bath stone. It stands in extensive grounds and is pleasantly situated on a wooded hill sloping to the south. It overlooks the Rockingham Road. On the brow of the hill, fronting the house, is a spinney, famous for daffodils in March, and for nightingales in the early summer.’ Uppingham School. Robert Pitcairn 1870.

1862 Number in School 200

Brooklands mid 1860s. Photograph: NH Taylor Album (RH 1886)

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the late 1920s to make way for the Mason’s lawn. The high wall on the right is the back of some old buildings that were demolished at the same time to create the quad in front of the 1914-1918 Memorial Hall. The present position of the School gate along School Lane is approximately 15 metres to the North of that shown in this photograph (ie about the bottom of this photograph).

This magazine ran until 1995.

Original position of the gate along School Lane.

Photograph: Giles E Album (SH 1861)

1863 Highfield(s) (The ‘s’ was dropped some time after 1888.)

Built by Rev W F Witts, member of staff.

The architect was Charles Barry, son of Sir Charles Barry who designed the Houses of Parliament. The tower above the entrance originally had a spire.

There have been extensive additions since 1945, including a new study bedroom block, the Stainsby wing, named after the long-serving House gardener.

1863 The Big Schoolroom, now known as The Old Schoolroom (OSR) Designed by George Edmund Street, this was officially opened in 1863. Street is perhaps best known as the architect of The Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand. He was a leading practitioner of the Victorian Gothic Revival, and the OSR has been described as ‘Early Geometrical Style’. The OSR is a spacious hall, 27 metres long and nearly 9 metres wide and originally had two classrooms beneath - the one nearest the colonnade was Thring’s.

One of the classrooms was converted to lavatories in 1998, and Thring’s old classroom was used as a computer suite, and it now houses

Highfields c mid -1860s. Photograph: NW Taylor (RH 1886) Album

Edward Thring in reflective mood

Reprographics. The timber arched braced roof of the OSR is divided into eight bays. The colonnade area beneath the OSR was intended to be a communications centre for the School, which it continued to be until electronic communication took over (notice boards were taken down in 2018). The outside of the windows was copied from the windows at Oakham Castle. Fine materials were used throughout, and the excellent workmanship was monitored by Foxton, the Clerk of Works. After the completion of the OSR and the Chapel, Thring hired Foxton as the carpentry master. The site for the Chapel and the OSR became available through the sale of the ‘Cross Keys’.

Thring and the masters purchased the building and gained the site. On completion of the OSR and The Chapel, Street is quoted as saying “Thank you Mr Thring for allowing me to build a good wall”.

The OSR has had some refurbishment in 1955, 1961, 1993 and 1998. In the 1961 refurbishment, Anthony New, the architect from Seeley and Pagett, removed the amber coloured diamond shaped panes of glass in the windows, which made the room look dark, and platforms were placed at both ends.

The diamond shaped glass was replaced by obscured glass, which was replaced by clear glass in the 19982000 refurbishment, when the eight Rossiter stained-glass panels were transferred back to the North window where they were originally situated.

‘The Sower,’ the ninth panel was taken out and is now placed in a diffused light box and is on display in the Kendall Room. The original Schoolroom was used as a carpenter’s shop.

1863 Uppingham Rovers The OU cricket club was formed and played its first match, against Rossall School Old Boys.

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1864 Digest of Information ‘State of Uppingham School in second half-year of 1864’ 1863 Sir Arthur Somervell Entered Constables. Somervell taught at The Royal College of Music and became Inspector of Music to the Board of Education. He was a pioneer of great value in helping to establish music as a required school subject at all levels.

1863 Number in School 235 1863 C E Green captains the cricket X1 in first School match v Rossall Uppingham wins by 10 wickets in the two-day match. Green was impressed

by H H Stephenson, the Rossall professional, and Stephenson subsequently came to Uppingham as cricket professional in 1872.

This information was gathered for the Schools Inquiry Commission, (The Endowed Schools Commission reported in 1869).This Digest can be found at the bottom of Mr Ive’s Report Vol XV1, North Midland Division, Rutland, Uppingham Free Grammar School.

General Character: Classical. In age of scholars, first grade.

Masters – Headmaster has a house provided, and receives an annual stipend of £152, from endowment, besides fees, profits of boarders, and capitation tax on boarders over a certain number in other houses. Total income about £2000, will shortly rise about £500. Usher receives stipend of £130 from endowment besides a share of fees. Headmaster appoints all others and pays for those who have no houses (two at present). Average income, when houses full, about £1000. Allowed by Headmaster to take 31 boys each, boarders, on condition of taking a boy in their house free of charge. Modern masters paid by pupils’ fees.

Day Scholars – Seven, between 10 and 16 years of age, from within a quarter of a mile; pay £1 on admission, and £12.7s.6d. for general work. Four, on foundation, pay £6.7s.6d. French, German, music, drawing, and chemistry extra £8 8s each; carpentry £1. 10s; drilling and gymnastics, £2. 2s.; private tuition £10.; singing gratis to all for the church choir, but £4.4s. for secular and general singing tuition.

1864 Swimming moves to Stockerston Brook The tarpit bathing place at the bottom of Station Road was abandoned in 1863. It wasn’t pleasant bathing (see Rawnsley’s 1860 recollection), particularly as five drains ran into it!

Swimming moves to Fenwicke’s Basin down the Stockerston Road.

Boarder.– £26, pay for extra subjects as above. Terms for board, tuition, washing etc £69 4s. School bills, highest £110; average £90; lowest £78.

Cubical contents of bedrooms, 480 feet per boy. A separate compartment for each; hours 7a.m. (7½ in winter), 9¼ to 10p.m. Discipline maintained by head boys and house masters. Separate study for each. A few double ones for brothers. Headmaster’s permission required for a boarding house.

1864 The Museum started in the Elizabethan Schoolroom This was located in the Sixth Form room, the room to the left of the main Schoolroom.

Two open scholarships, worth £70 per annum tenable at the school for five years, given annually to boys under 14 years of age; created by each master taking a boarder free of charge. These scholarships are awarded solely by the result of an examination held by an examiner appointed by the headmaster.

1864 Edward Thring publishes Education and School

Instruction, Discipline – Boys on admission required to know a fair amount of English.

1864 Number in School 250

School classified by classics; separately for arithmetic and mathematics. The class master attends to the work of his class out of school as private tutor.

School course modified in some degree to suit individual capacities and future career of boys. Religious instruction to all. Church of England prayers before school, and in evening in houses. A light lesson on Sunday for non-singers.

Promotions by half-yearly examination, each master examining his own class. Headmaster examines each class every three weeks. Examination for exhibitions by an Oxford or Cambridge graduate, appointed by masters of Oakham and Uppingham alternately.

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Prizes given by governors (annual value £7) and by masters (annual £130), besides an arithmetic prize and an essay prize. The masters have founded a scholarship of £20, tenable for two years, for boys under 16 years of age, on March 1st, each year for English literature and grammar; also the following annual prizes for the same, one £10, one at £5, six at £1, and for boys under 13 years of age, £10, one at £5 and four at £1. A good conduct medal given by headmaster to boys in the Upper Sixth leaving with unblemished character.

Punishments: detention in play hours, curtailing half holidays, tasks to be learnt, limiting walks, and caning; the last in public by headmaster. Two other masters are permitted to cane on the hand on reporting to him. Praepostors try boys and punish, with an appeal to headmaster. The Sixth Form have fags.

Playgrounds: Six fives courts, one covered; and two cricket fields of five and seven acres. A carpentry, gymnasium under a master, and a museum. Masters join in games.

Boys allowed to walk in the country at discretion. Gymnasium, cricket field, and other school appliances provided and maintained by the masters.

Nine boys in the year go to Universities, and 12 to other schools on average.

School open 37 weeks in the year.

Boys in school 26 hours in the week. All lessons prepared out of school, by younger boys under supervision. Playtime, 27 hours per week. Headmaster: Rev Edward Thring, MA. Usher: Rev William James Earle, BA.

Photograph: Snapshots Album.

1864 The first cricket pavilion on The Upper It was located on the west side of the field to the south of the present pavilion.

1864 Inter-House games cups In 1864 and 1865 the first cups for house matches in football and cricket were presented. Up to this point matches had been between strangesounding teams like Red Hair v The Rest, Tall v Short, North v South. The earliest cup in the archive collection dates from 1864.

1865 Repton replaced Rossall as cricket opposition 1865 The Chapel

By George Edmund Street, in the Geometrical Decorated Gothic style, was opened. The tower and spirelet were added to it in 1872. “It is in the early decorated style, 100 feet long by 30 wide, and will accommodate 400 sitters. The chancel is separated from the nave by a dwarf stone screen; and the elevation of the sanctuary, and the great height and beauty of the east window, form a striking interior. The easternmost window in the south wall is of three lights, filled with painted glass, illustrating the Resurrection, and is the gift of the parents of a boy who died at the school. The west wall is enriched with a specimen of a rose or

wheel-window, and below are three single trefoil-headed lights. The pulpit is exceedingly rich alabaster, intermixed with Derbyshire, Irish and Italian marbles. (It was donated by OUs). The altar is of perforated oak, and the furniture extremely gorgeous, worked by hand in Belgium. The whole building is most massively constructed, the open roof of Memel timber, especially so; and the entire structure and its fittings show the utmost good taste and elegance of design and arrangement." Uppingham School, Robert Pitcairn 1870. The Chapel is much-changed today.

1865-96 The School Lane Corner House The site now occupied by part of the 1914-1918 Memorial Hall. In 1896 The School Lane Corner House closed, and was replaced by Farleigh.

1865 Paul David, Music Master Julius Peter Paul David was born in Leipzig on 4 August 1940. He was the son of Ferdinand David, composer and violinist, leader of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and a close friend of Mendelssohn and Schumann.

Paul David studied theology at Erlangen and music at Leipzig and spent two years in the Grand Duke’s orchestra in Karlsruhe. He arrived at Uppingham on 27 March 1865, having travelled to England with Josef 15

Joachim, who was to become the most famous violinist of his time in Europe.

Even at the height of his fame, Josef Joachim would visit Uppingham and play at concerts, in the back row of the violins in the School orchestra. We have records of Joachim playing regularly at Uppingham between1875 and 1905. Paul David died at Oxford, aged 91, in 1932. The Music School on School Lane is named after him.

1865 Professor Gerard Baldwin Brown (at Uppingham 1865-1869) In 1865 Baldwin Brown entered Highfield. He went up to Oriel College, Oxford and became a fellow at Brasenose College. He was appointed the Watson Gordon Professor of Fine Art at Edinburgh University in 1880 and held the chair for 50 years, retiring in 1930. He was a prolific writer, traveller, teacher and letter writer. His 15 books ranged from the theory and practice of art (including a university extension manual The Fine Arts which went through four editions in Britain and was also published in America) and biographical studies of Hogarth and Rembrandt, through to detailed work on early art and architecture including a six volume series The Arts in Early England, the first two volumes being published in 1903 (with second editions in 1925 and 1926). Of these, volume two on Anglo Saxon architecture was to be highly influential in architectural history circles – it was the first attempt to catalogue and classify the early church architecture on a national basis – and subsequent researchers in the field all acknowledge their debt to his study.

His interest in identifying and protecting the remains of past cultures led to his 1905 book, The Care of Ancient Monuments, which set out to persuade the UK Government that Britain had lagged behind Europe in terms of bringing forward protective legislation for ancient buildings and monuments. It contained a survey of European legislation together with its 16

history, and made a series of recommendations – one of which led to the setting up of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) in 1908 (shortly followed by separate Commissions for England and Wales). It also led to the strengthening of ancient monument legislation in Britain in 1913. His interest in the past also led to his last book on prehistoric cave paintings.

Baldwin Brown travelled widely and regularly in Europe and beyond, bringing together a large collection of photographs and slides which he used in his lectures (following Thring’s recommendations about the importance of good illustrations to help learning and understanding). He was an active member of many societies and institutes including the RCAHMS, Edinburgh Architectural Association, the National Trust, the Cockburn Association, the Scottish Classical Association, the Edinburgh Social Union and many others. He had great sympathy with the Arts and Crafts philosophies of the late 19th century and was closely involved in organising and teaching craft skills to working men and women, and in the women’s education movement in Edinburgh, with his wife, Maude Baldwin Brown, also playing an active role.

1865 Sir Claude MacDonald Entered Constables in August 1865 and left Uppingham in October 1866.

A soldier and diplomat, he was British Minister in Peking in 1896. In 1898 he secured a 99-year lease on the islands and territories of Hong Kong. In 1900 he commanded the defences of Peking against the Boxer rebels; he was also the British representative in Tokyo.

In 1902 he negotiated the AngloJapanese alliance and in 1905 became the first British Ambassador to Japan.

1865 Sir William Acworth Entered Red House in 1865. Acworth was English tutor to the future Kaiser Wilhelm II. Prominent in the new London County Council, he was also a railways expert and wrote books on the Railways of England and Scotland and on the economics and management of railways - his speciality. Conducted enquiries into the railway systems in Canada, Rhodesia, India, Austria and Germany – Vice-President of the Deutsche Reichsbahn in 1924.

1866 West Bank Built by mathematician Howard Candler, who remained Housemaster for 33 years. Until 1889 he refused to take in more than half a dozen boys. He then applied to take more, and it was under his successor that West Bank was enlarged to 32, with the addition of a new yellow brick block.

1866 Edward Thring writes the following in response to the increasing interest School Inquiry Commissioners are taking in the running of Endowed Grammar Schools ‘May 2 In the name of myself and colleagues I beg to protest against any examination of the school classes in class work by a stranger. On the grounds that such flying examinations may be, and often are, utterly unreal as any test of average proficiency, though the results stated in the report look real. Therefore, we believe such examinations to be full of danger, and if constant, sure to introduce strong disturbing influences into good steady school work.’ Edward Thring, Headmaster.

1866 Carved Box made by Edward Thring

Now displayed in the Kendall Room. In 1865 Thring had been so impressed by Mr Foxton, the clerk of the works on the Chapel, that he appointed him carpentry instructor in the School once the Chapel was completed. Foxton introduced woodcarving, and Thring carved this delightful box in 1866, in the workshop which was located at that time in the Elizabethan Schoolroom, the new schoolroom (OSR) having just been built. Thring’s box demonstrates considerable craftsmanship: there is an ornate thistle and rose design on the lid, and there are four relief panels with images of the heads of two boys and two girls. These images represent four of Edward Thring’s five children: Gale (born 1854), Sarah (1856), Margaret (1858), and Herbert (1859).

Grace, his fifth child, was born in 1866.

1866 Sir William Sterndale Bennett Music Examiner at Uppingham until his death in 1875. It was Sir William who recommended Paul David to Edward Thring, and he was therefore influential in David’s appointment as Director of Music. Sir William’s grandson, Robert Sterndale Bennett, became Director of Music at Uppingham (1908-1945) after Paul David retired.

1866 Uppingham Mutual Improvement Society Founded Edward Thring was elected President.

He had always felt that a great public school should make itself a centre of cultural helpfulness to the community.

Instructive or amusing lectures were given, along with classes in singing, music, and drawing, literature, cooking and sewing. Cricket and tennis clubs were also formed.

1866 Number in School 300

1867 (May) 42 Uppinghamians at Oxford and Cambridge 1867 Chapel West Window Put in place in memory of Mr Baverstock (first Housemaster of West Deyne).

1867 Lt General Sir Percy Lake Entered Highfield in 1867. Fought in Afghan and Sudan wars and in 1912 was Chief of Staff of the Indian Army at Simla, and Commander-in-Chief in Mesopotamia in 1916.

1867 The Middle first used as a cricket field

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1868 The Lower School - Springfields (now The Lodge)

In 1867/8 a prep school was founded by Rev R J Hodgkinson. It was built for £12,000 at his own expense and was designed in the style of a French chateau. In 1921, it became The Lodge, a boys’ house; it is now a Sixth Form girls’ house.

The Lower School contains upwards of forty boys, from eight to twelve years of age, who are quietly brought on, without strain, by beginning with a little early, instead of forcing them to work against time afterwards.

No boy is allowed to remain in the Lower School after thirteen. In its general arrangements, the Lower School forms a true stepping-stone between home and the Upper School.

English grammar and analysis is the basis of the whole school-work; and has been found to be a great help, and inspiriting throughout all the classes.

The Lower School 1899. Photograph by Harold Willey. Willey Album

‘Springfields, The Lower School, which was built in 1867, and opened in Easter of the following year, in connection with the Upper School, though separate from it, is under the charge of Rev J Hodgkinson, who has taken part in the formation of the Upper School from its very beginning.

The Lower School House stands upon the brow of the hill on which Uppingham is built, with a view down the valley, of the schoolroom, chapel, school-house, parish-schools, bathing pool, and the range of oolite hills which run parallel to the Welland from Rockingham to Stamford, and are a continuation of the Bath hills and the Cotswolds.

The younger boys in the Lower School have not the privilege of separate ‘studies;’ they have, instead, a large sitting room, which is upon the ground floor, and adjoins the dining and classrooms. There are however certain studies which they are allowed to use by special permission. The dormitories are upon the upper-floor’.

Robert Pitcairn. Uppingham, 1870.

Springfields. Pen and ink drawing by W F Witts, School Magazine June 1870 No 58 Vol. V111.

1868 Number in Lower School Midsummer 19. Christmas 36.

1868 Chapel gallery built 1869 Number in Lower School Midsummer 46. Christmas 46.

1869 The Headmasters’ Conference The first meeting of what was to become a regular gathering of endowed school Headmasters was called by Thring at Uppingham on 21 and 22 December 1869. The Headmasters from Bromsgrove, Bury St Edmunds, Canterbury, Felsted, Lancing, Liverpool College, Norwich, Oakham, Repton, Richmond (Yorks) Sherborne, Tonbridge and Uppingham were present. Thring is regarded as the founder of the Headmasters’ Conference, which now includes Headmistresses.

1869 Fives Introduction of Inter-House Fives Cup. Nearly every House had its own fives court, but nearly all have been converted to other uses. A fives court at Brooklands is still in use.

1869 Uppingham National School Built along the London Road.

1869 Uppingham School Mission, North Woolwich The first School mission started in St Mark’s Parish, Victoria Docks, North Woolwich.

1870 Number in Lower School Midsummer 50. Christmas 48.

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1870 Sanatorium Built

The Sanatorium. Pen and ink Drawing.

W F Witts.

School Magazine No 57 Vol.V111 May 1870

1870 Chapel East Window East window put in Chapel, given by the Old Uppinghamians.

From the School Magazine May 1870: ‘The three uppermost lights in the tracery are occupied by angels chanting the Alleluia; below them are the symbols of the Evangelists; and again, below them, the instruments of the Crucifixion-the smaller spaces being filled with ornamental designs.

The whole of this part is very rich, the deepest in tone of the whole window.

The colours are well balanced, and the designs clear and forcible.

The first main light to the left is occupied by two scenes- the ‘Agony in the Garden,’ and ‘Judas receiving the money for the Betrayal;’ and the opposite light to this by the ‘Entombment’ and ‘Joseph begging the Body.’ The contrast between these two lights has a very pleasing effect.

The second and fourth lights contain the richest colouring in the window, the subjects represented being, in the first, ‘Ecce Homo’ and the ‘Scourging;’ in the other the ‘ Descent from the Cross’ and the ‘Virgin holding the body of Christ’. In the first the colours are exceedingly good and delicate; the dresses of the soldiers are masterpieces of glass staining, and the light outer robe of Pilate contrasts beautifully with his rich under-garment.

The lower scene in this light is very forcible and rich.

The fourth light we confess to liking more than any other. The colours are both rich and varied, the group well arranged, and everything clear both in design and detail. The figure on the left hand, standing on the ladder, immediately attracts attention by the deep hue and effective position; but the powerful colours are well toned down by the whiteness of our Saviour’s body, and the general harmony with itself and the rest of the window is quite preserved. The lower scene presents a curious contrast to the upper, and indeed, to every other scene in the window, and its subdued, quiet tone lends a softness to all around it which is much needed and enjoyed.

There remains now only the centre light, the main subject and culminating point of interest of the whole. The subject is the ‘Crucifixion;’ the time selected being the lull after all the terrible excitement and suffering of the day was over. Our Saviour has given up the ghost; the people come together to that sight have returned; only his acquaintance, and the women from Gallilee, stand near him, a woman on each side. The dull deep-blue background shows the darkness over the face of the earth, and the solemnity of the hour of the triumph over the grave and death. A peaceful quiet is breathed over the whole by the dull, large masses of colour. The lower scene represents our Saviour carrying the cross, exposed to the rough blows and brutal curses of his Roman executioners, and already almost fainting beneath his load.”

1870 Ernest Newton Entered West Deyne. He became President of the Royal Institute of British Architects, was the author of ‘A Book of Country Homes’ and the designer of the School Memorial Hall.

1871 Number in Lower School Midsummer 49. Christmas 48.

1871 Edward Thring plays his last game of cricket Allowed a runner, who runs him out!

1871 Fircroft The House was opened by the Rev G Christian, member of staff. At first it was not a full-size house but was converted into one in 1890 when W C Perry took over as Housemaster.

1872 Number in Lower School Midsummer 47. Christmas 47.

1872-1940 Redgate The House next to Fircroft. Later the Bursar’s House, until sold in the 1990s.

Constructed by Rev Walter Earle (OU) in 1871. Walter was the brother of Rev William J Earle, the last Uppingham Usher and first Housemaster of Brooklands (1861-1880). The Rev George Christian took over Redgate from Earle in 1873. Christian was known as ‘Kong’; he always wore a clerical frock coat, a white bow tie and a black soft felt hat, the crown being some eight inches high. He lived in a world quite apart from his fellows – he would walk along, then suddenly stop and gaze, long and earnestly, up into the sky.

The inscription at the bottom of the right hand is as follows: ‘First-Fruits from Old Boys, 1870 – Laus Deo.' 1870 (10 October) Edward Thring plays his last game of fives

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1872 Cricket Professional, H H Stephenson, appointed Pressure from OUs persuaded a reluctant Thring, who disliked the idea of professional coaching, to make a part-time appointment in 1864. The first resident professional, H H Stephenson, was appointed in 1872. He soon won the admiration of Thring and stayed for 25 years. One OU wrote that in the 1870s, “To the world at large Uppingham became really well-known first by its cricket and then by the spirited exodus to Borth.”

1872 First Music School This was at the east end of Leamington Terrace, formed out of a public house called The Chequers. The building later formed part of the School Workshops built on the same site. The noise made by the young pianists gave the name “Scale Hill” to the steep approach to Uppingham between the churchyard and Leamington Terrace, a name that still survives.

1872 Number in School August, 352 1872 (May) First concert when every piece was an Uppingham composition Diary entry, 13 May. G R Parkin Vol 1 Life and Letters of Edward Thring: ‘The concert tonight; David’s Cantata, The Widow of Nain, The Fair Song, The Wood, The Uppingham School Song, the first and last for the first time, and one of Wintle’s. The whole concert Uppingham. What an epoch! The boys encored the School Song again and again, and all rose and stood whilst it was being sung. It was a grand time for those can see life power and believe in seeds. Never before in England has such a thing happened as a great school having its own music in this way and rising with it. The zeal of the boys was wonderful. This stirs the heart and refreshes it. It is a burst of spring in the midst of the east winds of masters and the pelting rain of Commissions.’

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1872 Chapel spire is completed.

Chapel bells first rang, Sunday 8 September. Chapel Porch built By the end of 1872 there were 13 stained glass windows in Chapel. A number of the windows were installed in memory of individual OUs. 1872 Cecil Sharp Entered School House. Chance events led him, in the 1900s, to realise the potential value of traditional arts, and he was to become the chief discoverer and exponent of English traditional songs and dances. He wrote, ‘Folk Songs from Somerset’, ‘English Folk Songs – Some Conclusions’, ‘The Morris Book”, and “English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians”. He founded the English Folk-Dance Society. Today the Cecil Sharp Society continues his work in English traditional music and dance.

1873 Number in Lower School Midsummer 45. Christmas 45.

1873 Chapel Evangelists and memorial tablets fixed in the Chapel.

1873 Sir Squire Sprigge Entered Earle's House (Brooklands).

Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and editor of The Lancet for 28 years. He represented the Thring family at the 1921 Centenary celebrations of Edward Thring’s birth.

1873 Charles Rossiter Appointed as Drawing Master in 1873, Rossiter was a follower of the PreRaphaelite Movement. He painted the frieze in The Big Schoolroom (Old School Room, see 1882) as well as the coloured windows which depict important events in the history of the School (see 1884). Sadly, the panels and portraits of the Old Masters he painted on the walls of the original Schoolroom have long gone. His paintings 'Alcestis' and ‘Gradus ad Parnassum’ hang in the School Library.

Rossiter designed the Golden Jubilee drinking fountain in Uppingham market place and he ran evening art classes for the town people, which included working in iron and wood and stone carving. 39 of his pictures were exhibited at The Royal Academy whilst 'Brighton and Back for 3s 6d' now hangs in the Birmingham art gallery.

His work can also be found in a frieze at Cardiff Castle and a memorial window at Fountain's Abbey. When Ruskin was Slade Professor at Oxford, he commended Rossiter's work to his pupils. Rossiter wrote an article on art teaching at Uppingham School in December 1886 (there is a copy in the Archives). Charles Rossiter was born in 1827 and died on 15 September 1897.

1874 Number in Lower School Midsummer 45. Christmas 47.

1874 Sir William Ellis Entered West Deyne. Engineer and industrialist who managed John Brown & Co of Glasgow and Sheffield. He was a first-rate organist, and in 1930 presented the School with the Memorial Hall organ. He was also a well-known Alpine mountaineer who celebrated his 70th birthday by climbing the Matterhorn, and his 75th by climbing the Jungfrau.

1875 Number in Lower School Midsummer 46.

1875 Chapel Organ built and placed near the Chapel door.

1875 (10 March) First Josef Joachim concert at Uppingham Joachim plays Bach’s double violin concerto with Paul David.

1875-1877 Borth

School within a few days of total collapse. The cause was the deadly effect of bad drains and contaminated drinking water. At that time there was no mains water supply in Uppingham and only one rather primitive sewage-drain in the High Street. Water for most of the Houses was obtained from wells, which existed in close proximity to cesspits. The School had complained about the situation to the local Sanitary Committee; though their analysis showed that 11 out of 12 wells were more or less impure, but they refused to take any action.

In June 1875, a boy in the Lower School died of typhoid fever. Little action was taken, typhoid not being that uncommon, and all the boys returned in September. However, within a month of their return there were 46 typhoid cases, mostly in the Houses at the west end of the town – Lower School 27, West Deyne 17. By the end of October four boys had died, followed by the son of the Housemaster of West Deyne, Cecil Mullins.

1875 (2 November): Thring sent the School home, intending to use the three months before the next term to get the drains sorted out. Experts later said that he had done all that was possible.

1876 (15 January): The pupils returned, but by late February there were more typhoid cases, and it was clear that the contamination was coming from the town sewer, which had not been cleaned or repaired since the first outbreak.

Desperate measures were called for in the face of a flood of telegrams from anxious parents.

1876 (7 March): It was decided to move the School away from Uppingham (though the Lower School, its drains having been put in order, remained.)

After a few days’ deliberation, Borth on the Welsh coast was chosen.

Stanley Christopherson. Cricket X1 1880

1875 Stanley Christopherson Entered Highfield. Played cricket for Kent and was the Gentlemen and England President of the MCC during WW2. Also played international hockey, captaining England for four seasons 1896-1899. Christopherson was also a Trustee.

1876 (17 March): A goods train with 18 trucks left Seaton station, carrying 300 beds and all the domestic and scholastic paraphernalia of the School, including the huge horse-drawn roller used on The Upper.

1876 (4-5 April): The boys arrived at Borth by train; only three of the 300 failed to turn up. The boys lived and ate in a long terrace of rented houses and in the Cambrian Hotel (demolished 1980). Some 170 boys had studies in rooms rented out in cottages, from landladies who spoke no English. A field nearby at Goggerddan was rented from Sir Pryse Pryse as a substitute for the Upper, after treatment by the massive roller brought from Uppingham.

This was a crisis that brought the

Cambrian Hotel, Borth, and temporary classrooms 1876

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1876 (Autumn): The School was hit by a severe epidemic of scarlet fever – but it was overcome.

1876 Four OUs play in Cambridge cricket win over Oxford

1877 (January): Very high winds and tides flooded Borth and caused much damage. The 300 pupils gave valuable assistance in building defences and drying out houses, binding locals and School more closely together. The New Church in Borth was completed and Thring gave the first sermon in it. In the east end of the church is a window presented by OUs at a later date. There was no school bell at Borth, the sound of the sea making it inaudible to boys on the shore. Instead, three different flags were hoisted on the sea-front to signify moments in the school day. Two of these flags have survived and are stored in the Archives (although they are in a in a fragile state). During the time at Borth, Uppingham played its first-ever inter-school Soccer match, against Shrewsbury, which had by then adopted the Association Football code. In the end the School stayed a year at Borth, until the new Uppingham town water-supply had been created from wells under what is now The Leicester, and the town drains had been cleaned and repaired.

1876 The Leicester This new playing field area was purchased by Howard Candler (WB) when the School was in Borth. Football was transferred to this field in 1878. In 1887 a conveyance of just over seven acres was made from Howard Candler to the Trustees for £1,147.

1877 (Summer Term): The School returned to Uppingham.

Preparations had been made by the town to give Thring and his colleagues a warm and hearty reception with a number of large, decorated arches with mottoes spanning the streets at several points. Seaton was the nearest railway station and the Headmaster and his family travelled the 3.5 miles from there to Uppingham by horse and carriage. When the carriage reached The Upper the horses were unharnessed from the carriage and it was hauled up to the School by man-power. Here there was a deputation from the town, and an address of welcome and congratulation was presented by John Hawthorn. The School became famous for its survival and Thring's reputation was enhanced. The Times invited him to write a series of articles that appeared under the title, Uppingham by the Sea'.

1877 George Lawrence Pilkington Entered Fircroft. Missionary and Founder of Pilkington College in Uganda. Killed in Uganda December 1897. If you want to know a little more about Uppingham 1877-1884 read the first two chapters of 'Pilkington of Uganda' by Charles F HarfordBattersby. Marshall. 1899 (there is a copy in the Library).

1877 Number in Lower School Midsummer 37.

1877 Uppingham water works opened 1878 The Leicester Football transferred to The Leicester in 1878.

1878 Number in Lower School Midsummer 44. Christmas 51.

1878 The new School year and Founder's Day Instead of two long halves, the present system of three terms beginning January, April/May and September began. As a result, the Old Boys' Cricket Match was shifted from late August to the new summer term, and the new occasion was re-named Founder's Day. On the very first such day OUs presented a portrait of Thring,

by Cyrus Johnson, which now hangs at the west end of the Library.

1879 Number in Lower School Midsummer 49. Christmas 47.

1880 Number in Lower School Midsummer 41. Christmas 40.

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1880 Athletics Sports In 1880 the sports moved off the roads and onto The Leicester, though the steeplechase remained at Ridlington. The Leicester has been the site of School athletics ever since.

1880 E W Hornung Entered Constables. Novelist, most famour for writing 'The Amateur Cracksman' in which he invented the character 'Raffles', a society thief who played cricket for his country.

Other novels included ‘The Rogue’s March’ and ‘The Bride from The Bush’. He also wrote 'Fathers of Men', a novel about life at Uppingham, though the School is not specifically mentioned; Kipling greatly approved of this novel. The School Archive holds the manuscript copy of Hornung’s novel ‘No Hero’.

1881 Number in Lower School Midsummer 49. Christmas 52.

1881 First performance by the School of a complete oratorio Handel’s Messiah was performed in March 1881.

1881 Chapel transept built 1881 Norman Douglas George Norman Douglas entered Brooklands (he left in July 1883). A rebellious pupil who completed his education in Germany, he became a writer and produced a fine travel book, 'Old Calabria’. Perhaps his best work was his 1917 novel ‘South Wind', about life on the pleasure-loving island of Nepenthe (Capri) - it was at the time considered iconoclastic and shocking. He was a lover of both sexes and his reputation caused him to live abroad for long periods of his life. He died on Capri on 7 February 1952.

1881 Sir Bronson Albery Entered West Deyne. Barrister, impresario and London Theatre owner. Helped his mother manage the Criterion, New and Wyndhams Theatres. In 1931 he gave John Gielgud the contract that led to his great success as Hamlet, and to Romeo and Juliet in which he alternated with Olivier, with Peggy Ashcroft as Juliet and Edith Evans as the nurse.

The 37-year-old Ernest William Hornung in his study in England. From 1884 to 1886 he lived in Australia.

Photograph: The Tatler. 30 December 1903. Hornung Archive File.

E W Hornung, Uppingham Song, 1913 (six verses – last verse below) Eton may rest on her Field and her River.

Harrow has songs that she knows how to sing.

Winchester slang makes the sensitive shiver.

Rugby had Arnold, but never had Thring!

Repton can put up as good an eleven.

Marlborough men are the fear of the foe.

All that I wish to remark is – thank Heaven I was at Uppingham ages ago!

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1882 Opening of the Decorated Schoolroom Charles Rossiter's Frieze, The Schoolroom The frieze was begun in 1881 and completed in 1882, The Earl of Carnarvon formally opened the decorated Schoolroom on 30 June 1882. The composition of the frieze is oil on canvas. The canvas marouflage is 30 inches in depth and 200 feet long (about 45 square metres). Rossiter was a follower of the Pre-Raphaelite Movement and this frieze is a good example of high-Victorian decoration.

The portraits are representations of eminent philosophers, writers, poets, academics, and wise statesmen. The portraits are set into gilded roundels and are surrounded by foliate decoration and strapwork. Stencils would have been used for much of the pattern work, and the frieze would have been painted in sections before being fixed in place. Lord Caernavon, at the inauguration, said of the frieze: "Gentlemen, since the days of the Painted Porch in Athens, I doubt whether training has been installed more lovingly, or more truly, in a worthier home." Hirst Conservation renovated the frieze in 1998/1999.

Edmund SPENSER (1552-1586) English poet, best known for The Faerie Queen, an epic poem celebrating through fantastical allegory the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I.

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North Wall East Side.

Durante degli Alighieri DANTE (1265-1371) 'The father of Italian literature.' A major Italian poet, his great literary work is The Divine Comedy, a poem of epic structure and philosophic purpose, written in Latin.

East Wall from North to South.

Geoffrey CHAUCER (1343-1400) 'The father of English literature.' The greatest English poet of the Middle Ages, best known for The Canterbury Tales. He was also a philosopher, alchemist and astronomer, and he had an active career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat.

William SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616).

Playwright and poet. One of the greatest writers in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.

John MILTON (1608-1674). English poet, best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost. He was a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell.

Pierre CORNEILLE (1606-1684).

French playwright and dramatist, ranking with Molliere and Racine. His greatest work is considered to be Le Cid.

Samuel JOHNSON (1709-1784).

Widely known as Dr Johnson. Poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor, and lexicographer.

Perhaps best remembered for publishing A Dictionary of The English Language in 1755. He has been described as 'Arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history.'

Johann Wolfgang von GOETHE (1749-1832) German writer of epic and lyric poetry, prose, verse drama, memoirs, literary and aesthetic criticism. Also an artist and politician.

Sir Walter SCOTT (1771-1832) Historical novelist and playwright. Wrote 27 historical novels, many relating to his native Scotland. Waverley, Rob Roy, Lady of the Lake and Ivanhoe are some of his best-known books.

William WORDSWORTH (1770-1850) Romantic poet, his major work being The Prelude, a semi-autobiographical work, originally known as The Poem to Coleridge.

South Wall East Side King DAVID (c1010-970 BC) King of Israel (the ‘David’ of David and Goliath). A wise statesman of diverse skills - warrior, writer of psalms, musician – he united the people of Israel.

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South Wall West Side SAINT JOHN, also known as John the Apostle, John the Evangelist, John of Patmos (c 1-100 AD). One of Christ's original 12 apostles, he lived to old age.

In art he is often depicted with an eagle, symbolising the heights to which he rises, or with a chalice signifying The Last Supper.

West Wall from South to North HOMER (850 BC) Greatest of the ancient Greek epic poets. Author of The Iliad and The Odyssey. The Iliad is the first surviving work of western literature and tells of the battles between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles, set during the Trojan War. The Odyssey is the story of Odysseus and his journey home after the fall of Troy. It took him a further ten years to reach Ithaca, after the ten-year Trojan War.

AESCHYLUS (c 524-456 BC) A Greek Playwright ‘the father of tragedy’. The Persian Wars played a large part in his life and career. He wrote a number of trilogies and other plays such as The Persians and Agamemnon. He was a deep religious thinker and had a strong faith in progress.

HERODUTUS (484-425 BC) Ancient Greek historian ‘the father of history’.

He was the first to collect his evidence systematically and test it for accuracy.

His great work is The Histories – an investigation into the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars; in effect a dynastic history of the four Persian Kings, Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius and Xerxes. His work is the earliest Greek prose to have survived intact.

PLATO (c424-348 BC) Classical Greek philosopher and mathematician. A student of Socrates and founder of the first institution of higher learning in the western world, The Academy in Athens.

Writer of philosophical dialogues which have been used to teach a range of subjects – philosophy, logic, ethics, rhetoric and mathematics. Aristotle was a student of Plato.

DEMOSTHENES (384-322 BC) Greek Statesman and orator of ancient Athens. A professional speech writer and lawyer.

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EUCLID (c 300 BC) Greek mathematician ‘the father of geometry’. His Elements is the most influential work in the history of mathematics. He is likely to have studied at Plato's Academy in Athens.

PINDAR (544-443 BC) Ancient Greek lyric poet. His Victory Odes were composed in honour of boys, youths, and men who had gained victory at Pan-Hellenic festivals at Olympia, Delphi, Corinth and Nemea. Lyric verse was often accompanied by music and dance.

CICERO (106-43 BC) Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer and politician, known as a great orator. He became an enemy of Mark Anthony after Julius Caesar's death and was murdered in 43 BC. He is considered to be the master of Latin prose.

VIRGIL (70-19 BC) Ancient Roman poet. The Aeneid is considered the national epic of ancient Rome. It tells the story of the Trojan refugee, Aeneas, struggling to fulfil his destiny and arrive on the shores of Italy.

HORACE (65-27 BC) Roman lyric poet. He was an officer in the Republican army and became a spokesman for the Roman regime.

He, too, enrolled in Plato's Academy in Athens.

North Wall West Side LIVY (59-17 AD) Roman historian, philosopher and orator who wrote on the history of Rome and the Roman people.

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1882 Number in Lower School Midsummer 50. Christmas 46 1882 Metal Workshop A second Carpentry Shop (the first was in the Elizabethan Schoolroom) and a Metal Workshop were opened on the site now occupied by the Tower Block.

1882 Chemistry Laboratory Created in what was later the site of the Victoria Block.

1882 Workshops on ‘Scale Hill’ opened 1883 Number in Lower School Midsummer 42. Christmas 40.

1883 (April) First performance by an instrumental ensemble of boys A violin octet played Dancla’s Moderato Cantabile.

Laboratory. Photograph 1886.

Uppingham School Album. W J W Stocks.

The Bath House 1886. Photograph: Burleigh Leach Album

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1883 The Original Schoolroom used as an art studio The Elizabethan Schoolroom was known as the Old Schoolroom at that time, and it was used as an art studio from this date.

1883 Chapel The organ was moved from the back of Chapel and placed in the transept.

1883 Swimming Pool built (called The Bath House) A heated indoor swimming pool was built (only the seventh heated indoor swimming pool in an English school). It was incorporated into the 1969 Sports Centre with the addition of a diving pool. It is now buried beneath the Western Quad lawn.

1883 The Theory and Practice of Teaching published Written by Edward Thring, it sold well and became an acknowledged textbook in teacher-training colleges.

It also brought him fame overseas; in the USA, Thring was considered the greatest contemporary authority on teaching.

1884 Chapel Centre of reredos fixed. The subject is the ‘Adoration of the Magi’ (pictured above). It was placed in the Chapel as a memorial to John Wynford Alington, OU, Vicar-General of Zululand, where he died in 1879. The gallery seats were also raised in this year.

1884 Number in Lower School Midsummer 40. Christmas 40.

1884 The Tercentenary The three-hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the School. An appeal was launched to mark the occasion, and the money used to build new classrooms. Known as the Tercentenary Block, the building now houses the Headmaster’s office and Admissions, Foundation, OU and Marketing offices.

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1884 The Big Schoolroom

THE OLD SCHOOLROOM STAINED GLASS Nine panes were designed and drawn by Charles Rossiter, art master at Uppingham from 1873-1897. The panes represent important events in the history of the School, and they were made as part of the Tercentenary celebrations. Since 1998, when the OSR had its latest major refurbishment, only eight panes have been displayed.

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First Pane: Top Left North Window Represents Archdeacon Robert Johnson signing the deed of gift founding the School. The other three men are not known, but two of them may represent the first Headmaster, David Black, and the first Usher, Robert Fullarton.

Fourth Pane: Left North Window Distribution of prizes in the grammar school.

Second Pane: Left North Window Shows the granting of the Charter by Queen Elizabeth I in 1587. The Foundation Charter now hangs in the Kendall Room. Robert Johnson received from the Queen by letters patent a Licence of Mortmain "to erect two grammar schools and two hospitals in Okeham and Uppingham with an incorporation of the governors and licence to purchase lands for the maintenance of the same not exceeding four hundred marks by the year.”

Third Pane: Left North Window The first parent bringing the first pupils to the new grammar school. The Elizabethan schoolroom by the parish church is represented. The man on the left is a likely representation of David Black, the first Headmaster.

Note the Latin: 'Memento creatoris tui in diebus iuventutis tuae' 'Remember your creator in the days of your youth.'

If you visit the Elizabethan schoolroom, above the doorway you will see, written in Latin: 'Let nothing unseemly spoken or seen touch these walls where in are boys.'

In the pane Rossiter, used the Latin quote from the inscription above the west window of the Elizabethan schoolroom. There are two other inscriptions above this window:

In Hebrew: 'Train a child in the way he should go.'

In Greek: 'Suffer the little children to come unto me'.

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First Pane: Right North Window 1862, laying the foundation stones of the Chapel and The Big Schoolroom; this was the name given to the OSR when it was built, and the name was used for many decades.

Edward Thring on the left. George Edmund Street, the architect, with the plan. The Rev Robert Hodgkinson, Housemaster of The Lodge (18561868) and founder and first master of The Lower School, which he built in 1868 (now The Lodge) and The Rev W F Witts, briefly Housemaster of Lorne House in 1861-1862 and then Housemaster of Highfield, 1863-1873.

These two men were great benefactors of the School, and Thring's development plans would not have come about without their financial support.

Also represented as a boy is John Huntley Skrine, who was Captain of School in 1865,1866 and 1867. Skrine came back to Uppingham as a teacher in 1872-1887; he was briefly Housemaster of the House at the Corner of School Lane in 1880, and then Housemaster of Brooklands, 1881-1887. Skrine could have succeeded Thring as Headmaster but it was not to be, and he left Uppingham in 1887 on his appointment as Warden of Glenalmond.

The dog: Thring had a sheepdog called 'Queer' – this could possibly be a representation of him.

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Second Pane: Right North Window Borth, 1876. Typhoid in the School and in the town led to the School spending a year away at Borth, on the Welsh coast (you can read much more about Borth on the School Archive site and in Nigel Richardson’s books). A system of flags was used for signalling at Borth, because the boys could not hear school bells over the roar of the waves and wind if they were on the beach.

Two of the flags remain, albeit in a fragile state, and are kept in the School Archives.

Third Pane: Right North Window Return to Uppingham 1877. The School was very warmly welcomed back by the town people. All the men can be identified in the glass pane.

1. Reading the text is Mr John Hawthorn. He was the printer and bookseller. His shop was where Uppingham Fine Foods (2021) is located. Hawthorn lived above the shop.

2. Dr Thomas Bell the School doctor.

He lived in a large house which was just to the west of where the Tower and Geography classrooms are now situated. Thomas Bell is standing to the left of Hawthorn.

School Lane on the Hall side (although of course, the Hall did not exist then).

Charles was an ironmonger and his shop is where Bilsdon’s (closing 2021) is located now on High Street East.

Charles White lived in 6 Leamington Terrace. He eventually went bankrupt trying to pay off his two properties.

9. Also wearing pince-nez, Rev W J Earle, Housemaster of Brooklands.

4. The first man along the back row starting on the left is W C Perry, who later became Housemaster of Fircroft.

11. The man with beard and moustache looking forward is Rev W Campbell, Housemaster of Lorne House.

5. The man who looks rather like Moses is G H Mullins, who was Housemaster of West Deyne.

6. The third man is Sam Haslam, Housemaster of The Lodge

12. Standing in profile with beard and moustache is Rev A J Tuck, Housemaster of Constables.

10. The man with the impressive moustache is C W Cobb who was Housemaster of the House at the Corner of School Lane and then Housemaster of Highfield.

13. H Candler, with pince-nez, was Housemaster of West Bank.

7. Edward Thring 3. The man in the brown coat on the far left is Charles White. He was the son of the blacksmith whose smithy was just outside the old School Gate along

8. The man with pince-nez and ginger beard is Rev G Christian, Housemaster of Redgate

14. The man with the fine sideburns is J H Skrine, who was Housemaster of Brooklands.

15. Mr W d' A Barnard was Housemaster of the House at the Corner of School Lane.

Note the date on the pane is Uppingham 1877, but the glass panes were not made until 1884 and so there were a number of important omissions of Housemasters who had been in office at Borth. W F Rawnsley (retired 1878) and Rev W Vale Bagshawe (retired 1880) and Rev Hesketh Williams (retired 1880) are not represented. Earle is represented, although he retired in 1873 - he is probably present because he was a much-celebrated figure, and therefore could not be left out. Skrine, Perry, and Barnard all went to Borth; they were not Housemasters there, but in 1884 they were Housemasters back in Uppingham.

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Fourth Pane: Right North Window Thanksgiving service and communion celebrating 300 years, the Tercentenary of the School.

1885 OSR South End: Stained Glass Window ‘Caritas’ Uppingham was the first public school to establish a mission, in 1869 in North Woolwich, London. Edward Thring “reckoned it of vital importance to the school to have the school mission commemorated,” and in 1885 he commissioned Charles Rossiter to produce a stained-glass window representing Charity.

'The Sower' is not displayed in its original location, the OSR, but is now housed in a magnificent case, made by Neil Spires in the Estate Workshops as part of the bicentenary celebrations of Edward Thring’s birth. .

This depicts the parable of the seed falling on good soil representing those who hear the Word, understand it and bear fruit - yielding thirty, sixty, and a hundred-fold.

This was Edward Thring’s favourite window.

Thirteen Heraldic Shields Research is required on these as little is known about them.

The 'Argent' – the background of the shield, the 'Tincture' – the patterns and colours on the background, the Partitions, and the 'Charge' – what is in each partition, have yet to be described and defined.

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1886 Chapel Side mosaics of reredos fixed. The subject of the panel on the left of centre (on the North side) is the ‘Nativity of the Saviour’. The subject of the panel to the right (South side) is ‘Christ among the Doctors’. The cartoons for the three subjects were drawn under the supervision of the architect (Arthur E Street – son of G E Street, who died in 1881), by Messrs Burlison and Grylls, and they were produced in mosaic by Messrs Burke and Co. Burke and Co also completed the alabaster and inlay marble work at the sides of the reredos. The alabaster work in the centre portion was executed by Mr Margetson of Chelsea. The whole work was designed by A E Street. The mosaics were hidden behind oak panels when the Chapel was extended in 1965. The centre alabaster pillars were damaged in this process, and they were replaced by plain Richemont Crème stone pilasters when the Chapel was re-ordered in 2005.

1887 Number in Lower School Midsummer 41. Christmas 44.

1887 Discipline Thring's insistence on this, and his use of public opinion in achieving it, is still apparent in his final year.

1885 Number in Lower School Midsummer 42. Christmas 41.

1885 Gregor MacGregor Entered Earle's House (Brooklands). Kept wicket for England, 1890-93, including a tour of Australia. He also played international rugby, as a back, for Scotland 1889-96.

1886 Number in Lower School Midsummer 46. Christmas 42.

1886 Edward Thring publishes two volumes of sermons 1886-1896 If you want to know more about life at Uppingham (Lower School and Constables) during this period: Read the manuscript contents of the two Mainline Exercise Books, Uppingham, written by Henry Walker (c 1890) which are kept in the School Archives. He wrote these memoirs in 1957, aged 80.

4 April 1887 “School Sneaks. Secret Liars. Lawbreakers.

Any boy found with catapult, pistol or other contraband, will never be allowed to compete in any athletics, to be in house eleven or fifteen, to be in school eleven, or fifteen.

The whole school will be held liable; as public opinion can put down what it pleases. Stone throwing renders a boy liable to these punishments.”

Edward Thring To be kept always in the Library on a board.

1887 Edward Thring on Rugby Football: Diary, 9 July 1887 “The football question has come up again. The boys mean to go in for that disgusting game Rugby Union which violates the first principle of every true game, to make skill everything and minimise brute force. I don't mean to meddle authoritatively. It is the old, old story of rising goodness, and when risen and admitted to be great, imitating the vices of the great. But I am vexed at it.”

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1887 JUBILEE DAY An Account of what happened at the Lower School that day On 22 June, Jubilee Day, we had our festivities. (21 June was the official day – perhaps the young man got his date wrong?) We came down in our flannels, and at 10.15 had a service in the hall – the measles in the Upper School preventing our use of the Chapel – and began with the National Anthem, having also special prayers for the occasion. Shortly after, a tennis tournament, (the prize being a brace of jam pots) in the middle of which the procession passed, which we watched from the bushes. There were several Jubilee arches, Mr Bagshawe’s being the best. And everybody had flags out of their windows. First came the mounted police, on foot, and mounted inhabitants, then the masters of the School, the sixth form, Upper and Lower, and next in order the National School girls and boys bearing flags, the fire engine, the Victoria cricket club, and in a carriage, three inhabitants, who were present at the Jubilee of George lll and lastly a man sitting on a donkey pulling on its tail. When the masters were passing by, our captain proposed three cheers for Her Majesty.

Continuing our tournament until 12.30 we then bathed. The non-swimmers had races with tennis balls, Parkes Ma. winning the first heat and Brown Ma. winning the second, after which the full swimmers had a bathe. Having had dinner at 1.30 we proceeded to the field and played the X1 v Masters and members of Mr Bagshawe’s family, the masters playing with broomsticks. After Mr Howson had been kind enough to photograph us in front of the study window, we had tea on the lower lawn, under which circumstances we were again ’shot’.

Lower School 21 June 1887 Jubilee Day. All the names are recorded.

Photograph: Mr Howson. Number 2 Lower School Magazine with The Lodge archive.

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1887 The first Conference of Headmistresses, organised by Edward Thring

Uppingham. June 1887. Edward Thring standing in the centre. This was the last photograph of Thring before he died. Uppingham Archives.

1887 Death of Thring.

Edward Thring was taken ill in Chapel on Sunday 16 October and died on Saturday 22 October.

The Chapel prepared for Thring's funeral.

The School Day in Thring's Time 6.00am

School bell rang: also at 6.30 and 6.55am. The boys then walked via Leamington Terrace to the Schoolroom.

7.00

Schoolroom door shut. Prayers and roll call.

7.00-8.30

‘First School’, i.e. lesson: Latin prose or repetition.

9.00-10.00 Breakfast 10.00-12.00

‘Second School’. Other subjects, including English, History etc.

12.00-1.30

‘Third School’, Mathematics and optional subjects like Languages, Chemistry, Drawing and Music.

1.30-2.30 Lunch 2.30-4.00

Afternoon school on non-half holidays (4.00-5.25pm in winter). There followed time for recreation and tea.

7.00-8.45

(Except Saturday). The boys were required to be in their studies until prayers. Between 7.45 and 8.45pm Thring made his round of the studies. After prayers there was three-quarters of an hour during which boys could visit the tuck shop in School Lane.

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1887 Uppingham from The South

Drawn from the present day Cinder Track Field. Charles Rossiter. Engraving, School Magazine March 1887 Vol 25 No 193 Ps48/49

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“HONOUR THE WORK AND THE WORK WILL HONOUR YOU” Edward Thring

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