Rhubarb 2021

ST EDWARD’S

JOHN MILLINGTON SING FOURTH WARDEN 1904-1913

THOMAS FREDERICK HOBSON | SECOND WARDEN 1893-96

THOMASWILLIAM HUDSON THIRD WARDEN 1896-1904 Hudson, a historian from Brasenose, was appointed on the strength of his record as Headmaster of Queen Elizabeth’s School, Cranbrook where he raised the numbers from 11 to 55. With the exception of one year (1905) numbers never again fell below 100. Hudson ticked all the boxes of expectations for the growing late- Victorian Public School. Games became ever more important and with them a liking for inter-Set competitions, team photographs and a stress on ‘colours’ for games and uniforms for formal photographs. Rowing flourished and boxing was introduced as a compulsory sport. A rather hearty, even brash, figure Hudson exuded a much-needed confidence and sense of direction. He embodied the growing cult of ‘manliness’ and ‘muscular Christianity’ typical of the period, one of growing regulation and a liking for uniformity.TheWarden was a keen disciplinarian and wielder of the cane. His main enthusiasm was for pig farming. Financially the School continued to live a hand-to-mouth existence and when in 1903 the 21 boys who left were replaced by only seven, Simeon offered his usual diagnosis and blamed Hudson who sensed that the former Warden would pressurise the governing body and got in his resignation first. His old college offered him its best living in rural Berkshire with a 20-room vicarage and 100 acres of glebe land for his pedigree pigs.The Chronicle praised his geniality, heartiness and patriotism.

Some fall off in pupil numbers – in the 80s from 1893 following numbers in the early 100s since 1877 – may have contributed to Simeon’s retirement decision. Hobson fitted well the evolving pattern of Public School schoolmaster/priests, a sound Second from Christ Church, a running Blue, six years

FEATURE

teaching at Tractarian Radley and then at the prestigious Wellington,

he must have seemed ready for a headship. In many ways he was. Eight

university scholarships and exhibitions were gained in less than four years of his tenure, a higher figure than at many larger schools. Higher Certificates gained increased markedly. A fundamental change was that of the introduction of the “Set System” in 1893, the forerunner of the later boarding houses and a basis for a wider contact with fellow pupils not in one’s teaching class and with teachers other than one’s class teacher. It had a big future. Above all Hobson was lucky in that several pupils of the 1890s were fulsome in their praise of him, both as a teacher and pastorally conscious Warden. In 1894 the school joined the Headmasters Conference a step towards being recognized as a public school. But numbers remained low, only 78 in the Summer Term of 1896.This brought financial difficulties which Hobson could not solve in spite of some drastic cost-cutting. Relations with Simeon were bad while the ex- Warden was arguing simultaneously about what he was owed financially.The governing body fumbled while Simeon condemned Hobson as “weak” and led him to resign. Neither the governing body nor the ex-Warden came out of this well.

Sing was the School’s first layWarden and still holds the distinction of having been an assistant master from 1886, a Tutor (housemaster) of Set B from 1893,Warden from 1904-1913, a governor from 1911-20 and Chairman of Governors from 1922-29. He was still ‘helping out’ at the School from 1939-40! With the support of Lord Halifax and the Gibbs family, Lord Aldenham and his son Vicary Gibbs on the governing body he can be justly regarded as theWarden who ensured the School’s survival and possibility for future growth in the twentieth century. Outstandingly that meant that he secured the games fields we have today without which a boarding school cannot survive. Building expansion on some of those same fields has enabled much of the later expansion of the School we see today. He did this in concert with Halifax and the Gibbs family but not without hard-fought disagreements with them over methods and tactics. He persuaded the Duke of Marlborough and his advisors to part with some of their land and, perhaps above all, he showed a masterly tactfulness in dealings with the ageing Simeon, still anxious to protect

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