Thring Of Uppingham: Victorian Educator

Edward Thring on Education Edward Thring (1821-1887), who founded the Headmasters' Conference of prominent schools in Britain in 1869, was the best-known headmaster of his generation. Formed by a nature-loving childhood in rural Somerset, survival in the notorious Long Chamber at Eton, a fellowship at King's College Cambridge and a harrowing curacy in the slums of Gloucester, he developed the conviction that education was God's work. This in turn led him to a passionate belief in the potential of every child. From 1853, over 34 years, Thring transformed a small grammar school in Uppingham into a widely-celebrated boarding school with an international clientele. He battled against intransigent governors, growing debts and the encroachment of government control over every type of school. After facing potential disaster from a series of typhoid outbreaks, he relocated his staff and pupils to Borth in Wales, returning only after securing radical improvements in Uppingham's drainage and water supply. Although dismissively labelled &quote;the enthusiast Mr Thring&quote; by the Cambridge philosopher Henry Sidgwick and King of Boys by other critics, his social conscience led to the founding of a mission in London's East End, the first venture of its type. Through two books, Education and School (1864) and The Theory and Practice of Teaching (1883), Thring provided a blueprint for high-quality boarding schools, a broad curriculum and child-centred teaching methods. This is the first modern biography of this multi-faceted and emotionally complex man.