No . 125 130 November May 2018 2020
Bored ? Then Board !
The Headmaster writes a regular column for the IAPS magazine Attain . This is an adaptation of his most recent article for an exclusively Wykehamical audience .
What mighty people they were , those Victorians . Their stern be-whiskered faces gazing down on us from many a school hall or house dining room ; their three-volume novels and their even more intimidating two-volume Lives and Letters straining the strength of the shelves .
But they knew about education , those old headmasters , and they certainly knew about suffering too – especially pandemics . Archibald Tait , one of Moberly ’ s Balliol pupils and Headmaster of Rugby after Moberly ’ s friend Thomas Arnold , had to bury within a single week five of his scarlet-fever-stricken children . Another colossus , Edward Thring of Uppingham , a close associate of Ridding , lost so many of his pupils to typhoid that he decided to evacuate the school for a year to North Wales .
The Moberly nuclear family on George Snr ’ s departure , September 1866 . Top right Robert , future Regius Professor of Theology at Oxford ; middle left George Jnr , future President of Lichfield Theological College ; bottom middle Annie , future first Principal of St Hugh ’ s , Oxford .
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