Cloudesley Brereton (1863–1937) was a British educationalist and writer with a particular interest in the teaching of modern languages. He was also a literary translator from French.

Life

Brereton was born on 21 November 1863. He studied at

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. Th ...

and the

University of Paris The University of Paris (french: link=no, Université de Paris), Metonymy, metonymically known as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, active from 1150 to 1970, with the exception between 1793 and 1806 under the French Revo ...

.Anne Clendinning, ''Demons of Domesticity: Women and the English Gas Industry, 1889–1939'' (Routledge, 2017), electronic edition (unpaginated
preview available on Google Books
After teaching at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 mill ...

for a short period he became inspector of modern-language teaching for the

County of London The County of London was a county of England from 1889 to 1965, corresponding to the area known today as Inner London. It was created as part of the general introduction of elected county government in England, by way of the Local Governmen ...

. In 1904, he married a widow, Maud Adeline Horobin (née Ford), with whom he had two sons. From 1906 to 1931, he was a member of the progressive association

The Rainbow Circle The Rainbow Circle was a political group consisting of Liberals, Fabians and socialists who first began to meet in 1893 in London to consider if it was possible to resolve the relationship between the various progressive forces they represented to ...

, where he propounded educational reforms. Taking an interest in the academic training of language teachers, he worked for closer intellectual exchange with both Germany and France. In 1927 he was awarded an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad ho ...

by the

University of Lille The University of Lille (french: Université de Lille, abbreviated as ULille, UDL or univ-lille) is a French public research university based in Lille, Hauts-de-France. It has its origins in the University of Douai (1559), and resulted from the m ...

. Brereton died in

Briningham Briningham is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is 9.9 miles east north east of the town of Fakenham, 13.3 miles west south west of Cromer, 22.3 miles north north west of the city of Norwich, and 124 miles ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nort ...

, on 11 July 1937, aged 73.

Publications

Apart from his contributions to educational journals and to the 14th edition of the '' Encyclopaedia Britannica'' (1929–1930), Brereton wrote poetry and non-fiction books, and translated French works into English.

Books

* ''Studies in Foreign Education'' (1913) * ''Who is Responsible?'' (1914) * ''The Norfolk Recruit's Farewell: A Ballad'' (1917) * ''Mystica et Lyrica'' (1919) * ''Modern Language Teaching in Day and Evening Schools'' (1930) * ''France: A Handbook for Beginners in French'' (1936)

Translations

In 1905 he translated

Gabriel Tarde Gabriel Tarde (; in full Jean-Gabriel De Tarde; 12 March 1843 – 13 May 1904) was a French sociologist, criminologist and social psychologist who conceived sociology as based on small psychological interactions among individuals (much as ...

dystopia A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...

novel, ''Fragment d'histoire future'' (1904) as ''Underground Man''. With Fred Rothwell he translated

Henri Bergson Henri-Louis Bergson (; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopherHenri Bergson. 2014. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 13 August 2014, from https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/61856/Henri-Bergson

's ''

Laughter Laughter is a pleasant physical reaction and emotion consisting usually of rhythmical, often audible contractions of the diaphragm and other parts of the respiratory system. It is a response to certain external or internal stimuli. Laughter ...

''. First published in 1911, their translation went through several editions to 2005. Brereson and R. Ashley Audra, with the assistance of

W. Horsfall Carter W. may refer to: * SoHo (Australian TV channel) (previously W.), an Australian pay television channel * W. (film), ''W.'' (film), a 2008 American biographical drama film based on the life of George W. Bush * "W.", the fifth track from Codeine's 199 ...

, translated Bergson's ''The Two Sources of Morality and Religion'' (1935).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brereton, Cloudesley 1863 births 1937 deaths Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge University of Paris alumni 20th-century British educators 20th-century British writers French–English translators 19th-century British educators British educational theorists British expatriates in France