Edward Thring (29 November 1821 – 22 October 1887) was a celebrated British educator. He was headmaster of

Uppingham School Uppingham School is a public school (English fee-charging boarding and day school for pupils 13–18) in Uppingham, Rutland, England, founded in 1584 by Robert Johnson, the Archdeacon of Leicester, who also established Oakham School. ...

(1853–1887) and founded the

Headmasters' Conference The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC), formerly known as the Headmasters' Conference and now branded HMC (The Heads' Conference), is an association of the head teachers of 351 private fee-charging schools (both boarding schools an ...

in 1869.

Life

Thring was born at

Alford, Somerset Alford is a village and parish on the River Alham, in Somerset, England, situated south of Shepton Mallet and two miles west of Castle Cary. The village has a population of 63. History The parish was part of the Hundred (county subdivision), ...

, the son of the rector, the Rev John Gale Dalton Thring and Sarah ''née'' Jenkyns. He was brother of Theodore Thring (1816-1891), Henry, Lord Thring, a noted jurist and Parliamentary Counsel to the Treasury, hymn writer Godfrey Thring, and

John Charles Thring John Charles Thring (11 June 1824 – 3 October 1909), known during his life as Charles Thring or J. C. Thring, was an English clergyman and teacher, notable for his contributions to the early history of association football. Early life Thring ...

, a master at Uppingham School and deviser of the Simplest Game rules for football; he also had two sisters. The family is commemorated in the Church of All Saints, Alford by carved choir seats in the chancel and two memorial windows. Thring was educated at Eton and

King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...

, where he obtained a Fellowship in 1844. He was ordained in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

in 1846 and served in various curacies until in 1853 he began his true life work by an appointment to the headmastership of

. Thring is Uppingham's best-known headmaster, remaining in the post until 1887. He raised the school to a high state of efficiency, and stamped it with the qualities of his own strong personality, as did

Thomas Arnold Thomas Arnold (13 June 1795 – 12 June 1842) was an English educator and historian. He was an early supporter of the Broad Church Anglican movement. As headmaster of Rugby School from 1828 to 1841, he introduced several reforms that were widel ...

at Rugby. He made many innovative changes to the school's curriculum which were later adopted in other English schools. During his headship the school was forced to move temporarily to

Borth Borth () is a village, seaside resort and community in Ceredigion, Mid Wales; it is located 7 miles (11 km) north of Aberystwyth, on the Ceredigion Coast Path. The community includes the settlement of Ynyslas and the population was 1,399 ...

in Wales after an outbreak of

typhoid Typhoid fever, also known simply as typhoid, is a disease caused by ''Salmonella enterica'' serotype Typhi bacteria, also called ''Salmonella'' Typhi. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often ther ...

ravaged the student body. In 1869, Edward Thring formed the

after inviting thirty-seven of his fellow headmasters to meet at his house to consider establishing such an annual meeting. He was an original thinker and writer on education and various educational works.

Thring's methods

Thring was the headmaster of Uppingham between 1853 and 1887; here he turned a poor provincial grammar school of 25 boys into a top public school within ten years. Thring insisted on confining the school to around 300 boys to maintain a small, "tight-knit" Christian community. Thring believed that every boy was good for something. His early experience teaching

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

National elementary schools had convinced him that "to teach the slow and ignorant with success is the only test of proficiency and intellectual power." In addition to being a believer in teaching the classics, Thring broadened the overall curriculum at Uppingham by ensuring that the moral, aesthetic, and physical aspects meet the needs of the students. Although Uppingham was a huge achievement in itself, Thring's achievements extended beyond Uppingham as he was co-founder of the Headmasters' Conference (HMC) and he produced his ''Theory and Practice of Teaching''.

Education for the lower classes

Thring had a negative attitude to the education for those unable to pay fees:

You cannot break the laws of nature which have made the work and powers of men vary in value. This is what I mean when I ask why should I maintain my neighbour's illegitimate child ? I mean by illegitimate, every child brought into the world who demands more than his parents can give him, or to whom the Government makes a present of money. The School Boards are promising to be an excellent example of public robbery.

Bibliography

* * * * * * *Skrine, John Huntley ''Edward Thring: Maker of Uppingham School, Headmaster 1853-1887'', London: Routledge, 2007. (). * Richardson, Nigel ''Typhoid in Uppingham: Analysis of a Victorian Town and School in Crisis, 1875-77'', London: Pickering and Chatto, 2009. (). * Richardson, Nigel ''Thring of Uppingham: Victorian Educator'', Buckingham: The University of Buckingham Press, 2014. (). * Tozer, Malcolm ''The Ideal of Manliness: The Legacy of Thring's Uppingham'', Truro: Sunnyrest Books, 2015. (, hardback; , paperback). * Flower, Peter, ''The Life and Times of a Victorian Country Doctor, a portrait of Reginald Grove Volume 2 Life at Boarding School'', Brown Dog Books 2021 (ISBN 978-1-839-52206-2).

References

Bibliography

* * * * *Edward Thring, '' The Theory and Practice of Teaching'', 1883.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thring, Edward 1821 births 1887 deaths Schoolteachers from Somerset Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Fellows of King's College, Cambridge Headmasters of Uppingham School 19th-century English Anglican priests People educated at Eton College Uppingham Burials in Rutland Heads of schools in England