John Edward Bromby

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John Edward Bromby (23 May 1809 – 4 March 1889) was an Australian schoolmaster and divine.

Bromby was the son of the Rev. J. H. Bromby and brother of Charles Henry Bromby, was born at Hull, England. He was educated at Hull Grammar School, Uppingham, and St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated ninth wrangler and third in the second class of the classical tripos in 1832. He was elected a fellow of St .John's College, and was ordained deacon in 1834 and priest in 1836. He was appointed second master at Bristol College and then for some years conducted a private school at Clifton. From 1847 to 1854 he was principal of Elizabeth College, Guernsey, was university preacher at Cambridge in 1850, when he obtained the degree of D.D., and after 1854 was curate for two or three years to his father at Hull. He was then appointed headmaster of the newly founded Church of England Grammar School at Melbourne, where he arrived in February 1858.

The school opened on 7 April 1858 with 86 students and the number of boys soon began to grow rapidly. There were nearly 200 at the school in 1861 and it prospered for many years. About 1871 the numbers began to fall off, partly on account of the foundation of other secondary schools, and in 1874, feeling that it might be for the benefit of the school to have a younger headmaster, Bromby resigned and was succeeded by Edward Ellis Morris. He was appointed incumbent of St Paul's, Melbourne, in 1877 and held this position until his death. On the completion of his seventy-fifth year in 1884 he was presented with an address and £1000. He died at Melbourne on 4 March 1889. He was married twice and was survived by his second wife and two sons and three daughters of the first marriage. He was the author of a volume of Sermons an the Earlier Chapters of Genesis, and several of his lectures and sermons were published as pamphlets.

Bromby was a just and good headmaster, who encouraged games and relied more on a good moral tone than strict discipline. But though his personal influence was great, he was not a good man of business, and he could scarcely be called a great headmaster. He was for many years a member of the council of the university of Melbourne, and was its first warden of the senate. As a clergyman, though he claimed to belong to no school, he was in sympathy with the broad church section of the Church of England, and was one of the best preachers of his period, scholarly and fearless in his independence of thought, with a pleasant voice and delivery. Though apparently somewhat reserved and austere, he was really thoroughly kindly in his disposition, and was a good conversationalist, with much appreciation of wit and humour.


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This article incorporates text from the public domain 1949 edition of Dictionary of Australian Biography from
Project Gutenberg of Australia, which is in the public domain in Australia and the United States of America.
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