George Howson

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George William Saul Howson MA (8 August 1860 - 7 January 1919) was an English educationalist and writer, reforming headmaster of Gresham's School from 1900 to 1919.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Howson was of the four sons of William Howson of Settle,[1] author of An Illustrated Guide to the Curiosities of Craven (1850), and Headmaster of Penrith School; and the grandson of the Reverend J. Howson, second master of Giggleswick School. He was himself educated at Giggleswick, which he left in July 1879,[2] and then at Merton College, Oxford.[3] He matriculated at Oxford in 1879 and graduated BA (taking a First in the Final Honours School of Natural Science) in 1883 and MA in 1886.[4]

All of his brothers attended Giggleswick School, Hubert Howson (born 1857) becoming a lawyer and settling in New York, and Charles James Howson (born 1852) becoming a bank manager and Justice of the Peace at Chesterfield.[5]

[edit] Schoolmaster

Howson's first position after leaving Oxford was as an assistant master at Newton College, in south Devon, from 1883 to 1886. He then moved to Uppingham School, where he remained for fourteen years, from 1886 until 1900, when he was appointed Headmaster of Gresham's School, Holt, continuing in post until his death in 1919.[6]

When Howson arrived at Gresham's, a rather dusty ancient grammar school founded by Sir John Gresham, he found it in numbers much as it had been when established in 1555. In 1900, the school still occupied its original Holt town centre site and contained only forty Holt Scholars, plus seven boarders.[3]

During his headmastership, Howson achieved a completely new set of school buildings on a new edge-of-town site, transforming the school and quadrupling its population. The first such new buildings, designed by the architect Sir John Simpson, were opened by Field Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood on 30 September, 1903. These consisted of School House (renamed Howson's in 1919, after Howson's death) and the main classrooms building, including Big School. More boarding houses were acquired or built between 1905 and 1911. A new School Chapel was completed in 1916, during the Great War, during which one hundred Old Greshamians were killed.[7]

The poet W. H. Auden wrote favourably of the new school's private studies for boys, its warm classrooms, magnificent library and excellent laboratories.[8]

In Who's Who, Howson stated his recreations as riding, fives, and trout-fishing.[4]

[edit] Author

Howson's publications include his Sermons by a Lay Headmaster, Preached at Gresham's School, 1900-1918 (Longmans, Green and Co., 1920).

[edit] Bibliography

  • Simpson, James Herbert, Howson of Holt: A study in school life (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1925, 93 pp)

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Howson, William at comcast.net, accessed 22 May 2008
  2. ^ Giggleswick School Register, p. 58
  3. ^ a b I Will Plant Me a Tree: an Illustrated History of Gresham's School by S.G.G. Benson and Martin Crossley Evans (James & James, London, 2002) ISBN 0-907383-92-0
  4. ^ a b HOWSON, G. W. S. Head Master, Gresham's School, Holt, Norfolk, since 1900 in Who Was Who 1916–1928 (A & C Black, London, 1992 reprint, ISBN 0-7136-3143-0, and HOWSON, G. W. S. in Who Was Who 1897-2007 online (2008) retrieved 22 May 2008 from HOWSON, G. W. S.
  5. ^ Giggleswick School Register, January 1872, p. 66
  6. ^ Lidell, Charles Lawrence Scruton, and A.B. Douglas, The History and Register of Gresham's School, 1555-1954 (Ipswich, 1955)
  7. ^ When Heroes Die by Sue Smart (Breedon Books, 2001) ISBN 1-85983-256-3
  8. ^ Auden: The lost poems in The Independent dated 5 September 2007 online at independent.co.uk (accessed 22 May 2008)