Talk:Henry Watson Fowler
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[edit] Birthplace
My Cambridge Biographical Dictionary says Fowler was born in Tonbridge, Kent. Can anyone clarify? PedanticallySpeaking 15:23, Aug 26, 2004 (UTC)
- As well as Britannica and Chambers (which I mentioned on the Reference Desk), his obituary in The Times implies Tonbridge (giving that as the home of his father). --Heron 16:37, 26 Aug 2004 (UTC)
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- MacManus (cited in the article) is unambiguous: "Here [HWF's father was teaching at Tonbridge School] their first two sons were born, Henry Watson Fowler [...] on 19 March 1858" (p. 4, 2001 ed. hardback). She gives no source for this information, so there is no PROOF of the birthplace; but schoolteachers even now commonly live in the town where their schools are. And in the nineteenth century 'public' school (see below), it was usual for teachers to be accommodated within the school grounds. So it is a reasonable assumption. MacAuslan 18:18, 3 October 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Schoolteaching
I have added a note about Sedbergh School being a 'public' school, which is a specific British usage for a fee-paying school for the sons (as it was very largely in Fowler's time: Sedbergh was boys only until this centure) of the comparatively well-off . This is not just pedantry: it will help to give a clearer picture of the sort of teaching he was doing. To make tyhat more visible to readers those who may not know about the system, I have added 'Latin and Greek' to the article as among the subjects he taught. I have also deleted 'grammar' after 'English. This is because the teaching of English - which certainly included then (and ???should now) the teaching of grammar - involves far more than mere grammatics, which the unamended article implied to my reading. MacAuslan 18:06, 3 October 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Why the disambiguation notice?
Why is there a disambiguation notice here for Henry Weed Fowler (and vice versa)? Is this a relic from a time before Henry Fowler was a disambiguation page, or what? Ruakh 21:09, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
