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Sir Robert Birley (14 July 1903–22 July 1982) was an English educationalist who was headmaster of Charterhouse School, then Eton College, and an anti-Apartheid campaigner.
[edit] Biography
Robert Birley began his career as a history teacher at Eton in 1926 and was then appointed headmaster of Charterhouse in 1935. During this time, he authored the Fleming Report, 1944, on the relationship between public schools and mainstream education. After World War Two, he became, in 1947, Educational Advisor for the Control Commission in the British Zone in Germany responsible for educational reconstruction and played an important role in the rewriting of nazi history textbooks with their racist bent. On his return to the UK in 1949 he was appointed headmaster of Eton, where he remained until 1963. He subsequently became a visiting Professor at Witwatersrand University, South Africa from 1964-1967, and was Professor and Head of Department of Social Science and Humanities at City University from 1967-1971. He wrote and lectured extensively on education, apartheid and human rights issues and the Robert Birley memorial lectures are a tribute to his contributions.
From 1968 to 1982 he was professor of rhetoric at Gresham College, London.
[edit] Birley family
His grandfather, Arthur Birley (1834 - 1912), was the brother of Hugh Birley, who served as MP for Manchester from 1868 to 1883.[1]
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