85 Facts About Oscar Browning

Oscar Browning was a British educationalist, historian and bon viveur, a well-known Cambridge personality during the late Victorian and Edwardian eras.

Oscar Browning was a prolific author of popular histories and other books.

The son of a prosperous distiller, Browning was educated at Eton, and then King's College, Cambridge.

Oscar Browning was controversially dismissed from his post in 1875, ostensibly because of repeated disregard for school rules, but an underlying issue was disquiet arising from his lifestyle, particularly his close and affectionate relationships with boys under his care.

Oscar Browning returned to King's, where he continued his individualistic approach to teaching, and rapidly established himself as a leading Cambridge personality.

Oscar Browning wrote on educational theory and produced a well-regarded biography of the writer George Eliot.

Oscar Browning was born on 17 January 1837, at No 8 Cumberland Terrace, Regent's Park, London.

Oscar Browning's parents were William Shipton Browning, a prosperous distiller, and Mariana Margaret, nee Bridge, the daughter of a sea captain.

Oscar Browning was the fourth child, and two more daughters followed.

Oscar Browning was born prematurely, the survivor of twins the elder of who died stillborn; Oscar Browning escaped the same fate only through the diligence and determination of a nurse.

Oscar Browning passed in the summer of 1850, and took up his place the following January as a "Colleger", just before his fourteenth birthday.

In 1853 Oscar Browning began a journal, in which his descriptions of daily life suggest, say Pam Hirst and Mark McBeth in their account of Oscar Browning's life, that Eton, "[r]ather than a royally-endowed school [was] more like a Dickensian orphanage".

Oscar Browning won a contest to write and deliver a suitable oration when Albert, the Prince Consort, visited Eton on Founder's Day in 1854.

Oscar Browning left Eton in 1856, having gained entry to King's College, Cambridge, where he began in October.

Students at King's, the sister-foundation to Eton, were all Etonians, and Oscar Browning, who found their continuing association stifling, generally preferred the company of men from other colleges, especially Trinity, where he found kindred spirits who shared his growing radical approach to education.

Oscar Browning graduated in 1860, taking fourth position in the Classical Tripos.

When Oscar Browning began teaching at Eton he found the college's governance was largely unchanged from its foundation in the 15th century, and its general curriculum barely reformed from those days: classical Latin and Greek texts learned through repetition, a little mathematics, and all other subjects taught as optional extras.

The 25-year-old Oscar Browning, giving evidence on 2 July 1862, gave a rather more radical viewpoint.

Oscar Browning thought that too little recognition was given to scholarly prowess as against athletic achievement, and that the formal curriculum should be overhauled to include the teaching of French and history.

Oscar Browning's wider-ranging criticisms included the nature and standard of chapel services, and the over-tolerance of the boys' beer-drinking habits.

Oscar Browning instituted regular poetry and play readings, and encouraged the appreciation of music with performances by local musicians of works by emergent modern composers such as Brahms.

In 1868 Oscar Browning published his first full-length work, a school textbook in the form of a new edition of the writings of the Roman historian Cornelius Nepos.

Oscar Browning was a regular contributor of articles and reviews to some of the leading contemporary journals.

Oscar Browning extended his educational work beyond the boundaries of the school, becoming secretary of the Windsor and Eton Association for the Education of Women.

Oscar Browning was irritated by Browning's independent outlook and objected to his teaching of "modern" history such as the French Revolution.

Hornby thought that Oscar Browning neglected his real work, the teaching of classics, in favour of his experimental pedagogical methods and outside activities such as "lecturing to ladies", and was critical of a supposed lack of discipline in his classes.

Oscar Browning had favourites, who were often replaced with a brutal suddenness when they lost their appeal.

Solomon, like Oscar Browning, was an advocate of "Greek love", a concept derived from Plato's Dialogues which held that the highest form of love was that of men for each other, exclusive of physical expression.

Oscar Browning was outraged by what he took as a slur on his morals, and a heated correspondence with Hornby ensued.

Since he had the support of Curzon's father, Lord Scarsdale, Oscar Browning challenged the headmaster's injunction and appealed to the provost, who upheld Hornby.

Under threat of dismissal unless he submitted, Oscar Browning did so reluctantly, while continuing to meet Curzon during the holidays.

Oscar Browning returned to Eton that autumn, but made little effort to lie low or adhere to regulations which he was accustomed to ignoring if inconvenient.

Oscar Browning did not seek a renewal of permission but continued to tutor his excess pupils.

On 16 September 1875, after a series of tense meetings, he wrote a formal letter to Oscar Browning dismissing him from his post.

Oscar Browning spent the first months of 1876 with his family, and that summer travelled with them to Leipzig, taking along four of his former Eton pupils.

In September 1876, Oscar Browning returned to Cambridge and his King's College Fellowship where, despite an outwardly cordial reception, he faced some animosity.

Oscar Browning believed that the function of the History school in King's was to educate future statesmen.

Oscar Browning began a history course on Treaties, and was able to augment his income with fees from students attracted to the course.

Oscar Browning's tutorials, held in his book-lined and lavishly decorated rooms, soon became famous; in the memory of one participant, "his talk was like a flow of molten lava that bore every kind of reminiscence on its tide".

Oscar Browning began other societies, in particular a group devoted to the music of Mozart which developed into a Musical Society to which leading contemporary performers were invited.

Oscar Browning instituted a regular series of "at homes" in his rooms, at which his students would be able to meet and converse with Browning's distinguished friends and acquaintances, who might include George Eliot, Walter Pater, or John Ruskin.

Oscar Browning argued that the college should place the needs of its students at its centre, and should provide the resources to support a student "in any line of study that he might adopt", amid "companions most congenial to an industrious and able man".

Oscar Browning compared King's unfavourably with its sister-college Trinity, and suggested, undiplomatically, that the King's College provost should be paid less and his living accommodation made smaller.

In 1879 Oscar Browning became secretary of the Cambridge branch of the Oxbridge Teachers' Training Syndicate, formed the previous year with the object of bringing the training of teachers, at the time uncodified, into the purview of Oxford and Cambridge universities to provide a greater intellectual foundation for the profession.

Two years later Oscar Browning published his first major book on educational theory, History of Educational Theories, later translated into several languages and reprinted several times up to 1905.

Oscar Browning was appointed to a formal King's College lectureship in 1880, and worked hard to establish himself as an academic historian.

Oscar Browning published successful school textbooks on Modern England and Modern France, and edited a series of political memoranda and despatches from the Napoleonic era.

Oscar Browning was elected to the Royal Historical Society in 1884, and was chairman of the society's council in 1885.

Oscar Browning decided to honour her memory by writing her biography with, he said, "no claims to offer but a friendship of fifteen years, and a deep and unswerving devotion to her mind and character".

Oscar Browning followed it up with two short literary lives, respectively of Dante Alighieri, and Goethe.

Oscar Browning was acquainted through meetings or correspondence with leading literary figures such as Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Algernon Swinburne, and the unrelated Robert Oscar Browning.

In 1881 Oscar Browning became treasurer of the Cambridge Union, a post he held for 21 years.

Oscar Browning founded the Cambridge University Liberal Club in 1886, becoming its first Treasurer, and staying in post for a decade.

In 1886 Oscar Browning entered active politics as a Gladstonian Liberal; in that year's general election, as the Liberal Party's candidate in the South London constituency of Norwood, where he was heavily defeated.

Oscar Browning fought two further elections, in 1892 at East Worcestershire and in 1895 at Liverpool West Derby, in each case losing by large majorities.

The proposal received a "Grace" from the Senate, on the basis of which Oscar Browning applied to the government's Education Department for approval to open the college.

Oscar Browning's solution was to personally coach these students, to a level that would satisfy the requirements of "Previous".

Oscar Browning constantly lobbied the university for financial support, which was sparsely given, and sought funds from outside organisations.

Oscar Browning thought that the same training was relevant to secondary school teachers, although this was contrary to the traditional view of most secondary headmasters that university graduates did not require pedagogic training.

Oscar Browning disagreed, arguing that the same pedagogic skills were required at all levels of teaching, whether in elementary, secondary or elite public schools.

Oscar Browning proceeded cautiously, finally opening the CUDTC's doors to trainee secondary teachers in 1897.

Oscar Browning claimed that by 1907,40 per cent of its students had obtained first or second-class honours in their university degrees, 28 per cent had gained third-class honours, 24 per cent had ordinary degrees, and 8 per cent were unaccounted for.

In 1909, when Oscar Browning was past 70, he reluctantly retired from the CUDTC principalship.

Alongside his CUTDTC role, Oscar Browning continued his various university duties.

The appointment, in the gift of the prime minister, Lord Rosebery, went instead to Lord Acton, evidently on the grounds that Oscar Browning's scholarship lacked sufficient depth.

Oscar Browning was uncharacteristically reduced to tears when confronted with his behaviour and given little alternative but to resign.

Oscar Browning continued to produce historical works: a study of Peter the Great in 1898 was followed by a History of Europe in 1901.

Oscar Browning provided an introduction to the 1900 edition of Woodrow Wilson's notable textbook The State.

In 1900 a formal portrait of Oscar Browning was painted by the Spanish artist Ignacio Zuloaga, one of numerous portraits and caricatures made in Oscar Browning's later life.

For five weeks Oscar Browning lived and travelled in great style; on his return he wrote an account of his trip, Impressions of Indian Travel.

Oscar Browning visited the Middle East, and Russia where he lectured on the "Ideals of Education" to the St Petersburg Guild of English Teachers.

Oscar Browning wrote poetry, including an "Ode to the Penis" which, he informed his friend Lord Latymer was "superficially rather smutty, but intrinsically very religious and spiritual".

The First World War began in August 1914, while Oscar Browning was in Italy.

Oscar Browning's offer to return to England as a stand-in teacher for those called to military service was ignored and he decided to remain in Rome.

Oscar Browning continued writing, publishing A General History of the World in 1915, and A Short History of Italy two years later.

Curzon could not deliver this; four years later, in the final months of his life, Oscar Browning was appointed to a lower honour, an OBE.

Shortly before his death, Oscar Browning completed a second volume of memoirs, Memories of Later Years.

Oscar Browning died in Rome on 6 October 1923 after a short illness.

Oscar Browning's ashes were returned to Cambridge and placed in a vault within King's College chapel.

Hirsch and Peters record that whatever his expressed prejudices, Oscar Browning took practical steps to support and develop educational opportunities for women and aid their educational advancement.

Furthermore, when the Political Society debated a motion in support of women's suffrage, Oscar Browning voted in favour.

Beyond his Cambridge life, Oscar Browning acquired a set of rooms in St James's Street, London, a base from which he entertained a variety of mainly working-class boys and men, over many years: "Any youth whom OB liked", says Anstruther, "to whom he thought he could do a kindness, perhaps in exchange for a little amusement, arrived, stayed and went away".

Oscar Browning treated these acquaintances well, with generous gifts and hospitality, but as with the favourites from his Eton schoolmastering days, they were liable to be dropped without ceremony when Oscar Browning tired of them.

Oscar Browning's writings comprise historical works, mainly of the popular variety.

Oscar Browning wrote on educational matters, completed several literary biographies, and completed two volumes of memoirs.