A History of Giggleswick School from its Foundation, 1499 to 1912

by Edward Allen Bell

Chapter XII.

The Last Decade.

IN January, 1904, the Governors of the School assembled to elect a new Headmaster. Their choice fell unanimously on Mr. William Wyamar Vaughan. Mr. Vaughan had been educated at Rugby and New College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1888. Since 1890 he had been an Assistant Master at Clifton College, and had been in charge of seventy day boys there for four years. The appointment was in many respects a significant one. For the first time in the history of the School a permanent Headmaster had been appointed, who was not in Holy Orders. Since 1869 the statutory regulation on the subject had been changed, but this was the first occasion on which the Governors had exercised their freedom. In the second place, Giggleswick up till the last thirty years had educated a preponderating number of day boys, but lately this element had been so outnumbered by the boarders that there was considerable danger of a serious division arising between them. The election of a man who had been in charge of the day boys at one of the bigger Public Schools gave great hopes to those who had the unity of the School at heart, nor were these expectations unfulfilled. Thirdly, Mr. Vaughan was a pioneer in the enthusiasm which directed the path of learning towards a greater study of English subjects.

W. W. VAUGHAN, M.A.

Russell & Sons]

[17, Baker Street, W.

The chief responsibility of the military side at Clifton had lain with him of late years, and at Giggleswick he lost little time in reorganizing the classification of the School. A scheme was carried through by which every boy was classed according to his attainments in English, and one hour a day was given to the study of the subject in its various branches of Scripture, History, Geography, Literature, and occasionally Grammar. The weekly theme or essay was retained. For all other subjects the boy was put into sets, which bore no relation to his Form, except in so far as the School was divided up for English into three parts—Upper, Lower and Junior, and for other subjects into A, B and C, Blocks. No boy was able to be in the B Block who was in the Junior School, or in the A Block, if he was in the Lower School. These big divisions were very rarely found to hinder the advance of a boy in any particular subject and when once he had obtained a position in the Upper School, want of capacity in English was of no impediment at all. The great ideal at which Mr. Vaughan aimed was a sound education in a varied number of subjects but all of them must be based on the study of English. Boys were not encouraged to specialize until they had attained to a position in one of the two top Forms and in later years not until they had gained the Oxford and Cambridge Higher Certificate. The School was inspected by the Oxford and Cambridge Board in 1906 and the reports were most gratifying. In the same year the Higher Certificate Examination was taken by the Sixth and Upper Fifth, and in future became a regular feature of their work.

The School suffered a severe loss in 1904 by the resignation of Dr. Watts. He had acted as the chief Master of Natural Science for thirty-two years and had superintended the building of the Science Block from its foundations. Mr. C. F. Mott a former Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, and a Lecturer at Emmanuel College was appointed to succeed him and no choice could have been more happy. A Scientific Society was soon formed with the object of giving a lead to the informal study of Nature and to promote a closer interest in the collections of various kinds at the School Museum. In the following year 1905 Speech-Day was celebrated for the first time for twenty-five years and was marked by the presentation of the "Style" Mathematical Prizes, which had been founded from a fund to which former pupils of Mr. Style contributed as a mark of their appreciation of his Headmastership. In 1906 the "Waugh" Prizes for English Literature were presented by Mr. John Waugh, J.P., who had been at the School under Dr. Butterton and had retained a strong interest in education. These prizes were to be awarded on the result of two papers, one on a specially prepared subject in English Literature and one on a general knowledge of the whole.