Brighton College

Encyclopedia : B : BR : BRI : Brighton College

Brighton College is a public school for boys and girls in Brighton, East Sussex, in England. The headmaster is Mr Richard J. Cairns.

Contents

1 History
2 Buildings
3 Notable developments
4 Victorian school culture
5 Charitable tax status: campaigns to change the law
6 Additional information
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

History

Founded in 1845 by William Aldwin Soames, who collected a group of like-minded local citizens to join him in the task (especially Edward Cornford, a solicitor), Brighton College was the first of the public schools to be founded in Sussex.

Buildings

It has gothic revival buildings by Sir George Gilbert Scott RA (flint with caen stone dressings, 1848–66). Later buildings were designed by his pupil and former student at the College Sir Thomas Graham Jackson RA (brick and flint with cream and pink terracotta dressings, 1883–87; flint with clipsham stone dressings 1922–23).

Notable developments

The school occupied a significant niche in the development of English secondary education during the nineteenth century. Significant issues include:

the use of individual classrooms for teaching small groups
an early pioneer in teaching both modern languages and science
inventing the school magazine (1852)
building the first school gymnasium (1859)
erecting the first purpose-built science laboratory (1871).

Victorian school culture

The school's own evolution also questions the "traditional" account of how the Victorian public schools developed—at Brighton. For example the school started with a ban on the use of corporal punishment (which lasted until 1851). The school captain was elected by universal suffrage among the entire pupil body until 1878, when a prefectorial system was also introduced. Sporting games remained voluntary until 1902 (and team members had chosen their own captain and awarded colours to their outstanding players until 1878). In other words, the emerging public schools did not all automatically follow a common model or implement a common blueprint developed by Dr Arnold at Rugby School.

Charitable tax status: campaigns to change the law

Brighton College fought the legal battles that secured the charitable tax status now enjoyed by all recognised non-profitmaking organisations. A legal case between the school and the Inland Revenue from 1916 to 1926 produced a series of changes to tax law in the 1918 Income Tax Act, the 1921 and 1922 Finance Acts and, above all, section 24 of the 1927 Finance Act. The case (Brighton College v Marriott) went to the High Court [June 1924, 40 T.L.R. 763-5], the Court of Appeal [November 1924, 1 KB 312] and ultimately the House of Lords (November 1925, AC 192-204).

Additional information

The school is unique among English public schools in having a Greek motto: ΤΟ Δ’ΕΥ ΝΙΚΑΤΩ. From Aeschylus' Agamemnon, it means "Let Right Prevail". The only other HMC school with a motto in Greek is The Edinburgh Academy, founded in 1824.

The chapel perhaps stand alone among British school chapels because George Bell, Bishop of Chichester created the school grounds as an ecclesiastical district outside the parish of St Matthews and the school chapel holds an episcopal licence to perform weddings for its residents, after banns; no archepiscopal licence is required.

The school's cadet corps is among the tiny handful to carry colours—both a regimental and a king's colour. Both were presented by Sir Berry Cusack-Smith in the 1920s.

References

G. P. Burstow, "Documents relating to the Early History of Brighton College", The Sussex County Magazine, October 1951 and August 1952.
G. P. Burstow & M. B. Whittaker (ed. Sir Sydney Roberts), "A History of Brighton College." (Brighton, 1957).
Martin D. W. Jones, "A Short History of Brighton College." (Brighton College, 1986).
Martin D. W. Jones, "Brighton College 1845-1995." (Phillimore, Chichester, 1995) [ISBN 0-85033-978-2].
Martin D. W. Jones, "Brighton College v Marriott: Schools, charity law and taxation.", History of Education, 12 no.2 (1983).
Martin D. W. Jones, "Gothic Enriched: Thomas Jackson's Mural Tablets at Brighton College Chapel.", Church Monuments, VI (1991).
Martin D. W. Jones, "Edmund Scott & Brighton College Chapel: a lost work rediscovered.", Sussex Archaeological Collections, 135 (1997).
H. J. Mathews (ed.), "Brighton College Register, Part 1, 1847-1863." (Farncombe, Brighton, 1886).
E. K. Milliken (ed.), "Brighton College Register 1847-1922." (Brighton, 1922).
Anon., "Brighton College War Record 1914-1919." (Farncombe, Brighton, 1920). Compiled by Walter Hett.

External links

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.