William Edward Forster: Politician, Statesman, Educationist

Abstract

WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER: POLITICIAN, STATESMAN, EDUCATIONIST By G. F. A. Baer* "The great pioneer of the Education Act has never received full recognition for his services."(Thomas Gautrey) WILLIAM Edward Forster was born at Bradpole, Dorset, on July 11, 1818. He was the only child of William and Anna Forster. Both were staunch Quakers and Forster was, accordingly, brought up in the traditions of this faith. It appears that he spent much of his early youth in the company of his nurse for both parents were Quaker ministers and frequently made religious journeys. And when, in 1820, Forster, the elder, felt the call to embark upon a dangerous and prolonged mission to America1, Anna Forster took over his work locally. At that period, then, William Edward's home life must have resembled the little episode which he delighted to relate in later life. While traveling with his nurse in a post-chaise he was asked where his father was. "Papa," he replied, "is preaching in America." "And where is your Mamma?" "Mamma is preaching in England."2 Hence, though an only child, he was by no means pampered. On the contrary. The austerity of his Quaker home and the necessity to stand on his own feet at a very early age brought out that sturdiness of will which later on characterized the grown-up man. "Our dear boy," the mother writes of him when he was but six years of age, "has lately given me a good deal of trouble in managing him, so sturdy is his will, but he is a fine fellow, plenty is there to work upon, and when I consider that both his father and his Uncle Fowell were rather troublesome children, I am encouraged."3 * G. F. A. Baer, M.A., M.Ed., S.T.D., was, until December 1949, Senior Lecturer at Rhodes University and has since been engaged in research. 1 He did not return till 1825. 2Ellis Yarnall, Wordsworth and the Coleridges (London, 1899), p. 262. 3 Letter dated Eighth Month 27, 1822, Gurney MSS., Sect. I, p. 155, Friends' House, London. Forster's uncle was Sir Thomas Foweli Buxton, the antislavery leader. 28 William Edward Forster29 In August, 1831, Forster became a pupil at Fishponds House, Bristol, where he remained till October, 1832. Fishponds was run by a Mr. Joel Lean, a Quaker. During the year he was at this school, Lean made young Forster work from 6:30 A. M. to 6:00 P. M., with brief intervals for meals. These long and arduous hours were necessitated by Lean's curriculum, which comprised "the rudiments of a polite education and instruction in every known branch of literature and the sciences." Whether he learned much at this establishment it is impossible to say, but it may safely be assumed that the amplitude of Mr. Lean's curriculum made a sound grounding in a particular subject unlikely. In October, 1832, Forster was transferred to Grove House, Tottenham, another Quaker school, run by a Mr. Binns. He remained there until the close of 1835, working really hard and often rising at four o'clock in the morning to apply himself to his studies. School essays, written by him while at Grove House, curiously forecast some of his main interests and activities in later life. There are compositions "On the Conduct of England to Uncivilized Nations" and on "The Causes of the Misery with which Ireland has been and is now afflicted,"4 the latter being a vigorous indictment of English rule in Ireland. And if the employment of leisure is at all significant, it may be worth noting here that Forster carefully regulated his spare time by setting aside two evenings for essay-writing, two for mathematics, one for Latin verse, and one for Greek testament and sundries.5 Other letters written about this time reveal already a keen interest in politics in general and in his Uncle Fowell Buxton's anti-slavery agitation in particular. II. Forster was now in his eighteenth year. His school days were over and his father was faced with the task of choosing a career for his son. William Edward himself would have liked to become a...