Henry Francis Pelham
Henry Francis Pelham | |
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19th President of Trinity College Oxford | |
In office 1897–1907 | |
Preceded by | Henry George Woods |
Succeeded by | Herbert Edward Douglas Blakiston |
Personal details | |
Born | Bergh Apton, Norfolk | 10 October 1846
Died | 13 February 1907 Oxford | (aged 60)
Parents |
|
Alma mater | Trinity College, Oxford |
Henry Francis Pelham,
Early life
He was grandson of
Pelham was born on 19 September 1846 at Bergh Apton, then his father's parish. Entering Harrow in May 1860, he moved rapidly up the school, and left in December 1864. Next year he won an open classical scholarship at Trinity College, Oxford, matriculating on 22 April 1865; he came into residence in October.
Academic career
At Oxford he took 'first classes' in honour classical moderations and in
He worked continuously as classical tutor and lecturer at Exeter College from 1870 to 1889. He was elected by his college proctor of the university in 1879. Losing his fellowship on his marriage in 1873, he was re-elected in 1882, under the statutes of the second university commission.[1]
From school onwards his principal subject was ancient and more particularly
In 1887, he succeeded
But his research work was stopped by an attack of cataract in both eyes (1890), and though a few specimen paragraphs of his projected History were set up in type in 1888, he completed in manuscript only three and a half chapters, covering the years B.C. 35-15, and he never resumed the work after 1890; his other research, too, was hereafter limited to detached points in Roman imperial history.
On the other hand, he joined actively in administrative work, for which his strong personality and his clear sense fitted him at least as well as for research; he served on many Oxford boards, was a member of the Hebdomadal Council from 1879 to 1905, aided semi-academic educational movements (he was a founder of the women's college Somerville Hall), and in 1897 accepted the presidency of his old college. Trinity.
He was elected honorary fellow of Exeter in 1895, was an original fellow of the British Academy in 1902 and received the hon. degree of LL.D. at Aberdeen in 1906. He became
Family and personal life
On 30 July 1873, he married Laura Priscilla Buxton, third daughter of
- Sir KCB(1876–1949), civil servant
- Arthur John Pelham (24 December 1878 – 11 August 1883), died in childhood
- Rt Rev Herbert Pelham (1881–1944), Bishop of Barrow-in-Furness
- Catherine Harriet Pelham (8 September 1885 – 20 November 1894), died in childhood
- Laura Grace Pelham (20 September 1888 – 18 April 1980) married David Francis Bickmore DSO (1891– †1918), son of Rev Francis Askew Bickmore
He died in the president's lodgings at Trinity on 12 February 1907, and was buried in St Sepulchre's Cemetery.
Notes
- ^ a b c d Haverfield 1912.
- ^ "School Notes" (PDF). The Abingdonian.
- ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.
References
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Haverfield, Francis John (1912). "Pelham, Henry Francis". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- G.B. Grundy, Fifty-Five Years at Oxford : An Unconventional Biography, London : Methuen, 1945, pp. 64, 86 f., 166
- F. J. Haverfield, rev. Roger T. Stearn. "Pelham, Henry Francis (1846–1907)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35459. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)