User:Rupert Clayton/Arthur Thornton draft

Arthur Thornton (24 August 1865–16 July 1949) was the first headmaster of Bridlington School and wrote one of the earliest popular books on X-rays to be published in England.

Childhood and education
Arthur Thornton was born on 24 August 1865, son of Thomas Thornton of Keighley Road, Skipton, West Yorkshire. As a boy, he was educated at Skipton Grammar School (1875–1882) and Giggleswick School (1875–1882). 

He was admitted to Christ's College, Cambridge in, where he became a Scholar. He graduated with a double first in mathematics and natural sciences, placing as 24th wrangler in the mathematics examinations of 1887, and adding a 1st Class degree in the natural sciences tripos (chemistry, physics and mineralogy) in 1888.

Thornton, Arthur: son of Thomas: born at Skipton, 24 Aug. 1865. Schools: Skipton Grammar 1875-82, and Giggleswick 1882-4, under the Rev. G. Style, M.A. Admitted pensioner under Mess" Peile and Cartmell 14 Mar. 1884. B.A. (25th wrangler) 1887 ; M.A. 1891. Entrance scholar, admitted 20 Oct. 1884. Master at Giggleswick School 1888-92; at Ipswich School 1892-4; at Bradford Grammar School 1894-9; Headmaster of Bridlington School since 1899. Member of the East Riding of Yorks. Education Committee. Author: Theoretical Mechanics; The X-rays. Joint author: Volumetric Analysis. Address : The School House, Bridlington.



Giggleswick School
By the second half of the 19th century, it was clear that education was poorly serving many children in England. A series of commissions was formed to find solutions: the Newcastle Commission of 1858–1861 on "the education of the poorer classes"; the Clarendon Commission of 1861–1864 for public schools (attended mostly by sons of the wealthy); and the Taunton (or Endowed Schools) Commission of 1864–1867. The Taunton Commission proposed to reform the many endowed schools throughout England into a national system of secondary education. This was formalised through the Endowed Schools Act 1869, which created the Endowed Schools Commission with extensive powers over endowments of individual schools.

About the time Thornton was finishing his university studies, this movement was bringing mathematics and science to English secondary schools, where previously, the core subjects of instruction had been only the classics. After graduating from Cambridge, Thornton secured a position as mathematical science master at Giggleswick School.

At the same time, Thornton retained a strong interest in astronomy. He was proposed for fellowship of the Royal Astronomical Society by his Christ's College friend, astronomer Ernest William Brown, and was elected on 8 January 1892. .

Page 122 appears to be school record, Thornton, Arthur. 24th August 1865, Son of Thomas Thornton, Keighley Road, Skipton. Left July...

Better ref at

Thornton, Arthur. 24 August 1865. Son of Thomas Thornton, Keighley Road, Skipton. Left July 1884. 1st XI Cricket; 1st XV Football. Scholar of Christ's Coll., Cambridge, 1884; B.A. (24th Wrangler) 1887. (1st Class Nat. Sci. Trip., Part I), 1888. M.A. 1891. Assistant Master at Giggleswick School, 1888-92; Ipswich School 1892-4; Bradford Grammar School, 1894-99. Headmaster of Bridlington School since 1899. Member of East Riding of Yorks. Education Committee. Author: "Theoretical Mecahnics;" "The X-Rays." Joint Author: "Volumetric Analysis." The School House, Bridlington.

September, 1882.

(1913 text)

Thornton, Arthur. 24th August, 1865. Son of Thomas Thornton, Keighley Road, Skipton. Left July, 1884. 1st XI Cricket; 1st XV Football. Scholar of Christ's Coll., Cambridge, 1884; B.A. (24th Wrangler) 1887; (1st Class Nat. Sci. Trip., Part I) 1888; M.A. 1891. Assistant Master at Giggleswick School, 1888-92; Ipswich School, 1892-4; Bradford Grammar School, 1894-99. Headmaster ot Bridling- ton School since 1899. Member of the East Riding of Yorks. Education Committee. Author: "Theoreti- cal Mechanics;" " The X-rays." Joint Author: " Volu- metric Analysis." The School House, Bridlington.

(2nd ed, 1922 text)

Thornton, Arthur. 24th August, 1865. Son of Thomas Thornton, Keighley Road, Skipton. Left July, 1884. 1st XI Cricket; 1st XV Football; Gold Medal for Athletics. 1884. Scholar of Christ's Coll., Cambridge, 1884: B.A. (24th Wrangler) 1887; (1st Class Nat. Sci. Trip., Part I) 1888; M.A. 1891. Assistant Master at Giggleswick School, 1888-92; Ipswich School, 1892-94; Bradford Grammar School. 1894-99. Headmaster of Bridlington School since 1899. Member of the East Riding of Yorks. Education Committee. Author: "Theoretical Mechanics"; "The X-rays." Joint Author: "Volumetric Analysis." The School House, Bridlington.

Page 275

Assistant Masters

"1888 Arthur Thornton (O.G.) B.A., Late Scholar of Christ's College Cambridge."

Ipswich School
Teacher of Chemistry at Ipswich School, two years (1892-1894?). RAS lists him at Ipswich Grammar School in ?June 1893. Listed as "Master at Ipswich School" when awarded MA by Christ's College in

Bradford Grammar School
Became senior science master at Bradford Grammar School in 1894, which in 1871 had been the first school in England to be reorganized under the Endowed Schools Act.

1894: Also joined Yorkshire Geological Society. 

Elected as a fellow of the Chemical Society on 16 May 1895. At this point he was living at 67 St Mary's Terrace, Manningham, Bradford.

Bridlington School
In Bridlington, on the Yorkshire coast, a group of town leaders had been working during the 1890s to found a grammar school for boys. The original Bridlington School may have been founded in the reign of Henry VI, and certainly was in operation by the 17th century. However, by the mid-19th century the few pupils enrolled were reportedly receiving a poor education, and the school closed in 1865 on the death of the headmaster. The charitable income that had funded the school was allowed to accumulate, so that by the last decade of the the century there was a sufficient endowment to consider founding a grammar school. This effort was authorised by the Charity Commissioners in 1894, and with contributions from the local manor estates and from East Riding County Council, the school foundation stone was laid on 14 June 1898 by Sir Charles Legard.

In March 1899, Thornton was selected to be the first headmaster of the newly formed Bridlington Grammar School.

The name of the school changed in 1921 to simply Bridlington School.

In a 1900 article in an education journal, Thornton described the school as "essentially modern rather than classical, so that prominence is given to mathematics, science and art." The school was initially divided into four forms by age (plus a fifth form for special entry exams), with all receiving six hours of maths and from one to six hours of science per week. The maths and science teaching was split between Thornton and his deputy headmaster, . Providing such extensive education and science was unusual for a provincial grammar school at that date.

Notable students
Thornton was credited with inspiring many of his pupils to make a career of science. Among these were:


 * Norman Feather, FRS, who in 1940 predicted along with Egon Bretscher that neutron capture would generate the then-unknown element plutonium-239 from the nuclear chain reaction of uranium-238.

Death
Thornton died on 16 July 1949 in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.

Books

 * Theoretical Mechanics: Solids, including Kinematics, Statics and Kinetics. Longmans' Advanced Science Manuals. London: Longmans, Green and Co, 1894, OCLC . 436 pages, with illustrations and diagrams.
 * The X-Rays. Popular Photographic Series 10. Bradford: Percy Lund and Co, August 1896, OCLC . 63 pages, with illustrations and 16 pages of trade advertisements.
 * Notes on Volumetric Analysis. London: Longmans, Green and Co, 1898, OCLC . 80 pages, with illustrations. Written with Marchant Pearson.
 * Bridlington School and William Hustler's Endowment: 1636–1936. Lund Humphries, 1936. 63 pages.

Journal articles

 * "The Organisation of Individual Secondary Schools: The Bridlington Grammar School". The Record of Technical and Secondary Education 9 (38, April 1900): 142, 186–193.

Compilation Links
WP:WORKS Template:Citation WP:Notes WP:MOS WP:Layout


 * Thornton, John. Advanced Physiography. Longmans' Advanced Science Manuals. London: Longmans, Green and Co, 1890, OCLC.

Source 1
* Norman Feather. 16 November 1904-14 August 1978 * W. Cochran and S. Devons * Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, Vol. 27, (Nov., 1981), pp. 255-282 (article consists of 29 pages) * Published by: The Royal Society * Stable URL:

Source 3
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Source 6


Feather: Yes. Well, my family background has no science in it at all, as far as I know. My father and mother were both teachers in primary schools, in the country. I went as early as the age of 10 to attend a boarding school, where it so happened the headmaster was himself a scientist. Over eight years there, there were not a great many boys I think who really became close to the headmaster intellectually, but I was one of them, and because he was a scientist I was set to be a scientist. Then I went up to Cambridge and never had any other intention except to be a scientist.

Weiner: Scientist is a broad term. Did you have any specific interest within it?

Feather: Well, he was a mathematician, a physicist and an astronomer, an amateur astronomer, and so I was going to be a physicist. That was it. He had J.J. Thomson as one of his heroes, and so I had J.J. Thomson as one of my heroes, and went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, where J.J. was master. I never had any intention of being other than a physicist myself.

Weiner: Had the headmaster gone all the way through Cambridge?

Feather: He had been in Cambridge, yes. He’d taken mathematics and science in the 1880s, I suppose, and in those days it was perhaps unusual for anyone to take a double degree in mathematics and science. I think he was more of a mathematician than a scientist himself, but he was interested enough to give young folk an enthusiasm for the subject. I said he was an astronomer, an amateur astronomer. I’m talking now of, say, 1920. And I remember, with his encouragement we set up a four-inch refractor with an equatorial mounting, just a rough equatorial mounting, and with the aid of tables in Whittaker’s Almanac, we ‘rediscovered’ Neptune (that is we observed the motion of the planet against the background of stars).

Weiner: What was his name, the headmaster?

Feather: Arthur Thornton. Incidentally, this was at school in Bridlington in East Yorkshire. It was not a very large or well known school, an old school. But before he came there as headmaster he had been senior science master at Bradford Grammar School, which was of course in a fairly large industrial city, a wealthy city, a school with quite a reputation; and there he had entertained as lecturers all the big scientists of the day, and acted as chairman to public lectures for them. And incidentally at that time, 1896, he had become so interested in the discovery of X- rays that the first book in English, or first book published in England on the new discovery, was his own short book on X- rays published in August, 1896.

Weiner: That’s very close after the discovery.

Feather: The discovery was December, 1895.

Weiner: Did he do experiments?

Feather: Yes, he made his own X- rays sets, and even in my day at school, he always had an X- ray set in the background.

Source 7


Thornton, Arthur,' Christ's. Sch. 24th Wrangler, 1887. 1st Class Natural Science Trip., 1888. B.A., 1887. M.A., 1891. Head Master of the Grammar School, Bridlington, Yorks.

and page 551 and 759 of Cambridge history PDF

Relative
THORNTON, ARTHUR LAMBERT, B.Sc., 1894; Junior Inspector, Board of Education; formerly A.M. Central Higher Grade School, Bolton.



Thornton Arthur Lambert Owens Born December 21 1873 at Manchester B Sc 1894 Assistant Master Central Higher Grade School Bolton Junior Inspector Board of Education Broomlea Navigation Road Altrincham Cheshire



Thornton Arthur Lambert 2 Park Street Bolton Science Teacher under the School Board of Bolton and the Technical Instruction Committee of Bolton Bachelor of Science Victoria University Studied in the Owens College Chemical Laboratories during the years 1891 1894 G H Bailey HB Dixon WH Perkin jun JF Thorpe Wm A Bone