One profession, many social types.

Introduction

Victorian Bournemouth (84) explores the lives of people listed as teaching there during its second period. It finds many types perhaps having only the link formed by their involvement in education.

Victorian Bournemouth (84): social aspects

Demographics

Demographic variety characterises Bournemouth’s teachers during its second period. Both men and women taught, the latter outnumbering the former. The average age came to just over thirty, but a wide range lay behind this. Some had already begun in their teens, working as pupil teachers. Others had reached their fifties, still at work.  Marital status included married, unmarried, and widows. A few couples consisted of teachers, but as a rule only one partner taught. People born all over the country taught at Bournemouth, but most came from Dorset and Hampshire. Some stayed in teaching all their working lives, others left it. Some returned. Social background, as indicated by an identified father’s occupation, again showed much variation. The sons and daughters of labouring people entered teaching, as did the children of craftsmen. A few teachers had fathers working in more affluent occupations: farmers, fundholders, civil servants.

Social horizons

Even at the affluent level, social differences existed amongst the students attending two schools. This extended to the National School, designed to educate working people’s children. The social backgrounds of the school owners and teachers mirrored this segregation. Edmund Sandars, a writer as well as a tutor, had attended Cambridge, perhaps working in the Civil Service. His father owned land and property, a gentleman. Such a background fitted with the children of landowners and members of the Indian Civil Service. Eli Goodridge, by contrast, had a father who scratched in a landowner’s soil. He had done likewise before coming to Bournemouth, where he taught elementary literacy, perhaps to the children of labouring neighbours. William Beaumont taught for years in the public schools at Bournemouth. His father sawed wood. A brother worked in service. His wife, another teacher, also came from a family where at least two generations worked in service.

Victorian Bournemouth (84): some-time teachers

Examples

Few teachers listed at Bournemouth persisted with the job. Eli Goodridge, the agricultural labourer, supported three children with literacy lessons, his wife teaching needlework. They needed a wider horizon, however, for soon the family emigrated to Australia, where Eli returned to farming. Joseph Poole, a shoe-maker’s son, worked first as a joiner, but by 1861 he tutored in Bournemouth. For about twenty-five years he worked as a grocery clerk, but returned to education, tutoring once more: mathematics and Latin. Thereafter, he became a cashier for the bus company, but may also have managed apartments. Anne Rainbow, a gardener’s daughter from Northamptonshire, taught school in Bournemouth by 1859. Not long after, she married John Habgood, successful builder, whose first wife had also taught. Annie left teaching, but, after becoming a widow, she built up a successful china and glass business. Thus, for these people, teaching formed only part of the lives.

Discussion

Different factors may have caused some of Bournemouth’s teachers to look beyond education. Although, like Jude the Obscure, Eli Goodridge may have dreamt about becoming a professor, his farming background, shared by his wife’s, may have appealed more. Yet, little opportunity to advance beyond agricultural labouring perhaps existed in England. In Australia, they could live a familiar life, but with the bonus of having a small-holding. Edmund Sandars, from a privileged family, also seemed to need more, although education brought a healthy income. He entered Bournemouth’s public life as an Improvement Commissioner. Later, he also managed a lime and brick company. In the case of Joseph Poole, however, income requirements of a growing family perhaps caused him to forsake education for a while. Hence, he clerked for a grocer. For these people, education served as a means during one part of their lives. Others, however, spent their life teaching.

Victorian Bournemouth (84): life-time teachers

Examples

In at least two cases, life-time teachers worked with students belonging to working or middling families. Joseph Atkinson, a certificated teacher, had received acclaim from the parents of children attending St Peter’s Evening School. They awarded him a ‘handsome inkstand’ for teaching 54 students during the winter of 1863-1864. The press carried the story. Atkinson perhaps had his own school, thereafter, teaching commercial subjects and taking boarders. He became part of the community, joining the Masonic Lodge, and retiring in Bournemouth. William Beaumont, a Londoner, never left teaching at Bournemouth after arriving there by 1871. He taught elementary school and married a lady also teaching at Bournemouth. But teaching as a vocation reached beyond the level of National and elementary schools. Sarah Judd, whose school took students at 25 guineas each a year, appears involved in teaching all her married (and widowed) life. Even at 65 she continued her school.

Discussion

Early Bournemouth’s society had had little opportunity to coalesce. The town’s effortless and continuous growth will have rendered most parts of life transitory. People came and went. Tradition had yet to appear. By the 1860s, however, analysis has suggested that the basis of social continuity had appeared. The life-time teachers Joseph Atkinson and William Beaumont will have contributed to this sense of continuity through their extended educational careers. Many of their pupils will have stayed in the community. By contrast, few, if any, of Sarah Judd’s pupils would stay in Bournemouth. Nevertheless, she remained in Bournemouth for at least forty years, still associated with education at the end. The 1901 census listed both her and her daughter as retired schoolmistresses. The Judd family, therefore, arose from the fluid conditions of education in mid-Victorian Bournemouth to become a part of the town’s academic community, thereby contributing to its continuity.

Takeaway

Victorian Bournemouth (84) has explored the lives of people who came to teach at the resort. Some taught affluent children, some taught children of families who could just afford the lessons. Some left teaching, some persisted. Their social backgrounds varied. Many teachers moved away, called by the next episode in their lives, but others remained to help grow the town’s native traditions and widening community.

References

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