known as Doctor Arnold
born June 13, 1795, East Cowes, Isle of Wight, Eng.
died June 12, 1842, Rugby, Warwickshire
British educator.
A classical scholar, he became headmaster in 1828 of Rugby School, which was in a state of decline. He revived Rugby by reforming its curriculum, athletics program, and social structure (in the prefect system he introduced, older boys served as house monitors to keep discipline among younger boys), becoming in the process the preeminent figure in British education. In 1841 he was named Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford. In addition to several volumes of sermons, he wrote a three-volume History of Rome (1838–43). He was the father of Matthew Arnold and grandfather of the novelist Mrs. Humphry Ward (1851–1920).
Thomas Arnold, detail of an engraving by H. Cousins, 1840, after an oil painting by Thomas Philips
By courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co. Ltd.