Thomas Hughes

Thomas Hughes, photograph in The Law Gazette (1893)

Thomas Hughes (born October 20, 1822 in Uffington , in Oxfordshire (formerly in Berkshire ), † March 22, 1896 in Brighton ) was an English writer , politician and lawyer involved in social reform , known for his classic youth book Tom Brown's School Years (Tom Brown's Schooldays) from 1857.

Life

Hughes was the second son of John Hughes, editor of the Boscobel Tracts (1830), and went to school in rugby from February 1834 , then directed by the most influential English educator of the 19th century, Thomas Arnold (1795-1842), a fellow student of his father at Oriel College , Oxford . At the school Thomas Hughes excelled in cricket , where he made it to a game at Lord's Cricket Ground in London. In 1842 he went to Oriel in Oxford, where he graduated in 1845. In 1848 he was admitted to the bar. In 1869 he became Queen's Counsel and in 1870 “Bencher” (both honorary degrees in the British legal system). In July 1882 he became a judge at the Chester District Court (Country Court Judgeship).

Thomas Hughes' statue in the grounds of the Rugby School in Rugby

From 1865 to 1868 he was the Liberal Member of Parliament for the Liberal Party for Lambeth and from 1868 to 1874 for Frome . As a committed social reformer (he supported the Chartists ) he joined the movement of Christian socialists around Frederick Denison Maurice (1805–1872) in 1848 (whose Kingdom of Christ from 1838 had made a deep impression on him as a student) and was involved in founding some formerly involved in unions. In January 1854 he was with Maurice (who had just lost his professorship because of his views in Cambridge) one of the founders of the Working Men's College on Great Ormond Street in the London borough of Bloomsbury, where he also lectured regularly like Charles Kingsley and whose director he was from 1872 to 1883. In 1880 he founded the city of Rugby in Tennessee in the USA , which was intended as a utopian experiment for the second-born sons of upper-class English circles, but was not very successful.

Hughes married Frances Ford in 1848, with whom he settled at Wimbledon in 1853 . There he wrote his most famous book Tom Brown's School Days (Ger. Tom Brown's Schooldays years ), released in April 1857. In 1861 a follow-up band followed, Tom Brown at Oxford .

One of his daughters, Lilian Hughes Carter, died in 1912 with her husband, Pastor Ernest Carter, in the sinking of the RMS Titanic .

Tom Brown's school years

The book Tom Brown's Schooldays is based on his experiences in rugby and opens with the nostalgically drawn rural world in the valley of the white horse near Uffington. Tom Brown (modeled after Hughes' brother George) is a kind-hearted, strong-willed student who is more interested in sports than teaching. As soon as he entered rugby he befriends Harry "Scud" East and both have to fight off the reenactment of an older, rowdy student named Flashman (whom the novelist George MacDonald Fraser later borrowed for his satirical Flashman Papers ). After they were successful in this, Tom Brown receives in the second part of the book as an advanced student from the school principal Thomas Arnold the patronage of a new student George Arthur, who is an excellent student, but also sensitive, of poor health and somewhat awkward. Tom Brown defends him against teasing other students, befriends him and takes care of him when he becomes seriously ill. Both are committed to Christian values and play together on the cricket team. The book ends with the adult Tom Brown returning to rugby, where he hears of the death of the headmaster Thomas Arnold.

The first German translation by Ernst Wagner appeared in 1867 under the title Tom Brown's Schuljahre. From an old rugby boy. To present the current state of education in the upper classes of England in Perthes-Verlag , Gotha .

The novel has been made into films several times, including in 1940 by Robert Stevenson with Jimmy Lydon as Tom Brown and Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Thomas Arnold, in 1951 by Gordon Parry with John Howard Davies as Tom Brown and Robert Newton as Arnold and in 2005 as a BBC television film under the Directed by Dave Moore with Alex Pettyfer as Tom Brown and Stephen Fry as Arnold.

Huges himself had his greatest book success in 1861 followed by the lesser-known sequel Tom Brown at Oxford .

Works

Fiction

Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857; German Tom Brown's School Years. From an old rugby boy. To illustrate the current level of education in the upper classes of England , Gotha 1867; later editions under the title Tom Brown's School Years. From an old boy )
The Scouring of The White Horse (1859) ( referring to the large prehistoric floor drawing of a white horse near Uffington)

Tom Brown at Oxford (1861)

Non-fiction

Religio Laici (1861)
A Layman's Faith (1868)
Life of Alfred the Great (1870)
Memoir of a Brother (1873) (his brother George)
The Manliness of Christ (1879)
Rugby Tennessee (1881)
Memoir of David Macmillan (1882)
Gone to Texas (1884)
Notes for Boys (1885)
James Fraser Second Bishop of Manchester (1887)
David Livingstone (1889)
Vacation Rambles (1895)
Early Memories for the Children (1899)

Web links

Commons : Thomas Hughes - collection of images, videos and audio files

personal data
SURNAME	Hughes, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	English writer, lawyer and politician, member of the House of Commons
DATE OF BIRTH	October 20, 1822
PLACE OF BIRTH	Uffington , Oxfordshire
DATE OF DEATH	March 22, 1896
Place of death	Brighton