The International Education Society was organized in 1863, primarily by Liberal politician and industrialist Richard Cobden, who hoped international education could help eliminate war and promote free trade (an idea that had been discussed by a number of like-minded individuals at the 1855 Paris Exposition). Cobden died before the school opened, but William Ellis provided funding to complete the school's construction. The College's buildings were completed in 1866, and it officially opened in 1867, with classicist Leonhard Schmitz as the first headmaster. It engaged in a number of other educational experiments besides the focus on internationalism: it eliminated corporal punishment, and instituted an unusually science-focused curriculum, developed with noted scientists Thomas Henry Huxley and John Tyndall on its board of directors. In addition, Latin and Greek instruction was delayed to a later age than was then common, and instead instruction in modern languages was emphasized.