page_title: Oscar Browning
section_title: Hornby and controversy
hierarchical_section_title: Oscar Browning / Life / Eton schoolmaster / Hornby and controversy
caption_attribution_description: English: James John Hornby (Provost of Eton), "The Head".
context_page_description: Oscar Browning OBE was a British educationalist, historian and bon viveur, a well-known Cambridge personality during the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. An innovator in the early development of professional training for teachers, he served as principal of the Cambridge University Day Training College from 1891 to 1909. He was also a prolific author of popular histories and other books.
  The son of a prosperous distiller, Browning was educated at Eton, and then King's College, Cambridge. On graduating in 1860 he returned to Eton as an assistant master. A vociferous and active opponent of the school's traditional curriculum and teaching methods, he introduced novel and progressive techniques to the classroom, to the general approval of his pupils but to the dismay of the Eton authorities. He was controversially dismissed from his post in 1875, ostensibly because of repeated disregard for school rules, but an underlying issue was disquiet arising from his lifestyle, particularly his close and affectionate relationships with boys under his care.
context_section_description: In 1868 Balston resigned, and was succeeded as headmaster by James John Hornby. This appointment broke with the tradition that Eton headmasters always came from King's College, Cambridge (Hornby was  an Oxford man). The change was welcomed by Browning: "We shall now be governed on the principles that universally obtain in human society". Hornby introduced modest curriculum and timetable changes which incorporated history, science, modern languages and other subjects into the main curriculum.  However, the anti-reform instincts at Eton remained  strong, and Hornby  soon identified with the more traditionalist factions led by Warre. He was irritated by Browning's independent outloook, and objected to his teaching of "modern" history such as the French Revolution. Hornby thought that Browning neglected his real work, the teaching of classics, in favour of his experimental pedagogical methods and outside activities such as "lecturing to ladies", and was critical of a supposed lack of discipline in his classes.
  Browning's personal relationships with boys were a further matter of concern to Hornby. Although Browning took a firm personal line against homosexuality, masturbation and any other sexual practices, he maintained a series of  romantic friendships with boys. He had favourites, who were often replaced with a brutal suddenness when they lost their appeal. Sometimes, one of these would accompany him on his regular European trips during the summer holidays, as did Gerald Balfour, the future prime minister's brother, in 1869.   Although this type of close, even affectionate master-boy relationship was considered generally acceptable in Victorian public school life,  Browning's flamboyance and mannerisms were contrary to Hornby's vision for the school; Anstruther writes: "The mere sight of Oscar Browning with his pale face and effeminate manner was enough in itself to make Hornby suspicious". Furthermore, Browning's friendship with  the artist Simeon Solomon was widely known. Solomon, like Browning, was an advocate of "Greek love", a concept derived from Plato's Dialogues which held that the highest form of love was that of men for each other, exclusive of physical expression. The two holidayed together, and Solomon was a frequent visitor to Eton – he exchanged with Browning a series of intimate letters in which they mutually extolled the beauties of various boys.   In February 1873  Solomon was convicted of an act of gross indecency in a London public lavatory – a consensual act of sodomy with a mature working-class male was far from the ideals of Greek love, and Browning ended the relationship with Solomon immediately.
caption: James John Hornby as depicted by Vanity Fair
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