ARNOLD, THOMAS (1795-1842), English clergyman and headmaster of Rugby School, was born at West Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, on June 13 1795. He was the son of William and Martha Arnold. His father was collector of customs at Cowes. He was educated at Winchester and Corpus Christi College, Ox ford; in 1815 he was elected fellow of Oriel College; and there he continued to reside until 1819. This interval was diligently de voted to the pursuit of classical and historical studies, to theology, ecclesiastical polity and social philosophy. For the writings of Thucydides and Aristotle he formed an attachment which re mained until the close of his life. He left Oxford in 1819 and settled at Laleham, near Staines, where he took pupils for the university. His spare time was devoted to the prosecution of studies in philology and history, more particularly to the study of Thucydides, and of the new light which had been cast upon Roman history and upon historical method by the researches of Niebuhr. Shortly after he settled at Laleham, he married Mary, youngest daughter of the Rev. John Penrose, rector of Fled borough, Nottinghamshire. After nine years at Laleham, he was elected headmaster of Rugby School in Dec. 1827, and in Aug. 1828 entered on his new office.
Under Arnold's superintendence the school became not merely a place where a certain amount of classical or general learning was to be obtained, but a sphere of intellectual, moral and re ligious discipline, where healthy characters were formed, and men were trained for the duties, struggles and responsibilities of life. His energies were chiefly devoted to the business of the school; but he found time also for much literary work, as well as for an extensive correspondence. Five volumes of sermons, an edition of Thucydides, with English notes and dissertations, a history of Rome in three volumes, besides numerous articles in reviews, journals, newspapers and encyclopaedias, show the untiring activ ity of his mind. His interest in public matters also was incessant, especially ecclesiastical questions, and matters that bore upon the social welfare and moral improvement of the masses.
In 1841, after 14 years at Rugby, Dr. Arnold was appointed by Lord Melbourne to the chair of modern history at Oxford. On Dec. 2 1841, he delivered his. inaugural lecture. Seven other lec tures were delivered during the first three weeks of the Lent term of 1842. He died on Sunday, June 12 1842. His remains were interred on the following Friday in the chancel of Rugby Chapel, immediately under the communion table.
Dr. Arnold was not a notable scholar, and he had not much of what is usually called tact in his dealings either with the juvenile or the adult mind. What gave him his power, and secured for him so deeply the respect and veneration of his pupils and acquaintances, was the intensely religious character of his whole life and his severe and lofty estimate of duty.
Life was written by Dean Stanley (1845) . See also Lytton Strachey, Eminent Victorians; and, for a satirical portrait, Samuel Butler, The Way of all Flesh.