NO GODS – ONLY MASTERS
Alexandros Hall (Year 12) looks back at two highly regarded former Masters of the College, Alfred Carver and Arthur Gilkes, exploring the ways in which they influenced the school in their own times and beyond
U pon exploring the Dulwich College website, you will see numerous references to the ‘values’ of the College, a concept familiar to most students. While we know what these values are nowadays, what were they like in the past, and how did they change under the College’s different Masters? In attempting to answer this question, we might helpfully look at the ideas and legacies of two of Dulwich’s most influential Victorian and Edwardian principals, the Reverend Alfred Carver and Arthur Gilkes, both of whose names will be familiar to Dulwich residents, thanks to places named after them in the Dulwich and Herne Hill areas. Alfred Carver (Master from 1858 to 1883) was appointed to Dulwich following the dissolution of the Old Foundation in 1857, upon which Edward Alleyn’s charity was reorgan- ised into separate educational and welfare sections. Carv- er oversaw the construction of the New College, on the present-day site, between 1866 and 1870 and, by the end of his tenure, had helped to transform Dulwich into one of England’s foremost public schools. His role at the helm of the College’s new incarnation earned him the moniker of Dulwich’s ‘Second Founder’.
first to see that the old training of the Public Schools was ‘inadequate to the requirements of this rapidly changing world’. Carver’s focus on providing students with a holis- tic education is also demonstrated by his endorsement of co-curricular activities: the Debating and Science societies were founded under Carver’s tenure and they developed into popular student organisations. Carver also intro- duced the daily use of the Lecture Hall for the teaching of Chemistry, Physics and Engineering. Additionally, he enabled students to meet with selected inhabitants of the local area, in what might be seen as a precursor of today’s much-attended networking events.
Carver promoted a broad and bold curriculum
Throughout his time as Master, Carver promoted a broad and bold curriculum. Within his very first syllabus at Dulwich, he included the study of Modern Languages and Natural Sciences, unorthodox subjects at the time due to xenophobia and the deeply ingrained presence of Classics in English public schools. Indeed, Dr Carver was referred to, in an 1891 School World article, as being one of the
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THE ALLEYNIAN 712
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