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Arthur Burrell

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Arthur Burrell (1859-1946) was an educationist, lecturer, author and historian who served as Principal of Borough Road Training College during the period when the seeds of its later excellence in athletics were sown. Among his varied endeavours he promoted the art of storytelling, deciphered the code in Anne Lister’s diaries, and adapted the Authorised Version of the Bible to a shortened form for children.

Birth and education

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Born in Middlesex and brought up in Gloucestershire, he was a son of William Burrell, formerly a superintending surgeon in the East India Company’s service at Madras, by his second wife Adelaide Pierce.[1] Educated at Dulwich College, he in 1878 obtained an open scholarship to Wadham College, Oxford,[2] and graduated in 1881, having been placed in the second class of both parts of the Literae humaniores examination.[3]

Early teaching appointments

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In 1882 he obtained appointment as an assistant master at Bradford Grammar School, and in 1890 he became Senior Master of its Junior Department.[4] The measure of his success in these roles was recognised in 1899 when, at the initiative of some of Bradford’s most prominent citizens, his departure from the school was marked by a dinner and substantial presentation to him. On this occasion the city’s mayor paid tribute to his having done “more for education in its very highest form - making boys love learning for learning’s own sake - than any of the other men who had ever been a leader in education in the city”.[5] Among his pupils had been Sir William Rothenstein, who later recalled him as an “admirable master” who “won my whole-hearted devotion”.[6]

Principal at Borough Road

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He left Bradford on being appointed Principal of Borough Road Training College, a residential establishment preparing men for the teaching profession, in succession to H. L. Withers.[7] Shortly after his appointment the college, which had recently relocated to Isleworth, was refused the status of a constituent school of the University of London notwithstanding that 80 of its 129 students were currently preparing for the university’s degree examinations. The refusal reflected official opinion that the college’s primary focus should be on preparation for elementary teaching,[8] but five years later one in seven of the names on the university’s BA and BSc lists was that of a Borough Road graduate and the Board of Education accepted that higher study at the college was providing much needed intellectual stimulus for students of ability.[9]

Against this background Burrell deplored the Board’s position whereby students failing their degree examination did not qualify for a Teacher’s Certificate despite having passed the professional part of the examination. This was one of several disagreements he had with the Board during a period when scrutiny and regulation of public education made consistent direction of teacher training especially challenging. During Burrell’s twelve years at Borough Road there were three major Consultative Committee reports, three Royal Commissions, several education circulars and Codes of Regulation, as well as the Education Act 1902.[10]

Burrell himself had clear views on the proper content of elementary education, proposing at the British Association’s Annual Conference in 1906 that the curriculum of a primary school should omit a second language, all but elementary mathematics, all definite instruction in chemistry, and all higher grammar, and should make greater provision for physical work, tool work and geographical work.[11]

He was deeply interested in the role of athletic exercise in the development of children[12] and made engaging in physical training intrinsic to the culture of Borough Road. In 1905 he reported “We shall not do our duty by students (who, for the most part, come up physically untrained) until we see every single member of the College taking daily exercise. We are on the high road to this”.[13] He was assisted in establishing this regime by Herbert Milnes, a tutor at the college and sportsman of some note who carried the cult of athleticism to Auckland Teachers’ Training College, of which he became head in 1906.[14] Milnes was one of five principals supplied by Borough Road to training colleges in different parts of the world during Burrell’s term there.[15]

Burrell resigned from Borough Road in 1912[16] in order, it was said, “to do missionary work to revive the art of story-telling”.[17]

Storytelling and the human voice

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Early work

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He believed the decline of oral storytelling following invention of the printing press substantially deprived society of an art-form that had, for thousands of years, engaged and developed both the intellect and the voice of mankind.[18] In parallel with this belief he considered that reading aloud was the best way to understand, appreciate and interpret the meaning of the written word, and that accordingly the human voice should receive the fullest education.[19]

In the 1880s he gave public readings of poems and stories by authors who were currently popular[20] and he began making a personal collection of stories, particularly of those that had circulated in different parts of the world from before the era of the written word.[21] In the following decade he lectured widely on nursery rhymes, fairy tales and folklore[22] and, in the course of these lectures, performed recitations which were regarded as “of the highest order”.[23]

In 1890 he contributed an article on “Recitation” to the first issue of Charlotte Mason’s monthly The Parent’s Review[24] and his essay “Voices from My Books: Studies in Recitation” appeared in the Atalanta magazine.[25] He had sufficiently developed the topic to produce a teaching handbook on recitation in the following year[26] and in 1898 he published Clear Speaking and Good Reading[27] which ran to several editions over the next two decades.[28] This last treatise proceeded on the same premise as his 1890 article, namely that a child’s voice is naturally beautiful and should be sympathetically guided to become “distinct, quiet and restrained” rather than forced into shape by elocutionary pressure. To such end he advocated breathing exercises, practice in accurate sounding, and encouragement of children to recount familiar stories in their own words rather than by slavishly repeating established texts.[29]

Later work

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For three decades, commencing in the early 1900s, he frequently lectured on “The Art of Story Telling” to literary and philosophical societies, religious and charitable bodies, and groups such as the Parents' National Educational Union, the Froebel Society, the National Union of Teachers and the Workers’ Educational Association.[30] When addressing those engaged in teaching his focus was on the use of storytelling as an educational medium by which to “appeal to wonder, imagination, intelligence, laughter and tears”.[31] Presenting his subject to more general audiences he compared what he considered the “real divorce between literature and the human mind” with the inherent appeal of stories from different lands and traditions that acted as “one of the great unifiers of mankind”.[32]

In the course of his lectures Burrell would tell several stories from his considerable collection and then trace their origins and analyse their appeal and significance.[33] Stories for young or old were selected according to the composition of his audience and, when intended for children, were often illustrated by lantern slides of pictures drawn by his brother.[34] When he lectured at Bradford in 1904 the illustrations were supplied by Alice Goyder.[35]

He also explained the technique of successful storytelling, insisting that the teller must submerge his personality in favour of the story, that there must be “no affectation, no tragic or stage effects”, and that the teller’s only gestures must be those that come naturally “in the poise of the head and body and the play of the hands and eyes”.[36] His own telling attracted what seems to have been general admiration, reportedly receiving “riveted attention” and, upon conclusion, “tumultuous” or “rapturous” applause,[37] and he was said to be “well-known throughout the British Isles as an expert of his art”[38] who told his stories with “the charm of a supreme story-teller”.[39]

In 1924 the BBC broadcast Burrell telling children’s stories[40] and in 1926 his book A Guide to Story Telling appeared in print.[41] More than thirty years earlier he had published a small collection of stories (interspersed with verses) of his own composition, The Man with Seven Hearts,[42] and this he followed shortly afterwards with a similar selection, The Piebald Horse and Other Stories.[43]

Editorial work

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Between 1908 and 1912 he contributed three books to J. M. Dent’s Everyman’s Library series. First among these (no. 307 in the series) was Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales for the Modern Reader,[5] in which he modernised Chaucer’s spelling and vocabulary “just enough to leave its quaintness and take away some of the difficulties”. This was followed by Piers Plowman, The Vision of a People’s Christ: A Version for the Modern Reader (no. 571),[6] a modernisation of the original text in the same manner, and by A Book of Heroic Verse chosen by Arthur Burrell, M.A. (no. 574)[7].

This last, comprising a selection of some 150 verses dating from Biblical times to the contemporary age of Conan Doyle and Henry Newbolt, had first appeared in 1905 in Dent’s series of Temple Classics for school reading[44] when Burrell’s Selections from Shakespeare, with explanatory notes, was also among the series.[45]

For Dent he undertook to adapt and edit the Authorised Version of the Bible to a form and length specifically intended for use in schools and home study. The version he produced, published in 1909 under the title The Shorter Bible, was notable for its carefully considered omissions (including the whole of Leviticus, Chronicles, Mark’s Gospel and the Epistle to the Philippians). Less than 700 printed pages in length, It was generally well received[46] but did not pass into widespread use and was later somewhat eclipsed by the Cambridge Shorter Bible edited by Alexander Nairne, T. R. Glover and Arthur Quiller-Couch.[47] Nevertheless, it continued to be reprinted as late as 1940.[48]

Burrell himself was regarded as an authority on the history of the English Bible and its translation[49] and his private library included early Tyndale, Coverdale and Geneva Bibles.[50]

Anne Lister’s diaries

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When living in Bradford, he became a friend of John Lister who, following inheritance of Shibden Hall, had found there the diaries of his late relative Anne Lister. One-sixth of the content of these was written in cipher employing Greek characters and algebraic symbols. Burrell lectured on Classical topics[51] and it was possibly on account of his familiarity with Greek text that Lister sought his assistance to decode the cipher. Having borrowed and studied a volume of the diaries, Burrell believed he had established how the letters ‘h’ and ‘e’ were rendered in their code. When he and Lister found a scrap of paper on which Anne had written in cipher the word that completed “God is my…”, the rendition of two further letters was exposed and her code was essentially broken, revealing her lesbian seductions and affairs.

Burrell considered the matters thus disclosed “very unsavoury” and involving “criminal” conduct. He urged John Lister to destroy the diaries but Lister preserved them and, following his death in 1933, they came into the possession of Halifax Borough Corporation. In 1937 Burrell provided the Borough’s librarian (“as you are the legal owner of the manuscript”) with his key to the cipher; two decades later the key was first disclosed to researchers and after a further thirty years the secrets of the diaries were published and attracted worldwide attention.[52]

Local historian

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Following his retirement from Borough Road, Burrell lived in Twickenham where he was chairman of the local Library Committee for twenty years.[53] He researched the history of the district extensively and in 1938 presented the borough with what was described as “The Book of Twickenham” summarising and illustrating the results of his research.[54] In recognition of his “eminent services” to the borough he had been made an honorary freeman of Twickenham in the previous year.[55]

Following his death the borough established an annual Arthur Burrell Memorial Lecture. In 1965 the fifteenth such lecture was given by Sir John Rothenstein, son of Burrell’s old pupil,[56] and the twenty-ninth lecture was delivered in 1979.[57]

Death

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Burrell died on 18 September 1946, aged 87.[58] He remained unmarried and from the time of his appointment to Borough Road his spinster sister Alice (who survived him) presided over his household affairs and helped him in his research.[59]

References

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  1. ^ Census of England and Wales, Cheltenham, 1861 (TNA: RG9/1803/21/36); Register of Marriages at Chapel Stations within the Diocese and Archdeaconry of Madras, 1848-51, p. 330 (entry for 25 August 1851, St Mark’s, Bangalore).
  2. ^ Sydenham Times, 6 August 1878, p. 5; Joseph Foster, Alumni Oxonienses, Parker & Co., Oxford, 1885, Vol. 1, p. 196.
  3. ^ South London Observer, 24 January 1880, p. 6; London Evening Standard, 6 December 1881, p. 3. He proceeded to the Master of Arts degree in 1888: Leeds Mercury, 28 April 1888, p. 5.
  4. ^ Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette, 18 March 1882, p. 5; Bradford Daily Telegraph, 4 October 1890, p. 2.
  5. ^ Leeds Times, 3 January 1900, p. 9.
  6. ^ William Rothenstein, Men and Memories, Recollections of William Rothenstein, 1872-1900, Faber & Faber, London, 1931, pp. 8 and 16.
  7. ^ Daily News (London), 29 November 1899, p. 4.
  8. ^ Iris Turner, "The History of Borough Road School/College from its Origins in 1798 until its merger with Maria Grey College to form West London Institute of Higher Education in 1976", October 2015, p. 265.[1]
  9. ^ "Borough Road College: From Southwark to Isleworth, A Story of Education", Southwark and Bermondsey Recorder and South London Gazette, 25 August 1906, p. 2.
  10. ^ Turner, p. 263.
  11. ^ Newcastle Daily Chronicle, 7 August 1906, p. 7. In the last respect his judgement was supported in the following year when a Board of Education circular directed that instruction in physical land forms and the atlas should precede secondary schooling: Turner, pp. 274-275.
  12. ^ Middlesex Chronicle, 25 July 1908, p. 5.
  13. ^ "Borough Road College", Southwark and Bermondsey Recorder and South London Gazette, 25 August 1908, p. 2.
  14. ^ Barry Blades, Teachers at the Front, 1914-1919, Pen & Sword, Barnsley, 2020. Milnes was killed in action at Passchendaele in 1917 while serving with the Auckland Regiment. Burrell subsequently published a tribute to him: Bert Milnes, A Brief Memoir, The Temple Press, Letchworth, 1922.
  15. ^ Long Eaton Advertiser, 19 November 1909, p. 3.
  16. ^ Evening Mail (London), 22 November 1912, p. 8.
  17. ^ Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 14 March 1914, p. 6. He afterwards continued to speak on educational matters and was a lecturer on the teaching of English at vacation courses organised by the University of St Andrews and the London and West Riding County Councils: Dundee Courier, 24 November 1919, p. 4; Liverpool Daily Post, 1 August 1923, p. 9; Derbyshire Times, 8 May 1926, p. 1. In 1930 the Kent Education Committee engaged him to give a series of six lectures on modern writers and literature: Sheerness Guardian, 8 February 1930, p. 11.
  18. ^ Norfolk Chronicle, 23 October 1909, p. 6.
  19. ^ Richmond and Twickenham Times, 19 December 1903, p. 2. His pupil William Rothenstein remembered him as “an excellent reader who encouraged us to read Shakespeare and other poets aloud to ourselves”: Rothenstein, p. 8.
  20. ^ Leeds Times, 5 May 1888, p. 3.
  21. ^ Cheltenham Chronicle, 7 February 1931, p. 8.
  22. ^ Newcastle Chronicle, 14 January 1890, p. 2; Yorkshire Herald, 23 January 1891, p. 3; Beckenham Journal, Penge and Sydenham Advertiser, 9 January 1892, p. 5.
  23. ^ Newcastle Chronicle, 13 December 1890, p. 16.
  24. ^ The Parent’s Review, Vol. I (1890-1), pp. 92-103.[2] The piece’s subtitle, “The Children’s Art”, reflected Burrell’s opinion that the most naturally expressive voice was that of the unselfconscious child and was stifled by instruction in elocution.
  25. ^ The Queen, 11 October 1890, p. 24.
  26. ^ Recitation: A Handbook for Teachers in Public Elementary Schools, Griffith Farran & Co., London, 1891. His article “Reading and Speaking” later appeared in P. A. Barnett’s Teaching and Organisation with Special Reference to Secondary Schools: A Manual of Practice, Longmans, Green & Company, London, 1897.
  27. ^ Longmans, Green and Co., London, 1898.[3] Soon after publication, Burrell gave a series of ten lectures on reading at Durham College of Science (the forerunner of Newcastle University): Newcastle Daily Chronicle, 27 December 1898, p. 4.
  28. ^ Longmans, Green and Co., London, 1901, 1904, 1906, 1909 and 1913.
  29. ^ Westminster Gazette, 27 August 1898, p. 3; Pall Mall Gazette, 2 September 1898, p. 9. Describing himself as a “learner”, Burrell dedicated the book to “the Unconscious Teachers of the Beautiful in Speech - Little Children”.
  30. ^ Middlesex Chronicle, 10 January 1903, p. 7; Leeds Mercury, 30 December 1903, p. 6; Richmond and Twickenham Times, 20 October 1906; Norfolk Chronicle, 23 October 1909, p. 16; Jersey Evening Post, 16 February 1914, p. 2; Reading Standard, 29 October 1922, p. 7; Cheltenham Chronicle, 7 February 1931, p. 8. His provincial lectures could draw an audience in excess of one thousand: Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 2 October 1920, 4.
  31. ^ Yorkshire Post, 10 March 1914, p. 9.
  32. ^ Jersey Evening Post, 17 February 1914, p. 4; Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 18 March 1914, p. 5. Among the stories he told were examples from Sweden, Italy, Brittany, Persia, Greece, Romania, India, China, Japan, Russia and Australia: Middlesex Chronicle, 10 January 1903, p. 7; Richmond Herald, 23 January 1915, p. 12.
  33. ^ Mansfield Reporter, 30 January 1925, p. 8. Typical titles for his stories were “The Stupid Brahmin”, “The King’s Evil”, “The Garden of Dreams”, “The Story of the Lamp”, “The Garden that was not”: Richmond Herald, 19 December 1908, p. 2; Somerset and West of England Advertiser, 22 August 1924, p. 3.
  34. ^ Leek Times, 13 December 1913, p. 3.
  35. ^ Bradford Weekly Telegraph, 2 January 1904, p. 8.
  36. ^ Leek Times, 13 December 1913, p. 3.
  37. ^ West Bridgford Advertiser, 27 October 1923; Gloucestershire Echo, 9 February 1924, p. 5; Middlesex Chronicle, 10 January 1903, p. 7.
  38. ^ Somerset and West of England Advertiser, 25 July 1924, p. 5. The same publication may have overstated matters shortly afterwards when asserting that Burrell’s “fame as a raconteur is worldwide”: ibid, 8 August 1924, p. 4.
  39. ^ Cheltenham Chronicle, 7 February 1931, p. 8.
  40. ^ Daily Mirror, 20 June 1924; Birmingham Daily Gazette, 10 September 1924.
  41. ^ Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, London, 1926.[4] This was reprinted by Gale Research, Detroit, in 1975.
  42. ^ Elliot Stock, London, 1893. This was deemed by one critic “a very pretty little book and well written”: Glasgow Herald, 29 December 1892, p. 9.
  43. ^ T. Unwin Fisher, London, 1886. In some of these stories he was said to “assume a mysticism which invests his work with a character more outré than artistic”: Dundee Advertiser, 19 November 1896, p. 2.
  44. ^ Aberdeen Daily Journal, 26 June 1905, p. 3.
  45. ^ Aberdeen Daily Journal, 6 March 1905, p. 3.
  46. ^ Daily Telegraph, 8 December 1909, p. 17 (“Mr Burrell has done very well”); Morning Post, 9 December 1909, p. 2 (“Mr Burrell has supplied exactly the right thing”); Leicestershire Daily Post, 15 December 1909, p. 4 (“Just the book that is wanted”).
  47. ^ Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1928.
  48. ^ Birmingham Daily Post, 6 September 1940, p. 5.
  49. ^ Morning Chronicle, 14 January 1939, p. 4; Middlesex County Times, 8 November 1924, p. 3.
  50. ^ Kensington News and West London Times, 12 November 1937, p. 7; Middlesex Chronicle, 14 January 1939, p. 4.
  51. ^ Newcastle Daily Chronicle, 31 October 1890, p. 1; Daily News, London, 11 November 1903, p. 16.
  52. ^ Jill Liddington, "Anne Lister of Shibden Hall, Halifax (1782-1840): Her Diaries and the Historians", History Workshop, No. 35 (Spring 1993), pp. 45-77 at 52-53.
  53. ^ Middlesex Chronicle, 11 November 1944, p. 2.
  54. ^ Richmond Herald, 5 February 1938, p. 7; Yorkshire Evening Post, 24 July 1942, p. 3.
  55. ^ Richmond Herald, 23 October 1937, p. 15, and 30 October 1937, p. 14.
  56. ^ Middlesex Chronicle, 5 February 1965, p. 2.
  57. ^ Hounslow and Chiswick Informer, 8 March 1979, p. 7.
  58. ^ England and Wales Probate Calendar 1947, p. 955 (“Burrell, Arthur, of 18 Waldegrave Gardens, Twickenham, lecturer and historian”); England and Wales Death Register, Brentford, Third Quarter 1946.
  59. ^ Middlesex Chronicle, 2 May 1906, p. 6, 31 January 1920, p. 6, and 25 September 1920, p. 5; Chiswick Times, 4 June 1909, p. 7; Richmond Herald, 5 February 1938, p. 7.
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