Joshua Girling Fitch

“ Here he took remarkable interest in the elementary school of the parish, and ever afterwards attributed much of his professional success and his insight into educational principles and methods to the experience he had acquired in imparting the humble rudiments of learning to the children of the poor. After an interval of two or three years, spent partly in private tuition and partly as curate at Cookham Dean, he married in 1853 a daughter of Carl Koch, commissioner of customs at Bonn, and was elected to the mastership of Uppingham School, a post which he retained until his death in 1887. ”

“ He gave valuable evidence before the Schools Inquiry Commission of Lord Taunton in 1866, but it was very characteristic of him that he dreaded the! intrusion of public authority, whether that of royal commissioners or of the legislature, into the domain of the school, wherein he thought it indispensable that the liberty and personal inventiveness and enthusiasm of teachers should have full scope and be hindered by no official regulations. ”

“ He took the first step in 1869 in the formation of the Head Masters’ Conference, an institution which has ever since done much to suggest improvements in method and to cultivate a sense of corporate life and mutual helpfulness among the teachers in the great schools. ”