Friday 5th December, 2008
Thomas W. Barnes, Rebel Headmaster
Thomas W. Barnes was the headteacher at Hindley and Abram Grammar School in 1881. He appears to have been something of a rebel.
Thomas was not a Wiganer. He was born in about 1852, in Guildford, Surrey. In 1861, he had an elder sister, named Emma and two younger sisters, Kate and Ellen, who were twins aged 6. His father was also called Thomas and his mother was called Charlotte.
The family were quite well off. Thomas senior was a master cooper, (barrel maker) who employed eleven men. One of his apprentices, fifteen year old Alfred Humphreys, lived with the family.
Thomas W. Barnes wished to be a teacher. He spent part of his training in quite unusual circumstances. In 1871, aged 19, he was a student teacher in the Royal Military Asylum for Children of Soldiers of the Regular Army, in King's Road, Chelsea, London.
This was a large establishment founded to look after orphaned servicemen's children and those whose parents were abroad. Thomas was one of 14 pupil teachers, some from as far afield as Ireland, East India and the U.S.A., who helped with the education of the children.
In 1881, Thomas, aged about 29, was the headteacher of Hindley and Abram Grammar School. He had his own dwelling where he lived with two boarding scholars, Harry B. Clifford (aged 13) and George H. Clifford (aged 12) from Warwickshire. He had a salary of £50, and received a per capita payment of “not less than £2 nor more than £4 a year for each boy attending the school”.
But he was unhappy about a system which had been introduced twenty-seven years earlier, with the rebuilding of the school.
In 1855, the new Hindley and Abram Grammar School had been opened for “...gratuitous instruction of Latin and English of 30 boys of Hindley or Abram between the ages of 6 and 15. Ten shillings (50p) was paid for free scholars.”
Thomas considered that changing circumstances over time had made these conditions unworkable. He could not fill thirty free places – there was demand for no more than eleven. Also, he thought that the fees were too low.
He took the rather drastic action of altering the terms of the conditions. Consequently he was given six months notice to quit, but Thomas was a fighter and refused to accept. The authorities reacted by forcibly ejecting him from the premises. Once more he fought back and brought action against the school governors at Liverpool Assizes. The case was found in his favour.
Thomas left the school and by 1882 Edward Law had been appointed head. Edward Law was still the headmaster in 1901.