Rugby School

Rugby School, a famous public (i.e., fee-paying) school, was founded for boys in 1567 by Laurence Sheriff, a local resident, and was endowed with sundry estates, including Sheriff’s own house. The school flourished under the headship of Thomas Arnold between 1828 and 1842 and became,…

…particularly football, was encouraged at Rugby School by influential headmaster Thomas Arnold (1828–42), and many boys educated at this time were instrumental in the expansion of the game. Rugby football soon became one of the most significant sports in the promotion of English and, later, British imperial manliness. The game’s…

…educator who, as headmaster of Rugby School, had much influence on public school education in England. He was the father of the poet and critic Matthew Arnold.

…School Days (1857) vividly depicts Rugby School (a real boarding school, in Rugby, England) during the 1830s; it helped to establish a tradition of fiction focused on life in English boarding schools.