Lawrence of Oxford

Another major consideration in the Lawrence's decision to settle in Oxford after so many restless years of wandering from place to place would certainly have been education. The older members of the family were reaching an age when an uninterrupted course of schooling was becoming important and increasingly urgent, and in addition to its university, Oxford was, as it is today, well endowed with excellent schools. A school had to be found, and choice was made of the City of Oxford High School for Boys, which had opened in 1881 in extensive premises on the corner of George Street and New Inn Hall Street in the centre of the city.

The school was designed by T G Jackson in the heavy classical style so beloved of late Victorian architects. This photograph of the front entrance was taken at the beginning of the 20th century, but as you see from this more recent view, its appearance has changed very little over the intervening century. The building now houses a department of the University of Oxford. The High School eventually merged with another local school and moved to new premises on the outskirts of the city.

The photograph below right was taken in TEL's time at the school, and shows the main hall divided into classrooms. It is very spartan, and a far cry from the purpose-built units of today, but these would have been considered excellent facilities at the time. It was in the playground at the High School that TEL broke his leg, an accident which his mother was to blame for his subsequent lack of growth.

Arthur Wilson Cave (below left) had arrived at the school ten years earlier, in 1886, as a teacher, and in 1888, the year of TEL's birth, he became headmaster. The influential reign of this eminent mathematician lasted until 1925, and his headmastership marked a pinnacle of the school's pre-eminence in the city.

So TEL and elder brother Bob began their education at the High School at the start of the autumn term of 1896. Bob was known as Lawrence I and TEL was Lawrence II until Bob left for university in 1904, and then TEL graduated to the number one spot.

Although TEL was to become one of the school's best known pupils, he would certainly not have been regarded as its most academically brilliant. After a very late change of direction from mathematics to history, in the summer of 1906 he failed the entrance examination for St John's College, Oxford, which must have been particularly galling since brother Bob was already ensconced there as a student. But, after this unhappy failure, he did very well in the Senior Local Examinations that same summer, sharing ninth position in the overall results, with First Class Honours. In the individual subjects he shared first place in English Language and Literature, and took third place in Religious Knowledge.